While looking through pandora box for some new apps to try out I spotted the first Bluetooth app since the OS 3.0 release following is a screen cap from pandora box as I only have a first gen iPod Touch with no Bluetooth which I am authoring this from now.
This one of a kind Mac Mod utilizes all of the default electronics from a LEGO Mindstorms NXT set. Crammed into the iconic Apple Power Mac G4 Cube’s famous “8-inch” (acrylic) cube are a LEGO NXT programmable brick, 3 interactive servo motors and all 4 sensors: touch, sound, light, and ultrasonic.
This little quick tip will have you pulling images off of your iPhone and iPod touch so fast it’ll catch fire! This tip is for OS X only. I am going to show you the easiest way to download images off of your iPhone and iPod Touch without having the hassle of syncing.
Apple is getting ready to start the iPhone 3.0 OS Event in about 20 minutes. I thought I would share my predictions and what I think we might see at the event.
• Copy and Paste : I think we’ll see copy and paste this time around. Everyone who owns an iPhone has been down that beaten path of having no way to copy snippets of text and pasting them in another application. I think Apple will finally make it happen.
• Live search : I think we might see some type of Spotlight integration. This would allow us to search all around the iPhone OS for contacts and the like. This would give Apple some definite fire power over the Palm Pre search functions.
• Push Notification : Mobile Me is running quite a bit better now. I think Apple will at least mention push notification. They haven’t mentioned it in quite some time. I think now is the time to announce the push notification fixes
What I’d like to see.
• Multi Tasking : I don’t see it happening right now. I would like to see the ability to run multiple applications. Just think, you could double tap the home button and it would bring up a menu that allows you to scroll through the open applications and select them, close them, etc. This would be nice for when you’re e-mailing and you need to jump back to the browser, or maybe if you’re sending IM’s and you need to refer to documentation without closing your chat session.
• Artist Artwork in iTunes / iPod : There is one thing that bugs me about the iPhone. The iPod management. I dislike how the content is arranged. I would like the ability to set album artwork to artists, much like in iTunes 8. I would like the ability to set album artwork per artist and have that said artwork displayed in the artist view. If you go to the albums view in the iPhone now, you’ll see what I mean. I think this would help the overall appearance whilst browsing for media. I would also like to see other view options available in iTunes. I want to be able to use the browse pane. Why can we not have that on the iPhone?
• MMS : There is allot of hubub going on about MMS. I don’t think Apple is going to roll the announcement out quite yet. I think it’d be nice, but I’m not sure if they will right now. I think they should though.
• Off line Mapping : I would love the ability to view my maps and directions off line. I think this one leans more toward the iPod Touch. I would like to be able to store different maps, not just directions, but I’d like the ability to view maps in offline mode. Right now you can only save maps that are in temporary memory. I would like the ability to download said maps and directions for offline viewing. The data isn’t too big to store offline, so I don’t see what the problem would be. I know this won’t happen, ever. I can dream though, right?
• Turn By Turn Navigation : The iPhone has GPS, Maps, and internet. Why can’t we have turn by turn? There are 3rd party developers creating turn by turn. I think we should be able to get this at a low cost. Who knows. I love the form factor of the iPhone, GPS works great. I’ve had my butt by the Maps application, turn by turn would really cut the cake for me.
• Better app management : As we install more and more applications the screen gets cluttered, we need a way to better organize our applications.
• iTunes app store queue : I don’t know how many times I will be searching for an application or two and I find several that I would like to download. I would love the ability to put downloads into a queue and download them all at once. JailBroken iPhones can do it, so why can’t we have a download queue natively?
I think that’s all for right now. I am off to read the liveblogs.
Apple just released iTunes 8.1 update via “Software Update”. There was speculation today about when the update would come. The Apple website and the recently updated iPhone app, “remote”, stated to have compatibility with iTunes 8.1. The day is coming to an end and Apple was able to deliver the update tonight. Here is a list of whats to be had with the update.
iTunes 8.1 is now faster and more responsive. You will enjoy noticeable improvements when working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with iPod or iPhone, and optimizing photos for syncing.
In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:
• Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
• Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
• Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
• Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
• Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
• Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
• Includes many accessibility improvements.
• Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls.For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
The update weighs in at 65.4 MB. Does not require a restart.
In addition to iTunes 8.1 Apple released an update to Frontrow. Nothing major here, just compatibility updates.
13.3MB Does not require restart.
The latest version if MobileLinked IM for the iPhone was released in the App Store today. VirtueSoft added some new features to the latest release of the application. Here is a look at the new features of the application since the update.
New Features
- Google Talk support. You can now use your google talk and gmail account to chat with your contacts in Google Talk.
- Added Jabber support. The Jabber network is now supported.
- Added new message alerts.
- Added new message appearance settings.
- Added auto saving of chat-logs.
This all ads on top of what is currently offered in this application. (taken from their site)
Supported services:
- MSN (Windows Live Messenger)
- Yahoo IM
- Gtalk
- Jabber
Services to be supported soon:
- AIM
- ICQ
- QQ (OICQ)
Features:
- Multi accounts support
- Chat with friends (multi conversations)
- Changing status (online, away, busy, hidden)
- Persisting Conversations history
- Multi languages support
I really enjoy the new interface tweaks and the ability to style your messages. I will be thrilled when they add AIM support. Some features I would like to see would have to be horizontal typing and possibly the ability to add custom colors to the message styles via color picker, there are some decent colors to choose from. I’d rather have the ability to choose custom colors via the color picker.
I would also like to be able to hear he message sounds when you’re in the active IM window. The sounds only emit when you receive a message from someone in the background. Other than that, this application is very simple, fast, and it works well.
Images after the break.