Using only iPads and iPhones as instruments, North Point Community Church’s iBand performed Carol of the Bells, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and Feliz Navidad to a delighted audience.

If this got you all inspired and you want to try to create your own Christmas iBand, here’s a list of all the apps used in the video (talent not included):

SoundGrid ($2.99, Universal), NLog Free Synth (Free, iPhone), Melody Bell ($0.99, iPhone), Guitarist ($3.99, iPhone), iGOG ($2.99, iPhone), Bassist ($2.99, iPhone), Pocket Organ ($2.99, Universal), Saxophone Musicofx ($0.99, iPhone) , Percussions ($1.99, iPhone), Bebot ($1.99, Universal), Pianist ($3.99, iPhone) and I Am T-Pain ($0.99, iPhone).

You can also check out NorthPoint’s Christmas album on their website.

Do you know of any other cool acts using iPads and iPhones? Post a comment.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

What’s Macgasmic?

Usually I don’t particularly care for developers using custom UIs just for the sake of being custom. But Droplr for iPhone is so incredibly gorgeous that it’s completely worth it. And to match the beautiful UI the app’s sounds are an absolute delight and make Droplr a joy to use

Droplr lets you access all the uploads from your Mac and also upload files directly from your iPhone. To upload something you simply select the “+” buttton on the top navigation bar and you can select an image from your library, shorten a link from the clipboard or compose a new note. It’s all very easy and quick. When you click on  ”drop” a new menu will appear on the bottom with these options: quicklook, copy link, email, send to Twitter and delete. You can also “pull to refresh” to update the app with your new uploads if you happen to add something from your Mac.

What’s not so good?

When you want to post a “drop” to Twitter you’re asked to select your client of choice. While there is a huge selection of clients to choose from if you happen to use a lesser known one you’re out of luck since there’s no other way to post to Twitter. It probably won’t be a problem for most people but I thought it was still worth mentioning.

I would also like some more organization (by folders, by type) instead of having all my “drops” in one big list. The current system is fine if you don’t have a lot of them but if you do and want to find something specific it might be a bit too much work.

Giveaway

With this review we’re also giving away 5 promo codes of Droplr for iPhone (US only). If you want a chance to win just follow these three steps:

1. Follow @macgasm on Twitter.
2. Tweet this message “Win one of five copies of Droplr for iPhone from Macgasm. Details and review here: http://bit.ly/ahyZuw”.
3. Post a comment here with a link to your tweet.

That’s it! I’ll randomly pick the winners on Friday, October 22th. Good luck!

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

How does it work?

When you first open the app, there’s a screen that briefly explains what you can do with Stylebook. Then you have the main screen where you can choose, from the buttons on the bottom, between Closet, Looks, Calendar, and More.

From the Closet, you can upload pics of your clothes and organize them in the different categories. You can add custom categories and edit the existing ones.

Looks is where you organise your clothes into outfits. Each outfit also goes into its own category (work, evening, formal, etc.). In addition to adding clothes/shoes/accessories to each outfit, you can also add an inspiration pic (explained below).

In the Calendar, you can add what you wore each day so you can make sure you’re not wearing the same outfits too often and you can also use it to plan your future wardrobes or what you’re going to wear to an upcoming special event.

There’s also an Inspiration tab where you can add pics (from fashion magazines, friends, etc) for you to get inspiration for your own outfits.

In the More tab, there are several tips explaining how to use the app and, most notably, how to better photograph your clothes and remove the background.

What’s Macgasmic?

When you create looks, you can pinch to make items bigger or smaller which is very helpful if you photographed your clothes from different distances. You can also layer them to get a better idea of how your outfit is going to look.

The included automatic background remover isn’t perfect, but Stylebook gives you plenty of tips on how to photograph your clothes, what color backgrounds to use to make everything smoother and there’s even a manual edit mode to fix what the background remover couldn’t.

What needs work?

Currently, you have to edit out the background of each pic as soon as you upload it. There’s no option to save it so that you can edit it later. It would be better if you could photograph a bunch of clothes at once and edit them all later. This limitation is also a problem if you make a mistake while removing the background. That is to say, there’s no going back after saving the pic.

Another thing that needs work is adding clothes to outfits: you can only select one item at a time which can be time consuming if you have a look with lots of layers and accessories.

As a girl who always packs too much, I would also love a packing list feature. That way I could try to optimise my packing by trying to pack items that could be used in different outfits.

It might seem like it’s too much work to photograph and upload all your clothes. If you do manage that, Stylebook can be an amazing tool. You can use it while shopping to see how something would look with your clothes back home. You can use it to plan your outfits for the week to avoid those “I have nothing to wear” mornings. If you’re lucky enough to have more clothes than you can keep track of, it’s very useful to help you find what you’re looking for.

Giveaway

With this review we’re also doing a giveaway. If you want a chance to win a promocode for Stylebook (US only) just follow these three steps:

1. Follow @macgasm on Twitter.
2. Tweet this message “Win a copy of Stylebook from Macgasm. Details and review here: http://bit.ly/bWxzuz”.
3. Post a comment here with a link to your tweet.

That’s it! I’ll randomly pick a winner Friday, October 1st. Good luck!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Congrats to LucaDB!  We’ll be in touch over Twitter.

Photo credit: kandyjaxx

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

What’s Macgasmic?

When you open Movie Vault, you’re presented with beautiful wooden shelves where the movies are displayed. When you click on one you get a pane with all the details about the movie including descriptions, actors, director, etc. All this information is fully-searchable so that each movie is just one quick search away.

To switch genre you can swipe the shelves left or right. There’s also a button on the top left corner to choose the genre you want. You can pick from Horrror, Drama, Musicals, Westerns, Comedy, and several more. Here you also have have a search button in case you’re looking for something more specific. To be honest, I felt the search button was somewhat hidden. I think it should be more obvious that this is where it is located.

In addition to the over 1200 movies currently available in Movie Vault, more movies are added all the time. Even better than that is that you don’t even need an update to get them. They will automatically appear in the app when they’re added to its database. On the top right corner there’s also a reload button in case you want to check if anything new has just been added.

What else I would like

Currently you can only display the movies by genre. I would like an option to display all the available movies and to be able to organize them by date, name, etc. to make everything easier to find. Also at this point there’s no way to mark or save the movies you want to see, so if there are a few of them you’re interested in, you have to search again when you’re ready to watch them. Another thing that would be nice is live searching, so that movies matching my criteria will appear as soon as I start typing. This might seem like a tiny detail, but what can I say? iOS has got me spoiled.

For the most part Movie Vault works extremely well. It’s very smooth and it looks amazing. The movies start playing almost instantaneously, as long as you have a fast connection, and the quality is ok considering most of these movies never came out on DVD. I’ve had the random crash, but I was told a fix is on the way.

Most of the features I’m wishing for are already planned, so I’m looking forward to future updates since this app promises to only get better and better.

Giveaway

With this review we’re also doing a giveaway. If you want a chance to win a promocode for Movie Vault for iPad (US only), just follow these three steps:

1. Follow @macgasm on Twitter.
2. Tweet this message “Win a copy of Movie Vault for iPad. Details and review here: http://bit.ly/bWxzuz”.
3. Post a comment here with a link to your tweet.

That’s it! I’ll randomly pick a winner Friday, September 10th. Good luck!

Update: The Winner!

Congrats to Jeff Please!  He has randomly been selected to win Movie Vault!  Hopefully he likes it as much as we do.

Photo credit: striatic

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Last year, I started using my iPhone to write about my European trip. I even wrote a Macgasm post on it. It fixed my issues with traditional paper journals, but it was still a bit cramped for writing more than short notes. Then came the iPad.

To start

Chronicle for iPad is a beautiful and elegant journaling app. It allows you to easily write down your thoughts and ideas in an interface that makes it simple to keep your writing organized. There’s a built-in search feature that lets you quickly look for a particular keyword or phrase and you can browse for entries by month in addition to the list on the left panel.

One of the things I really appreciate in Chronicle is all the export features. While all the data in all your iOS apps is backed up whenever you connect your iDevice to iTunes, if you need to do a fresh restore, all that data is lost. With Chronicle, you can upload your journal to Google Docs, export them as a website or email your entries. Ideally, I’d also like the option to upload my content to Dropbox or MobileMe.

Chronicle also comes with a few nice options to customize your journal to your liking. You can choose between several fonts for your text, make it bigger or smaller and also pick a darker or lighter font. You can also change the background color, and annotate your entries with several cute icons to indicate your mood or to make an entry stand out.

You can also add pictures from your library, it’s very easy to do (although the icon could be more obvious) and you can resize, rotate and slide them wherever you want. The only thing I feel could be better is having the text wrap around the pictures.

What’s missing?

There are two main things I would like to see in this app. The biggest one is some type of sync with the iPhone version. While I primarily use the iPad app, the ability to add quick notes on the iPhone while I’m waiting in line or simply because it’s quicker than taking the iPad out of my purse, (specially since my iPhone is permanently glued to my hand) and have them automatically sync with the iPad would be ideal.

Another feature I would like is some sort of geo tagging. I love to write my thoughts and adventures while traveling, and an option to automatically add a location to my posts, next to the date, or even a map would be very welcome. If this feature is added the ability to search entries by location will be a must as well.

Overall Chronicle is a great app that I can see getting better and better. At $1.99 in the App Store it’s a steal if you’re into journaling or even if you just want something to write down random thoughts.

Giveaway

With this review we’re also doing a giveaway. If you want a chance to win a promocode for Chronicle for iPad (US only) just follow these three steps:

1. Follow @macgasm on Twitter
2. Tweet this message “Win a copy of Chronicle for iPad from @slidetorock and @macgasm. Details and review here: http://bit.ly/beRcsB”.
3. Post a comment here with a link to your tweet.

That’s it! I’ll randomly pick a winner Monday, August 23rd.

Update

Comments are closed, and we’ve picked the winner!  Congrats goes out to @newtonmota!  We’ll be in contact over twitter  with your download information!

If you’re disappointed that you didn’t win, have no fear, we’re now giving away Folio!  Go check it out.

Image credit: Digitalnative

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Well, along with taller reception bars, iOS 4.1 does includes a new modem firmware (updated to 02.07.01 from 01.59.00), presumably to improve reception. So far, some users report that they’re getting 3 bars where they previously got 5, which by itself seems like a downgrade, but it may also indicate a more accurate representation of the iPhone’s reception. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to keep the iPhone from dropping its signal when held “the wrong way”.

Old bars (red) compared to the new bars (green), courtesy of MacRumors member “macduke”

Still, one has to wonder if there’s something more to this beta coming out now considering the iPhone 4 press conference scheduled for Friday.

Other changes include:

- You can now add Favorites in the Phone app as FaceTime or Voice Call
- Parental controls now include FaceTime and Game Center
- Game Center is back wth a brand new look

- You can now turn Spelling Check off in the keyboard settings

Developers can download the beta here.

Have you found any other changes in 4.1? Let us know in the comments.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

You're holding it wrong!

At last we hear from Apple: select press has been invited for a special press conference about the iPhone 4 happening this Friday.

It’s great to see them finally finally willing to speak about the iPhone troubles, specially considering how secretive they usually are. Hopefully it won’t be a one-hour conference showing us how we’re supposed to hold it.

Check back on Friday for coverage.

Source: LoopInsight

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

I wonder if Google Voice is next…

Editor’s Note: The Opera team has been waiting for a while, and if you’re not aware of the history here, Opera has been publicly worrying whether or not the application would be denied by the Apple review team.  If you want more detail on the history between these two companies you can check a more in depth article here (It was written when Opera submitted the application for review).

Hopefully this marks the beginning of a new era for the AppStore.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

How does it work?

When you first open the app, you’re faced with a virtual pantry with several groups of ingredients like meat, dairy and vegetables. By clicking on each one, you can select the specific ingredients you have available in your kitchen. When you’re done you go back to the main screen and click search.

Cookmate will now list all the recipes — ordered by the ingredients you have available. You can then click on a recipe to see it in detail and to see a list of the ingredients you’re missing. From there, it automatically adds the ingredients to the grocery list with the click of a button.

The Good

One of the things I love about this app is that it’s several apps in one: a recipe app, a shopping list app and a kitchen inventory app. It helps keep my iPhone homescreen slightly less cluttered. Another great feature is that you can share your favorite recipes by email or Facebook, and you can email or text your grocery list to someone else if you don’t have the time to do the shopping yourself.

The Not So Good

One of my main concerns is that I can’t add my own recipes or edit the existing ones. Apparently, in the next version, you will be able to buy more recipes via in-app purchases, but I would still like to add my own. I would also like to be able to add other ingredients to the app. Another thing that bothers me is that the app only considers ingredients, but not quantities. So if I have 2 eggs at home, and a recipe asks for 6 it won’t warn me that I need more (and I can’t add them manually to the grocery list).

Overall Cookmate has a brilliant concept, gorgeous design and great functionality. It does have some limitations, but it’s expected since it’s currently a 1.01 release. I will definitely keep an eye on its development since it shows a great deal of promise. In the mean time, I’m going to whip up some yummy recipes.

Follow me on Twitter for more great apps recommendations.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

You probably thought I was crazy, right? Some of you might’ve even stopped following me. Well guess what? Some people are even crazier than me! No, really!

Seriously, you can stop laughing now.

Apparently someone thought of an even weirder “stylus” for the iPhone, very useful when it’s freezing cold and you don’t want to take off your gloves to tweet your daily ramblings: snack sausages. These sausages from CJ Corporation are, electrostatically speaking, close approximations of the human finger and as such can be used for input on the iPhone’s touchscreen. And if you think this is just something gimmicky that nobody actually uses check out this report: sales of Max sausages in convenience stores have surged a full 39 per cent over the same period last year, presumably because of how popular they are becoming among iPhone users.

So I end this post with a little challenge: what else can you find that works as a stylus for the iPhone?

Via kottke.org and The Register.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

This update for the iPhone and iPod touch contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

- Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
- Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
- Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

More detailed information on the changes of this release can be found in this support document.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

According to TechCrunch the official “Google Phone” is currently being tested and expected to launch as soon as January 2010. This new phone will be an actual “Google branded” device (even though it’s made by HTC) in which every aspect of the OS will be designed by Google, to create a more solid user experience, unlike their other Android phones which have some input from the manufacturers.

Some of its highlighted features

• Will be sold as an unlocked GSM phone and distributed directly by Google
• Android 2.1 (unreleased at this point)
• Uses Snapdragon chip which is “really, really fast”
• High resolution OLED screen
• Thinner than iPhone (battery life anyone?)
• Two mics, one on the back to reduce background noise
• “Weirdly” large camera
• Touchscreen keyboard
• Voice to text for dictation

Honestly, I don’t see how an official “Google Phone” can be that much different than all the other devices that are currently running the Android OS. Supposedly it’s a big deal that they designed the whole software behind the phone to every last detail, without being limited or influenced by the manufacturer in terms of features and UI like with their other phones, similarly to what Apple does with the iPhone and their other products. But there’s one big flaw with that concept: it’s still one more Android device, different from all the others available now, with slightly different software limitations and capabilities.

Why is that a problem?

One of the things, in my opinion, that truly made the iPhone a big deal was the App Store and the fact that apps run pretty much the same way on each device running the iPhone OS is a big part of that experience. The fact that there’s only one device made by one manufacturer (with slight changes on each generation, of course) with the same native OS means developers don’t have to fix bugs that are particular to one device, they don’t have to modify their apps to work on different handsets and they don’t have to choose to invest their sometimes scarce resources on the device that’s more popular. A “Google Phone” just makes the Android app market ever so slightly more fragmented, makes the developers job a bit more complex with one more device to support (or possibly not support) and it’s one step further from the seamless experience offered by Apple and the iPhone.

I don’t think this will be a bad device, far from it. I just don’t think there’s anything truly remarkable that sets it apart from all the other devices running Android. Actually I think the only true advantage of the “Google Phone” is the fact that it will be carrier-free and unlocked from the start. Am I the only one?

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the “Google phone” has an official name of “Nexus One”.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Today their brand new companion app, HootSuite for iPhone, just went live in the App Store ($1.99 for a limited time) and it does not disappoint: it’s very quick, it has a gorgeous UI and it includes some popular features (lists, multiple accounts, columns for different streams…) along with some exciting new functionality that will make it that much more useful for businesses and people who rely on social media for networking:

- Tweets scheduling: In HootSuite, when composing a new tweet, you have the option to pick out a date and time for publishing it. This is very useful if you have a lot to say but don’t want to overwhelm your followers with too much tweets at once, by easily spacing them out throughout the day. It’s also a great way to maximize how many people you will reach since you can schedule them to be posted at a time when there’s more Twitter traffic so you’ll get a bigger response.

- Analytics tool: If you use Twitter for business, and not just as an outlet for your daily ramblings, the ability to analyze how many people click on your links and how that traffic is distributed is essential for figuring out the best strategic course of action to leverage Twitter to improve your social media presence, drive traffic to your blog or just to get some following for your own very important self.

- Sync: Last but not least HootSuite for the iPhone syncs seamlessly with the web client. That means that all your scheduled tweets and your shortened links (with the analytics graphs that go with them) are always up to date whether you’re using the iPhone app or the web version. Also this makes it extra easy to set up HootSuite on the iPhone if you already have an account: just login and all your Twitter accounts will be instantly set up.

I definitely will keep an eye out for HootSuite’s development, since it has some interesting possibilities, but I don’t think it will ever completely replace Tweetie for me (although some of its features might complement it nicely).

That being said, even though I really like this app and its features I’m not sure if I’ll use it for much more than just scheduling tweets. Why? Because for link shortening and tracking of traffic StumbleUpon’s su.pr format is still my favorite since it has the huge advantage of also sharing your content with the StumbleUpon community, which can potentially improve your social media presence by exposing it to a larger audience.

On the other hand the HootSuite iPhone app makes it that much easier to track and analyze your stats on the go, which can be very useful for busy people who might need instant access to all this information in order to make quick decisions and changes as they’re needed. Plus HootSuite has the cute owl icon.

Decisions, decisions…

Here’s a quick video demonstrating some of HootSuite’s features on the iPhone:

Have you tried HootSuite? Will it replace your regular Twitter client?

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Not only is this a fun video and a genius idea but it’s a great way for the author to get his Christmas app Bauble noticed. Well done!

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

1. Photogene ($2.99) is basically a mini Photoshop for the iPhone and a must-have app, in my opinion. It comes with a full range of editing features like color correction, cropping, special effects and customized frames and when you’re done you can email your photos from the app itself. This application is very intuitive and makes it extremely easy to edit your photos and have some fun with some of the silly frames and text bubbles included.

Similar apps: PhotoForge

2. Camera Genius ($1.99) expands the iPhone’s camera capabilities with quite a few options that help you take better control of how you take your shots: timer, digital zoom, anti-shake (very useful for taking better pictures in the dark), alignment guides and even location and timestamps. But one of my favorite features is probably that the Camera Genius saves your pictures in the background so that you can immediately start snapping, without having to wait for each picture to save, like with the standard camera app.

Similar apps: Night Camera, Darkroom Premium

3. Panorama ($9.99) makes it very easy to take beautiful panoramic photos by overlapping your shots so that you can align them properly. The app then stitches all of your shots together, while doing some adjusting to make everything seamless, and outputs them full size creating breathtaking landscapes that will be sure to impress your family and friends.

Similar apps: Pano, AutoStitch

4. The Best Camera ($2.99) is one of the elements of the three part eco-system (the app, the book and the community) based on the concept “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You™” created by renowned photographer Chase Jarvis. The app includes a set of gorgeous filters that you can apply and reorder to your heart’s desire to get the best possible effect. When you’re done you can share your creation on Facebook, Twitter or with the online Best Cam community. For some inspiration you can check out the book, a beautiful celebration of iPhone photography.

5. Perfectly Clear ($2.99) is a great app to get your photos clearer and brighter with just a touch of a button. The app applies a number of automatic corrections to your pictures making them look more vibrant and it lets you easily compare the the results by seeing the “before” and “after” side to side. If you’re still not perfectly happy with the results you can then adjust all the parameters yourself and make sure you get your photos looking perfect. The fact that you can get gorgeous results so effortless makes this app a winner for me.

Do you know any other good photography apps not listed here? Let me know in the comments.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

This is a version of Weezer’s Pork and Beans music video in which the whole song is played entirely with iPhone instruments. Not only that but also the iPhone is a big part of the video itself. Check it out:

If you like this video you should check out GuizDP‘s other videos. His version of Twist and Shout is one of my favorites.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

On my first page I have my most used apps: some of Apple’s stock apps plus Tweetie, Birdhouse, Beejive and Omnifocus. I liked the first Tweetie’s blue icon better since this one doesn’t look so good with the rest of my apps. Also I don’t really use Birdhouse much anymore so I’m going crazy trying to find something to replace it.

My second page has the rest of my most used apps. Two “tapbots” (both gray), two camera apps (both mostly dark), shopping and fitness apps (both green), two money apps (both dark), two reading apps, two white and orange apps, two apps with green in it and two music apps (both blue). Starts to get a bit obsessive, doesn’t it?

My third page has my “official apps”: the Apple apps that aren’t in my first page plus some other official ones: Facebook, Google, Amazon, Flickr, Dropbox, WordPress and Skype. I have the darker apps on the first row and the rest is mostly blue.

Ok, I know the Wikipanion app is neither an official app nor blue. I know. And that fact still keeps me up at night.

This page has mostly a few utilities plus some apps that I like to have around but I don’t use that often. I have them organized in pairs by color, as you can see, but also by function in a way that makes sense to me (disclaimer: the fact that it makes sense to me doesn’t necessarily mean it makes sense to anyone else, so don’t feel bad if you don’t get how I organize them).

I have three more screens: one with camera applications (photo editing, filters, etc), one with games and one with apps I’m still testing. That’s where I keep the apps I’m not sure I want to keep and the ones I still haven’t found a place for (you can probably tell by now how thankful I was for the app  organization feature in the new iTunes). This page is usually pretty disorganized so I try not to look at it often. It bothers me a little.

So, how crazy am I?

Leave a comment below explaining how you organize your apps.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

“I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate…”

According to Gizmodo Apple has been in talks with senior executives in newspapers, magazines and book publishers so it doesn’t seem too far fetched that they would know if something is going on, specially since the tablet could be the perfect platform for this kind of content. Apple has already redefined the way people listen to music; is the tablet their bet to redefine the way people read?

*fingers crossed*

via Gawker, 9to5Mac and Gizmodo

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

These are just a few of the personality quizzes you’ll find in Wisen Up [$0.99, App Store], an entertainment app that also includes “myths or facts”, “bizarre ancient cures” , “hilarious medical quotes” among their other “infotainment” categories.

You can access all the 12 categories with a circular ring-like menu. In the quizzes option you’ll find a list with all the 25 quizzes (hopefully more will be added soon), in all the other categories you open them and just click or swipe through the pages (many of them have a cute cartoon too). There didn’t seem to be any type of search so that I could find, for example, the meaning of a particular phobia, which I missed. There is, however, an option to add something to a favorites list, so that you can easily find it later, which proved to be very useful.

There’s also a share option (e-mail or Facebook) for the facts, quizzes and test results. I have mixed feelings about this option/feature: it’s a cool idea and it will definitely please a lot of users but honestly it makes me cringe just a little bit:  I don’t really want any more quiz results invading my Facebook. I just checked: at this moment on my main Facebook page 14 out of 30 of my friends’ status updates are quiz results. I just hope people use this feature wisely (pun not intended), or else I’ll just delete them from my friends. Just kidding. Or am I? Stay tuned.

Wisen Up’s nice clean interface and specially the cute cartoon-like illustrations add a very particular visual interest to the app. That plus the great sound effects make it a delight to use and play with.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go find out if the Devil can buy my soul… </evil laugh>

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Twitter has recently emerged as a primary source for breaking news, more so at this point than most traditional mediums. The instantaneous nature of Twitter makes it easy to instantly spread immediate occurrences and events. Unfortunately it also makes it (too) easy to spread rumors and irrelevant information. Some random guy with a computer and an internet connection posts that Jeff Goldblum is dead and it’s instantly all over the web, with users retweeting left and right, without a hint of confirmation from a reputable source. Apparently being the first to break the news is more important than the veracity of it.

Here’s another example of this phenomenon: today I came across an article on Twitter called “10 Reasons IT Should Not Support the Apple iPhone”. I was outraged that an article like this would come out at this point and immediately started reading it. I was expecting some ignorant biased review from a Microsoft fanatic that had never even used an iPhone but still felt threatened by it. Here is what I found: “The iPhone Does Not Natively Support Push Corporate E-mail or Wireless Calendar Syncing” What? “The iPhone Does Not Run Third-Party Applications Without Voiding Its Warranty” Excuse me? Then I noticed that the article is from 2007. At this point it’s completely irrelevant and outdated yet people are retweeting it like it’s something new.

Unfortunately I don’t think there’s anything Twitter can do about it, we’ll just have to trust people’s good sense and hope they’ll learn to exercise some judgement before retweeting something. Yeah, we’re basically doomed.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

(Hopefully I’ll be able to finish downloading it before you all start watching it so I can get decent speeds…)

By the way Steve, thanks for making me crave another iPod Nano I don’t need/can’t afford to buy even if it comes with a “free” video camera! Why don’t I just give you my credit card?

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

This update, although much anticipated by the iPhone community, has been been received with lots of criticism by a lot of AT&T customers, since it was promised for “late Summer”, a deadline that will be missed by just a few short days. Considering all the complaints AT&T has been getting about their network (bad reception, dropped calls, slow data…) one has to wonder: couldn’t they deliver this update a few days sooner, even if just to avoid getting even more bad PR?

Now that MMS is taken care of iPhone fans can move on to worry about more important things, right? *coughTetheringcough*, *coughGoogleVoicecough*, *coughNetworkSpeedscough*…

…Oh Dear.

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Battery life:

Have your wall charger with you at all times and charge your iPhone whenever you can. The battery WILL drain when you most need it, like when you arrive in Berlin, for some reason at the wrong train station, with no place to sleep, no idea where to go and for some reason can’t find anyone who speaks English. (I guess I could also get a map, a REAL compass and have a guide book with me at all times but what kind of geek would I be if I did that?)

If your iPhone’s battery is running low, STOP USING IT. Don’t think “oh, I know my way from here, I won’t get lost”. If you’re anything like me, you WILL ALWAYS get lost right before your iPhone shuts itself down.

If even with my expert tips you still managed to reach 3% of battery, take a moment to write down on a piece of paper or notebook (remember those?) any important details you might need, like your hostel’s address or the phone number of the guy whose couch you’re crashing on.

Battery Life

All-in-One Travel Power Plug Adapter

Mophie Juice Pack

Attitude & communication:

Squealing and taking pics of the Apple Store when you get to Regent Street not only makes you look tourist-y it also makes you look really weird, just sayin’ (from experience). Waving goodbye to the Apple Store when you’re about to leave London apparently is also not a good look (don’t make fun of me, we don’t have Apple Stores here).

Happy hour at the hostel bar is not the time to sit in the corner and post on Twitter how much fun you’re having. Specially if you’re travelling alone, you’ll want to meet people when you can (so you’ll actually have interesting stuff to tweet about).

Showing all the cool stuff your iPhone can do is not a good way to strike up a conversation with fellow travelers (unless they’re iPhone geeks too in which case you can just say hello from across the room with the “Banner” app).

Banner

Online Translator

World Customs

Navigation:

There are a few good navigation apps that have stored maps, which means you won’t get a huge bill from downloading maps all the time (I have Navigon) but I came to realize that for walking directions Maps is still a lot better. What I ended up doing was getting the directions I needed in Maps whenever I found a free wifi hotspot and then just followed the path. I left Navigon mostly to find some POIs and to find my way back to the hostel when i was lost in the middle of Bruges with no wi-fi around (Bruges is very small, so according to my tour guide no one gets lost there, except me of course).

Unfortunately even Maps won’t help you if you gest lost inside a train station like I did. That’s one situation where it helps to have a language app so you can look up what the word “exit” looks like in the language of the country you’re in so you can more easily find your way out.

I know we like to think the iPhone is the most perfect gadget ever, but sometimes it will fail you. When I was trying to find a cyber cafe in Paris, Maps sent me to TWO wrong locations. When I actually tried asking the guy at the reception desk of my hostel, I found out there was actually a cyber cafe just a block away. We geeks might like to use our gadgets for everything but sometimes getting out of our technological bubble and actually talking to people is a good idea. We might even make a friend (yes, geeks can have friends too).

MetrO

AroundMe

Wi-Fi Finder

Security (the iPhone’s, not yours):

Try not to use your iPhone (unless you really need it) when you’re getting drunk at the hostel bar. Alcohol makes it a lot more likely that you’ll drop it, spill something on it or hand it over to someone and forget to get it back. That being said you should ALWAYS use it to take pics of people doing embarrassing drunk things (then you’ll have something to trade for the video of you dancing on top of the hostel bar, hopefully before it hits YouTube).

If you walk around alone at night, which you should avoid if possible in a strange city, try to memorize your path back to your hostel before you leave; you don’t want to draw attention to yourself by using your iPhone to find your way if you happen to get lost in a bad part of town.

If you’re going to use your iPhone to take a lot of pictures consider investing in a case with a wrist strap. My boat tour around Amterdam would have been a lot more enjoyable if I wasn’t so worried I would  drop my iPhone in the canal every time I used it to take pics.

If Found

Wasted

PhoneSCREAM Anti-theft

Accommodation:

Double check that the hostel where you’re staying really has free wi-fi. Sometimes free wi-fi is only available for the people who pay more for the same room (so it’s not really free), only in the lobby or not available in the building where your room is.

Location, location, location. In most dorm rooms usually only the bottom beds have a power outlet nearby (if that) so you should try to claim those beds if possible. You’ll want to let your iPhone charge through the night whenever you can but you should never let it charge on the power outlet on the other side of the room.

It’s also a good idea to get a bed near the door so you won’t bump into everything when you get to your room drunk at 4am. If you can’t find a bed near the door, the iPhone can be a pretty discreet light source to find your way through those crowded dorm rooms.

Budget Hotels Europe

Just Light Flashlight

Zimmer

Photo Credits: Sikachu!, MacExposure, takuhitosotome

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