Archive for the 'Software' Category
We all have them: lists. We all need to check ‘em off. We all have iPhones. Mmm, okay, all of us cool people. 
But seriously, if you are an iPhone/iPod Touch user with the need to keep better track of your lists and you’re not apt to just buy away on the App Store to find the best one, then you may want to read our latest review of SplashShopper.
The popular list program that has graced BlackBerrys, Palms, and Windows Mobile devices, as well as desktops, for some time now comes to the Apple made smartphone! If you were a fan of it on those platforms or you’ve never even heard of this application (not sure how that’s possible), then you need — no must — read this review before making your purchase. Heck, even if you’ve bought a list application, still read this. You may ditch it for SplashShopper.
Those familiar with last.fm with an iPhone will be excited to know that 2.0 is just around the corner and SvenOnTech as a full video demo of it. Leaked on last.fm’s site, SvenOnTech obtained the QuickTime video and is now making it available here on our site. The 3 minute and 35 second video runs through pretty extensively the features of last.fm 2.0. Most noted in the video is the cleaner and better streamlined interface. With an icon bar on the bottom for Bio, Tags, Similar Artists, Events, and Top Listeners, one will be able to quickly move around last.fm. With the ability to link in contacts from the iPhones address book and an extensive Events calendar to find when your favorite band, or newly discovered band, is playing near by, last.fm 2.0 looks to be very promising.
For those unfamiliar with last.fm, it is self-described as, “A music service that learns what you love… Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too.” Play music and it learns what you like and makes suggestions of other bands you may like. The idea is that you’ll discover a band that you’ve never heard of before that you love.
With the newest version just around the corner, this should prove to make last.fm even more popular than before.
Verizon also notes that customers can create up to 10 greetings, 20 distribution lists and 50 distribution members to receive messages.
Verizon relies on the Alcatel-Lucent 5150 Messaging Applications Broker (MAB) for visual voice mail, “Which provides enhanced notification and content delivery services for voice, text and video messages through an intuitive visual interface.”
One of my early complaints with the first generation iPhone, which remains to this day, was the inability to send my “card” to another iPhone or smartphone user. Just days before the purchase of the Apple phone, I was able to transmit my contact card to any other Windows Mobile or Symbian user via Bluetooth or even Infrared. So why wasn’t this greatest phone ever allowing me this same convenience? Well, with no IR port and a severely retarded Bluetooth stack, it just wasn’t going to happen. What a shame and yet another ding against the Enterprise user by Apple.
Tapulous, a group of guys in Palo Alto (home to Apple CEO Steve Jobs), have thought that iPhones should be able to share contacts. Not just your contact but any of your contacts. The makers of the widely popular Twitter application for the iPhone, Twinkle, will be releasing a new application called friendBook. In its third application for the iPhone (the other the popular game Tap Tap), Tapulous brings a more powerful contacts manager to the iPhone. Not only will one be able to trade contacts, but better manager them right on the iPhone away from the connected computer. Easily find duplicates, merge contacts, and even dial a member of your virtual black book by a picture of the person, friendBook is surely to be a hit once on the App Store.
There is no immediate release date or pricing details for friendBook but rumor has it that the application has already been submitted to Apple and is merely awaiting approval. So look for it through the week and download it quickly! Who knows, Apple may deem this “bad” and remove it like it did Netshare. 
Next up, 2.1. The rumors have cut-n-paste and MMS as new features as well as the push-notification API available for third-party vendors for use with such programs as Instant Messaging.
SvenOnTech has confirmed with co-developer, David Teare, of Agile Web Solutions that 1Password for the iPhone has already been updated to handle stability issues in the current 1.0 version.
Teare told SvenOnTech that fixes are not the only thing in version 1.2 that will make users happy. New in 1.2 will the inclusion of search, originally found in the bookmarklet version of 1Password used prior to the App Store release. Another lost feature, auto-form filling within Safari, may also make a return in a future version invoking the native 1Password application to fill the form within Safari. An exciting feature that may come as soon as 1.3 could be auto-sync. Any time a change is made on the desktop application, it would immediately send it to the iPhone keeping 1Password users up to date.
1Password for the iPhone is currently free, however, this may not be the case for ever according to Teare. So, download your copy now from the App Store in iTunes or from your iPhone and have access to all of your important data securely today!
VirtualBox runs many x86 operating systems (guest OS) on x86 computers (host OS). Guest operating systems VirtualBox can run include, but not limited to, Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS, Windows 3.x (on top of DOS), Linux (2.4 and 2.6), as well as OpenBSD.
Still under development, VirtualBox sits at version 1.6.2 and is actively updated. Sun has asked both developers and users to download its product and give it a try as well for developers to help out with coding. More coders means more features and hopefully more stability. More users will help in these two areas as well since feedback is always a much needed input for developers.
VirtualBox shares many of the same features as VMWare and Parallel’s offerings such as folder sharing, USB device use, and easy guest OS install from an ISO image.
Any Intel or AMD processor will run VirtualBox according to Sun. Most guest OS’s will need at least 512 MB of RAM with 30 MB of hard drive space need for VirtualBox itself. If you’re willing and daring (and just plain cheap), download VirtualBox today.
Boinx Software introduced today FotoMagico 2.5, its award-winning photo presentation tool for professional photographers. Recently honored with the Apple Design Award (ADA) 2008 - “Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application Runner-up”, the new 2.5 version of FotoMagico now features support for Adobe Lightroom libraries, a teleprompter that shows notes for every slide on a presenter´s display and a new export option for uploading slideshow videos directly to YouTube.
“We want to thank thousands of users who take part on our public beta program and gave feedback to make FotoMagico even better”, says Oliver Breidenbach, co‐founder of Boinx Software. “We are dedicated to making FotoMagico the premier slidehows tool on the Mac, two Apple Design Awards are proof that we are on the right track.”
“With FotoMagico 2.5, keeping your audience at the edge of their seats with a great show is now as easy for Adobe Lightroom users as it was for Aperture and iPhoto users before”, says Peter Baumgartner, lead-developer and “father” of FotoMagico. “The teleprompter enables a Steve Jobs-like performance for everybody and sharing shows with a global audience was never easier than with the new YouTube export option.”
Adobe Lightroom Support
FotoMagico 2.5 now supports the iMedia Browser framework. With the integrated iMedia Browser users can now seamlessly access GarageBand songs, iLife sound effects and their media libraries not only from iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture (Pro version) but also from other software including Adobe Lightroom (Pro version).
Teleprompter
With the new teleprompter of FotoMagico 2.5 Pro users can show their photos on one display and read their notes for every slide on another. Nicely animated, they get a preview showing which pictures come next and can even jump back and forth to every slide in the storyboard with just a click of the mouse.
YouTube Export
The Sharing Assistant feature adds a new export option, allowing to upload photo presentation videos directly to YouTube to reach a global audience. Video encoding for YouTube can be accelerated with the powerful Turbo.264 video encoder hardware from Elgato.
Availability and Pricing
FotoMagico 2.5 is available immediately for download from http://www.boinx.com/download. A built-in assistant will guide users through the process of aquiring the proper license. The update to FotoMagico 2.5 is free of charge to current FotoMagico 2.x license owners at their current license levels. FotoMagico 2.5 Express is available for $49 and FotoMagico 2.5 Pro is available for $129 via Kagi. For all purchase options see http://boinx.com/fotomagico/buy. Commercial multi-user license discounts are available upon request.
For all you Twitter fanatics (yes, that’s me), there is something better for the iPhone. No, it’s not Twitterrific Premium as much as I would hope. It’s called Twittelator and unlike the former, you don’t have to pay for this to get the ad-free copy. Yes, Twittelator is free.
The great folks at Big Stone have decided that we all need a better Twitter client for the iPhone, and while I’ll readily admit it’s not as nice looking as Twitterrific, Twittelator works terrific! I immediately noticed that new tweets are rapidly displayed when you open the application. One of the biggest annoyance of Twitterrific is how it NEVER remembers my last position in the tweets list, so I tested that next on Twittelator. Guess what? It remembers. Nice. Thank you!! Another issue in Twitterrific is the keyboard disappearing when you hit the tweet ballon. No issues here.
The picture tweet works awesome as well. How many times have you lost pix for upload on Twitterrific due to a poor data connection? No worries mate, you just grab the picture from your photo library in Twittelator. Again, nice! You can also take a new picture within Twittelator as well. Twittelator fully resizes your picture to look normal on twitpic (see my first twitpic for proof.) Dude, did Big Stone like fully think this stuff out or what?
If you’re wishing brightkite would hurry up with its native iPhone app, don’t worry, Twittelator will get your geo-location down for you. Not as detailed as bkite, but still, nice.
Twittelator has an easy entry method to add all your friends into a tweet, built-in search for things or people near you, as well as the ability to see everyones tweets, featured tweets, or favorite ones. The great organization and in-depth information on each user far more than makes up for the not-so-fancy interface. And really, it’s not bad; we’ve just been spoiled by Twitterrific.
Now I have to see if Twittelator will make the long haul, but man, it’s already done a better job than Twitterrific. So much so, that I’ve just deleted it from my iPhone. If Big Stone wants to charge for this, I’ll pay!
SvenOnTech has been informed by Agile, makers of the popular wallet program for Mac OS X, that it is concentrating all its attention on a native iPhone application. In an email to SvenOnTech, Agile told us, “We are currently focusing on the imminent release of our native iPhone/iPod touch application”. Agile feels this will elevate many iPhone user complaints of crashing Safari browsers due to large data sets that the ingenious bookmarklet hack has difficult handling. With the native application, 1Password will be able to easily bring up data quickly and without crashing. Additionally, 1Password for the iPhone will be, “providing a lot more features and flexibility,” Agile told SvenOnTech.
SvenOnTech has requested a review copy and will be sure to let you know how it fares against the Safari version and if it replicates the ease and effectiveness of the desktop version. Keep your eyes here and on our Twitter feed!