Archive for category iPhone/iPodTouch

iPad to the Next Level: Noteshelf

Posted by Ian Shen in iPhone/iPodTouch, Productivity on 2011/05/07

So lately I’ve been pondering my need want for an iPad2. Then one of my students introduced me to Noteshelf. Basically, I’ve turned my iPad into an electronic, handwriting notepad. Bought myself a stylus and now I’m carrying my iPad and writing on in instead of typing! I am now a happy camper. I feel like I have a new iPad! $4.99 from the App Store. Now I think about it, the stylus was more expensive than the kick-ass app.

Review soon forthcoming…

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Protective screen for the iPad?

Posted by Ian Shen in iPhone/iPodTouch on 2010/06/28

Are you thinking of getting a protective screen for your iPad?

In two words, NOT NEEDED.

After spending an hour of my life looking for the best screen providing not only dirt protection but anti-glare, I decided on an Elecom-branded screen to protect my newly purchased iPad. After applying the protective layer (and not without some confusion as the instructions were in Japanese and not exactly correct matching the product oddly enough), I found it very difficult to wipe off the oils that collected on it from the screen. In fact, it was annoyingly difficult. It was so bad that within 2-3 days of putting up with it, I decided that doing without it would be much better.

The anti-glare wasn’t really all that effective either.

In the end, I found that Apple did a good job with protective oil-rejecting surface coating, so no problem. It also wipes off very nicely with the Apple cloth (came with my iMac as I recall).

Furthermore, the new Belkin case I bought for my iPad is sufficient protection to prevent unnecessary scratches.

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Latest Jailbreak of my iPhone

Posted by Ian Shen in iPhone/iPodTouch on 2009/12/17

Well, after looking at all the stuff I can do with a jailbroken iPhone, I decided to do it. Here’s my main screen with Winterboard. In a addition to changing my themes to whatever suits my mood, it also allows me to have five icons in the dock below. (FYI, there are some wicked themes out there.)

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This theme is called iWood, which I really like. Has a nice feel to it. Not overly imposing. I’ve also dimmed down the background a bit using the settings.

There are a lot of different apps to download via the “non-official store” Cydia (app). There are many free apps as well as some paid ones. One below is called SBSettings which allow a simple 1- to 2-click toggles of different settings on your iPhone. Very handy.

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But I’ve now found an app to use my Vonage Softphone line, which allows me to make/receive calls over WiFi to the States for no additional charge, other than the charges I already have for having the plan. There are other VoIP situations that can make it “free”-er, but since I have Vonage already, this is no big deal for me.

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Lots to explore so far. Speech recognition is the latest… ;-) more to follow.

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I jailbroke my 1st Gen iPodTouch!

Posted by Ian Shen in iPhone/iPodTouch on 2009/08/09

iPhoneAfter pondering about whether to go ahead with it or not, I had decided to jailbreak my iPodTouch in order that I might use the recently Apple-ousted Google Voice app. To my surprise, the process was much easier than the first time I tried to jailbreak the phone back when the iPod/iPhone OS was at version 1.1.4.

This video was very helpful.

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