iPhone

WordPress iOS App Gets a Complete Work Over in Version 2.7

Posted on March 16, 2011

The iOS WordPress team just announced that the 2.7 version of their app has just hit the app store. I am actually typing and will publish this post from the app.

Already the app feels very solid. I have not had any crashes or login issues that have plagued several of the previous versions. It has been sad actually because WordPress as a platform has been very stable in the last few years. The iOS team has had a rough patch there for a while but I think that they are out of the woods with the 2.7 release.

From their post about the release they mention that their focus was primarily on performance and reliability with 117 bugs being squashed. I appreciate the effort that they have put in ;-) .

Testing the App

Now I will run a couple of tests to see how this new release handles things.

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Switching from Buxfer to PocketMoney for iPhone

Posted on September 14, 2010

I have been a long time user of Buxfer and have generally pleased with there online checkbook service. I never used the account sync feature that they offered (similar to Mint’s) because I like to keep my own balance verses the bank. Lately I had been noticing that both their regular and mobile sites were both running slower and slow. I did some research and found out that Buxfer is run by a lone programmer that actually has a full time job at Facebook. While he is doing his best to maintain the site if their is a crash I am pretty sure my data would be gone.

The Search

I searched around the web to see if their were any other companies out their doing something similar to Buxfer. There were a few but they were small as well and the interfaces seemed a little clunky. I decided to check out iPhone apps instead since that is actually were I do the majority of my data entry. My concern with an app was that if my phone got lost/stolen/broken that I would lose my data as well.

There were a handful of iPhone apps and after using the majority of them I ended up with PocketMoney.

Why PocketMoney

There were two main reasons why I chose this app. The first was he fact that it could do transfers between accounts. This is something that Buxfer could do and I do a lot of transfers. I was actually amazed that their were checkbooks apps out there that handle multiple accounts but cannot do transfers. Weird. The other reason I chose PocketMoney is that they have been around for a while – like since the Apple Newton. They seemed well established in the space and did not seem like they were going anywhere. They were a pretty easy choice compared to the competition.

A Groovy Data Import

As impressed as I was with the basic functions of PocketMoney their import feature was even more impressive. I ended up exporting nearly 4000 transactions between 7 accounts from Buxfer and imported them into PocketMoney on my iPhone. It was pretty simple using Buxfer’s Quicken export and PocketMoney’s Wifi Transfer for data. When all was said and done I had all the data that I had in Buxfer in PocketMoney.

Desktop App Coming

The best part about this whole transition is that the PocketMoney developers are currently working on a desktop app that syncs with the iPhone app. This is where my concerns about losing data are taken care of.

AT&T Comes Out with Their U-Verse iPhone App

Posted on June 25, 2009

I have loved AT&T U-verse from day one. I I have loved my 3 iPhones. Today the two have come together in a match made in heaven via the U-Verse TV iPhone app.

The U-verse TV iPhone app allows you to control your U-Verse DVR from your iPhone from anywhere. You can see your scheduled recordings, set new recordings, browse the TV listings, and search for shows and/or channels. Basically it has all the functionality that you have via your TV for your DVR on your iPhone. Pretty cool.

This will really come in handy when remembering that I want to see a particular show but am not near my TV to schedule it. In my opinion AT&T is doing a great job of bringing all of their services together. From having the integration between my DVR and iPhone along with free Wifi at any Starbucks it really is a great value.

iPhone 3GS – I Got MY New Baby

Posted on June 20, 2009

iphone-3gs-video-cameraI was going to wait until my birthday in July but the wife gave the go ahead to get my new Iphone 3GS this morning – so I did. I was fortunate to get to the AT&T store near me when I did because the place had a constant stream of people and there were only around 10 iPhones left when I got mine. I had called all the nearby Best Buy’s but they were all out.

The main reason for getting the new iPhone 3GS was the video camera. A while back I had Jailbroken my iPhone 3G and installed the iPhone Video Recorder on it but at 15 frames per second it was not that usable. I really wanted something that I could keep in my pocket so I could capture cool things that the kids were doing. I had considered getting a Flip camera but that was just another thing I would have to lug around with me.

One thing that pushed me to buy today was that I took a look at some of the videos that people had uploaded from their 3GS phones this morning. The quality was better then I expected especially for outdoor videos. Indoor quality still leaves something to be desired but it does on every camera.

I ended up with the 32GB version since the 16GB ones were sold out. What I feel that I get for $100 is the ability to put my entire 10GB+ iPhone library on my phone which I think is pretty cool. That leaves room for a ton of apps and several movies.

I will be playing with the video camera over the next few days and post some videos.

iPhone Firmware 3.0 Installed and I’m Liking It

Posted on June 17, 2009

It took a few hours but I finally got through to the authentication servers to update my iPhone to the 3.0 firmware. The process took about 15 minutes total and went without a hitch.

iphone-voice-memosThe first thing that I noticed when starting up was the new Voice Memos icon on my home screen. I have been using Evernote for text and voice memos for a while now so I am not quite sure how useable this will be for me. The only advantage I can see that it has over Evernote is that Evernote limits you to a 5 minutes for your voice notes while the new native app seems to have no limit. You can pause your voice note and then email it when you are done where I suppose you could add text notes to it as well. We will have to see if it gets used.

iphone-apps-storeThe next thing that I checked out was the app store to see if there were any updates for any of my apps. I know that the WordPress iPhone app version 3.0 has been submitted to the app store but unfortunately did not show up. What did show up were updates to Evernote, Showtimes, and Enigmo. I selected to update them all and they seemed to get stuck on my menu page with all three apps saying “Installing”. After several minutes of waiting for this to clear itself I went back into the app store and then was presented with a message that I had to agree to the new Terms of Service for the app store. That took another couple minutes and then my apps were updating. Note – The Evernote update is awesome – lots of cool new stuff.

iphone-cameraFrom there I decided to check out how the camera was doing since I heard that there were updates there. Sure enough my camera started up much quicker and when I pressed the shutter button it actually took the picture right then as opposed to waiting a second or two! Also the pictures seems to be clearer but the true test will be when I try to snap some pics of the kids later on (Kids are true test of any camera!).

iphone-copy-pasteI then decided to see how Safari was doing with its updates. It seemed to be snapper which was nice. While browsing a page I remembered that copy and past was available and decided to try it out. It was actually much easier to use then I had anticipated. I easily selected a paragraph of text and then brought it over to my notepad and pasted it. After that I went back to Safari and coped a URL and successfully pasted inside on my WordPress app. It wasn’t even their new version and it worked! Awesome.

Finally I checked out the Spotlight search function but could not think of anything to search for. I am sure it will come in handy down the road.

All-in-all I would say that the iPhone 3.0 firmware is great, especially for being free. I am still planning on upgrading to the 3GS in the next month or so though. The main reason is for the video camera. I will be checking it out at the Apple store when it comes out to make sure that it is good quality and then hopefully scoop one up for my birthday.

Great job Apple! Just buy a new activation server though please…

Fail: iPhone 3.0 Activation Servers Down :-(

Posted on June 17, 2009

I was super excited to see that the iPhone 3.0 software was out so I ran home to update my phone. The download happened nice and fast which was cool but when I actually tried to install the update this is what I got:

iphone-activation-server

Bum deal.

I guess this is the message that a lot of people were seeing with the 2.0 update except for the fact that when it happened back then that it bricked the phone. I guess I am fortunate enough that 2.0 did not brick mine.

I want my iPhone 3.0!

Playing With the WordPress iPhone 1.2 App

Posted on March 18, 2009

WordPress has released their 1.2 version of their iPhone app. Noteable items that this update includes are:

- Landscape Mode
- New/editing pages
- Comment moderation
- Image resizing
- Password protect posts

I am using it to do this post and it seems to be working pretty well.

Good job WordPress iPhone App Dev team!

Now I just need to get used to tying in Landscape mode with my thumbs.

- Post from my iPhone, please excuse any typos :-) .

New Blogging Tool – Evernote on My iPhone

Posted on October 14, 2008

image I have discovered a new tool that I hope will help me to start blogging more – Evernote on my iPhone. This application is not directly related to blogging but it is a note taking program that fits in my pocket so it is with me all the time. Evernote has the ability to take text, photo, and voice notes and is a free application on the iPhone.

The issue that I have had for a while now with blogging is that I do not have as much spare time as I used to blog. When I do have some time I sit in front of my computer and thing – Um, what am I going to blog about? After a while I end up only getting a post or two out or at worst  none at all.

With Evernote anytime I feel inspired I can pull my iPhone out of my pocket, record a quick voice note. let it sync, wirelessly with Evernote’s servers and then I am done. Once my voice note is uploaded to Evernote’s servers it then gets downloaded to my computer when I open the Windows or Mac application on any one of my computers.

The night that I put  2 and 2 together and figured this out I sat down and recorded 6 blog posts in under 1/2 hour. In fact this post is one of the posts that I recorded that night. The only way that it could be any easier would be if Evernote could transcribe my voice note for me then I would not even need to type the whole thing (wishful thinking, I know).

I am really hoping that this new discovery will help in me blogging more frequently.

WordPress iPhone Blogging App – 5 Posts and a Day Later

Posted on July 24, 2008

I know it gas only been a day (or so) since the WordPress iPhone blogging app has come out but I have already used it to do at least 5 posts on various blogs. As I speculated it is allowing me to blog more which I really have been struggling to do. The fact that I can blog from anywhere has caused me to try to utilize my down time more and I am actually trying to think of things to blog about now. Also, I do not feel restricted by the tiny keyboard and have actually typed some rather long posts (quite longer then long emails that I have done in the past).

With that there have been somethings that have surfaced on my like/dislike/wish lists in regards to the app. I will start with the likes first.
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