Pocket Casts bring one-touch podcast downloads
Posted Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 8:47 pm by Jason Cartwright
As a heavy podcast listener I’m constantly frustrated by Apple’s handling of podcasts. Each day new episodes of our favourite podcasts are released, so naturally you want to download all the latest. Well more than 3 years on from the release of the iPhone, there’s still no way to do it directly from the device. That was until today.
Of course you can set or force iTunes on the desktop to download all the latest eps at once, connect your iOS device via USB and sync the new content across. The problem is, I found myself turning on a computer just for this process – crazy considering the WiFi-connected world we live in today.
Pocket Casts is a brand new podcast app that arrived in the App Store today. For A$2.49 the price is absolutely good value for the functionality you get. To get started you can jump into settings and very easily import your existing podcasts from the iPod app. You can also Search for podcasts or manually enter a feed URL if your really keen.
Browsing the list of available podcasts is done by the first tab. Complete with album art, each podcast shows a badge to indicate how many new episodes are available. You can choose to download episode individually or stream them straight to the device. Best of all is that awesome ‘Download all’ button, with a single press you can get up to date in an instant.
The app gets even better when you realise background downloading and playback is also supported, allowing you go check Facebook while your waiting. There’s currently 3 different themes to choose from which just change the application highlight colour for a bit of personalisation.
For a 1.0 application, its extremely polished and something that’s been lacking from Apple’s own iPod app for more than 3 years.
Great Australian Apps you should check out on Australia Day !
Posted Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 9:48 am by Jason Cartwright
Its that time of the year again when Australians celebrate everything that makes us uniquely awesome ! But before you grab those steaks for the BBQ and beers for the pool, take a second to check out some of Australia’s best mobile applications.
Cab Meter Aus [link]
If you’ve ever thought of taking a taxi, but thought the trip may be too expensive to be worth it, then this is the app for you. The app uses the GPS to locate you, then enter your destination, choose between normal or late night tarriffs and you’ll receive an estimated fare cost. The lite version of the app is free and ad supported, or go A$2.49 to go ad-free.
Pocket Weather AU [link]
Lets face it, the built-in Weather app on the iPhone is horribly inaccurate. The data source – Yahoo can take the blame for that. So if you actually want to know what the temperature is, then best to go for a third party app. One of the best is Pocket Weather AU with pretty much every Australian location under the sun. Providing forecasts, radars and a whole bunch more, it’s definitely worth the price of admission A$2.49.
OzTV – TV Guide [link]
We Australians love our TVs, so we need to know when our favourite shows are on. Yes there’s free TV Guides for Aussie TV, but the slick UI of OzTV just draws me in. For A$2.49 its pretty good value, especially when you consider this is something you’ll use daily.
Cricket LIVE [link]
Sport is a massive part of Australian culture, with cricket being one of the biggest. Cricket fanatics should take a look the Cricket Live iPhone app. It gives you live scoring updates on the go, so you don’t miss a thing when your dragged off to that super-important event by your better half. Just don’t let her catch you sneaking a peak at your phone. This will be particularly useful at around 2pm this afternoon when the Australian day match gets under way. The app is free.
Australia Post [link]
Ever bought something online and waited anxiously by the door for the delivery ? Why not track the progress of your delivery by using the Australia Post app. This obviously only works with Aus Post tracking codes, but lets face it, they are the biggest delivery service in Australia. The app is free.
AusInNews [link]
Want to keep up to date with the latest Australian newspaper stories right in your pocket, then grab the AusInNews app. It’s free, which is one up over many other Australian news apps.
Triple J Unearthed [link]
If you don’t listen to Triple J’s hottest 100 today, you my friend, are un-Australian. If you hear some songs this afternoon by little unknown bands, then you should look them up on the JJJ Unearthed app. There’s actually an amazing catalogue of songs available. The app is free.
Buy Australian [link]
If you want ensure your supporting Australian businesses with your purchases, then be sure to cross reference products with the Buy Australian app. The app is free.
Oz Mall Maps
As our cities grow, so do our shopping malls, some to gigantic proportions. If you need help getting around, you could spend a few minutes tracking down one of those fancy touch-screen, You-Are-Here signs, or just use this app. The Oz Mall Maps give you multi-level floor plans for all the major shopping malls in Australia. While detailing the location of every store in a mall would be crazy hard to maintain, the app does cover off all the big guys. The app is free.
Oz Planner [link]
Created by Tourism Australia, you can now show your international visitors just how gorgeous our country is. Even plan a trip using the app, including information on Hotels, Car hire, Tours, Transportation. The App is free.
So that’s it, now go enjoy your Australia Day, remember it only happens once a year and Public Holidays never come around often enough!
Microsoft now available on Apple iOS devices
Posted Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 7:17 am by Jason Cartwright
Everyone’s favourite note-taking application (sans Evernote), Microsoft’s One Note has arrived in the Apple App Store. Available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, its refreshing to see even more Microsoft divisions servicing consumers. Obviously Microsoft sells their own mobile phone platform – Windows Phone 7, but the market penetration pales in comparison to Apples.
Similarly Amazon operates their software and hardware divisions separately, this means the amazon kindle software is available on multiple platforms, despite them selling their own dedicated hardware device. In reality, not everyone who wants One Note mobile will buy a WP7 device, so this just makes good business sense for Microsoft.
With OneNote Mobile, you can:
▪ Create flexible notes that can include text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes
▪ Check To Do items off on the go
▪ Save time with quick access to your most recent notes
▪ Work with confidence—OneNote Mobile automatically syncs your notes with Windows Live in the background
▪ Organize your notes into sections or create new notebooks using OneNote 2010 or OneNote Web App and access them from your iPhone
Requirements:
▪ iPhone or iPod touch must have iOS 4.2 or higher
▪ A free Windows Live ID is required to use OneNote Mobile —use an existing one or let OneNote Mobile help you sign up
▪ Web functionality uses the free OneNote Web App available on Windows Live, which requires a supported web browser
▪ OneNote Mobile opens notebooks created in Microsoft OneNote 2010 or the OneNote Web App
▪ Customizing section colours requires Microsoft OneNote 2010
Access your notes online at http://office.live.com.
Right now it seems to be only available in the US store, hopefully it arrives in Australia soon.. come on MSAU.
More info about One Note on iOS at technet.
iPhone 4’s front facing camera, now used by Skype
Posted Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 5:06 pm by Jason Cartwright
That’s right people, you can finally use front facing camera on your iPhone 4. Sure there’s FaceTime, but lets face it, nobody’s using it. Skype’s iPhone app has just been updated to version 3.0 allowing millions of users to video call on the go. Video calls can be made to Skype users on the desktop (either Mac OSX or Windows).
Both Portrait and Landscape orientations are supported, as is calls over both WiFi and 3G. Just make sure your data cap has plenty of breathing room as Skype video calls on 3G will count.
The way it works is you launch the app, sign in, then when exiting Skype continues to run in the background and will notify you via push notifications when someone calls you via Skype. Simply hit the Answer button and your call begins. Its all pretty simple, something I’m sure carriers aren’t that happy about. Assuming you have decent data included in your plan and most of your contacts on Skype, then your need to use the traditional phone calling will significantly decrease.
Skype have created a fairly comical video to showcase the Skype video calling experience on iOS.
Download the app now [itunes]
More @ Skype via TechCrunch
Facebook app 3.3 now available for iPhone
Posted Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 5:45 am by Jason CartwrightThe updated Facebook app has just been released. An important change in version 3.3 is the positioning of Check in being as important as status updates and photo uploads.
Also new is the ability to add photos when visit Places. Fans of the relatively new Groups feature now get a menu item.
Skyfire flash video supporting browser now live [updated]
Posted Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 5:18 am by Jason Cartwright
Update 2: Apparently the Skyfire app was pulled by the developers due to technical difficulties, not Apple.
Update: It seems Apple has pulled the App from the Australian iTunes store. Yep, it pays to be quick on these things.
While Flash has many uses, one of the most common uses is a wrapper to embed video on websites, before now you had to jailbreak a iOS device to play any kind of flash content.
That just changed. Amazingly Apple approved a mobile browser called SkyFire which interprets flash video and allows you to tap and play that video in the native iPod app. Videos play in full screen and when your down close back to the page and place you were at.
It’s available now on the App Store for A$3.99 or $US2.99, apparently Apple still hasn’t got the memo about the currency being at parity.
