Category: Apple

I came across a very cool Instant Messaging app for the iPhone last night. You may have heard of Meebo before ? Meebo started out as a web-based instant messaging platform, which allowed you access your IM services like MSN, AIM or Google talk, amongst others, from a web-based interface anytime, anywhere.

Meebo have now launched their latest offering, the Meebo iPhone app (iTunes Link). The app, which is free on the app store, is one of the best IM clients I have used on the iPhone. I have played around with a few of the other offerings including IM+, and the simplicity of Meebo outweighs the other apps.

Meebo also offers Push notifications for when you are out of the app. So if you start chatting with someone, and close the app, if they start chatting with you, it will send you a push notification to let you know they have sent you a message.The app also syncs with the Desktop or web version and keeps a full chat history.

So far, for me, Meebo is the  best chat app I have used on my iPhone, and could soon find its way to being on the home screen on my iPhone.

I got a tip off from one of my blog readers today, in a comment to an earlier post, where he mentioned that Vodacom has launched Visual Voicemail for the iPhone, a much anticipated feature from the network.

What is Visual Voicemail ? (From the Vodafone Website)

With the Visual Voicemail application, you can see exactly who left a message and when they left it. All the info is right there on your screen. With one touch you’ll be able to jump to the most important messages first, or even skip messages completely.

This means you can see who left you the voicemail, without having to dial into your Voicemail service (121). You can also listen to it on the phone.

Vodacom have launched it, and the service cost’s R9.99 a month. To activate the service you need to SMS “VVM ON” to 123. To deactivate the service, you can SMS “VVM OFF” to the same number.

I tried activating mine earlier, but have so far been unsuccessful, and when I called the call centre at Vodacom, after 17 minutes, I finally spoke to someone who sort of knew what I was talking about

If you have managed to successfully activate Visual VoiceMail on Vodacom, let me know what you think ?To see more info about Visual VoiceMail check out the Official Apple iPhone Guide or the Vodafone Australia Visual Voicemail guide

I came across a really cool app the other day, called Sleep Cycle Alarm clock. How it works is, you place your phone on the corner of youe bed and while you are sleeping it tracks your body movements on the bed, using the accelerometer. You then set an alarm, and the app will wake you when you are in your least deep sleep, using a 30 minute cycle. So, if I set my alarm for 6:00 am, from 5:30 am, the app will continue monitoring my sleeping pattern, and wake me when I am in my lightest sleep, which means I wake up feeling refreshed, cause I was not in a deep sleep.It also displays a graph of your previous night’s sleeping pattern.This is one of mine from last week sometime.

Now the question everyone has asked me is, does it really work. Well, I have been using it for over a week now, and I can confidently say, that it is working 100% for me. Waking up when the alarm starts going off, is so much easier, cause I’m in a light sleep. The alarms built into the app are also very cool, and have very mellow tones built-in. This means you don’t get loud beeping alarm clock noises, but rather gentle ones like “Sunrise” or “Morning mist”

The app only cost’s $0.99, and is well well worth the money spent. Even if you don’t believe it will work, just try it. It is AMAZING :)

I came across a very very cool iPhone app the other day called Waze. What is Waze ? From their site this is a very accurate description:

Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road.
100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today!

So what this means is that while you driving, you “build” up the roads and maps, and then the Waze community provides live traffic information on the conditions on the roads. So for example, if there is a huge traffic jam, I will report it using Waze, which alert other Waze users in the area’s not to use that road, and provide alternative routing. This can also be extended to Roadblocks, traffic lights etc etc. Once the maps have been built up, you can use it to provide routing directions to a specified destination

To get an idea of what Waze is all about, check out this guided tour from their website:

I been using the app for the last couple of days, starting to create the maps around Durbs, and so far Waze has really impressed me. Once you have started tracking the roads you been driving, you can log into the Waze site, and update the roads with the correct names and features. I’m hoping that South African users start using it, and help it become an effective means of helping our traffic problems in our country.

The app that you use to run Waze is available for the iPhone, Android, and Symbian