Blogging With WordPress For iPhone
This is my first blog post using the new WordPress for iPhone app.
I had a few initial problems getting my sites setup. I am not sure what the problem was, but the only way I could get it to work was to repeatedly delete and then add the sites again.
This post is short and sweet and mainly for testing purposes. I have even included a rough iPhone photo.
WordPress For iPhone
One app I have been waiting to hit the App Store is the new WordPress for iPhone app.
The wait is nearly over, with this announcement on the WordPress for iPhone blog.
“Just a quick update that we’ve successfully uploaded the app to the iTunes Store, and the status message “In Review” indicates that the Apple team is conducting their testing procedures. We have not been provided with an ETA — so it could get approved at any time.
Also as many of you have noticed, Matt Thomas has done an amazing job updating the look & feel of this blog to make way for the additional content we’ll be posting shortly.”
I have checked and it is not available yet via iTunes App Store. I’ll keep you posted once it becomes available.
Update:- It is available now, I just downloaded and installed my copy and will post my thoughts later.
Optus Major Network Outage
If you are on the Optus network and experiencing problems at the moment, you are not alone. My wife jut phoned me to check if there was a network problem, as the EFTPOS is not working and neither are their mobiles.
Sure enough, my shiny new iPhone on the Optus network has signal, but cannot send and the same goes with my Vodafone mobile. Vodafone uses the Optus network.
Optus has experienced a MAJOR network outage. The problem is not confined to the Optus mobile network, but includes Optus landlines and reportedly, some Internet connections.
The network has been down since 8:30am. At this stage no announcement has been forthcoming from Optus.
Update:- The problem was caused by a fibre optic cable on the Gold Coast being cut, as well as some problems with another cable near Stanthorpe.
How To Fix A Crashed iPhone
As I reported before, there have been reports of Apps crashing the new iPhone, sometimes these crashes are so bad that they require a complete restore.
The problems being reported all seem to relate to the installation of applications. It is not confined to apps you install via iTunes, as the crashes are being reported when installing on the phone itself. Many app developers are claiming that the problem lies with Apple, but irrespective, if your Apple goes into meltdown, you need a way to fix it.
The standard method to restart a locked up iPhone is to press the home and power keys at the same time and hold them for 6 seconds. This forces the iPhone to shut down and normally would clear any problem when you press the power key again to turn it back on. However, this method is not always effective in the case of an iPhone locking up during an application installation. If after trying this method, you get stuck on the reboot screen, you will have to force the phone into recovery mode, which performs an iTunes firmware restore.
To use recovery mode, and hopefully get your iPhone back in working order, follow these steps:
- Turn your iPhone off by holding the Sleep/Wake button for 5 - 6 seconds.
- Press and hold the Home button and plug the iPhone into your Mac or PC.
- Keep holding the Home button until you see a yellow triangle or a dock cable and iTunes icon.
- Release the Home button.
- Open iTunes, which will say it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.
- Click ‘OK’.
- Click restore.
Sit back and wait, there are reports of recovery taking up to several hours to complete, so if it looks like the green progress bar is hardly moving, don’t turn it off and try again, it simply takes time, you will jsut have to be patient.
Last.fm iPhone App
One app for the iPhone that will appeal to many users is Last.fm’s.
It comes with all the standard Last.fm items, including love, ban, skip, artist bio’s, similar artists and events.
A cool feature is the ability to see current events for the now playing artists and specify if you’re attending or not and go to a Google map for the event location.
The app can read lastfm:// links, and will automatically start streaming any song when you click the play button on the website.
At the moment, due to licensing issues, Last.fm for the iPhone is only available in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Spain.
You can download the Last.fm app for free from the App Store.
App Store Hits 10 Million Downloads
The App Store is off to a flying start, with 10 million applications downloaded over the weekend from the 500 or so available at lauch.
There is already some interesting data coming out from Medialets, the new advertising network for iPhone app developers, who report that the average price paid per app has fallen from $6.03 to $5.47. Another interesting piece of information to emerge, is that free apps are rated higher than paid apps.
The price drop is a reflection of competition in the market, which is to be expected, especially with sales of 10 million over one weekend.
The top paid apps are game and entertainment related, iBeer, which I wrote about yesterday comes in at number 5.
There have been some reports of applications locking up and even causing crashes on the iPhone. I experienced one app that caused a slight problem, but this didn’t require a reset to rectify.
Some developers have reportedly started to try and game the App Store by changing the name of their applications to appear higher on the pages.
Aside from these issues, this level of activity points to the value that App Store brings to Apple, both as an extra revenue stream and probably more importantly, as a means of strengthening the iPhone platform, as if it needed it.
Solution For Flat iPhone Battery
With many users complaining about the 3G iPhone running out of puff too soon, there is a solution at hand, the Storm High Capacity Portable Battery Charger.
This is an ideal accessory for those on the move without convenient access to a power supply. It is essentially a battery itself that can power devices for over 20 hours. In the case of an iPhone, it can recharge a flat battery up to 8 times on a single charge.
The Storm itself can be recharged through your computer using the mini USB cable, or through a wall socket charger. The Storm kit is comprehensive, with enough adapters to charge a large range of devices, including iPhone, iPod, SonyEricsson, Nokia, Samsung, PSP, Motorola, and PDA’s.
For only $59.90, the Storm looks like a good investment.
Social Networks For The iPhone
As I wrote previously, the release of the 3G iPhone has the potential to reshape the mobile web and usher in greater advancement of mobile social networks.
I wrote in that post, some of the features a mobile social network requires; some of these features already exist in present offerings, which are analyzed below.
iRovr
iRovr, which claims to be the first social network designed specifically for the iPhone, launched into public beta a year ago this week. The company founder, Erik Madsen formed the company one day after the iPhone launched in the US, when he was browsing websites and could not find any social networks specifically optimized for the iPhone.
iRovr is designed specifically for the iPhone, as such, while you can login from a desktop browser, it is still formatted for the dimensions of the iPhone.
iRovr uses email to upload content. This method may seem a little convoluted and may yet prove its undoing, but they have tried to make it as simple as possible.
There are specific email addresses for each type of content:
Photo: irovr@photo.irovr.com
Blog: irovr@blog.irovr.com
Bookmark: irovr@bookmark.irovr.com
Video: irovr@video.irovr.com
However, you can use the one address, irovr@irovr.com, to post any type of content and iRovr will automatically determine the type of content and upload it accordingly.
To update your profile on iRovr, you send an email to irovr@profile.irovr.com. The text you enter into the body of the message becomes the text on your homepage. If you add a photo, it becomes our profile image.
Everything you post goes into the iRovr stream, which is the default view on the homepage. Your profile can be modified with various themes and the more adventurous are able to build a custom theme, which will go into the list for others to use. You can also leave comments and send private messages.
While iRovr may have been the first social network built specificaly for the iPhone, but as noted, updating content via email may prove to be prohibitive to new users, when compared to other services in this niche that do not require this step. The fact that it does not presently have any location based feature may also work against it.
Loopt
Loopt has some neat features and integrations that will ensure it becoming popular. It enables you to connect with friends via the interactive map and see what they are doing, as well as share photos and comments. Loopt can be linked to Facebook and Twitter for status updates and to FriendFeed via Loopt RSS feed updates.
Loopt also integrates with Yelp for receiving reviews about locations nearby on the iPhone map, although at this stage you are unable to contribute reviews from inside the iPhone.
If you are on the market, Loopt provides the opportunity to meet new people nearby, if they are sharing their information. I worked on a similar sms based service several years ago and can see a definite market for this.
Loopt is free to download from the App Store.
Limbo
Limbo is a name you may recognise. It is one of the largest mobile communities in the US, with 2 million registered members. Limbo is a kind of Twitter, Facebook, Loopt mashup that allows you to view and interact with friends within a close radius of your location. It has other cool features, such as grouping your friends into activities so you can see who is doing what without having to search each person individually.
Limbo is free to download from the App Store.
Facebook for the iPhone has been available, via the Facebook for iPhone website since August last year. It now has 1.5 million active users. With the App Store, they have improved their offering by releasing a native app for the iPhone.
With the native application, you can take photos with the iPhone’s camera and upload them directly to your Mobile Uploads album on Facebook. You can also view your Friends, Photos, and Inbox, as well as interact directly via Facebook chat.
Presently, Facebook for iPhone doesn’t provide much extra from the web based offering. For example it doesn’t provide any location based services. This will change in the future though, with Facebook developing an opt-in feature to share your location and discover nearby friends.
Facebook for iPhone is free and can be downloaded from the App Store.
MySpace
As with the Facebook for iPhone app, the Myspace iPhone app integrates seamlessly with the online social network, allowing users to use all the standard features, including adding friends, uploading photos, etc.
As with Facebook, there are no extra features, and no utilisation of location based functions, however, just like Facebook, these features will come in the future.
MySpace is free to download from the App Store.
Zintin
Zintin is the newest of this group and a recent entry into the mobile social network space. Zintin has gone directly for the location awareness features of the iPhone to build an application that allows the user to view nearby Zintin users and friends. Zintin also enables interaction with people nearby as well as sharing contact information. Users can share pictures and information via their wall and in the next update, will be able to write on others wall’s.
Zintin is free to download form the App Store.
iBeer For Your iPhone
Do you ever feel the need for a beer, but haven’t got one with you, or find that it may be an inappropriate time to drink one, such as when you are driving your car?
Well fear not, now you can imbibe whenever you feel like it (actually, even doing this in your car will probably get you fined).
iBeer is an app for the iPhone that simulates drinking a beer with your iPhone, right down to everything except the taste; just tip your iPhone to your lips and the sweet, sweet beer will flow.
You can buy iBeer at the App Store.
Holographic Mobile Handsets Within 2 Years
If you think the iPhone is a cool device, wait until you see what is coming out in the not too distant future.
By 2010, Infosys will have a mobile phone capable of capturing, projecting and sending 3D holographic images.
The handsets will be capable of beaming 3D films, games and virtual goods, providing particular applications for the business world.
Using its onboard processor to build a series of 2D images into 3D holograms and algorithms called ‘Fourier’ transformations to calculate the extra third dimension, Infosys, which has had their patent application approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office, sends unprocessed data across the cellular network, which is processed at the receiving end and converted into a 3D hologram.
The handset will use a projector with a laser source and micro holographic optical elements lenses to display the images.
An Infosys rep said:
“Holographic handsets have the capability of enriching the user experience, with an actual 3D experience and higher-quality images. This gives users a more realistic experience in areas like gaming, medicine, movies etc.”
The 3D images will be displayed without losing resolution, which,aside from business use, will be a boom for mobile gaming.
