iPhone 2.0 Upgrade and the new App Store

The new 2.0 version of the iPhone firmware is now successfully installed on my old iPhone. For the past week I have been busy exploring and installing some applications from the new iTunes app store. Here is the summary of the Top Ten "Free" apps that I have installed until now. The "Piano" app is pretty cool as well but is not free and costs $5.99.

1. AOL Radio - Rated this No.1 as I have been waiting for long to listen to live Radio (Local + National). This is pretty good although it has about a couple of minutes of delay in transmission. I like it!
2. Shazam - Awesome app that listens to playing music and spits out the Album, Song details. I tested it in my Car and it even worked in CVS Pharmacy with all the ambient noises.
3. Bloomberg - iPhone has a native "Stocks" application, but Bloomberg goes an extra step further to give more details and charts in the landscape mode.
4. BoxOffice - Nice app that lists all movie times screened in a particular location. It also lists all the new movies according to their rating.
5. Jobs - CareerBuilder's app enables you to search for Jobs based on location on the go!
6. Remote - Control iTunes music on your PC/Mac using the iPhone as a remote
7. Jott for iPhone - Listens and converts the voice into text as a ToDo list. VoiceNotes is a similar app but just plays the recorded voice back. The voice convertion to text takes about 2 minutes.
8. Twittelator - Useful app to post into Twitter
9. SportsTap - Check live Scores for any Sport - NBA, Soccer, NFL, F1, Tennis, MLB but not yet Cricket.
10. YPmobile - YellowPages Mobile is the YellowPages app that list all local businesses based on the location. Great app!

Rest of them are other good to have apps.

TypePad, WHERE, Pocket Express®, vSNAX Videos, Currency, Blip Solitaire, Morocco, iPint, Puluwai, Scribble, Stanza, eReader, midomi, Light, myLite, FiatLux, NowLocal, Save Nenjis, VoiceNotes.

I guess more apps are cooking in the pipeline! Watch out...

Home Projectors and HDTVs

I have been using a 720p Optoma HD70 DLP projector to watch DVDs and some HD channels. My set-up comprises of the projector, bunch of HDMI and component video cables, HD tuner from DishNetwork and a Panasonic Home Theater System. I project the 110'' screen image on my white wall that partions my kitchen and dining. See it yourself in the picture! The lamp life for this projector is 2000hrs and I have consumed about 900hrs in 18months. CircuitCity had offered a bulb warranty for 4 years for an extra $130. This covers the replacement of the bulb (one-time only) within those 4 years and is completely worth, as the bulb itself costs more than $300. On the whole, the choice of buying a projector over a Plasma/LCD HDTV was cost and space effective at that time. Now, the cost of 1080p HDTVs has come down drastically and the 1080p projectors are still pricey! There are other factors that need to be factored while choosing a home movie projector such as appropriate ambience lighting, lamp-life, lamp-intensity, contrast ratio to name a few.

Handy Trip Organizer

Mark Dixon's weblog is one of my most regularly monitored blog. In his recent posts, he pointed to Tripit which is an automatic online trip organizer that conglomerates all the information from your email itineraries and generates a single trip summary. All you need to do is register and keep forwarding your email confirmations and itineraries to plans@tripit.com and rest is taken care of. This is particularly helpful when you have booked flight tickets, hotel and car, all from different websites. The final consolidated trip summary you receive from tripit also contains - weather forecasts, map information and driving directions. Best part of this service is that you can view your trips from your mobile handheld through the mobile site. You can always sync your outlook calendar to your mobile but this product makes it much easier to get to your trip plans all at one place!

Tulips in "Holland"

Enjoy the Tulips in the picture taken with my iPhone on a rainy day
trip to the Dutch village in Holland, MI. Typically Tulips bloom
around end of April and start of May which is a good time to visit.
Entry fee to the garden is $7 and $12 for the Dutch village.

Mobilize Your Blog with Plusmo

I had successfully created a PlusMo widget for my blog. You can now subscribe to my blog (and several others if you want to!) and read my posts instantly on your mobile phone. You will have to register at PlusMo if you are a first time user. In case you are interested in mobilizing your own blog, follow the steps listed below:

• Set 'Allow Blog Feeds' option under Settings->SiteFeed to full and click Save
• Register at PlusMo and select 'Mobilize Blog' under Publish and click the 'Get Started" button
• Select the Button of your personalized choice and enter http://yourblogname.com/atom.xml in the Blog URL field and click next
• Script will delivered for using it in your blog home or website.

Gift Worthy!

My wife gifted me an iPhone for my birthday earlier this year. I have been enthused the way it has improved my communication especially when I am on the move. I have started mobile blogging again and my last post (and the picture) about the Pistons game was infact posted from my iPhone! I had read some reviews about the poor quality of the camera in the iPhone, unavailabilty of the zoom functionality and inablity to capture video. Other downsides mentioned include that the iPhone was not prepared to be business ready, but with the release of iPhone firmware version 2.0 and SDK slated in June'08, hopefully most of these issues will be resolved. All those issues apart, I have been using this gadget for various purposes on the go - GPS locator, video iPod, google maps, weather, news, stock market fluctuations. Specific third party applications (which will be supported by Apple in the future) help me find a movie theatre, restaurant based on a zip code or find the latest score of an ongoing match - be it Cricket, Soccer, NBA or NFL. Of course! All this with the touch of screen. I have come across people who complained that the touch screen is only for people with slim fingers, which I believe is not true as there is an option to maximize the viewing area before you make click. One other thing I really miss in the iPhone is the radio option. Many people have already complained about this missing feature in the iPod. Most of the cool third party applications for iPhone are listed in several blogs, websites and run into hundreds in number. I have my home screen already running into three pages which would be an overkill on the memory space once these applications become native. I plan to make a comprehensive basic list of these applications that I find very useful in my future posts.

Pistons Vs Wizards

I was at the Palace of Auburn Hills watching the Pistons beat the Wizards on 11th of April. Enjoyed being there early enough to watch the player introductions by John Mason and the invigorating 'Sheed' dance. I am sure it will be a lot of fun to watch the Pistons run for the
championship one more time!