27/12/2012

11 Apps for your new iDevice.

As recommended by iJoe.

Ill be ignoring the apps you will download such as Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube and focusing on the best apps to make your device amazing. I've also ignored other apps I've recommended on site before despite the fact I think they rock.

* = Universal Apps
^ = Separate Apps are available.
# = iPhone and iPod touch only

*1 - Google Chrome - Chrome

*2 - Flipboard - Flipboard

#3 - Fantastical - Fantastical

#4 - Clear - Clear

*5 - Pocket - Pocket

^6 - Today Weather - Today Weather

*7 - Everynote - Everynote

*8 - Pages - Pages

*9 - iPhoto - iPhoto

*10 - Ski Safari - Ski Safari

#11 - Buzz Contacts - Buzz Contacts

Let me know what you think in the comments or on Facebook or twitter.

iJoe

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iJoe

Setting up your iDevice - Part 1

Congratulations you have a new iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod touch, in this blog post I'm going to help you through the things that you need to do to set up your new device.

After you have set your phone up out the box you'd be mistaken to think that is all, wrong, pop open the settings App on your device and start to customise it to be your way.

NOTIFICATIONS - How your phone and its apps alert you.

These are a real issue for some people and you need to configure it right for you so it alerts you in the right way, but not too much and becomes invasive.

So when you open your notification settings you'll see a list of apps with details of how they alert you it can be really quite confusing hopefully the following will help.

Some people Don't even use the notification centre or know it exists. To view it swipe your finger from the top of your screen and it appears.

DO NOT DISTURB.

To access it Click into settings/notifications/do not disturb. As it explains "When Do Not Disturb is enabled calls and alerts that arrive while locked will be silenced, and a moon icon will appear in the status bar." You can enable it at any time in the settings app, but you can also configure it to come on and switch off at any time in particular, such as the times you are asleep. You can also set it up to allow certain calls from particular contacts, also if the same contact rings you within three minutes it will not be silenced.

This is a really useful feature and can stop you being woken or disturbed during a meeting or appointment. I suggest you utilise it
NOTIFICATION CENTRE / Not In NOTIFICATION CENTRE.

Below the Do Not Disturb settings are individual settings for each app. Firstly you can configure in what order they are displayed either manually or By Time of the notification.

Then you can set up the individual apps by clicking on the app, then it opens a new menu with the following.

Notification Centre (On/Off) - If it's On it will show in the Notification Centre, if its Off you can still be alerted but it won't be stored in the Notification Centre.

Show - (1, 5 or 10 items). So if its an App you get lots of notifications in short space of time it would be more useful for it to be set higher. Note - If the notification centre setting is off, the show option will be removed.

Alert Style - (None, Banners, or Alerts).
If its set to none you will not receive a on screen alert.
If its set to Banners, you will receive a small banner spin down from the status bar, and then go away after a short time.
If its set to Alerts an Alert will appear that you will need to complete an action for it to be removed.

Badge Icon - (On/Off)
If its set to On you'll have a small red icon on the top right of the App icon.
If its set to Off you won't.

Sounds - (On/Off)
View In Lock screen - (On/Off)

Personally i have lots of apps set up to show as a banner or just a badge icon and lots of apps I don't wish to be notified by, however it's a massive personal choice.

Next Time. About, Siri, Sounds & Wallpaper.

iJoe

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26/12/2012

The Presents Keep Coming - Final Update - Day 12

An App you really need to download if your in the UK is "ITunes 12 Days Of Christmas"

The premise is simple. Every day for 12 days from Boxing Day you get something free from iTunes.

I shall be updating this post everyday to post what has been free on that day, as you don't need the app to download the free gifts, they will be free on iTunes if you browse to find them, I will post the direct links below..

iTunes 12 Days of Christmas -

12 Days Of Christmas App


Day 1 - Boxing Day

Maroon 5 - Holiday Gift - EP -

Holiday Gift

Day 2 - 27th December.

Score. Classic Goals. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch game -

Score

Day 3 - 28th December.

Sherlock. A Study in Pink - Tv Episode. Series 1, Episode 1. -

Sherlock

Day 4 - 29th December

Marian Keyes - Rachel's Holiday - Book -

Rachel's Holiday

Day 5 - 30th December

Ed Sheeran - Holiday Gift - EP -

Ed Sheeran

Day 6 - 31st December

Sonic Jump - iPhone, iPad and iPod touch game.

Sonic Jump

Day 7 - 1st January 2013

Toy Story - Toons Film.

Toy Story

Day 8 - 2nd January

Ken Follett - The Pillars Of The Earth - Book -

Ken Follett

Day 9 - 3rd January

The XX - The XXMAS EP. -

The XX

Day 10 - 4th January

The Photo Cookbook - iPhone & iPad app -

Photo Cookbook

Day 11 - 5th January

One Direction - Little Things Music Video -

One Direction

Day 12 - 6th January

Shark Dash - iPhone, IPad and iPod Touch Game.

Shark Dash

iJoe

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24/12/2012

Merry Christmas

Just a quick post to wish all the readers of this blog a Merry Christmas.

Completely overwhelmed by the amount of page views I've had (1600+ at time of writing) in just over a week.

Thank you so much for your support with RTs and spreading the word.

I realise there's still work to do and appreciate all the feedback I've been given and will be endeavouring to improve going forward.

Thank you and Merry Christmas.

iJoe.

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22/12/2012

iJoe App Store Recommends. Ep. 2

Bluetooth Chatting By nOvNiv.com

Now before I start this is an app that no one should have to make or buy. If Apple  did what they should and put the Bluetooth, Wifi and 3G controls should be in either the Notification Centre or on the Multitasking bar.

However Developer Niv Gutherz has managed to make the most of this.

Essentially it's a Bluetooth Chatting app but that's not what any of the users use it for. It's basically a on off button for your Bluetooth.

Set it up to "Quick mode" read the quick instructions and then the app will close and your Bluetooth will be on.

When you want to switch it off click the app icon either in your home screen or multitasking bar and it will turn it off.

The benefits are many, firstly you don't need to trail through your settings. Granted Apple  improved this in iOS 6 by moving Bluetooth out of General settings and into the connection settings. This has changed it from being a 4 button press to now a 3 button press. However with this app you only need one press on, and one press off.

Another major benefit is battery, it's my observation that when people use Bluetooth on their iPhone they are more likely to leave it on than turn it off every time, this certainly decreases using this app. I usually keep it in my multitasking bar and toggle it on and off as necessary.

I find it shocking that no one else has made an app that works like this, overall it's faultless.

It's really useful if you use a Bluetooth device on a daily or weekly basis.

Price is 69p or 99 cents. Yes a fee for a simple setting app but if Apple  won't do it you need to pay.

Download Now

iJoe

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21/12/2012

App Store Closed

Tonight is the night many of you will finish work for the Christmas holidays.

Apple  is no different. Today the App Store slams shut with an almighty bang until Friday the 28th.

During this time there will be none of the following :-

App Updates.
Charges for brought Apps or In App Purchases.
New Apps Released.
Change in the Charts.
Changes in Prices.

A lot of company's like EA and Gameloft usually reduce their prices before the Christmas Close Down and put them up literally at the last minute before it closes.

This is so they are in Prime App Store Position for the two busiest days of trading on the App Store.

Last year Apple  App Store and Google Play Store Recorded 6.8 Million activations of new devices on Christmas Day and 242 Million App Downloads.

iJoe.

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Keep Up To Date With iJoe.

So far since launch I've been overwhelmed by the amount of page views I've had on this blog. Thank you so much for your support.

I'm really trying to push the word out though. So here's a few ways you can keep up to date.

Follow The Blog on Twitter : @iJoeBlog
Like The Blog Page on Facebook : Like

If there's anywhere else you want me to go let me know.

Also show your support by using my Logo wherever you feel best.(Thanks to H for the Design)


iJoe


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Like The Blog Page on Facebook : Like

19/12/2012

Tweetbot - The Best Twitter Client ON SALE

With every Christmas season lots of app developers put their apps on sale to push up the ratings. This is because the App Store closes on 23rd December and doesn't update the charts.

So when the people who are lucky enough to be given an iPod touch, iPad, iPad mini or iPhone on Christmas Day the first apps they see are the ones in the charts.

I shall try to keep the people of this blog up to date with any worthwhile apps that I see on sale.

First in the series is Tweetbot

Both iPad - 69p/99cents

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tweetbot-for-twitter-ipad/id498801050?mt=8

And iPhone and iPod touch versions - 69p/99cents

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tweetbot-for-twitter-iphone/id428851691?mt=8

It's a stunning twitter client with excellent features, I plan to do a review on Tweetbot soon so you'll have to get ahead of the game and get the app now. Whilst its on sale.

iJoe

Follow me on twitter @joebromley

18/12/2012

iOS 6.0.2 is out for compatible devices.

Will fix the wifi connection bug if anyone is effected.

Get it either via iTunes on your computer or OTA on your compatible devices.

iJoe

Follow me on twitter @Joebromley

17/12/2012

iJoe App Store Recommends. Ep 1

Car Tunes Music

Personally I'm not a fan of the default Music App that comes with any iPhone, iPad or iPod. For me it's not very useful when it comes to driving and playback and has far to many menus to get to your music. Plus I also think certain apps/features such as remote should be build in.

So for the past few years I've spent my time searching for an alternative.

After a few "Good but not good enough" contenders I found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

CAR TUNES MUSIC - £2.99/$4.99

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/cartunes-music-player/id415408192?mt=8

The app is very well put together. The music player interface is simple, yet beautiful and also configurable, you can add or remove certain features you don't want such as a clock, song rating and you can even change the font to something that matches your music preference.

My favourite option is the Colour Matching. It picks out the dominate or subtle colour in your album artwork and matches the progress bar and Artist info with it. It just makes it a more visually pleasant experience.

Once your settled on your configuration your met with a large display (iPhone 5 optimised) displaying your album artwork in a "very iTunes way" with the reflection below. But unlike the default app, which takes up all the display with the controls and uses precious screen real estate with that now, none removable progress bar, all that is tightly packaged space and the controls are removed...

So how do you control your music I hear you ask...

Well it's simple.
Tap once to play.
Tap again to pause.
One finger right to left swipe to skip to next track.
One finger left to right swipe to go back to previous track.
Press and hold to turn volume up or down.
Swipe up to get to your music library.
And if the mood takes you that you need to tell everyone what your playing.
Swipe down to post to twitter.

These are all very simple controls and as the name suggests very easy to use in the car with your iPhone or iPod in a head up holder. You can literally do it without looking, allowing you full concentration on the road.

Browsing your music is effortless. Gone are the small tabs of the default app In its place Five Large Buttons at the top of your screen. From Left to right.

Songs
Albums
Artists
Playlists
Podcasts

What more can you need?

Select the particular Artist, Album or playlist and it's displayed on a menu that slides in from the right, if it's not the right one swipe left to right to end up back where you were.

A great feature that's not been over looked is Album art is shown in all the menus so you know for sure that's the right track you wish to play.

One other thing is the app support. I had a small query in relation to the app the other night so I utilised the app support option on the App Store and sent the developer a quick email, within one minute the developer replied with my query all sorted. It's the best support I've ever got from a Developer.

If I could add anything to the app and it's only a personal preference it would be Last.Fm scrobbling. I currently use a separate app but it would be great if it just did it in the back ground.

OVERALL

A very strong app, little effort to use, nice features with configuration, excellent browsing of music library.

Price point is a little high but totally worth every penny/cent.

If you are in the market to replace the default app STOP. You've found it.

iJoe.

Follow me on Twitter @joebromley







































Why Google Putting Apps on iOS is a stupid business Decision...But one that needs to be done.

So a quick search of the App Store for "Google" reveals the following (With their rivals in brackets) :-

Google Maps (Apple Maps)
Google Chrome (Safari)
Google Search (Bing/Yahoo)
You Tube (Vimeo)
Gmail (Sparrow, Mailbox (Released 2013)
Blogger (Wordpress)
Google Latitude (Foursquare/Facebook)
Google Earth (Bing Maps)
Google+ (Facebook/Twitter)
Google Translate (Free Translator Apps)
Google Drive (Dropbox)
Google+ Local (Nearby/POI apps)
Google Currents (Flipboard)
Google Shopper (eBay/Amazon)
And New This evening
YouTube Capture (Apple Camera)

So Google clearly has a iOS presence but it confuses me why...

DOES APPLE HAVE APPS FOR ANDROID?

Simple answer no. They only do two Windows computer apps which are iTunes and QuickTime and it makes sense.

If you use iWork on your MacBook and your want documents on the go, what do you buy???

An iPhone or an iPad.

GOOGLE HOWEVER HAS BEEN BACKED INTO A CORNER.

iOS has a massive user base (Last figures released 365 Million, and that's before iPhone 5, iPad 4 and iPad mini.) Thats something google cant ignore it had customers before Apple started selling phones, lots of people had a Gmail account, so it needs to please those customers.

However I don't understand why they supply apps for everything, don't get me wrong I'm grateful - this blog is being typed on blogger, but imagine for a second they didn't supply apps to iOS.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF?

You have a Gmail address. Would you change phones or change email address?
You want to use Google Maps. Would you change phones or use Apple maps?
You want to blog on Blogger. Would you change phones or use Wordpress?
You want to browse on Chrome. Would you change phones or use Safari?
Etc etc

I can imagine there is enough Google "Fan boys" out there that would change phones but Google is happily producing very good IOS to encourage people to use its products.

In my humble opinion Google will never be as big as Apple because of this, and I think the fact they make Apps for iPhone and even buy up iOS developers such as Sparrow, shows they will always be second in a mobile world.

Looks like Steve Jobs didn't need that Thermonuclear war on android.

iJoe

Follow me on Twitter @Joebromley

15/12/2012

Mailbox - The eMail app you've always wanted.

Mailbox first came to my attention via The Verge. They appear to have got a beta version of the app something I'm trying to get myself.

Mailbox is made by the same developers who make Orchestra To Do - They clearly care about what you're up-to and ensuring you have enough time to do everything in your "To-Do" list with a great feature that allows you to remind yourself about emails later on, and clears your inbox so you can focus on what you wish to carry out.

It looks very beautiful somehow better looking than my current email app - Sparrow and on a plus side to Sparrow it has push notifications.

Sparrow has been brought by Google to reinvent their Gmail app, with the most recent update not really living up to the promises with no unified inbox and very few of sparrows good points on show.

Mailbox on the other hand looks a crisp complete product with very few down points.

It's out "In The New Year" I for one can't wait. I look forward to providing a review at the time I get my hands on it.

Hit the source link for more details and that mouthwatering video.

http://www.mailboxapp.com/

iJoe

14/12/2012

Google Maps Vs Apple  Maps.

GOOGLE MAPS.

So it's been back on the iPhone for 3 days now and I thought I'd give my thoughts about it and compare it what I've been using since iPhone 5 was launched Apple  Maps.

BIAS.

Now before we start I'm publishing this blog on a Google owned website, but I'm typing it on an iPad so any bias should be levelled out there.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

In comparison to what I last saw of a "Google Maps" product on the iPhone the new version is a massive upgrade, although it was always going to be now that the Apple  Shackles are off.
Visually it's stunning in both normal and satellite modes. It feels very smooth moving around the app with the slide in side menu, GPS button and search bar.

Whilst at home and over wifi just browsing the maps render very quickly in satellite mode with a blurry green patch taking a a mere second to be corrected to normal image.

I must also point out their satellite mode is effectively the same as an Apple  Hybrid mode, i.e. it has satellite images and road names and places displayed. If I'm honest I don't understand why Apple  has kept the satellite mode, it's hardly google earth and I wouldn't use it to find anywhere.

SEARCHING

Searching for a location or even a business name is all done from the search bar at the top of the app.

It's very simple and very Google. You get loads of choices, reviews, street view and for certain businesses inside view. This is a million times better than Apple  maps which just gives you some drop pins and you have to click into screens and out to find the right one.
With google you just swipe up to see the details and swipe right to left to see other places, it gives you options to call the place, save it as a favourite, share, website and reviews all from this little card. You couldn't want any more information to ensure this is the right place.

The only problem I had was not being able to search for people I had in my phone book, you can over come this by saving all their data in the app but I simply refuse to spend my time like that, hopefully the ability to utilise the phone book will come in a later update.

NAVIGATION.

So I found the place I wanted and I set off with turn by turn switched on. Now my first gripe. The loud American woman who navigates you is too loud, too American and very sharp. It's nothing like the women that Lee Evans jokes about sat navs.
I don't have a problem with Americans, it's just I'd like a British voice, it's not too much to ask, the way she pronounces a lot of English places are very choppy, for instance I went on a road called "Bridgnorth Road" and it was pronounced "Bridge North Road" with the spaces.

The app itself is very Americanised the public transport is called "Public Transit," the icon for traffic is an American traffic light and finally the one that really could confuse someone the route options give you the choice to "Avoid Highways" (Motorways) or "Avoid Tolls" (Toll Roads). Granted Apple  maps doesn't even give you that option but a highway is not a motorway.

The navigation screen is very clear gives large instruction with a ridiculously small "next" instruction that you can't see if your paying attention to the road, the colours are not my cup of tea with a dank green and dark grey, personally I prefer the royal blue of the Apple  maps. The maps did seem to struggle to render when I was experiencing poor signal, however the road was always strong, it was just the surroundings that were to cock.

Two major features that a not currently available in this region are Traffic and Public Transit (Transport), Apple  does provide traffic on its maps but you need a separate app to use public transport, ultimately if that's what you use, I don't think you'd be utilising either mapping app to assist your journey.

IN CONCLUSION

Google Maps is staying on my iPhone, it's stunning visually and at searching for locations. I never had any issues from my Apple  maps on specific locations, but google will correct any of those if you did.

Navigation is to the point correct but I simply can't stand the woman telling me. Her voice is off putting. The Americanises also put me off, it's not just in Great Britain that this app is on offer, all the English speaking places around the world will have to put up with highways and transit.

For me personally Apple  maps is visually on par with Google and slightly ahead for the navigation, the searching of locations is poor from Apple  however it does hold the contact data as a power card.

If I had to pick I'd use google maps to find the place and Apple  maps to navigate me there. Until the woman has calmed down or been changed to a English calm voice for me.

Overall the fact google maps is on the iPhone is playing lovely into ours (The customers hands) Apple  will have to respond and improve their app and fast, it's already being updated as we speak in the background, every time I go on different locations have improved, the only problem they have is people won't go on there unless there is something new, so Apple  need to bring out something that will make everyone look again and because its a stock app it can't be done via a app update, something google can do.

Also don't forget Nokia, Tom Tom, Co-Pilot, Garmin, Bing Maps and all the other iOS apps that we have for maps, they will all be fight for us to use their maps apps, Tom Tom Co-pilot and Garmin have got a very tough job to justify their app prices when you can have google maps for free.

PROS

Searching for locations.
Plenty of information for each location.
Maps detail.

CONS

Navigation screen.
Navigation speaker.
Americanises.
Lack of traffic.

All of which could be fixed by app update, if google so wishes and Apple  allows.

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

iJoe