Aug 30

iTimeLapse iPhone App

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

If you are looking at doing Timelapse I would certainly recommend the iTimeLapse iPhone App. (Note, you need a camera on your device so the old iPod Touch cannot use this app)

The iTimelapse iPhone App allows you to create a timelapse project, specifying the timelapse interval, duration of the project, & size of the video. During rendering you can output at varying framerates, add music and add a filename. The timelapse videos can then be output to your camera roll / library for sharing.

The quality of the videos are very good and I feel I could be getting slowly addicted to timelapseing … But it is enjoyable especially if you have a nice subject, e.g. sunset, cityscape, or something which is slow moving but interesting to watch over time.

I would recommend that you switch to Airplane Mode, turn off sound, turn down the brightness, and if you are running a timelapse which takes mire than 2 hours that you have a full battery or stay on AC power.

Your projects in iTimeLapse are saved so if you render & export your video at 12fps and you find that it is too jumpy then you can re-render later by accessing the project file and changing the fps of the timelapse.

Have a look at a sample which I created this month in Sydney, Australia.

The iTimeLapse iPhone app is available in the app store at €2.99 – well worth it, a nice fun app.

Aug 21

NDrive iPhone App – Sat Nav iPhone App

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

NDrive is a Tom Tom style Sat Nav for the iPhone and is available on iTunes from €6.99. This covers Ireland & Uk however NDrive provide apps for other regions also. There are other Sat Nav systems and apps out there but many are priced from  €20 up to  €80 – not naming any names!

I downloaded this iPhone Sat Nav App based on price first, thinking that for €6.99 there was no way that a Sat Nav app for this price would work. But it did!

NDrive iPhone App - Sat Nav AppThe app has many features including POI (points of interest), find an address, route to your home address plus much more. The NDrive Sat Nav App has a speech interface so turn by turn, you get a nice lady telling you to “in 400 metres turn left” and the usual “Turn Around” if you don’t follow the instructions.

I tested the NDrive App from a service station on the Naas Dual Carriage-way outside Dublin to Waterford.
The route was estimated to be 1hr 48 minutes which turned out to be only 8 minutes out but traffic is not considered. Also I did use the route via the N9 via Thomastown however the App suggested using the N10 via Kilkenny. I did this deliberately to see what would happen. It initially told me to “When safe – Turn Around” but on entering Gowran it recalculated the route and continued using the N9 which was nice.

The app has a powerful address search engine, and it remembers recent searches to minimise input requirements. There are also features like Itineraries, Alternative routes, Lane Assistance, TTS, POIs, Traffic and Business Search. NDrive won’t use your 3G or Edge data connection to show you the map. The entire Ireland & UK map is stored in your iPhone and even if you lose coverage (which will happen a few times between Waterford and Dublin), your navigation won’t be interrupted.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes the system to update the mapping to include the new M9 from Danesfort Kilkenny to the Carlow section of M9 which opens on September 9th.

The routing and positioning is very accurate. Only one or two small bugs, including one where it told me to turn right up a road which was blocked off & closed in 2005.

The NDrive app provides great value, a good interface, good service and also it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Apart from that I am very happy with the NDrive Ireland & UK iPhone App and it is available to download from the App Store, search for NDrive!

Link : http://www.ndriveweb.com/software-iphone/

NDrive iPhone Sat Nav App - GUI
PREVIEW SCREENSHOT
NDrive iPhone Sat Nav App
Aug 17

Best Twitter iPhone Apps

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

People are now twittering and tweeting everywhere from the office, train station to the restaurant and airport. The emergence of mobile technology allows people to tweet quickly and easily.

Below are listed some handy iPhone Apps for using Twitter all of which are freely available on the iTunes App Store.

Twitter

Twitter iPhone AppsThe official Twitter iPhone app has all the features you might expect, tweeting, latest posts, lists, access to your profile and favourites and some other extras. This is the twitter app I use most, mainly because it is the official app.
Latest Version is 3.0.3 – Size 3.9 MB

Price : Free

Tweetdeck

The Tweetdeck iPhone app allows you to have Facebook and Twitter on the same app, saves you having to access 2 different iPhone apps. Some nice features and if you want to have a fully integrated app this is the one for you, tweet and facebook on the one app. I still use this on occasion and it is a handy tool for Facebook and Twitter users.

Price : Free

Echophon

This is one I installed a while ago and was my original twitter app before moving to tweetdeck and moving then to Twitter App. It’s a bit clunky and I found it a bit slow to use but that was over 7 months ago … so if anyone has used Echophon add a comment below. However having reviewed the latest app on iTunes I think this has recently been updated.

Price : Free

Feel free to add your comments and review of these Twitter iPhone apps….

Jun 01

Phone Rider – iPhone App Review

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

If you are a Knight Rider fan or remember the 1980s TV show then you will surely remember KITT – the talking car.

If you ever wanted to have the Speaking Equaliser which was associated to Kitts voice then you can look no further – the iPhone or iTouch brings you Phone Rider.

The Phone Rider iPhone App picks up your voice using the inbuilt microphone (or plugged in mic if you are using the iTouch) and displays any ambient noise, e.g. speech or music , in the animated Kitt output.

Phone Rider Original Design

Shown above is the original design which is output by the Phone Rider app, but as everyone knows this was not always the way the Kitt voice was represented (see below for the alternate designs available from the control panel). You can choose from Plain Red, Red Diamond and inverted yellow.

Phone Rider Second Version - Original version and Yellow Version

I like this – but it can be a bit overly sensitive (which can be adjusted) – but a nice thowback to the 80s;

Phone Rider – Available on iTunes priced €0.79 – Click Here


Related Links:

iKitt iPhone App
iKitt iPhone App GPS Review

May 14

iKitt iPhone App. iPhone App and GPS Update

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

If you missed the original iKitt iPhone App review then you can read the full details here
http://shanemcdonald.org/myblog/2009-09-29/ikitt-ipod-app-review/

This is just an update regarding the iKitt iPhone App’s operation as a speedometer using GPS as you are travelling.

Turn the iPhone on its side and you get the classic Knight Rider / Kitt speedometer. As the iPhone gathers the GPS coordinates and positioning it calculates the actual speed you are doing (please do not do this when driving!! I don’t want people telling me they crashed when trying this out!).

A screenshot of the app in operation is shown below.

iKitt iPhone App Speedometer

The speed of the iKitt speedometer is not realtime, sometimes it will update once a second sometimes longer. However it is quite accurate. The actual speed when testing above was approx 90kph.

I was very tempted to try this in a 737 when taking off from Gatwick recently but felt the “Please turn off all mobile devices” was enough to get me to turn it off.

Its a very good app and well worth the €0.79c price tag on the iTunes App Store, even if it is just for the retro sentimentality.

ShaneMcDonald.org has had Pages Viewed since Jan 2007