New apps from Apple, updates to Facebook, comparisons of the iPhone with other smartphones, and new celebrity iPhone apps were all part of the interesting iPhone-related stories that I came across this week.
Yesterday the app was updated to 3.1.2 to address some syncing bugs.
The app is a great way to keep track of your Facebook friends But
sometimes, friends can become unfriendly. Indeed, the New Oxford
American Dictionary selected “unfriend” as the word of the year in 2009. Normally, Facebook doesn’t notify you when a friend leaves you, but App Advice writes
about a $1 iPhone app called Defriended that lets you know when one of
your Facebook friends decides to defriend you. Sounds like a useful
app, unless of course you would rather enjoy the ignorant bliss that
comes with not thinking about when someone defriends you. [UPDATE: It looks like Facebook itself isn’t feeling very friendly about the Defriended app. An article today on App Advice says that Facebook pulled the plug on the Defriended app because the Facebook developer agreement forbids this type of usage.]
The latest version of the Facebook app can provide pictures for
contacts by finding their pictures on Facebook, even if you are not a
Facebook friend with a person. This means that you should think
carefully about your Facebook picture. If your Facebook picture is you
in a bikini, and your boss has your name in his contacts and uses an
iPhone, then your boss might get that bikini picture associated with
your contact entry even if you are not Facebook friends with your
boss. Something to think about, and yet another reason that I try to minimize online use of pictures of me in a bikini.
Yesterday Apple added one more benefit to being a MobileMe subscriber; you get to use the new MobileMe Gallery app. Safari on the iPhone has always done a nice job of formatting MobileMe Gallery webpages, but this app displays pictures and videos that you share on MobileMe even faster. It also lets you easily view friends’ MobileMe pages and lets you configure Safari so that the MobileMe Gallery app launches any time you click a link to a MobileMe gallery. It’s a slick app. The app is free, but you must be a MobileMe subscriber, which normally costs $99 a year but is only $69.48 from Amazon. (By clicking that link, Amazon gives a tiny percentage of each sale to iPhone J.D., which helps cover expenses around here.) Click here to get MobileMe Gallery (free):
An interesting post on the AppAdvice website shows that the iPhone has the most accurate touch screen among popular smart phones.
because it is poorly formatted and doesn’t contain the current law.
There may not be a large number of British family law lawyers reading
iPhone J.D., but her conclusion raises an interesting point:
“Beware of this app – or of any lawyer you see relying on an iPhone app
for legal research!” I frequently use iPhone apps to read the text of
the law and I don’t consider that cause for alarm, but it is worth remembering that a large number of iPhone apps containing legal statutes were released in 2009. As the laws start to change in 2010, you need to make
sure that your app is still up to date. I can see some iPhone
developers losing interest in their apps over time, so make sure that this doesn’t happen to an app that you use.
Attorney Enrico Schaefer writes on his blog The Greatest American Lawyer that he recently switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone and he is amazed how much more productive he is on an iPhone. He writes: “While I made the move because of my superficial
understanding of iPhone apps, I really had no idea how amazing those
apps would be. … For those of you still on the
Blackberry platform, check your service contracts and find out when
they expire. Then, ignore that date, eat whatever penalty you have to
pay by getting out of the contract now and switch anyway. Your ROI may
take a week or two longer, but you will see productivity gains so
quickly, you will soon agree it was the best money you ever spent.”
The always thoughtful MG Siegler writes for TechCrunch about the Nexus One, the new phone from Google that uses the Android operating system. While explaining why he likes the iPhone better, he explains the key advantages of the iPhone. I love this passage: “Android is like a very nice painting done entirely with broad strokes.
The iPhone is more like a masterpiece in which every little detail has
been meticulously defined. Just as people have different tastes in art,
people will have different tastes when it comes to the iPhone versus
the Nexus One. But that doesn’t change the fact that some pieces of
artwork are considered to be masterpieces, while some are considered to
be merely very good.”
GigaOM has a neat graphic on the App Store economy. Click here to see it.
which provides information on the 2010 New Orleans Mayoral and City
Council races. The current version of the app will appeal to those
with an interest in New Orleans politics, but it looks like an
interesting app that could be used for any race in any city.
AppAdvice reports that mice-maker Logitech released a free app that lets your iPhone act as a wireless mouse. Many other apps already do this, but AppAdvice notes that this one is both full featured and free. If this type of app is of interest to you, check it out.
And finally, for all of you who love the distinct voice and antics of actor Samuel L. Jackson, you can now get the iPhone app iSamJackson for all of your Samuel L. Jackson needs. There is a funny, free online preview of the app that gives you a sense of what it does, and for $2.99 you’ll have Samuel L. Jackson in your, ahem, pocket, either in a clean version or an explicit version, both of which include a magic eight ball-type feature so that Samuel L. Jackson can help you make your most critical decisions. You can even follow the app on Twitter. This picture is from when I “met” Mr. Jackson at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in New York. I’m the one on the right. Click here for iSamJackson ($2.99) Clean: and Explicit:
1 thought on “In the news”
I updated my FB for iphone this week and saw the import option for pictures with request for permission to access my contact list. I canceled. Do you have concerns that FB is accessing your entire contact list on your phone and doing who knows what with that info? Do you really want you personal and business contact info “out there”in Farmville or wherever?
I updated my FB for iphone this week and saw the import option for pictures with request for permission to access my contact list. I canceled. Do you have concerns that FB is accessing your entire contact list on your phone and doing who knows what with that info? Do you really want you personal and business contact info “out there”in Farmville or wherever?