From the category archives:

Apps

iOS 4, it’s awesome

by Mat on June 22, 2010

This morning, Australian time, Apple rolled out the latest iPhone operating system update, now called iOS. And I must say, it’s pretty darn awesome!

So far my favourite new features are;

  • home screen wallpaper
  • app folders
  • the universal inbox
  • multi-tasking
  • gmail / mail app support

I’ll give you a quick little pitch about each of the new features I’m digging so far.

Home Screen Wallpaper

It’s such a little ‘feature’ but it completely changes the look and feel of my iPhone. One of my favourite things about the iPad is that I can change the wallpaper based on my mood, the work I’m doing, and whatever other justification I decide to use each time I change it…and now I can do the same on my iPhone.

App Folders

Previously I had about 10 pages of apps, seriously, and it was a pain in the butt to organise each page of apps, and then to navigate between the 1st and last pages. Now with the ability to add ‘folders’ of applications I’ve managed to turn 10 pages into 3, AND I’ve also managed to hide all the Apple default apps that I never use and cannot delete.

Better Gmail Support

Recently I moved all my personal “domain name based” emails over to gmail, it’s made life a lot easier….however it wasn’t really well supported in the mail app on the iPhone and any time I did anything gmail related on my iPhone I ended creating new mailboxes because the mail app didn’t play as nicely with gmail….well now it does.

Universal Inbox

On my work iPhone I have 5-6 different email accounts, it used to be a bit of mucking around to navigate between the accounts, specially when I was folder deep in one account and needed to get all the way out and into another account. The universal inbox makes it a whole lot easier to see all your new emails in one handy location, of course if you’re folder deep in one account it’s still the same process to navigate back out but if you’re like me and keep a very clean inbox then you’ll find it does make life easier.

Multi-Tasking

I never new I was missing multi-tasking until I had it….well Apple’s version of multi-tasking that is. Basically it’s like fast app switching, which totally makes sense and so far has worked well for when I’m flicking in and out of mail, my rss reader, and all the while listening to a podcast. I just became that much more productive, don’t tell my boss though!

With these new features being a bit of a teaser of what to come with the new iPhone, I for one cannot wait! Bring on iPhone 4!

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For the photographers, Sylights

by Mat on June 17, 2010

There’s a myriad of different lighting diagrammers out there, both Windows and Mac apps, along with the obligatory iPhone apps, but none really allow you to share your lighting setups with other people simply. Sure you save them as a jpeg and upload to flickr, but it’s just not the same…..and along comes Sylights.com

Created by French photographers Pierre-Jean Quilleré and Olivier Lance, Sylights is quite simple in it’s approach with the main pages of the site being a diagram editor and a browse section to check out other photographers’ diagrams.

Check it out at Sylights.com

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As featured on WIRED

by Mat on June 7, 2010

It’s been a while since I check in on flickr, and to my surprise I found that WIRED had used one of my CC licensed photos for an article about the opening of the international iPad app store. Quite happy about that.

ipad-photo.png

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Battle of the e-Book readers: Stanza vs. iBooks

by Mat on June 7, 2010

A great a little write up comparing Apple’s iBooks app with the ‘just released’ Stanza iPad app.

Battle of the e-Book readers: Stanza vs. iBooks

PS. Stanza looks great, and if you can easily transfer your existing pdf ebooks through iTunes making it the best choice if you’ve already got a tonne of ebooks.

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Pocket Weather AU HD, iPad App Review

by Mat on June 5, 2010

As a self-confessed weather geek, and an iPhone and iPad carrier, having a good weather app is a must. On my iPhone I’ve been using Aus Weather and it’s quite good, but to date I hadn’t found one on the iPad that really took advantage of the screen size, and had decent access to all of the Australian weather stations.

That was till Pocket Weather AU HD rocketed up the iPad App Store to number 1 yesterday. What a great looking app, pity the icon is a little ugly. Anyway, Pocket Weather AU HD has all the Australian weather stations, the latest Synoptic Charts, Rain Radars, and National Satellite pictures, which is pretty much all you need, and did I mention the app looks great too..hehe

Pocket Weather AU HD iPad App

If you’re an iPad owner and looking for a weather app, definitely check out Pocket Weather AU HD.

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iPad review, part 1

by Mat on April 28, 2010

Australian iPad reviewWell it’s finally arrived, after weeks and weeks of teasing via the iPad page on apple.com.au the iPad is now available in Australia……wait a minute, no it’s not, well not unless you are prepared to import one from the US via eBay.

And that’s exactly what I have done

So this review is going to be in a number of parts, today I will give you my initial impression, then after the weekend I’ll give you another update regarding how useful it is without a wifi connection, and then in another week or two I’ll give you more of a detailed account of my experience with the iPad as I’m planning on making it my daily computer for a couple if weeks.

Let me give you my initial impressions

The iPad is awesome! [click to continue…]

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