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10 Iphone and Ipod touch apps of interest

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

There are a lot of applications that are available both for the Ipod touch and Iphone and here is a quick run down of applications that you may enjoy using.

MiGhtyDocs

MiGhtyDocs is an application that makes looking at your google documents easy. It allows you to view offline any document that you have consulted on either the touch or the Iphone. It’s limited in that you can’t do any editing from the device itself.

Twittervision

For those that enjoy using twitter and the international aspect this application allows you to see tweets from around the world as they’re sent out. It’s limited in that you can’t yet to select just your friend’s tweets.

Tumble

Tumble is the companion app to your use of tumblr. If you’re taking pictures, finding links you want to share or more it allows you access to the functionality of Tumblr whilst mobile.

LinkedIn

The Linkedin app has four main parts. The first of these is to show your contacts latest’ actions on the social networking website. The second option labelled connections shows you everyone that is in your contact book. Click on any contact and you get a few extra details. The third option is search if you’re looking for something specific. The final icon, the megaphone shows your contact’s status, whether they’re looking to hire people or any message they may feel like sending.

Newton’s cradle

Newton’s cradle is a little bit of fun. As a child we’ve all played with the cradle. It’s the one that has the four balls hanging and the one on one end taps into the three others and only the third bounces away. It detects the attitude of the device and can be a nice method of procrastination

Audi A4

The audi a4 game is a blatant bit of advertising. It’s a driving game and the controls are very simple. Right pedal for acceleration, left pedal to break. You control the car by tilting the phone either to the right or left.
It’s not that hard to play and it won’t be such a challenge to get the hang of the controls.

Labyrinth LE

Labyrinth LE is that platform you played with as a child. It’s a plank of wood with holes and walls. As you tilt the plank of wood (iphone or ipod touch) so the ball rolls with gravity. The tilt sensors work well on this game and it’s another way of making those moments of inactivity less boring.

Pyramid Lite
Pyramid lite is a card game where the aim is to add two cards together to get to a total of 13.

Gottago

Gottago makes it easy for you to plan your trips both within Switzerland and to outside. Select the city you’re leaving from and the city you want to get to. Do a quick search and it will provide you with a number of routes you can take.

SBBTimetable

It’s the same as gottago but by the CFF/SBB.

Speedtest

This is an application that allows you to test the connection speed of whatever you’re using to surf the web from on the ipod touch or iphone.

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Attack on Titan – The Jack Septic eye play-throughs

Byrichard

One of my favourite play through series at the moment is Attack on Titan by Jack Septic Eye. I haven’t watched the manga series so I don’t know the context of the series. I like this series because I find the story okay and I like the idea of swinging around between buildings and through an entire city.

When I hear of Titans I think of Greek mythology rather than Japanese Mangas. I would expect it to be about Greek gods, Titans and of course humans. In this case we’re transported to a city that has three layers of walls around it. When the Titans are hungry they break through the walls and eat the humans. The Humans were forced to retreat from the outer wall and part of the city to the inner walls.

Some people are trained to fight. They have grappling hooks, boosters and swords. Using the grappling hooks they can move from one part of the city to the other quickly. With their blades they can attack the titans and subjugate them. The game starts with a training session in some woods. When they are qualified they can protect their part of the city. They can attack the titans by amputating their legs and arms before getting the nape of the neck of these titans. When the titans are killed they vanish. There are small, medium and large titans.

I find the episodes fun to watch because I like the idea of flying across a city using grappling hooks. It reminds me of Assassin’s Creed but with greek mythology and manga lore. This isn’t the type of game that I would play but it is fun to watch. It provides for a nice moment of escapism, to forget about reality and daydream. Jack has produced five episodes so far. Two and a half million out of twelve million subscribers have watched at least the first episode. Will you be one more viewer?

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A theoretical Seven Minute Workout a day

Byrichard

Seven Minute Workout for 36 days

For about six weeks I have been trying to do at least one seven-minute workout every single day. I eventually fell out of the habit for a few days because I had to fight a little virus. I’m feeling better again. Time to see if I can beat my old maximum of 36 days.

At least one circuit a day

The Seven-minute app I was playing with is by Perigee. The app provides you with the opportunity to train for fitness, for strength or to lose weight. I tried to last for seven days on the Fitness program and suffered. I managed to stick with the routine for a week once as a challenge. Now I choose the routine that I feel I am most in the mood for. On some days I choose a stretching routine and on others I choose to push myself. I tried a chest workout and I found it hard. Yesterday I went for an animal routine and it was easy.

Workout to your day’s energy level

The beauty of these apps is that as you get familiar with them you can give yourself different intensity workouts depending on the time of day and how you’re feeling. You can start with one of the morning routines if you like or an office chair workout. When you’ve finished with a run you can stretch or you can do the post workout routine.

Chose the trainer

I tried the drill sergeant for a while but he frustrated me so I tried the hippie and the kung fu master (or whatever name they used for the app). I have settled for the cheerleader. If I met someone that cheerful in real life I’d probably avoid them but for the workouts it’s nice. I’m usually working out either an hour before bed or more recently before dinner. This is the best time when I can decompress from the commute.

Complimentary

These workouts are complimentary to the rest of my day. I have started training with the c25k app once again and I’m trying not to push too hard. Eventually I want to get to 10km runs and beyond but only when my body can keep up. During week days I walk at least 2 and a half kilometres to work and back as well as walk during my lunch break. Today was an average day and I walked up the equivalent of fifty floors. The 7 minute app is just a bonus.

Motivation

I’ve tried a few of these apps and after less than a week I usually stop using them because they’re either too expensive or they’re a good challenge but not much more. With this app I like that you get badges for the challenges you accomplish. I My goal with this app is to go for seven months without missing a single workout. I managed for 36 days and now I have to start all over. I’m on day 8 of the current challenge. When I finish typing this blog post I will have accomplished day 9.

If you threw in some running between workouts then it would be just like parkour vita. That’s what they should do next.

12 exercises with three or four minutes of running between routines. By the end, you’d be exhausted. With perseverance, you’d be fit. Or you could just do crossfit.

 

 

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The Cult of the Amateur – thoughts on the book

Byrichard

When I heard with what hate one podcaster talked about the Cult Of The Amateur I told myself that I should read this book because it addresses a question that is at least two hundred years old, mainly the difference between high culture and low culture. High culture is seen as everything that has taken research and thought to create whilst popular culture is anything else. High culture might be a painting displayed in a museum whilst popular culture is something that most people could succeed in doing themselves.

The book begins with the idea that an infinite amount of monkeys can produce the work of Shakespeare given enough time. The fact they may write Shakespeare is not the problem. Andrew Keen, the author is more worried by all the uninteresting, inaccurate content that is produced and how easily it is spread. He is worried that as websites like myspace and youtube become more popular so the level of the product is degraded. He sees this as having a negative effect on culture.

He works from the premise that, back around 1999, when he was part of the first internet boom he had the idea that the World Wide Web would help distribute great works of art and culture, from Tchaikovsky to Stendhal and others. He was disappointed that at a Friend of O’reilly’s meeting people were concentrating on user-generated content rather than high culture.

That is one part of the story. Another of his concerns is that people are writing about topics they know little or nothing about and as a result are spreading disinformation. He looks at a few examples in politics and current affairs to show how there are some failings within the new media landscape. This made me think of how important the university would become. If everyone is a writer/editor and publisher so it would make sense that they train to become experts in their chosen field. Anyone can write and share their knowledge but that is no reason for the work to be sloppy.

Look at the Roman section of my website. I wrote it ten years ago when I wanted to write down everything I knew about the Romans and within a short time it had been formatted for the web. Over the years people found the site and found that the information was useful therefore they referenced it. As a result of this, I became a resource for school children worldwide. I had no credentials. I was an IGCSE and then IB student as I worked on various parts.

Finally, ten years later I’ve graduated, and through learning the academic process the value of the content I produce has improved. I have gained slightly in authority. When I listen to people speak about the media and how it works I have familiarity with two hundred years of technological progress therefore I am familiar with some of the “old media” and how they influenced popular and media culture. As a result of my studies, I found myself disagreeing with one podcaster and how he expressed anger against Andrew Keen and “The cult of The Amateur”. Such views should not be expressed.

One aspect that is of particular interest to all those that I have studied with and myself is that of the amateur as a producer of content. When you have six thousand people who are writing about specific themes for free where is the demand for the professional author or content producer. He takes the example of advertising and how because amateurs want their content to be seen, offer this to advertising firms. As a result advertising firms save a lot of money. Personally I believe that this is a trend that is popular because of how cheap the means of production have become but that within a number of years the passion for users generating their own content may disappear.

As more and more hobbyists and amateurs produce media content so the role of the professional becomes more uncertain. Why spend years studying at university to be a media producer or journalist if a construction worker is making films in his free time for no money and distributing it to a global audience? It’s an interesting time to work in the media because of how affordable technology has become. I have everything it takes to create and distribute video comfort from the place where I am living in London. As long as I get a good documentary idea I can carry out every stage of the production process without going through the production companies. As a result of this, I have complete editorial control.

Andrew Keen is getting us to pay attention to questions that it is essential we answer. Who is our audience, how are they getting our content, how reliable is it and how can we sustain ourselves to continue doing what we enjoy?

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Last time I went to the cinema my name was in the credits

Byrichard

Last time I went to the cinema I was in Paris and my name was in the credits. This time I was at the 20th Century Fox offices on Soho Square in London as a guest, along with Loudmouthman, Suzymiller, Danacea, Rupert Howe, Sizemore and many other social media participants.

We were invited to preview the film Juno, which will be out in British cinemas around the 8th of February 2008. It’s nice to be two months ahead of the crowd. It’s also nice to be in a private cinema. I enjoyed the leather seats along with the press package and the fact that when you lean back the seat tilts back at the same time.

It was also amusing to see all these faces. It’s a funny thing to be part of the social media mainly because you recognise and feel that people are familiar although you’ve never met them in real life. What makes this particularly appealing is the fact that it’s not someone saying “oh I’ve heard something about you”. They’ve actually looked at, and appreciated your work, or at least we hope so.

I enjoyed the film and so did the rest of the crowd. Frequent laughter could be heard from around the room quite frequently. I did enjoy quite a bit of the dialogue and the story is a nice one although the end is typical of American films.

Aside from the film and the crowds we did get to interview the organisers of the event as well as Danacea of Forbidden planet, Rupert Howe, vlogger and Robert… whose last name eludes me. It’s 1am and I’m tired.

The Twittervox video should be up by tomorrow evening at the latest. More concise information on those interviewed will of course, appear accordingly

Your own Waze driving directions
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Your own Waze driving directions

Byrichard

Your own Waze driving directions

You can now record your own Waze driving directions. Instead of using pre-determined voices you can record a number of pre-determined phrases and use them for when you are driving. Recording and using your recording is easy.

Setting it up

In the settings menu go to voice directions, click on record new voice, name the voice and then you can record Start of Drive messages, Distances, Instructions, Reports and Other. Each instruction can be up to 6 seconds in duration. Simply click the red record button, record the phrase and then listen to it. Once you have recorded the first clip you can save the new voice.

Multiple languages

It is possible to record multiple languages. Simply go to settings, general and language. Select the language you want to record in and then repeat the setting it up instructions. The phrases will be provided in the language of your choice. As I speak English and French I can record instructions in both languages.

Friends and family

If you don’t like your own voice you can get friends and family to record their voices. You could use one voice for driving to work, another for driving with friends and a third one to keep children entertained in the back. You can also share these recordings publicly for other people to use. If you’re a Vlogger or podcaster this is one way to grow your audience.

 

Long trips and frequent GPS use

When you go on long trips and use the GPS frequently the default voices can be tedious. The ability to record the voice of your choice is a nice addition. For three or more hours you can hear the voice of a friend or family member. It can become a source of entertainment. I often drive with the GPS silenced to avoid pestering passengers. With the correct voice, you could leave vocal directions on.

 

Playing With the GW-B5600

Playing With the GW-B5600

Byrichard

Some watches can do a lot and others can do a little The Origin watch, model number GW-B5600 can charge itself with daylight and mark GPS coordinates within seconds, and that’s about it. I tested it while driving from Switzerland to Spain.



There are a few motorway stops that I was curious about so as I drove I could short press the bottom right button and it took the date, time, and GPS coordinates at that point so that I could review points on the map later on. A watch this as this is highly specialised and fits a narrow niche. Casio says “This is a good watch for pilots to mark which city they were in but I think differently.


This is a good watch for people to mark where they took a picture, or to mark a waypoint during a walk or some other event. Once you press the button the watch and phone do the rest. You can then provide the location with a memorable name.


The Origin world times, battery status and more screengrab
The Origin world times, battery status and more screengrab


Casio watches come with a battery life of between 2-10 years and the solar watch advertises that it has a battery life of 22 months so this could be shorter than many.


More info: The G-Heritage Story — Evolution Of The Casio G-Shock Origin


The watch gives home town time, world time, alarms, stopwatch and countdown timer. It has good backlight illumination and provides us with quick GPS location marking. It is limited in what it can do but that is the case with most low end Casio watches. Each one fills a different niche.


Solar Charging


Battery information and charge information is not that useful. We don’t know whether it is charging fast or slow, and what the battery charge percentage is. What I do know is that after walking with the watch exposed to the sun on a bag strap it indicates that it is either almost full or full, quickly.


Watches that don’t need to be charged every day, or every week are nice, because you can forget about them for months at a time. I think that this is the type of watch that I would strap to a bag. When I want to store location data I can just press the button and continue walking.


Use Case


If you know where you’re walking, or you’re exploring without the need for a GPS this is a cheaper alternative to a GPS like the Garmin Etrex 32x. When you get to a point of interest or a location that you want to add to a map you can get the coordinates, for later use. This is lighter, and less hassle.

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