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My current top 5 iPhone apps

Dec 21, 2010 | 3 comments

Since this is a bit of a technical post, I thought I’d pop this video in. It’s broadly related, but it also has the advantage of giving the non-techies something to enjoy in amongst all the jargon. It’s also a contemporary celebration of the classic British tradition of the ‘pun skit’. Four Candles 2.0, if you like…

I actually thought I had all the apps I could use.

I use Twitter for iPhone all the time; the Facebook app has improved and that now gets daily use; the National Rail app is a must; I’m a regular NetNewsWire user to read my RSS feeds; I use Things, Dropbox and Evernote on the Mac, so of course I the have apps on hand as well; I pretty much collect photography apps, though Hipstamatic, TrueHDR and ClassicINSTA get the most use; I have the Kindle app and the iBooks app for those times I do any on-the-go book reading; and I have the Spotify app just in case I get bored with my own music.

I’m not really a gamer, though I have Angry Birds (of course) and SmartGo Pro (my private addiction) to keep me occupied.

But for the most part, I have a pretty good system when it comes to all of the blogging, tweeting, facebooking, googling, scheduling, organising, and photographing I might need to do. As a result, I hadn’t picked up a new app for quite a while, but just over the past couple of months, there have been a few real goodies that have got me quite excited. Several just in the past week.

Over and above what I consider to be the standard essentials I’ve linked to above, what follows are the five iPhone apps currently giving me the most joy, entertainment, peace of mind and satisfaction.

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Toasters and hairdryers all over again

Aug 25, 2010 | 0 comments


Photo by mkorchia

In a new Wired magazine article called The Web Is Dead, Long Live The Internet, Editor in chief Chris Anderson (author of ‘The Long Tail‘ and ‘Free‘) declares the demise of the web browser in favour of dedicated apps on devices such as iPads and iPhones (no mention of Android handsets, then).

It’s an interesting article – or rather, the first half is a reasonably convincing and interesting article, and the second half is a slightly less interesting, less convincing one. But Anderson’s technologically determinismistic search for cause and massive societal, cultural and economic effect gets in the way – and he ends up saying little, which is a shame, because there’s actually a good point to be made here – though it is one I’ve sort of made before.

In short:
1) the internet is like electricity;
2) individual pieces of software that use the internet (browsers, email clients, iTunes, etc) are like appliances that plug into that electricity; and
3) you CAN dry your hair with a toaster, but it’s not the best tool for the job.

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30 days of ideas – 27: Tamagotchi Gardening

Mar 29, 2010 | 3 comments


Photo by aidanbrooks

Today’s idea is a terribly simple one – so much so, I’m astonished nobody else seems to have thought of it: Tamagotchi Gardening.

Instead of looking after a pet, you tend a garden. Dig it over, choose what to plant, care for it, water it, and reap the rewards.

But it’s not simply about the satisfaction of growing your own (virtual) food.

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Obligatory iPhone App post

Mar 23, 2010 | 1 comment

It occurs to me that I’ve had an iPhone for 6 months already, and still not done the obligatory ‘Apps I Love’ blog post.

My friend Dave Harte got himself one today, and I was about to recommend him a couple – but I thought this would be a good opportunity to fulfill my blogging requirements. Kill two birds with one enormous stone.

You’ll note that there are apps that you can’t delete – like Mail and Clock, Calendar and (inexplicably) Stocks. And then there are the apps you add yourself.

Here are the apps I use. You don’t need squillions of them, despite what will probably be an overwhelming desire to try as many as you can. I have downloaded, and over time, have deleted far more apps off my phone than I currently have on it. Right now, it’s pretty much trimmed to the bone. These, to me, are the essentials.

Some of them are the most useful tools of any kind I’ve ever owned – and some are just really nice to have. Hope this is helpful and/or interesting.

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30 days of ideas – 17: Digital radio, somewhere useful

Mar 19, 2010 | 10 comments


Photo by premasagar

Today’s idea is really just a question – and a really bleeding obvious one at that:

Why doesn’t this thing have a DAB chip in it?

And, for that matter, why doesn’t pretty much every other phone available on the market also have a DAB chip? Given the popularity of in-car docks, and the sheer ubiquity of mobile phones, it seems like such a complete and utter no-brainer.

I don’t need A radio – I just want THE radio. And I already have something I could listen to it on. Whoever’s job it is to make Britain “digital”… sort it out, would you?