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Entries in iPhone (5)

Tuesday
Jun082010

Cycling Tech

DateTuesday, June 8, 2010 at 8:43PM | AuthorJason Spruance

I am riding in this years MS Ride "Venture the Valley" and I am a tech nerd.  So how can I incorporate technology into my ride?  Well for me it all starts with my iPhone.

Venture the Valley is a 150 mile, two day bike ride where the proceeds go to MS research.  First things is first, if you would like to donate to the cause, please follow this link.  I committed to raising $300 for the event and anything you can give is greatly appreciated.

I mount my iPhone to my bike using the Bicio GoRide bike mount.  To track my rides and my progress this summer, I am using an iPhone app called Cyclemeter made by the guys over at abvio.com.  Cyclemeter tracks your ride progress and gives you feedback.  I wear my bluetooth headset when riding and if you follow the same course, it can be set to give you ride statistics at periodic increments during the ride, updating you of your progress versus your other rides.  For me I have it set to five minute increments which means I can concentrate on riding and not looking at the screen.  Another nice thing is does is automatically send out emails, twitters, and Facebook updates with your statistics and a map of your ride.  I have it set to send an email to my wife every 5 minutes so that if something happens, she knows what area I am in and can come find me.  You can check out one of the sample maps of my rides it sends out here.

But a 75 mile bike ride creates problems for me.  This program will drain the battery in about 2.5 hours and I need it to last 8 hours or more.  To combat this problem, enter the Satechi iCel 4800mAh battery extender.  It can charge any portable device that can charge with a USB cable.  I have it setup with a charge cable running under the frame of my iPhone and into my saddle bag where the battery is placed.  It gives me an extra 8 hours or so of battery life for those long rides.

Check out the video below for my setup.  

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Thursday
Apr082010

iPhone OS 4.0 Features Announced

DateThursday, April 8, 2010 at 1:53PM | AuthorJason Spruance

Today Apple announced the iPhone 4.0 OS upgrade scheduled to be released this summer.  Some of the new features are:

  • Multitasking and Fast App Switching
  • App Folders - Grouping your apps into folders instead of just screens of apps
  • Enhanced Mail - Multiple Exchange accounts now allowed and a new integrated inbox for all your accounts
  • Background alerts - Apps running in the background can now alert you like push notifications from servers currently do
  • iBooks (for the iPhone/iPod Touch)
  • Custom Walpaper (iPad currently has)
  • Bluetooth Keyboard Support (iPad currently has)
  • Tap to focus on video (similar to what it already has for pictures
  • 5x digital zoom on the camera
  • Spell Checker (iPad currently has)

There are also a slew of features for the new SDK for developers as well.  I'd say they are catching up to the features that other Android, Palm, and Window Phones have.  Since Apple touts it is more about the experience, it should be interesting to see how they design these features.

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Saturday
Feb272010

Pregnant Women Should Not Wear Swim Wear

DateSaturday, February 27, 2010 at 12:47AM | AuthorJason Spruance


Now before you get all crazy on me, I am simply referring to the massive porn purging that Apple recently did of it's apps in the iTunes App Store. It seems they are finding out that women in scantly clad clothes can sometimes be from a legitimate business, such as Simply Beach, akers of swim ware including maternity swim ware and an iPhone app that was recently banned. The Simply Beach app has been reinstated but it makes you wonder, does Steve Jobs hate mothers, or just think mothers in swim ware is bad taste?

Here is a pretty good Reuters article on the initial purging.

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Wednesday
Feb242010

iPhone Tip: Make Voice Control Work Better

DateWednesday, February 24, 2010 at 12:10AM | AuthorJason Spruance

Do you have few names in your iPhone address book that voice control just can't seem to figure out? Thanks to this little trick I learned from Donald Bell at CNET.com you can make that run more smoothly.

The iPhone gives you the ability to add phonetic spellings of names as well as nicknames. For this tip I use the name of T.J. Houshmandzadah. If you saw the ESPN commercial from a few years back, you know why. Obviously I don't know Mr. Houshmandzadah and this is not his real phone number.

1. Open the contact in contacts and click "Edit"

2. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select "Add Fields"

 

3. Select "Phonetic Last Name", "Phonetic First Name", or pretty much anything you want to add. I chose Last and Nickname. 

 

 

 

4. Spell it phonetically the best you can. While the iPhone does offer accented characters (long a, etc), I tested it out and they don't seem to work with voice control.

 

 

 

5. Click done and and spell more names phonetically if you choose more than one field to add. For the nicknames you should also try to spell those phonetically.

 

 

 Now give it a try by holding down the home button for a few seconds until voice control comes up, then say "Call.." and the contacts name or nickname.  The iPhone will repeat back their first and last name.

You can catch the fill CNET.com for reference here.

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Monday
Feb222010

Siri: Your personal assistant (iPhone)

DateMonday, February 22, 2010 at 1:24AM | AuthorJason Spruance

If you are looking for your own personal assistant but don't want to pay a lot (or anything) Siri is right for you. Siri is a great free application for your iPhone that can give you quick directions, find a resturant nearby and book reservations, look up information on a flight, check the weather, get a taxi, or even send you email reminders.

Siri uses voice recognition to help fulfil your needs. The voice recognition works very well too.  I would say that it tends to get me right about 90% of the time.  Need to know where the nearest Starbucks is?  Just open up Siri and say "Find Starbucks near me". Want to check the weather near your office, open up Siri and say "Check weather for Monday near my office" and it will find it for you.

The search criteria is limited, so do not make the mistake in thinking it is a full search engine.  It's primary focus is on finding businesses and entertainment so it's good for the traveler in a strange city.  Overall Siri works well at what it is supposed to do, make finding services in your area easier.

Go to Siri's website to check it out in action.  Or you go straight to the iTunes store here to download it for free and try it.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Verdict: Download and Try

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