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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Dropkick: Simple To-Do List App With Cloud Sync

You know we love OmniFocus here at MacStories, and we just can’t get enough of the possibilities offered by OmniGroup’s powerful GTD software. I understand, however, that GTD is not for everyone. Some people are looking forward to having a simple system on their mobile devices and computers, an app to enter tasks in a list and that’s it. Sounds like a solid and affordable plan, right? With only one major problem,though: sync.

People looking for such a simple system would also like to be able to effortlessly sync their tasks in the cloud. As far as I know, there’s no good and simple app that lets you enter tasks on the iPhone, have them backed up online, and find them again in another simple and minimal app on the desktop. If there’s one, please let me know in the comments.

Still, Dropkick is here to solve this problem: it’s a minimal and elegant application that lets you a) enter tasks and b) sync them to all your devices. That’s really it. Read more


Real Racing 2: Coming On December 16th At $9.99, We Can’t Wait

A few minutes ago Firemint announced the full details behind Real Racing 2, the sequel to the popular racing game that came out on the iPhone and iPad earlier this year. The game is coming next Thursday, on December 16th, and it will be available for $9.99 in the App Store.

Real Racing 2 will feature 30 officially licensed cars with a new career mode that will grant you over 10 hours of gameplay, a 16 player online gaming (no other iOS game did this before, I think), 5 game modes and 15 different locations. There will be Game Center integration and you will be able to see vehicle damage in real time (finally), 5 different camera angles and several control modes.

Real Racing 2 basically looks like a huge sequel, and a must-have for iOS users. The online multiplayer sounds fantastic, and the screenshots posted by Firemint are simply delicious.

Check out a trailer below. Read more


Favorites: My Phone App Replacement

Every time I post screenshots of my iPhone homescreen here on MacStories, I get comments and emails asking me about “that blue icon” next to Captio in my dock. Since I wasn’t able to reply to all those comments and emails and I love to talk about apps that change my workflow, I want to clear the air on this app and write about it.

The app is called “Favorites”, it’s been around for a while in the App Store and it’s developed by Matt Legend Gemmell over at Instinctive Code. It’s a very straightforward app that lets you create shortcuts for your favorite contacts and tap on them to initiate a phone call. Think of it as a homescreen for your contacts. Read more


iFiles: Now With S3 Support, AirPrint and Text Editing In The Cloud

iFiles is one of my all-time favorite iOS apps for iPhone and iPad. I use it on a daily basis to get files in the devices and out of them, thanks to the app’s powerful sharing capabilities that allow it to get recognized on your local network as a web server. Plus, as I wrote in my review, iFiles was meant for a cloud-based workflow, for all those users who daily play around with items stored on Google Docs, Flickr, Rackspace, and so forth.

The latest 1.8 update, which showed up in iTunes a few minutes ago and I’ve installed on my iPhone, doesn’t come with a huge set of new features – but the ones that are there make this app a must-have, again. Read more


MoneyTron: Innovative Financial App for iPhone

I remember I installed MoneyTron on my iPhone back in August. Back then I thought it was cool, I gave it a brief spin and decided I would review it on MacStories in a few weeks. Weeks passed, we launched a new MacStories, iOS 4’s folders started getting crowded and I forgot about MoneyTron.

Now I think it’s time to talk about MoneyTron, which is a sexy little gem of a financial app. As you may remember, I’m not exactly into this kind of apps: mostly because I’m looking for something simple yet capable of adapting to my complex setup. It’s not easy to find an app that can do that. Most iPhone apps are geared towards simplicity but they don’t take into account (no pun intended) that when it’s about managing finances, simplicity is overrated. Sometimes you need the powerful tools to  get ahold of your transactions and keep everything clear.

MoneyTron offers a variety of innovative features I haven’t seen in any other financial apps for iPhone. Read more


10 Surefire Ways To Screw Up Your iPhone App

10 Surefire Ways To Screw Up Your iPhone App

So you want to build the next smash hit iPhone app? Extraordinary design is key to getting the attention of users and of Apple, so if an app exudes a stench of mediocrity, Apple won’t feature it and app shoppers probably won’t download it (even if they do, they won’t share it with others).

See the screenshot above? Guess which developer screwed up.

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Google Instant for Mobile Now Available Worldwide

Back in November Google announced Instant for Mobile, the same instant search for the desktop ported to iOS and Android devices. Instant for Mobile, though, was unveiled as beta and made available only in the U.S. with searches in English language. Google promised Instant for mobile would be released internationally in the coming weeks.

With a brief post on the company’s blog, today Google announced the global release of Instant for mobile, now available in 28 languages and 40 countries worldwide. To use the feature, users will need to run a device with iOS 4 or Android 2.2 and above, visit google.com and tap on the Instant link below the search box to activate it.

In case you missed it, check out Google’s promo video for Instant below.


Analysts Low-Balling A Device That Doesn’t Exist

Analysts Low-Balling A Device That Doesn’t Exist

We expect a base case of at least 10 million units at Verizon for [calendar] 2011,” writes Craig, “although we only added 6 and 8 million units to 2011 and 2012, respectively.”

Reid is even more conservative. He’s only raising his 2011 iPhone sales estimates to 63.3 million from 62.5 million, or 800,000 units.

That’s it? 800,000 measly iPhones?

For reasons known only to themselves, analysts who have been breathlessly anticipating a Verizon iPhone are now busy lowering expectations.

I would like to remind these gentlemen that the Verizon iPhone is still, well, a rumor.

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A Beautiful TV Guide For Your iPhone and iPad

I’m thankful for the possibilities offered by today’s technologies, which allow me to ditch the old ways of doing…stuff for more pleasant, rich, interactive and beautiful experiences. Apple’s devices and apps in the App Store surely played a great role in this digital revolution: we don’t buy specific items anymore because there’s an app for that. The last time you bought a radio player? An actual map? A point & shoot camera? Exactly.

Still, there was no “last time” for me when it comes to TV guides. I never bought those magazines that offered monthly and weekly views and summaries of what would be in television – I  just checked TV programming on the internet. Or on my local newspaper. But now I’m ready to step my game up, with an app simply called “TV” and available at .99 cents in the App Store for iPhone and iPad. It’s uncluttered, beautiful, elegant and, finally, it’s something that deeply integrates a TV guide with the information coming from the internet. Read more