Όπως λέει και ο ίδιος (και θα συμφωνήσω,) έχω περάσει από όλα μάλλον τα στάδια χρήσης apps: από αυτό που κατεβάζεις το μισό AppStore και έχεις 9 home screens με apps, κλπ. Fast forward στο παρόν και το iPhone 4S, πιστεύω πως έχω ένα ωραίο curated list από apps συνδυασμένο με έναν απλό και efficient τρόπο οργάνωσης αυτών.

The Structure

Το οργανωτικό σύστημα έχει ως εξής. 2 screens, το πρώτο με τα most frequently used apps και το δεύτερο με όλα τα υπόλοιπα categorized στους respective φακέλους, εκτός από το Newsstand και τα Settings.

Υπάρχουν κάποιοι “άτυποι κανόνες,” όπως για παράδειγμα, το πρώτο screen θα πρέπει να έχει 12 apps (3 γραμμές, 4 apps each) χωρίς να υπολογίζονται τα 4 στο dock (το οποίο έχει και στο τέταρτο slot τον Twitter client.) Υπάρχει μία εξαίρεση, η οποία επιτρέπει να υπάρχουν παραπάνω από 12 apps — προσωρινά όμως μόνο. Δηλαδή, το app του TEDxAthens βρισκόταν για την ημέρα του event στο πρώτο home screen για εύκολο access. Μετά έγινε uninstalled (sorry, folks!) Παρομοίως το LeWeb app βρισκόταν και αυτό σε ένα extra slot, αλλά στο δεύτερο screen.

Το homescreen μου

Όπως φαίνεται και στο screenshot τα most-used apps μου είναι το Messages, Calendar, Photos, Camera, foursquare, Dropbox, Maps, Messenger, Wunderlist, Instagram, Music, Soundhound και το Path.

Το second screen μου

Πάμε λοιπόν στο ζουμί, το δεύτερο screen. Εδώ υπάρχουν όλα τα υπόλοιπα apps, μερικά εκ των οποίων τα χρησιμοποιώ αρκετά αλλά όχι εξίσου συχνά. Ταυτόχρονα όμως, είναι απαραίτητα. Εδώ υπάρχει πάλι ένας κανόνας. Αν γεμίσει ένα folder, π.χ. το News, με τα 12 slots του και θέλω να βάλω ένα νέο app, θα πρέπει να διαγράψω αντίστοιχα αυτό που δεν χρησιμοποιώ συχνά, γιατί δεν θέλω να γεμίζω με παρόμοια folders (2 folders έχουν μόνο τα Apple apps) — και κατ’ επέκταση, με παρόμοια apps. Αυτός ο κανόνας δεν παραβιάζεται!

The App List

Τώρα θα αναλύσω (σύντομα, υπόσχομαι!) όλα τα apps τα οποία έχω και χρησιμοποιώ. Σε όσα κρίνω πως χρειάζεται θα γράψω μια μικρή σχετική φράση.

Dock

1. Phone
2. Mail
3. Safari
4. Tweetbot: μέχρι πριν λίγες ώρες εκεί βρισκόταν το official Twitter app. Μετά το update, ενώ αρχικά μου άρεσε, είδα πως έλειπαν core features (όπως Send to Instapaper.) Ήταν το Tweetbot και σε προσφορά ($0.99), δεν γινόταν να πει κανείς όχι. [1]

Home screen

1. Messages
2. Calendar: το sync μέσω iCloud με iMac & iPad είναι όλα τα λεφτά. No need anymore για Google Calendar.
3. Photos
4. Camera: ποτέ δεν βρήκα κάποιο άλλο (Camera+, γκουχ) ώστε να το κάνει replace. Ούτε πρόκειται, ούτε χρειάζεται.
5. foursquare
6. Dropbox
7. Maps
8. Messenger: το ιδανικό messenger app για το Facebook inbox σου (είναι το official). Αρκεί να κλείσεις τα Push notifications των messages από το original Facebook app.
9. Wunderlist: από plain.txt to-do list user, το μόνο to-do app το οποίο βρίσκω εύκολο, γρήγορο, και αξιόλογο για χρήση.
10. Instagram
11. iPod/music
12. Soundhound: IMHO, καλύτερο από Shazam
13. Path: το καλύτερο νέο app για iPhone που έχω δει. Not YASN (Yet Another Social Network) όπως λέει στο bloggable.gr ο @dkalo.

Second screen

1. Δύο Apple folders με μέσα τα Contacts, Calculator, Compass, Voice Memos, Stocks, Clock, iTunes, AppStore, YouTube, Videos, Game Center, Reminders και Weather, Notes, iBooks, Find Friends, Find iPhone, iTC Mobile (iTunes Connect — για developers.)

News folder

1. CNN
2. ΣΚΑΪ
3. Feedly
4. Gazetta.gr
5. Naftemporiki
6. SuperLeague 11/12
7. PAOK 24
8. Instapaper
9. Reeder
10. The Verge
11. Flipboard
12. Zite

Utilities folder

1. ERSTE BANK Sparkasse netbanking
2. 1Password
3. Analytiks: minimalist και to the point Google Analytics
4. Skype WiFi
5. Glyphboard: web-app για διάφορα Unicode symbols (βελάκια, Apple icon, etc)
6. Adobe Reader
7. Google Translate
8. Apple Remote (για το Keynote)
9. Notifo: με δυο λόγια, send text/links/imgs/whatever από τον browser στο iPhone με Push notification
10. iMathematics: edu list με διάφορα mathematical functions, πληροφορίες, κλπ
11. Wikipanion
12. ATTScanner: ο πιο γρήγορος και εύχρηστος QR scanner που έχω βρει. Της AT&T.

Photography folder

1. 360 Panorama: της Occipital, καταπληκτικό
2. Photoshop Express
3. SocialCam: your Instagram for videos, hooked up with Facebook
4. Photosynth: όπως το 360, κάποιες φορές καλύτερα panoramas, χωρίς Twitter sharing
5. Batch: group photo-sharing app
6. iMovie: το καλύτερο mobile & on the fly video editing που έχω βρει
7. Camera Plus Pro: όχι το Camera+, εξαιρετικό feature για video shooting: μπορείς να κάνεις pause και να συνεχίσεις, στο ίδιο file. Thanks to @612gr
8. Vimeo
9. teleportd: πρόσφατο download, από Scoble, με δυο λόγια: location based, visual photo search. με μία λέξη: awesome.

Travel folder

1. ThessBook
2. TripWolf
3. Flight Card: πολύ ωραίο για frequent flyers, εξαιρετικό design και ευκολία στο να θυμάσαι πτήσεις, gates, departures & arrivals
4. AccuWeather
5. Strava: είχα γράψει για αυτό πρόσφατα
6. Mightybell
7. Aegean Airlines: που και που έχω δει αρνητικά σχόλια για αυτό, προσωπικά μου αρέσει και το βρίσκω χρήσιμο
8. Navigator: αντίστοιχο (όχι ίδιο) όπως της Aegean, αυτή τη φορά για όλο το Star Alliance
9. Shine: πιο όμορφο από το AccuWeather, ίσως όχι 100% αξιόπιστο πάντα. Παρόλαυτα, κάνει καλά την δουλειά του.
10. MyTaxi: το Taxibeat της Βιέννης και των Γερμανόφωνων πόλεων
11. Trazzler
12. Taxibeat

Music folder

1. SoundCloud
2. TuneIn Radio: για τις στιγμές που θες να ακούσεις OFFradio από το iPhone/iPad
3. Apple Remote: για το iTunes αυτή την φορά και όχι για το Keynote
4. IMDb
5. Overdub
6. Band of the Day
7. 8tracks: το official app του 8tracks.com
9. Audium
10. Bowtie
11. TuneTug: για όταν έχεις party
Update 12: OFFradio: το καλύτερο internetικό ραδιόφωνο τώρα και με το καλύτερο iOS app (released 14/12)

Social folder

1. Skype
2. LinkedIn
3. Tumblr
4. Facebook
5. WordPress
6. Amen
7. Gowalla
8. Viber
9. Yearly
10. 4sqwifi
11. Twitter official client
Update 12: Oink: downloaded just now, like it so far.

Games folder

1. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2: για τους old school skaters
2. Canabalt: εθισμός
3. Chess Free

Ski folder

1. The North Face: Trailhead: app για κοντινά trails από την North Face
2. Snow Forecast: το επίσημο του snow-forecast.com (best snow forecasting website)

και τέλος, το Newsstand με τους New York Times και subscription στο WIRED και τα Settings.

Σχετικά με το πως διαλέγω να κατεβάσω ένα νέο app. Αυτό λοιπόν εξαρτάται από το εικονίδιο του app και το γενικότερο design που έχει, τον σκοπό-χρήση του, την τιμή του, αν το έχει κατεβάσει κάποιος φίλος ή γνωστός και έχει θετική άποψη, αν έχει γράψει για αυτό κάποιος tech blogger που διαβάζω και “ακούω” στις προτάσεις του ή κάποιο μεγάλο (tech) blog. Αν όλοι αυτοί οι παράγοντες ικανοποιούνται, τότε κατά πάσα πιθανότητα θα το κατεβάσω και θα μείνει για αρκετό καιρό σε κάποιο folder (ή και στο home screen αν είναι τόσο καλό,) μέχρι που να κυκλοφορήσει κάποιο άλλο που κάνει καλύτερα την δουλειά ή μου είναι άχρηστο ως προς την χρήση του.

Σύντομα θέλω να γράψω και για τα apps τα οποία χρησιμοποιώ στο iPad. Θα ήταν μια ακόμη πιο ενδιαφέρουσα λίστα, αν όχι εξίσου. Εσείς ποια apps χρησιμοποιείτε, πώς τα έχετε οργανώσει και τι συμβουλές ή recommendations έχετε να δώσετε;

—
[1] Ο φίλος @kpvl εδώ και μήνες μου έλεγε για το πόσο καλύτερο είναι το Tweetbot σε αντίθεση με τον official client. Αναγκάζομαι τώρα, με το καινούργιο version του δεύτερου να συμφωνήσω. Παρόλαυτα, Tweetbot vs previous Twitter official client: 1 – 1.

Since a kid I was hooked with computers. The first I used was a Compaq laptop, black-and-white screen running Windows 95. On the third grade I wrote my first website, on the fourth I cracked the password my dad entered for my PC because I was spending kind of much time messing with it. I remember seeing an ad with the first iMac, I loved the computer — I didn’t know what it was, what even Apple was. And only two years ago  switched to a Macbook Air and a 27″ iMac (last summer).

This post though is not about me. This post is about a story involving Mike, one of my best friends and his new iPhone. Mike, and the majority of my buddies —except two of them— was never a tech savvy guy. While I was on the internets since 6, he only discovered it around 14. He never owned an iPhone or iPod before. He had a clunky PC (hopefully he has a new awesome Toshiba laptop now) and your typical Sony Ericsson cellphone.

Anyhow, he just got a new 8GB iPhone 4. He felt he didn’t need a 4S, unfortunately there wasn’t any stock 16GB iPhone 4 left so he went with the 8GB version — for which he is absolutely happy about. Long story short, we arranged a Skype call, he’s in Thessaloniki, I’m in Vienna, to explain him how to download apps, what iCloud is, how to use the phone, what iMessages, FaceTime and Viber are, the iTunes Sync thing, the Remote and many more cool stuff. Remember: he is not a geek, an enthusiast or whatever — just your plain typical user with a new iPhone which he only knew the basics through using our friends’ and mine iPhones before.

The first great thing about this story is that explaining him all that stuff was easy. iOS, the concept, apps, iCloud/Messages/et al were all understandable. He was stoked with iMessages, FaceTime and Skype. The great thing about him is that with the new iPhone he also got a data plan with his carrier.

A couple of days pass, and today while entering the subway I received a Viber call from him. I swiped to answer the call and after the usual chit-chat he said to me: “Man, this is awesome. I’m with 3G, downtown or wherever else I’d wanted to be, and I can call you, in an another country, and it doesn’t matter where you are, you have 3G too and you can answer my call and we can talk and communicate freely with no roaming or whatsoever costs, be it voice or text, depending only on our phones, this is so awesome.”

And then came a moment of clarity. I understood 100% what Steve Jobs was all about. Not that I didn’t before but now I had a living example right from my life. Steve made what no other could do. Technology for the masses. And I’m completely thankful for that to him. See, before using Mac OS X I was a Windows user, then switched for 3+ years to Linux and for a little while back again to Windows. But Apple and its products made finally sense.

It’s not about hardware anymore; having the fastest CPU or the best GPU. Technology alone is not enough. The end-user wanted something that simply works. People didn’t know that, Apple made it clear. And don’t get me wrong: hacking, Linux, choices, customization and all the rest are darn good things — I don’t ditch them, I like them, It’s simply  not what the end-user wants.

So after all this yada yada: Thank you, Steven Paul Jobs.

Για να σας δώσω το full picture, ο λόγος που το app θα καθυστερήσει το public launch του για ακόμη λίγο καιρό δεν είναι ότι το έχουμε δήθεν παρατήσει ή κάτι παρόμοιο. Το αντίθετο, μάλιστα.

Αυτό το καλοκαίρι είναι το πρώτο καλοκαίρι μετά τις πανελλήνιες (more on that later) και όπως είναι φυσικό είναι παραπάνω ανέμελο if I may say so από τον “μέσο όρο”. Αρχικά, είχαν ήδη προγραμματιστεί αρκετό καιρό πριν διακοπές, οι οποίες δεν μπορούσαν να γίνουν rescheduled, ακριβώς μετά την λήξη του App Camp. Στην συνέχεια είχαν επίσης προγραμματιστεί παρόμοιες διακοπές και μετά από τις δεύτερες διακοπές υπήρξαν και τρίτες. Sounds cool, eh?

Παρά το overdose διακοπών με φίλους όμως, μεταξύ του δεύτερου και τρίτου vacations batch έπρεπε να ασχοληθώ με το που θα σπουδάσω. In other words έπρεπε να περιμένω όλες τις απαντήσεις κάποιων πανεπιστημίων του εξωτερικού και να διαλέξω που θα συνεχίσω τις σπουδές μου. Μια διαδικασία που δεν είναι εύκολη ούτε σύντομη. Τελικώς, για να μην πολυλογώ, όσοι με κάνετε follow στο Twitter ξέρετε ήδη εδώ και λίγο καιρό πως θα σπουδάσω στο Πολυτεχνείο της Βιέννης. Οι υπόλοιποι, το μάθατε μόλις τώρα. Επίσης, είναι ήδη uploaded στον πανεπιστημιακό server, η academic σελίδα μου. Clean, minimal and to the point, I guess.

Έτσι, καταλήγω στο ότι επειδή αρκετές διακοπές ήταν ήδη προγραμματισμένες στο συγκεκριμένο χρονικό διάστημα, το university picking και κάποια άλλα random πραγματάκια με κράτησαν εκτός προγραμμάτος όσων αναφορά το launch και το finalizing του 4sqwifi iPhone app. Και για να είμαι ακριβής, το app είναι σχεδόν έτοιμο. Έχουμε να λύσουμε μόνο ένα bug με το geolocation και να κάνουμε τα τελευταία μερεμέτια για το “κούμπωμα” του UI.

Άρα λοιπόν you can expect το launch του 4sqwifi iPhone app πολύ σύντομα — έχοντας υπ’ όψιν πως όλα βαίνουν καλώς.

Όσοι δεν έχετε δει την παρουσίαση του 4sqwifi iPhone app στο App Camp Demo Night μπορείτε να την δείτε τώρα, included app screenshots.

Just a little reminder, this is a universal way. That means it works whether you own a Mac or a PC (I think that it works with Android phones too—if anyone can test it, give me a heads-up.)

Intro

The very tool this how-to is based, is Transmission’s WebUI. Almost every torrent downloader application supports a WebUI. If your app doesn’t support a WebUI, you can switch to uTorrent (if you’re on Windows/Mac) or Transmission (if you’re on Mac).

Small parenthesis: imho after using several years uTorrent on Windows, on various Linux distributions (through Wine) and on Mac I’d recommend you using uTorrent as torrent downloader in Windows/Linux and Transmission in Mac. Transmission simply rocks in it’s native environment. But at the end of the day, it’s all about what your preferences. End small parenthesis.

Step 1

Fire up Transmission’s Preferences and then click the Remote tab. Check to enable remote access. If you like, you can setup a username/password authentication (I didn’t). The listening port can remain to it’s default number, it should be 9091 anyway.

Step 2

Find your computer’s IP address (not the public one) under Preferences > Network. Click on the connection you are using. Under it’s status there is a small text that states where AirPort (if you’re using WiFi) is connected, the name of the network and your IP. Copy the IP somewhere, for example on TextEdit.

Step 3

Grab your iPhone, open Safari.app and type:
http://the-ip-you-copied-before:9091/transmission/web/. If everything worked well, you should see a screen similar to this:

You can click now the Safari’s + icon to add Transmission’s WebUI to the home screen as a web app.

Until now we have complete management functionality of our desktop torrent downloader from our iPhone. But, how about actually downloading a torrent from the iPhone to the desktop?

Step 4

Now, it is time to actually use the remote access. Visit a torrent tracker from Safari.app, I’d say the world’s most resilient one, The Pirate Bay, browse for a torrent and copy its the “Download” link. Open the newly created Transmission web app from your home screen, click on the “Open” icon and paste the torrent’s URL.

Boom.

That was it. From now on you can download any torrent from anywhere in the world on your Mac. Although I don’t want to repeat myself, I’ll say again that this method works for every torrent downloader with a remote access WebUI. If you’re not using Transmission, just follow the same logical steps.

[Disclaimer: I'm an iPhone and MacBook Air user. I like Apple, I don't think Apple as a religion. I can still work in Windows + Linux and I admit it openly (read: Twitter) when Apple is bullshitting at us (that is, quite often lately.]

I was actually discussing it in Twitter with @mperedim and @nassod where I was the Apple-side dude, @mperedim was the Android supporter and @nassosd was the pretty much neutral one. We finally decided to go for a beer (a geek’s best solution to everything.)

Straight to the point now. Eric Schmidt basically said

“You have to use their development tools, their platform, their hardware, their software — if you submit an application, they have to approve it — they have to use their monetization and their distribution. This is not Open. The inverse would be Open.”

And then might Jobs answered back,

“The iOS isn’t “closed,” but “integrated,” resulting in a better user experience.”

My guess is that both Schmidt and Jobs are talking about the same thing — from different prospectives. Because they’re the same open: not at all, open.

Yup, you’ve read that one correct. I don’t think that Android is open. Or at least 100% open. But even if it was, let’s say 70% open that’d mean basically the same thing. It isn’t open.

See, the problem is that how does Google get away with the “open” claim when the source isn’t public until major releases, and no one outside Google can check in?

That’s what Joe Hewitt said.

You can compare the Android “open source” model to Firefox or Linux if you want to see how disingenuous that “open” claim is.

That’s also what Jew Hewitt said.

Until Android is read/write open, it’s no different than iOS to me. Open source means sharing control with the community, not show and tell.

Guess what? That one was told by Jew Hewitt.

I totally 100% agree. Google’s and especially Android’s success was only because Android was open to the carriers. Carriers could can do whatever they want — just like HTC guys and the rest.

But hey, that isn’t open, is it? Otherwise Android wouldn’t even exist today. Where’s the public source tree and commiter privileges, huh? You’re right, there are none. Google offers only read/write “open” code (as Joew Hewitt said — gee, that can become a meme if I continue using it that much) instead of a full Open code like Mozilla or Canonical or Red Hat, etc.

Having said that, if you want to see real Open Source from Google you have only to visit Chrome OS. And Chromium/WebKit. Thats where real Open Source work is done and I respect it.

Unfortunately, we’re getting bullshitted by corporate guys when the real Open Source is out there waiting us to contribute to. We’re getting distracted by flaming each other about which is the best OS and why and how much more open is Android than iOS or Ubuntu than Mac OS X.

This trick brings GMail to the next level on the iPhone. Keyword? (Almost) Real time inbox. How? Push notifications. But GMail doesn’t offer out of the box Push notifications unless you are using Google Apps. Well, there’s a tap for that.

Step 1

Delete your GMail account from the Mail.app on the iPhone. Just browse through Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars → Accounts (select GMail) → Delete Account.

Step 2

Tap on “Add Account…” and select Microsoft Exchange. Yes, Microsoft — and yes, Exchange! (I assume you are already in iOS 4.x so there’s no problem having more than one Exchange accounts — in case you use already one. Otherwise, you have to upgrade your iOS firmware.)

Step 3

Add the required info:

• In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address.
• Leave the Domain field blank.
• Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
• Enter your Google Account password as the Password.

Tap Next at the top of your screen.

• Choose Cancel if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
• When the new Server field appears, enter m.google.com.

Press Next again.

Step 4

Select the Google services (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts) you want to sync. I recommend you selecting only Mail and/or Calendar (if you want Google Calendar and iCal.app sync). Clicking on contacts, Google Sync will sync your contacts, but it might delete your iPhone’s Contact Book and just import GMail contacts.

Tap on “Keep on my iPhone” for everything that appears, just to be sure not to delete anything.

Step 5

Navigate to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” menu and tap on “Fetch new data”. Enable Push and you’re good to go. Also be sure to have IMAP enabled on GMail settings.

Now, every email you’ll receive, it will be almost instantly pushed to your iPhone. You can check this out by yourself. It’s kick-ass.

It’s very easy to have a synced calendar over your Google Calendar, iCal and iPhone’s iCal.app. The basic concept works if you use Google Calendar, otherwise you just have to sync your iCals via USB and iTunes.

But, you can also setup a Google Calendar to achieve OTA syncing for your Mac and iPhone. Nice, huh?

Just follow these quick and eath steps.

Setup Google Sync

In your iPhone open Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap “Add Account” and select Microsoft Exhange. In the next screen enter your account info. In the email field type your full Google Account (ie. your Gmail). Leave the “Domain” field blank and type enter again your full Google Account as “Username” and your password as a password, obviously. Tap “Next”. If “Unable to Verify Certificate” apperas just tap “Cancel” and in the next screen enter m.google.com in the “Server” field. Tap “Next” and select the services you’d like to sync and “Keep on my iPhone”. (Hint: Google Sync supports Push notifications.)

— Now, you have successfully enabled OTA syncing for Google Calendar and your iPhone. Time to setup Google Calendar in iCal, don’t you think?

Setup Google Calendar in iCal

Fire up iCal and hit the Preferences (cmd+,). Navigate to Accounts tab and click “+”. In the pop-up enter your full Google Accounts username (email) and password. Under “Server Options” enter the following https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM/user Of course, replace with your email. Leave “Kerberos bla bla” box unchecked and click “Add”. Your Google Calendar will now appear in iCal’s list of calendars, and changes you make to your Google Calendar in iCal will be reflected almost instantly. Event information will automatically refresh every five minutes. You can change this interval by opening the iCal > Preferences > Accounts menu and selecting a new refresh interval under the ‘Refresh calendars’ drop-down. Otherwise, you can simply hit cmd+r to refresh manually. There’s no API limit or something.

Thanks to @diab for his initial help with this.

Questions? Feel free to comment.

I know these guys from Twitter (@sugarenia, @stelabouras), Wiggler, CSS3 and their personal blogs — they rock and are very talented geeks.

Recently they turned 40 episodes and made a contest, giving out for free an iPhone app up to 20€.

Yup, you guessed correctly. I won. It’s a fun thing to feel, but for a third time in my life or so I did win a contest. The app I chose is Reeder — the best RSS (aka Google Reader) reader in iPhone (it’s in my Must-have iPhone apps: the Ultimate collection post). Word.

Thanks Sug & Stelabouras!

I updated through iTunes only after backing up my contacts and syncing them with Google. Now, I don’t think I’ll sync again with Google, because Gmail’s contacts are now mixed with my phone contacts. That’s silly. Really, silly. The positive is that now, I have backups from both Gmail and phone contacts.

The download of the new OS was fast enough and I didn’t have to wait that much. This is good. The installation took a little more than (I) expected, but as soon as everything’s okay I don’t mind it.

First feel

The first feel was like “superfast”. Give me speed. Yes, Apple give us more speed. When you swipe trough springboard & the home screens you feel like it’s a brand new phone. It feels uber fast. There’s also this new homescreen and lockscreen background that adds to this feeling.

First changes

First of all, Apple changed the icon graphics. Many of the icons have received very subtle tweaks that suggest Apple has done a complete re-drawing of the icon set, potentially for higher-resolution displays. The changes have in many cases added sharper lines to prior designs, such as the gears of the Settings icon and the rays of the Weather icon’s sun, but have also in some cases increased the color or contrast of small details in the icons.

Also, there’s this new dock that resembles the one found on the iPad, complete with icon reflections.

Multitasking

Probably iOS 4′s most awaited feature. I have to say that it’s awesome. With a double-tap of the home button the dock becomes a dock for already-running apps — whether you’re into another app or just swiping through your homescreens. There’s also this new fast app switching feature. It’s something like that: the “state” of the app stays in RAM but the app is technically suspended. That way it loads up faster than having to execute the app again from NAND Flash and loading to RAM and reading a saved state, also from NAND

Folders

Yeah, Folders! Everyone was so super excited about this but me. Anyway, it’s pretty cool I guess. But, personally, I don’t think I’ll use it. Just tap onto an app, hold so they start bouncing and then drop the app onto another app. iOS instantly combines them into this folder and names it automatically with the category of the apps. Could become handy, but not for me.

The iPod

iPod has also changed; for the better. You can now add/edit/delete playlists right from your phone. The contents of albums are now displayed by the iPod application with extra duration, release date, and artist information, plus a shuffle button and album art.

Camera

We’ve got digital zoom dudes & girls! This is big news! You can pinch or tap-and-hold to activate the digital zoom feature, and a slider appears on screen to let you set the zoom level. There’s also tap-to-focus ability to video recording. This is whoop whoop! (click on the screenshot to see it’s real size — 768 x 1024, that’s big and I like it!)

Other cool stuff

There’s been added Greek Voice control. That’s cool and I like it (though, haven’t used Voice control since the first day I got the iPhone). Also Location Services have been expanded to turn off or on specific applications’ access to GPS data. Additionally, Notes now supports wireless syncing with multiple accounts. Syncing appears to be supported for any IMAP-based Mail account, rather than being a MobileMe-specific feature. That’s also cool. There are also new features in the Photo.app. There is the Places tab, which show geo-tagged where you snapped the photos. People say that there’s also a Faces tab & a rotate-photo option, but it seems that I don’t have them.

Verdict

Well, iOS 4 rocks big time. It feels like a new iPhone. It’s not just another update. It’s a whole new concept of the iPhone. If I were you, I’d stop by now reading this post and start updating. Despite I was with a jailbrake (only because of the SBSettings app — a cool home screen addon, like a dashboard), I updated and I do not regret it. You should do.

Update. Now.

[No app links, just search them in Appstore -- US or Greek one. Apps' appearance based on their appearance in my iPhone home screens.]

Facebook

Your favorite social network, of course. It couldn’t be off this list. Just FYI, disable the Push notifications. They (can) become quite stupid at times as they are still buggy. Be sure to enable Contact Sync, though. Rocks. Big ups.

Meebo

Is free, out and about. Completely wins big time eBuddy. Much more lightweight, efficient and ideal for a quick chit-chat on the phone — and fast as hell!

Twitter for iPhone

Your favorite 140-characters network. And your favorite mobile Twitter client too. Successor of the famous Tweetie by (the former, indy dev) Loren Bichter, Twitter for iPhone remains the good old Tweetie but now is an official Twitter app.

Dropbox

Some people can’t live without Dropbox. Some people just love it. Well, whether you’re addicted to it or not, the Dropbox app kicks some ass. Best online backup & syncing web-app now in your pocket, too. If you don’t know what Dropbox is find out at dropbox.com & don’t forget to sign up.

Skype

I know you like it. I know you use it. You can Skype mobile now, through WiFi’s (and soon through 3G, too). Very cool app, has also the ability to chat via text & dial real telephones.

Foursquare & Gowalla

Location social networks. The two biggest and best. Both apps run great. Especially Gowalla’s app has very cool design. Check, in!

Things

The best Mac GTD app now in the iPhone. When in same WiFi network syncs with Things for Mac. Extra darn good design & usability. If you’re a Mac user you probably know this already.

ThessBook

You might be leaving elsewhere, but most of my friends do live in Thessaloniki, d’uh?! This one, is a great GPS-aided location app which shows the nearest POIs (Points Of Interest). Free and great! If you live outside Greece, big chances are that there’s a similar app for you too — like Yelp for the States.

Shazam

I feel so nice that I have downloaded this one. You listen to a unknown -at that time- song in a bar you hangout with your friends. No need to walk and ask the DJ which song plays on. Just run Shazam on your iPhone and, whoop-whoop, win! Your track info such as artist/album/year is there for you along with other sharing options.

Photoshop Mobile

It’s so handy when you need to crop an image or add quickly some cool effects. Yes, ladies & gents, it’s the official Adobe Photoshop app. On your iPhone. Free. Today.

Articles

The best Wikipedia iPhone article viewer. Elegant, fast & well-designed. Misses some features like the contents table, but the whole package makes you forget it. Another great app from Sophiestication — if you’re a Mac you’d know her from CoverSutra.

Reeder

You should download it only if you like a lot Google Reader and spend some time with it. Otherwise you don’t need the best Google Reader client on your iPhone.

SnowReports & The NorthFace’s Snow Report

If you’re savvy for the outdoors and especially the mountains and skiing (uhm, that’s me) you should download both apps. Both are free. With vast selection from ski-resorts around the world.

Eurosport, Mashable, Engadget, Digg

I mashed them up, because there is no point at writing separately for each one how download-able it is. Eurosport is for the sport fans. On the other hand, if you’re a computer geek you’d have seen probably, the other three websites a thousand times already.

Remote

If you’re using iTunes as your music player whether you use Mac or PC, Remote is there for you. You only need to have the iPhone and your computer on the same WiFi network. Then you can simply control your iTunes library from your iPhone. It’s an Apple official app. Free.

WordPress & Tumblr

You need them only if you blog. Just like the Reeder. Matt’s iPhone creation rocks big time. Tumblr, too.

Pastefire

With this tiny excellent app you can copy things from your computer to your iPhone and vice versa. Very handy and saved my ass a lot of times.

Tipulator

Counts the tip you should leave at a waiter/waitress. Simple and Sophiesticated. Worths definitely your download.

One more thing.

Don’t forget to check out: AllRecipes, Epicurious, Where To?, Videoraman (especially if you live in Greece), Mild Elements & Formulas & iMathematics & Pi Cubed & Quick Graph (if you’re a student), iTeleport (and how to acces your computer from your iPhone) , Bump and Cine.gr (same applies here as with Videoraman). Also, don’t show me your iPhone if you haven’t downloaded the one and only game for it, Canabalt.

Of course, there are lot’s of cool and great apps out there beside these here. Would you recommend anything else? Feel free to comment below.

Το έψηνα εδώ αρκετό καιρό να πάρω ένα docking base για το iPhone μου. Τελικά, το πήρα χθες από το Apple Demo Center, εδώ Θεσσαλονίκη, που δουλεύει ο Αντώνης, φίλος και expert Mac geek. (Σημ.: πήρε ήδη το iPad.) Φωτογραφίες στο τέλος του post.

Μπορώ να πω πως είμαι αρκετά εντυπωσιασμένος. Πρώτα απ’ όλα, η συσκευασία. Κλασσική Apple. Κυρίως όμως, είμαι εντυπωσιασμένος για τα features του dock.

Μαζί με την συσκευασία περιλαμβάνονται και 5 ανταπτοράκια, ένα για κάθε μια γενιά iPod, iPod nano, Touch, Classic και φυσικά για iPhone. Το dock είναι μικρό, ελαφρύ, κομψό αλλά και στιβαρό. Η ποιότητα κατασκευής του είναι άριστη. Στην κάτω επιφάνεια είναι επενδυμένο με rubber υλικό, ώστε να μην κουνιέται και γενικότερα να μην είναι ασταθές όπου και να το αφήσει κάποιος.

Εκτός από το USB-out για τον υπολογιστή ή τον αντάπτορα για την πρίζα έχει και Line-out για τον ήχο. Αυτό με βόλεψε πολύ, αφού δεν είναι ανάγκη το iPhone να είναι συνδεδεμένο μόνο με τον υπολογιστή για να παίζεις μουσική, μιας και πλέον το καλώδιο των 2+1 ηχείων μου μεταφέρεται από υπολογιστή στο dock και από το dock στον υπολογιστή.

Αυτό όμως που με βόλεψε περισσότερο απ’ όλα — και το θεωρώ key feature — είναι το Remote. Το gizmo απλά τα σπάει! Δεν έχω λόγια να το περιγράψω. Μόνο για αυτό, αξίζει να αγοράσει κανείς το Apple Dock και όχι κάποιο άλλο άλλης εταιρείας. Επικοινωνεί μέσω IR (infrared – υπέρυθρες) με κάθε Apple συσκευή που έχει IR receiver. Πρακτικά σημαίνει με όλα τα Macbooks και iMacs και φυσικά και το dock.

Με το Remote μπορώ να ελέγχω το VLC όταν παίζει κάποια ταινία, το iTunes ή ακόμη να ανοίξω το Frontrow. Όπως στον υπολογιστή, έτσι και στο dock ελέγχω volume, next/previous, play/pause, fast forward/backward του iPhone. Χωρίς να είναι στο iPod.app, με το play, το ξεκινάει κατευθείαν και παίζει μουσική.

Το range του φτάνει τα — περίπου — 6 μέτρα.

Το μόνο πρόβλημα είναι όταν το dock είναι συνδεδεμένο με το Macbook Air. Εκεί το Remote μπερδεύεται και στέλνει σήμα και στα δύο. Έτσι όταν πατάω pause, γίνεται pause και στο Air αλλά και στο iPhone και μετά στο play αρχίζουν να παίζουν και τα δύο μαζί. Μικρό το πρόβλημα όμως.

Συμπέρασμα;

In the short shot, είναι best-buy. Ναι μεν, κοστίζει 49€ αλλά τα αξίζει μέχρι το τελευταίο cent, όχι μόνο για το design ή για το ότι είναι Apple αλλά κυρίως για το Remote. Όταν τα άλλα docks που είδα κόστιζαν 30+€ προτίμησα με 10€ περίπου παραπάνω να πάρω το Apple one — για πολλοστή φορά — λόγω το Remote. 2 στην τιμή του 1. Sounds like a fair deal.

Photos

(click για full resolution)

Και τέλος, το iPhone πάνω στο dock (not mine).

iPhone 3G Universal Dock by icatus, on Flickr under Creative Commons.

It’s great that iPhone can do lots and great things — and I don’t mean multitasking, folders and the such. I mean real, good and geeky things. Like, for example, accessing your computer remotely via Wifi, EDGE, 3G or even GPRS and making it just like you were in front of your monitor using your keyboard and mouse. Believe me, it works.

[This how-to is for Mac computers. If you have a Windows one, click here and follow (almost) the same steps as described. It won't be a problem. You can always check this and the iTeleport Windows how-to for any help you might need or anything else.]

All you need is to download buy the iTeleport app. It costs $24.99 but it sure does worth it. iTeleport is available on the iPad with the same price, too. After you downloaded it, follow these – really – easy steps to setup iTeleport and start using it.

Step 1: Setup Screen sharing

First you have to disable Screen Sharing or Apple Remote Desktop — if they’re enabled at all. Then, download the Vine-Jaadu Server application and run it. Enter a secure server password, make sure it says “Server running” and leave it running on the background.

Step 2: Install & setup Jaadu VNC Connect

Basically, Jaadu VNC Connect is a utility that runs on your Mac and autoconfigures port forwarding, dynamic DNS settings and also publishes your connection information over the local network so that iTeleport can auto-discover your computer. Download the app from the official site after accepting the licence — or if you prefer, here’s the direct link.

Well, sometimes it just doesn’t work. Here’s an other (official) workaround to setup correctly all the required settings. This the way I did it. First, your iPhone needs to know how to reach your router and then your router needs to know how to reach your computer. That’s why we have to use no-ip.com (for to teach the iPhone how to reach) and setup a little of port-forwarding on our router (for to teach the router how to handle the iPhone request).

Step 3: The other way [follow this only if VNC Connect didn't work for you]

Visit no-ip.com and create a free account (it’s just under the login form). After you are a member of no-ip and logged in click on the “Add a Host”. This tool helps you by keeping track of your router’s external IP address no matter how often it changes — aka make the computer visible always on the iPhone.

Just select a nickname for your computer — something like a username and then select a domain from the drop-down menu. I did select no-ip.org, simply because I think that the other names suck. Leave the other settings as they are and click “Create Host”. Download the DUC client. Now, simply add your no-ip account details, click refresh host and just tick the checkbox next to your hostname. That was it.

Now you’ve solved the first challenge — no matter what network you’re on, you can always connect to your router by entering your xyz.no-ip.org (or the domain you entered) address in Jaadu.

You have to port-forward now. The purpose of port forwarding is to take an incoming request from the external side (Internet) and forward that request to an internal computer in the network. You need to tell your router to forward port 5900 to your VNC server. If you do not know how, No-ip.com has guides for the other major routers and so does portforwarding.com.

Here’s what you need to set:

• Internal / Private IP of your computer: [*Your IP address]
• Port to forward from / Private TCP Port: 5900
• Port to forward to / Public TCP Port: 5900
• Leave any UDP ports blank

Finally, visit Can You See Me and type in your forwarded port (5900).  See whether it is able to connect or not.  If so, then you should be good to go. If not, then your router isn’t correctly forwarding to your VNC server. (This problem is unrelated to no-ip.com.)

Step 4: Configuring iTeleport on the iPhone

After all these settings and configurations you are now, finally, able to click on the iTeleport app and connect to your computer.

But before this, just a tip. It’s better to set-up two “computer remote profiles” for your machine. One to work for your home/work Wifi and the other to work as the real remote one, like connecting from 3G or from a hotel or something. In the first you can set-up the really good (and fast) settings like the best color, the best mouse response, the best refresh rate, etc. On the later, you can set-up a really good and not so heavy on network demands profile for better remote access.

So, for the first profile, let’s call it “your-machine’s-name home”, you just have to run the app and click on the “Discovered” app. Hopefully, your computer will appear there just because you’re iPhone and you’re computer are on the same network. At least, that worked for me but I think it won’t be a problem. Now, click on the blue arrow icon and set a name for this profile, through the Security menu enter your password you typed in Step 1. Finally, because this is the home/work profile as I said, click on Advanced and chose for Colors “Server Decideds” and for the Refresh rate “Fast Refresh”. Also switch the Touchscreen Mode and Invert Mouse from “Off” to “On” as well as Cursor Momentum from “On” to “Off”.

You’re good to click “Connect” now and enjoy.

But! Before that you have to manually enter the profile settings for the second profile the “real” remote one. Go to the main menu of iTeleport and click on “Manual”. Click on the “+” icon, set the name to, let’s say “you-machine’s-name remote”. Below that, enter your hostname for address (your-machine’s-name.no-ip.org — or whatever you chose) and, as previously, the VNC password you typed in Step 1. To test this you have to be on a different network (Wifi). Either disable WiFi and use 3G/EDGE, or use a different WiFi network.

Recap

By now you should have two separate saved servers. One will be used for external access (when you are on 3G or EDGE, or on a different WiFi network). It will not work when you are on the same WiFi network as your computer. The other one will be used for internal access. It will only work when you are on the same WiFi network as your computer.

Back to Step 2

If Jaadu VNC Connect did work for you, in order to connect to your computer you simply have to follow the steps in the “Discovered” tab (the home/work profile in which iTeleport finds automatically your computer). Basically it’s same procedure.

Final words

You’re good to remote access your machine now. Remember! The Vine Server app has to run in order to remote access, so do not quit it. I made it to run on-startup and always be on the dock.

I hope you enjoyed this how-to workthrough for iTeleport. If you have any questions, problems or just want to drop a few words feel free to write a comment!

Oh, and by the way here’s the final result. The first photo is with the home/work profile (all the good settings) and the second one is the “remote” profile with the not-heavy-on-network-resources settings. I chose to screenshot my Air’s background so that you can feel the difference.