Twitter for iPad

Twitter unleashed its official application for iPad, which is really just a rebranded version of Tweetie, a Twitter client that Twitter bought in April, 2010. When it comes to Twitter apps, there is no shortage of competition on the iOS – plus there are all kinds of web interfaces that work with Twitter. For Twitter to have an official branded application, the app better be good. As mainly a TweetDeck user myself, I quite liked what I saw from the Twitter app.

You’ll find useful options like Timeline, Mentions, and Lists on the left. The right pane displays whatever option you pick. The interface is similar in the landscape mode – the right pane just becomes a centered pane with a gutter on the right side.

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Plex's main menu on an iPad

Plex is a media center application for Mac based on XBMC. The latest version, called Plex/Nine for the Mac was released this week, and in addition to the desktop software there’s also a new iOS app. The mobile app promises to act as a remote control for your desktop as well as a way to watch your videos. Since all the organization is done on the Plex desktop software, the iOS app doesn’t have to do much other than stream content.

First, I ran the Plex/Nine software on a Mac Pro using a library of under 100GB. The Plex Media Manager, when first loaded, goes online to get metadata about your collection so you can find movies or TV shows by director, year, genre, and more. It took about an hour to grab all the data for the library.

While the desktop software for Plex is free, the Plex iPad app costs $4.99. The interface is very basic – there are no left and right panes here. There is just one list that lets you navigate your videos, music, and other plugins. You can connect to multiple Plex libraries – so if you have files on different machines, you can access them all via the Plex app. Unfortunately, the iOS app does not create a master library, but if you can remember where your files are, you ought to be fine. It would also have been nice to see more controls on the iPad’s larger screen, instead of a single pane, but that is a minor quibble.

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Been waiting (im)patiently for the Apple iPad to gain the multitasking capabilities that are already available for the iPhone and iPod touch? It looks like you might have to wait a little longer. Apple says the next update for the iPad will be iOS 4.2, which will also be available for the iPhone and iPod touch later this year.

The new operating system includes all the features in iOS 4.1, such as HDR photos, TV show retnals, and Game Center. But it also has some new features, including:

• Wireless printing
• AirPlay for streaming audio, video, and photos over WiFi to other devices

This will also be the first version of iOS for the iPad that supports multitasking, folders, and other iOS 4.x features.

Apple says OS 4.2 will be available in November for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Apple is officially unveiling iOS 4.1 for the iPhone and iPod touch today. The new version fixes a number of bugs, including a proximity sensor bug and Bluetooth problems. Apple CEO Steve Jobs also says that the new version improves performance on the iPhone 3G (and hopefully the iPod touch as well). The iPhone 3G was notoriously sluggish after upgrading to iOS 4.0, and hopefully the new operating system should improve the performance.

Other changes in iOS 4.1 include support for uploading HD videos over WiFi and support for High Dynamic Range photographs.

Apple is also officially launching GameCenter, which provides video game APIs for developers and social features for users. You can play multi-player games against your friends, or use the auto-matching feature to find people to play against.

Jobs also announced that users will be able to rent TV shows from iTunes for $0.99 each.

Apple says iOS 4.1 will be available for download from iTunes next week.

Skyfire is a mobile browser for Windows Mobile, Google Android and other platforms which promises faster browsing, and a full web experience on mobile devices. It does this by using server-side compression. In other words, you enter a URL, and the Skyfire servers will look at the page, decide whether it would look better on your device after the servers to some data crunching, and then send the results along to your mobile device. While it sounds like that would slow things down, the truth is most of the time you can’t tell the difference — and when viewing websites with a lot of Flash or other data that can tax your phone’s resources, it could speed things up.

In fact, Skyfire offers one of the best ways to view Adobe Flash content on mobile phones that don’t normally support Flash. Sure, not all Flash-based web sites work with Skyfire, but many do.

Now Skyfire wants to bring its magic to Apple’s iOS platform. On the one hand, there’s reason to think that Apple could actually approve the app. While early third party browsers were typically rejected, Apple did approve the Opera Mini browser earlier this year because unlike mobile Safari, it uses server-side compression to offer a different kind of browsing experience… much like Skyfire.

On the other hand, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made it clear repeatedly that he’s not a fan of Adobe Flash. So it’s possible Apple could reject the app simply because it doesn’t want to see Flash content on mobile devices, and instead wants to pressure web publishers to use HTML5 and other multimedia standards.

On the third hand (I’m almost done here, I promise), Skyfire essentially tanscodes Flash content into HTML5 for delivery on the iPhone, so who knows? Maybe Apple will be cool with that.

Anyway you can check out a preview of the iPhone app after the break. There’s no telling if or when it will be available for download.

via Laptop Magazine

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Transfering photos and other images from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to another device is usually a pretty painless process. But what if you have a few HD videos that you want to send? Most email services place limits on file sizes, which means if you want to shoot a 1GB video file to your buddy, you’re going to have to find another route — like maybe using Transfer Big Files.

Transfer Big Files is a web-based service that lets you do exactly what you’d think it does. You upload files, get a link that you can share with other users, and they can download those files. The iPhone app lets you upload photos and videos from an Apple iOS device and shoot an email to your intended recipient once the files are ready to download.

The mobile app is free, and all users who register for a free account will get 2GB of online storage space. The first 100,000 people to download the mobile app and sign up for a new account will actually get 5GB of storage space. If you need more storage than that, you can pay to upgrade your account.

Transfer Big Files is available as a free download from the App Store.

via SlashGear

Sometimes you need to access files or programs on your computer, but you don’t want to leave your cozy spot on the couch. That’s where remote desktop apps such as RemotePC Lite come in. RemotePC Lite is a free iPad app that allows you to control your computer and access files over a local network connection.

In order to use the app, you will have to sign up for a free account with RemotePC, run the server software on your Windows or OS X computer, and install the iPad app which will let you remote control your desktop computer.

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Microsoft has rolled out an update that will allow Hotmail users to receive push email, calendar appointments, and contact updates on mobile devices. That means changes you make on your mobile device will be reflected on the web, or vice versa. You can delete an email, add a contact, or make other changes and they should appear on all of your synchronized devices almost right away.

You’ll need a device that supports Exchange ActiveSync, which right now means a device running Windows Mobile 6 and up, an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, or Nokia E-Series, S-Series, or N-series phone.

Google Android isn’t officially supported, but some users apparently report that they’ve been able to set up Hotmail syncing on Android 2.2.

You can find detailed instructions for configuring your device at the Windows Live Solution Center.

Now that Netflix has finally brought their streaming video experience to the iPhone, it seems like a Hulu Plus versus Netflix client comparison is in order (via my 3GS). We’ll save the content selection and video quality comparison for another day, but some quickly comparable metrics are related to app launch time and battery usage. And, actually, launch time wouldn’t have been on my radar… except that Netflix comes up surprisingly slowly.

Launch Speed

On average and while on WiFi, from a cold start the Hulu app fully loads it’s first screen in about 5 seconds as opposed to the ~8s Netflix requires. On my 3G connection, Hulu came up in about 10 seconds, whereas Netflix took 18 seconds… or more. Ouch. Of course, your connections and coverage will differ from mine but the relative comparison stands: Hulu launches significantly faster.

Winner: Hulu Plus

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Remember the Milk is a popular, web-based tool for managing tasks. You can use it to store reminders to take out the trash or pick up groceries, or just about any other task you’d like a reminder for. You can set due dates for tasks or sort tasks by tag, location, or other criteria.

The folks at Remember the Milk also offer a Pro service that lets you sync your task list to apps for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone. A Pro account will set you back $25 per year. The mobile apps are all available as free downloads, but you need to pony up for a subscription if you want to keep using them after  a free trial period expires.

Or at least, that’s how it used to work. Today Remember the Milk launched a new version of its iPhone app which works without a Pro account. What’s the catch? You get a limited feature set. If you’re using the free version, you’ll only be able to synchronize your tasks once every 24 hours — and you’ll have to do it manually. Still, this is a great way to try the service before deciding if you’re going to use it enough to justify paying for a full year’s membership.

Pro users will continue to get unlimited auto-syncing, the ability to keep your tasks synced across multiple devices, and push notifications for reminders. You can either sign up for a Pro account at the Remember the Milk web site or make your purchase from within the iOS app.

The Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Android apps still require Pro Accounts to function.

Remember the Milk for iOS is available as a free download from the App Store.

via Lifehacker