One of the great things about iPhone 2.0 is the ability to download from an evergrowing selection of third party applications. Here are some really good ones for you to try. I’ve listed my ten favorite applications at the top followed by others worthy of honorable mentions.
Click on any of the application titles to visit the iTunes store. Be sure to check back for additions to this list, and if you know of any good iPhone applications that I have overlooked leave me a comment or delicious me the link via for:franklindavis.
Note: My ranking of these applications is based on how much time I spend using them and not necessarily their design quality. I do this because even the best designed magic 8-ball application isn’t going to get as much use as an adequate RSS reader.
StumbleAudio is a free music recommendation site similar to Pandora or Last.fm with one major difference: StumbleAudio only features independent artists. With over 2 million tracks by 120,000 artists you’re sure to find something that pleases your ears. read more » »
This is just a quick note to let everyone know that you can finally sync your Google Calendar with iCal on your Mac. Google today announced that they are enabling CalDAV support for Google Calendar users. The image below shows typical setttings, but you’ll want to go to the official google support page for the full details. This is certainly bad news for spanning sync and busysync as these services are no longer neccessary.
I’ve been an avid reader for more than 20 years, and I am always on the lookout for another good book. Fortunately I no longer have to scan the local library’s shelves in search of a catchy title because Goodreads.com has come to my rescue. Goodreads is a free website for booklovers that allows you to catalog and review what you’ve read and what you’re currently reading while also letting you peruse your friends’ virtual bookshelves. read more » »
Since the iPhone currently lacks Flash support, getting animated weather radar from Weather.com, Weather Underground, or other common weather sources just isn’t possible. Here are some solutions that I’ve found to this problem. Simply load one of the web applications from below in your Mobile Safari browser and then use the bookmark feature to ‘Add to Home Screen.’ This will create a new Radar App icon on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
iWeathr
iWeathr is the best radar app for the iPhone that I have found so far. Navigate to iweathr.com and locate your nearest radar location. Note that you won’t be entering the city where you live but rather the location of a radar installation. For help finding the nearest one to you go here. This implementation allows both rotation and zooming in - very nice!
ave you ever thought to yourself “I wish I could find out when things I like go on sale online. Everything is so expensive now.” Well, those were the words that launched Savvy Circle, a free online service that notifies subscribers whenever the items they want go on sale! Being a girl who likes to take advantage of online bargains, I decided to check it out. read more » »
Foldit is a new computer game that allows individuals to contribute to protein folding research. Think of it as similar to grid processing approaches like the protein folding project (folding@home) or the search for extraterrestrial life forms (SETI@home). However, rather than using millions of computers to try every possible solution/location, this new approach takes advantage of a human’s innate problem solving abilities to narrow down the possible protein configurations which often elminates much of the time required for a computer-generated solution. read more » »
StumbleUpon is a great way to discover new content on the internet. You tell StumbleUpon about your interests and it will show you pages from the internet that you might enjoy (you can try a quick demo if you are wary). The easiest way to use StumbleUpon is via the Firefox add-on (there is an IE version as well - argh). If you aren’t using Firefox you certainly should be since Firefox 3 has raised the bar far above what IE, Safari, or any other broswer is capable of. To get started, download Firefox and the StumbleUpon add-on, then continue reading to discover how to get the most from StumbleUpon. read more » »
Mac OS X (currently Leopard 10.5.3) includes an implementation of the Apache HTTP server. However, it isn’t running by default nor does it have the PHP engine enabled. This guide shows you how to activate Apache with PHP support in a few easy steps. read more » »
Anxiety is a lightweight to-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard from designer and developer Tom Stoelwinder. Anxiety is a very simple and elegant application that allows users to quickly create to-dos. One of its main strengths is the ability to integrate with OS X task management applications such as Mail and iCal. The fact that Anxiety is always available makes it a great option for displaying and managing tasks. Read more to see a more complete review of the application. read more » »
I was more than a little skeptical when NBC jumped ship on iTunes and announced it would create its own video portal. Usually such endeavors crash and burn in dramatic fashion, e.g., ABC.com, AOL Video, and Google’s Video Marketplace. However, as soon as I got my beta invite I was pleasantly surprised with just how good Hulu was. While the content was initially very limited, the interface was well thought out and implemented. As time passed I fell in love with Hulu but I also became frustrated with some of Hulu’s oddities, read more to find out what 5 things I enjoy about Hulu and what 5 things drive me nuts. read more » »
If you have installed software and codecs for watching DVDs on Ubuntu as per this post, then this guide will get you started ripping and burning DVDs using Brasero (the CD/DVD burning application included with Ubuntu) and an application called K9Copy, which is similar to the popular program DVD Shrink for Windows. read more » »
Due to copyrights, Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron 8.04) is distributed without codecs to play many of the most prevalent media formats including DVD video (unencrypted and encrypted), Flash (.swf and .flv extensions), QuickTime movies (.mov ), MP3s (.mp3), Windows Media Audio and Video (.wma and .wmv), and unencrypted ACC files (.acc, .mp4, and .m4a). Luckily, these codecs are easy to install. This guide shows you how. read more » »
At home, I’ve installed a Netatalk Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) file server on a machine running Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) so that I can easily share files between my Macs (mostly running OS X 10.5.3) and the Ubuntu machine (see this post for details). Using an open source network service discovery protocol similar to Apple’s Bonjour called Avahi (see this post for a setup guide), this file server is advertised to Macs on my local area network (LAN). The Netatalk file server works great, but I wanted to configure Netatalk to share an external USB hard drive connected to my Ubuntu file server. I wanted to use the USB hard drive to backup the data on my Macs so that in the event of an emergency (like a fire) I could easily grab my data and run. Here is the steps I took to do this. read more » »
This is just a quick tip to explain how to sync your Mac Address Book (Leopard 10.5.3 only) with Google’s Gmail without needing an iPhone or a .Mac account. If you have an iPhone then you don’t need this tip and can follow these instructions. If you don’t have a Gmail account you’ll need to go here and sign up for one. After you have your Gmail account ready, proceed to step 1. read more » »
One of the great things about iPhone 2.0 is the ability to download from an evergrowing selection of third party applications. Here are some really good ones for you to try. I’ve listed my ten favorite applications at the top followed by others worthy of honorable mentions.
I was more than a little skeptical when NBC jumped ship on iTunes and announced it would create its own video portal. Usually such endeavors crash and burn in dramatic fashion, e.g., ABC.com, AOL Video, and Google’s Video Marketplace. However, as soon as I got my beta invite I was pleasantly surprised with just how good 
