There’s an App for that!

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Apple

There are a ton of applications you can download for your iPhone or iPod touch. I’ve tried my fair share of them and would like to suggest a few that have hung around on my iPhone. I’d love to hear your fav’s so be sure to post your app treasures in the comments below.

Get incredible real time weather forecast right at your fingertips. We found this extremely useful when we were on vacation in the Adirondacks. My wife was predicting to the minute when the sky would clear up or the rain would fall. Love the doppler feature where you can see the precipitation that’s passing over.

Quickly go to any scripture reference in just about any translation. And I mean any…say like Bulgarian, Czeck or Luther Bible 1545. Plus the basics of course, like NIV. Also features a daily read, bookmarks, and plenty of other contributions. Another one I’ve used is Mantis Bible Study. That has a ton of great notes features, but you have to purchase additional translations.

One of my favorite Pastors/Authors is Bill Hybels. This is a nice and simple app that provides me with a quick and easy devotional each day. Sometimes you’re on the run or it’s not convienent to have a devotional or Bible with you so his devotional offers some terrific nourishment. This devotional is focused on Courageous Faith. Starts off with a Scripture verse, his short message and a prayer.

Just came across this one recently so I haven’t used it a whole lot yet. But I’m loving how clean and useful the design is. Search for recipes by type (Dessert, Dinners, Lunches, Cocktails…) or by main ingredient. Also shows you reviews from others by what they rate it out of four forks, and how likely they would be to make it again. Once you select a recipe, you can email the shopping list to yourself or view it right on your iPhone.

Alright, this one’s pretty self explanatory. If you’re on Facebook, then you understand how valuable it is to have a terrific app right on your iPhone. Makes it easier to ignore those old high school friends who didn’t talk to back in HS but now want to be your Facebook friend. The news feed is very handy and satisfies your Facebook addiction until you can make it back to your iMac.

Alright, this is arguably best game ever. I love this game. Land several different types of airplanes on your choice of four different airfield designs. This game can easily burn up any amount of time when you don’t feel like getting your work done. Oh, and my max aircraft landed is currently at 183. I dare anyone to come close to that!

The only negative thing about this app is that it requires wifi. This app actually streams Film, Music and TV episodes. I haven’t really used it for Film because I don’t recognize the titles, but this app is worth downloading for one reason alone. I can watch the old G.I.Joe cartoons! You can also go right to Joost at Joost.com to view them, but it’s great to watch right on your iPhone. I thought you should know, because knowing is half the battle.

I used this for the first time at our Young Adult group last week. Apple’s Keynote is basic like powerpoint without being sucky. Keynote is awesome and what makes it even more awesome is being able to see and advance your slides right on your iPhone. I did notice some more expensive Keynote remote apps that offer a bit more, but this one is very sleek and works great.

If you are a MobileMe member then this app is a must. MobileMe is an entirely other article I’ll feature sometime in the near future, but one of it’s highlights is the iDisk – which is an online storage drive. View all of your documents on your iDisk quickly and easily with this app.

Flixter is one of those apps that provides a ton of information and is laid out very well. It automatically uses your current location to show you the theaters in your area so you can see what’s playing and when and even watch the trailer. See the Box Office stats and a list of upcoming videos and even see what is out on DVD.

I’ve heard many totally cool iPhone users say this is their favorite app. Pandora is another service that by itself its completely awesome, and having it on your iPhone gives you the same excitement that you had the night before your birthdays when you were a kid. Listen to your favorite style of music and you can even make your own stations. Works great if you already have an account online and can just login.

Another app I just came across recently. This is one of those things that some genius probably predicted would happen back in 1982. You actually use the iPhone’s camera to scan a barcode and it instantly brings up a list of stores where you can see the best pricing. Never overpay on a product again, unless of course you just can’t wait and your impulse nerves get the best of you.

This app definitely gets the coolest name award for what it does. Ever been out somewhere and you hear a song but don’t know the name or who sings it? Simply Tag Now with this app, and Shazam! It tells you the name of the song. It takes about 15 seconds to tag and analyze it and even gives you links to iTunes and YouTube for the song.

Twitter is the new Facebook. The most popular thing on facebook is the status updates and that is essentially what Twitter is. So of course there are a ton of Twitter Apps in the App Store. After trying out far too many, I found Tweetie to be the cleanest, most useful app. It’s nice and simple and does what it should very well. btw – Click the link on the right sidebar to follow me on Twitter.

Last but not least, Where is a terrific app that provides a ton of great features all in one program. Check out the weather, lowest gas prices, news, closest Starbucks, restaurant recommendation, community events, road construction, and movies all according to where you are right now. I heard recently that we take in more information in one day than someone who lived 200 years ago took in, in a lifetime. Let Where help you out with that.

So that’s what’s on my iPhone right now that’s actually being used. Let me know what your favorite apps are!

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Adventures of a Tech Jock

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of bfishadow

The Golden Years When I was in Elementary and Junior High School I was your typical dorky adolescent. I remember hanging out with some of the more goofy kids (which I fit into that category perfectly) who played Dungeons & Dragons and had collections of Star Wars figures and Radio Controlled Cars. I didn’t really fit into the ‘cool group’ at that point, but as I came into High School I started excelling in sports and shedding some of that goofy and awkward layer I carried around for years. Being in a small school with a graduating class of about 65, it was actually possible to know nearly everyone in my High School. That became a goal of mine. I knew what it was like to be part of the goofy group – you know the band geeks or A/V kids in your High School. But I also enjoyed becoming part of the popular crowd. At one point I even had possibly the most attractive girl in our High School longing to date me but at the time I had my heart set on another girl in my church youth group. Thank goodness neither of those worked out.

A new term I remember at one point in my High School Years when a female friend of mine was complimenting me on my skills. I had found some loophole in the system where I was really good at computers and gadgets but didn’t fit the personality profile of most of the A/V guys. I didn’t have a pocket protector or coke bottle glasses and I was actually coordinated. So she gave me a new label – “Tech Jock”. I fit in with the coolness of the Jocks (evening earning Athlete of the Year my Senior Year) while still enjoying my passion for gadgets (and we’re not talking all the cool gadgets like we have now – we are talking gadgets like the Commodore 64 here).

For my peeps So for all those guys out there that have a passion for Audio and Visual goodness but were shunned from the cool group, being called a computer nerd or other debilitating names – this column is for you. You can enjoy A/V and still be cool. You too, can be a Tech Jock.

Of more importance So Technology is of course one of my passions, but I also have a few other roles that outrank the Tech Jock Label. Husband, Father, and a Follower of Jesus. I am absolutely blessed by my marriage to my wife Amy. She is my best friend and we have a lot of fun navigating through life together. Which brings me to our kids – Hannah and Jacob. Life is never boring in our house, and I look forward to sharing some of those adventures with you. Finally, through all of this, my love for Christ is a part of everything I’m involved in. I’m sure I’ll be sprinkling stories in which God is working in my life here in there, because that is always exciting as well.

So I hope you enjoy my weekly column here on Sundays and I want to leave you with one recent story of our 4 year old Jacob.

A Parenting Ubermoment I recently came across the iPhone app called Joost which allows me to watch old TV episodes right on my iPhone. While I was browsing through the retro animated cartoons I came across my absolute favorite: G.I.Joe. My brothers and I were such big G.I.Joe fans that between the three of us we honestly owned about 400 figures and over 100 vehicles. It’s no wonder that all three of us eventually joined the Army Reserves. I was thrilled to share these episodes with Jacob and hoped he would enjoy them as much as I. It wasn’t long before Jacob was cheering on Snake Eyes and fearing Storm Shadow. The episodes are terrific because there are no cartoons, but they do show the commercial brake. It’s kind of entertaining. At the end of an action sequence the G.I.Joe logo comes on and the narrator states “G.I.Joe will return after these messages.” The screen goes black for a second and then the narrator comes back on and continues, “And now back to G.I.Joe”. Well after watching nearly all of the 20 or so episodes and having a half dozen commercial brakes for each episode, it wasn’t long before we found Jacob repeating this. The way he shares this is adorable and a little intriguing. Jacob will recite the narrators comments word for word and then close his eyes for a second or two before coming back with the phrase, “and now back to G.I.Joe”. You gotta see it to see how cute it is…

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Direkt

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10+ Resources to help you become a Graphic Design Pro

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of angelsk

I’ve really gotten into Graphic Design recently and one of the things I’ve found is that having the right tools and resources makes all the differences. I’m going to share my most commonly used resources I go to when I’m working on a project.

The most amazing software program when it comes to Graphic Design is Adobe Photoshop. So the majority of my resources have to do with PS. With the use of some high quality graphics, a few key tutorials, the right fonts and brushes, you can do just about anything and look like a pro.

Tutorials. The easiest way to learn some new skills is by having someone walk you through it. Each time I start a new graphic design project, I try to learn one new skill. I am often amazed at how easy some basic tricks are, and how much they impact your work. Here are some of my favorite places to check out new tutorials.

Tutorial9


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Apple’s Keynote

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Andrea Vascellari

Apple is hosting their WWDC (World Wide Developer’s Conference) and today at 1:00pm PST is their Keynote event. There are many rumors surrounding the event and what Apple will be featuring including their newest iPhone.

Gizmodo will be following the event with their live blog commentary.

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Your HDTV Needs Me

Review: Belkin PureAV® Home Theater Power Console PF30

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

What is it? I guarantee you that if you have purchased a TV in a store like Best Buy recently, as soon as you purchased the TV you were warned about the urgent need for a high quality surge protector. I completely agree with the sales associates on the need for a surge protector. Well, at least on everything except for the price. The surge protector that was pushed on us was about $400. And then when we didn’t like that one, a $200 model that would barely suffice was recommended. I knew this sales push was coming and researched and purchased my surge protector and cables ahead of time, saving myself literally hundreds of dollars.

Features: Here are all of the features of the Belkin PF30 in tech speak…

Features in Layman’s Terms: There are a few major benefits that you need from a surge protector / power conditioner if you own an expensive LCD or Plasma TV. First, is it will protect you from major surges, like lighting storms. The nice thing is it will not only protect your TV, but all of the other audio/visual components you have plugged in. Secondly, it will lengthen the lifespan of your TV by protecting it from all of the minor surges. Typically, you receive power to your house that has many little spikes and surges throughout the day. The PF30 provides ‘clean’ power – which basically means it takes out all of those little power spikes that will reduce the life of your tv. That same clean power and ‘PureFilter Circuitry’ should provide you the best picture for you tv. If any of your components are introducing any noise to your picture, this should clean that up. It also provides phone, ethernet, and coaxial inputs and outputs to provide protection for those as well.

Bottom Line: If you own a high quality TV and/or AV components, you really need to have a high quality surge protector. One lighting storm could cost you thousands, without one. The Belkin PF30 is the best value in my opinion. The price is very inexpensive to what you’ll find in most stores, and the features and protection it offers is exactly what most home theaters need. I also like the slim and simple design. It doesn’t take up a lot of room, and it’s not distracting. Available in Black or Silver.

HDTV Buying Tip: DO NOT purchase any accessories (cables, surge protectors, cleaners) at all from the store you purchase your High-Def TV from. Especially a store like Best Buy. That is where they make their money. You will probably pay four times or more the amount of what those accessories really cost. Do a little research. Find out what you need. And then purchase the items ahead of time on Amazon and save yourself hundreds.

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7 Must-Have Firefox Addons

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Mozilla

One of the best features of the free opensource web browser called Firefox is the ability to install ‘addons’. Simply click Tools -> Addons to find a link to Mozilla’s vast library of addons. It’s worth browsing through just to get an idea of what you can change or add to the browser. Here is a list of my top most useful addons.

WOT – Stands for Web of Trust
WOT is a great little tool that shows you a color coded rating for every website listed in your google search. Know what websites are safe to visit before you click on them. Sites are rated on Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy, and Child Safety.

Twitterfox – Keep up with your twitter feed right in your Firefox browser. Twitterfox sits in the bottom right hand corner of your Firefox window and with a quick click you can view your the recent tweets of who you are following or post your own.

Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) – This is probably my favorite addon. It keeps all of your bookmarks synchronized. If you use Firefox at work and home, just add a bookmark at work and when you get home you’ll see it there too. It works as a great bookmark backup solution as well. Also, click on the Xmarks logo in your address bar to find similar sites. Awesome tool!

Morning Coffee – If you always open up the same websites each morning then this is the perfect addon for you. Just click on the coffee cup icon, and all of your favorite websites come up in their own tab. Even customize it by day of the week.

TinyUrl Creator – If you are not familiar with TinyUrl, it’s a website that allows you to take a rather long website address and shrink it down into a very short one. Very handy for twitter or even sharing through email. TinyUrl Creator builds this feature right into Firefox, giving you a menu option to easily create a tinyurl whenever you need.

Video Download Helper – The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
This works also for audio and picture galleries.

Cooliris – Full-Screen, 3D — Cooliris is simply the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Effortlessly scroll a “3D Wall” of your content from Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and hundreds more. If you haven’t already read my full review of Cooliris, check it out here.

2 Bonus Addons for Web Developers: If you do any sort of web development you’ll love these next two.

Firebug – Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Web Developer – Another great set of tools for the web developer including html and css tools that allow you to view or even edit on the fly any websites html or css code.

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Help with Aiming your Digital Antenna

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photos courtesy of madmarv00

The FCC has a great online tool for determining where the digital towers are in your area. It shows the compass direction and signal strength for each network.

If you are looking for an HD Antenna, I highly recommend the ClearStream4 HD Antenna.

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Cool Iris: Sleek. Fun. Amazing.

I stumbled upon Cool Iris when I was browsing some add-ons for Firefox. I was simply amazed at what Cool Iris did when I launched the program.

So what is Cool Iris? Simply put, Cool Iris is a fast and exciting way to browse photos, videos, and search the internet.

Well, I can do that now, very easily, you might be thinking. That’s exactly what I thought until I launched Cool Iris. I think Cool Iris is all about the experience. Once you open it up you’ll see a nice clean simple interface with several main features. I’ll explain each of them.

The 3D Wall: This is the heart of the program. Here you will see all of the results for what you are searching for. A combination of photos and videos will display in a beautiful 3D wall and you can use the scroll feature at the bottom to quickly fly through all of the results. Once you find what you are looking for you can click on the photo and view that specific article, video, photo or product in more detail.

Photos: View the full size photo. You’ll be able to share (email), mark it as a favorite, or go to the web page.

Videos: Play the video, share it, mark it as a favorite, or go to the web page.

Products: View details about the product including price and description, share it, mark as favorite, or go directly to that product’s listing on Amazon.com.

The Sidebar: As you can see in the picture, the sidebar has four main categories: Discover, Shopping, Favorites and My Computer.

Discover has many subcategories listed under it including News, Sports, TV Episodes, Comedy, and many more. Clicking on any one of these subcategories will fill the 3D wall with a plethora of content related to that category. See the most recent news happenings or catch up on the latest sports highlights. Each picture in the 3D wall will enlarge when you click on it to allow you to explore more details about it.

Shopping is one of the ways I think Cool Iris shines. If I want shop for something I can type in what I’m looking for and then fly through the 3D wall results, browsing a huge mix of products and pricing all supplied by Amazon.com. It’s like running down an enormous department store aisle with a vast amount of related products, all with their prices clearly visible. Stop and click on a product to view a few more details or keep looking. Once you find what you’re looking for, click the Go to Store button and you are brought right to Amazon where you can make your purchase through their secure website.

Favorites is where you would see a 3D wall filled with all of the content that you marked as favorite. You will need to signup and create an account with Cool Iris in order to use this feature.

My Computer instantly fills your 3D wall with all of the photos found on your computer. The great thing about this is that if you keep all of your photos in your My Documents folder, Cool Iris knows right where to look. And for those of us more sophisticated Mac users, it pulls photos right from your iPhoto library.

Examining the Search Bar: Once you click in the search bar you’ll notice a drop down list of options that you can choose to search. Popular sites like YouTube, Hulu, and Flickr will allow you to find results directly within their content. This is another way in which Cool Iris provides an experience much better than the original site does. For example with YouTube, I much prefer Cool Iris’s 3D wall to the search results I get back from YouTube. The bottom line is that Cool Iris provides a very quick, effective, and pleasing to the eye, list of results for whatever content you are searching for.

Can I use Cool Iris? Chances are yes. Cool Iris supports the three main browsers on both Mac and Windows machines. It even supports Firefox for Linux users.

Take it for a Spin: The best way to experience Cool Iris is to install it and try it out. The program is free and it is an incredible tool as well as being very fun to use. So check it out right now. CoolIris.com

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Dish Network – Lowering my monthly bill by $21

Dish Network Customers –

I made a quick phone call and saved $21 off of our Dish Network monthly fee:

Removed the warranty…………………..$5.95
Removed the ‘Platinum HD Pkg’……….$10.00
Removed the $5 monthly phone fee…..$5.00

The warranty doesn’t really do much for us. If anything large breaks, we are not locked into a contract, and I would simply cancel our service.

We found we were being charged for a Platinum HD pkg, which we never signed up for. It sounds like they split our original HD pkg into two separate packages and we were being charged $10 for the Platinum package which includes programs like HD Fishing that we never watch (or even knew we were being charged extra for).

Finally, we are charged $5 a month because we don’t have our Dish Receiver hooked up to a phone line. I explained that we don’t have a home phone (only cell phones) and they were nice enough to permanently remove the monthly fee.

If you use Dish Satellite, it’s worth a quick call to possibly lower your monthly bill by up to $21.

Non-Dish Network Customers -

If you are not using Dish Satellite, I believe they offer the cheapest solution for HD programming and DVR. I often contact Time Warner and Direct TV to compare, and they usually average about $20-30 more per month for their similar service.

My only complaint about Dish Network is that they do not have High Def locals in the Rochester area – only Standard Def locals. However, I use my ClearStream4 HD Antenna to pick them up for free. My HD Antenna cable plugs right into my Dish Network receiver so the HD locals show up right in the programming guide.

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Time Warner Internet Tiered Pricing

Thanks to our readers here is an update:

Time Warner Cable scraps plan for tiered pricing

You may have heard about Time Warner’s recent announcement to begin a tiered pricing trial program in several markets, including Rochester, NY.

Here are some of the details:

• To accommodate lighter Internet users and those who need a lower priced option, we are introducing a 1 GB per month tier offering speeds of 768 KB/128 KB for $15 per month. Overage charges will be $2 per GB per month. Our usage data show that about 30% of our customers use less than 1 GB per month.We are increasing the bandwidth tier sizes included in all existing packages in the trial markets to 10, 20, 40 and 60 GB for Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard and Turbo packages, respectively. Package prices will remain the same. Overage charges will be $1 per GB per month.

• We will introduce a 100 GB Road Runner Turbo package for $75 per month (offering speeds of 10 MB/1 MB). Overage charges will be $1 per GB per month.

• Overage charges will be capped at $75 per month. That means that for $150 per month customers could have virtually unlimited usage at Turbo speeds.

• Once we implement this trial, we will not immediately start billing customers for overage. Rather, we will first provide two months of usage data. Then we will provide a one-month grace period in which overages will be noted on customers’ bills, but they will not be charged. So, customers will have an opportunity to assess their usage and right-size their service packages before usage charges are applied.

• Trials will begin in Rochester, N.Y., and Greensboro, N.C., in August. We will apply what we learn from these two markets when we launch trials in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, in October, but we will guarantee at least the same level of usage capacity in these trials.

• As we launch DOCSIS 3.0 in the trial markets, we plan to offer a 50/5 MB speed tier for $99 per month.

Read more here.

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2 Resources for finding cheap Printer Ink

Just a quick tip to find cheap prices for your Inkjet or Laser printer. Buying generic cartridges in bulk or packages can save you a lot of money. ABCink.com offers a lot of package deals.

Amazon Ink & Toner Finder

ABCink.com

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Inspiring Photography Article

Smashing Magazine recently featured an article “10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills” by Trey Ratcliff (aka Stuck in Customs). Trey is one of the most famous and renowned HDR photographers on Flickr.

Trey’s article is very inspiring, especially if you are thinking about tinkering around with photography.

He also provides a link to equipment that he recommends.

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