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Featuring marketing tips, tech news, digital wonders, some personal things and everything in between . . .

Category: Apple

The new iPod shuffle with VoiceOver


Thursday March 12, 2009

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The New iPod shuffle seems to be smaller and has a sleek look to it.Quite thin in size and can holdup to 4GB of songs (up to 1000 songs). Like the previous shuffle, it does not have a display on it and comes with a clip. This shuffle comes with additional features which the previous version did not have…

Now you can have your iPod shuffle talk to you as you listen to your song. It has the capability to tell you the name of the artist and the song name by the push of a button by a new feature called VoiceOver. It also tells you the name of the playlist since this iPod lets you have multiple playlists for your songs.

One of the negative features I find is the location of the control buttons. The play, pause, next/previous buttons are location on the wire of the earplugs which means you have to use Apple’s earplugs in order to use this iPod. Everything is controled from there except the on and off switch which is on the shuffle itself. Apple did say they would provide an adapter for 3rd Party headphones so lets see what that looks like.

Overall I’m not a big fan of the shuffle since I would like to see the song I am listening to rather than hear a VoiceOver tell me about it so that I can shuffle through them. Seems to have a very sleek look to it and is tiny compared to the previous version.

What do you think of the new iPod shuffle?

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Create your own Unique Ringtone with Audiko, using their cut and share technology. Not only can you make ringtones from your own music, but you can extract music directly from YouTube videos. If you are like me and you think that paying to make a ringtone from a song you have already paid for through iTunes is not that great, then Audiko.net is your solution! Audiko has very simple user-friendly instructions for creating your own ringtones. Audiko will create your ringtone in the iPhone accepted format; all you need to do is drag the file into the Ringtones folder of iTunes and upload it to your iPhone.

Just see for Yourself:
Whiskey-Change-survival-of-the-fittest.m4r

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While surfing the web doing some research on the next phone I want to get my hands on I came across some news on the new HTC Magic (what some rumors say is the Android G2), codename Sapphire 2.0 which was just released couple of days ago on February 17th, 2009 to Vodafone customers outside of United States. Every HTC device has a codename that is given before the release of the device.

HTC and Google have made great improvements from the first release of T-Mobile G1 by. The HTC Magic has followed other phones such as the HTC Touch Diamond 2 and Touch HD in taking off the slide out keyboard and having an on screen keypad like the iPhone or HTC Diamond.

A cool feature I noticed on some of the videos is a wide screen keyboard. The traditional camera which was on the T-Mobile G1 now has capability to record videos as well as take pictures. It’s not clear whether or not the T-Mobile version which will be released sometime this summer in the states will have the same features or not but we’ll have to wait and find out.

This phone is slightly thicker than the iPhone but feels like the same size. Great improvement in design since the G1. The only flaw most tech journalists found was the keyboard was a bit cramped but 3rd party keyboards will probably be available soon.

For those that are wondering, the HTC Magic is running on the Google Android Cupcake, incase you want to try implementing it on a Windows Mobile device as was done with the first release of Android. Click here for Google Android for WM found on XDA Developers =)

Do you think the HTC Magic has anything on the iPhone? What are your thoughts on the new HTC Magic?

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iPhone Geocaching with

Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application

 

 

Geocaching is a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors using GPS enabled devices and then share their experience online at http://www.geocaching.com/
iPhone Geocaching puts this sport in your pocket!
Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application Features:
  • Direct access to Geocaching.com’s database of worldwide geocaches
  • Search by current location, address or lookup code
  • Access geocache details, including description, hint and recent logs
  • Save geocache listing for quick retrieval
  • Log geocache finds and post notes in the field
  • Filter your hides and finds from the Geocaching.com search results
  • Navigate to geocaches with a simulated compass arrow
  • Look up trackable item detail, including item goals, while on the trail
  • NEW Tweet your new iPhone Geocache finds thru Twitter!
The Geocaching iPhone Application is available in Dutch, French German and Japanese language versions. Groundspeak’s Geocaching Application is best supported by the iPhone 3G but it is also compatible with the iPod Touch and 1st generation iPhones. (USE THE FORCE LUKE!)
Please note: You will need Wi-Fi access for the application to work on the iPod Touch. Also, without GPS, compass navigation will not work on the 1st generation iPhone.

iPhone Geocaching How it works

The iPhone 3G uses a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi positioning and cell towers to determine your approximate location. Groundspeak’s iPhone Application then queries the Geocaching.com database in real-time and provides a list of geocaches near you. The application can also geocode addresses, search using a location from your address book, or look up a geocache or trackable item by it’s GC (Geocaching.com) code.

 

Ready to go iPhone Geocaching?
Hit the iTunes Store to download Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application now!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 



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The iPhone has made a surge in the creation of applications by aftermarket companies. With everyday that goes by the iPhone becomes more universal and applicable for everyday life. Whether you are using the iPhone for business or pleasure, you are sure to find an application for your needs. IPhone applications are becoming more technical and more expensive! Here are three applications that are very neat and cost an unbelievable amount:

iRa Pro $899.99 – Provides touch based viewing and control of IP based video surveillance equipment. Inspired by the mobility needs of the high-end security industry, iRa Pro enables users to view multiple live video feeds directly from cameras or from video management servers and to directly control pan-tilt-zoom cameras using the intuitive touchscreen interface of the iPhone and iPod touch.

My Accounts To Go (MATG) $449.99 – Is an innovative Apple iPhone application which allows its user to remotely access their corporate account information from corporate financial management systems such as Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) and SAP BusinessOne. CBR Technology is also an Apple Authorized Developer and uses the latest version of Apple’s SDK to produce its high-quality iPhone-compatible applications.

Lexi-COMPLETE $299.99 – Lexi-COMPLETE provides detailed information on drugs, drug interactions, diagnosis, disease management, patient education, and more. Lexi-Comp’s in-house clinical team conducts constant surveillance of the FDA, pharmaceutical industry, and clinical literature to develop timely, unbiased information that helps health care providers make more informed decisions, reduce adverse drug events, and deliver better patient care.

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Internet Explorer crashes Send Error Report! It seems like when I open IE, nine times out of ten it freezes upon opening; then I get a message asking if I would like to send an error report or not. I have installed and reinstalled IE several times, but to no avail. It makes me wonder what Microsoft does with all the error reports that I send them; it sure seems like those hundreds of error reports that I send to IE do very little.

How is it it that the browsers that are not as compatible as IE work so much better? If I could only use Google Chrome for all my Internet needs I would be very pleased. Unfortunately, I have to use Internet Explorer for particular tasks, even if it opens one time out of ten. Patience is truly a virtue when dealing with IE!

My hope is that as Google Chrome gets better, I will be able to use Internet Explorer less. With time I hope to eventually move away from IE for good. In many respects one can manage with using any of the available browsers; the question is how much frustration can be endured before you only want to use one browser? All I want, is that when I send off error reports to power houses like Microsoft, they could at least fix the problem.

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The Google AdWords ‘local business ad’ is one of the forms you may choose to create for your keyword listings. If your business is localized to any extent, this is probably very helpful. To take it a step further, if your business takes ‘walk-in’ traffic and/or has a brick and mortar presence, then this functionality is a must.

If you have ever done a Google keyword search where your query included a location, you may have seen this type of ad appear. Underneath the sponsored results but before the organic results, a google map will appear with points on the map representing local results for your query. An easy example would be local pizza restaurants- a business-person is traveling and doesn’t know the area well. He or she is looking for a good pizza for dinner, but wants one in walking distant to the hotel. That person can look at the map to see the closest match and how to get there.

The ad itself as has a description for a tag line like normal PPC ads. The business web site, physical address and phone number can all be included, making this a very useful tool for businesses in a community.

Need help setting up and creating a local business ad for your Google AdWords account? Don’t even have an AdWords account? Either way Webconsuls can help, its what we do.
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Recently my 30GB Video Ipod started giving me trouble. The sound into my headphones was reduced to ‘mono’, coming through only the left earbud. I then contacted Apple and figured out the ipod was beyond repair- and yes I tried multiple pairs of headphones, which is not the issue.

As a result I figured I needed a new mp3 player but I had a large percentage of songs on my ipod that are not in my library. Therefore, I figured my next steps had to be to backup all my ipod contents, again in order to not lose a significant amount of music.
Ipod Copy Expert is the tool I used to perform this task of allowing me to backup my data; kind of a reverse Itunes Library. In my own example this allowed me to then put my entire library of songs onto a new or in my case, my wife’s ipod. Many people who like this tool just want a backup of their data to cover a lost/stolen or broken ipod, etc.
There is a $20 charge to use the full version of this software, but that is the price of recovering just 20 songs; so for me this was a no brainer. The interface itself acts like your Itunes library and is very simply to operate.
Go try out the free version (below) and reply/comment with what you think and with what your experience was.
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Qik iPhone app coming soon to iTunes App store!

Kevin Rose, of Digg fame, demos the new Qik.com app for unjailbroken iPhones. For those of us who did not want the chance of having an iBrick you will no longer have to jailbreak your iPhone to install this new Qik app once released. Did you watch the above video? Excited yet?

What does Qik on the iPhone do?

The Qik iPhone app Streams video to the Qik.com site,
The Qik iPhone app notes the location of the video,
Chat with the folks watching the live stream at Qik.com from your iPhone.

The iPhone 3G the Swiss Army Knife of SmartPhones, just keeps getting better and better.

Sign up for free and follow me on Qik.

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T-Mobile partners with Google in releasing the new T-Mobile G1 phone. G1 will be the first phone released to run Android, a new operating system by Google. HTC, the manufacturer of most Windows Mobile Devices in the market has partnered up with Google to release this new line of mobile phones.
What features does the T-Mobile G1 have?
Touch screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, slide your finger to unlock, icons on Home screen, downloadable App store and music store, Google Maps (like you’ve never seen before), full-screen Web browsing, accelerometer that rotates the screen when you turn the phone 90 degrees,
full QWERTY keyboard, voice activated dialing, memory expansion slot, etc.
The Android, a Linux based OS, doesn’t beat the iPhone user interface but sure leaves a lot of room for customization being that its an open source platform for the community to develop new programs. It does beat the Windows Mobile OS since it’s known to slow down over time, Android being a Linux based OS probably will not encounter such issues. I myself am a Windows Mobile user and cannot imagine using anything else (although Darin would go for the iPhone over a Windows Mobile any day).
You can pre-order your new Google T-Mobile G1 Phone now. Click here for the Google Phone
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Microsoft signed Jerry Seinfeld to do advertisements with Bill Gates almost two weeks ago. This is Microsoft’s attempt to show how Windows connects everyday common people through a series of dry humor comedy. This campaign is a part of approximately $300 million overall investment developed by edgy ad shop Crispin, Porter and Bogusky. Jerry Seinfeld earned $10Million dollars from the first ad alone, which is 3% of Microsoft’s annual advertising budget alone.

The videos will probably not benefit Microsoft at all considering this is their first attempt to compete with Apple’s videos which get straight to the point. Apple’s advertisements concentrated on comparison of Apple vs PC where as Microsoft’s attempt so far is well, umm, no words to describe it really.

According to an article by Reuters, “Microsoft said the commercial is part of a broader, long-term initiative to change consumers’ perception of Windows, which will include setting up a retail corner at several hundred Best Buy and Circuit City stores staffed by “Windows Gurus” to explain the benefits of Windows.”

Here are the first two ads:

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This weekend I was asked by a friend, “Darin how do you keep up with all the blogs that you read, and all of the news sites that you frequent?” I use Google Reader http://google.com/reader. Watch the above video and then bookmark http://www.webconsuls.com/blog/atom.xml our “Feed”

Want to check out and subscribe to my shared items? To take a look at them, visit my shared items page: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/18337806966613451330

Got a great feed to share?

We would love to see it.

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One of the best ways to keep on top of any topic is to start using RSS* feeds with Google Reader,

*Really Simple Syndication is a tool you can use to have information sent to you from the websites that you visit that have updated content, rather than having to go track that content down. Many Web sites, including Webconsuls, offer RSS as a way to have that information delivered directly to you.

Watch the above vid for a Really Simple Explanation of Using Really Simple Syndication.

Click here for the Webconsuls Blog RSS feed

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Google Tutor has posted a fantastic post on how to instantly make a mobile phone version of any feed using Google Reader.

All you need to do is add a feed URL to the end of this line :

http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[feed_address]

So for instance Our blog’s mobile feed would be :
http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://webconsuls.com/blog/atom.xml

You could add, Click Here For Mobile Version of Our blog, and link it to the url you create.

Your Blog is Mobile!

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Want simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools for your organization without the usual hassle and cost?

Communicate…
Give your users Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Talk accounts that use your own domain, helping them to stay connected and work together more effectively.

Collaborate and publish…
Docs & Spreadsheets lets users share files and collaborate in real-time. The Start Page is the first place your users will look to preview their inboxes and calendars, access your essential content, and search the web.

…and get on with business.
It’s all hosted by Google, so there’s no hardware or software to install or download, and minimal setup and maintenance. You can get up and running quickly, even if you don’t have technical resources.

And Webconsuls is there to help if you would like to make the move.

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The Premier Edition offers the best of Google Apps. If you’re looking to complement your existing IT infrastructure (account management system and/or Intranet), you can access extensibility APIs to integrate your entire organization with Google services.

Some features include:

* $50/user account/year
* 10GB mailboxes
* User account provisioning
* Single sign-on
* Email gateway
* Email whitelist
* No ads displayed on Google services
* Access to Google partners

Google offers 24/7 assistance, including telephone support for critical issues. Google Apps Premier Edition also includes a 99.9% uptime guarantee for Gmail.

You can read more about how Google Apps has already helped many organizations around the world.

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At Webconsuls we know good technology when we use it. That is why we have moved our email to “Gmail for your domain”. Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, so there’s no hardware or software for you to install or maintain. Each email address gets 2 gigabytes of storage, spam and virus filtering, with search tools that will help find information fast. Instant messaging from right inside the account so that it’s easy for everyone to work as a team.

There is even more cool new functionality!

A customizable start page, http://start.webconsuls.com/

A brandable mail page, http://mail.webconsuls.com/

A place to share documents across the desktop or across the globe, http://docs.webconsuls.com/

And a place to share and keep track of those important appointments, http://calendar.webconsuls.com/

Are you ready for Web 2.0?

We can help you get there. Click Here