Before the iPad came, I was forced to watch movies with my Macbook. Imagine the pain of having this thing on your legs while you’re in bed and you just want to watch something before going to sleep. Now that I have this new device, I can say that using a Macbook was unnecessary, uncomfortable and so last year. Because, really, watching movies on the iPad with Air Video has been sort of a life changing experience to me.
MusicID: Beautiful Music Discovery App
I remember when I bought my first iPhone I was impressed by the quality of an application called Midomi (now Soundhound) which allowed you to hold you iPhone next to the stereo and, through an internet connection, instantly know which song was playing. To me (and later, to my friends) that was a revolution. God knows how many times we were hanging out somewhere in my town, and heard that song playing in a bar but we couldn’t know what song it was. Midomi was the perfect application to me, it sported a great user interface and definitely helped me discover a lot of new songs. Many other apps came out in the App Store after Midomi, all of them promised to do what Midomi was already doing but they failed. That app was the best.
Up until now Soundhound has done a great job on my iPhone. But just some weeks ago I decided to replace it with another app, MusicID.
myPhoneDesktop, Coursenotes Winners Announced
Thanks everyone who entered the myPhoneDesktop and Corusenotes giveaways.A big thanks goes to the developers for the promo codes they offered to MacStories readers.
Winners after the break.
iPad, Google Voice and Incoming / Outgoing Calls [Video]
To those who said the iPad was “just a bigger iPhone”, I can now say you were right guys. After watching this video you’ll see how indeed the iPad is a bigger iPhone which lets you even make bigger calls. Yep. Or maybe not.
Thing is, I stumbled upon this video on Youtube of this guy who’s managed to create a pretty straightforward method to use Google Voice on the iPad, call and receive calls even when the screen is locked. You just have to forward your GV number to Gizmo, run the iSip iPhone app on the iPad and insert your Gizmo settings. Also, you can use a bluetooth headset for it.
I think it’s cool, and I’d love to test Google Voice someday myself. Sadly, it’s not available in Italy. Check out the video after the break.
John Battelle’s Open Letter to Apple
“In short, we believe Apple is far too important to continue its role as the Howard Hughes of our industry.”
Checkmate Winners Announced
Thanks everyone who entered the Checkmate giveaway.We also want to thank the Hard Carved Code developers for the promo codes they offered to MacStories readers.
Here are the winners:
Weston Gallagher
Vivek
Mathew Rice
Wilfred Kidd
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You’ll receive the promo codes in your inbox in a few hours. Stay tuned for other giveaways coming this week.
You can follow the official MacStories Twitter account as @macstoriesnet or Federico as @viticci
Winscape: Your Mac-powered Virtual Window
Technology applied to real life can be awesome. Most of times it can be weird and dangerous. I really don’t know what to think about the Winscape, but it’s interesting for sure.
Basically, it’s a software running on a Mac Pro that creates fake, 3D landscapes in fake windows. There are two plasma televisions that receive the signal from the Mac Pro and “play” beautiful landscape on screen. The whole thing comes with an iPhone remote app and a sensor that checks your position in front of the screens and tells the software to rotate the scene when you move.
Seriously, check out the videos after the break.
Articles for iPad: Wikipedia Where It Was Meant To Be
Some applications make more sense on the iPad, some don’t. When I first reviewed Articles from Sophiestication in its iPhone version, I said it was the best Wikipedia app for iPhone out there. I still think it is, as no other application has managed to get even near to the sheer amount of quality Sophia has put into that tiny Wikipedia client. But one could argue whether the iPhone is any good for reading, and that’s a complete different story. Once you try an iPad, you realize how much it is better for reading and consuming content than the iPhone, which is meant for accessing that content on the go.
As you try an iPad you realize how much a previously iPhone-only application makes more sense on it, and Articles is no exception.
Icebird: Best New Twitter Client for iPhone.
Right after Twitter announced the acquisition of the popular Tweetie app from Atebits’ Loren Brichter, many third party developers of Twitter clients started complaining that Twitter just killed the platform by entering the market itself. We may have different positions on this, but that’s not the point.
Point is, there are lots of developers out there who don’t care about “the big names”, they just want to keep developing for the sake of it and for the user base they’ve managed to build. I respect these guys. There’s a problem though: what about those that come up with new apps now? It shouldn’t be easy, knowing that you’re just getting started and Twitter is about to release the best mobile Twitter client ever made…for free. It’s a difficult situation, but fortunately there are some developers who love challenges and are releasing their apps anyway.
Meet Icebird, a new Twitter client for iPhone which I’m falling in love with.