Tag Archives: iPhone

My favourite iPhone apps

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A few months ago I wrote an article on my favourite iPad applications. I found that I probably should write one on my favourite iPhone apps as well. Some of the applications are present both for iPad and iPhone, but I have not included any games for iPhone. The main reason was that I wanted to focus on utility applications.

Productivity

  • Week Cal, is a small app for showing a week view of your iPhone calendar. It works great.
  • 1Password, is an app for storing passwords securely on your iPhone. This app can synchronise your passwords with your iPad and Mac, but can be a bit pricy.
  • Occasions, is an app for reminding yourself about all those birthdays and other important occasions. It can even synchronize dates from Facebook with your contacts.
  • Den Norske Almanakk, the only reason for getting this is if you want to have an updated list of when different Norwegian holidays are celebrated during the year. Hopefully they will include the iPhone calendar entries soon and make this app very useful.
  • Meetup, I attend several meet-ups, and this little app is quite nice to have if you are an user on meetup.com.
  • Gule Sider, this app may be the best phone directory for Norway on your mobile.
  • Instapaper, even better on the iPad, but if you ever need to store something and read it later, this is one of the better apps. This app lets you read the article or document on your mobile phone. There are several ways for you to be bookmarking/storing things both from mac, pc, iPhone and iPad, and from within your different browsers.
  • Dropbox, if you use Dropbox.com for sharing some files, then this little app is a very cheap (free) companion.
  • Wunderlist, is quite nifty if you want to share a shopping list or todo list with your girlfriend/wife/friend.
  • iFiles, might be a bit more powerful than Dropbox, and let you, among else, store attachments from mail inside this app for later reading or retrieval.

Tools

  • XSysInfo, want to find some information on your phone. This app might be of assistance, but equally important, it can help you clean up your memory usage.
    UPDATE: XSysInfo has removed the memory clean function, so it is no longer as useful as it once was.

Travel

  • Trafikanten, find the next bus from your nearest stop in Oslo, Norway.
  • NSB, actually very quick and simple to use if you are going by train in Norway.
  • TaxiNå!, another Norwegian speciality. If you have this app you always can get the closest taxi central.
  • Visitnorway.com, if you want to find something to do in Norway, this app might help you. An overview over the most interesting sights and happenings in Norway.

Social

  • Facebook, the natural shoe in.
  • Twitter, also a natural.
  • LinkedIn, they have upgraded this one and made it even better.
  • Google+, it is the new rising star. I like it.

GPS

  • Foursquare, there are several check-in applications for sharing where you are with the world. Foursquare was one of the first, maybe the original?
  • Gowalla, this app let’s you check in on several services simultaneously. (E.g. Facebook, Foursquare and Gowalla)
  • Google Latitude, I like this mainly because I can choose who can see me, and I can set it up to updating automatically in the background.
  • TomTom, is the best alternative when you need an offline map for Western Europe, US, or almost any other region? A bit costly though.
  • Waze, this is best if you drive regularly from A to B and want to see what traffic issues there are. The social way to handle traffic reporting.
  • UltimateDrive, BMW have created an app for sharing the best roads.
  • BensinPris, need to find the cheapest gas prices? A social way for discovering cheap gas.
  • iTrafikken, the latest news on traffic in Norway.

Weather

  • Yr.no, my preferred weather forecast.
  • VG Pent.no, but if I want to compare the forecast from the two largest weather forecasting companies in Norway this is the way to do it.

Food & Wine

  • Cellar Rat, a quick way to discover good wines on the wine menu in an restaurant.
  • Fresh Fish, if you want to learn how to identify fresh fish in the supermarket.

Entertainment

  • IMDB, is this film any good?
  • Filmweb, easy way to discover where the movie you want to see is being shown. You can even buy the tickets within this app.

EBook readers

  • Stanza, I read quite a lot, mostly on my iPad, but when that device isn’t available the iPhone works too. Stanza is a bit more open than Kindle, and handles several file formats, and it is easy to create, convert and share eBooks from your computer using Calibre.
  • Kindle, but when I want to read the latest English eBooks, Amazon comes to the rescue.

Photography

  • Photosynth, Microsoft have been showing off their Photosynth technology for years, but it was when it became available on my iPhone that I got really interested. This app makes it really easy to create panoramas and other 3D views of the world.
  • Camera+, is probably the best photography application for your iPhone. Check out the reviews.
  • Hipstamatic, is one of several apps that creates old fashioned and arty photographs. I like it.
  • Streetmate, black and white photography. Quickly and easily.
  • Instagram, a modern day polaroid? A great hit on the web.
  • Photobuddy, if you want to take photography to the next step you need to learn a few things regarding depth of field and other technical aspects of photography. This app might be of assistance.
  • The Photographer’s Ephemeris. This app can, among else, tell you where the sun is rising and when. Another photographers companion app, but very well done. A bit pricy though.

Music, Video and Audio

  • Audible, if you are listening to English audio books this app makes buying, downloading and listening to them a breeze.
  • Bander, is one of many free streaming and music discovery apps. I just liked it.
  • Spotify and WiMPmight be the two leading streaming services in Norway.
  • TuneIn Radio, is probably the best radio app on your iPhone and iPad. It is available as both a free and pro version.

Other interesting applications

  • Momento, is an app for gathering all your updates on all your social networks into one calendar view.



Posted from Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

My iPad needs

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I follow a Norwegian blog by Hans Petter Nygård-Hansen that speaks of several things that I care about. He recently had a long entry on how the iPad would eat from the paper market share for newspapers. I mostly agree with him, but what really got me to agree was the last paragraph in the blog entry. What he wants from a mobile news app. I do heartily agree, but I have a few extra points that I would like to add. His bullet points were these: (I have translated them from Norwegian)

  • Give me a digital subscription that does not cost too much, or the option to buy daily issues at a slightly higher day by day price.
  • Inform me of new articles, but let me choose among my interest for reminders.
  • Let me download the news article or magazine offline, I want to read it when and where I want.
  • Adapt the ads to my interests, (based on what news-categories I want reminders for) for higher relevance and less irritation. (Do not forget that the goal of ads is to lead you away from what you really want to read, but if I am reading an article on travel destinations I am a lot more receptive to watching adverts for hotels, airplane travels, rental cars or other relevant offers.)
  • And I want an app, not a web page optimized for mobile devices.

My additional wants are these.

  • Let me easily share what I find interesting using whatever tools I like, including email, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs etc.
  • Let me store my favourite images, articles or videos for later sharing, printing or revisiting.
  • Create a very simple subscription registration that makes it possible for me to view the content simultaneously on my PC, iPhone or iPad.
  • And please also consider this little issue on filter bubbles.

If I have I forgotten any, please tell me in the comments!

Posted from Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

My favourite iPad applications

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I would not consider myself as a fan boy, but I happen to have several Apple devices, among them this little thing called an iPad. I’ve discovered several sites that present a list of their favourite iPad apps, so I wanted to give my point of view on this. I have grouped my suggestions based on different categories.

(Updated 20101205: Photography/FlickrStackr)

Games

  • Angry Birds HD
    This is probably one of the most mentioned games out there, and it is for a reason. Addictive and fun.
  • Civilization Revolutions
    I’m a fan of the old Civilization games, so this is something I can relax with on those long airplane flights.
  • Monkey Island 2 (Special Edition)
    This is a new release of an oldie. The game in itself is mostly just funny though, but this is more or less a must have for those of us that played the original game when graphics still was chunky, and most commands where given using a keyboard.

Social software

  • Friendly
    I have tested several Facebook applications on my iPad. Using Safari works okay, but the best app so far seems to be Friendly. Another contender is Social, and even though this app has more features, Social does not feel like an app, but more like a skin for Safari.
  • Twitter
    Tweetdeck and Twitterific are both OK, but I find myself using the original for reading and replying on twitter. For twittering interesting news check out Flipboard, Feedler and Pulse News.
  • WordPress
    If you have one or more WordPress based blogs, this little app makes it wonderfully easy to publish post and manage comments and content on your sites.

News/Magazines

These are the applications I find I use most together with Friendly and Twitter.

  • Flipboard
    Flipboard gives you an auto created newspaper way of navigating your Facebook, Twitter and other newsfeeds. It is very easy to comment, twitter and share items on your own Facebook or Twitter feed.
  • Pulse News
    Pulse is another way of navigating the same content, it also has easy features for sharing your findings with other people. I am not sure what I prefer of these two, but I use both and have divided my mostly read news-sites between them. Some is listed in Flipboard others in Pulse
  • Feeddler Pro
    This is probably my most used reader. It utilizes my Google Reader RSS feeds, and gives me an easy to use GUI for reading, marking, sharing and managing my RSS-feeds. The free version is equally good, but since I use it so much I found that I should give some money back to the author.
  • The New York Times
    I do not read the NY Times each day, but during most weekends I have a look at this application.
  • StumbleUpon
    During an evening with relaxation I find that I often uses a few minutes on StumbleUpon to see what other people find interesting.
  • Maybe
    • Wired
      I might buy magazines online and have bought a few Wired issues. It is an interesting concept and I find myself enjoying this way of reading Wired.
    • Nettavisen
      This is a Norwegian application for one of the many internet news publishers in Norway. I find that the app is a quick way to discover news, but I am not sure about the app yet. I am looking forward for Aftenposten’s alternative to this application.

eBook-readers

  • Stanza
    iBook, Kindle and other eBook readers are excellent, but I find myself going back to Stanza and using Calibre for uploading books to Stanza.

Entertainment

  • IMDB
    I like to look up actors and directors when I watch a film. This app (and site) is excellent for doing just that.
  • VG TVGuide
    I have tried several of the different TV-program apps for Norway, but this is the fastest one, and easiest to use.
  • CineXPlayer & VLC
    Both CineXPlayer and VLC are quick and easy to use for viewing films on an iPad. They support slightly different formats though.

Photography

  • EyeWitness
    The British newspaper “The Guardian” have created a nice little photo browsing application called EyeWitness. It shows great images, and also includes small tips on how to take similar pictures.
  • SimpleDOF
    If you are a photographer like me, this little application is available both on iPhone and iPad and makes it easy to find the optimum settings for your camera when you want to plan your shot.
  • Fotopedia Heritage
    This is a collection of images from all the different UN World Heritage sites all over the world. A lot of great images.
  • FlickrStackr
    This  application makes it really easy to view your own images, your contacts images and other images on flickr. Nice slideshows, easy uploading, it even displays videos.

Science

  • StarWalk
    Have you ever wondered what star or planet you are looking at in the sky? Wonder no more. This little app can tell you. Just hold it up towards the planet or star and it will show the part of the sky that you are looking at.
  • Nasa App HD
    All news, videos and images that you ever can think of regarding space exploration and science.

Music

  • SoundHound
    I often wonder what artist or song I hear on a radio or on TV. By starting SoundHound and holding it up so it can capture what I am listening too it can often tell very fast. There is an alternative app for this, called Shazam, that also works great, but I have found that SoundHound works faster.

Navigation

  • MotionX GPS HD
    There are several great applications for navigation on you iPad. The reason i like MotionX is that it can download maps you probably are going to use for offline usage. That is you do not need to download maps using your 3G connection while travelling. In addition to this it can save tracks that you can share with Google Earth on your PC and Mac.

Other utilities

  • 1Password
    A great application for remembering your passwords. It stores your passwords and other secret information in an encrypted and secure format on your iPad or iPhone.
  • Pages
    It is part of the iWorks suite on iPad, but so far I have only used Pages. It can even work with Microsoft Word documents.
  • Citrix
    This is an early version of the software yet, but it shows great promise. Here you can open up the full version of your software directly on your company’s Citrix server.
  • iFiles
    If you ever need to share documents or use your iPad as a disk. iFiles is one of the better alternatives.
  • Dropbox
    This is a client app for accessing your Dropbox account and downloading files to your iPad and iPhone. This is a great application for sharing documents, images and other files with friends and family.

Other pages with tips



Posted from Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

The visibility of tools

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I recently discovered a link to this little gem on fundamental laws of software from David S. Platt who writes for MSDN Magazine. (I want to give a shout-out to Alf Kåre Lefdal on twitter for finding the article in the first place.)

David lists his three laws like this.

1. Your software has zero value in and of itself. Nothing. Nada. Zero point zero zero. The only value it ever has or ever will have is the degree to which it enhances the happiness of your user in some way.

2. Software can increase users’ happiness in one of two ways. It can help a user accomplish a task that she wants done, such as paying her bills or writing this column. Microsoft Word is an example of this type of application. Or, it can place the user into a state he finds pleasurable. Games fall into this category, as does Skype, with which my daughters make video calls to their grandparents.

3. In neither of these cases do users want to think about your computer program. At all. Ever. In the former case, she wants to think about the problem she’s solving: the wording of the document she’s writing; or whether she has enough money to pay all her bills, and which unpaid creditor would hurt her the most if she doesn’t. Her only goal is to finish the task quickly and successfully, so she can get on with her life, or at least with her next task. In the latter case, the user wants to enter that pleasurable state as quickly as possible and stay there as long as possible. Anything that delays the start of his pleasure, or distracts him from it while he’s enjoying it, is even less welcome than the interruption of a work task. My parents want to see and talk with and gush over their grandchildren. Any attention that the program diverts to itself is a negative in either case.

I guess that gives an excellent description of how most of us handle tools, and in the generic form he is right, but not always.

I do agree with him on his fundamental laws, but there are cases where I think his “laws” does not fully comply with the world. Welcome to Jon’s corollary.

There is always an exception.

I do believe there are tools that also give the users a feeling of brand, exclusivity or just excellence to know that they are among a select group that uses exactly this tool.

I am a happy user of iPhone, but I am aware that this little device is not without faults, but there are user-groups out there that are quite vocal in their defense of everything Apple.

In this case there is obviously a link between the usability/functionality and the love of a brand, Apple probably would not have gotten their large number of fans without delivering reasonably well designed tools.

But as a main rule I think David has it spot on. We as developers need to open our eyes to focusing on the users and their needs even more than we have been doing so far.

I think that Apple, Google, WordPress and other market leading companies have understood this and are using this to their benefit.

  • Any user can start using an Apple iPhone with a little or no training. Apple software and devices is often simpler to use than their Microsoft counterpart. (But Microsoft is getting there)
  • Google has become the de-facto search-engine worldwide because of their speed and simplicity. They are continuing this tradition into their other tools, devices and services.
  • WordPress have become one of the leading blogging tools because they make it easy to maintain a web publishing site.

Please tell me what you think.

Posted from Bærum, Akershus, Norway.

Geotagged blog entries

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There are several new opportunities included in my new blogging platform. One of them is the opportunity to include geotags when blogging from my iPhone.

This is a feature the nerd in me likes, but the practical man in me kind of feel is more a feature they have added because they can and not because they need to. In a travel blog this might be a good thing, but for me?

It is kind of like this picture from our corporate shredder. A shredder is of course a bit dangerous, so you don’t need to tell it like this.

You know, too much information?

Time will show :-)

Update 2010-05-09: The theme I am using does not support geotags out of the box. I am probably going to create my own theme sometime in the future though.

Update 2010-05-10: I found a wordpress plugin that fixes it for me!

Shredder pictograms

Shredder pictograms



Posted from Asker, Akershus, Norway.