Ignore complaints that iPhone and
the iPod touch don’t yet support
full applications, because the web
applications they do support are a
significant element to the future of
software development. Years of chatter about
thin client computing is now making a move into
the mainstream, thanks to Apple.
You can’t condemn the proposition as hype.
The emerging web 2.0 world will combine
everything from decades of software design
to the latest social networking buzz, all within
solutions that can be accessed using a web
browser. In future it won’t be your processor
doing the work. Indeed, Adobe CEO Bruce
Chizen predicts all applications will be webbased
within the next ten years. His company
is already moving in that direction, developing
web versions of Photoshop and video software,
Premiere. Google recognises this, with its
selection of Google apps, and Apple fuelled this
movement with its support of the full Safari web
browser in its hot new mobile devices.
That support means you can already get more
from your iPod touch or iPhone than you think.
You don’t really need to unlock these devices or
get stuck into complex coding to extend what
they can do for you. There’s a growing wealth of
iPhone/iPod touch-optimised web applications
available, tweaked to support Apple’s multitouch
interface on the 3.5-inch screen of either
device. The extent of those web applications
available now is truly diverse, so we’ve personally
hand-picked this selection to show you just what
they can do for you.
Facebook - www.facebook.com
With nine million UK users, Facebook is the fastest-growing internet property in the UK. The mobile version of the service has been optimised for both Apple devices and lets you pick up the latest news, upload and share iPhone photos
and send and receive messages.
TypePad for iPhone - www.typepad.com/t/app-iphone
Popular blogging service TypePad
is now available through an Apple
device-optimised interface that lets you
update your blog, edit and create new
blog entries, manage comments, view
blogs and configure mobile settings
for posting images using your iPhone.
Free SMS - http://sms.dynadel.com
This nifty little app
lets you send SMS
messages to others
for free. You’ll need
to know what
mobile network your
recipient is on, as you
need to enter this to
use the service, which
supports a wide
range of international
networks.
TinyBuddy IM - http://x.aim.com/ty
Neither the iPhone nor
iPod touch have built-in
iChat support, so the
open source TinyBuddy
is essential. This web
application lets you
view and communicate
with your AIM and
iChat IM buddies. All
password data is kept
secure, and you need permission each
time you access data.
TalkPlus - www.talkplus.com
Make the best of O2 with TalkPlus
($9.99/month). Appoint and control
multiple virtual
numbers, arrange
low-cost international
calls, call forwarding
and call backs. iPod
touch owners can
access voice mail or set
up cheap international
calls through a
landline.
BeeJive for iPhone, iPod touch - www.beejive.com
This online service
lets users of both
Apple devices
access nearly all
Instant Messaging
applications at
once, including
AOL/iChat, Yahoo!,
MSN, and Google
Talk. It reconnects in case of data service
disruption and lets you send email from
within the chat screen. You also get full
presence controls.
Files2Phones - www.myf2p.com
A powerful feebased
service
that’s able to
present your
desktop data
through your
iPhone/iPod touch. You can access your
apps, launch and control them remotely
and take a look at your files. Security
protection and encrypted data transfers
mean you never need to take your most
important information out of the office.
$99.95 per year.
Box.net for iPhone - http://i.box.net/ifiles
With up
to 15GB
of online
storage,
Box.net is
the online
archive of choice for many, with
collaborative and file sharing features.
This tool lets you access your data: open
and edit Excel and Word documents,
images, music and video – you can even
stream music that doesn’t fit on your
device.
Readdle - http://readdle.com
Readdle lets
you access
your doc, gif,
HTML, JPEG,
PDF rtf, txt and
XLS files using
an iPhone and iPod touch. You can also
read electronic books, including titles
held in Readdle’s online library. You get
50MB of space with every free account
and downloaded books can be read
offline when you aren’t near an internet
connection.
Belfry SciCalc - http://scicalc.belfry.com
Apple missed a trick when it popped a
bog-standard calculator in the iPhone
and iPod touch. An elegant scientific
calculator, Belfrty SciCalc offers you
support for Reverse Polish Notation,
trigonometry,
logs, hexadecimal,
octal and binary
calculations,
Memory+, -, plus a
range of functions.
Converter - http://aapl.org.uk
Do you know how many pounds there
are in a kilo? How many dollars to the
pound? Fret not. Converter will give
you conversions in nine categories:
area, currency,
energy, length,
weight, speed,
pressure, volume,
and time. You’ll
be able to convert
between up to 70
measuring units.
Lotus Notes
CommonTime returns to
the Apple platform with its
solution to enable Lotus
Notes support on the
iPhone. A version of its
mNotes application has
now been announced to
debut in summer 2008.
One of the first true iPhone
applications announced,
fact fans may recall the first ever Notes
solution was designed for the Apple
Newton in ‘95.
FM transmitters are an easy and
affordable way to pump your music
through your car stereo. This web app
finds the best frequencies to use with
any Griffin iTrip transmitter through
an easy-to-use interface. However, it
currently only covers the US.
Roami - http://spahk.com/pc
Remote control iTunes
using your iPhone or
iPod touch around
your home, or control
what music you want
your pets to hear when
you’re at work. Roami
lets you view and select
playlists, shuffle songs,
play/pause music, and
adjust the volume of music playing
through iTunes on your Mac.
Bejeweled by PopCap - http://static.popcap.com/iphone
Among the most
popular of puzzle
games (and voted
into the Computer
Gaming World
Hall of Fame), this
free-to-play version
of Bejeweled
leverages the web 2.0 capabilities of
Safari and the wireless capabilities of the
iPhone, and has been optimised for the
iPhone’s unique display and controls.
Ultralingua Mobile - http://ultralingua.com/mobile
A selection of up to
350,000 unabridged
translation dictionaries
for English, French,
Spanish and German,
with a number-totext
converter and
translator. Thousands of
idiomatic expressions, technical terms,
slang and dictionary definitions are
on offer here. You have to pay for this
on other mobile platforms.
Big Bang Sudoku for iPhone - www.freeverse.com:16080/iphone
Sudoku has
become one of
the world’s most
popular puzzle
games, appealing
to a diverse
audience of gamers
from all ages
and sexes. This free offering provides
thousands of puzzles at four difficulty
levels, available through your mobile
Safari browser right now
Starry Night Mobile - www.space.com/snserver/iphone
Great for
astronomers
and fun for
everyone, this
app shows
the sky from
anywhere on
Earth for any date and time. Explore
planets and constellations – you even
get an advanced Google location
search and can take a look at the night
sky above the Eiffel Tower, if you like.
iNews - http://News-Widget.com/iPhone
Stripped-down
and
simple, iNews
lets you grab
the latest
news from the
aggregators at Google and Yahoo on
your iPhone or iPod touch. Search the
news by keywords, or scroll through
the generic headline listings to keep
yourself connected to the news that
matters to you every day.
Digg iPhone application - http://digg.com/iphone
The Digg
iPhone
application is
a light and fast
way to browse
user-submitted
links on Digg
and fully exploits the user interface
of iPhone and iPod touch. You get
story-scrolling, collections of the latest
comments – and you can submit
your own tales, too.
NewsGator Mobile - http://m.newsgator.com
You’ve got the
headlines, you’ve
checked the
latest internet
babble, then turn
to NewsGator
Mobile to
quickly check your favoured personal
RSS feeds. This application syncs with
NetNewsWire, FeedDemon, InBox, Go!,
and other NewsGator products, and lets
you mark tales to take a look at later.
NetVibes Mobile - http://iphone.netvibes.com
This could
be the portal
for your
entire online
existence.
Netvibes
Mobile offers a personalised homepage
providing access to all your chosen
news, blogs, photos, social networks
and more – you can even set up email
account access for the iPod touch
through this service.
Travelocity for iPhone - http://iphone.travelocity.com
Leaner than any
travel website,
Travelocity’s
web app for
the iPhone (and
iPod touch)
offers up-to-date travel information,
including details about schedules,
boarding gates and flight arrival times.
It also offers estimated security wait
times. In future you’ll be able to find
and book travel tickets.
WeatherBug
In need of a quick weather report for
where you are, or where you may be
going? WeatherBug (www.WeatherBug.
com) serves up live local reports from
anywhere in the world. Temperature,
wind
speed and
direction,
images,
video and
a five-day
forecast are a
touch away.
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