This app allows streaming for all of your unprotected audio content directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch from your computer or up to 30 friends’ computer. The connection can be wifi, 3G or Edge for the iPhone and wifi for the iPod Touch. You’ll need a second piece of (free) software from Simplify Media for your computer where the audio content is stored, and it’s available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux. This is the software that actually streams the music. Best of all you can invite up to 30 friends to share music and have their entire music library at your fingertips. I have an iPhone 3G, iTunes, an iMac Core Duo, and it works flawlessly. I have tried it over wifi (best), 3G (better), & Edge (good) and have always been successful.

iTunes, Winamp, or Rhythmbox can be used as the music library application on the computer where the music is stored. Simplify also displays an artist bio page and lyrics for the currently playing song. Previously created playlists are also accessible. If you currently use last.fm, scrobbling is even available as an option.

A couple of things that should be noted:

Your host computer must remain on in order to stream music; the music is streaming from the computer, not the iPhone.

DRM protected music (including protected songs purchased from the iTunes Store) cannot be streamed. Although, all of iTunes music is now DRM-free, but if it isn’t, here’s how to fix that.

Cover art must be embedded in the music file in order to be displayed; Simplify Media will not grab the cover art.

If a call comes in while listening to music, it does not save your place or return to the app. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Simplify Media is a great way to have access to your entire music library anywhere your iPhone or iPod Touch has connectivity.

It’s free to share music from computer to computer [download page] and it’s currently $.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch [iTunes - link]. Software version 2.0 or above is requred for iPhone and iPod Touch.

First, let me say that I use these the most, but don’t confuse that with the best free apps ever made.

In no particular order:

TwitterFon

Facebook is ubiquitous, but Twitter is catching up. President Obama even uses Twitter. This app is actually pretty slick. It easy to share ‘tweets’ or take pictures on the fly. You can even reply, direct message, or ‘ReTweet’ easily right inside the app. Updating your Twitter status has never been so easy. You can follow people (even celebrities)  or have followers. Follow me by going to twitter.com/palaemon. Get it here.

Speed Dial #1

This app does one thing. One-touch dialing to whomever you want. It’s easy, simple and free. If you need more than one, there are
3 more. You guessed it: Speed Dial 2, Speed Dial 3, Speed Dial 4. As an added bonus, they are all different colors, so if numbers are not your thing, maybe colors will do it for you.  Get it here.

Vlingo

A nifty little voice recognition app. Use your voice to call a friend, get directions, or search Google. Easy, accurate, and I have to say It’s a little fun. Check out our full review of Vlingo here. Get it here.

NetNewsWire

RSS reader extraordinaire. This app is the way I catch up on my news, geeky or otherwise. You have to add your RSS feeds through newsgator.com, but you can delete right from the app. It has a built-in web-browser. This allows the user to not only view the basic feed info, but also see the article in its full glory. As an added bonus, there is an ‘open in safari’ button. Get it here.

Wikipanion

This is your basic Wikipedia app. Okay, so basic is totally an understatement. This is probably the most powerful Wiki app out there. The lengthy features include: bookmarking, lookup complete history, jump to topics, related links, move forward and backward through pages, search in page, adjust font size, email link, open in safari, look up in Wiktionary and landscape view. Whew! Get it here.

This app is currently  $15.99, so it’s one of the more expensive social networking apps around for the iPhone/iPod touch. But for What you get it’s worth the $$. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but unlimited text messages is $20/month or $30/month for families.

Okay, so instant messaging is all about keeping connected and staying in touch, right? Well BeejiveIM does that in spades. Not only can you have accounts to all the services listed above, you can manage your availability individually. For example, I want to be available to my spouse on MobileMe, but not all my friends on MySpace IM, or Facebook Chat… Check!

Another great feature is the ability to send SMS to your friends who refuse or are unable (read: old phone) to use email or IM. Using either an AIM or Yahoo! account, I can send IMs as text messages. The recipient is sent a text asking them if they want to receive or decline the message, and after they accept, then you are okay to chat. They still get charged the text message rates, but you are free to chat without worry. In order to send a text message, you can either manually enter a phone number or select it from your address book.

Okay, so we’ve talked about account set up and text messages. But what if the BeejiveIM app is closed? Everyone knows that 3rd party iPhone apps are not allowed to run in the back ground. Well, BeejiveIM has a nifty work-around: push email. In iPhone settings, choose BeejiveIM and turn on “push” and add your push-enabled email address.

If you already have a MobileMe account, then you are good to go. If not, get a free Yahoo! account. I used an old free Yahoo! account that I set up many years ago, but barely used and it work perfectly. Although, I have talked to people who have re-activated an old Yahoo! account and push just didn’t work. I have noticed that just setting up a new Yahoo! account just for BeejiveIM works well.

This feature works well with another great feature: BeejiveIM will keep you logged in to your IM services for up to 24 hours. As long as you open BeejiveIM once a day, you will essentially be connected forever. If the app is closed, and someone sends you a message, you will receive an email with not only the missed message, but a button that opens the BeejiveIM app so that a response can be made.

Let’s talk about features. Some of my favorites are:

Send/Receive Images/Voice notes through IM. Voice notes are done right in the app.
Send text/images as SMS/MMS to most carriers.
Easily switch between chats. Ability to shake iPhone to switch chats in BeeJiveIM.
Portrait or Landscape mode keyboard.
Push Notification.
Attachments available as a web link or in-line view.
Email chat log(s).
Buddy Icon support.
Growl-like display when typing.
Background wallpaper support.

This interface is sleek and beautiful. It’s exactly what you’d expect in a top-notch (who uses top-notch these days?) iPhone app.
It’s available for $15.99 here.

The gameplay is simple and responsive.

The game uses 2 mechanics. Tapping anywhere on the screen makes the ball jump, and the longer you hold, the higher he jumps. The game also uses the accelerometer to move left and right.

The goal is that of any other platformer: Stay alive and don’t get killed! To kill enemies, just jump on top. Sometimes enemies need multiple hops to be killed.
The graphics are clean and crisp, yet simple.

The player gets checkpoints in the form of gold stars and is able to continue from that point if he dies. After each level statistics are given including a “beat by” time that offers the player an “acheivement-like” gold medal.

The game is broken up into worlds and levels. The free “lite” version has 3 levels in a single world. The full version is on sale untill March 3rd when they plan to release the complete 3rd world.

Free Lite version available here [iTunes link] and full version available here [iTunes link] for $1.99 until March 7th.

A few months ago while reading a tech magazine I read a short review of a phone application called JoikuSpot. It boasted that it could use a phones inbuilt Wi-Fi and internet access to create a local Wi-Fi network that any user could access. I am a big user of the internet away my home network and I  have several devices that have Wi-Fi but need a network to access the internet. This software looked to be just what I needed.

The software is designed primarily for phones running the Symbian S60 3^rd Edition operating system, which are typically most Nokia and some Samsung phones. It is available as a free basic version (with some limitations) or $20 for the Premium fully featured license. Ideally you need an unlimited 3G internet access package for your phone (or at least a good high monthly GB usage to avoid big bills). The software can be downloaded from the site or a link sent directly to your phone to allow you to download it directly.

The installation process is painless and once you open the application you can enter the Settings option to configure your own Wi-Fi hot spot. You can change the name from the default ‘JoikuSpot’ and set up encryption via the inbuilt WEP protocol (a must to avoid passing strangers swiping your bandwidth).

Once configured simply Start the application and select your Internet connection option and after a few moments your phone will magically become a Wi-Fi hotspot. As you connect devices to the hotspot, the MAC code & device ID will appear on the phones screen identifying what device is connected so you can monitor for any unlawful access.  A status tab will allow you to monitor how long you are connected and the amount of data transferred.

I have so far used this with my macbook, windows laptop and my iPod Touch and all have connected without any issues and provided reliable, fast internet access. It has also proved useful to allow access to friends and family when travelling with multiple users all connecting and the software handling this without any issues.

The only downside I’ve found with the application is that it loves power. My battery life suffers terribly, with my Nokia N95 struggling to operate more than 90-120 minutes during high usage. Still, this is more than enough for accessing a few sites and keeping up to speed with the latest on Geekshow.us!

If you have the right kit and would like to try this you can find it here. I hope the developers are working on similar applications for other operating systems because this would be a neat feature for all phones to have.

GadgetGeek – Tech Reviews, News, and Future Views

Have you ever played that game where the goal is to slide pieces around in order to complete the picture? It can be fun, but after you solve it once, the fun pretty much ends there. Well, take elements of that, add colors, geometric shapes & a subway theme and you have Subway Shuffle.

The object of this addictive puzzle game by R Aubrey Hearn is to get your subway car to its destination. Each color token (subway car) can only travel on its own color line. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, the first few levels are almost remedial, but the difficulty curve jumps quite a bit at about level 14. Although the play can be maddening,  it can be lots of fun at the same time. Sometimes you feel like giving up, but then you see the light. However, for those who don’t see the light, there are a few options. first, there is a hint button in the shape of a question mark. If you get stuck, just click the “?” and Subway Shuffle will move a token in the right direction. The good news is that you can use the hint repeatedly until it’s solved. (Is “solved” the right word if you used the hint button to complete the entire puzzle?) Second, if you make an obvious mistake, you can just hit the back button and it will move the last token  to its previous position and subtract a “move” from your current number of moves. Third, you may also skip to any puzzle you want from the  All Levels menu. There are currently 85 in the full version, and about 10 or so in the lite (aka free/demo) version. It’s not a lot, but that gives you a smattering of levels to try.

That brings us to the “move” tracker. This convenient feature tracks how many moves you make. On the downside, it also correlates that to the minimum number of moves it takes to complete said level. (84/22  -  yikes!) On the Levels menu, it shows you which puzzles you have solved (including how many “hints” you may have used) with one green check mark. You get a second check mark, if you solve it within the given number of moves. You also get a preview of the level map and how many moves it’ll take to solve. Let me just say that I’m not looking forward to level 84 with its 329 moves or the last level at 589 moves. That’s more than 17 times as many moves as number 24 (34 moves), and level 24 is a doozie. Let’s just say that there are YouTube videos showing how to solve it.

Subway Shuffle was designed and developed by an MIT Computer Scientist. It’s compatible with the iPhone and the iPod Touch with the iPhone software 2.0 update.

The lite version is available for free here and the full version is available for $2.99 here.

There’s also a free demo for the Mac at SubwayShuffle.com

Here’s a video from their website:

When I first started watching Star Trek:The Next Generation in 1987 I was fascinated with the small handheld devices that the crew were using: PADDs (Personal Access Display Device). These allowed access to all the knowledge of the Federation and appeared to have virtual infinite abilities. I wanted one.

Along came 1989 and I made my first purchase of a device that kicked of my dream of owning my own PADD.

Sharp IQ-7000 (1989-1997)

Tech Specs: Screen: Mono 96×64, Memory: 16KB RAM

The Sharp IQ-7000 was essentially a glorified pocket calculator. What differentiated it from the pack was that it had a built in calendar for planning out your time and a contacts button to store al your phone numbers and addresses. It could take short notes and had all the normal calculator functions. The unique selling point what that it had a port to take custom application cards that converted a section of the device into a touch pad. These cards were bought as add ons and included cards that could manage your accounts, add a dictionary to your device or even boost the meagre memory up to 64KB (the first SD card?) This device kept my vision of the ultimate PADD open for a number of years until in 1997 when along came a device that was closer to my dream.

Psion Series 5 (1997 – 2001)

Tech Specs: O/S: Symbian EPOC, Screen: Mono 640×240, Memory: 4MB RAM + 6MB ROM, CPU: 32 bit ARM 7100 (18.432 Mhz)

This big selling point for me was that this device had a touch screen. I was one step closer to that PADD dream. This was a proper little computer that had most of the functionality of modern day devices. It accepted Compact Flash cards and hence you could build up the memory (I recall buying a 32 MB CF card for £80 ($120) and thought this was an amazing amount of memory). This device had a word processor, a spreadsheet app and even stored photos and took recordings. It’s database app was one I used a lot, filling it up with databases of Star Trek episodes and details of all my favorite films. I loaded it up with all my contacts, diary, personal data and databases and had access to them wherever I was. At the time this was all cutting edge stuff, and then along came a new kid on the block.

Casio Cassiopeia E-115 (2001 – 2003)

Tech Specs: O/S: Pocket PC 2000, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 32MB RAM +16 MB ROM, CPU: 64 bit NEC VR4122 (150 Mhz)

Now this was a proper little computer. It was even running a simple version of Windows. This device felt like my ultimate PADD. It was the right shape, it had a full color screen and no keyboard. Compared to the Psion it was ultra fast with a 150 Mhz processor and had no problems storing all the info I ever needed and was compatible with all my PC applications so a cinch to update and link to all my documents. It did play music and video, but that 32MB of RAM didn’t go very far (anyway the 5 GB iPod I got in 2001 sorted that need out). You now had the ability to install custom applications like simple games and apps that could simulate the night sky (cool!). The device was still a bit  bulky for carrying in your pocket and had terrible battery life (that big 3.8” TFT screen was cutting edge but power hungry). It took regular AA batteries and ate them like candy – very expensive. I needed something more fuel efficient.

HP iPaq 2250 (2003 – 2005)

Tech Specs: O/S: Windows Mobile 2003, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 64MB RAM + 32 MB ROM, CPU: 32bit Intel XScale PXA255 (400 Mhz)

This was the evolutionary step up on the Cassiopeia. The basic design was very similar with a screen only slightly smaller at 3.5” but this device had been on a diet with the weight dropping from 255 g to 164 g. It also had a rechargeable battery to save my pennies and a much faster processor. The cost of memory was rapidly coming down in price and was now up to 512 MB SD cards for £80. I could now store some video files (mainly clips from Star Wars) and store lots and lots of databases. I liked this device a lot. It hit a lot of my PADD buttons and I carried it everywhere in my pocket where it competed for space with my phone (these had yet to shrink to the ultra tiny devices of today).

HP iPaq 2750 (2005 – 2007)

Tech Specs: O/S: Windows Mobile 2003 SE, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 128 MB + 128 MB ROM, CPU: 32bit Intel XScale PXA270 (625 Mhz)

In 2004-5 wi-fi was the big thing and home networks were springing up everywhere. My next device was a faster, slicker version of the previous iPaq. The big selling point was that it had wi-fi built in. It quickly connected to my wi-fi network and suddenly the whole of the internet was at my mobile fingertips. My mobile (cell) phone had already been doing this for a while over the WAP network (very slow, but it was still the internet). The iPaq gave a bigger cleaner internet experience with the big screen and ability to pick up email. Memory was now ultra cheap and I loaded it up with 4GB of flash memory and started to load full movies onto it (Star Wars being my first film). It even streamed video over the net and I remember getting live Shuttle footage from NASA TV showing the earth slowly rotating below. While surfing the net I found a piece of Windows CE software that created a Star Trek inspired interface. My gadget finally looked like a Star Trek PADD! I was now very close to my ultimate PADD.

Nokia N95 (2007 – 2008)

Tech Specs: O/S: Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 8GB, CPU: 32bit Texas Instruments OMAP 2420 (332 Mhz)

Through 2006-7 the life of the Pocket PC was being overtaken by the increasing power of phone operating systems and software. My old Psion Series 5 operating system, Symbian had gone on steroids and had turned into Series 60. The Nokia N95 had a step down in processing power and flexibility from the iPaq, but gave me a camera, video, GPS, cool N-GAGE games and oh yeah, a phone! I also had the whole internet at my fingertips virtually anywhere (not just with a wi-fi signal). This was truly a gadget that I could carry anywhere, have access to the worlds knowledge and never get lost with. Was this my ultimate PADD?, No, I needed a touch screen.

iPod Touch / iPhone (2008 – )

Tech Specs: O/S: iPhone OS 2.2, Screen: Color 480×320, Memory: 32 GB, CPU: Samsung ARM (533 Mhz)

Now I have to admit, my iPhone is still in the shop. But with my iPod Touch and N95 I have full internet access on the move (courtesy of Joikuspot software). To me my iPod Touch is as close to my Ultimate PADD until they actually make one. It is portable, has a great touch screen and now with the Application store has been opened up to thousands of applications. Of course I had to search for a PADD application and my prayers were answered with ‘Tricorder’. I may not be able to shutdown a warp core with it, but I know feel like I’m on the Enterprise. Clearly the iPhone is closer to my goal and as soon as my contract runs out, a fresh one will more than likely be in my pocket.

Looking back at my Sharp IQ-7000 it’s hard to believe how much the portable orgainser has evolved. It was only 10 years from the Psion 5 to the iPhone and the technology advances were significant. What will the next ten years hold? Somehow I think my Star Trek PADD is still a few more years away.

GadgetGeek – Tech Reviews, News, and Future Views

Handbrake is a free open-source video conversion tool available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux. I stumbled onto this piece of software only a few months ago and I have found it excellent at producing first rate compact versions of some of my DVDs.

It is specifically designed to create MPEG-4 versions on DVDs, but will also complete conversions between a limited set of video codecs (e.g. MPEG to AVI).

Using Handbrake couldn’t be simpler. Just insert your DVD and from the Handbrake main screen select the  VIDEO_TS folder of the DVD and Handbrake will scan for content and provide a list. The normal tricky part of trying to figure out what video and audio codec your device needs has been made easy by having a varied selection of devices to pick from. Selecting your device automatically sets up Handbrake for the optimum quality of video and audio for the output file. Hitting ‘Start’ kicks of the encoding and will dump the file to the place of your choice.

I’ve so far tried this on my iPod Touch and PSP and found that a 2 hour movie ends up around 1GB when encoded for my Touch. With 32GB to play with I’ve stuck several movies onto my iPod and have found them all very clear and easy to watch while sat on the train. I also have many more sat on my Mac and they still look pretty good on the full screen. Having a whole selection of films and TV shows on my Mac is great for traveling and also cuts down on battery consumption as there is no DVD drive to power.

Some of the devices included in the automatic settings include Apple TV, Xbox 360 and PS3, so you can also load these up for watching on your TV.

Buy an 8GB USB stick, load it up with 16 hrs of all your favorite movies and TV shows and you can watch them whenever you have access to a computer, PS3 or Xbox 360.

Please remember, using this software is for personal use only and not for selling on copies of all your DVDs!

Find the software here.

In the past couple of months Archos have released their 5 series of PMP’s (Portable Media Players). They are calling them ‘Internet Media Tablets’ due to their wi-fi integration and built in internet browser. They are marketing a few standard machines with storage ranging from 60 to 250GB. These all allow video, picture and music storage – all pretty standard stuff. What appeals in this new range is the 5g version. This is due out sometime in the next couple of months and integrates 3G (HSDPA) capability.  This is nothing new, but at present there are not a lot of portable devices out there (apart from phones) that have this built in. We are seeing a few netbooks starting to build this in and it is something that I expect all similar devices to have as standard in the next year or two. We are seeing most (if not all) mobile phone manufacturers selling internet SIM cards wrapped in a USB stick. While great for mobile computing, you do need a computer and it does stick out ready to be knocked off. The beauty of inbuilt 3G is that these machines have the SIM card slot hidden away inside and when you turn them on, you can be online straight away. The Archos5g is small and portable and allows quick portable access to all your media and the internet. It does suffer with only having 30 GB of storage, but if you only keep your favorite stuff on it, it should be more than enough.