I just ran across an awesome little utility today called FinderPop. It basically makes getting to all your files much easier and faster, no matter where you are on your computer. It has the hierarchical menu capabilities of the old apple menu, (see screenshot) the ability to copy and paste files, and lots more. And best of all, its free!
After browsing around the new iTunes app store a few times earlier this week, I finally decided to upgrade my phone’s software and try out a few applications. I had previously jailbroken my phone and installed several different applications that way, but decided that there were none of them I couldn’t do without.
After about 3 days of the upgrade and using the app store, I have noticed a few fundamental differences between the “hacked” apps and the official ones. On the positive side, the official apps seem to have more depth and quality, especially the ones that cost a few bucks. Many of the old hacked apps appear in the new app store, but most of them have been upgraded a bit. Evidently getting approved by Apple and charging money for an application raises the bar a bit. On the negative side, the new app store has very few system customization or utility applications. I guess Apple doesn’t like people messing with the nuts and bolts of its software.
Having said all of that, so far for me the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. I have found a few free applications that I like and a few paid ones as well. Here are my favorites:
1. Crash Bandicoot Kart ($9.99) – A true 3d cart racing game that uses the iPhone’s tilt sensors to steer. (the effect is similar to driving games on a Wii)
2. Enigmo ($9.99) – A difficult to describe but very cool arcade/strategy game that requires you to get a stream of water from point A to point B using various pieces of equipment. Definitely my favorite game so far.
3. Pandora (FREE) – If you haven’t tried this music streaming website on your computer, you should. That I can now enjoy it on my iPhone with headphones or even plugged into my car stereo is simply awesome.
4. Bible (FREE) – over 10 different translations including the Message, searchable, with Matthew Henry’s commentary. All for free on your phone.
5. Brain Challenge ($9.99) – More than just another puzzle game, Brain Challenge seeks to improve your logic, math, memory, visual recognition, and focus. It gives you simple “flashcard” type problems, and measures your speed and accuracy in answering them. It keeps track of your results over time so you can see how much you improve.
Online maps are getting downright scary. Check out the pic below of my house from Live Search Maps. (its the one in the middle with the brick chimney on the side) Even in this scaled down capture you can see my jeep and the Midtown trailers in the back yard. And as if that wasn’t crazy enough, you can look at any location from 4 different directions!! Try it out – click the pic to go to the site, then click on one of the directions on the compass.
Starting tomorrow I am going to look up and wave for the camera every time I go outside!
Since my $30 home repair job did not work, (the LCD beneath the glass was also cracked and quit working) my iPhone is off getting fixed by the professionals. In the meantime, I have worked out my own “2nd Generation” system to take care of some of the things that were handled by my little high-tech gadget.
From left to right – 20G iPod, (for music and pictures) spiral notebook, (for notes and to-do list) and Sony mobile phone. (for calls, texting, and photos) Not available for photo – video, email, maps, readable calendar, weather, internet access, and more…
This is not what you want to see after dropping your iPhone.
This afternoon I was working on the boat in my driveway, when the phone rang in my pocket. As I was taking it out to answer the call, the corner of the phone just caught the lip of my pocket on the way up, flipping it out of my hand and into a beautiful arc up and over the edge of the boat down 6 feet to the concrete driveway. Face down. Not good. Hoping for a miracle, I climbed down and picked the phone up to find the glass face completely shattered.
The amazing thing is, the crazy thing still works perfectly! It takes a little effort to see through some of the spiderweb cracks in the glass, but the screen itself seems to be fine and the touch interface is as responsive as always. Kudos to Apple for building a virtually bombproof phone. No kudos to Apple that apparently it costs $200 to get the screen fixed. So after a little searching online I found a replacement glass for $30 that should be at my house in a few days. Should be a fun little repair job….
Disclaimer: The following post is only interesting if a) You have an iPhone, or b) You are a tech geek.
One of the few complaints I have about the iPhone now that I have some good earphones (see a few posts back) is that its “Notes” application won’t sync with a computer. I have tried using the notes for to-do lists and other things, but without being able to sync them with my computer they are not very useful. As sharp as Apple is, you would think they would have included a feature that simple in the iPhone software to begin with, but they didn’t. Well anyway, I finally figured out a sort of workaround.
First, I created a new event for today on my iPhone calendar and named it “To Do List.” Events have a field called “notes,” so I just put the items for the list in there. When I synced with my computer, the event showed up on my Outlook calendar like any other event. There I was able to edit the “To Do List,” move it to tomorrow, (when I will actually be using it) and resync it to my iPhone. Using this method I am able to create as many editable “to-do” lists or notes of any kind on either the iPhone or my computer and keep them synchronized! I have heard of people doing the same thing with a contact in their address book, but it makes more sense to me in the calendar.
PS – I have no idea if this works on Macs or not…
…of the entire Apple product line is the crappy little earphones that come with all of their iPod and iPhone products. I am not really sure why Apple goes to all the trouble to come up with the best personal entertainment devices in the world then packages them with earphones that have the sound quality of AM radio, but they do.
For a while now I have been searching for a decent sounding set of earbuds that are not outrageously expensive, and I finally found them. The pic (and link) is the ones for the iPhone that have the hands-free mic and a button to answer calls, pause music, or skip to the next track. Best $40 I have spent in a LONG time. They also have ones for regular iPods for $10 less, so get yourself a pair and enjoy some of that great sound that has been locked up inside your iPod with no way out since you bought it! 
I love meeting new people. Yesterday I met someone who already knew a little about me from having run across this blog at some point. Welcome to the modern world of myspace, facebook, blogs, etc! Anyway – we ended up having a great conversation about life, church, and other stuff. Several years ago when the solidorange site was a pretty happenin’ message board, guys who had been interacting online for months would happen to meet each other at a football game, which was very cool as well. (although a little geekin’ to have to be introduced to people by your screen name – ha ha!)
I wish that the internet worked like that more often. That instead of causing/allowing us to retreat to “virtual life” in our cubicles and houses and effectively decreasing our actual contact with people, it actually functioned as a supplement to real life, increasing our connectivity and deeper interaction with each other. I hope that this blog is like that. I don’t ever want it to be just empty theories, ramblings, and shallow commentary. The content of this blog comes from and is mostly thoughts about my “real life,” and I hope that in some way God uses it to encourage and challenge you in your “real life” as well.
(That is the term JT and I always use when we get into something related to technology or computers or the internet) Having said that, I discovered something VERY cool on my iphone today. Don’t worry – no iphone or Apple snobbery here, just a tip for anyone else who has one.
Instead of accessing gmail through the “mail” application, you can access it through the iphone web browser, safari. Gmail somehow figures out that you are looking at it from the iphone, so everything is simplified and readable without having to zoom in and drag around. The actual value to all this is that instead of having stripped down email features in the “mail” application, you have the full features of gmail; tabbed conversations, full contact list, search capability, etc… (so when I cant remember where you said to meet you for lunch in that email conversation last week, I can find the conversation and see that you also offered to buy!) MUCH better, don’t you think?
If you are in need of some good computer software and dont want to shell out the big bucks, you have to check these out.
OpenOffice is a full-service office suite, (like the Microsoft version) but for FREE! It opens and saves Microsoft documents like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. I was skeptical when I first saw it, but it works really well and seems to have at least all of the features that I would need.
Along the same lines, Gimp is a powerful photo-editing software (similar to Photoshop) that is also FREE. The menus and tools are a little different than Photoshop, but with a little experimenting are not hard to figure out. I edited the photo below on the left and ended up with in my opinion the much better one on the right. (Kelly makes anything look good anyway)
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Lee Cunningham
Columbia, SC
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