Featured Articles

Sep 12 2012

A look at the iPhone 5

Today at a press conference in San Francisco Apple have formally announced its latest flagship phone – The iPhone 5.
Here’s the lowdown on whats new on the iPhone 5 :

1) The Display. The iPhone 5 has a larger screen then previous iPhone models measuring  4″. The new larger retina screen has a resolution of 1136 x 640 with a pixel density of 326ppi, and the screen ratio is almost 16:9 making it better suited for wide screen videos. The taller screen allows for an extra row of icons to be placed on the home screen.

2) The Processor. The processor in the iPhone 5 is the new A6 CPU. Apple claim that the A6 is twice as quick as the processor in the iPhone 4s.

3) The Size of the Handset. The iPhone 5 is significantly thinner then the iPhone 4s at only 7.6mm thick, and weighs only 112 grand.

4) Mobile Data Connectivity. The iPhone 5 supports several mobile data networks to help you get the best out the network in your location. You can connect on LTE, HSPA+, EVDO & EDGE networks.

5) The Camera. The iPhone 5′s Primary Camera is similar to that of the excellent 8mb camera on the iPhone 4S, and the secondary camera is now capable of recording 720p video.
The iPhone 5 now supports Panorama photography as standard.

The iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order on the 14th of September.
The iPhone 5 will start shipping on the 21st of September.

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Dec 13 2011

BBC Launch their iPlayer App for the iPhone

 

The BBC is known for producing high quality TV and Radio content and they have also taken a world wide lead in  developing Video over IP technology with it’s iPlayer facility.
It’s been possible to watch videos through the BBC iPlayer website for quite some time using the iPhone’s Safari Web Browser, but now the BBC have released a free dedicated iPlayer app for the iPhone which makes the process much simpler.

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The iPlayer App allows you to view both live and archived BBC TV and Radio program’s through your device over either a Wifi or 3G network connection, with program’s being presented in an easy to understand timeline channel by channel.
There a 7 days of archived content available to be viewed, listed by day and time and currently being broadcast shows are marked as live and are viewed through the same easy to use and understand interface. The video and audio quality is very high and on the small retina screen of the iPhone 4 or 4s video looks almost broadcast quality, even on a 3G connection.
The BBC App is now available through the Apple App Store, and provides a great way to catch your favourite BBC shows.

A quick word of warning if you are using the iPlayer App over 3G make sure you are aware of your network providers Data Allowances.

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Nov 21 2011

How to Listen to Radio Stations on the iPhone

Many people use their iPhone to listen to music, either through music stored on their device or through streaming services like Spotify, but many people still enjoy live radio broadcasts and there are several ways to listen to the Radio on your iPhone.

The iPhone doesn’t have an FM radio built-in but it can utilise it’s Internet connection, either wifi or 3G, to deliver radio stations to your handset.

Firstly there’s a great free App called StreamItAll Radio which will let you listen to your favourite Radio Station. StreamItAll contains a massive database of online Radio Stations from around the world, you can simply tell it which country you live in to get your regional channels or you can manually add channels from any region in to your channel list.

I use StreamItall to listen to BBC Radio 2 on my iPhone and the quality is on par with any FM or DAB radio I have listened too.

Alternatively there are dedicated apps which allow you to listen to specific (mainly commercial) radio stations. The functionality of the dedicated apps tends to be more diverse then in StreamItAll, often including news articles, discussion forums or Twitter Feeds and even catch up Radio Facilities, although of course you can only listen to one station or family of stations through each dedicated App. A fantastic example of a dedicated radio channel app is the Talksport Radio App, which is feature well & works really well.

Most radio apps will work over 3G Internet but it’s important to remember that most Mobile Networks set a limit on how much data you can download before you get charged extra. Make sure that you know exactly how your Data plan works, have an unlimited data plan (eg The One Plan on Three) or use Wifi to listen to Radio Stations on the Internet.

 

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Nov 10 2011

How to extend the battery life on the Apple iPhone 4s running iOS5

The iPhone 4S is a fantastic piece of technology, however a few users have expressed a slight disappointment in the decreased battery life compared to the iPhone 4.
Fortunately there are a couple of settings that can be altered to increase the battery life of the iPhone 4s running iOS5

When you pull down the notification tab, the Weather widget is displayed as standard.

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This activates the GPS receiver within the iPhone which uses addition battery power, however it’s possible to easily turn off the Weather Widget within the iPhones settings App.
To turn off the Weather Widget in iOS 5:

    1. Open the settings App
    2. Click on the Notifications section
    3. Select the Weather Widget
    4. Turn the Notification Option to off

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As Standard the brightness of the iPhones Screen is managed automatically depending on the ambient light levels, however it is possible to save battery life on the iPhone by manually turning the screen brightness down.

To manually turn the brightness of the iPhones screen in iOS 5.

    1. Open the settings App
    2. Click on the Brightness Section
    3. Turn the Auto-Brightness option off
    4. Drag the brightness bar down to about a quarter.

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Nov 4 2011

How to Send a Tweet using Siri on the iPhone 4S

Siri is the clever new Voice Recognition tool which is integrated into iOS5 on the iPhone 4S. Siri can understand many voice activated command and is a valuable time-saving tool but currently it is unable to send Tweets on your behalf.

If you try you get the following Error Message:

 

 

 

However there is a work around which allows you to send messages to Twitter with Siri Voice Commands by using the Twitter SMS interface, but first you need to configure your Twitter account to work with SMS messages.

To Configure  Twitter to Allow Tweeting using SMS:

  1. Go to Twitter.com and sign in using your Twitter account.
  2. Go to http://twitter.com/#!/download and click on the Use via SMS button
  3. Enter you details into the information box
  4. Twitter will now ask you to send an SMS message to phone number this will complete the set up. (make sure you read all of Twitters T&C’s and cost details)
  5. Twitter will now give you a SMS short code to send messages to.
  6. Create a new contact on your iPhone called Twitter and enter the Twitter SMS short code into the mobile phone number field
  7. If you don’t want to receive Twitter updates over SMS text Stop to the Twitter number

Your account is now ready for SMS tweets.

To send a Tweet using Siri

  1. Activate Siri by holding down the home button.
  2. Say the following commands “Text Twitter”. Siri will now check your Contact list for the Twitter contact.
  3. Dictate your message and say send.

Siri will now send your message to Twitter

 

 

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Oct 6 2011

How to install an Alarm Clock on the iPad

One important application which is missing on the iPad is an alarm clock, a basic application which proves to be very valuable on the iPhone.
Fortunately there’s a beautiful solution by the people who brought you the great Beautiful Alarm Clock for the iPhone, the delightful Dolphin Alarm Clock on iPad.


When running the app you are presented with a gorgeous underwater scene and a clock. The waters are initially quiet but double tapping the screen will call your dolphin who will appear and perform a set routine. It’s worth mentioning that the dolphin isn’t a computer generated model but each scene is a recorded video, if anything this means that the image and animation quality is constantly wonderful.


Tap on the clock and the alarm screen is displayed. Simply choose the hours, minutes and the days of the week that you want the alarm to activate and then choose am or pm to set the alarm.

By selecting the ‘Wake To’ option you can choose the sound that wakes you up, there are a large number of ring tones available for selection, but most people will opt to be woken by the Dolphin option.


Remember to make sure that your iPad is connected to a power supply or has enough battery to make it through the night and you will be woken by an incredible alarm call.
Dolphin Alarm clock is an incredible App, albeit a large one, it’s truly wonderful and adds a crucial function to the iPad.

To install Dolphin Alarm clock search for it in the App Store.

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Sep 28 2011

How to use your iPhone as a Radio Alarm clock

The iPhone’s standard Clock App has a built in alarm function which works well but only allows you to choose from a limited number of standard alarms.
Beautiful Clock Radio is an attractive iPhone App which allows you to select an Internet based radio station or iPod playlist to wake you up.


The interface changes depending on the current time of day, look at the clock during the day time and you see a lovely bright and illuminating image, look at night and you see an appropriate dark night time.


Beautiful Clock Radio also shows you the weather forecast and using the iPhones GPS functionality this is tailored for your current location.


There are 5 buttons running along the bottom of the screen press one of these and the associated radio station starts to play. You can change the buttons associated radio station by holding down the button and you will be presented with a selection screen where you will be able you select one of hundreds of Radio Stations or supply a URL of your favourite online station.


To set an alarm slide your finger along the bottom of the screen and the alarm settings will be displayed. From here you set the time, frequency, and what type of alarm music wakes you up.


The app is easy to use but if you need help a link to a comprehensive video guide is included in the app.

Beautiful clock radio adds an important piece of missing functionality to the iPhone, turning it into a true travel companion, if you use the alarm function on the iPhone then you should check it out.

Beautiful clock radio can be found in the Apple App Store.

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Sep 7 2011

Contre Jour a Brilliant and Stylish Game for the iPhone

Yesterday Stephen Fry recommended a game on Twitter, and he only ever recommends products which he genuinely enjoys or loves so I thought I would give it a go. The Game is Contre Jour and it is wonderful.
Spread across several themed Chapters Contre Jour (French for Against the Light) is a visually stunning physics game with a simple purpose, guide your large eyed character to the shinning door on each level.


To achieve this you can raise and lower the terrain to a certain extent and through the use of living tools, like elastic tentacles and hot air streams which blow you across the screen, you can guide your character to his exit. Frequently you need to work with multiple tools at the same time which means you need to experiment and think through your strategies.


The game isn’t as simple as getting from A to B. Spread across each level are 3 particles of light, and if you don’t collect enough of the particles across the levels in a chapter then the next chapter remains locked and you will need to replay levels until you meet the minimum requirement.


Contre Jour is an incredibly atmospheric game with a relaxing sound track and stylish graphical style. It’s fun to play and whilst challenging it never seems to get as frustrating as some physics games. Coming in both a standard and universal HD edition this game is an absolute bargain and is a true benchmark for how well iPhone games should be produced and in many ways it puts full console games like Little Big Planet to shame.

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How to install a SNES Emulator on the iPhone

Aug 23 2011

How to install a SNES Emulator on the iPhone

Emulators are software applications which allow games from one(typically older) platform to be run on a different platform, as in this example running games from the SNES console on the iPhone.
The legality of Emulation often gets called into question but as long as you own both the original hardware and game you should be ok.

To play SNES games on your iPhone.
1) The first thing you need to do is to Jailbreak your iPhone. The instructions for jailbreaking can be found in this article

2) Launch the Cydia App and click on the Search icon in the bottom right hand of the Cydia

3) Enter  Snes 9x into the search box and start the search

4) Select the Snes 9x app to view its details and click on install

The Snes9x emulator will now install on your iPhone.  Now you need to copy your backup of your Game Rom(s) to your iPhone. The easiest way to do this is by using iPhone Explorer which lets you browse the contents of you iPhone through your computer.

5) Download iPhone Explorer from here

6) Connect your iPhone to  your computer by using your USB cable.

7) Launch iPhone Explorer, you should see the contents of  your iPhone in a browser like Window.

8 ) Create a folder on your computer called Roms.

9) Copy your Rom files to the Roms Folder that you have created on your computer

10) Drag your Roms Folder into the iPhone Explorer window.

This will copy the Roms folder to your iPhone

You have now installed everything you need to play your SNES games on your iPhone.

When you launch Snes 9X on your iPhone you will be asked to select your Game. Navigate to your Rom and your game will load.

Control for the games is performed by an onscreen virtual joypad which after getting used to works well.

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How to Find a Lost or Stolen iPhone

Aug 6 2011

How to Find a Lost or Stolen iPhone

This is a procedure that every iPhone user should follow.

Apple provide a free facility for finding your iPhone whether it’s been lost or stolen, but you need to set up the facility first.

As part of Apples Mobile Me facility, the Find my iPhone tool is provided free of charge to all iPhone users, all you need is an Apple ID.

If you don’t have an Apple ID you can easily get one through your iPhone:

  • Open the settings App on your iPhone
  • Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section
  • Choose Add Account…
  • Select Mobile Me
  • Select the Create Free Apple ID option at the bottom of the screen

  • Follow the on screen instructions

If you have an Apple ID then you need to activate the Find my iPhone facility:

  • Open the settings App on your iPhone
  • Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section
  • Choose Add Account…
  • Select Mobile Me
  • Enter your Apple ID and Password into the login box and press Next.
  • Activate the Find My iPhone selector

This will activate the Find My iPhone service.

To find your Lost or Stolen iPhone:

  • On a PC Navigate to https://me.com/find/
  • Enter you Apple ID and Password
  • A map will now be displayed which shows the location of your iPhone
  • If you click on the location of your iPhone you can lock or wipe it remotely.
  • You can also send a free message to the handset

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