MarcForrest.com

Category: Apple

  • FNB Whisky Live iPhone App

    The FNB Whisky Live expo kicked off in Cape Town last night, and the organisers have included a spiffy to guide you through the festival this year.The festival runs to the 5th in Cape Town  and then from the 10th – 12th in Jozi. Um…no Durbs :(

    I downloaded the app yesterday to give it a run, and found that you actually have to sign up to use the app. This immeditatly put me off, so I closed it. Luckily I had a few minutes to spare later in the day, and I registred, albeit painfully. The form was a MISSION to use. Overall, not a very pleasant experience.

    Anyways, my moaning aside, the app gives you all the ins & outs about the festival, as well as a floor plan of the exhibitions.

    Here is more info from the apps :

    Whisky Live is the ultimate guide to the 2010 FNB Whisky Live
    Festival, which is taking place from 3 – 5 November 2010 in Cape Town
    and from 10 – 12 November
    in Johannesburg. Not only is it your ultimate festival companion but
    it also gives whisky lovers an application that they can use
    throughout the year.

    The new Whisky Live Festival application, provides whisky lovers with
    a wealth of fun and interactive information on the festival, and about
    their favourite whisky
    brands. Navigate your way around the festival by downloading the app
    onto your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, and you’ll get a comprehensive
    guide to the whiskies
    available for tasting, as well as an indication of where you are
    situated in the tasting hall. Most exciting is that each whisky will
    be categorised by their lead flavour,
    enabling you to discover a range of whiskies which suit your palate.

    If you are going to be attending the festival and have an iPhone, I would suggest you download the app :)

  • Video editing apps for the iPhone 4

    Since I got my iPhone 4, I have been using it quite a bit for its HD video recording. The quality is fantastic, and is perfect for spontaneous videos with the kids.

    But, the videos are pretty bland without a little bit of editing, so I came across 2 very cool apps that allows you to edit your videos on the device, and then export them in various qualities.

    Many people suggested iMovie but after reading some of the reviews, I noticed many people were not happy with the app. Then I came across ($3.99). Amongst other things the app allows you to:

    ? Splice, trim, split video clips
    ? Pan & Zoom photos and videos
    ? Add your own music from your iPod music library
    ? Add title and subtitle to each clip with fade in/out, adjustable fonts, length and styles
    ? 28 transitions can be set at start and/or end of clips

    The app is really simple to use, and the big bonus is that it is compatible with the iPad as well, which means you can also edit your videos on the iPad.

    But, video’s don’t always look that cool when you “stitch” them together with a couple of transitions. So, enter  ($2.99). This app allows you to add on some really cool effects to our videos. The app has over 55 different types of effects, as well as allowing to change brightness & contrast etc. Here are some of the effects that are included in the app:

    ?Essential (included)

    Everything you need to fix you video: Black and White, Sepia, Light Sepia, Negative, Vignette, Widescreen, Brightness/Contrast, Vibrance/Saturation, Exposure

    ?Cinematic (included)

    20 effects including Spartan Sepia, Egyptian Gold, Cinematic Color, Chill, TWI·Poster, Flashback, Heat Vision, Night Vision, Red, Flashback Glow, Elf Glow, Charmed Glow, Dark Comic, Color Comic, Surveillance Cam, Victorian, Dark Night, Vampire World, WWII, Kyoto

    ?Toycam (included)

    12 effects including Spice, Instant, Instant TZ, Redscale200, RedscaleXPro, Silver Xpro, Nostalgia, Dawn, Indian Summer, Cappuccino, HelgaV, Pink

    ?Vintage (included)

    12 effects including 8mm, 8mm Vanilla, 8mm Magenta, 70s, Pop, 70s Dusty, 1920, Techcolor, Dust & Scratch, Film Grain, Quick Blur, Smooth Blur

    Here is a quick video of a day out with the kids on Saturday showing the combination of the 2 apps.

    Have you tried these 2 apps or are there others I am missing ?

  • Dataman iPhone App

    The other day I did a quick review on the Consume iPhone app, which monitors your call balance and free minutes usage. The one major thing missing from the app was the fact that it didn’t show how much data you had used for the month. We all know what a mission that can be in SA, given the “higher” cost of data here.

    Enter the (iTunes Link $0.99). The guys from Dataman contacted me, and sent me a review copy of the app to check out. Basically, the app runs in the background on your iPhone, and monitors your 3G & Edge usage, as well as your WiFi usage. You can pull stats & reports on what you have used so far for the day, week & month. The app also allows you to set thresholds and will alert you once you hit a certain percentage.

    The other great thing about this app, is that also allows you to geotag & monitor where you used your data, and shows you a visual map of your usage. In the latest version, you can turn this option off so that it doesn’t drain your battery. The difference between the Dataman & Consume app is that you don’t need to log into anything specific for Dataman. It just works quietly in the background.There is also an iPad version coming in November, which I KNOW will be a hit !

    :

    DataMan monitors and manages your data usage in real time, keeping a log of your activities. To control your data consumption and stop additional charges to your bill, you can set your preferred usage thresholds and receive real time alerts when you exceed them. What’s more, it geotags your data activities. So you can browse your daily activities on a map. You can even zoom in on the map to see the time and usage amount for certain places.

    This app is a MUST MUST have, and at only $0.99 I would suggest you get it sooner than later, as I can only see this app getting better & better !!

  • MyBroadband Forum iPhone App

    The guys from the MyBroadband/MyADSL site, launched their new (iTunes link – FREE)  towards the end of last week. I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of forums, as they seem to suck up too much time, but this could well be handy, as I do have an account on MyBB, and often comment on some of the iPhone topics.

    The app is essentially a platform to the very popular Forum board they run, and offers full forum functionality. You can subscribe to threads, as well ask keep up to date of the latest topics.

    The app is actually built on the very popular forum interface iPhone app, Tapatalk. The MyBB app looks like it is just a rebranded version, but judging from the comments on the forum, is a whole lot faster.

  • FaceTime for Mac

    Ever since I got my iPhone 4, I have been a huge fan of the FaceTime functionality. I think the product is revolutionary, and even though people still say we have had “video calling” for years, this is NOT video calling. This is something bigger. Check out what my mate Anice Hassim, from immedia, had to say about it a while ago.

    Before last night Apple had already integrated FaceTime into their latest iPod Touch models, and now it is available as a stand alone application on existing & new Macs it opens a whole new world. Now you can chat to someone who could be on the other side of the world, and they don’t necessarily need to have an iPhone. Now we can communicate, visually with each other.

    To get FaceTime working on the Mac, you need to download it from Apple FaceTime site, and install the app on your Mac. You then need to either register an Apple ID, or use an existing one. Once you are in, you can call an iPhone 4 using the person’s cell number, or iPod/FaceTime for Mac using their registered email address.

    A few people have asked my they haven’t been able to use it yet, so below are a couple of things to check:

    • Make sure FaceTime on the iPhone is turned on. To check this go to Settings -> Phone -> And make sure FaceTime is switched on
    • If you are trying to call a FaceTime number (iPhone 4) from your Mac, you need to ensure you have it in the international format. So +27xxxxx
    • Check to see that you can call your FaceTime Mac from your FaceTime phone.
    • Make sure that the WiFi(iPhone/iPod) or Internet(Mac), the following ports are open: 443 (TCP), 3478–3497 (UDP), 5223 (TCP) 16384–16387 (UDP), and 16393–16402 (UDP). (Apple Support Doc)

    If you come across any other issues with FaceTime, leave a comment below, and I will try and see what I can dig up :)