A good personal assistant should be able to get your the information you need, make reservations and generally learn who you are and what you like.  Siri is the first voice powered mobile app that I have seen that promises this in spades.   Using conduits to various open data bases and online applications, Siri allows you to free up time you would normally spend searching 3-4 websites and cobbling together a nights plans into one fast interface.  Its ability to process data in a conversational model will let you change and adapt plans as needed without re-requesting information you have already entered.

Check out their video after the break…

Currently Siri is only available to iPhone 3GS owners but plans are in the works for iPod Touch, Blackberry and other mobile platforms  yet to be mentioned.

Siri Inc’s goal is simple, according to the official site:

“You’re busy. Between meetings, social events, and hopefully a workout or two, your schedule’s packed. Don’t you wish you could hand off simple tasks so you could have more time to play? That’s why we built Siri. Because we believe everyone could use an assistant. Because we believe there’s a simpler way to get things done. Just like a real assistant, Siri understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to your preferences over time.”

Here is their promotional video to give a feel of how the app works:

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via Siri]

The app starts quite fast even on a 3G and takes you straight to a previously planned journey if you have one. A quick tap of the screen and you’re into the intuitive and very familiar interface that gets you to the things you need quickly. A map of the route, as well as instructions, are only a tap away meaning you can easily review your route before you set off, which is ever more important if you happen to be burning it around a large metropolitan area. After all, having your route planned and guided by the navigation software is all very well, but as a frequent city driver, I like to have an idea of roughly where I’m going even if I don’t know the specifics.

Another thing I like about the TomTom software is that you can easily have a scan around a map, search for POIs or addresses and find the destination you’re after even if you don’t know the precise location. You could say, that since the iPhone is equipped with excellent mapping software built-in with Google maps, you might not need that feature in your navigation software. I feel however, that having it built into your turn-by-turn software means you don’t need to leave the app just because you don’t have the specifics and considering the decided lack of multitasking on a non-jailbroken iphone, it’s even more important. It also has the very handy effect of allowing you to have a complete and pretty comprehensive map on hand should you go out of signal area or happen to be in another country, helping you avoid those nasty roaming charges.

One feature I liked about TomTom software on other devices, that I’m pleased to say made the jump to the iPhone, is the ability to plan what they call ‘advanced routes’. It gives you the ability to look over and plan your journey ahead of time by specifying start and end points, as well as intermediate stop overs, which is something I found Navigon for instance annoyingly lacks. A full UK postcode database is also included allowing you to the look up the exact address just using the full postcode, something other apps can’t manage which in my opinion is a cardinal sin. Mind you, the impact of that feature is squarely based on whether you happen to live in a country with a complete postcode or zip code like the UK. The latest navigation software innovation intelligent IQ ‘locals knowledge’ routes are also included to help you get the fastest or best route for the time of day you happen to be travelling. If you happen to be travelling in a heavy traffic area, and let’s be honest  where isn’t congested these days, the IQ routes can make a real difference between getting stuck in traffic and avoiding the brunt of it. Routes are also planned pretty fast with a 76 mile route planned with roughly the same speed as a dedicated PND.

If you’ve ever used a TomTom device before you’ll be familiar with the voice talent that’s included in the app from the likes of Jane and Tim with British accents, Richard and 3 girls for the Americans amongst us, Australians have good old Ken, and even the Irish and New Zealanders aren’t left in the cold. Of course non-English localised voices are also included for many, many languages, too many to list here, so rest assured you’re most likely to find something useful in there whatever languages you happen to speak.

So what do I think so far? Well this is the closest and best I’ve got to a dedicated, easy to use PND in an iPhone navigation app. I’ve not had much time to road test it so far, but rest assured it’ll get a good work out on the road in the next could of weeks. Having found in the past that the iPhone 3G’s GPS is a bit weak when used in modern cars with UV shield coatings on their windscreens, I’m looking forward to testing out the Car Kit with included GPS booster. I can really see the TomTom car kit being the tipping point between an ok navigation experience in-car and an excellent, dedicated PND class one. So till the car kit arrives, you’ll have to do with the screenies below, but make sure you check back soon for a full review.

 

]]> http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/08/flash-review-tomtom-for-iphone/feed/ 0 http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/08/tomtom-iphone-app-has-hit-the-app-store/ http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/08/tomtom-iphone-app-has-hit-the-app-store/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:59:51 +0000 Sam http://pixelatedgeek.com/?p=11730 This is the moment that iPhone owning GPS aficionados have been waiting for. TomTom for iPhone is finally available in all it’s glory on the App Store. Since being unveiled at WWDC, anticipation for the app has been high. Other GPS based apps have of course been released in the meantime with the notable Navigon and of course the carrier linked subscription services. Having tried various GPS navigation apps on the iPhone 3G, I have yet been convinced that the experience and operation is as good as or close to a dedicated PND. Hopefully TomTom can prove that the iPhone can be just as good a driving aid as a dedicated device.

TomTom has released four variants of the App with prices ranging from $79.99 (£44.99) for Australia to $139.99 (£79.99) for Western Europe. TomTom US & Canada comes in just under $100 which is currently undercut until the end of August by Navigon North America which is currently $70. Those in the UK also get a special edition TomTom UK & Ireland which is available for £59.99, which is again undercut by Navigon British Isles at £52.99, if you don’t need the rest of Europe. Whether TomTom will corner the iPhone GPS market is anyone’s guess and whether the iPhone will become a real competitor to a dedicated PND is also unknown. Check back soon and we’ll have a review up of TomTom to hopefully answer some of those questions.

So people who are sitting on the fence, another reason to jailbreak and pretty much due to the networks and not Apple. Thanks AT&T, you let us have it if you’re on a blackberry, Android handset or pretty much any other smartphone but you just hate your iPhone users enough to stop them.

 

Now that the whole push thing is in full swing I’m pleased to say that IM apps on the iPhone are actually useful. IM+ to be fair, allowed you to stay connected at their end and be notified of incoming IM via email. This worked ok, not an ideal solution but the best of a bad lot. Push notification has replaced the need for email notification and is significantly better, but importantly not perfect.

For the basic needs of sending and recieving IMs, IM+ does an admirable job. Messages are sent and recieved instantly and with a pretty clear and intuitive interface. Push notification also works very well. Messages come across as near as instant as one can tell. I must admit, it does get a little annoying when you get a barrage of notifications just because, when people talk on IM, they write lots of small messages and send them immediately rather than longer messages all combined together. When the messages come in you see a preview of the message which might tell you all you need and so you can ignore it. If not you can tap the message to take you straight into the program. Once in the program, IM+ reconnects to all the various IM accounts you’ve got activated and pulls down any outstanding messages allowing you to answer straight away. From the point of view of the person messaging you, you appear to them as if you’re online at a computer. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you appear online even when you’re not allowing anyone to send you a message at any time (unless you’ve let the ‘always online timer’ time out which can be configured between 10 minutes and 3 days). You can also set up an autoreply function if, for example, you want to tell people that you’ll get back to them in a minute. You can of course set different status for your accounts, be it online, online on your iPhone, away, a geolocation or anything else you can think of. Most of the major IM protocols are supported including AIM, Gtalk, MSN and Skype, along with Facebook chat and Twitter so pretty much anyone you know with an IM account can be contacted directly from IM+.

IM+ not only sends IMs but allows sending of pictures and voice messages too and includes loads of customisation, from smilies to the background of the chat window, but the main issue here is something IM+ or any other app on the iPhone available from the App Store cannot overcome. Not having multitasking for anything other than a small selection of Apple only apps means that unless you’re in the app at the time you get a message it’s a relatively slow process to get back into the app, reconnect and start the IM conversation. Push notification can only go so far to elevating the irritation of not being able to run apps in the background. Now don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why Apple doesn’t want apps running in the background, but in this case IM really deserves an app that can and does stay connected all the time you’ve got your iPhone on. That’s not to say that IM+ is rubbish, far from it in fact. Of the available options that Apple has given developers, IM+ is just about as good as an IM app can get on the iPhone. The problem is that exiting an app and going into IM+ takes the iPhone time. It may be considerably faster on the iPhone 3GS, unfortunately I’m not in a position to tell you thanks to the wallet gouging early upgrade fees of O2, but on the iPhone 3G exiting and opening an app is relatively time consuming. It’s not like we’re talking minutes here, it’s probably not even 10 seconds to exit, open IM+ and reconnect, but if you’re having to do that often it can get tedious.

So do I recommend IM+? Yes definitely, IM on the iPhone is finally useful. Is it worth the £5.99 they’re asking for it? That depends on whether you’ve got more than an AIM account and whether you need IM on your iPhone. My advice is to the try out two applications first to see whether IM+ works for you, try IM+ lite. It’ll let you test the app, minus the push notifications. The other app to try is AIM (the ad-supported version) which lets you try push notifications for size. If you don’t have an AIM account, sign up for a screen name and try out the notifications, because they’re not going to be for everyone. If like me you like having the capability to IM to mulitple accounts from your iPhone and don’t want to have to stay in the app to get replies (or don’t want to have to rely on email notifications), the IM+ is an excellent iPhone IM client and will be staying on the home screen of my device.

IM+ is available on the App Store for $9.99 (£5.99). A lite version is also available without push notification and ad-supported.

]]> http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/07/iphone-app-review-im/feed/ 0 http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/06/glamour-models-land-on-the-iphone-courtesy-of-hottest-girls/ http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/06/glamour-models-land-on-the-iphone-courtesy-of-hottest-girls/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:22:20 +0000 Sam http://pixelatedgeek.com/?p=9604 Since Apple integrated age ratings for apps the door has been flung open to adult content on the iPhone. Whether Apple would actually allow an iPorn app is not known but Hottest Girls makes it’s shot at the FHM/Loaded/Maxim pin ups.

Bringing new meaning to the iTouch

Hottest Girls comes armed with some 2200 odd pics of ‘topless, sexy babes and nude models’ (the first app to include nudity according to the developer). The app includes a rating system to let the developers know what kind of female flesh takes you fancy for refreshing the library of pics and lets you save the pics to your camera roll to do what you will with them. So for less than a cup of coffee you can get what you really buy FHM for, not the cars, gadgets or the interviews, the women of course, in the palm of your hand.

The 17+ rated Hottest Girls is available in the App Store for $1.99 (£1.19).

[Via Macenstein]

UPDATE:

The app has been pulled from the App Store and according to the developers site it’s because they wholly under estimated the popularity of the app and their servers just can’t take it. Allen The Geek is insisting that the app will be back soon and that the grounds for removal from sale aren’t because of the adult content. Whether the app returns to the App Store with the content intact remains to be seen. Will Apple smite the slightly risqué app from it’s Store blocking it’s return? It will be interesting to find out whether Apple really has let any kind of content lose with the App Store age restrictions.

UPDATE 2:

Looks like Apple did indeed pull the app from the App Store. No porn for you young Timmy!

Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content. The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.

Looks like it’s back to web apps for the porn industry, sorry you aint getting on Apple’s pride and joy.

Hit the read link for a thorough review of what could be the best Twitter app for the iPhone.

As a long time user of Twitterfon, I was always a little dissatisfied with the ad-supported nature of the app. Don’t get me wrong, ad-supported versions are a great idea and are likely to earn the app developers more money than a paid app if their app is popular and used a lot. For me however if an app makes it into my most used section of my iPhone, something that’s used multiple times a day, I’d rather pay for the app and remove the need for adverts.

Twitterfon Pro provides a simple, very iPhone like user interface, which resembles the iTunes and iPod apps with a row of icons at the bottom of the screen for switching display modes. As you’d expect you Friends, Mentions (Replies to those original Twitter users), Direct Messages, Favourites and Search. Friends provides you with your personalised friends stream in an easily readable fashion. Taping on links takes you to an in-app browser that allows you to export the link to Safari, taping on the tweet takes you a screen with the ability to reply, send a DM or retweet the message as well as access to the users timeline. Taping on the user from there takes you to an overview of the users profile showing followers, following, updates, favourites and allowing you to follow, unfollow or if you have a personal hatred, block them. If you simply want to reply to the tweet you can tap the tweeters avatar and it opens up the tweet writing dialogue with the usual reply features.

Mentions just displays your @messages in which people have tweeted your user name, from here all the options that exist in the Friends time line are available which carries over the Messages screen displaying only DMs. The Favourites pane acts as expected displaying any tweets you’ve marked as favourite, a feature I can’t say I’ve ever used on Twitter, but it’s there if you need it.

The final pane on the right is a Search screen. From here you can search for all manner of things on twitter. Using your current location you can search for tweets made around a set radius 1-500Km or search for a keyword. If you regularly search for something you’ll be pleased to know there’s a history of searches built into the app to speed up previously used searches. Should you be interested in tracking trending topics the most popularly tweeted topics are available at the touch of the top right hand overlapping speech bubble button, which then allows you to instantly see all the latest tweets associated with that keyword.

Finally, if you’re a tweeter as much as a follower you’ll be pleased to know that the tweet dialogue box is well thought out and has all the features you’d expect from a twitter client. Simply type your 140 characters, tag the tweet with a location, tweet a picture from your library or take one with or without text and handily an address book type function for @replies. Another nice feature is that if you’re interrupted mid-tweet by some one calling, texting or emailing you can leave the app and the tweet is automatically saved for more tweeting later. Should you decide you don’t want to send the tweet on the next load simply hit the trash button to bin the tweet and start again. Applications on phones should all have save state feature because you never know when you’re going to be rudely interrupted, something that some software developers seem to neglect. Twitterfon also includes the ability to tweet a link directly from mobile Safari using a javascript bookmark using Bit.ly as a url compressor. You can even take advantage of the Bit.ly tracking features using you login for Bit.ly right in Twitterfon Pro itself.

The main standout features for Twitterfon Pro over the ad-supported Twitterfon include the ability to manage more than one Twitter account right from the app, something that would be handy for anyone with personal and company accounts. Themes are also included which change the colour scheme of the application between silver, plain, blue and black. The top title bar however cycles colours depending which pane you have open with Friends being the default theme colour and cycling through dark green, a browny red, plum and back to default for the search pane. Adding to the login system for Bit.ly in the Twitterfon Pro app, Instapaper integration is also supported for those that use the note and clipping service. Shake to reload, something that the Facebook iPhone app has used for a while now, is also available in the Pro version. The landscape keyboard is also available in the Pro app, something that for 140 characters I don’t see as much of a benefit, but then again I’m one of those people who actually likes the iPhone keyboard especially in the protrait orientation.

Overall Twitterfon is an excellent, simple, fast and iPhone like Twitter client that everyone should try. If you’re not always on wifi when you load up your tweets, Twitterfon loads up new tweets in my testing faster than most of the other popular clients on the iPhone. If you’re not enamoured with the adverts brandished across the top of the app or you want to make use of more than one Twitter account then Twitterfon Pro makes a fine addition to your iPhone with the added bonus of themes if you fancy a change.

The free ad-supported Twitterfon and Twitterfon Pro, $4.99 (£2.99), are available right now in the App Store . See below for a load of screenshot illustrating the different panes and colour themes.

 

As yet I’m unsure of how compatible most apps are on 3.0. All the applications I’ve had the pleasure to play with on 3.o from the 2.0 era run fine without any obvious incompatibilities. Here’s hoping those developers that aren’t engaged in updating their app for 3.0 features don’t have to do much to see their app through. Mind you it might be a good time to cull some of those farting apps.

Ninja me this, is my iPhone more deadly with this update?

I like my tech companies to have a sense of humour. It makes me feel like they might actually be human and if you ever met them they might not be completely up themselves. So it was with suprise but delight that I went to update apps on my iPhone this morning and found that an update to the Google Mobile app included not only British English accent support (wohoo!) but also added Ninja. I have yet to find out what Ninjas are doing in my iPhone but it’s funny none the less. I hope the person who put that in doesn’t get fired cos it made me chuckle and what more can you ask for from an app update than stealthy assassins?

If anyone finds out what the Ninjas are doing let us know in the comments.

Update: Thanks to Cory for pointing out in comments that the Ninja infiltration of the Google Mobile app includes pictures!