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.