bioneural.net » Mobile

iPhone 2G on O2 Simplicity contract

Bruce — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:09:37 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

If you liked the concept of a new iPhone 3GS but found the contract tariffs and Pay & Go up-front costs unpalatable, now might be a good time to obtain a pre-loved iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G. I have an iPhone 2G which I previously unlocked and used on Vodafone UK, but found myself drawn to O2's offer of unlimited O2 to O2 calls—not to mention avoidance of the need to unlock the device and the hassle around firmware updates that doing so entails. I had to dig around the Interwebs and make a support phone call to discover all I needed to know to get up and running with O2 Simplicity; that knowledge is summarized below. Feel free to contribute any further tidbits! Know the limitations of your phone As a glance at this chart from Apple will show, tethering and MMS are not supported on 2G iPhones: © Apple Despite the implications of this chart, you can receive picture messages on 2G iPhones, in a roundabout way (see below). Incidentally, MMS will apparently work fine on iPhone 3G but tethering requires purchase of a bolt-on plan from O2, although can be enabled without easily enough—but doing so risks disconnection. Know the limitations of your tariff A Simplicity tariff isn't the same as an iPhone tariff; O2 couldn't really make the former too attractive or they'd cannibalise sales of iPhones on contract. For the clear benefit of a month-by-month contract at a lesser price, you have to give something up. Not a lot, to be ...

Dropbox and iPhone sitting in a tree

Bruce — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:40 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

It's amazing how easy it is to fill an 8GB iPhone. While apps like FileMagnet (using a proprietary protocol & desktop companion app) and Air Sharing (WebDAV via your desktop or web browser) provide "documents to go" functionality, this only works if your phone is on the same WiFi network as your desktop—and providing you've enough space left after syncing that episode of Battlestar Galactica! Since the iPhone does not offer expandable storage there are two alternatives. The first is to stream media content to the device (e.g. via BBC iPlayer, Internet radio, or DRM-free iTunes tracks). Alternatively, you could temporarily cache and view a limited range of file types via mobile Safari, or download and store various documents retrieved from your FTP server (e.g. via FTP On The Go, MobileStudio)—or make use of the cloud (e.g. via Dropbox or Box). Getting your files into the cloud Dropbox software is available for Mac, PC, and Linux. When installed it creates a local folder on your desktop machine that is automatically synced to an online filestore. You can connect multiple computers to your Dropbox account so that any edits made on one machine are automatically reflected in the local folder on all linked computers: In addition to using the client software, you can access the contents of your Dropbox from any computer or mobile device with a decent web browser. The web interface is very clean and supports uploading of any file type from your desktop: The web interface for uploaded files in a ...

Add a geo field to iPhone and Address Book

Bruce — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:24:13 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Both the Mac OSX Address Book and Contacts/ Phone apps on the Apple iPhone support a custom "geo" field. You can use this field to store GPS coordinates that will open a Google Map when right-clicked on Mac or tapped on iPhone. The reverse geocoding in Google Maps isn't always perfect; this gives you the option to store a more accurate location alongside a human-readable address. Creating a geo field in iPhone Contacts If you have an existing contact with address details in the iPhone Contacts app, tap on the address to launch Maps: Maps will place a pin at the approximate location of the address for that contact: Tap the blue and white arrow on the tag to see the Info screen, then tap the Share Location button at the bottom left: In the mail message body note the GPS coordinate values and jot these down: Go back into Contacts and edit the address to which you want to add the coordinates. Tap the plus icon to add a new address: Tap the address type button at the bottom right of the next screen: Now select geo as the address type: Enter the coordinates you jotted down earlier into the first field: After editing the coordinates should display underneath the existing address: Tapping these coordinates on the iPhone will launch Maps (although you may notice odd pin labels—not sure why that is). After sync you should see the corresponding geo field in Address Book under Mac OSX: If you don't have an existing Contact address you can of course start with ...

Google Latitude

Bruce — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:55:46 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Google Latitude, functionally similar to afore-mentioned Fire Eagle, allows computer and mobile phone users to upload and share (or hide) location updates manually or automatically—which are plotted on a Google Map. Latitude for iPhone is "coming soon". No word yet on integration with the Google Maps API. Rumour has it that location-awareness is coming to Mac OSX 10.6—potential for another Apple-Google partnership?

First track logger for iPhone released

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

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 ...