Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Finding a Parking Spot with Your Mobile Phone

Monday, March 29th, 2010

As urban residents know, finding a parking spot can be a time consuming and incredibly frustrating experience. Sadly, it is also quite destructive for the environment. Transportation Alternatives, a great non-profit in NYC which promotes bicycling, walking and public transit, estimates that 45% of NYC traffic is generated by cars circling the block in search of parking.

Thankfully, you mobile phone can help preserve your sanity while saving you gas money and preventing pollution. If you live in New York or Boston, check out Primospot. They have a mobile-friendly website (as well as iPhone and Android apps) that help you find parking spots, garages, and even bicycle racks. Just type in your address, intersection, or zip code. For parkings spots, it provides a map that shows where you can (and cannot) park, shows how much time is left based on the regulations, and identifies spots that are about to become legal. For garages, you can compare hourly, daily and monthly prices on the map.

To access PrimoSpot on your Credo Mobile BlackBerry or other Internet enabled mobile device, open the browser of your phone or device and type http://primospot.com/m in its address field. The homepage will open.

search

The results for the on-street parking will display the best options first, meaning which sides of which blocks you can park for the longest amount of time. The red asterisk* indicates metered parking. If you would like to see more results, scroll down to the bottom and click next.

>results1

After clicking on a side of one of the blocks, you will see a map and the detailed regulations for that side of the street.
details

Good luck finding those spots, but wouldn’t it be easier if you were biking? (Also, please pull over before using this app. Driving while playing with your mobile phone is as risky as drunk driving. Tx.)

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Technorati]

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Green, Productivity, Travel and Maps | 4 Comments »

Why Does Apple Censor Political Content on Its iPhone App Store?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

freedom-time1

“Defaming, demeaning, or attacking political figures is not considered appropriate content for the App Store.”

CREDO Mobile is a big supporter of Net Neutrality and the groups that fight for it. One important aspect of the Net Neutrality fight is the ability for telcos to restrict the content that they make available to their customers. Such restrictions often focus on maintaining the company’s market power (e.g., AT&T vs. Skype and Google Voice).

With the proliferation of the Blackberry and iPhone app stores, however, handset manufacturers are now in a powerful position to decide what you can see or do on your phone. This opens the door to political censorship. Sadly, Apple has already taken some steps in this direction. In 2008, Apple rejected the Freedom Time app from software developer Juggleware. Freedom Time was a harmless app that displayed a cartoon character of George Bush with arms like a Mickey Mouse watch. The application counted down the days until Inauguration Day.

Apple rejected Juggleware’s application to sell the Freedom Time app through the iPhone App Store, “Defaming, demeaning, or attacking political figures is not considered appropriate content for the App Store.” Juggleware appealed directly to Steve Jobs who put perceived profits ahead of free speech, “Even though my personal political leanings are democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What’s the point?”

The point, Steve, is that you and Apple should not be evaluating what political speech is appropriate. If you need to evaluate this decision from a pure business standpoint, how about listening to the majority of your customers who support net neutrality and would prefer to make their own decisions on what content they should be able to access?

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Technorati]

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Public policy | 1 Comment »

Think before you app

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

There are lots of great reasons for a company to create a mobile phone application. Apps can help businesses better connect with their customers and provide fun and useful programs that also build awareness around a brand or product.

But before deciding to launch, it’s probably wise to ask at least one question: is the app undeniably offensive and demeaning to women?

Pepsi clearly didn’t, and has ended up giving new meaning to the phrase ‘mobile tools’ with the recent launch of its ‘AMP Up Before You Score‘ iPhone app, a promotion for its new AMP energy drink. Targeted at caffeine- and communication-challenged straight dudes, the app gives guys pick-up lines and other tips for wooing 24 convenient categories of women, from artist to women’s studies major.

Really?

Yep. It even lets users keep lists of their conquests and brag about it on Facebook and Twitter.

Easy enough for a neanderthal to use!

Did Pepsi really not anticipate a storm of controversy in releasing a program whose sole function is to help guys score with women, and literally let them keep score while doing it? The soft drink company has offered lame apology Tweet, but has not pulled the app from the iPhone App Store.

Which begs the question — how does Apple make the call about which apps get approved, anyway? Given the recent controversy about the rejection of a single-payer healthcare iPhone app for being ‘politically charged,’ it sounds like they need some reorganizing of their priorities.

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Technorati]

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Blackberry Media Sync – another way to free yourself from AT&T and the iPhone

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Recently, I learned I could sync my Blackberry Curve with iTunes® or Windows Media Player files. I thought, awesome, I can finally consolidate the different gadgets I carry around everyday onto a single device.

But I wondered how hard it would be and/or would it be as easy as syncing with other dedicated music-playing devices? The answer in short is, yes, it is easy and quick. Here’s my step by step account:

  1. Go to Blackberry’s website, download application and install on your computer. Click here to download yourself.
  2. Launch application from your computer, at which point you’ll be asked to connect phone via USB.
  3. Choose whether to sync with an iTunes library or a Windows Media Player library. I chose my iTunes library. (There’s an easy way to switch this at any time from the ‘options’ menu).
  4. The desktop application then provided a list of playlists, including the the entire library of songs to choose from. I chose the ‘Top 25 most played’ to keep it simple.
  5. After selecting a playlist to transfer, the app indicated how much space on my Blackberry media card still remained and it had a cool option that allowed me to “add random music to free space” if I wanted to fill up my entire media card with additional songs. I left this option unchecked as I wanted to leave some room for pictures on my media card.
  6. Finally, just click ‘Sync’ and, voila, iTunes music on my Curve. It works fairly seamlessly with one exception. Songs I purchased from the iTunes store before they offered DRM-free versions (Digital Rights Managed) weren’t able to be transfered. So alas, for me, no Beastie Boy’s Paul’s Boutique on my phone for now.

And that was it. As simple as could be, without a single hiccup along the way. The whole process from installing to syncing took less than 20 minutes.

So now that you can sync music, enjoy superior email functionality, use maps with GPS and download 100’s of other cool apps from the Blackberry App World you can finally free yourself from AT&T and the iPhone.  Need more convincing? Click here for a complete guide to “knowing your network.”

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Technorati]

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »

Travel Management on Your Smartphone

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

I have to admit that after many years of travel, I’ve become a bit obsessive about organizing all of the details.  There are a handful of occasions where having a confirmation number or proof of payment at my fingertips made all of the difference when trying to resolve difficulties with a rental car company, hotel or airline.

Until recently, I would cut and paste this information from confirmation e-mails into a single Word document.  With all of the information carefully collated and arranged, I would print a copy for me and a copy for my wife.  She says she’s impressed; I suspect she finds this behavior a bit Type A.  Regardless, about six months ago I found a cell phone app which halted my use of paper.  WorldMate, designed to run on a variety of smartphones, simplifies the organization and management of your travel details.

(more…)

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Technorati]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Productivity, Travel and Maps | 3 Comments »

The iPhone, Without AT&T

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Lots of progressive gadget-o-philes I know are intrigued by the sleek design and functionality of Apple’s iPhone…but also aren’t very happy about the prospect of paying a bunch of money to the Bush-Cheney-McCain donating, net-neutrality-fighting mega-corporation that is AT&T.

Well, lately I stumbled into an ideal solution that gives me the iPhone’s functionality without AT&T (and no, it doesn’t involve ‘jailbreaking’ your iPhone).

You see, the current generation of iPod Touch devices include support for a microphone along with your headphones…as well as a built-in WiFi connection.  And just a few months ago, Skype came out with an app for the iPhone that also works on the iPod Touch.

So…get an iPod Touch and then buy a set of headphones that also includes a microphone (here or here for example).  Get a free Skype (or Fring, or Truephone) account…and then also download and install the client from the App Store. Presto — your iPod touch is now a working telephone, and no big monthly bill to AT&T.

Of course, this solution depends on a WiFi connection…but for me, that includes home, all the coffeeshops in my neighborhood, and my local airport. And it works great for free international calls to friends abroad, most of whom have Skype accounts.

For the rest of my phone needs — plus great mobile access to my email — I use the new BlackBerry Curve from CREDO Mobile.  It gets my work email for me when I’m on the road, and lets me stay in touch with the office after hours without being chained to my desk (or dragging my laptop around.)

It’s the best of both worlds, really.

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Technorati]

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Political, Productivity | 7 Comments »