Posts Tagged ‘Free’
One of the iPhone Apps that I have been waiting for the longest is a native App from Delta Airlines. I Fly Delta several times a month on average and having a native App means faster access to my itineraries and check in info. Recently I reviewed the American Airlines App and although I rarely fly AA, I can appreciate their well thought out App. As a matter of fact their App kinda set the bar for how well an airline App can be done. My long wait was ended this week when Delta released their "Fly Delta" App for iPhone (only works with iOS 4 and higher!) The App covers my basic needs in that I can save my login credentials, view my itineraries, see my mileage balance, search for flights, check in for flights and even mark my parking spot with a location tag, note and a photo.
This is great, but there are missing features
While I applaud Delta's efforts and am truly thankful to have this App, there are some features that I'm missing right off the bat. For example, I can see my current Medallion Skymiles balance, but that's it. I can't get a breakdown of my miles, nor does it seem to show your remaining miles to fly to achieve the next Medallion Level. While I can search for flights, I can't actually book flights using the App. There are no terminal Maps, nor does there seem to be any push notifications of flight changes/cancellations. It would also be nice to be notified via the App when it's time to check in. Lastly, while I rarely ever check a bag, when I do I'd love to see which baggage carrousel my bag is going to be on from within the App as I leave the plane.
The Bottom Line
This is a great start, but there are so many more possibilities. I look forward to continued progress of this App. If you fly Delta, then you should probably go ahead and get this App. It is FREE after all, so there's really no reason not to have it. Also one thing that may tick a lot of users off is that this App requires iOS 4. So it really cuts out a large user base that otherwise would probably benefit from the App.
You can get the Fly Delta App here from the 
Online content is growing exponentially every day. Every morning when I turn on my computer, fire up my iPad, or look at the news on my iPhone, there is not only a greater amount of information to intake than the day before, but there are many more ways to view, or consume that information. There are new social media sites, new blogs, and new streams to follow. At times it can get a little overwhelming. For this reason, any time I can combine those media streams to one source for viewing, I do. This is exactly what Flipboard for the iPad does. It takes updates, pictures, posts, and news from your favorite sources and puts them all in one place for your viewing. Best of all, it does it in a format that is easy (and fun) to use!
If you’re anything like me (and if you’re reading this I’m sure you are), you have multiple accounts that you follow every day. I have two twitter accounts, a Facebook, a Linkedin, and a Flickr account that I check at least once a day if not multiple times. Not to mention the 20+ blogs and 50+ websites that I follow. Flipboard takes (some) of these accounts and content and places it all together for you to view easily. What makes Flipboard special is that it formats it like a magazine. You have titles, larger full page articles with pictures, smaller articles with pictures, and even smaller yet (and in the case of the Twitter feeds single lines) text only articles. There is no real indication of how it decides what content deserves a full page, and what is limited to small, or text only articles. As best I can tell it’s a random selection.
The first thing you’ll notice when you install and launch the app is the two squares in the top left corner to add your Facebook, and Twitter accounts. When you tap on these squares you are asked for your information (user name, password). Once you have entered that you get a message telling you that you have been placed into a cue to be added. This process takes about 3-5 days(at the time of my submission it took 3 days, but your wait time may vary depending on requests) and you get an email when your accounts have been added. At that time you will be able to access the content of these two accounts. With Facebook you get the content you would have from your news feed. You are shown videos, comments, status updates, and pictures. The one thing that you are not shown (thankfully) is the add-on applications to Facebook such as Farmville.
When it comes to Twitter content, this is where Flipboard really shines. You see tweets as you normally would, but you also see the images (instead of an image link). You also get the content on the other side of the shortened links. For example if someone posts a link to a newspaper article, that article shows directly below the tweet! It makes reading and keeping up with your twitter info a snap. With Flipboard you also have the option of adding a box for specific groups, or lists that you follow on twitter. I have quite a few people that I follow on twitter, but sometimes I only want to see what my family is up to, so I have a list for that. With Flipboard, you can open only that list and be shown only that content. (If you’re not using lists, I highly recommend that you look into them).
Along with Twitter and Facebook, you can add many different news streams to your Flipboard digital magazine. Flipboard has some suggestions for you, but they also have a whole (searchable) list for you to browse and add content from. There is content available from popular sources such as Wired magazine, E! Online, and USA Today.
While Flipboard is constantly adding the media sources available to you, selection may be the biggest downside of this application. There isn’t a large enough variety available yet for me to ditch my traditional RSS reader. There is no Flickr addition yet, no Linkedin, and no way to add your own custom content (I think the custom content may be more of a formatting issue for each source so I don’t know if that will ever be possible). I would also like to see the number of sources you are able to have at one time raised. Right now you are limited to 9 sources. For me this is not enough. I have more than 9 twitter lists that I would like to be able to follow individually.
Overall I think Flipboard is a wonderful app for media consumption. It is my favorite way to keep up with my twitter updates, and a great way to see my Facebook news feed. If they increase the media sources to choose from, as well as the number of available spots in your “magazine”, this would be a great all in one application.
Download Flipbook here from the
Earlier this year Netflix released their first App for the iOS platform. It was the Netflix App for iPad. The iPad is a great platform for an App of this type and at the same time Netflix also announced that they would be releasing an iPhone version later this summer. Well it's here! I was anxiously awaiting this App not only for the obvious streaming content benefits, but I was also hoping for a great Netflix queue manager. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed. While the App does let you manage your "Instant Queue" for streaming, it doesn't let you access your DVD queue.Now in all fairness this was never promised and even on the iPad the App brings up your DVD queue in a browser (inside the App). So we've never had native DVD queue management. Nonetheless I was hoping to finally have a Netflix branded App that allowed me complete access and management to all aspects of my account. In the meantime I'm continue use and recommend MovieFlick for Netflix queue management.
Streaming Netflix Videos to your iPhone
As with all video streaming apps you're at the mercy of your available bandwidth. Netflix is no different. On a slower connection you will experience pauses in your video while more video content buffers. On 3G, the video is watchable and GREAT quality, but I did experience a few momentary pauses. On WiFi the experience is much better. With that said, I probably won't be watching too many feature length movies on my iPhone. I'd probably watch a 30 minute TV show here and there while waiting in a line or waiting room. For that, this App is great. Netflix continues to add more and more content for streaming. This makes it easier to continue paying my monthly account fee. I also love the fact that I can start a movie on one device and finish it on another and now that they have support for so many platforms (ie. TiVo, Wii, iOS, etc.)
Downloads would be nice – One of the places that I actually watch the most movies is on planes. While WiFi is coming to more and more flights, streaming video isn't something that people should be doing as the bandwidth would come to a crawl. The ability to download a movie or two before getting on the flight would be nice. Sure I can already do that with iTunes as a rental or purchase, but I'd like to be able to do it via the Netflix account that I'm already paying for. It would be great to be able to download the same selection of streaming content right to the device and watch it offline.
The Bottom Line
The Netflix App does what it claims, but no more. It's FREE, but you need a Netflix account to actually be able to use the App. I'd love to see more account features built-in to this App as well as offline viewing.
You can download it here from the
One of the reasons I upgraded to the iPhone 4 was to take advantage of the built-in HD (720p) video camera. However, I was left scratching my head when I found out that for some reason Apple doesn’t allow you to upload your 720p videos to YouTube at the full 720p resolution. It compresses them down to a lesser resolution (568×320). Now of course I understand bandwidth constraints of cellular networks, however they also compress them even if you upload via WiFi (and email). That defies all logic with me! Why would I be restricted over WiFi.
720tube Uploads At Full 720p Resolution
Luckily this FREE App allows you to upload your 720p HD movies in all their HD glory directly from your iPhone 4. I’m happy to see this App exist as I now feel much more compelled to shoot and upload a video directly from my iPhone 4. Although this App does exactly what it says, I have gotten some “out of memory” messages popping up during upload, even though the upload completes just fine. I also would like to see support for the YouTube “unlisted” category in addition to Public and Private.
You can download 720tube here for Free from the
Like it or not, this “thing” called Twitter has become a major part of the way business is conducted. Whether it’s a fortune 500 company or a single employee entrepreneur, twitter is a cheap, relatively easy way to promote your business as well as a way to stay in contact with your customers. Then there’s the social networking side of it. Stay in contact with your friends, keep them informed of your whereabouts with geo tagging as well as what’s on your mind. The uses for Twitter are endless.
When it comes to an application (or desktop program for that matter) there are a few things that it has to have. First, it needs to be easy to use. I want to be able to automatically log on, tweet, send pictures, and shorten links quickly and easily. Second, it needs to be customizable. I want to have the option of changing the refresh wait period, the background theme colors, and the pop up alerts. I want to be able to choose different image uploading services, and I want to be able to choose whether or not it makes a sound. Tweetdeck does all of these things and more.
I have been a user of tweet deck on my laptop for a while and have been totally happy with it, so when I got my iPad and iPhone4, Tweetdeck was the first app that went looking for. You can read Terry’s review of the iPad version here. He was spot on with his review so it’s a must read before downloading for your iPad. As for the iPhone, Tweetdeck has hit a homerun with this application. They have included all of the above mentioned features as well as many, many more that have made it my go to app for staying on top of my Tweets.
Get it from the iTunes store here from the
We're just one week away from Photoshop World Vegas and of course it's time to start locking down your schedule and choosing the classes you want to take. I remember using the Photoshop World App last year and saying "this is great, but It's missing one thing." That one thing was the ability to add things to your schedule that may not be on the official conference program list. For example, at 2PM I'm going to head over to the Adobe Booth and check out that Terry White guy 
. So while it was great being able to fill in all the classes I wanted to take, I still had to rely on my regular calendar for other meetings and activities. Well that all changes with the latest version. Shawn Welch did a FANTASTIC JOB listening to my feedback and feedback of others and updating this App to be the best conference App I've seen to date. First off it's a Universal App now, which means it's native to all iOS devices including the iPad. Secondly he added the one big thing I needed, which is the ability to put in your own custom events/meetings. That alone makes this a 5 star app for me, but Shawn didn't stop there. He added in some very cool social networking features like the ability to tweet and update your Facebook status right inside the App. He even added the ability to share your schedule with others via email or Bumping two iOS devices together running the app! Shawn thought of just about everything this time around. There's even the ability now to schedule backup classes. So if you just can't decide right now which of two classes you want to take, you can go ahead and put your first choice in a time slot and then add your second choice in so you won't have to scramble at the last minute if you change your mind.
Classes, Instructors or Exhibitors
You decide how you want to look up information about what you might want to see. If you like Joe McNally, then just tap his name and see all the classes he's teaching at glance. Or if you have an empty time slot, just tap it to see all of the classes happing at that time and pick one. Of course there's an Expo floor, so you can tap Exhibitors to see who's exhibiting and where they are. Once I got my schedule built on my iPhone I was able to easily send it to a couple of friends via email (even if they don't have the App it comes over as a nicely formatted HTML email). However, I wanted to also have the same schedule on my iPad. No problem, I just used the Bump feature to share the schedule to the iPad from the iPhone wirelessly. Once it was on the iPad in the shared section, I just tapped on it to add each item into my schedule on the iPad. Very cool!
You can get the Photoshop World App for FREE here from the
Adobe just released an update Photoshop Express (formally called Photoshop.com Mobile) App for all iOS devices!
What's New In Version 1.3
• Initial support for iPad
• New name: Adobe® Photoshop® Express
• Updated UI
• Bug fixes and performance improvements
Features specific to iPad:
• Support for portrait and landscape orientations
• Redesigned Online, Edit, and Upload workflows
• Ability to work on multiple photos in sequence from within a single workflow
• Redesigned Organizer view with simplified album sharing
• Updated icons and visuals that make it easier to navigate and use the Editor
• Ability to upload to Photoshop.com and Facebook simultaneously
one small bug: Although everything seems to be working great on the iPad, I did run into one bug while launching the app in landscape mode with the Adobe tab chosen on the iPad. So if you have a crash just launch it in portrait mode first. If you switch to any other tab, say the Edit tab for example, you should then be able to launch the App in Landscape mode just fine. I've already reported the bug and it appears to be related to other Apps (in my case ePrint) trying to hi-jack the sample images.
UPDATE: The 1.3.1 update is now available that fixes the iPad landscape launch crash and other bugs.
You can get Photoshop Express for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch as a FREE download here from the
I recorded this video to walk you though some of the features AND I've got a tip for using the iPad Camera Connection Kit:
Find My iPhone is a feature of Apple's MobileMe service that allows iOS Device owners to find their missing devices. If the device is on and connected to the internet, Find My iPhone can be accessed from a web browser by logging into your MobileMe account or via this New App installed on another iOS device. This App does NOT need to be installed on the missing device to use the feature. I like the prospect of the Find My iPhone feature of MobileMe. However, you have to realize that there are limitations. First off, you have to be a MobileMe customer and the Find My iPhone feature has to be turned ON on the device before it comes up missing. Even then, you will only be able to locate the device if it's turned on and connected to the internet. So let's say you just discovered that your iPod touch is missing and the last time you used it was a couple of days ago. If the device has run out of power or if someone took it and is walking about outside (not in a WiFi zone), then this feature won't help you. As long as you realize the limits, having MobileMe and this feature provides more hope of recovering your device than not having this feature. If you have an iPhone, you have a better chance since the iPhone can be on a cellular data network just about anywhere.
The only thing worse than losing your device is someone having your information too
Although you can replace your iOS device, it may be a lot more frustrating and potentially damaging if someone has access to all of the information on it. We often don't think twice about what's on these devices. However, there's a lot of information on them about YOU! Your contacts are on there. Your calendar is there. Your photos are on there. Your emails are on there (probably complete with order confirmations complete with your shipping address, from the places you shop at), and most of your Apps probably have the passwords saved in them for easy access to your various accounts. I always tell people regardless of whether or not you have MobileMe, you should protect your device with a PIN. So it takes a few extra seconds to key it in when you want to use the device, at least it gives you peace of mind that someone else can't just turn it on and have your whole life in front of them. With that out of the way, now let's talk about the App. Like I said, you can do all of this from any web browser. However, since Apple doesn't really let you get to the MobileMe site from your iOS device (odd, I know), you now have a FREE App to use this feature. Once you launch the App you sign in with your MobileMe credentials. You can then access all of your iOS devices that have the Find My iPhone feature enabled. If the device is on and on the net, Find My iPhone will begin to locate it. Once the device has been located you can Display a Message on the device that pops up. This could be a message with instructions on how to return it to you. You can have it play a sound even if the device is muted, which is handy for locating a missing device in your home or around you. You can Remote Lock the device with a new or different PIN. Lastly you can Remote Wipe the device, which will remove ALL of your information from it. This last one is great because once it starts the process of wiping there is no stopping it. Even if they power off the device, the wipe will continue once it's turned back on. What if your device is off or not on the internet? Although Find My iPhone won't be able to tell you where it is, you can still use the Display Message or Sound, Remote Lock and Remote Wipe features and they will kick in the next time the device is turned on and connects to the internet.
You can get the Find My iPhone App here from the
The Bottom Line
I was already a MobileMe customer before this feature, so for me this just adds more value to my MobileMe account. Although I understand the limitations, I would still like to see a couple of additional features added. First off I have a MobileMe Family Pack and it seems silly that I have to log in as each user separately to locate a particular user's device. I understand the privacy implications, but I still think that the Family Pack MobileMe members should have an Opt In option for the master account holder to be able to see ALL the devices associated with the one account at the same time. The other thing I'd like to see is a Remote Wipe and Destroy! What good is Remote Wiping my iPod touch if the thief can then just configure it as their NEW device once I wipe it? Wipe and Destroy would render the device useless until it was either sync'd with the last computer that it had been sync'd with or taken into an Apple Store to be cleared (not on the stolen list). Even without these last two features I find MobileMe and Find My iPhone a much better value than AT&T's Family Map feature.
Whatever you do, don't pay full price for MobileMe
I've been a MobileMe customer since day one and not once have I ever paid the full retail price for it. You can get any version of the retail packaging and use the code inside to renew your subscription. You can get the individual pack here for about $68 ($99 retail) and the Family Pack here for about $98 ($149 retail)
Although I have access to my 20GB of space on my iDisk with my MobileMe account (family pack), it's hard to ignore some of the great FREE alternatives out there. Dropbox is a great service for people that want to share large files. Most email services cap the size of the email that you can send to anywhere between 15-20mb per email on average. While that's probably plenty for your JPG pictures, it's definitely not enough for video files. With Dropbox you signup for a Free account and then you can access up to 2GB's of online space from your computer or your iOS device using their FREE Universal App. Not only can you access your files for sharing, but if they are in a compatible format you can view them right in the App too. So for example, if you upload a PDF you can view that PDF from your device. Many apps offer this type of viewing. What makes Dropbox different is that you can also elect to send someone a LINK to the file so that they can download it from YOUR Dropbox. This way instead of emailing the large file, you're just emailing a link that they can click on to download the file to their computer. This is also a great solution for having an online backup of an important presentation. Since it's also web based you can access your files from any computer on the internet by going to dropbox.com and logging in.
iPhone 4 users can share HD video
It's great that you can shoot 5MP stills and HD video from your iPhone 4. With the Dropbox App you can upload those files directly from your camera roll to your Dropbox account and share them! If you need more than 2GB of space there are paid options starting at $9.99/month.
Although it's great to be able to send/share files from your camera roll, I would really like to see this App updated with to register itself with the "Open In" command. For example, if I already have a PDF on my device in another App, I'd love to be able to say Open in Dropbox to share that PDF.
You can get Dropbox here from the
Having both an iPhone and an iPad there are Apps that I use on both. So I thought I would share with you my picks for the Top 10 Universal Apps for iPad and iPhone/iPod touch. These are the 10 Apps that I love to use on either the iPhone or the iPad. They are also + Apps which means they are Universal Binaries that you download once and install or either iOS Device and the App takes complete advantage of the iOS Device that it's installed on. So here goes in no particular order:
FlightTrack Pro
FlightTrack Pro is hands down my top favorite travel App. This App along with Push notifications has saved me more than once. The was one of my first Apps to go Universal and it's gorgeous on the iPad. Also on the iPad you have the option of an in App purchase that allows you to see the arrival/departure boards for just about any airport. The fact that it syncs with TripIt is just icing on the cake. Great App!
Get FlightTrack Pro here from the
Grocery iQ
Grocery iQ recently became a Free download. I love this App on the iPhone because I can use the iPhone's camera to scan the barcodes of items that I want to add to my list quickly. I love it on the iPad because it syncs the lists with my account and therefore I can view or edit a list with the nice big iPad display.
Get Grocery iQ here from the
Pandora Radio
This was already a great App. However, with the new iOS 4 multitasking support, it's now a must have! It's also awesome on the iPadl Just select your favorite artists and listen to hours of commercial free music.
Get Pandora Radio here from the
