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Category: iPhone

Following Twitter Posts Can Be Exhausting


Saturday March 7, 2009

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It is Saturday, March 7, 2009, and I have a lot of work to do. And because I have so much to do this will be a very short blog post. I am sure you are relieved. This morning when I thought about what to write about, it occurred to me I could remind you that tonight most of you will have to remember to move your clocks forward one hour. Thankfully, living in Arizona I can scratch this task off of my list as most of Arizona does not participate in daylight saving time. Yeah! I won’t be losing an hour of sleep tonight, unless I decide to read every-one’s Twitter posts or tweets. Following Twitter posts can be exhausting and for the most part a waste of time.

Do I have a Twitter account? Yes. Why? Because one of my team members “hinted” it would be a good idea. Have I ever tweeted? No! Why? Because I don’t have time and I am sure my 20 Twitter “followers” (notice Twitter calls them “followers,” not “friends” like on Facebook) could care less about what I am doing or thinking at any given moment.

So today I will just offer an observation: Twitter has been around since 2006. But, of late, it seems that one cannot just watch the news on TV or follow a news website for headlines, you must also follow the Twitter account for the newscasters. In 140 characters we are suppose to understand the essence of the tweet. Great! So let’s see: you have the television on and you better be watching the television while sitting at your PC or with your laptop in your lap or with your Blackberry or iPhone in your hand. God forbid you would miss an important “tweet.”

Now most politicians are tweeting. Hmmm…I am amazed they have time to tweet, given our current state of affairs. Priorities!

I have one final thought before I get to work for our clients and prepare the paperwork for my personal income tax return: Have you ever looked up the meaning of “twitter?” As a noun the #1 definition for the word “twitter” is “a trembling agitation.” By the way, an agitator is “one who stirs up public feeling on controversial issues.” Imagine if Twitter’s inventors chose to call Twitter “agitator?” Twitter sounds so much more innocuous, we tend to think of that cute little beloved “Tweety Bird.” So, today, twitter away or tweet with your followers…I have work to do.

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Create your own Unique Ringtone with Audiko, using their cut and share technology. Not only can you make ringtones from your own music, but you can extract music directly from YouTube videos. If you are like me and you think that paying to make a ringtone from a song you have already paid for through iTunes is not that great, then Audiko.net is your solution! Audiko has very simple user-friendly instructions for creating your own ringtones. Audiko will create your ringtone in the iPhone accepted format; all you need to do is drag the file into the Ringtones folder of iTunes and upload it to your iPhone.

Just see for Yourself:
Whiskey-Change-survival-of-the-fittest.m4r

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One of the things I have wanted to do with my iPhone was to be able to view archived google talk chats via the device. If you are using imap, go to “Labels” under your Gmail settings you will see “Chats” but no way to select “Show in IMAP” Here is my “almost” workaround.

Once you have logged into your gmail account, click “Create a filter” (next to the search mail button) in the subject field place “Chat with” and click the “Next Step” button, check “Apply the label” and make a new label named “iChat” check “Also apply filter to X number of Conversations below.” and click “Create Filter”

Then go to “Settings”, “Labs” and make sure that you have “Advanced IMAP Controls” enabled for your account, and that you have chats set to archive. Look under “Settings” “Chat” and select “Save chat history”

Now go back to “Settings”, “Labels” and check that your new “iChat” label is set to “Show in IMAP”

On your iPhone you should now see your iChats folder when you open the email app and your chats,

Check it out and tell me if it works for you, as I am only seeing some of my chats.

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iPhone Geocaching with

Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application

 

 

Geocaching is a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors using GPS enabled devices and then share their experience online at http://www.geocaching.com/
iPhone Geocaching puts this sport in your pocket!
Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application Features:
  • Direct access to Geocaching.com’s database of worldwide geocaches
  • Search by current location, address or lookup code
  • Access geocache details, including description, hint and recent logs
  • Save geocache listing for quick retrieval
  • Log geocache finds and post notes in the field
  • Filter your hides and finds from the Geocaching.com search results
  • Navigate to geocaches with a simulated compass arrow
  • Look up trackable item detail, including item goals, while on the trail
  • NEW Tweet your new iPhone Geocache finds thru Twitter!
The Geocaching iPhone Application is available in Dutch, French German and Japanese language versions. Groundspeak’s Geocaching Application is best supported by the iPhone 3G but it is also compatible with the iPod Touch and 1st generation iPhones. (USE THE FORCE LUKE!)
Please note: You will need Wi-Fi access for the application to work on the iPod Touch. Also, without GPS, compass navigation will not work on the 1st generation iPhone.

iPhone Geocaching How it works

The iPhone 3G uses a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi positioning and cell towers to determine your approximate location. Groundspeak’s iPhone Application then queries the Geocaching.com database in real-time and provides a list of geocaches near you. The application can also geocode addresses, search using a location from your address book, or look up a geocache or trackable item by it’s GC (Geocaching.com) code.

 

Ready to go iPhone Geocaching?
Hit the iTunes Store to download Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application now!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 



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The iPhone has made a surge in the creation of applications by aftermarket companies. With everyday that goes by the iPhone becomes more universal and applicable for everyday life. Whether you are using the iPhone for business or pleasure, you are sure to find an application for your needs. IPhone applications are becoming more technical and more expensive! Here are three applications that are very neat and cost an unbelievable amount:

iRa Pro $899.99 – Provides touch based viewing and control of IP based video surveillance equipment. Inspired by the mobility needs of the high-end security industry, iRa Pro enables users to view multiple live video feeds directly from cameras or from video management servers and to directly control pan-tilt-zoom cameras using the intuitive touchscreen interface of the iPhone and iPod touch.

My Accounts To Go (MATG) $449.99 – Is an innovative Apple iPhone application which allows its user to remotely access their corporate account information from corporate financial management systems such as Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) and SAP BusinessOne. CBR Technology is also an Apple Authorized Developer and uses the latest version of Apple’s SDK to produce its high-quality iPhone-compatible applications.

Lexi-COMPLETE $299.99 – Lexi-COMPLETE provides detailed information on drugs, drug interactions, diagnosis, disease management, patient education, and more. Lexi-Comp’s in-house clinical team conducts constant surveillance of the FDA, pharmaceutical industry, and clinical literature to develop timely, unbiased information that helps health care providers make more informed decisions, reduce adverse drug events, and deliver better patient care.

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This Sunday Lisa and I met up with Jshults to do a little iPhone geocaching. The first cache we found was the San Onofre Breccia – Dana Point Earthcache (http://coord.info/GCP80W) to “complete” this cache we should have also gone to see the other half of the San Onofre Breccia that is exposed at Aliso Point (http://coord.info/GCP805) Just south of the San Onofre Nuclear power plant.

This is the Photosynth I took of the exposed cliffs of Dana Point a section of the San Onofre Breccia, a 15 to 20 million year old formation. A breccia is a sedimentary rock composed of angular fragments (clasts) embedded in a fine-grained matrix (the ‘glue’ that binds the clasts together). In the San Onofre Breccia, the clasts range in size from less than an inch to the size of small trucks and are a variety of rock types, mostly metamorphic. A formation is a rock that can be easily recognized over a large area.

From here we walked along the beach and tide pools (no dogs allowed) to the very tip of Dana Point and our primary target for the day the Sea Caves Geocache (http://coord.info/GC1KBVM) Photo by Lisa McClure, After searching where we thought the cache should be and thinking it may have been either washed out to sea, been muggled, or perhaps fallen too far down the rabbit hole for retrieval. We were pleased to be greeted by the owner of the cache “Masoe”. “Yep thats where it was, Nope it is not there anymore.” Jshults being the seasoned cacher that he is retrieved a pre camo’d altoids tin sealed the rabbit hole and replaced the new cache, (After giving us time to sign the log book! TNLNSL! TFTC!)

The people we have met while out and about on our caching adventures have been truly interesting, and give you a great reason to get out in the world. We also notice that geocaching gives us a unique spacial awareness of a place that we did not have before, given that in looking for a cache you are focused on a space the size of your living room. Once the cache is found that moment and that space are etched into your internal map of the place.

All who wander are not lost, Some of us are out iPhone Geocaching! Wanna go?

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Social Networking permeates everyone’s life in one way or another. It is fair to say that just about everyone is looking up old friends and classmates with Facebook and Myspace. Those two forms of social networking certainly come in handy for keeping in touch with people who are geographically undesirable.

The iPhone is where a lot of social media is taking place. People can now update their status, upload pictures, and chat with their phone. The host of applications available to communicate with around the world is amazing.

Smule released a new application last week that is pretty neat and worth taking a look at. Social Networking with Smule Zephyr has a beautiful interface for sharing messages around the world. Zephyr is not as precise for communication as some of the other social media applications; however, it is neat to get a message from China or some tiny island in the South Pacific. You can draw or write messages with wind and snow, every time you touch the screen it makes a beautiful sound. If you like the message then you have the choice to keep it traveling around the world.

Zephyr and other Smule products make Social Networking and Social Media fun and Interactive. They satisfy the human wonder of what people around the world are doing right now? And maybe, just maybe, we are doing the same thing at the same time.

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The past few weeks I have been playing with some new applications for my iPhone. There are thousands of applications available. Something to suit every-body’s taste. There are apps for just about anything. Smule has four apps out now that I believe are not only fun to play with, but they are also a way of social networking. Social Networking with Smule iPhone Applications are still very new, but they have so much potential to bridge what you do in your free time with the rest of the world.

Smule’s Ocarina, Sonic Lighter, and Sonic Boom all have a world mode which connects what you do with the particular application with the rest of the world. You can isolate which part of the globe you want to view or listen to. The Ocarina will record the different songs that you play and you can go online or listen to them right from your iPhone. You can watch and see who has the their Sonic Lighter burning or who is setting explosions with Sonic Boom.

No doubt in the near future we will be able to communicate directly through the application with various friends we make around the world. The Internet and the iPhone are all about connection, interaction, and Social Networking through various channels of social media. Smule’s applications are on the ground floor when it comes to exciting new ways to network.

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What do you know about geocaching? I know very little, but have you ever thought about why we have odd and even house numbers? I have to admit I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this concept, but the other evening I happened to be watching the History Channel about Napoleon and the commentator mentioned that it was Napoleon that came up with the idea of odd numbers on one side of a street and even numbers on the opposite side of the street. No big deal, you might say. But think about how this simple idea impacts your daily life: mail delivery, GPS, visitors, emergency support…the list goes on. OMG, could Napoleon be the father of Geocaching?

I am not going to bore you with a whole history of street numbering, but it occurred to me that I have lived long enough to remember life before Zip Codes (pre 1963) and I have lived in enough different communities to know how challenging life can be when you don’t have a numbering system. In today’s world this is akin to not having order in the World Wide Web. Order is what makes the Internet work and allows all of us to stay in touch.

The first time I learned about life with mail delivery placed in a road side box was in Anchorage, AK. It was 1983 and we were transferred to Alaska. Our house address was 15040 Platinum Circle; however, our mailing address was SRA (Star Route Assignment)Box 460, Anchorage, AK 99507. Just when I had all of our friends trained to send mail to the SRA address, the USPS decided that we had to start using our actual street address for mail. Hmmmm…wouldn’t you know that was the year that I was president of the home owners association and we had to build a whole new series of postal boxes which needed to be identical in every way, clearly marked with our street addresses (as opposed to the SRA addresses), and all 20 boxes had to be attached to a sturdy metal pole system. (Thank god a number of the neighbors were engineers that worked on the North Slope – read not Dennis).

In late 1985 we moved to Conway, New Hampshire. Now one would think that since New Hampshire was one of the 13 original colonies, street numbers would be old hat. WRONG! 90% of the homes and businesses did not have street numbers, for that matter, most roads were not clearly marked or had many different names for the same road. For example, Main Street in Conway Village was also known as RT16/RT113. I worked for Indian Head Bank North which was located on Main Street. Vendors would ask me for my business address and I would simply say “Indian Head Bank North, Main St, Conway, NH 03818”. The vendor would repeatedly say what is the street number and I would simply say “we don’t have street numbers!”

By late 1986 we purchased our country inn on Kearsarge Rd, Village of Kearsarge, Town of Conway, Carroll County, New Hampshire. We did not have a street number. Our mail went to P O Box 1194, North Conway, NH 03860 (only because for marketing purposes more people recognized North Conway, as opposed to Kearsarge Village, which had its own zip code, 03847). Are you confused yet? In late 1996 Conway Town Officials decided we all needed to put street numbers on our homes and businesses, because if we were to dial 911 the fire, rescue and police needed to know how to find us. You don’t want to know how many properties burned to the ground in the old days when buildings had no addresses and we depended on volunteer fire departments. So in 1996, Cranmore Mountain Lodge received its street number: 859 Kearsarge Rd, Kearsarge, NH 03847. 175 years after Napoleon’s death(1821)!

So today when you are searching for an address using the Internet, your GPS navigation system, your iPhone, or GeoCaching…thank Napoleon for being so practical. For fun here is a YouTube video called Geocaching Napoleon. I have no idea what it is about, because I don’t speak French, but maybe it is fitting.

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It was between 40 and 45 degrees yesterday up on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona; the wind felt like it was blowing 50 mph and it did not seem like we could find any cover. My friend Ryan and I went up there to do some bouldering for the day. When the conditions are this bad it is hard to stay focused on the goal of finishing a boulder problem; you can’t feel your hands or your feet for that matter, and these extremities are pretty crucial for climbing rock.

The first problems Ryan and I worked on were completely exposed from every angle! As our hands gripped the rock we could feel and almost hear our fingers cracking. Bouldering in this environment can be rather discouraging after a while, but, you keep truckin’ on because the idea of finishing a problem far out weighs the pain your feeling. On the outside, climbing in these conditions, it all looks crazy; although, on the inside, you feel as if you were born to climb and there is nothing that can stop you.

We ended up taking a break for a little while, which gave us time to eat and figure out where we should scout for new challenges (problems) to climb. As the sun was setting, we were hiking down a mountain stream when we came upon our next challenge! We were losing light quickly but we pushed on, what we found were two giant boulders that had been pushed up next to each other by the elements. Our challenge was the inside of the cave made by these boulders. Right as the sun was almost completely gone, Ryan got it! All my photos were taken with my iPhone and the video was shot with my Flip camera.

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This week was about Ocarina advancements and IPhone screen capture elements which have made my life easier. I was playing my Ocarina the other day and was marveling at the changes made on the Ocarina since the last update. The buttons don’t stick like they used to, this makes playing something from start to finish a lot easier. On globe mode, you can now zoom into a particular region to listen to; or listen to only the top melodies around the world, only my melodies, and only my loved melodies. There is a new finger hole layout which I find makes playing the Ocarina much easier. I can honestly say that I am excited to see what they add on to the Ocarina next.

I recently discovered another amazing IPhone feature that will come in very handy, a screen capture element. The pictures shown above were taken with the screen capture element. No matter what you are looking at on your IPhone, whether it is a web page or a text chat conversation, you can take a picture of what you see. After you capture what you are looking at, you can then email yourself or anybody a picture of what you deem important. When looking at something on your IPhone that you want to remember or use for a presentation there are only three simple steps to take. First, find something you want a picture of. Second, press the sleep/wake button at the top of the IPhone. Third, press the home button while pressing the sleep/awake button. The IPhone display will turn white for a second if you’ve done the steps properly, then you can go to your photo roll and take a look at what you captured.

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Apple released the new iPhone OS, Version 2.2 on Friday, so if you have not done so already please open iTunes and update your iPhone,

New Features that Apple is touting,

Google Street View for Maps, see where you are going before you get there.
Podcast downloads over WiFi or 3G
Updated Safari, the iPhones web browser so that you always see Google search.

One of the things we have noticed and have seen mentioned across the blogisphere is much improved battery life. We use our iPhones more like a Laptop, checking mail, feeds in Google reader and what not. Saturday we went Geocaching with our iPhones, and normally this would have sucked the battery dry in the hours we were out caching. But Sat, after we got home both of our iPhones were still half full.

Nice work Apple, while Cut & Paste would have been a nice addition, this kind of improved battery performance should have been noted on the top of the list of reasons to upgrade to 2.2.

Have you noticed better battery life after your upgrade?

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The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument believed to date back some 12,000 years. While several variations exist, an ocarina is typified by an oval-shaped enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouth tube projecting out from the body. It is often ceramic, but many other materials, such as plastic, wood, glass and metal may also be used.

Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. The Ocarina played an important role in China’s long history of song and dance. The ocarina has similar features to the Xun, another important Chinese instrument. Cortes’ expedition to Mesoamerica resulted in the introduction of the ocarina to the courts of Europe. Both the Mayans and Aztecs had produced versions of the ocarina, but it was the Aztecs who brought the song and dance that accompanied the ocarina to Europe. The ocarina went on to become popular in European communities as a toy instrument

You can now play the Ocarina with your iPhone! You have access to several keys and modes that can be changed in order to play a full variation of songs. Rest the iPhone on your ring fingers and thumbs with the headphone jack facing away from you. Use your index and middle fingers to cover the four holes. In order to play your Ocarina, you will need to blow into the microphone (you will see a small gold arrow where to blow). The mic is sensitive, so try not to blow very hard (if you are puffing your cheeks, you are blowing too hard).

I feel like the iPhone Ocarina is the most engaging application out there. It is a lot fun and with a little bit of effort one can learn to play some great songs; you can also transpose your own songs on to the Ocarina. There is a “globe mode”, where you can listen to what people all around the world are playing on the Ocarina. Download the Ocarina by Smule for your phone and start making music with your iPhone!

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3G iPhone Apps A Techie Would Love. (and I do)
From My “Apps of the Moment” file comes,
  • Geocaching app from geocaching.com – go iPhone based treasure hunting at will.
  • Distant Suns , a hand held planetarium, for those “What’s that in the sky daddy?” moments.
  • Ocarina , right outa The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, play and hear others play too!
  • WiFiFoFum WiFi sniffer app, because you don’t want to be on a full channel now do you?
  • WinAdmin when you must change the default doc from the beach.
  • PhoneFlix . Update your Netflix Q from your iPhone
  • GPS Tracker update your location to the web every 5 seconds
  • PixUp for getting your full size iPhone images to Picasa
  • Dimensions rules, and turns your iPhone into a ruler among other things.
  • iDicto because you can get the recordings off the phone via wifi
  • Network Ping Lite , ping tracert and telnet, what geek doesn’t love to ping something?
Some of these iPhone apps are free, others cost a few bucks. All of them can be found on my iPhone.
What iPhone apps have you found yourself using and not deleting? Any must haves that I missed?
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The Oxbow World Longboard Tour came to town last week, And Webconsuls was there to cover the show. Surf legends and 44 of the worlds top longboard surfers were treated to hot and glassy surf for the entire contest. This year the event was located on the historic Surf Beach at San Onofre, the heart of Aloha on the US mainland. The winner, Bonga Perkins, was kind enough to sit down and answer all of the tough questions for our littlest interviewer. For more from the Oxbow World Tour 2008 San Onofre Championships please visit, LBChampionship.com. Video By Ella G. McClure, Questions By Ella G. McClure

For help with getting your live event on the internet,
Via Blogs, Youtube, Twitter, and other social media venues please contact us here at Webconsuls.

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Google released its Google Earth browser for the iPhone and its FREE!!!

What is Google Earth? And if you are an iPhone Geocacher why do you want this is Free App? Watch the above video from Google to find out, In short, Google Earth for the iPhone is Google Maps in 3D, and with just a flip of a switch in the apps settings you can turn on the Latitude and Longitude of your location, very important information for us iPhone Geocaching folks!

With a quick trip to Geocaching.com to find the latitude and longitude of the caches you will be hunting for, make note of that info for later reference. Match up your location, with the location on your note and then start the drunken bee dance in search of your prize!

Google Earth for the iPhone provides most of the functionality of the full program but formatted to fit your iPhone. Pressing the “My Location” button in the lower left of the iPhone display and your perspective changes from one of viewing planet earth right down to seeing what car was parked in your driveway at the time the satellite photo was taken. Impressive, detailed sat shots and you have the option of viewing these as maps or the live terrain or a hybrid of both.

Search functions for Google Earth are also included. Search for addresses, specific businesses, landmarks in relation to where you are on earth. Those of you familiar with Google Earth will also love the addition of the Wikipedia and Panoramio layers.

Google Earth for iPhone, Yet another cool tool in the iPhone Geocachers Tool kit.

Click here to open iTunes and download the Free Google Earth iPhone Geocaching App.

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Watch this short Youtube vid on an overview of the use of Google products on the world’s first Android-powered phone, the T-mobile G1. Is it the iPhone killer?

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Brightkite for the iPhone from Brightkite on Vimeo.

Brightkite, a location based social network, now has it’s own iPhone application. One of the unique features of Brightkite as a social network is that it organizes its members according to where they are geographically. After experimenting with the new iPhone application I anticipate there will be an upsurge in Brightkite activity as the application makes this social network not only easy to use but very appropriate to the iPhone’s features. Application will require the iPhone 2.1 software.

I have found as a general rule that I prefer the iPhone application interfaces for social networks to their online equivalents. It seems to me that when designers have to flesh an application down to fit on the iPhone improvements and ease of use tend to follow. I will surely be checking in more as the “checking in” procedure is really sleek with the iPhone’s GPS built in.

Take a picture and geo-locate it. Find where your friends are nearby. Take a look at Brightkite, it is especially fun when you are traveling as you can search for restaurant reviews and local attractions. It is a great place to ask for restaurant and lodging suggestions and there tends to be a trend among users to photograph and post their meals when dining out.

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Qik iPhone app coming soon to iTunes App store!

Kevin Rose, of Digg fame, demos the new Qik.com app for unjailbroken iPhones. For those of us who did not want the chance of having an iBrick you will no longer have to jailbreak your iPhone to install this new Qik app once released. Did you watch the above video? Excited yet?

What does Qik on the iPhone do?

The Qik iPhone app Streams video to the Qik.com site,
The Qik iPhone app notes the location of the video,
Chat with the folks watching the live stream at Qik.com from your iPhone.

The iPhone 3G the Swiss Army Knife of SmartPhones, just keeps getting better and better.

Sign up for free and follow me on Qik.

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iPhone Geocaching Profile for Darin R McClure

Happy Columbus Day, Get outside and find something!

iPhone Geocaching the outdoor treasure-hunting game in which we participants use the GPS receiver built into our 3G iPhones to hide and seek geocaches. There is a hidden world all around us, with treasure, trinkets, coins and bugs to find.

Step #1 Visit the iTunes app store and grab Groundspeaks New iPhone Geocaching Application,

Step #2 Head over to Groundspeaks website, Geocaching.com and sign up for a free account,
( not required to use the app, but join up to keep track of your finds, and meet folks)

Step #3 Crank up your iPhone Geocaching App, and find a cache! don’t let the Muggles catch you!

Step #4 Take a shot of the area & the cache contents with your iPhone, making sure not to give away the location of the hide.

Step #5 Go back to Geocaching.com and log your visit & share your photos, and if you found or did not find the cache.

With hundreds of thousands of caches hidden around the world you are sure to find one nearby. Being that you always have your iPhone with you, next when you find yourself with some extra time on your hands instead of plopping down in from of the television, take your family on a hunt for treasure.

iPhone Geocaching, Where you are the search engine.