The iPhone Blog
The iPhone Blog |
- Mobile Nations Fitness Month round up!
- Fitbit Ultra review
- Ringtonium review: The best ringtone creation app for iPhone
- Windows 8 Consumer Preview now available for download
- Incipio SILICRYLIC Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 only $17.95 [Daily deal]
- Beat Sneak Bandit for iPhone review
- ATF set to ditch BlackBerry in favor of the more functional iPhone
- Transform your photos into typographic works of art with WordFoto for iPhone
- iHealth Blood Pressure Dock review
| Mobile Nations Fitness Month round up! Posted: 29 Feb 2012 04:31 PM PST
The month may be over, but the Mobile Nations quest to use our phones and tablets, apps and accessories to get stronger, faster, and healthier continues!February was fitness month at Mobile Nations, the month we sought to keep our new year’s hopes and dreams of thinner waistlines and fitter bodies alive. Week after week we picked reasonable, attainable goals and strove to keep them — eating less and better, moving farther and more frequently, lifting more than ever before. From Android Central to CrackBerry.com, from iMore to WPCentral to webOS Nation, we checked out all the best ways to use our phones and tablets to improve our mobile lives, and all the top apps and accessories focused on our health and fitness. And you did it right along with us in our Health and Fitness Forum! So here we are, at the end of the month, having achieved tremendous successes, suffered occasional setbacks, but sticking together and seeing it through. And this is far from the end — we’re going to keep covering eHealth/iHealth and eFitness/iFitness year round. We’re also going to focus on health and fitness again, and we’re going to bring in some experts to help us bring you even better, more helpful coverage. But for now it’s time to enjoy a well deserved break. A cheat meal. A rest between sets. Take a seat, crack open a shake, and relax. Here’s your Mobile Nations fitness month round up!
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| Posted: 29 Feb 2012 04:18 PM PST
Even though Mobile Nations Fitness Month is coming to a close, you should still continue to improve your fitness. One such device that may help you in this endeavor is the Fitbit Ultra, a tiny little gadget that clips to your clothing and keeps track of how many steps you’ve taken, flights you’ve climed, and calories burned. I’ve been using the Fitbit Ultra for about 3 weeks. Hardware and use
As previously mentioned, the Fitbit is a tiny little device that clips onto your clothing. The makers recommend either clipping it to your pocket, putting in your pocket, or clipping it to your bra. The Fitbit also comes with a belt clip attachment. To use your Fitbit, simply keep it on your person everywhere you go. There is a single button on the device and pressing it will cylce through your current stats for number of steps taken, miles traversed, calories burned, and flights climbed. It also has a flower that represents how active you’ve been – a longer stem represent more activity. To record an activity such as running, riding a bike, or even using a jumprope, just hold down the button until you see the timer start. When you’re done, hold it down again to stop the timer. You do the exact same thing to track your sleep. The Fitbit is smart enough to realize that if there’s virtually no movement, you must be sleeping. Unfortuately, the Fitbit is not water proof, so for water activites, like swimming, you’ll have to manually log the activity either on the website or the app. Syncing your Fitbit and battery life
The Fitbit comes with a little dock that doubles as a battery charger and syncing station. It plugs into your computer via USB and is very small, so it doesn’t take up much space on your desk. To sync your fitbit, all you need to do is be within 15 feet of the dock and the sync will happen over the air. If you wish to manually force a sync, you can connect the Fitbit to its dock. Unfortunately, this is the only way to sync your Fitbit. It’s a shame that it can’t sync to your iPhone via bluetooth. Connecting to the dock is also how you charge the Fitbit, which doesn’t actually need to be done that often. Granted, I don’t use the stopwatch as often as other people might, but I’ve only needed to charge the Fitbit twice in three weeks. Not bad. Wristband for sleep trackingI’m just going to jump right out and say that I hate the wristband that comes with the Fitbit. It’s annoying to put on and doesn’t fit me well. Apparently I have small wrists, because even with the wristband secured at its smallest setting, it’s still not very snug on me. The wristband is made out of a nice, soft material and has a small cutout for your Fitbit to go. The problem is that it’s equipped with a velcro closure. After about 2 weeks of use, the velcro on my strap was halfway torn off on one side – the outer side – making it snag on blankets. I don’t even want to think of what it’d to do my hair if it was long. Because of this, I’ve stopped using my wristband entirely. Instead, I just clip the Fitbit onto the beltstrap of my PJs. Fitbit website Fitbit dashboard The primary way to view the information gathered by your fitbit is on the web. You’ll be able to see a breakdown of all your activity, sleep, and calorie intake as well as log any food, activities or sleep that you were unable to record with your fitbit. It also creates nice graphs and charts to visually display your data and get a closer look at your activity pattens. For example, let’s say you learned that you took 8000 steps from the summary. You can then scroll down to see a bar graph of how many steps you took each hour to see which part of the day you were most active. The website is great and all, but we’re iPhone users and need something while we’re on the go. That’s where the Fitbit app comes in. Fitibit App
I wish I could say the Fitbit app is awesome, but it actually leaves a lot to be desired. What it does do, however, it does great. The main tab is where you’ll find a summary of your activity (number of steps taken, floors climbed, and calories burned), food and calorie intake, and water consumption. You can also log activity, food, water, and weight from their respective tabs. The UI is nice, intuitive, and visually appealing. The biggest thing missing from the Fitbit app is sleep logs. Sleep tracking was one of the features I was most looking forward to from the Fitbit, so I was extremely disappointed that I’d have to visit the website to view any of my sleep data. The Fitbit app also does not show graphs and charts of your activity like the website does. And although you can look over data from previous days, there isn’t a way to your averages over the past 30 days like you can on the website. One thing to keep in mind when using the Fitbit app is that it’s pulling all the information from the website, not your Fitbit, so the data will not be updated until you get close enough to your computer for your Fitbit to sync. So don’t be alarmed when the app isn’t updating while you’re out and about. You can always look on the Fitbit itself to see your current stats. The good news is that the Fitbit app isn’t your only choice for using with your Fitbit. One area in particular that is a little weak is tracking your food and calorie intake. We recommend MyFitnessPal to use as a companion app with your Fitbit to better meet those needs.
The Good
The Bad
The conclusionWill the Fitbit make you get in shape? No. Does it have the potential to motivate you to be more active? Absolutely. There’s something about seeing the numbers that makes me want to be more active. Admittedly, I haven’t have been as active as I want (as shown in my screenshots), but there are some personal home life issues influencing that. It’s the little things and small decisions that have changed. For example, yesterday, I was waiting for my husband to pick me up from work and instead of standing there for 15 minutes, I decided to walk towards the direction that my husband would be coming from. This small decision added an additional 600 steps to my day but didn’t take any extra time — I was going to be standing around during that time anyway. Although not directly related to fitness, I also genuinely told my husband that “it’s ok, I needed the walk, anyway” when he apologized for being late. This is a change to my overall outlook on being active. So even though I, personally, haven’t made any huge physical changes because of the Fitbit, I’m still happy with my purchase. I’ve only had it for a few weeks and the impact it’s had on my mentality towards activity is valuable. I’m confident that I will make those physical changes soon and the Fitbit is a daily encouragement to make that move. Baby steps. Literally. $99.95 – Buy Now
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| Ringtonium review: The best ringtone creation app for iPhone Posted: 29 Feb 2012 10:34 AM PST
Ringtonium is simple and easy to use, and best of all saves you money by letting you use your already purchased songs as ringtones.Ringtonium is the best app for creating custom ringtones — and alert tones — on your iPhone. While record labels are happy to resell you ringtones for the same tracks you’ve already bought — often at the same or even higher prices than the full song — if you don’t mind a few quick steps, you can save some money and get exactly the ringtone you want, exactly the way you want it. Although there are plenty of ringtone creation apps available in the App Store to do just that, none of them are a well rounded or useful as Ringtonium. The user-interface is extremely easy to use and builds on some of the unique syncing abilities available in iTunes, along with a number of outside apps like SoundCloud, and of course social network sharing.  Dialing down to specific start and stop times with Ringtonium's fine-tune slider and associated dial Upon launching the app you’ll be asked to choose between an existing track from the iPod music library, or creating your own track by using the iPhone’s built-in microphone. Once you’ve got a track to work with, you can then jump into the mix and get into the details with a fine-tuned audio scrubber for selecting your start and stop times. If you need even more control over your start/stop times, Ringtonium offers a dial with the ability to drill down to milliseconds for absolute precision. If you chose to record from the microphone, the quality is remarkably high and distortion free, even at higher input volumes. That’s surprising and very welcome.  Adding effects in Ringtonium using their built-in FX feature is easy Ringtonium also has an included FX panel where you can add fade in and fade out, adjust the pitch or reverse the audio, and add flange or echo effects. The quality of the included effects are top-notch and Ringtonium lets you go for the longest ringtone duration Apple allows — something most other ringtone apps haven’t caught onto yet.  Exporting custom ringtones with Ringtonium The Good
The Bad
The conclusionRingtonium is simple and easy to use, and best of all saves you money by letting you use your already purchased songs as ringtones. If you’ve been looking for the best ringtone app for your iPhone, look no further than Ringtonium — it’s the best option currently available and excels in every area. $0.99 — App Store Link
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| Windows 8 Consumer Preview now available for download Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:32 AM PST
Sure iPhones and iPads are made by Apple, but many if not most iOS users are also Windows users, and just today Microsoft has made their next-generation operating system available for test driving via the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
That all-new touch interface is Metro, brought over from Windows Phone 7 and designed to make everything from ultralight slates to full on desktops are easy and fun to use as Microsoft’s mobile offerings have become. It’s a a similar end-goal if decidedly different approach than Apple is taking with iOS and the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion — making computing more consistent and accessible to mainstream users. Microsoft has a lot of good information — and tons of videos — up on their Windows 8 Consumer Preview website, including how to get started, rundowns of all the key features including apps, web, and the cloud, as well as an FAQ to help you out. Windows 8 will also work on tablets, and on the same ARM-based chipsets that other mobile devices do, meaning it finally lets Microsoft field a true competitor to the iPad. Given Windows’ massive install base, especially in enterprise, that could prove interesting. More interesting, however, is the clearly consumer-centric — it’s right there in the name — focus of this preview. Microsoft is bringing the fight for mainstream computing right to Apple. And they’re doing it with style. How well do Metro and multitouch translate to the PC? Can mobile and desktop, finger and mouse pointer, really live together with no compromises at all? If you’ve got a spare box or room for another virtual machine, get the Consumer Preview, give it a spin, and let us know. (Also let us know how iTunes works, or doesn’t work, and how happy you are iOS has gone PC free!) Download: Windows 8 Consumer Preview 
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| Incipio SILICRYLIC Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 only $17.95 [Daily deal] Posted: 29 Feb 2012 06:44 AM PST
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| Beat Sneak Bandit for iPhone review Posted: 29 Feb 2012 04:51 AM PST
A fun, infectious, and colorful re-imagining of the classic rhythm game, Beat Sneak Bandit hits all the right notes.In Beat Sneak Bandit for iPhone, touching the screen anywhere in time with the rhythm navigates a sly thief through a mansion equipped with all manner of surveillance, trap doors, and winding staircases. It’s the same principle but a decidedly different feel than plowing through notes of a song as you might in Tap Tap Revolution or Rock Band. Every stage has a single primary objective which you have to reach without getting caught. If you can swing it, there are four secondary items to steal as well. The problem is, if you don’t move in rhythm with the level’s music, one of those objectives on your current floor will self-destruct. If you collect enough of them, though, you’ll unlock some bonus stages in each of the game’s chapters.  Beat Sneak Bandit is an unlikely (but surprisingly fun) mesh of rhythm and stealth games. Beat Sneak Bandit is a universal app, so you can ply your thievery on iPhone and iPod touch, as well as iPad. So what exactly are you stealing? Clocks, from a ne’er-do-well millionnaire called Duke Clockface, who is trying to build a time-freezing machine. Levels include intercoms where you can get hints from your partner-in-crime, Herbie the frog, or be taunted by the Duke himself. As you can tell, the visual style is very distinctive, and the animation is no let-down either. Everything moves in time with the music, even small details in the level background. By the end of a chapter, you tend to be pretty tired of the same tune, but luckily, the bonus stages have different music, and each new chapter changes things up again.  Duke Clockface's mansion is packed with security guards, trap doors, spotlights, and plenty more obstacles. The levels can be absolutely devious. You can only switch directions when you bump into a wall (or the back of a security guard), and that’s something you need to plan well in advance when dropping down trap doors to lower levels or trying to get up stairs. I’m a huge fan of the control scheme, since it’s essentially a one-button game. There are no virtual buttons cluttering up the display area, so there are no targets to miss on that front – you can just focus on getting the rhythm right. While that leaves little depth of skill development, it’s tricky enough juggling rhythm and visibility at the same time. The only qualm I have with the gameplay is that if you fail a level often enough, Herbie sticks his condescending froggie head where it doesn’t belong by suggesting you skip the level. Hey, Herbie – I’m a big boy, I can handle this clock-thieving stuff just fine, okay? Thanks.
The good
The bad
The conclusionWhile the goofy dialogue, dead-simple controls and cartoony graphics may lend the game to a younger audience, I found Beat Sneak Bandit’s music to be catchy enough and the levels challenging enough to make the game a rewarding experience. The $2.99 pricetag may be more than you’re willing to shell out for a casual title, but it’s nice to not be harassed with microtransaction options in a high quality game for a change. In the end, the biggest thing Beat Sneak Bandit brings to the table is a fun, infectious, and colorful style. If the signature look isn’t enough to keep you hooked, the simple mechanic may eventually bore gamers looking for something a little more complex. In my opinion, Beat Sneak Bandit hits all the right notes. $2.99 – Buy now              
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| ATF set to ditch BlackBerry in favor of the more functional iPhone Posted: 29 Feb 2012 12:49 AM PST
The ATF (US department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) is ditching its deployment of BlackBerry smartphones in favor of a majority of iPhones. This is another high profile organisation that has decided that the BlackBerry does not offer them the ease of use or the functionality that the iPhone and other smartphones can offer. The big changeover is expected to take place next month and will involve the replacement of a whopping 2,400 BlackBerry devices with iPhones. The iPhones will be assigned to special agents that work in the field. The ATF is currently changing its mobile infrastructure before ordering the new iPhones. "We're going to delete the BlackBerry from the mix," Rick Holgate, ATF's chief information officer, said in an interview. "The government has been very comfortable with the BlackBerry model for 10 years," he said. "Now we’re looking to move beyond that." The company's BlackBerry — with its secure email and back-end infrastructure — has dominated federal agencies for years. Holgate said keeping BlackBerry infrastructure in place when the agency is clearly shifting away from the device doesn't make economic sense. Functionality, however, was the main decision behind the shift to the iPhone, he said. "Video streaming, GPS capability, capabilities, the camera … a variety of things," Holgate said. "Yes, these things exist on BlackBerrys, but in terms of ease of use and adaptability of the devices, the iPhones are the more functional and compelling use case."The ATF will continue the BlackBerry replacement program with a mixture of other smartphones for its remaining 1400 employees. It is also running a pilot scheme involving the use of 200 iPads that is due to end soon. Source: Politico 
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| Transform your photos into typographic works of art with WordFoto for iPhone Posted: 28 Feb 2012 11:46 PM PST
A picture is worth a thousand words — and WordFoto takes this quite literally by artistically splattering meaningful words all over your photos, transforming them into typographic works of art. Creating your masterpieces is simple — just add the words you wish to appear in your photo and WordFoto will choose where and how large the words appear on your image and apply a filter. You can also choose from 8 preset styles or create your own by choosing the colors for shadows/highlights and adjusting saturation, brightness, contrast, padding, and font. You can store up to 8 of these custom styles that can be quickly accessed for other photos. If you still want to make a few more adjustments, head to the “finetune” tab where you can make further changes to the edge, edge threshold, and color tolerance. You can also force the entire image to be re-rendered for other word placement options. Speaking of word placement, sometimes the wrong words end up emphasized. For example, in this example, the most important word should be “California”, yet WordFoto made “state” the largest word in the photo.
WordFoto definitely needs to include the ability to mark the importance of the words. After many rendering attempts, this was the closest I could get to focusing on the word “California”.
My other complaint is that you cannot share directly with Twitter. You can only share to your Cameral Roll (from where you can then tweet), Facebook, and email. Despite these two changes I’d like to see, I still recommend WordFoto for creating photos with a message because it does this very well and quite beautifully. Not to mention, WordFoto is extremely easy to use $1.99 – Download Now        
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| iHealth Blood Pressure Dock review Posted: 28 Feb 2012 10:44 PM PST
The iHealth Dock is the perfect accessory for any iPhone or iPad owner who wants or needs to measure their blood pressure or heart rate.
Setup is easy. You plug the dock into to charge, and either use it while plugged in, or let it charge and then take anywhere you need to go. The mobility is excellent. Once you’ve downloaded the app to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, plug your iPhone into the dock and place the cuff around your arm. You want the cuff roughly at the level of your heart. (I do my ZEN and TECH-style deep breathing whenever I take measurements to make sure my stress level doesn’t overly affect the results.) Just tap the button on the app to start. The iHealth Blood Pressure Dock will tell you the range of your results, and it’s very easy to share the information if you so choose. It’s also very easy to review your history and you can even graph the results to help you better visualize them.  Setting up iHealth is incredibly easy. Just plug in the dock, wrap on the cuff, and tap the button on the app. The cuff measures using the oscillometric method, with automatic inflation up to pressure levels of 295mmHg, measurement ranges of 45-250mmHg, and with an accuracy of ±3mmHg. Pulse range is 40-180 beats per minute with an accuracy of ±5%. That’s good enough for me for home use (but if you have any concerns, please check with your doctor). As with any accessory, you only get out of it what you put into it. I left the iHealth Blood Pressure Dock in the bathroom so it was easy to see and I was reminded to use it before I brush my teeth. Creating good habits is important. For anyone that’s hypertensive or has high blood pressure or a heart condition, it’s a wonderful accessory.  The iHealth BPM app lets you effortlessly run tests, track results for you and your family, and share with your health-care professional. iHealth also shows just how powerful our iPhones and iPads can be, opening up access to technology that used to be only available at health-care facilities. Their ease of use and their ability to display information enables us to do more right at home than ever before. I’m really, really excited to see just how far these types of accessories can be taken, and how far our iPhones and iPads can take us. The good
The bad
The conclusionThe iHealth Dock is the perfect accessory for any iPhone or iPad owner who wants or needs to measure their blood pressure or heart rate. If you have a medial condition or stress-related issues, or you know someone who does, the iHealth Dock and its companion app are definitely something you should consider. $89.23 – Buy now
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