iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

The coolest invention of 2008? Pocket projectors, according to a review by David Pogue in the New York Times. I'm hoping Santa will bring me one of these. Here's how he describes the Optoma Pico Projector: "a video projector so small, you can carry it in your pocket.

MagicPad is a commercial app that is being given away for free for the holidays. It offers rich-text editing — and copy/paste. But note that the copy//paste function only works within a note or from one note to another. You can't copy/paste between applications. The rich-text editing lets you adjust font style, size, color, and effects. You can e-mail notes to others.

Due to the Apple SDK constraints on developers of iPhone software, data exchanges with your phone is limited to email and local area network connectivity. 

Some iPhone applications such as “Files” allow you to import and read your Word, Excel, and PDF files from your desktop computer to your phone, and move that data to the iPhone by establishing a wireless connection between the phone and desktop over a LAN.

In the news today is Microsoft's release of its first application for the iPhone: Seadragon Mobile, an image-browsing app. And it has raised eyebrows because the same app hasn't been released for Microsoft's own Windows Mobile platform.

3M recently sent me a sample of their new 3M Mobile Privacy Film, a twelve dollar adhesive screen protector with "microlouver technology" (essentially what looks like a polarization filter). When applied, this layer makes the screen appear dark and fuzzy when not looking directly at the screen. The margin of angle is fairly tight and the filter does what it advertises. Of course, this also means that watching videos on the iPhone can become a challenge due to the exact nature of the viewing angle necessary to watch without blurring the image.

Groucho Marx once said he wouldn't belong to a club that would have him as a member.  The iPhone club, while already setting records in the smartphone industry, is about to get bigger.

Not everybody has the luxury of an Apple store nearby, and not every AT&T store sells the iPhone.  Plus, when the iPhone 3G was introduced, online ordering went away.  With all of these obstacles, Apple knows there is always room for improvement.

A week back I wrote a commentary on iphone's going on sale in wal-mart's (still officially rumor) and wrote the following:

What if Apple supplied a specialist per store?  Well, that could work, but is it worth it?  Do you really think there are enough people who are looking to buy an iPhone to go to Wal-mart to make it worth staffing those stores?