BIG news today from Amazon – after what has seemed like eons, they finally released Amazon Cloud Player for the Apple iPhone. Having used Apple iTunes along with Amazon – because they often charge less for downloads and they work across any device, I was always looking for a convenient way to access my Amazon downloads without having to re-sync my device. Amazon seems to have been listening with Amazon Cloud Player.
Here’s a quick rundown on their new app.
What I like about this app:
One of the biggest challenges with using Facebook on your mobile phone is that the current functionality does not lend itself to being very useful. If you’re just going to use it to share photos and to update your friends on what you’re currently doing, it works great; however, when you add in the ability to manage Facebook Pages, things get complicated.
For anyone who has a Facebook Page, you know how important it is to be able to respond to fans and also to be able to track how well your page is doing, if it is being seen, and if fans are engaging with your content. Luckily, Facebook seems to be listening and announced Facebook Page Manager last week, which serves as a separate app for managing your Facebook Pages from your iOS device.
What I like about this app:
As we spend more time on Facebook, connecting with friends and liking lots of Facebook Pages, it becomes a little cumbersome to manage all of the updates that come through our Facebook Newsfeed like photos, videos, status updates, deals and links on a daily basis.
When you add in going mobile and trying to check your Facebook Pages when you’re on the go, you’ll quickly notice that unless you’ve spent a lot of time organizing your friends and pages into interest lists, you’ll spend more time scrolling and less time actually consuming updates from your friends and the pages that you have liked.
Fortunately, there’s an app for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users that makes it very easy to separate out your Facebook Pages called alerts for Facebook.
What I like about this app:
While the Apple iOS eco-system is rock solid, sometimes we just want to personalize it some. Unfortunately, the only customization we have are the ability to change the wallpapers and lock screen among a few others.
For anyone who is a regular sender of text messages, the standard blue and green text messages make it difficult to share your enthusiasm with the person you are texting. For example, say you want to send someone a birthday cake in your text message – you couldn’t. You’re relegated to just typing happy birthday. How fun, right? Fortunately, there’s now an app for that called Color Text Messages+ for iOS.
What I like about this app:
Today, Face.com launched version 1.0 of their new facial recognition app. for the Apple iPhone. After spending just a few minutes with this new app, I can tell you I came away extremely impressed. So what does it do?
The KLIK facial recognition app let’s you take photos using your iPhone’s camera, but with a catch. Not only does it let you take photos, but it also has the ability to identify friends’ faces from their Facebook photos and to tag them. In addition, the KLIK facial recognition app also pays homage to Instagram by letting you add “face filter” photo filters – try saying that one three times!
What I like about this app:
Continue reading App of the day: KLIK facial recognition
For those of you who have followed the Apple iPhone and iPad since they first launched, although the products have gotten better (and insanely more popular), one thing that has remained is their lack of Adobe Flash support. What this means is that you can’t visit websites that are build entirely in flash (see here), play many of your favorite Facebook games, such as Farmville, or watch Hulu. Fortunately, there are a few alternatives, such as iSwifter (read my review); however that app only works for the iPad and it only works if you’re using a wireless network. For those of you who want the best app, I recommend Photon Flash Player (download). Not only does it give you all of the functionality for your iOS device, but it’s also very inexpensive, considering it’s the best flash player app on the market.
Today’s app of the day doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s from a company we know very very well – Google. They have come up with an app for both Android and iOS users called Google Goggles, that let’s you use your voice to search the web! Now I know what you’re thinking, that’s it? Nope.
Google Goggles, in addition to offering voice search, this app also let’s you take a photo of something and it will search the web for that item – I know, it’s mind-blowing how it works!
For those of you who need to see this in action, I’ve included a short video below along with my thoughts on this app below.
As our lives only get more busy, eventually, we reach a point where it becomes a matter of cutting corners just so that we can save a few precious seconds. With that in mind, I wanted to share one of my favorite email apps for those of you who spend a good deal of time glued to their Apple iPhone or iPad. It’s called Mailshot Pro.
For those of you who have tried Siri, Apple’s breakthrough voice recognition software, it’s pretty amazing. It’s great for composing text messages, making calls, and sending emails. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you interact too much with the apps on your Apple iPhone 4S.
In addition to saving you time by letting you compose tweets using voice recognition, Siri gives you the ability to compose an email; however, you cannot open other apps, such as Twitter and send a tweet.
That’s where this helpful tip comes in. Not only can you use Siri for composing an email, opening websites and setting reminders, but you can save yourself some time by composing tweets too — when you’re on the way to meet up with friends, walking from the building to the car, even when you’re driving (let’s hope you use a hands-free bluetooth headset).
Here’s how to teach Siri to tweet for you from your Apple iPhone 4S – in just 5 steps.
On your computer, visit Twitter and enable text messaging. To do this, login to Twitter > Click Settings (top right corner), and then mobile. For those of you have unlimited texting with your mobile provider, this feature works great for you. If you are limited with your text messages, this might not be the best option.
Once in the mobile settings section, enter your iPhone 4S mobile phone number with area code in the field labeled "Phone number." Click 'activate phone.'
Once you've setup Twitter to allow for mobile updates, the next thing you need to do is verify your phone. To do this, send a text message to 40404 (if you're in the United States) with the word "GO"
On your iPhone 4S, create a new contact. In the 'first name' field, enter "Twitter." Add a phone number - put in 40404 (United States). If you are in a different location, here's a list of Twitter shortcodes to choose from.
To use Siri, either hold the home button or put the phone up to your ear. When you hear a beep, say "text Twitter." Tell Siri what to tweet and then send it. Should you need to edit your message beforehand, you can do so as well before you send it.
Continue reading How to teach Siri to tweet for you on your iPhone 4S
In this day and age, as more and more people are venturing out on their own to start their business, competition has gotten fierce. That’s why it is important to learn to set yourself apart from others. I’m not talking about having the best products – we all think we have the best products. I’m talking about adding a little polish to your current efforts. This could be something simple like changing your photo from that vacation picture to a more professional photo on your Facebook Page, building a website, or even throwing out that old sweatshirt you’ve kept since high school.
So why should you consider adding a little polish to what you’re doing now? Because when you put the extra effort in, people typically take notice. And the more they notice, the more they want to share what it is that you do with others, that’s because they think you do a good job.
One place to start is for those of you with a website. Have you ever seen those glassy looking icons on an Apple iPad 2 or iPhone? They look great, don’t they? As luck would have it, anyone with a website can create a custom icon for their website. This way, anytime someone saves your website to their Apple iPad 2, iPhone or iPod Touch, they will end up with one of these professional-looking icons.
To create your very own custom icon, here’s all you need to do: Continue reading How to create a webclip icon for your iOS device
