Apple Unveils “Apps for Everything,” Highlights a Handful of the 85,550 Apps Available
Apple knows that it’s often easier to find a needle in a haystack than it is to find just the right app among the 85,550 it currently offers.
To make your search just a tiny bit easier, the company has put together some web pages called “Apps for Everything” that highlight a few of what it considers the more noteworthy apps you mgiht want to run on your iPhone or your iPod Touch.
Here are some of Apple’s suggestions that might be of use to those using their iPhone at work, along with Apple’s description of the merits of each app (the links take you to the App Store):
- Nexonia Expenses Nexonia subscribers can keep receipts from piling up with Nexonia Expenses. Track expenses as you incur them. Then use your iPhone camera to photograph receipts before submitting expense reports.
- Cisco WebEx Meeting Center Just because you’re out of the office doesn’t mean you have to be out of the loop. Use Cisco WebEx Meeting Center to participate in meetings and interact in real time.
- Keynote Remote If you’re presenting, control the show from your iPhone with Keynote Remote. Swipe the screen to advance, preview the next slide, or view your notes as you use Wi-Fi to roam the room.
- iDialUDrive The next time business takes you on the road, take iDialUDrive along for the ride. Create a list of all the people you want to talk to that day and iPhone will make every call — one by one — for you.
- Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite Leave that stack of papers behind. With Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, you can view, edit, and email your important Microsoft Word and Excel files from your iPhone. Tap to access local and remote files, create new documents, and stay productive even while you’re on the road.
- OmniFocus Don’t just make a list of all the important things you have to get done. Organize them with OmniFocus. This Apple Design Award-winning app keeps track of tasks by project, place, person, or date. You can also upload photos and use built-in GPS to find nearby tasks to knock off your list.
- Bento For intuitive business and personal organization, Bento for iPhone is an easy way keep your life in order. This personal database will help you manage everything from to-do lists and exercise logs to event planning and business contacts.
- Credit Card Terminal With Credit Card Terminal, you can turn your iPhone into a mobile cash register. Accept credit card payments, email receipts, and refund sales listed on your transaction log — all on the go.
- iTimeSheet Download iTimeSheet and track your time by client. You can also view activity reports, create invoices, and export the data into Excel.
- LinkedIn Get instant access to your professional network with LinkedIn. Add new contacts on the spot, or keep others in the loop by adding your own status updates. And if you want to learn more about the people you’re meeting, tap to check out their professional profiles.
AT&T iPhone Service Again Gets an F as Apple Techs Confirm Up to 30% Dropped Calls in New York City
An iPhone user in New York City tells Gizmodo that an evaluation of his phone service by a technician at Apple’s Soho retail store confirmed that AT&T’s cellular service is dropping 22% of his calls and that the figure may be as high as 30%.
The iPhone owner, Manoj Gupta, reportedly took his phone to the Apple Store at 103 Prince Street where it was given a clean bill of heath at the store’s Genius Bar, where tech support is offered free of charge.
A document on the Gizmodo site — a Genius Bar Work Authorization — states: “Proposed solution: This is a basic trouble shooting case so that the customer may report back to AT&T to show that the phone is fully functional and the problem is consistent with the service provided by AT&T.”
The Gizmodo revelation is the latest in a growing list of complaints about poor iPhone service on AT&T’s wireless network, particularly in large cities.
AT&T has responded to the complaints with attempts to upgrade its network, including offering a $150 device that connects to a user’s highspeed internet service and provides improved coverage within 5,000 feet of the base unit.
Vodafone Signs Deal with Apple, Becomes Third UK Carrier of iPhone
A day after Orange broke O2’s exclusive relationship with Apple to become the second UK wireless provider to carry the iPhone, Vodafone has announced a deal to sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland beginning early in 2010.
By customer base, O2 is the UK’s largest mobile operator, with Vodafone second and Orange third, according to the Financial Times.
O2 began selling the iPhone in the UK in 2007, and used the handset “to poach customers from rivals,” said FT. O2 has sold more than 1.5 million iPhones.
The UK cell phone market is preparing for a major shake-up after plans for a merger between France Telecom’s Orange UK and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile UK were unveiled earlier this month, the paper said, adding that the combined entity would become the largest UK operator by customer number, overtaking O2 and Vodafone.
New: 2009 AP Stylebook Comes to the iPhone
“AP Stylebook fans have been asking for a mobile application so they can have style guidance wherever they go,” said Colleen Newvine, who manages the AP Stylebook product group. “Journalists never know when they will need to run out the door to chase a story, so as long as they have an iPhone in their pockets when they go, the Stylebook can go with them.”
The 2009 AP Stylebook app features searchable listings for the main, sports, business and punctuation sections, along with the ability to add custom entries and personalized notes on AP listings. Stylebook app users are able to mark any entry as a favorite for easy access.
Annual releases for the app are set to coincide with the release dates for the Stylebook print edition. As a bonus, 2009 AP Stylebook app users will automatically receive an upgrade to the 2010 AP Stylebook app as soon as it becomes available.
$28.99
App Store link
Developer’s website
Apple Says iPhone and iPod Touch Customers Have Downloaded More Than Two Billion Apps
Apple yesterday announced that more than two billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store.
There are currently more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch customers worldwide. Apple said. The company also noted that there are over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.
“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”
iPhone and iPod Touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel
As iPhone Debuts in China October 1, O2’s Exclusive iPhone Deal in UK Ends
Filed under: 3G, 3G Network, 3GS, China, Smartphone Market, Verizon Wireless
As Apple is busy expanding the reach of its hot-selling iPhone to all corners of the globe, its initial exclusive carrier deals are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
In the UK, O2’s exclusive “multi-year” deal with Apple turns out to have been a two-year deal as Orange UK has announced today that it is has reached an agreement with Apple to sell the 3G and 3GS to its customers later this year.
Orange globally now offers iPhone in 28 countries and territories, the company says on its website.
The advent of multi-carrier options in the UK may give some hope to US iPhone users, some of whom have grown weary of the service offered by AT&T through its exclusive deal with Apple. There have been rumors that Verizon Wireless may also offer the iPhone in the US, perhaps in 2010 when Apple’s current agreement with AT&T is believed to end.
In China, China Unicom, the nation’s second largest mobile carrier, announced today that it will begin selling the iPhone in China on October 1.
Apple is reportedly in talks with China Mobile, the nation’s largest wireless provider, to also carry the iPhone.
A land of almost 700 million cell phone users, China is just beginning the transition from 2G networks to a faster 3G service.
New: Notepod — Notepad Shaped Like an iPhone – for App Ideas or Any Old Scribbling
If you have a sudden idea for an iPhone app and you want something more practical than a cocktail napkin on which to sketch your million dollar brainchild, try the Notepod, a notepad that looks like the front of an iPhone.
The Notepod, which is about the same size as an iPhone (4.5 inches by 2.4 inches), has a grid on the back of its pages for further technical sketching. They can of course be used for any doodling or notetaking you care to engage in.
Notepods come in sets of three 100-page pads for $17.95.
New Technology to Allow Varied iPhone and Apple Tablet Connectivity Through Single Connector
Filed under: 3G, 3GS, 4th Generation iPhone, Apple Tablet/Slate, Steve Jobs, Video
A new technology being developed by Intel called “Light Peak” will allow you to connect your iPhone and the rumored Apple tablet to a range of external peripherals using a single optical cable.
This breakthrough technology is designed to provide faster and larger data delivery while at the same time eliminating the need for the myriad of connectivity protocols like Firewire, Display interface, and even USB.
“Light Peak delivers high bandwidth starting at 10Gb/s with the potential ability to scale to 100Gb/s over the next decade,” says an overview of the technology on the Intel website. “At 10Gb/s, you could transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds.”
If the simplicity and elegance of Light Peak sounds like a very “Apple” idea, Engadget has revealed that Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2007 approached Paul Otellini, his counterpart at Intel, with the concept for the advanced optical standard and asked Intel to create it.
Apple will introduce the new technology in it’s back-to-school Mac line in Fall 2010, says Engadget, with a low-power version finding its way into the iPhone (and probably the tablet) in 2011.
New: Driverslog Pro — Adding Up Trip Miles for Tax and Other Purposes
An electronic driver’s log, Driverslog Pro logs the type of trip (business or private), the start and destination locations, start and end times, and start and end mileage and distance driven.
Each field in Driverslog Pro is optional, so you can quickly create a new trip or location with place holders, and enter the details later, when you have time to do so.
To meet requirements of tax authorities, any changes after finalizing a trip’s data (trip marked “closed”) is logged with date and time.
Export data as CSV, Calendar, XML, SQL.
$2.99
App Store link
Developer’s website
Apple Provides Support Document as AT&T Enables MMS for iPhone 3G and 3GS
AT&T has activated MMS messaging for the iPhone 3G and 3GS and Apple has provided a support document to install a software update on your iPhone so you can use MMS.
To enable MMS on your iPhone, follow these steps:
- At your computer, make sure that you have a working Internet connection and then launch iTunes (8.2 or later).
- Connect your iPhone to the computer.
- Select your iPhone in the Devices list and click “Check for Update.”
- Update to iPhone OS 3.1 if prompted to do so.
- Click “Update Settings” when prompted.
- When the update is complete, you will be told that “Your iPhone carrier settings were updated successfully.”
- Restart your iPhone.
- After your iPhone restarts, verify MMS is active by creating a new text message. You should see the camera icon to the left of the text field.
