IPhone and Itouch Apps

[Hugo]

Thought it might be a good idea to share with one another useful Apps you have found for the Iphone or Itouch or other devices. Here is my first contribution:

ItemShelf - found in the Apple App Store
Costs about £1 but it is excellent. The idea is that it lets you catalogue books and all sorts of other things. Essentially, one creates a 'shelf' and then if you have say a collection of books you can just add them in by typing in the ISBN or the book name if you don't know the ISBN and the App looks up all the other details for you. You can also classify the book with as many tags as you like. If you have an Iphone you can just take a picture of the bar code if you don't want to type it in.

Finally, you can use it to look for books because it can search Amazon for you. So on my Itouch I have a shelf for my own library, a shelf for books I want to buy or need a reference to or been recommended, a shelf for my CD/DVD collection and one for household items (for example, we have 8 different type of lighting so its a good idea to have the details and bar code for each one).

The only limit seem to be how much memory you have free and so far I have catalogued well over 500 books and 200 CDs with a long way to go yet.

[جوري]

this only works for iphone or itouch as well?
I am finding the itouch useless as the days go by, in the beginning I used to be able to go to youtube using it, now it won't let me, even though it is my home network and but it used to at least let me browse the net and that function too is lost.. I googled around and found many people with that same problem with no real solution...

[Danah]

this only works for iphone or itouch as well?
I am finding the itouch useless as the days go by, in the beginning I used to be able to go to youtube using it, now it won't let me, even though it is my home network and but it used to at least let me browse the net and that function too is lost.. I googled around and found many people with that same problem with no real solution...

strange!!!

didn't you try to contact the company? or at least take it to the place you bought it from? Is it still under the Warranty?

[جوري]

I am not sure if it is still under warranty and it really doesn't matter much since I only use it for the same purpose I used my previous Ipod, I mean it was a nice added bonus but very short lived.. Apple like Mac has many glitches and I can't be bothered to chase everything that bothers me down.. My soul is just about worn out..

:w:

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[Hugo]

this only works for iphone or itouch as well?
I am finding the itouch useless as the days go by, in the beginning I used to be able to go to youtube using it, now it won't let me, even though it is my home network and but it used to at least let me browse the net and that function too is lost.. I googled around and found many people with that same problem with no real solution...

You MIGHT find an answer to your question here.

1. Most Apps work for IPhone and Itouch and in general that means anything that needs a camera or a phone connection will not fully work on the Itouch.

2. It is usually important that you keep everything up to date so the Itunes program on your PC or Mac needs to be release 9.0.1 (currently for October 2009) and the firmware on the Itouch needs to be 3.1.2. But, to get ANY updates you must be registered.

It is easy to check these just load Itunes on your PC or Mac and click on Help then 'check for updates' and follow any prompts. Be warned though that if you have never updated before and you do it now some things might not work as they should but the longer you leave it the worse it will get.

Next plug you Iphone or Itouch in via the USB cable and then in Itunes you will see it under DEVICES. Click on it to show several tabs but under summary it will tell if your if your Iphone or Itouch is up to date or you can just click the button to ask it to check.

If its not up to date then you can ask it to do it for you. If its a major upgrade you will have to pay but minor ones are mostly free. The process is not all that clear so you will have to watch ALL the prompts very closely to make sure it all works. Mostly it downloads the update and then it asks you to click again to get it going.

WARNING - there is a restore button but IF you press it the Itouch or Iphone will go back to factory settings and you will lose all your downloaded Apps but not the standard ones.

3. After an update and at other times it is common to find that some of your Apps no longer work or some may disappear. To correct this:

a. If Apps no longer seem to work in almost 100% of cases if you go to the App store and select ANY App (usually a free one) and down load it then for some peculiar reason all the ones that did not work now work again.

b. If the App disappears you must go to the App store and download it again and you will not be charged a second time. If you have done regular backups you will find it can restore the app and any data stored in it - but frankly, I have found this cannot be relied on 100% of the time.

To back up just SYNC the Itouch or Iphone.

4. The Iphone and Itouch can be temperamental with wireless access and you can lose the signal. If this happens you can just wait or go into the built in App called Settings and right at the top you will see Wi-Fi and either it says not connected or the name of a router. If the router name is yours then you connected. If not touch it and you will see a few boxes one of which says choose a network and normally all you do is wait until it eventually connects to your router. You may also find occasionally that it asks you again for the router password so have it ready.

[Hugo]

Here is my second recommendation and it is an unusual App in many ways but it is often useful and is a must for students. It is called TimeBook and it is a kind of sophisticated stop watch. Here is what you do:

Activity Pattern - the idea is that you tell it all (or some) of the things you do: reading, praying, working on assignments, learning to play the trumpet, recreation, eating, sleeping, etc.

Load - Then what you do is load the App and select the category of work and press record and it will keep recording how much time you have spent on a given activity until you pause it. It will keep recording even if you load another App so it never stops you using the Iphone or Itouch.

Interrogate - it to find out how much of your time was usefully employed and it does this by showing you charts and percentages. Often it is quite shocking to see how much time you waste or spend on some activities so I would recommend you get into the habit of using it and keep using it for a few weeks just to see how much you work and what that pattern of work is.

Use - What you do with that data when you get it is all down to your own perceptions, conscience and honesty!

[Hugo]

Everyone needs a dictionary at sometime or another if only to find out how to spell a word. The Apple Apps store has dozens of them. Here are ones that I think are very good. Be warned, dictionaries can contain words that you or I regard as offensive so sometime when you download you may have to confirm you are 17 or over.

SpellChecker (£1.19) probably one of the best if you are trying to find out how to spell a word and quite usefully it works in several languages.

WordWeb (free) is excellent and its only draw back is that it is not always helpful with synonyms. You can also use it to search for words if you are keen on crosswords - I would not be without it.

AED Advanced English Dictionary (£0.56) generally very good with definitions and synonyms as well as parts of speech.

Dictionary.com (free) very good for lots of explanation and synonyms as it has a build in thesaurus.

Findagram (free) this will solve anagrams for you and from a student point of view it can be used to construct acrostics or memory words. So if you have a series of points to remember such as the constituent parts of aim Aim –activity, data spotlight, outcome and target. Then if you take the first letters ADOT, put them in Findagram you would get TOAD as an easy way to remember the points.

If the letters you start with don't make any word then change them a bit and you may well find they will. For example, suppose I change my start letters to ASOT and try again I get the word 'OATS' as my acrostic or key word to help you remember.

[OurIslamic]

Nice apps.

[Danah]

I downloaded this free app for Quran....its TOTALLY amazing, I feel like I am flipping the pages of my real mushaf "hard copy"

Read the Specifications here

[Hugo]

A very nice little App (though a bit pricey) and also very useful is one called Notebooks (£3.49) and I use it all the time. You can create different note books and then create sets of notes inside each note book. Here are two main ways I use it.

1. Since I have the Itouch with me all the time then as soon as I find something I might want I make a note of the thing itself or else make a note to do it later.

2. One way I use it a lot is to email useful stuff to myself, then I later open email on the Itouch, cut and finally paste it into one of the note books I have created. For example, I might cut out a bit in some notes a lecturer gave me, cut a bit out of an eBook, cut a bit from a website and so on. Then pop it into an email and seconds later I cut and paste it into the Itouch note book and tidy it up a bit and its done.

In a strange way the usefulness is that because it is obviously limited one is forced to be as careful and concise so it makes you thoughtful and evaluative so that you end up with a good set of very short and yet comprehensive notes. Sadly, it will not store diagrams.

[Hugo]

There are lots of Apps that deal with common University subjects. Two which I have found useful are

CheatSheet - this lists with examples 110 common logical fallacies and you may find that it is a useful aid if you have to examine arguments or comment on various readings. You can also cut and paste what you find to email and then use it but don't forget to cite the source.

Arguments (LSAT) - this is a very nice App that tells you how to form arguments and logic. It is aimed at those doing law but most of what is said will be of use to anyone who is interested in argument and logic and how to think a thing through.

[Hugo]

You may find a lot of use in what are called Tally Counters. These are apps that let you count things and I know that might sound trivial but they have all sorts of uses as outlined below.

One of the best of of these is called Tellymander and it cost just over 2 pounds but it can have as many different counters as you and want and each one can be set into a group plus the excellent feature that you can add complex calculations amongst a set of counters to get various totals or other outcome. To add to a count is simple, just tap the screen or you can set it up just to shake the IPhone or ITouch. Some example that illustrate what can be done.

1. Suppose you are a regular contributor to this board and you have created 3 threads and you want track them then all you do is create three counters so you can record the number of views and perhaps several calculations to see total views or percentages of various kinds.

2. Suppose you play the piano (or a sport or...) then you could set up a counter to record each time you play a piece of music or anything else you want to keep track of.

3. For students, you might find it useful in a project when you want to count various things as part of your data - for example, you might want to count people entering a shop or in a class.

4. Finally, for it is a good idea to count how many examples you have done in say mathematics and that will give you good idea of how hard you working.

[Hugo]

Have a look at an app called AppBox Pro which is a kind of tool box of various apps; a kind of electronic Swiss Army knife. One app that students doing project work might like is Random and you can set it to generate a series of random numbers within fixed range - great for dealing with a sample selection in a given sample frame in a survey research.