iPod Touch Apps

By Steve, on December 21st, 2011

I did a couple of articles earlier in the year about which apps I was using on my iPod. I thought I would update those posts with a single post with a list of all the additional apps I have loaded.

My choice of apps as you will see is influenced by the fact that I live in France but I frequently travel to UK, so I have a number of apps in a ‘Travel’ folder specifically for UK travel these then don’t take up too much space on the screen.

One of my jobs over Christmas will be to regroup my various apps in to more sensible grouping, writing this post made me realise that I need to do that task sooner rather than later or not at all!

Amazon – This app lets you scan barcodes and photograph items that it then matches with the Amazon store, a bit of a novelty really. I’ve not bought anything using the app yet!

Battery Master Free – a simple battery battery level indicator, the iPhone 4 has a simple indicator in the status bar showing the percentage, something that hasn’t been shared with the iPod Touch yet.

BBC News – Essential for keeping up to date with World and UK news and it’s free

Blogger – Google at last brought out an official app to support mobile blogging on their Blogger network.

Camera + – A much improved camera app compared to the standard one, this one lets you do some limited editing and adjustments to the pictures before you save them, share them by email, Twitter or Facebook. Sadly the resolution of the iPod Touch camera is a little limited, I don’t use it often compared to my small compact.  And for £0.59 this is a must have app.

Dropbox – I’ve been a Dropbox user now for well over a year, can’t be without it so it makes sense to have it on my Touch as well. It’s a great way to always have your files, photos etc available on all your devices and PC’s

Facebook – Easy to use, although I would like to see them include some extra features in to this, such as managing friends.

Facebook Messenger – For accessing your Facebook messages a bit easier than using the full app.

Facetime – A great video conferencing tool, works great, better than Skype in most respects. It’s simple to use and great on the Touch because I can go walking around the house with it and show family and friends what is going on here. Free to download and free to use.

Flickr – Access your Flickr account to share and view pictures

FlightRadar24 – I’ve used this for tracking incoming flights, I lurk in a nearby McDonalds and then get to the airport just on time… saves on airport parking fees

Flipboard – This is a great app, I’ve found myself using this one more and more, it presents various feeds (Twitter, Facebook, News etc) in a magazine type format.

Find My Friends – a free app from Apple for tracking where your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch carrying friends are.

Find iPhone – Similar idea but more use as a security measure should you lose your iPhone

Fon Maps – This application is supposed to indicate the location of FON WiFi hotspots, but it doesn’t appear to work – Failure

Foursquare – A bit of fun check in at places and see who is there or if any of your friends have been there before you.

Google+ – The mobile app for Google+ although it is a little limited what it can do.

Google Mobile App – Free from Google it features all the usual Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Search engine, Buzz etc.

Heart Pal – I use this free app to track my blood pressure, it shows the highs and lows and an average figure too. I have a BP monitor that I take the readings with and then feed these in to the app.

HP48GX – A great simulation of an expensive HP Scientific Calculator. I have downloaded the manual for the real calculator and it works just the same!

iBooks – Apples own Kindle app.

iSpy Analytics – I use this for checking my Google Analytics stats which tracks visitor on lots of different blogs I write on and maintain including this one ;-)

Kindle – lets you read your Kindle downloads on your iPod touch useful if you don’t have a Kindle… yet! I haven’t really used this one much yet, but text is very clear on the iPod, although naturally the screen is some what smaller than a Kindle.

Light Meter – I have a film camera without a light meter, this is is great for doing a light measurement, daft I know! But the app is free and the light meter I used to use no longer works.

Meteo France – Weather forecasts and warnings here in France

Met Office Weather – UK weather forecasts

Moleskine – One I’ve not really had a use for… but it does include the catalogue within the app.

Multiconvert – There are dozens of conversion apps in the app store, this one is free and does most things and the interface is quite pleasing and easy to use.

Photosynth – Microsoft have come up with an excellent photo app… Microsoft and excellent in the same sentence!!! This allows you to put together great panorama pictures that you can scroll around, it will even do full 360 degree pictures too.

Rail Europe – For train time tables and fares in Europe but for some reason the prices are all displayed in US$ not Euros

Remote – This app lets me control iTunes on my iMac from anywhere in the house. More importantly it also lets me control my Apple TV with more options than the standard remote control.

Road Trip – I use this to record how much fuel we are using in the car and for our oil fired boiler!! Lots of apps available, after a lot of false starts I discovered the free Lite version of this which can cope with my requirements of entering things in litres, paying in Euros and still getting a Miles Per Gallon figure. Having satisfied myself that this app could handle my slightly unusual requirements I bought the paid version which can handle more vehicles including the boiler!! Which is just a bonus really.

Skype – Like the desktop app it lets you have voice calls and now video calls with other Skype users on PC’s, Macs, Linux platforms.

SNCF Direct – French train time tables

Soundtracking – a great app for sharing your music tastes on Twitter and Facebook, easy to use. Can also identify music you are listening to on the radio or TV etc.

Speedtest – a simple tester for your broadband speed, both upload and download speeds. Useful for comparing over time or when out and about via Wifi

Starbucks – Starbucks now offer free Wifi in their coffee shops, this is useful if you are planning a day out and you need Wifi access

The Radio – a great free app for streaming UK radio stations to your iPod

The Trainline – UK rail time tables great for trip planning

Tomorrow – a simple To-Do list, although I’ve not really been using it recently preferring my Filofax

Traffic – Live traffic information in France, but it also covers UK and other European countries

Tumblr – I’ve only just started my Tumblr blog, but the app on the Touch makes it very easy to add posts on the move and adding pictures and quotes etc.

TV Guide – A free UK TV programme guide, a miniature Radio Times if you like.. and it’s free

Twitter – Just the standard Twitter app, it works for me. I’m currently still using the older version not the current version because of changes they have made in the new version that I wasn’t happy about. I will wait to see what updates they add in the coming weeks before swapping to a newer version. One thing that even the new version doesn’t include is management of new follower requests.

Week Cal – The standard calendar in iOS only has Day view or Month View, or a list view. Why they missed out the most obvious view… Week View I don’t know. This one is a paid for app, but it seems to do the job ok, although I still use my Filofax for everything calendar related!!! With IOS5 you now get a week view when you turn your device in to landscape mode. But Week Cal does have more detail in it. But I’m still using my Filofax more than this sort of app. I also only now use iCal and iCloud to sync things.

Wifi Finder – I’m still trying this one out, it seems to display plenty of free WiFi access points around here, I need to check these out.

Wikipedia – a great free app for looking up the answers to quiz questions, or the details of an actor whilst you are watching TV!

WordPress – Useful for updating WordPress Blogs like this one, you can edit posts and create new ones.

XE Currency – Exchange rates, updates every 10 mins or faster if you wish.

Don’t hesitate to ask me for more information if you need it on any of the apps listed.

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My Glorified E-reader and toy–the HP Touchpad – Guest Post by Sandra

By Steve, on November 11th, 2011

I’m very pleased to welcome Sandra a ‘Philofaxy friend’ of mine from the USA to write this guest post as part of the Philofaxy All Stars Tour. Sandra also writes her own blog – Filofanatic

So in August I was browsing the Internet and stumbled on an announcement about Hewlett Packard selling off their inventory of Touchpads. These tablets mimic an iPad but with less coolness and a smaller number of applications are available. Well, I am so not cool and simply wanted something to serve as an e-reader. I was contemplating a laptop or a Kindle, but the price point of these ($99 for 16GB storage, $149 for 32GB) made me think: Must. Buy. Now.

I hurriedly bought two of them (my DH is so lucky) and told a few friends to jump in on this opportunity as well. Thus far the Touchpad has been a terrific alternative to checking my email on my Blackberry or surfing the Internet on my poor, old Dell desktop. The Touchpad has a small number of apps available in comparison to the iPad, but it serves my needs well. I use the Kindle app to download books, the Facebook app to avoid the real work I have to do, the AuctionMate app to scope out Filofax deals, and the Accuweather app to see just how flippin’ cold it will be here today. I use the NPR, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post Reader to catch up on things. And, there is Feed Reader, too! Yippee!

Another neat-o feature is this: all of my personal email addresses are consolidated into one place. Love it! And logging in and catching up on electronic reading is even more pleasant because I can tote the Touchpad anywhere around the home (or where WiFi is available).I can open Google Calendar easily (use it for meal planning and tracking daily routines) as well and coordinate all that is my crazy life.  My dear husband is trying out Google Calendar, and when I update and add information and such to my tablet and it shoots reminders and updates to his smartphone. This is brilliant. And it beats me dictating reminders to him for to jot down in his notebook. Nice!

 

The TouchPad looks like an iPad so I’ve been told. I haven’t seen one up close and personal, so take their word for it. The front-facing camera isn’t worth using, truly, but I can use the messaging option to have face-to-convos with others that have a webcam. And while I have used Skype with the Touchpad to join Philofaxy chats, a microphone is needed for clarity and better sound quality.  In addition to reading like a crazed teacher, the tablet is also nice for listening to Pandora Internet radio anywhere throughout the home and for playing Angry Birds (!). There are some other apps I like also, and the kids love to play games on it the rare moments I let them play with it.  This tablet is not a work tool at all—but it is a fun toy with more capabilities than I have described. Score one for me!

Thanks for reading! And thank you Sandra, I’ve yet to jump in to the Tablet arena, but I have to admit I am tempted!

One comment - (Comments are closed)   Gadget, Guest

Senna

By Steve, on November 8th, 2011

I’ve never written about a film before or my former interest in Formula 1 motorsport. So I’m breaking the silence with this post I suppose.

I sat and watched Senna the film last night, it focused on his time in Formula 1 or should I say his short time in F1 when he was tragically killed on 1 May 1994. That day is etched in my memory more so than any other race I suppose.

I thought the film was very good, and it’s a must watch for any F1 fan, past and present. It sets the scene as to how F1 got to where it is today in a lot of ways: safety, politics, money and the sport in general.

It is quite clear from the film that Senna shouldn’t have been in the car that day, although he was on pole, he was in a car that was that had very unstable handling. This was the first season without all the electronic aids that the previous years car had had (traction control, suspension, gearbox, differential etc) The Williams FW16 looked quite a handful to drive, even with the skill of Senna behind the wheel. The previous day their had been the death of Roland Ratzenberger in qualifying, his death was the first in F1 for over 12 years. This had quite an impact on his mental state.

When you look at film, there are a few things that were obvious that were not right, the safety car which had only been introduced the previous year was just an Opel Ascona/Vauxhall Cavalier which was far too slow to be leading a pack of F1 cars.  An accident occurred at the start of the race and the safety car came our straight away for five laps and his crash occurred on lap 7.

A lot of theories have been given as to the causes of the crash and I suspect we will never know the true cause although a lot of plausible reasons have been given.



I no longer devote any time to watching or following F1, I got tired of them constantly changing the rules and the designers bending the rules but not having any points deducted from their totals. I don’t believe it’s possible to compare the performance of one driver against another in quite the same way as they used to be. The drivers speak in ‘sound-bites’, with so much money involved everything is so scripted. The restrictions on technology development in my opinion no longer make it the pinnacle of motor-sport. Senna and Prost didn’t need ‘drag reduction systems, and KERS to pass each other.

See the film and you might see what we are missing in F1 today.

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