Macgasm

Well, you all might remember back around mid 2009 that Google voice was planning on releasing their iPhone app for Google Voice. All was happy in the tech world, right? Google Voice users would no longer have to pay for a 3rd party app. Then all of a sudden all google voice 3rd party apps were yanked from the app store, and Apple REJECTED Googles official app! What?! The battle went on for a while. Google blamed Apple. Apple blamed AT&T, and then AT&T blamed Apple. Google finally announced that they would make a web app that worked just like their native application. That day has finally come.

Today, January 26 2010, google updated their google voice web app with a whole new look. This is a drastic change from their first web app. You can send and receive SMS through the app. When placing a call though, you will input the number you want to call and google will then call you so it can connect the call. It is still a bit of a work around, but now it is in a much prettier package. Sadly this is probably as close as iPhone users will ever get to an actual Google Voice application, unless they jailbreak their phones.

[Image Credit: TampaBay.com]

I have been an iPhone user since July of 2008. I have used the iPhone OS since September of 2007. Until recently, the iPhone has been my phone of choice. The things that I could accomplish with it were amazing. Well, that is until this last October when I switched over to Android.

I’ve found that I can do so much more with my Android-based phone. It does so much more than my iPhone, and it does it faster. That said, I kept the hope alive. I left my iPhone’s AT&T account active until January 5th. I had every intention of keeping my iPhone activated, but it has gone completely unused since October. AT&T, in my neck of the woods at least, has the best coverage. Letting it go, for that reason alone, was a very difficult decision.

You may ask “Why would you leave AT&T and your iPhone”? Well, the problem is paying $110.00 USD a month to have phone service. This isn’t 1990 when a cell phone plan cost that much for 50 minutes of talk time. This is ten years into the new millennium, and paying that kind of money for cell phone service is a bit steep. Albeit, there are substantially more features available now.

What really made dumping AT&T difficult was talking to the rep over the phone. She was so nice, and she tried so hard to keep me as a customer. The problem kept coming down to monthly service fees. Sure, I could save a bunch of money if I went with throw-away flip phone, but I am a geek. I must have a smart phone. Sadly, I will not be returning to using an iPhone unless Apple makes some drastic changes in the iPhone OS. The lack of customization is a real deal breaker to me. Also, background processes are an absolute must. I get 26 hours of battery on my Android-based phone despite using it more than I ever used my iPhone. My iPhone with that same usage would die after about 5 hours. Apple, you are good with computers. Maybe you should go back to being a computer and MP3 player company. Leave the cell phones for the people that know what they are doing.

Sometimes we take for granted how easy it is to use our Macs. Even deleting an application is as easy as just dragging it to the trash bin. But sometimes when we delete applications, we leave behind some bits of the app. That is why you should try out AppCleaner. AppCleaner is a free, easy to use application uninstaller. All you do is open AppCleaner, drag an application you want to delete to it, and it searches for the files associated with that application, helping you completely remove it from your system. Check out the screencast and see this great app in action.

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The app store is a great place for your iPhone/iPod Touch needs. Be it for games, utilities or entertainment the app store has every thing you need. The best part of the app store is the wonderful amount of free apps!

But this post really isn’t about all the free apps in the app store. This is about developers releasing their app for free, then putting a price on it. I understand needing to make some money, but I have a real problem with a developer thinking that since their app was more popular than they thought it would be, they should start charging. They update their free version to strip down features and put ads in, and they make the new paid version the old free app. This has happened to more than a few apps that I have downloaded and it is really irritating. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem paying for an app. I have paid for most of the apps on my iPhone and iPod Touch. I don’t even have a problem with a developer releasing a 2.0 version of the app that is paid. But don’t strip out features just because you want to make some money on your app. Either keep it free, or release it as a paid app from the get go.

The folks at TomTom are at it again. It seems that since they released their official app back around august that we just can’t get enough of them. From their app, to their car kit, to the iPod Touch TomTom car kit.

But today TomTom has released TomTom USA. TomTom USA includes maps for all 50 states and is available for sale only in the US and Canada. It has also been released at the special introductory price of $49.99. So if you have been waiting to get the TomTom app for your iPhone, Now may be the time to do so.

This was originally going to be a screencast, but I have decided to hold off on that part. It may still become a screencast in the future, but for now this is my review.

BusyCal is a powerful iCal replacement application. Created by BusyMac, the same people that brought you BusySync. BusyCal allows you to easily synchronize your iCal calendar with your Google Calendar and even share your calendars through LAN. Now you may be thinking that this is something you can do in iCal already. But this isn’t just a simply replacement. This application is made for the power users that want more than the basic functions that iCal offers.

At first look, BusyCal looks a lot like iCal. This actually helps a lot when trying to get used to the application. Many of the same features are present as well. If you have used iCal in the past, then using BusyCal will be a breeze to you. But it does so much more. You can add the weather forecast to your calendar, which I immediately did. I was also able to immediately see everything that I had in iCal over in my new BusyCal window. I went ahead and made BusyCal my default calendar and test that they two calendars actually worked together. Of course it was seamless. That to me really is the first selling point, if you are using BusyCal and accidentally open iCal and don’t realize it, your event you added will be in BusyCal. That actually happend to me a few times.The other thing that I really liked about the application was the ability to add graphics to your events. This comes in very handy for a nice quick visual of what is coming up. If you are having a skype conference call, you can put the skype logo with the event. There are tons of ways to make this useful and cute. I can see a lot of people spending a ton of time putting images with events. Something else that I saw myself using quite a bit was the Stickies feature. Being able to just throw up a quick sticky on a date for some extra info about things was fantastic. There were some features that I didn’t use and those were Journal and Banner. I really didn’t find much use, mostly because I didn’t know what I should use them for or what the difference really was.

Overall I would give BusyCal a 4 out of 5. It is super powerful but can be a little confusing if you don’t spend a lot of time in it. Thankfully there is a great guide on their site on how to use BusyCal. BusyCal is also a little on the pricey side. It is $40 USD, however like every thing I review, there is a trial period so you can try before you buy. I think if you give it a try and you are a power user, you will get a ton of use out of this calendar. It has been my primary calendar for months.

iTunes is a terrific app, especially if you have an iPod or iPhone. But what if you have decided to stop using iPods or maybe you have another phone that you want to put your iTunes music on? That is where doubleTwist comes in to play. With doubleTwist you can sync your iTunes library with just about any phone and tons of different mp3 players, you can even sync your PSP with it. Granted, doubleTwist is a separate application, but it is well worth the look at. I use it constantly with my HTC Hero. Another great feature is having the Amazon mp3 store at your fingertips from within the application. But enough of this reading about it, watch the screencast and see for yourself.

The Screencast

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It was not very long ago that I reviewed the TomTom iPhone app. I actually gave it a pretty good review too. Today I received word from TomTom that now the iPhone app is iPod Touch compatible and they will be releasing a second car kit to work with the Touch. This is great news for users that only have an iPod touch and not an iPhone. The price for the app is still $99.99 and no word yet if the car kit for the touch will still be the same price as the iPhone car kit. Look for the new car kit to be available in a few months.