If you grew up in the 80′s you probably remember playing popular text adventure games such as Zork on your computer. I was in this category and enjoyed staying up into the wee hours of the morning solving puzzles and making maps to try to finish each game that Infocom could crank out. Only thing is I never finished every game they made…but it is on my to do list.
I’ve heard a number of times about iPhones crashing left and right and knew in the back of my head it was only a matter of time for this to happen to me. Well, today my number was drawn and my iPhone crashed while installing an app which tracked your location via the GPS thingy and plots your course. If my iMac wasn’t bogged down trying to restore my iPhone, I might be able to find out what app it was. I’ll find out in the next day or two if I’m lucky. The restore process takes forever!
My screwup is the application was still in the process of installing and I got impatient and decided to check my email. That’s when I got the black screen of death. The white apple logo and a black background was all I could get, no matter how many times I rebooted. I finally decided to restore by pressing the home button while plugging the iPhone into the USB port. Then the restore process started.
The restore process finished (I thought) but when I went to iTunes and it wanted to restore again. Hopefully, Apple will get some of these glitches fixed sooner than later. This has cost me at least 6 hours so far in lost iPhone time. I wonder if I will be able to get all the apps I purchased back onto my iPhone? 
If you have trouble falling asleep or taking a satisfying nap, take a look at aSleep for the iPhone and iPod Touch. aSleep is a simple white noise/sound generator that you can turn on at night or when you want to close your eyes and imagine your somewhere else for awhile.
It has a timer that can automatically shut the sounds off after a specified amount of time. Currently sounds include Rain, Wind, Beach, Forest, Relax and Meditation. Personally, I think Rain is the best…although I’d like to see some thunder mixed occasionally.
Visit the aSleep iPhone App Site
Do you own an iPhone or iPod Touch and are addicted to buying applications from the iTunes App store? Are you getting a little concerned about your upcoming credit card bill and wondering if you’re spending a bit too much?
Well, we’re here to save the day as one lucky winner will receive a gift certificate worth $25 in the iTunes store! Use this credit to download that app you’ve been wanting to buy or, use as you wish to download songs, movies, TV shows or whatever.
How to Enter:
To enter this contest, simply blog about this contest. To qualify, you need to link directly to this post. Write a small blurb about it to spread the word. Leave a comment below with your URL where you have blogged to this post.
We’re going to make this more exciting…. this contest is open to the FIRST 25 entries only! So… you will have a 1 in 25 chance of winning. Unique entries only, one entry per person.
GOOD LUCK!
So you have your iPhone want to download the Skype iPhone application. Well, as of this writing they haven’t released a standalone Skype app for the iPhone. BUT…. there is a way to use Skype on your iPhone and even your iPod Touch.
Take a look at IM+ for Skype. This is a web based application, but still does the job fine. You can chat with friends, family and colleagues and believe it or not can make outgoing phone calls to real land lines/cell phones via WiFi, Edge network or 3G. If you want to save your daytime minutes because you’re on the cheapo AT&T plan just find a wifi hotspot, connect to Skype and make calls for next to nothing.
Personally, I have an unlimited Skype out account which cost around $30 a year when I last paid for it. When you login to IM+ for Skype it will initially go into trial mode which lasts about 7 to 10 days. After that, you can subscribe for $5.95 a month or buy a lifetime license for $29.95. I recommend the latter. I just note that the $30 I paid was for the unlimited calling on my desktop iMac. So, I’m not sure if you have to pay twice or not. I’m guessing you only have to pay for the IM+ for Skype account, but may need to clarify this.
I wonder if they will bother making an application if this continues to work as well as it does. I suspect they will and charge $29.95 for the application. Stay tuned and I’ll make and update on this when and if the app is released.
One of the most controversial applications in the App Store is the application called NetShare. NetShare works with your iPhone to allow you to create a tethered Internet connection with your Mac or PC. What does this mean? Well, it means that you can use NetShare to turn your iPhone into a WiFi hotspot – sort of.
After some pesky configurations, you can get your Mac or PC to communicate to your iPhone which then connects to the web. I tested it and it does work, but wasn’t very fast since I’m on the Edge network. If you’re lucky enough to have a 3G connection, it will be much faster…. but then again, I’ve never been on a 3G network, so I have no idea how fast that is.
Enter to win $25 in iPhone apps! Hurry – contest open to first 25 entries only!
I’ve only tested this on a Mac so far, but have included a video tutorial that some other dude was nice enough to do. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see how to configure this on a PC.
AppleiPhoneApps.com reviews Jott for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Jott is a voice memo recorder that allows you to record audio notes while on the go. After making a recording, the audio is sent to Jott servers and… believe it or not real people transcribe the audio message into text for you. The transcribing usually takes a minute or so. These notes can then be transferred to your a to do list. There is a 15 second recording limit and so far you can only read your converted notes on your iphone. I’m sure in the near future there will be some type of export feature.
Installer Apps reviews a pedometer application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Unfortunately it looks like nobody has done a video review of what I think is a better pedometer called Steps, so I’ll have to do one as soon as I get more time. Steps is brought to you by Edovia and turns your iPhone, iPhone 3G or iPod touch into a personal pedometer. Enter in your height and weight and it will calculate steps you have walked, distance travelled, time and average speed.
The only flaws I can see so far is that I don’t think it can run in the background while you are doing other things such as listening to music, podcasts, etc. I’m not positive on this so I’ll test to make sure. Steps uses the accelerometer (motion sensors) to detect movement. It is recommended that you put your device in your pocket or wear on your waist for best results. Currently available in English and French. If you want to lose weight and are looking for a fun way to do so, try this pedometer application and get in shape!
“At long last, Adobe has released it’s well loved Flash player for the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch! Never again will you visit a web site and see that mysterious thing that looks like a lego block with question mark on it. Now you can do what you’ve always dreamed of – watch living streaming videos on Ustream, play your favorite web based flash games and more!”
Hopefully, this is what we will see all over the web in the near future. Unfortunately, Flash isn’t supported yet, but rumor is that “they” are working on it. I wonder if there may be a reason Apple has stalled on Flash support? Could it something to do with the moola they are making from the App store? Hmm…
To be continued…
Stuff.tv reviews Enigmo, a game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Currently, this is the #9 best seller in the iTunes App Store. Enigmo is a puzzle game that uses the multi touch technology of the iPhone. This means you can play the game more discreetly – compared to games where you might be waving your iPhone or iPod touch around due to games using the accelerometer. In this game, you direct water around into little buckets, soak them up with a sponge, etc. Well, that probably doesn’t make sense, so just watch the video for a better idea. Enigmo is available for $9.99.
