Android – Iphone – Applications

There’s a single space on my first iPad home screen that’s looking for a new tenant. There are, however, two rules an app needs to abide by if it’s looking to take up residence here. First, it has to be a highly useful tool that I use everyday. Second, it needs to work well and excite me each time it’s launched. That’s not much to ask, is it?

First on the list to occupy this hallowed home screen real estate is Apollo News and it’s got some tough competition from its potential neighbor, Pulse News Reader. The offspring of ex Google News and Bing search engineers; Apollo News does however come with a particularly bold claim – to be “the newspaper of the future”. While apps like Pulse and Early Edition allow you to personalize your news experience by adding your own feeds, Apollo takes things a step further by “learning” the topics and sources you like and delivering your ideal content. This learning process occurs when you give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to an article using icons (that could easily be mistaken for Facebook Like buttons) within the interface as well as some more complex algorithms that study what you read and how long for. You can, of course, add your favorite feeds to the app (148Apps is a must) but, as I discovered after injecting my essential reading list into the app straight away, it’s not altogether necessary.

Apollo gathers news from thousands of sources and from the first time you launch the app there’s a wealth of news in a wide range of categories already loaded. These sources provide the default view, which is what changes according to your tastes over time, and sources you opt to favorite (by tapping the star button above an article) are stored in a separate view as are any feeds you add yourself. This split view further highlights Apollo’s need to serve you news rather than have you choose it and it does the job well, but you can’t help but feel like you just might be missing something from one of your favorite sites which often leads you to jump into the custom view to check out your trusted sources early on. When you eventually give in to Apollo’s way of working, however, you’re offered a world of information, more than enough for coffee break consumption. The chances are you’ll discover sites you wouldn’t normally read too, making Apollo big news for both the reader and the publisher who are brought together with very little effort on either side. The related articles button also extends the reach of Apollo by showing similar stories from alternate outlets and in doing so offers a wider scope of opinion on the day’s hot news.

The included news video section in Apollo doesn’t quite match the fluidity of the rest of the app with a number of videos we tried (mainly non-YouTube offerings) not playing properly, if at all. This is likely a problem caused by publishers rather than the developer but some fine-tuning of the content might be in order. Sharing features are also included and provide a nifty way to send a story to Facebook, Twitter or via email from a simple drop down menu. Design-wise Apollo ticks all the iPad boxes with smooth scrolling and neatly presented headlines and doesn’t try to “be” a newspaper as some other apps of this ilk do. A story gets its own box on a page that is dedicated to a particular news type and you can jump into it with a tap. The browser bar at the bottom of the interface remains in place until hidden by the user and lets you quickly hop between sources and topics. No fancy page turn effects, no faux mastheads or typographic tricks here, Apollo literally serves you the news – nothing more, nothing less.

So will Apollo be setting up shop on my iPad’s vacant lot?

For the time being, yes. I’m still letting it “learn” my taste and, thus far, it has been doing a good job. The app offers fresh news every time I launch it and, based on a few days of frequent use, will become the source I turn to for my morning news update from now on.

[ Apollo News for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Google, Iphone, OS

I believe that we have discussed an update on the HTC Eris.

It looks like there is a OTA update that is fixing the Silent Call issue. An update file has been located on Google serves to it can be installed immediately.

Source

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: Google, Hack

I hope you’re not holding your breath for the white iPhone 4. It was supposed to be available at the same time as the black iPhone 4, on June 24th, the official launch day. Then reports started showing up saying the white model wouldn’t be available at launch after all. Putting an end to its silence, Apple decided to communicate and said the white iPhone 4 would be out by mid July. Mid July just went by and Apple now says the long-awaited white version of the latest iPhone will launch at the end of July.

There is still no official launch date for the white iPhone 4 but a Chinese Newspaper finally gives us more details regarding the “manufacturing challenges” Apple is facing. 21st Century Business Herald said the problem comes from manufacturing issues at Lens Technology, Apple’s glass supplier. According to Apple Insider:

A worker with the company’s quality control department said that the company is still trying to work out the right balance of paint thickness and opacity, in order to ensure the panel allows enough space for the digitizer overlay, but also gives the level of white that Apple expects the product to have.

Additionally, the reports says Lens Technology can only cut 3 iPhone 4 glass covers per hour, which is half Apple’s demand.

Now I am no engineer but I still can’t understand why it’s taking them so long to figure out how much paint they need. I also can’t understand why they have no problem with the black model, which also requires a certain amount of paint.

This is all strange to me. Even stranger is Apple’s silence about it. If it wasn’t for third party reports, we’d still be wondering what’s going on with the white iPhone.

In the meantime, my fiancee stopped waiting for the white model and ordered a black iPhone 4 today. I’m sure she’s not the only one.

Are you still waiting for the White iPhone 4?

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Apple, Download, Google, Iphone, Mac, OS

From the guys who brought us the banned iPhone 4 promo video and the banned iPad promo video, here is now the banned iPhone 4 antenna video. Enjoy!

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Apple, Application, Download, Google, Iphone, Mac

Annoyance! 4.1

Category: Utilities
Price: $.99 -> Free, Version: 4.1 (iTunes)



Description:

**** Follow us on Twitter: @EthanProduction ****

*** NEW UPDATE: NOW WITH NAILS ON BLACKBOARD SOUND!

This application is a sound board with a number of very annoying sounds. Want to bother your co-workers, play tricks on your friends, or just plain annoy people? This app is for you. Since creating this application, I have used this where I work and I must say it’s pretty funny to see the reactions on some peoples faces when they hear the sounds from a distance. Even face-to-face it can get a good laugh. Best of all, try it in public and see what people do.

Sounds include:

- Baby crying
- Nails on Blackboard (replaces the old gates closing)
- Car horn
- Slurping
- Chainsaw
- Hyena laugh
- Jackhammer
- Radio knobs turning
- Siren
- Hiccups
- Baby squeaky toy
- Man screaming

Fun, ridiculous, and cheap, so give it a shot and I promise you’ll have as much fun annoying people as I do.

Requires iPhone/iPod OS version 2.2 or higher.


What’s New

- Updated to high-res icon to support iPhone 4
- Updated cross promotion to work correctly with iOS 4.0
- Updated to support multitasking with iOS 4.0
- Google ads now support iOS 4.0


Annoyance!

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: Android, App, Application, Free, Google, Iphone, ITunes, OS