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This is a real life story of my experience working at an Apple Reseller before a major shopping holiday.
It was a few days before a major shopping holiday and we had a huge supply of iMacs, Macbooks, and iPods in our store. It was the perfect time for a holiday robbery, with thieves being able to steal a huge amount of valuable computers. Sure, we had an alarm, but alarms aren’t foolproof. We didn’t want to take a chance with so much product on the line. We also didn’t want to spent hours watching a surveillance camera in hopes we would catch someone breaking in.
We wanted something that would alert us if it detected motion. We wanted something portable enough to run on a few laptops or connect to our current security camera system. We turned to an app called iCam. iCam allowed us to connect several Macbooks to iCams software, giving us access to a live video stream from anywhere in the world.
Once upon a time, when people were hungry and in a hurry they had to either run through a fast-food drive-through or actually go through the trouble to make a phone call and talk with a human being to place an order to be picked up or delivered. Such archaic practices are giving way to online ordering, a much more cold and impersonal way to order your food.
All sarcasm aside, I actually love ordering food online. You skip the line, there’s much less chance of a failure in communication (which leads to improper orders), and you can take as much time as you want to look through the various options that are available without eating up anyone’s time but your own.
The restaurant industry has had large-scale ordering websites in place for years now, but we’re only just now starting to see the tip of this iceberg appear in the mobile app world. Today we’ll take a brief look at the state of ordering food using only iPhone apps.
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Google’s most recent foray into the iOS platform is Google Places (somehow suffixed with “hotpot”), a location-based recommendation app with a web backup.
Google Places is one of Google’s ventures that is aimed at both businesses and consumers. The former being able to increase their exposure and the latter able to make more informed decisions on where they visit. Whilst location-oriented features have been available in Google Maps for a long time, this is one of the first proper offerings in the App Store.
Your dreams of being a DJ are about to come true. Algoriddim, the developers of djay for Mac, have just released their newest app, djay for iPad. It’s truly an amazing and noteworthy app for all music lovers and those with ambitions of being a DJ.
It’s the easiest way to scratch records, remix your favorite songs, and be the DJ you’ve always wanted to be. It brings you some of the same professional tools and technologies as djay for Mac, but on your mobile device.
When it comes to voice recording on the iPhone, there are quite a few options. There’s the built-in Voice Memos, which not only works well but is free, then there’s apps like Dragon Dictation which even transcribe recordings into text.
But for the past few years, one app has been steadily adding features and making improvements, making it one of the better options for making a recording on the go. It’s called iTalk Recorder, and some of its features are pretty impressive. So why would you want to download iTalk Recorder when you already have Voice Memos built in? Hit the jump to find out.
In the world of intellectual board games, one favorite has been around for decades, and that’s Scrabble. When the iPad came out, it became the perfect platform for a digitized board game, and Scrabble has taken it up to another level. Innovative gameplay around a familiar theme makes this app even more fun than the original. So what makes this one so special in an App Store packed with other options? Hit the jump to find out.
Today we’ll take a look at Scrabble for iPad in addition the awesomely integrated iPhone tile rack options.
Earlier this week we posted a roundup of 25 Seriously Addictive Sudoku Apps. However, many of us jumped on the Sudoku bandwagon ages ago and are becoming bored with the concept. So what’s the next big puzzle craze that will have us all entranced?
One strong contender in this category is Nonograms, a challenging, brain twisting puzzle game perfect for anyone who enjoys Sudoku, crosswords or any other pen and paper puzzles. Unfortunately, Nonograms can be a bit tricky to pick up and may have a slightly higher learning curve than other games of its kind. Today we’ll help get you started in your new addiction by walking you through solving your first puzzle and pointing out some great apps to download and give the game a shot.
Have you ever struggled to remember when you last performed a certain task? Most of us find it hard to keep track of mundane tasks that we perform on a regular basis. Even though you might keep a schedule, calendar, or to do list, once something’s finished you usually forget it right away.
Time Flies is a new app to help you combat this problem by keeping track of when you last did something specific. As an example, say you want to change the oil in your car. After you’re done, enter the task into the app and then a few weeks later you’ll be able to go back and see exactly when you last changed your oil.
Let’s look at how Time Flies works and see if this is the app you need to start remembering tasks better.
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Do you often find the web too cluttered on your iPhone or iPad, or find it too difficult to share what you’re reading with others? Today we’re going to look at a browser that was designed from the ground-up to provide a great online reading, bookmarking, and sharing experience on iOS.
Most of us have gotten used to using Safari for our daily iOS browsing; it’s fast, smooth, and gets the job done. But it’s not perfect. Adding support for Instapaper to Safari is difficult at best, and browsing between multiple pages can be confusing. Plus, if you want to take advantage of newer search engines, there’s no way to add new sites to Safari’s search box.
Cyberspace is a new browser that aims to tackle some of these problems. It integrates Instapaper deeply into your browsing experience so you can read any site easily on your device. Then, it lets you share anything you read with a number of popular social networks and bookmarking services, and keeps a list of articles you want to read handy. Let’s dive in and see if this browser is right for your needs.
Earlier this fall Google upgraded their Google Mobile App for the iPhone to include Google Goggles (try saying that ten times fast), a feature that was previously only available to Android users. In a nutshell, Google Goggles allows you to perform Google searches using images taken with your iPhone’s camera. Once you’ve installed the free Google Mobile App, Goggling (I’m not sure if that’s the official term) is as simple as tapping the camera icon to the right of the search bar and snapping a photo of the item in question.
Before you go too camera happy, it’s important to note that only certain types of items are likely to work with Google Goggles. The software is designed to recognize covers of books, DVDs and CDs as well as barcodes and logos. Goggles will also recognize some buildings and landmarks and will do it’s best to pull text from photos and to identify objects.
There’s no denying that Google Goggles looks impressive in a demo, but how well does it work in the real world? I put Google Goggles to the test, with some help from friends in Ottawa, London and Melbourne. The question du jour: is Goggles truly useful or a novelty that soon grows old?
