AppStart for iPad (2012 Edition)
Now that the new iPad is out there, it is likely that we have lots of iOS newbies, eager to know which apps to install first.
To welcome those new users, AppStart for iPad (2012 Edition) by AppAdvice.com is free for a limited time.
This app is a great guide to start using your device, separated in different categories to help you sorting your stuff out.
This could be used even if you’re an experienced user. There is always that sneaky app that you don’t know about and makes all the difference.
As it’s free, I suggest you test it. If you don’t like it, just delete the darned thing. No harm done.
There is also an iPhone version of the app, but it’s not free.
AppStart for iPad (2012 Edition) on the AppStore
AppStart for iPhone on the AppStore
Speaktoit Assistant
By now, if you have an iPhone 4S, you have already spent some time with Siri, that cold-as-ice-yet-incredibly-resourceful assistant that will give almost any information you want.
For those who don’t have an iPhone 4S, so far there were few options, but it seems the most popular out there is this awesome Speaktoit Assistant, by Speaktoit LLC, that you can find FREE for a limited time on the Appstore.
Speaktoit is already a huge success with Android users, and so it should be for pre-4S owners.
First of all, it has a face. And it’s customizable! So you can select a gender and an appearance for your new assistant.
The way to use it is pretty much the same one would use Siri. Speak to it. No need to memorize commands, just make sense and it will most probably understand you.
So what can it do?
Here are a few options of what it does:
- Talk (basic dialog, general topics, or even about itself)
- Find (information, images, maps, news, stock information, weather, items on Amazon or info on IMDB)
- Call
- Send mails or SMS
- Update status on Facebook or Twitter
- Play videos
- Tell about things around you, people or places
- Organize you day (time, task list, notes, events, agenda)
- Open websites
- Translate sentences from English
- Calculate Units and currency conversion, do basic math
- Check in on Foursquare
Very nice, right?
So even if you have an iPhone 4S, why not give it a try? After all, it’s free right now.
Augmented Driving
Augmented Driving by imaGinyze is a driving assistant that uses the Augmented Reality concept.
It is more of a companion than anything else at this point, but it may prove to be useful in some occasions.
As it is, you must attach your iPhone to a holding support, with the back camera facing the road, and let the app calibrate with the environment.
Main features directly from the developer:
Lane Detection and Lane Departure Warning:
- Your own lane is highlighted with dynamic overlays in the augmentation video display
- The width of your lane and your distance to its borders is indicated
- As soon as you cross the lane markings you are informed by an acoustical signal
- To significantly increase availability of this function, we added tracking of single lane markingsVehicle Detection and 2-Level Safety Distance Monitoring:
- Vehicles in front of you are detected and dynamically highlighted
- A new close-up view zooms in on the relevant vehicle
- Relevant information, such as vehicle distance and time gap, is displayed in the HUD
- If your distance falls below an adjustable threshold a 2-level warning is issuedStop-and-Go Assistant:
- If you come to a dead stop in stop-and-go-situations, Augmented Driving detects moving off traffic in front of you and issues an acoustical informationSpeeding Avoidance:
- To avoid speeding you are warned when a user-defined speed-limit is exceededVisual Logbook and Video MP4-Recording:
- Screenshots can be taken manually or by enabling the intelligent, situation-adaptive automatic recording feature
- As a completely new feature reserved for all dual core devices, you may save the screen contents as a full MP4 video stream including a buffer of the past 5 seconds
- Recorded videos can be retrieved as App documents via iTunes, screenshots are stored in your photo albumInformation HUD:
- Relevant system, status and driving information such as your current speed and driving course are overlaid to the augmented video displaySound and Voice Output:
- Acoustical warnings can be configured to be a standard sound or an appealing voice output
- We added multi-language voice output in English (new voices for US, UK), French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and ChineseOther Features:
- Our new Mount’n'Go technology allows for fast and easy calibration of your device at startup
- To guarantee best accuracy an automatic fine-calibration permanently monitors the orientation of your camera
This is a fun app to use and show to friends, and it also gives us a taste of what the near future could look like in terms of traffic apps and HUDs.
The question to be done here is: with so much information being displayed, won’t we get distracted from actually driving?
Drive safe.
Augmented Drive is free for a limited time.
Bills ~ On your table
I’ve been using this app for over a year now, and I must say that I won’t remove it from my iPhone in a near future. It just gets the job done.
I’m talking about Bills ~ On your table [HD] by PoweryBase.
This is an awesome finances app that really gets your bills and expenses organised and neat.
To get started, you need to create an account for yourself, so that your data can be sync’d with the server, or if you wish, “the cloud”.
Then it’s all about creating your own categories of bills and payments. There are a few preset ones, but you can add or delete as many as you wish.
With that out of the way, you can start adding payments, bills, recurring bills, and any other expenses you find useful to have on record.
The input form is very simple and intuitive. Just enter the bill name, assign it to a category, input the amount (with the option to input the amount already paid), its due date, the recurring function (will it repeat?), any pre-alerts warnings you might need (you can receive it via push), and also if you want the app to mark it as “Paid” automatically (for those cases you have a debt authorization, for example).
After you save it, you can mark the bill as “Paid” or “Unpaid”.
There you go, you’ve added a bill and now you can see it in the Calendar tab or, if applicable, in the Bills tab.
In the Stats tab you get to check your expenses given a time frame, as well as the amount not paid, separated by each category.
In the case you are unable to check your iOS device, you can check you profile and your bills via web browser on any computer, so you are totally mobile and your information is always accessible.
If you want your wife/husband/whatever to have access to the same information, you can also install the app on his/her device (of course you have to pay for it), and log in with your account. The sync will then happen from the cloud directly to all devices logged in that account. In this case, you’ll have to select one of the devices to be the “primary”, and only that device will receive push notifications.
Bills supports 170 currencies and all currencies formats available, so no matter where you live, you’ll be backed up.
As I said before, this app is amazing and useful (as long as you get to use it regularly), and it’s worth every penny.
Vocre Free Translator
Going abroad to that exotic country? Worried that maybe the natives won’t understand you? Unless you’re going to one of those African tribes that speak with their throats clicking and whistling, I may be of some help to you.
Vocre Free Translator by myLanguage is an amazing app that translates speech on the go – for free!
What surprised me most is that not only the app have a wide variety of languages, but also it has variations of the same language (Portuguese from Brazil and Portugal, 3 variations of Spanish, etc).
Check the full list:
Supported Languages/Countries:
• Chinese Cantonese – Hong Kong
• Chinese Mandarin – China
• Chinese Taiwanese – Taiwan
• Danish – Denmark
• Dutch – Netherlands
• English – Australian
• English – United Kingdom
• English – United States
• French – Canada
• French – France
• German – Germany
• Italian – Italy
• Japanese – Japan
• Korean – Korea
• Norwegian Nynorsk – Norway
• Polish – Poland
• Portuguese – Brazil
• Portuguese – Portugal
• Russian – Russia
• Spanish – Mexico
• Spanish – Spain
• Spanish – United States
• Swedish – Sweden
Vocre can be used in two modes:
Hand-Held
Quick translation mode, to make simple requests that don’t need an answer from the other part. Speak to the mic, tilt the iPhone and it will reproduce the translation. Use it, for example, to make an order on a restaurant or to buy tickets to a concert.
Table-Top
This mode is used on conversations, where both sides have something to say. Select both languages to be used. The iPad/iPhone screen will be divided in two, each half dedicated to its own language. Turn your language to you. Also, each side will have a “record” button. Speak what you want to say, revise the text (you can edit it at your will), and tap “translate”. The text will be translated and the iPhone will also read it in the translated language.
This app works wonders and it’s Universal and free, much to my surprise.
Check the video below to see it in action and install it. You never know when it will come in handy.
“Just friends!”
Upcoming – Tap Alarm Clock
Well, this might be interesting.
It seems AppAnnex may have something cool in the oven for the near January 19th. I’m talking about Tap Alarm Clock, an app that will make it easy for you to set up an alarm on your iPhone/iPod or iPad.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
Next Thursday, January 19, our company is planning to release a new app iPhone/iPad compatible product called the Tap Alarm Clock.
We worked really hard to make this app to stand out from the crowd, and finally, we came up with very stylish and slick product that simplifies setting an alarm down with just a couple of taps and swipes!With super stylish touch wheel you can easily set up alarm. And you can always see alarm status without opening the app. What is more useful is that unique snooze interface lets you see how long it will take for alarm to sound again and lets you deactivate alarm during the snooze.
I usually have no problems with the native iPhone alarm system, but I can agree to the fact that it can be improved. Sometimes I still fumble a little bit with my iPhone to turn off the darned thing, so a big button can come in handy.
Also, I’m intrigued by this new way to set up an alarm using gestures and only a virtual dial to accomplish it.
You have my attention, AppAnnex.
It will be a universal app, so I’m guessing this would be also interesting to test out on the iPad. I don’t usually have it near my bed, but we can give it a go and see what gives, right?
This “one-button-app-for-a-one-button-device” concept makes me curious, and if you are too, keep your eyes open for its release on the 19th.
Do you already use a different alarm app, or do you prefer to stick to the native iOS one? Will you try this one out?
My Data Manager
Do you have a limited amount of data usage from your phone carrier? Are you having trouble controlling it? I do. I mean, I did.
My Data Manager by Mobidia Technology is a great app that will help you managing your network data usage, roaming, or even WiFi traffic amount.
The app has great visuals, with charts and a lot of information.
When you install it, you’ll be able to set the monthly limit, and the first day of your billing cycle.
Additionally, you may enter the amount of data you’ve already used for the current month, but this is optional.
This is a simple app that will self-reset at the beginning of each cycle, but will maintain the “old” data for reporting purposes.
It’s user-friendly, provides nice information, and you can set up 3 different notifications, as warnings. For example, if you have 600MB per month, you can set a notification for when you reach 500MB, another for 550MB, and the 3rd for 600MB.
If you want to use it full throttle, you can also check the Usage Map, where you check the places you’ve used the different types of data traffic.
This app is free for a limited time, so you better grab it!
Posted
If you love to order stuff from the internet, you’ll probably like this.
Posted, by Leeane Robinson, allows you to track orders form most of the shipping and courier companies around the globe.
Depending on each company you may get the status, location, ETA, next step, etc.
The list of compatible companies is impressive:
–International Couriers–
Aramex, CEVA, DHL Express, Fedex, i-Parcel, LBC Express, Purolator , TNT Express, Toll Global Express, UPS–Europe–
GLS Europe, AsTrack, Ecoparcel–Australia–
Allied Express, Australian Air Express (AAE), Australia Post, Couriers Please, Direct Freight Express, Fastway Couriers, Go Logistics, Hunter Express, Interparcel, Northern Kope Parcel Direct , Smart Send, Star Couriers, StarTrack Express, TNT Express Domestic (Australia), TOLL IPEC & TOLL Priority, TransDirect National Couriers–Austria–
Austria Post, DPD Austria–Belgium–
Belgian Post–Brazil–
Correios Brazil–Canada–
CanPar, Canada Post, DHL Domestic Canada, Purolator–Chile–
Correos Chile–China–
China Post Registered Mail, DNJ Express, Fedex Domestic, Hong Kong Post, KCS Express–Croatia–
Croatia Post–Cyprus–
Cyprus Post–Czech Republic–
PPL, DPD Czech–Denmark–
Post Danmark–Finland–
Itella/Posti–France–
Adrexo, ChronoPost, La Poste/Colissimo–Germany–
Deutsche Post, DHL Germany, DPD Germany, Hermes Germany–Ireland–
An Post–Italy–
Bartolini, Poste Italiane – Paccocelere3, EMS, Internazionale, Maxi, SDA, TNT Italy–Japan–
Japan Post International–Luxembourg–
P&T Luxembourg–Malaysia–
PosLaju–New Zealand–
Courier Post, Fastway Couriers , NZ Couriers, NZ Post–Netherlands–
Kiala, TNT Post NL–Norway–
Norway Post, Tollpost Globe–Portugal–
CTT–Russia–
Russian Post–Singapore–
Singapore Post Registered Article, vPost–Spain–
Correos Spain, MRW–Sweden–
DirectLink, Posten Sweden–Switzerland–
DHL Switzerland, DPD Switzerland, Swiss Post–UK–
APC Overnight, City Link UK, Collect+, Crossflight Courier, DHL Domestic Express UK, DPD UK, DX UK, Fastway Couriers, Fedex Domestic Express UK, Hermes, Home Delivery Network UK, Interlink Express, Interparcel UK, Parcelforce Worldwide, Royal Mail, TNT Express Domestic UK, UK Mail, Yodel–USA–
CEVA, DB Schenker USA, DHL Express, DHL GlobalMail Domestic, Eastern Connection, Ensenda, Fedex, LaserShip, OnTrac, Prestige Delivery, Streamlite (formally MailExpress), TNT Express, UPS, UPS Mail Innovations, USPS (U.S. Postal Service)
This is a good app to have, even if you’re not that into buying stuff on the web. You’ll probably need it sooner or later, and right now Posted is free, so here’s your chance.
Vlingo – Voice App
So now you’ve seen the news. iPhone 4S will have its own personal assistant, powered by Siri.
You’re mumbling something about having to buy the new device to experience the virtual assistant, and you don’t want to give up that kind of cash for a damn concierge.
Worse than that, you had Siri installed on your device and now you’ve been informed that the servers will be shut down. You’re grumpy and I feel your pain.
That’s why I am here right now. You need good news, and I’m all about pleasing my readers.
Vlingo by Vlingo Corporation is a free virtual personal assistant that you can install in every iOS device.
Same concept. It doesn’t range everything that Siri does, but it will do most of it. And it’s free. And you can install in your 3GS, 4, iPad, whatever.
It used to be paid for some services (texting or emails), but now as the competition gets tougher, you get all for free. Nice, right?
Give it a try, worst case scenario you’ve lost a few minutes.
