iphone Category

Got a car and a smartphone? Your country needs you!

We’ve been trying out a rather nifty little application that has some serious potential… that’s if enough people get involved.

Waze is a social navigation application that’s available for a range of GPS-enabled smartphones including the iPhone, Android phones, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS devices.

Rather than your standard sat-nav app where you drive from A to B on a specified route, drive with this app, and the data gathered goes to build an accurate map of roads, junctions and average speeds. If you see a jam or a traffic cam, press a couple of buttons, and other drivers can see what’s going on in real-time.

A great idea, and it’s working well in the US, but over here, the road coverage is pretty thin. You can pick up points for “munching” your local roads, adding to the map and picking up bonus cupcakes… you have to try it to experience the full Waze proposition.

FrequencyCast is doing its bit – three of our team have the app installed and have already added over 80 miles of new roads… and we’re urging our loyal listeners to get involved.

Get the app from your phone’s App Store (iPhone users: Waze in iTunes)

Come on gang… get driving!

Freeview has just launched an app for users of the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

Before you get excited – it won’t let you watch Freeview from your iPhone – what it does provide, is a handy and fairly powerful TV listings service to see what’s on the 50 or so Freeview channels.

Easy-to-use, and with handy access to the Freeview Twitter feed for recommendations and news, this is a must – especially given that it’s a freebie!

The Freeview HD iPhone app is available now on the iTunes App Store

Update: Reviewed in our Feb 2010 Update – Listen to Update / Read Transcript

The iPad is out. We’ve been listening to a flaky audio stream live from Apple’s Keynote speech to find out what’s new, and here’s what we can report:

The iPad:

It’s a 9.7 inch touchscreen tablet – think of it as an iPhone that’s two and a half times larger. It has a 10 hour battery life, comes in 16, 32 and 64 Gig versions and is wi-fi enabled – a 3G version will also be available. Price for the iPad starts from $499 in the US (converts to £310). An iBooks (eBook Reader app and store) will be available, as will iWork (Apple’s new wordprocessing, spreadsheet and presentations applications). It’ll run existing iPhone apps. Looks like this will be available in the UK sometime from June onwards…

Other Stuff?

Many were expecting an announcement of a new iPhone OS, expected to be iPhone OS4. Sadly, nothing.

Our thoughts

Looks like a nice piece of kit, and it’s bound to be a hit with many. A little larger than we were expecting, but thin and sexy, as with all of Apple’s stuff.

Interesting to see Apple’s dipping into the eBook market, and their iBooks store could be a big hit, as Apple’s bound to make book purchase as easy as App store. Also, with the Apple iPad being available for $499 for a colour touch screen, Sony Reader and Kindle will have a struggle competing.

It’s going to be available in the US “in 60 days”. The 3G element will mean it’ll be several months before we see these in the UK.

Thoughts?

Happy New Year to all of our FrequencyCast listeners!

Show 47, the first show of 2010, has just been released for your listening pleasure.

In this show, we discuss all that’s new with digital TV and technology. Here’s what we cover in this show:

• News Updates: Project Canvas, Tesco iPhone, iPlayer on Freesat, Freeview HD and BT Vision boxes.
• Focus: New Year’s Resolution – Back up your data
• Your podline and email questions on Dave, Slingbox and the BBC iPlayer

You can download Show 47 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

 

 FrequencyCast UK Show 47 [30:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We reviewed the RedLaser iPhone application in our October Update. Be aware that the manufacturers have today released a new version, v2.50, which drastically reduces functionality for those of us in the UK. No more Google or Amazon results – instead, results from the Atlanta-based find.com service.

Take a look at the FileSaveAs news story RedLaser App Ruined for a screenshot of the differences between the new version and the original. There’s also a work-around to recover the old app for those unfortunate enough to have upgraded.

If you want to complain to the developers, try support.redlaser.com

We’ve just released one of our almost legendary audio updates.

A stack of TV and Tech news to cover, including:

• BBC slashes BBC HD bandwidth by 40%
• Channel 4 3D starts next week
• Welsh TV hits Manchester, plus a Switch update
• Happy Birthday to the Apple iPhone
• Ourkindofmusic ceases their kind of music
• Plus your emails

The show is attached to this blog entry, or you can listen at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html, or get us from the FrequencyCast Podcast page on iTunes.

 

 FrequencyCast Update 12 Nov 2009 [11:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

iPhone users – you can now watch 11 Freeview channels live on your phone.

The service from TVCatchup.com allows you to watch the following channels:

BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, ITV1, ITV2, Channe 4, Five, Film 4, e4, More 4 and 4 Music.

To watch, point your iPhone web browser to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com/ – No subscription, no sign-up, no app to install. Nice!