Daily Bits

iPhone app

Apple Approves Opera Mini for iPhone

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Opera continues its trip across various platforms as its Opera Mini browser app has just been approved by Apple. Expect the Opera Mini app to make its appearance in the Apps Store anytime now. Depending on your iTunes, setting the Opera Mini app will be available for free download within 24 hours.

It comes as a surprise that Apple approves the Opera Mini browser since it will definitely compete with Apple’s very own Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch. But it just shows how open Apple is when it comes to competition, although I’m pretty sure that the Opera Mini is not the first approved app which directly competes with an Apple service.

So what does the Opera Mini app brings to the iPhone/iPod Touch table? A couple of good features actually topped by its fast mobile web browsing capability. Credit should be attributed of course to Opera Mini’s compression of web data by up to 90% before sending them to the iPhone/iPod Touch. This results to faster page loading.

Opera Mini will be most useful if your iPhone is running on slower networks such as 2G EDGE. It works great with iPhone 3G and 3GS models and would save you some precious data charges when browsing the web using your iPhone due to data compression.

“We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “This app is another step toward Opera’s goal of bringing the Web to more people in more places.”

Alright, I know that you’re probably grown tired of using the iPhone/iPod Touch’s Safari browser. Time for a cool change. Check out Opera Mini for iPhone/iPod Touch now.  You may also want to watch a short video demonstrating the features of the Opera Mini browser on iPhone (check out the video after the jump). [Read more…] about Apple Approves Opera Mini for iPhone

Originally posted on April 13, 2010 @ 12:17 am

WordPress for iPhone 2.3 Now Supports Geotagging for WordPress.com Blogs

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WordPress has just released version 2.3 of its mobile application for iPhone. Biggest new feature is geotagging support for WordPress.com hosted blogs via a very intuitive interface. This means that you can now add geographic location to each and every post that you are going to publish on your WordPress.com blog.

Unfortunately for self-hosted WordPress blog, the feature is not activated yet. But you can still geotag your posts and it will be saved, possibly for display later on when a plugin to provide geotagging display is enabled for self-hosted WordPress blogs.

In addition to geotagging feature, the new WordPress for iPhone app also comes with a couple of improvements on user interface.  The bug on “more” tag was fixed and it now allows you to load more posts and pages in excess of the default number  of posts allowed as specified in your blog settings.

Incidentally, the WordPress for iPhone folks are excited to report that in only months since they have released the app, it now has 250,000 download, up from the mere 20,000 downloads it got in November 2009. Quite an achievement indeed, although if only all of the WordPress.com bloggers have their iPhone and iPod Touch and will do mobile blogging, then that number would shoot up some more.

Anyway, the new WordPress for iPhone app version 2.3 was supposed to be available here. But I have no luck in finding it from both my country’s Apps Store nor at the U.S. App Store. Did you get it?

Originally posted on March 25, 2010 @ 9:50 pm

Dropbox App Coming Soon to Android Phones

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Among the cloud storage services I’ve tried, I stuck with Dropbox for its superb storage solution. I used Dropbox to synchronize my files from my online, desktop and iPhone applications and pretty soon I might get another interface – for my Android-powered Google Nexus One phone.

Yes, you read it right. If you have a Dropbox account, you will soon be able to access your files from your Android phone as Dropbox is about to launch its new Android app pretty soon. And will the upcoming Dropbox app for Android offer us Android phone owners?

The new Dropbox iPhone app will let you:

Access your Dropbox on the go – view all the contents of your Dropbox account, including music and movie streaming right on your Android phone.

Make edits to your files and sync them back to Dropbox – Changes you make to your files using the Android app will be automatically synced to your Dropbox account/

Download files for offline viewing – Have all your files accessible anytime, anywhere by adding them to your “Favorites.’

Upload files and sync them to your Dropbox – Use your Android phone’s powerful camera to take snapshots, shoot video and then upload them from your Android phones to your Dropbox account to make them accessible. You can also send an email containing the links to your files to your friends quickly and easily.

Share links to files in your Dropbox –  That practically include any  files in your computer.

No words yet on the exact date that this Android app will be available, although the Dropbox blog mentioned something like in the next few months.

Originally posted on March 23, 2010 @ 1:45 pm

Vlingo iPhone App Adds Voice Command for SMS and Email Messaging

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While voice search and voice-to-text have  been default features  of Google’s Nexus One, Vlingo which pioneered voice control app for the BlackBerry last year believes that this technology can be extended to email messaging. As such, Vlingo has updated it’s iPhone app by adding the ability to send e-mail and SMS messages using voice commands.

Vlingo is offering these two new features as in-app upgrades which you can choose to get by paying $6.99 for each feature or $9.99 for both. This may seem a pretty fair deal for email messaging but not for SMS especially if you’ve use the Nexus One’s free voice-to-text app.

While I have no plans of getting Vlingo with these features for my iPhone, Mashable’s Christina Warren notes that the app’s voice-activated web search lets you select your default search engine although you can still use other search engine if you wish to.

She also noticed that voice recognition is pretty good as well. Hopefully better than the Nexus One’s poor voice recognition feature. Now, I’m beginning to get interested with this app. You know what, I think I will get this as soon as I’ve checked if my iPhone still has some room for another app.

In addition to this, Vlingo has also updated its iPhone app’s interface by making it more streamlined and easier to select what options you want to use.

I’m currently downloading Vlingo (iTunes Link)  from the Apps Store right now. Will update this post as soon as I test out these features.

Update: Alright, I agree, Vlingo’s voice recognition is pretty good. It was able to recognize what I said the first time I tried it. Yes, it’s better than the Nexus One’s voice recognition feature. I’m getting the paid features now.

Originally posted on March 4, 2010 @ 9:37 pm

TigerText Mobile App Lets You Set a Termination Date for your Text Messages

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How about this? – A text message that expires on both your phone and the receiver’s device as well. Sounds cool, right? The patent-pending technology was announced recently by a company called X Sigma partners and is currently available at the Apps Store. But soon, it will also be available for BlackBerry and Android devices.

In brief, here’s what TigerText can actually do:

“For the first time, you have complete control over what happens to your texts after you hit the send button. It brings safety and peace of mind to anyone who sends messages that are intended to remain private.”

TigerText lets you send text messages that delete off on your phone and the receiver of your text messages after a set period of time.  The text messages that you sent disappears from the phones and are not stored on any server. That means that you can’t retrieve the text messages anymore after it’s lifespan expires.

It practically answers your need to keep your text messages private. I mean, you can even set the lifespan of your text into as less as one minute, well if you think that it’s enough time for your recipient to read your text, why not?  Talk about giving you peace of mind, right?

The TigerText app also features an easy-to-use interface, making sure that you don’t have to learn another set of new applications methodology. It’s similar to the text messaging app of your iPhone.

The app is available now from the Apps Store for free. If you use it now, the first 100 messages that you will send or the first 15 days  of your usage will be free. After that, it will cost you $1.49 per month for every 250 text messages. Or if you want unlimited texting, you can opt to pay $2.49 per month.

Originally posted on February 28, 2010 @ 9:01 pm

National Geographic’s iPhone Atlas Uses Bing Maps

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In their latest foray into the iPhone apps market, National Geographic is bringing in their version of the World Atlas.  This iPhone app lets you view 7 different levels of cartography, 3 maps styles and a location finder around the world containing 7 million place listings.  In addition, the app also makes use of the Bing Maps platform, embedded right into the heart of the said iPhone application, even serving as a mapping option.

National Geographic claims that its iPhone app utilizes the “highest resolution”  press ready images. Hence giving you the same rich details and graphics quality of the maps it actually has on the printed, published world maps and atlases. In addition, their iPhone app als features a built-in search tool and places directory to help you easily locate even the most remote places eer known to mankind.

Here’s a rundown of the full features of the National Geographic World Atlas for iPhone:

  • High resolution National Geographic cartography, the same used to print our award-winning wall maps and bound atlases!
  • Preloaded with 3 different styles of world maps, down to country detail. Additional detailed zoom levels and Microsoft Bing maps require internet connection to view. Map Library feature allows you to download and save National Geographic maps for faster access and offline use.
  • Easy-to-use and fast place name search tool, with over 6 million database entries (major cities index is preloaded; full search requires internet or cell connection).
  • World Flags and Facts database, expertly edited and up-to-date with concise socio-economic and geographic data.
  • Push pin tool enables you to mark, annotate, and save your favorite places. Push pins come in a variety of colors and can tap into your iPhoto library or camera.
  • GPS enabled iPhones can center the maps to show your current location.

The National Geographic World Atlas for iPhone will cost you $1.99. You may download the iPhone apps from this iTunes Link.

Originally posted on January 22, 2010 @ 9:54 pm