Cool Usb Toys

I am using my iPhone now for 2.5 years and at this point in time I am still using my iPhone 3G.

Besides using it as a phone I use it to keep track of my life. Address book, Calendar, SMS are some of the most used things on my phone (even more then making phone calls)

But by using your phone as your personal assistant your run in to it’s limitations.

For instance how do you do your todo list. OK there are tons off apps for that but making it work between my mac, iPad and iPhone is not that easy or not that cheap.

Eventually I ended up using task manager in gmail witch you can make talk to lots off apps.

When I started the idea of this post I was pretty unhappy with the default calendar Apple gives me.

I hated it that I could not change the calendar(group) after I finished my post. And I was pretty unhappy that if on a day I only had an appointment at night i would not see it till I scrolled down.
For me those two things really bugged me and that made me decide to figure out what options I had.

The funny thing that in the time between then and now Apple magically seemed to have fixed those things for me and I don’t have a clue when and as far as I know it didn’t happen in an operating system upgrade.

Before I start talking about the Calendars I will tell you that these opinions are based on MY experience and that could mean that you completely disagree. Also I will only talk about the iPhone version although the iPad editions are some nice piece of software but I did not use them enough to give an opinion.

Ok so lets start with

CalenGoo:

The first 3e party calendar I tried was CalenGoo witch made alot of sense to me because of the integration with Google Calendars witch I use for some of my Calendars that I share with others.

At first glance CalenGoo is a great calendar that offers some real nice features like the landscape week calendar and also the week calendar in portrait.

CalenGoo offers a great calendar that works like you want but it also has some flaws that made me stop using it.

first off all and for me the main reason the way it switches between portrait and landscape is slow really slow and it you activate it real easy. As far as I know you can’t lock it in one position but have said that CalenGoo offers a huge amount off settings in witch I completely go lost.

A small thing I also did not enjoy much was that when you enter a new appointment the title field jumps to an empty screen to fill out your title and then you jump back to your calendar. Nothing serious you think but at a curtain point it just annoyed me.

I really liked the big button to manually sync specially as I don’t have a data plan I was in control.

The task manager was good and easy to reach.

But the final verdict is that this app is slow and basically to slow on an iPhone 3G to have fun using it specially the switching between landscape and portrait takes way to long.

Check out the CalenGoo Website for more information.

Easy Calendar:

Easy Calendar is not the full feature calendar like the others in this review. The base is a week view calendar that shows you your complete week. No day or month or even list view are available. But have said that the simplicity makes it kind of easy to use.

Easy Calendar just shows you this week and you can select your appointments or add some. The strange thing is then that you get a limited input screen that has the basic options but nothing more. For instance if you want to put your appointment in a group then you have to press the more button witch then brings you to the Apple calendars input screen and yes this works but it feels strange.

Then there is the calendar overview witch does not offer you any colors or something like that to see the difference between calendar groups and that makes it a bit annoying to use.

But if you like a simple calendar that shows you your whole week then this is probably the best option for you. I really enjoyed it but my main reason to stop using it is was that it takes way to long to start on my phone it takes almost 15 seconds to get the app to the point i can use it and that does not work for me.

Easy Calendar also misses a task manager so if you want that it’s not build in.

Check out the Easy Calendar Website.

Calendars:

First let me tell you that Calendars has an amazing look iPad app witch loos great but I really did not end up using but it is included with the iPhone app so if you buy one you get both.

Calendars has the most use full view of all the apps tested although some colors from groups really don’t come out well (you may have to change them) the calendars are real easy to see.

The list view was my favourite . And this was the first calendar that puts your tasks in the calendar (if they have a due date) On the other hand the task manager is a real pain to get to I don’t know why but the button they made (right bottom) is almost impossible to press even if you change from landscape to portrait it stays the same. You have keep pressing and then if you are lucky eventually it will work. So for me the task manager that talks to Google was not used.

Calendars seemed to have spend a lot of time to get there interface working the way you like (besides the task manager button) and so doing editing or adding new events is easy.

One thing really annoyed me so much that I also stopped using this calendar and that is it makes duplicates of calendar entries and it does that randomly and that is something that really didn’t work for me.

Besides that Calendars is the calendar to keep an eye on. I will keep watching for updates to see if they solve the Task manager and the duplicates and then I would definitely give it a try again.

Check out the Calendars website for more information.

update:

After the review the makers of Calendars gave me the solution for the double enteries so that should be solved by doing:

The duplicating events are caused by the fact that Calendars displays events from the default calendar app on the iPad/iPhone. To remove duplicates of the events, you simply need to do couple steps:
1.    Go to Calendars “Settings” (bottom left icon),
2.    Tap “Local Calendar”,
3.    In case “Local Calendars” are set on, then turn off the “Google Calendars” not to duplicate events in Calendars applications.
If you still can see some events duplicating, turn off Local Calendars toggle too.

Conclusion:

So after all this I am back using the build in calendar app that Apple gave me and for tasks I use GoTasks and now I am happy as Apple change the things I hated. But have said that I have to say that when Calendars get it’s problems fixed I would definitely try them again. Also Easy Calendar stays on my list of apps that I keep checking and for now only CalenGoo is the one that moves from my phone.

IOS users will recognize the picture above because the picture looks a bit like your screen of your iPhone or iPad. But these are not just app icons these are magnets. You can now own this set of 18 app icons that can decorate your fridge or any other metal surface.

What better way to hold up notes then real app magnets.

Go have a better look at these App Magnets.

Apple Store Applications for the iPhone and iPod touch come in different price ranges, but the price does not always determine quality. For instance, the application I’m reviewing here is the best I’ve found in its class and it’s FREE.

ShopShop is, as the name goes, an application that helps you with your shopping. It is an electronic version of a shopping list.

Just add the items you need to the list, and ShopShop will remember the names in a database, so that next time you can select the same items from the database instead of typing their names again. ShopShop also lets you specify a number in front of each item, as in “12 eggs” or “5 apples”. Most times my list just reads “bread, fruits,…” and so on.

The nice thing about ShopShop is that you can cross off what you’ve already picked up. It places a red line through the item, so that you can still see it and uncross it. When you’re all done, you can touch the Clear button on the top left all the red-line items will disappear from your list.

ShopShop also offers the option of making multiple lists. I use it to make lists for different stores, which is very handy. You switch between lists by tapping to the left or to the right of the bottom row of dots (each dot represents one list). Unfortunately you can’t move pages like you can in most other iPhone/iPod touch applications.

Bottom line: ShopShop is a great piece of software for an unbelievable price (FREE!). In my opinion, it’s one of only a few applications that would be worth paying for. It simply does what you need without bombarding you with options. For me this application keeps my shopping lists nicely organized.

ShopShop is a must-have application, so get your copy today before they start charging for it!

I am the owner of an iPhone 3G and I really love it, but why build in a GPS if you don’t have any decent use of it? OK maybe if you have a dataplan you could maybe use googlemaps and see where you are but then still would that be quick enough to keep your map data coming?

Last week I acidently found OffMaps and let me tell you what it is and does and you will see that you want in on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

After you install OffMaps on you phone you see something that resembles googlemaps but then only the map so no satellite images. Now where ever you go on the worldmap the maps you see it stores and you can zoom all lot to make the map even more accurate. You can also select a piece of map and tell how much detail you want stored. This selection can unfortunately be not more then 50MB but you can load more of those maps (I didn’t find a limit) so you can take all the maps you think you need with you.

For instance I now have Calgary (where I live) Banff (where i like to go on the weekends) and New York  (just for fun) on my iPhone and this used 183MB and yes i like lots of detail. And if that scares you then let me tell you that you can of course delete parts or all the map data stored on your device so that you can take only what you really need.

The Map data is pretty accurate although maybe not as good as Googlemaps but OffMaps uses and opensource map from OpenStreetMap and that means that if you don’t like the current data then why don’t you help improve the map yourself.

With all the maps you need on your device now you can start traveling around it has the option to tell you where you are by using the GPS of the iPhone and it is quick much quicker I ever saw on application for the iPhone the nice thing is also that now when you are moving it moves with you and it tells you how fast you are going and in witch direction you are going.

You guessed it for me this is just the application I wanted it helps me find my way around town and although it does not offer the option to search for street names you can place bookmarks so that you can find where you need to go.

What did I find that I didn’t like? not much really just one thing that kinda took me by suprise and that is I looked at a map at home at the biggest detail then I left home and went to a different part of the city there I turned OffMaps on and let it tell me where I was nothing strange there and it nicely pointed where I was BUT no map and guess what I had a map of this part of town but just not at the same detail as i used at home so now i needed to zoom out to the right zoom level to see my street and that to me is something that could have bin fixed in the software but really that is the only thing that bugs me a bit 🙂

All in all of just under 2 dollars you can have a great map application that works great with you GPS for me no doubed this is and will be one of my favorite iPhone applications.

Looking for some help with your stock portfolio?

This application can help you out with that. TickerPicker version 2.0 offers you almost all you would like to have in a stock application.

First you can make your watch list on there you put the stocks you like to follow. On this screen you can also see the current price and the daychanges. By default the list is refeshed every 5 seconds so you can see your stock move.

And then there is the Stock chart this screen (as you see above) shows you Candlesticks, volume, RSI and MacD so basicly everyting you look for to help you decide to buy or sell.

The graphs may look a bit small and they are it helps to turn you device to landscape and you can zoom in.

After using TickerPicker for a couple of days I have to say it is neat it does what it says it does and it does it well.

What I personally would like is a way to keep my portfolio in here so that i could track my gains in one application. But besides that it is just a splendid application for a very low price.

If you are still interested after read this little review then click on TickerPicker to bring you to the itunes page.

Why not use different ways of using your iPhone then just a cell phone. SIP is a great way to get low cost phone calls and now it even works on an iPhone.

As you read yesterday’s story about how to configure your iPhone to use MagicJack then you know how I did it. But today I will just focus on how SipPhone works.

SipPhone is simpe just download SiPhone on iTunes and for $6.99 you can start using it. OK the application is not free but for that amount you get an application that can help you to get your phone bill down.

After you downloaded and configured SipPhone you are ready to go and beside the different look it almost works the same as the normal phone on your iPhone it just looks a bit different. On the bottom of your dial pad you have two buttons one said Cellular and when you use that you use your normal phone and one that says SIP (should be green to use it) and that one is used to make your SIP call.

And that is all to it. you have some settings like the ringer for when people call you but that is about it.

It uses your normal address book to find you contacts to call and by default it will use the SIP phone so no worries that it calls through your wireless.

For me SipPhone is a great way to bring my bill down. I spend a lot of time in locations where WiFi internet is available and now I can use that free internet to call.

If you have a SIP account somewhere and an iPhone then why not use it go try out SipPhone on iPhone yourself and see how easy it is.

And I guess that this application would work on an iPod Touch to as long as you get a microphone. (did not test this)

As an iPhone 3G owner I thought form the day I got my phone that it would be great if I could use the WiFi to call with for instance Skype. As you may remember I use MagicJack to make my phone calls through the computer and for less then 20 dollars a year I can call anyone in the US and Canada and get great international long distance rates as well.

And then I found a post somewhere that you can get Magicjack working through SIP and that made me trying to find a Sip application for the iPhone and that was easy there is an application called SipPhone (review will follow) that you can use to call through WiFi. Then of course I needed to get it working and this is how I did it and it was not as easy as I thought but with lots of help I was able to get it working.

First of all you need to find you SIP information from your MagicJack plug and YES that means that you need to have MagicJack before you can use it on your iPhone.

There are lots of ways out there to find the SIP information but I used the program MJ Utility Suite (i used version 1.6). With this program it is easy just click the button to get the SIP info and you get what you need. Probably you need to edit the configuration a bit to point the right spots but when it is right you will get something like this:

Login Information
ProxyUserName = E**********01
ProxyUserPassword = ABCDEFGHIJ

UDP Ports
SIPUDPDefaultPort = 0
SIPUDPPortRangeStart = 65535
SIPUDPPortRangeEnd = 49152

Other SIP Data
SIPCallerID = E**********01
UserDomain = talk4free.com
ProxyName =
ProxyIP = 67.91.177.70
User-Agent = MagicJack/1.80.466c (SJ Labs)

So now you are almost ready to go. But you need to find out what city your proxy uses and you do that as followed. Look at the ProxyIP (mine was 67.91.177.70 as you can see above) then go to this WIKIbook for MJ Support and there you can see what proxy belongs to the IP address.

Now we have everything you need to make SipPhone work with MagicJack. So download the SipPhone application from the itunes store and start it and put the following settings:

On main screen under Accounts, select edit, select add new SIP accounts.

Domain: talk4free.com
Username: E**********01       <<<<<< PUT IN YOUR INFO
Password: ********************    <<<<<<< PUT IN YOUR PASSWORD (case sensitive)

Select Advance

Auth User: E**********01       <<<<<<<<<<< PUT IN YOUR INFO
Proxy Server: proxy1.yourcity.talk4free.com:5070        <<<<< PUT IN THE PROXY CITY (mine was Detroit)
Registration Timeout: 3600

Go back to main screen and select Settings on bottom right.

Ringtone: Classic
Prefix for contacts: leave blank
Outbound proxy: leave blank
RTP Port: 4000
SIP Stun: OFF
SIP Stun Server: leave blank
CODEC: Auto

After you do all this go to Dialer and you should see the cellular and SIP buttons turn green. Make calls!!!

So now you are ready and you can use MagicJack on your iPhone. Be carefull and do not use Magicjack at home and on your iPhone at the same time!

I am just gave it a small test till now and it is great to be able to call in a grocery store with you iPhone using there wireless internet (free hotspot)

Tomorrow I will give you my experience with SipPhone so come back and read about that.

We iPhone and iPod Touch users know how difficult it can be to get your files on your device.

For instance i love to get some PDF ebooks on my iPhone but the only way that I could figure out was emailing them to me but that is not really a solution is it.

But then I found Briefcase lite a little application that lets your iPhone or iPod connect to your pc (in my case a Mac) and just move some files to your device.

It is so great that now i can carry around my PDF’s, Excel sheets and lots more just on my iPhone. The documents that you can open are basically the same once you can open through the emails on your device but now just without the interference of the mail application.

There is a payed version available to that ads a few features like being able to create folders on your device and getting your device connected over the internet when you are not using you home network.

If you are looking for something that brings your files to you iPhone or Touch then go have a look at itunes and try Briefcase lite.

TapDefense is a great strategy game for the iPod Touch and the iPhone. This game is based on the famous online game Tower Defense where I spend many hours playing.

The story of this game is simple make sure the bad guys from Hell don’t make it to Heaven.

And now you wonder how do I stop the bad guys? So the bad guys will travel over the road and you can place some defense next to the road to stop them. Of course you budget is slim so you need to be smart with your money and get the right defense at the right place.

There are a lot of difference defenses you can use from Arrows towers and Bomb towers to earth quaks. The further you get in the game them more options you get to unlock. Also all the defense you place can get upgraded to make it stronger and extend there range.

To me this game gives me a lot of fun when i want to kill some time. TapDefense is a Free game and that is a Plus but it would be worth money if they would charge for it.

One big problem I seem to run in to is when my WiFi is on it eat my battery like crazy, when I turn WiFi off it is a lot less so keep that in mind when playing this game.

Go check TapDefense out and see if you like it or if it will be deleted quickly.

When you are playing with your new iPhone or iPod Touch soon you will be getting sick of that stupid globe when you turn you device on. It is easy to change the picture by going to Settings, Wallpaper but what are you gone put there.

Backgrounds is there to solve that problem. This Free application will show you lots and lots of free photo’s you can use as wallpaper.

It is easy start Backgrounds and there you see 4 pictures if you tap on one you see a bigger picture and you can download that or you can search through the photo library or go through the categories. It is so simple and it offers a easy way to some great pictures that are perfect for a background as you startpage for your iPhone.

And yes it is free so get a new photo everyday so that you will not get bored.

Two things that could be added in my view first it would be nice if it could put the pictures in a special photo folder and secondly it would be even better if it could change photo’s for you like 1e day or what ever you would like. But still this app is great and does what it says I would say go give it a try and share you thoughts.