Brian Minor

I have gone through a few different cases for my iPhone and I think I have finally found my favorite one. It’s the Slider Case by Incase.

The case is very slim and light, but gives me a better grip and feels more comfortable then just the plain iPhone or other cases I have used in the past. I think the best feature is how seamless the two pieces lock into place, it doesn’t give you a awkward bump like other cases.

The case is roughly 35 dollars and offered any many different colors and styles.

The main issues with the case, like many others, is that it does trap dust in the case which can cause some minor scratching of the chrome bezel. I have found this to be a livable side effect of having the phone protected.

I would still love to find a full (all over) seamless case for the iPhone so if you know of one please feel free to let me know. I have tried the naked case by casemate and was left very unhappy.

When I first saw the TomTom app for the iPhone, back in July, I was very excited. I’ve always wanted one mainly for the Mr T voice addon.

Well when I got the App on Monday and there was no option for other voices I was pretty upset so today, I decided to look into things and luckily enough I was able to do it myself.

Check out the video. (video quality will increase when YouTube gets done processing the video)

I haven’t had luck with all other voices, some just crashed the app, but personally I only care about the Mr. T voice.

Enjoy!

Today Apple released their own iDisk App for the iPhone. I know there have been some 3rd party apps that work similar, but I personally a fan of free apps and as other Apple created ones this is free as well.

The app works great you can quickly browse through your iDisk folders to view documents, pictures, and even watch a movie. You can also start or stop sharing a file and add or remove public folders to your iDisk

This App may make me use iDisk a little more often in the future. Hopefully they will add an upload button so I could quickly upload IMages or videos into the folder I prefer instead of publishing it like the Photos app does.

The question is what is the future of the apps that are already doing these feature?

*click on images below to see the full size image

I have been using the iPhone 3.0 software on my iPhone 3G for a week and a day so far (shhh don’t tell). And for those who have never  jailbroken their iPhone this is a great upgrade, but for those who have then it’s still a decent one, but worth waiting for 3.0 to be jailbroken. But anyways lets move on to the features.

Spotlight Search

What better way to start the review off with a bash. Don’t get me wrong I love the search functionality, but the location and ways to access it drive me insane. There are 2 ways you can enter into the spotlight.

1. flicking left of the home page

2. hitting the home button once (when on the home page)

For me both of these options are terrible. I’ve had the iPhone since the 1st gen so when 2.0 came out and they added the tap the home button to go to the first page I was already set in my way of flicking (or swiping whatever you want to call it) the screen till I couldn’t go further. Well now I end up typing the g or h a few times before I realize what I have done.

Option 2 also drives me crazy, because I am used to the the apps not closing as fast. I am used to hitting the home a few time before it fully closes or just randomly hitting it when I am bored. And now that takes me into spotlight. But the worst part about these 2 features it you cannot turn them off! (rant over)

Stereo Bluetooth

Now on to happier thoughts. No better way to get over your most hated feature, then with talking about your favorite. The ability to listen to your music, video, audio-books, etc without wires is the best thing in the world. I don’t know how many times I get my headphones tangled up or having it tug on me cause the phone has moved in my pocket, but now those days are over. Also hooking the iPhone up to the TV and using the bluetooth headset for audio as you do the treadmill is so much better then blasting the speakers so you can try to hear it over all the noise.

Single SMS Forward and Deleting

Now, this was one of those rare feature finds that just make you jump up and down. I don’t remember hearing anything about this and it wasn’t until day 3 till I actually found it, but the ability to forward a single SMS message is amazing, technically with copy and paste now on the iPhone it is not as essential, but it is still a great feature (which should have been in 1.0).

iTunes Store

You can now purchase or rent TV shows and movies directly from the phone. This is a great addition only issue it that you have to be connected to a wifi signal, but I guess that is better then nothing. (pic below)

App Store

Just wanted to mention that I love the new layout of the App Screen shots. (pic below)

Cut, Copy, & Paste

Nice addition that should also have been added a long time ago, it works pretty well, but I have had some issues when trying to select stuff.

Landscape View

How could one feature be awesome and annoying all at the same time. I love haveing the option and ability to go into landscape mode in my note and email, but I part of me wishes it was a button click that switched it. When I have notes ot an email that has directions or a list that I need to keep track of but not always in front of me and it keeps switching back and forth to landscape, it can get kind of annoying.

So there you have it the greatness and annoyiness of the latest iPhone 3.0 software. Oh there is also a Voice Recorder now too (woohoo) and sadly the video features only work on the 3GS so I guess I will have to wait to enjoy that ability again. Hopefully a jailbreak will fix that one.

So all in all it has some great feature, but I am really missing my themes, stacks and qik. So if you have a jailbroken iPhone I recommend holding off.

But now that anyone can get it I wouldlike to know what you that have it think and if your one of the lucky people that can go out and buy a 3GS let me know what you think about it too.

Okay, so I have been trying to lose weight for, pretty much all of my adult life and at times I have actually succeeded, but have never had success at keeping it off. So once again I am at it, but this time I have the iPhone and a little app called LIVESTRONG on my side. (And my beautiful wife encouraging me along the way).

I’ve tested and tried around with 5 or more calorie tracking apps for the iPhone so far and I believe this one is my new favorite (beating out the LoseIt App).

The main reason why I believe I love this app so much, is because not only do you get the App for the iPhone, but it also comes with a website login and community (currently not using the community) located at www.livestrong.com. I love the desktop login, because sometimes I just don’t feel like trying to search and keep up with things on my iPhone and it also give me a few other features that would probably just be annoying to navigate if they did offer it on the iPhone.

So far the app is amazing, but there is no easy way to add a food from the iPhone app if it is not currently in their system (you can do it from the site), so far I haven’t really ran into this problem. Their database of food seems to be pretty complete.

I would however, love to hear some of your feedback on this or any other calorie tracker app or website (doesn’t have to be fore the iPhone) that you have tried and loved or hated. So be sure to leave a comment below.

I loved iSquint it was the best little free app that allowed you to quickly transfer your video into a playable format for your iPhone/iPod. I loved it so much that I upgraded to VisualHub, the paid version, that gave you even more options of converting (and I still use it to this day). It was a sad day when Techspansion, the company behind iSquint and VisualHub, closed there doors and stopped updating or offering these products.

But it appears that we have a new company who has seem to pick up where iSquint left off and added a few extras. Evom not only allow quick and easy conversion for you iPod or AppleTV, but it also has a YouTube feature that allows you to convert and upload all with one click. No more having to sign into YouTube it does it all for you.

I have however found a flaw in the software. For some reason it wont convert my HD video footage that has been exported from Final Cut Pro. I have contacted them on this matter and they responded very quickly. They want me to send them a test file (which I plan to send after this post). I will keep you updated on what I hear back from them. All in all though I think this is a great replacement for those still using iSquint. I just hope they expand it and add more feature like VisualHub.

Do you have a favorite video converting software (mac or pc)?

*Update you can download Evom Here