Archive for February, 2009
App Store Weather – The Weather Channel
Feb 17th
CTA RATING: 
I’ve never been a big fan of just sitting around and watching the weather channel… there’s something about the combination of cheesy elevator music and bad graphics that makes me want to puke. Â Even still, I’ve come to accept the fact that the built-in iPhone OS weather application isn’t really up to par (Yahoo! apps aren’t my favorite). Â So I went through the store and tried to find the best weather application out there that really reflects accuracy. Â I tried several and even stuck with Weatherbug (Link opens iTunes) for a while but eventually settled on The Weather Channel’s app because it seemed to give me the best accuracy.
Take a look at the gallery to see all of the features, but a few that stick out in my mind are: hour by hour weather, 10 day forecast, live radar, severe weather warnings, and local weather videos. Â Those features make this my favorite weather app because I always know what’s going on.
I was out driving not to long ago and the sky became pretty dark around two in the afternoon, so I pulled up the app and sure enough there was a severe weather warning waiting for me. Â I was able to look at the map, see a tornado and change my route accordingly. Â Yeah, that’s cool. Â Last but not least, it’s free. Â So give it a try and feel free to let us know what you think.
- Weather
- Hourly
- 36 Hour
- 10 Day Forecast
- Live Radar
- Local Weather Video
- Severe Weather Alerts
- More
- The Weather Channel iTunes Info
Jailbreak 101: Themes
Feb 14th
I’m sure that many of you out there are into changing it up a bit. Â When the first generation iPhones were still running 1.1.2 – 1.1.4, I was devoted to an application called Customize. Â It handled all of the legwork and I was able to just photoshop a picture and place it in the right place. Â Until “thespicychicken” gets that up and running on the latest firmware, we’re left to fend for ourselves.
If you’re interested in “theming” your iPhone or iPod touch – and your device is jailbroken – then just follow a couple easy steps and you’ll be rid of the plain old, boring look that your device has suffered and into a shiny new set of icons and even different layouts if you’d like.
First, via Cydia, you need to download “Winterboard.” Â This application, written by Saurik, acts as the replacement for Summerboard from the first Cocoa Touch OS. Â When you open Winterboard, there are a few themes and options in there. Â Go ahead and check them out by tapping them and hitting the home button. Â That will cause your device to “Re-Spring” and apply the changes you’ve made to the “Springboard.” Â The Springboard is User Interface that you’re using every day. Â
If the default themes aren’t to your liking, there are over a thousand themes available through Cydia. Â Everything from App icons to Sound themes… even complete system themes. Â You can preview each theme before installing it. Â After installing a theme through Cydia, just go back to Winterboard and enable that theme.
Unfortunately, our knowledge doesn’t go beyond that at this point. Â If you want to learn how to create your own themes for Cydia, please be sure to check out modmyi.com. Â We’ll be sure to do a full write-up about Customize.app when it comes out. Â Until then, happy theming.
Mafia Live! Family Codes
Feb 14th
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So yeah… remember our post about the game Mafia Live!?  I’ve been browsing around and it appears to be accepted practice to spread your family codes around online.  I’ve found lists and lists of them all over the place.  So, I thought I’d start one for all of the CTA readers that we have out there.
Here’s mine: Â 649-998-556
Feel free to add me to your family. Â I’m at level 33 and growing. Â Be sure to leave your family code in the comments so other people can add you too!
Turn-by-Turn Coming to Jailbroken iPhones
Feb 11th
A short update for all of the jailbreakers out there. Â xGPS is currently working on a public distribution of their updated app that will allow jailbreakers to use it for turn-by-turn navigation. Â A pleasant monotone voice is waiting to give you directions and should be around by February 20th. Â Right now, you’ll find a version with out the “vocalization” feature… but given that time, you will be able to download and listen to a computer animated voice to fulfill all of your iPhone navigation fantasies. Â We’ll be giving this a go when it’s available… if you have any thoughts about it, be sure to let us know in the comments.
via Gizmodo
- xGPS Splash Screen
- xGPS Icon
iPhone Stereotype?
Feb 10th
Here’s a clip I came across this morning. Thought I would share it. I hope that I’m not the stereotypical iPhone user as implied by this video from college humor. If you find yourself in this category, take a good look at yourself and realize it’s just a phone. What am I saying?! It’s not just a phone it is a part of my life! I could live without it, but why?
Enable Emoji on iPhone OS 2.2.1
Feb 10th
There has been quite the buzz around the iPhone world with the introduction of emoji enabling applications in the US App Store. Â The first app to enable emoji was FrostyPlace (Link opens iTunes). Â The biggest problem came with the iPhone OS 2.2.1 update that broke the hidden feature of this app for anyone who hadn’t enabled it. Â FrostyPlace promised to get an app into the App Store to fix this but has yet to deliver. Â Since that time, several other developers have taken it upon themselves to fill the void. Â We used Typing Genius (Link opens iTunes) to enable emoji and it worked like a dream. Â To follow suit, download Typing Genius, run the app, close it, go to the settings app, tap general, tap keyboard, then international keyboards, japanese, and then turn on emoji. Â Seems like a lot, but it’s really easy and adds some cool features to your keyboard.
What is emoji? Â It’s a Japanese character set that’s very much like emoticons and is a standard among japanese phones. Â That being a japanese standard, it’s not enabled on american phones and there are strict requirements for it to work. Â First, it only works on iPhones or iPod Touches. Â Second, the both mobile devices must be running 2.2 or later. Â Both devices don’t need to have emoji enabled to see the messages, but it’s definitely something that most users will want after they see the characters. Â The catch, if you send a text with emoji to another iPhone user that isn’t up to the latest firmware, it will not go through. Â They will receive nothing and you won’t find out if they liked your smiley face.
Anyways, take a look at the gallery and see what is offered with emoji. Â It’s stupid but playful and I can’t wait to mess with my wife. 
- Emoji 2
- Emoji 3
- Emoji 4
- Emoji 4
- Emoji
App Store Lifestyle – MacGourmet
Feb 9th
CTA RATING:
Just released at the end of last month, MacGourmet is meant to allow you to sync your recipes from the Desktop Client to your Apple Mobile device. Â The only catch, it doesn’t work. Â I’d consider myself to be pretty dang tech savvy, but if I can’t figure this out, I’m left to wonder how many people will be able to do just that.
In theory, this could be a really advantageous app, if you use the desktop versions of MacGourmet or MacGourmet Deluxe (Great software by the way) then you could really simplify your life with this app. Â It allows you to sync all your recipes, wine lists, notes, and shopping lists. Â But it just doesn’t work. Â How is it supposed to work?
First, you have to have the desktop software and update it to the latest version.  Then you must enable sharing on the desktop end.  Once that is done, you should be able to see the desktop library on your mobile device (they both must be up and running).  Then you should just be able to tap the sync tab on the mobile device and it’ll copy over all the data.  Not so.  After trying for about an hour, all I could get it to do was sync the data.  Good right?  Nope.  After all the data syncs over, I see nothing in any of the tabs.  I don’t know where all the information goes to, but it’s definitely not accessible.
Even with that fatal flaw, the current version doesn’t allow you to do much of anything. Â You cannot edit recipes, lists, or anything of the sort. Â If I’m going to use an app for a shopping list, I want to be able to edit it anywhere… not from my computer and then sync it. Â Advenio software really needs to get this app out of beta. Â It’s terrible in its current form. Â We’ll keep you posted if the app gets any better.
App Store Games – Light Bike
Feb 7th
CTA RATING:
To be honest, I wish I could give the game a better rating, but I spent a whole 5 minutes playing the game and got ridiculously bored. Not my type of game, but let me explain a little bit more about it so that you can form your own opinion.
The gameplay is simple. You’re riding a bike that leaves a colored trail behind you everywhere you went. There are 3 opponents that also leave trails. You must avoid their trails and leave yours in places where they’ll be forced to run into it. 3 bikes must run into trails and then the fourth bike is declared the winner. It’s all done within a limited arena which makes it difficult to avoid the trails.
I find it to be quite similar to the old Snake game just without the apples and opponents that are devious. I couldn’t recommend this game because I was quite bored after the first few minutes… but it’s selling for $0.99 at the moment, so it might be worth checking out.
- LightBike splash Creen
- LightBike Menu
- LightBike Gameplay
- LightBike iTunes Info
CTA – WPtouch 1.6
Feb 6th
So, it’s not an app and we’ve talked about it before, but we’re HUGE fans of WPtouch. Â It’s a Wordpress plugin that all bloggers using Wordpress need in order to accommodate their iPhone, iPod Touch or even Android device using readers. Â While we’ve been gone, Dale Mugford and Duane Storey have been busy getting this plugin right. Â I’ve been playing with it for a while now and all of the little quirks that I remember from previous versions are gone and it’s HOT. Â
It’s been installed for a while now, so you may have seen it on your devices but we’ve finally updated the custom theme to look like CTA.  Yes, the default theme looks amazingly like our site already, but we’ve tweaked it a bit and are completely satisfied with the look and user experience.  If for some reason you would like to turn off the iPhone optimized view, just scroll to the bottom and click the “Normal View” tab… thus taking you to the regular site.  Seriously, check it out and then go tell BraveNewCode.com how cool they are.
App Store Productivity – Keynote Remote
Feb 6th
CTA RATING:
In Apple’s last Mac World keynote, they introduced an update to their iWork suite that included a new capability for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Â You can now use your Cocoa Touch device to control a keynote presentation wirelessly. Â Apple claims that you must be connected on the same wifi network… they’re wrong – more on that later.
The app itself was designed by a minimalist.  But it’s the functionality that counts.  I’ve used this application several times since I downloaded the trial from Apple and subsequently purchased the software.  I can say it’s nothing new – there have been apps that have tried to replicate this feature – and it’s nothing special, but it works.  It does become quite annoying when you have to swipe to the next slide for every animated bullet you put into a presentation.  I have to swipe 50 times during a 6 or 7  slide presentation.  It just gets old.  Maybe a double tap for bullets is in order… something to prevent me from getting carpal tunnel.  This app could do so much more, hopefully we’ll see that in the future, but until then it gets only 6 stars.
Do I need a wireless network? Â Yes and no. Â Any Leopard mac at least has the ability to create a network. Â You can just tap on the airport icon in the menu bar, select create network, name it and you have a wireless network. Â All you have to do at that point is sign into that network with your iPhone. Â This will work even if there isn’t a wireless network anywhere around. Â This is also a great tip for people looking to transfer files wirelessly without a network.
I could argue about the fact that Apple is charging $0.99 for this app, but I won’t. Â If you already have iWork ‘09 then spend the buck, but don’t spend the money on the suite of apps just to get this functionality. Â There’s other options, but this seems like the best one… so grab it if you will.
- Keynote Remote
- Keynote Remote Slide 1
- Keynote Remote Slide 2
- Keynote Remote iTunes Info
