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AppTalk reappeared at the GCMUG today. We reviewed the following apps:
1. HDRPro. (Ron)
2. BurstMode (Jim)
3. Snapseed (Ron)
4. Facebook upgrades--choose newsfeed, chatheads (Jim)
5. Photoshop Express (Ron)
6. Feedly (Jim). Generally thought to be the heir apparent to Google Reader.
I've been suffering from iPhone battery drain lately. Hopefully iOS
5.1 will improve things, but until and unless that happens, here are
some tried and true ways to extend your battery charge from the
excellent idownload blog:
Note:
Keep in mind that these tips are a bit extreme, and you shouldn’t have
to turn off every setting in your iPhone to get reasonable battery life.
1. Turn off Location Services
It seems like almost every app
nowadays uses your location in some fashion, and all of that GPS work
can drain your battery. Just open up the Settings app, and select
Location Services. Keep in mind that if you turn off all location
services, you’ll lose the ability to use Find My iPhone. So you may want
to shut apps off individually and leave that one running.
2. Turn off Wi-Fi
This
is kind of a no brainer. Enabled Wi-Fi means another radio is running,
and using battery. It’s even worse if your Wi-Fi is on when you’re not
connected to a specific network and your phone is constantly searching.
Turn it off by opening the Settings app, and selecting Wi-Fi.
3. Make sure Bluetooth is off
This is another no-brainer. Even though the iPhone 4S uses low-powered Bluetooth
4.0, leaving it on still means another radio is running. Turn it off by
launching the Settings app, selecting General, and then Bluetooth.
4. Shut off Push data
Having
your new emails automatically pushed to you is pretty convenient, but
once again it will cost you battery life. Turn it off by opening
Settings, selecting Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and then Fetch New Data.
5. Turn off Vibration
If
you receive a lot of phone calls, messages or alerts, your phone’s
vibrator is working overtime. If you don’t absolutely need it, you can
save precious battery life by turning it off. Open up the Settings app,
and select Sounds.
6. Make sure Auto-Brightness is on
This
feature adjusts your display’s brightness according to the lighting of
your current environment. This keeps the display from being constantly
at its brightest. To check it out, open the Settings app, and select
Brightness.
7. Make sure Auto-Lock is on 1 Minute
By
default, Auto-Lock is set to one minute. That’s because the longer the
iPhone’s display is left on, the more battery it uses. If it’s set to
longer than one minute, you’ll notice a major difference in battery life
by lowering it. Adjust this in the Settings app by selecting General,
and then Auto-Lock.
8. Turn off Cellular Data
If you get poor cell reception at your home or place of business, you might try turning off Cellular Data
if you don’t need it. Searching for service weighs heavily on your
battery. Turn it off in Settings by selecting General, and then Network.
9. Turn the Equalizer off
The
iPhone’s Music app has an EQ feature that alters its sound output
according to your music preference. Because these adjustments happen on
the fly, your battery suffers. Switch this off by going to Settings,
tapping on Music and then EQ.
10. If all else fails, try a Restore
Restoring
your iPhone as a new device (not from a backup) can work wonders, and
in this case it can erase any problematic data or settings that may be
causing your battery to drain. Do this by hooking up your iPhone to your
computer, and clicking Restore. Make sure you set it up as a new
device.
Another thing to keep in mind is how much power Siri uses.
Not only is information being processed on the iPhone, but there is
also data transferring back and forth with Apple’s servers. Using this
feature frequently can certainly affect battery life.
Please help me help the kids at St. Jude.
On April 1, I'll be competing in the Nautica South Beach Triathlon for the benefit of St. Jude Children's Hospital.
Won't you please support me? Just click here.
Want to know more about St. Jude and what your contribution will mean? Click here.
From Lifehacker: The iPhone is a fantastic phone, but if you're a heavy user of Google services, it can be a little confusing to set up your Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts to sync with iOS. If you follow the directions on iPhone and set up your Gmail the way they say, you'll get your mail, but your gmail contacts won't be synchronized with your phone. But if you choose Microsoft Exchange at the prompt instead of Gmail, this will give you access not only to your Gmail, but your calendars and contacts, and they will all sync directly to your phone—when you add a contact in Gmail or edit an event on Google Calendar, you'll see it show up on your phone without having to sync anything. Here's how to set it up.
Wow--I can think of a lot worse things to spend $53 on!
Review: Verbatim Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard for iPhone, iPad 2
We've previously reviewed MLB.com's At Bat, the somewhat pricey ($14.99 for the 20011 season) app that gives you full radio and a lot of TV access for the entire baseball season.
MLB.com At Bat Lite gives you a chance to try it out during spring training. Watch out--it's addicting!
I'm not a huge Oscar's watcher, but if I were, I would CERTAINLY download Oscar Backstage Pass. OBP has 10 live feeds so you get 10 times as much coverage as "mere" TV.
The February appTalk was a perfectly orchestrated presentation of the newest and best iphone apps.
Or not.
Regardless of our technical snags, here's a summary of what we discussed:
- Jim started off by introducing Google Goggles, a fairly recent improvement to Google Search that allows search by phone camera. We showed how a photo of the cover of a book returned search results based on the book title, the author, and even the picture on the cover of the book!
- Ron demonstrated The Photographer's Ephemeris, a great tool that allows you to know and predict the optimal sunrise, sunset, and elevation (and so much more)!
- Jim wrapped up with an even newer google enhancement for the phone: Google Translate. This tool allows you to speak a phrase, and see it and hear it instantly in another! Amazing!
Due to time constraints we didn't have time to talk about the great and free apps available in the new App Store. Here are some of the best:
- Evernote. We've discussed this before--still one of the best ways to collect and organize all your info, regardless of format.
- Remind Me Later:
- Sketchbook express: A quick, easy, fun way to draw on your Mac, just like the iPad app, but without the touch screen. Great for a variety of functions, including cropping and quick edits.
- Kindle for mac: Kindle for iPhone/iPad is great, and Kindle for Mac lets you control everything from your desktop. Shop, save, and read, all from within the app.
I love all of these apps, and they're not just for Verizon iPhones, of course. You can be sure we'll touch on some of these at the next appTalk presentation.
10 must-have apps for Verizon iPhone owners (screenshots) - CNET Reviews
And as long as we're on a Skype roll here--even though this isn't an "app":
Skype 5.0 Brings Group Video Chat to Mac OS - iSmashPhone iPhone Blog
As follow-up, here's some more info on Skype for the Mac:
Skype 5.0 for Mac Exits Beta, Group Calling No Longer Free [VIDEO]
Want to have some facetime with someone without wifi? Skype has a new app out that lets you do just that. Here's a full review.
Of course, there may be times when you want a phone call to rescue you from a boring conversation. That's when fake calls comes in handy. .99 is cheap for that kind of intervention!
Finally, Esver showed us how to print on a Brother printer from our iphone using iBrother Print&Scan.
One of our favorite columnists, David Pogue at the New York Times, doesn't think much of the new Office for Mac. Read it here: Office for Mac Isn't an Improvement.
Genius Scan is an awesome free app that allows you to use your iphone as a scanner. If you think you're OK with just taking a picture of any document, you'll find out how wrong you are once you start using this. It offers page frame detection, perspective correction, and allows you to send anything you scan as a PDF. It's good for scanning receipts, notes, or any document. Just terrific!!
Actually, of course, it's Google Goggles, which is Google's cute way of saying search by image rather than text. It's now available on the iPhone as part of Google Mobile Apps. (Droid users would have me add the word "finally"--they've had it for about 10 months.)
Once you've downloaded--or updated--your Google Mobile Apps, the next question is how to use Goggles.
You might think it will be listed among the Apps--like GOOG-411--but it's not. Instead, you use Goggles by clicking on the Search button in the lower left corner. There, you'll now see a camera button near the search term field. That's your Goggles.
Before you use it, you'll be able to watch a short video introducing Goggles to you--or, if you can't wait, you can watch it right now.
Here's a nice summary of the ways OS 4.1 improves on 4.0.
Hat tip: iPhone J.D. Jeff Richardson.
This hits a little too close to home, but is hilarious nonetheless.
Warning: NSFW, or for tender ears.
As we discussed tonight, How to Disable Facebook Places is a good page from Lifehacker--a site well worth subscribing to, IMHO--on the new Facebook Places feature, and how to keep yourself from being "placed" without your knowledge or consent!
I am a HUGE fan of Lifehacker, so when they come out with a list of their favorite iPhone Apps, I pay attention. You'll see a number of apps here that we've already reviewed on AppTalk. If you want us to talk about others, just let us know!!
PS--check out Lifehacker's list of fav mac apps, too!
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