bioneural.net » Mobile

First track logger for iPhone released

Bruce — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:55:08 +0000

Hot on the heels of the first geocaching tool for iPhone, iTrail by Justin Davis (£1.80) records your position and altitude over time to calculate speed and distance (horizontal and vertical) travelled during sports activities—a great addition to the growing list of fitness-related apps for the device. Tracks are stored locally for comparison, but GPX and KML export is planned (and should permit use for geotagging with a "real" camera). Meantime you can graphically plot distance vs. speed or altitude (preview) and view your tracks on a Google Map (preview) within this very cool app.

RouteBuddy To Go for your iPhone

Bruce — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:48:43 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

I've been spending a lot of time lately using RouteBuddy (more on that soon), and also too much time playing with various apps from the App Store for iPhone/ iPod touch. Among other functions RouteBuddy allows you to create high-quality road maps upon which you can plot custom points-of-interest (waypoints), or display track logs and route plans. While these maps may look stunning on a 23" Cinema Display as you zoom in and out, that's not hardware you can tuck under your arm as you explore unfamiliar streets on foot. True, you could just print the maps, but Apple's iPhone offers a high resolution yet compact viewport—so why not go paper free? There are several native apps for iPhone that make this prospect enticing; here's how to fake your own RouteBuddy To Go and how to create waypoints in RouteBuddy using your iPhone's location awareness. Take your RouteBuddy maps mobile Firstly, this method assumes that you have purchased RouteBuddy and have licensed suitable mapping (you can of course use other map data e.g. Google Maps) and that you have purchased FileMagnet from Magnetism (or, pending release, an alternative file sync solution and viewer for iPhone). Open RouteBuddy and maximize the map view to encompass the area you are interested in. You can capture this map in one of two FileMagnet-compatible ways: Enter Command-Shift-4 on the keyboard to bring up the crosshair tool and drag it across the dimensions of the map view then release to make a screen capture. Rename the Picture 1.png file ...

WordPress for iPhone

Bruce — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:29:17 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

WordPress for iPhone is now available via the iTunes App Store and is compatible with both self-hosted and WordPress.com blogs. Photobloggers will appreciate that images taken with their iPhones can be included in posts and previewed with Safari. As with desktop clients, changes introduced in WordPress 2.6 mean you'll need to enable "insecure" XML-RPC services to permit remote publishing/ editing, otherwise will get an error (preview). It appears this 1.0 app ignores your ramblings after the more tag (preview), severely limiting its use.

Personal productivity on Mac and iPhone

Bruce — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:36:58 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

As mentioned in an earlier post on using faux Contacts for collecting, managing, and synching tasks offline on the iPhone, I've been reading Getting things done (GTD) by David Allen. I have to say I found the book a difficult, overly repetitive and non-engaging read, despite my motivation to learn from it. If you could get a lot of things done in the time it takes to read 267 anecdote-heavy pages, here's my somewhat condensed take on the bits worth sharing, along with a few Mac-specific embellishments. This is Part two of a two-part series exploring GTD using a Mac and iPhone. It may make more sense if you review Part one first. Introduction I've been hooked on task lists since I first installed Claris Organizer 1.0 from floppy disk (remember those?) onto my PowerBook 100. Organizer incorporated Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Tasks into a single interface—and I do appreciate integration. That app evolved into Palm Desktop and when I bought a Palm V in 1999 my obsessive list-keeping became mobile and subsequently synchronised via various apps including Entourage, iCal, iSync, and Missing Sync. While recent apps like OmniFocus and Things are rather pretty and more GTD-savvy, I'd prefer to rely the Apple-supplied tools I already have. Doing so is simpler (the less tools involved the better—that's one of Allen's recommendations), less costly, and makes use of the typically well-executed integration between Apple apps and devices. Reconciling task and time management Notice I said "typically" well-executed integration. Sadly integration of calendars, tasks, and notes between ...

Using faux Contacts for GTD on the iPhone

Bruce — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:16:28 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Despite strong indications of an imminent second generation 3G iPhone, the recent £100 price drop on the 8GB iPhone proved too tempting. I had hesitated because the iPhone failed to meet my minimum requirements for basic PDA functionality. With 1Password mostly overcoming the secure data exchange obstacle, the remaining challenge was to find a network-independent way of managing and synchronising tasks ("to do" items). I've also been wading through David Allen's book Getting Things Done in a search for ways to improve my personal productivity. Could I cherry-pick the key principles of the GTD religion and apply them on the iPhone using only the built-in apps? This is Part one of a two-part series exploring GTD using a Mac and iPhone. Part two is here. The essence of GTD The OmniFocus Basics Video does a good job of distilling the core ideas in the GTD method. It outlines three concepts: Actions are something you can physically do in a single step; Projects are activities that require more than one physical action to complete; Contexts are physical requirements for carrying out actions (e.g. being at work, at home, connected to the Internet, etc.) The video also summarizes three workflow steps to getting things done: Capture all outstanding individual ("atomic") actions; Organize those actions by grouping them into projects and/ or context; Do the outstanding actions. Let's put that graphically (adding horizontal reorganization as part of ongoing review): I'm not being strict about contexts being a physical place, person or thing: in my world a context can be a frame of mind, or an ...

iPhone wallpapers for homesick Kiwis

Bruce — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:52:51 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Everyone loves customizing new toys and making wallpapers for your phone is probably one of the easier ways to do it (a lot easier, for example, than trying to find an inexpensive yet good-looking protective case!). I took a selection of images from Project Koru are turned them into three thematic wallpaper sets for my iPhone using this great Photoshop template. Blue Welly We love Wellington. We miss it and this makes us feel blue at times; the Windy City also has blue skies more often than those above us in England. These are evident in the Blue Welly wallpapers, featuring public sculptures around the city. The images in this set show: The Fern Ball in the Civic Centre; One of the totem poles on the City to Sea Bridge; One of the metal nikau palms outside the Public Library; The Weta Workshop Tripod in Courtenay Place. Click thumbnail to enlarge imageBlue welly iPhone wallpapers Godzone patterns New Zealand has a lot of different landscapes in relatively close proximity, making it an ideal place for the photographic pursuit of natural pattern spotting. The images in this set show: The golden sands of Abel Tasman National Park in Golden Bay; The leaf structure of the New Zealand tree fern; The rippled surface of Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds; A dense stand of manuka (NZ tea tree) on the slopes of Mt. Taranaki (looking rather like a wooden barcode). Click thumbnail to enlarge imageGodzone patterns iPhone wallpapers Kiwi icons I've touched on iconic Kiwi symbols before (and noted a couple of icon sets). The images in ...

Workarounds for iPhone foibles

Bruce — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:45:44 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Maybe the whole concept of in-phone, out-of-date apps is itself out-of-date? Apple would seem to think so, asking iPhone users to "expand" the capabilities of their device by taking it online. Doing so has drawbacks (e.g. relying on a network signal and cost-effective data plans) and doesn't always provide a solution. In a follow-up to my previous post I look at possible workarounds for the iPhone's "missing features". People seem to be raving about how well it does what it does, so far less elegant workarounds are the only way to address the iPhones limited functionality at launch. The following list is composed from the features I considered lacking in my personal functionality wish list: The lack of an in-phone task (to-do list) manager (with Mac sync) could be addressed with the arrival of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), but for now Ta-da List has an iPhone friendly view (free); The lack of text note synching (Notes does not sync) again might be addressed in Leopard. For now one way to sync notes would be to use an IMAP e-mail account with Mail on the iPhone; The lack of an in-phone password manager (with Mac sync) is a tough obstacle. I can't think of a way to overcome this that doesn't depend on network access to a secure online file store; You can't scribble quick notes or draw rough pictures using a built-in app, but maybe you don't need to if you can display photos (e.g. a map showing how to get to your house) ...

Mac-friendly alternatives to Apple's 1G iPhone

Bruce — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:04:28 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

The iPhone has arrived in the US. Even if it were available in New Zealand I still wouldn't buy one. I'm happy to wait for the large beta-test program (i.e. 1 in 5 US adults) to refine the product first. That said, I've been looking for a way to converge my mobile devices (phone, PDA, iPod) for some time. Sadly the 1st generation iPhone does not look like the device to fill this need. Relative to other Mac-friendly alternatives it comes up uniquely short in a number of areas on my feature wish-list. But of course I haven't seen or held it in the "flesh", and it is only a 1G device—so I can't be overly critical. Or can I? Most of the pre-launch focus has been on iPhone's interface (not unimportant), but what about comparative features? It's clear that while the iPhone offers few unique features (iTMS DRM playback, bookmark syncing) it's also immediately apparent that, relative to comparable products, the iPhone has the most limitations. I've been a Palm user since 1999, owning a Palm V, an m505, and (currently) a Tungsten T3: I also use an ageing Sony Ericsson T610 and an iPod (1G deceased; currently an iPod Photo). It would be nice to carry around one device instead of three (ditto on the chargers); I had hoped that device might be the iPhone: So the iPhone has arrived. I posted on the perfect PDA + phone back in 2005—it still hasn't arrived. With Palm OS so obviously stagnating ...

iPhone features Maori carving wallpaper

Bruce — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:35:28 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Apple recently posted a tour of the forthcoming iPhone. Watching the presentation I was surprised to see one of the default wallpapers is the face of a tiki (a wood carving of the human figure). The Maori style is typically curvilinear (most Polynesian art is rectilinear in style). The face in the wallpaper looks very similar to the one on the New Zealand 10 cent coin: Wallpapers on the iPhone (© Apple, Inc.) It's a bit hard to make out much detail in the screen capture. Here is a wall figure (representing an ancestor) from inside Tokomaru Bay Marae which better demonstrates the intricacy of many such designs: Maori ancestor (© B McKenzie, available here)

Keeping in touch and online in New Zealand

Bruce — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:46:33 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

We knew we would spend the first month of our stay in a Wellington apartment that had no phone line. We also knew that our UK-sourced mobile phones would work fine in New Zealand. Furthermore, being addicted to fond of Internet access, we knew we would want to get online as soon as possible (OK, "we" in this context means Bruce). More than two-thirds of New Zealanders have home Internet access—and you can't go back to dial-up once you've tasted the broadband fruit. So what were our options? What is Project Koru? The code name of our "great escape" from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey. Short-term Internet options Internet cafés virtually litter the streets of Wellington. As for wireless, prepaid cards for access to Telecom WiFi hotspots are available in Starbucks and other stores ($NZ10 for an hour). CaféNET is a cost-effective alternative (from $NZ10 for 24 hours) with numerous hotspots in downtown Wellington. As things turned out we didn't need to utilize these options, since we were (semi-) online in the apartment the day after arrival. Wireless options Woosh use a "3G" UMTS network that has geographically limited coverage (most of Wellington is served). A 1.6Mbps/ 125 Kbps (downstream/ upstream) connection with a 5GB monthly data and phone rental costs $NZ69.95 $NZ59.95 from 1 Nov 2006 ($NZ198 activation ...