Continue reading »]]> Yes, I know I’m not normally one to go round promoting jailbroken apps for iOS, but this one really is handy  – and until Apple start allowing scrobbles to last.fm I’ll continue to use it!

It’s totally free and will work on any jailbroken device of iOS 3.0 and above. Simply download an app from Cydia called Srobbl and plug in your account settings. It’ll work in the background and doesn’t actually have to be running in multitasking to scrobble.

I wouldn’t be promoting this app but for the fact that iPod touch and iPhone scrobbling hasn’t been working in the official last.fm app for months! However, I do like the fact it scrobbles live – I like to know when I listened to tracks.

It’ll even queue tracks for scrobbling if you aren’t connected to a wi-fi or data network, and then scrobble them later.

Simply set it and forget about it – it does the job nicely!

Continue reading »]]> Sorry it’s been such a long time since I last blogged. It’s been a busy year so far with countless AS level exams, coursework and other projects I’ve been getting up to out of college. However, I have a little free time so I thought I’d rekindle the site with a new post – I was getting worried that I might not make a single post within January!

Anyway, here’s your top 5 iPhone and iPod touch apps for January 2011:

5. Family Guy Time Warped [£0.59 for full version]

If you enjoy Family Guy, you’ll really enjoy this great app. You play characters from the game in various challenges. The game is very entertaining although sometimes it can get quite frustrating as, at times, you die repeatedly! Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a game that’ll occupy you for a few hours, try it.

4. FleetMaster [FREE]

FleetMaster is a brilliant free battleships game which works via online multiplayer. The game uses “Game Center” to find others players for you to challenge. Whilst the game is a little sluggish at times, it does work very effectively and can be good entertainment if you’ve got internet to hand.

3. Cover Orange [£0.59]

Sadly this game is no longer free, but even at £0.59 it is well worth the purchase. This is an extremely addictive game with seemingly endless levels to complete. You play to save oranges that need to be saved from deadly “rain”. Sounds random, but it is extremely good fun (and often very frustrating).

2. Words With Friends [Free version available]

This free game (ad supported, full version available) is a classic attempt at a digital interactive version of Scrabble. It does actually work very well with online multiplayer. However, if you’ve got many games running at the same time, the push notifications can become extremely irritating so you may want to consider turning those off. Otherwise, it’s another great way to waste some time.

1. Sunday Lawn [Free for a limited time]

I discovered this game some time ago, but it came to my attention that this is now free for a limited time. This has to be one of my favourite classic iOS games – but I almost find it too addictive.

So there you go – nothing very productive this month (!!) but definitely some great games to try. I apologize that there was no top 5 for December – I admit I simply ran out of time. I’ll try and get posts back on the go soon, but for the mean time I hope these keep your i-device stocked up for a while!

If I don’t get time to post, please remember that you can follow me with @geekonthepc on twitter for any personal updates.

Continue reading »]]> Apple has just set up their 12 days of Christmas website ready for Christmas 2010. The session will offer 12 days of various free music, videos, apps and books.

To download the app to your iPhone or iPod touch head here, or click here to go to the official site where you can sign up to email alerts.

The 12 days starts on December 26th, and finishes on January 6th – so don’t miss out! Last year I remember it was actually really good - some decent apps, films and music given out for free.

This really is a no brainer – something for nothing from Apple, for once!

Continue reading »]]> Since I’ve had my new iPod touch 4G, I’ve been downloading, installing and often deleting a huge number of apps. If you have to give Apple credit for one of their creations, the App Store would be where credit is due. It is, undoubtedly, the most popular store for mobile devices.

So, I’ve decided to start writing monthly top 5 app charts for the iPhone and iPod touch. Don’t ask me whether this will last – I haven’t got a clue! But I shall remain optimistic for the time being and begin now.

Here we go then. Here’s your top 5 roundup for November 2010 in reverse order.

Oh, and I’ll take the opportunity to point out that (for this month at least) there may be some older apps in the charts. You can’t ignore the classics and the most useful apps just because they’ve been out for some time. Basically, what I’m saying is, the month this refers to doesn’t necessarily mean that the app was launched during this month.

5. thetrainline [FREE]

This has to be one of my most used transport apps. This has been around for some time (I can remember it having a permanent residence on my old iPod touch as well as my new one) but, nevertheless, it is extremely useful for finding trains across the UK at the last minute. It’s only downside is that you can’t check ticket prices without registering for an account, which is a bit of a bummer if you need to know in a hurry. It does memorize your home location, though, which is handy as you can just tell the app to find the nearest station to your current location and get you a train home. If you use trains regularly, this is a must have.

4. OpenFeint (Free App a Day) [FREE]

The title gives the app away really. Every day, OpenFeint make an app on the App Store free for a day, and it’s your opportunity to get something for nothing. It’s pot luck really – sometimes the apps are great and other times they just aren’t worth the bandwidth. But as they’re free, I guess you haven’t got much to loose.

3. VLC [FREE]

If you know about VLC Media Player for your computer, it won’t take you long to work out what this app does. However, it does do an extremely good job. It plays a wide range of video formats so I can finally play videos that aren’t in the annoying, space hungry MP4 format. It doesn’t always display videos in the centre of the screen, though, which you might find irritating. However, if you have videos in various formats on your computer, it is well worth the download.

2. eBuddy Pro [£2.99]

If you want a decent portable IM client, this can’t really be beaten. There is a free version of eBuddy for iPhone (and iPod touch) but it’s full of adverts and limitations – so I would suggest buying the full version if you’re going to be using IM frequently on the go. I prefer eBuddy Pro to other IM clients (such as the official WLM app) mainly because it is clean, quick and I find the notifications are much more responsive in this app than any other app of it’s kind. It also handles multitasking very well.

1. RedLaser [FREE]

As previously reviewed on GEEK!, I think this has to be my first number 1 app. If you like comparing prices for products and saving money online, this app will be your new companion. The app utilises the camera built into the iPhone (and iPod touch 4G) and uses it is to scan barcodes. Yes, you’ve heard of this concept many times before – however this app actually works! It’s found the vast majority of barcodes I’ve tried to scan with it, and also managed to get good price comparisons. This app is undoubtedly a huge time saver. It’s also a good entertainer for half an hour if you’ve got plenty of DVD’s or the likes in your home!!

So there you go. Let’s see if I remember to post up next month’s roundup.

Continue reading »]]> Update: 4.1 is now live.

Update: This date has now been removed from the Apple site. The launch date of September 8th 2010 still remains on Wikipedia.

The Apple UK site now confirms that the OS 4.1 update for iPhone will be coming on September 8th. The iPod Touch page still says “Coming Soon”, as does the US site.

However, Apple usually launch all of their firmware updates on the same day so it gives me reason to believe that it will be launched to everyone on that date.

Unless you have one of the newer iPhones (iPhone 3Gs or 4) there isn’t really that much to get excited about. The iPod touch seems to be gaining Ping functionality within the iTunes app together with a new “Game Center” (I know that should be “centre” but Apple don’t seem to know British spelling). If you have an iPhone, you’ll also gain HD uploads to YouTube on the go and HDR photography.

So nothing to get too excited. Personally, I think Apple should be concentrating more on getting iPad users onto 4.0. Apple don’t seem to have much time for iPad users at the moment.

Continue reading »]]> First of all, I’m back! Sorry I’ve been away for so long – I really wanted to make the most of the summer break to focus on a few other personal matters. But now summer seems to be rapidly fading into autumn, I’m back in business for the time being! There will be lots to look forward to with GEEK! this autumn – I’m going to be reviewing some cool new tech in the months up to Christmas and chatting about loads of new software!

In the mean time though, I’ll stick to the post at hand. It’s always baffled me as to why Apple decided to block out multitasking and wallpapers on the iPod touch 2G. I’ve been a proud owner of my iPod Touch for nearly 18 months now and was very pleased when Apple announced that they’d finally be supporting it in iOS4 some months back.

But then when Apple said that they wouldn’t support it on 2G, I was quite annoyed. They state that the lack of recent hardware made it difficult for them to implement the new features, but that doesn’t make much sense to me.

When the firmware was eventually cracked, I jailbroke my iPod and, to my surprise, multitasking worked perfectly. You have to close apps from time to time as it does get a bit slow if you leave too many open, but otherwise it works well.

I really don’t get why they wiped out the home screen wallpaper for the 2G iPod touch. What was the problem with that?

Alan Edwardes raised a good point in a blog post he wrote, asking why not just have a slider that could turn the features on or off in the device settings? The iPod Touch 2G can clearly cope with the new features, but it would be useful if you could choose to have them on or off. Some people could find it annoying that you do have to close apps from time to time. Still, why can’t I make that choice myself rather than having to hack my device in order to get the features?

Continue reading »]]> Yes, the news that every Spotify customer has wanted to hear. Spotify finally supports multitasking on the iOS4 with the latest update.

You will of course need an iPhone 3GS/4 or an 3rd gen iPod Touch (unless you have jailbroken) to get the multitasking ability.

The new app also supports control from the lock screen and double-click control buttons, which does make the app much more usable. It also features a new “What’s new” section like in the PC application, so you can see the top tracks of the moment and any new releases.

A well deserved update I think.

Continue reading »]]> Manage your overnight downloads without running up the electricity bill!

Do you ever find it annoying when you know you’ve got so much overnight download allowance with your broadband, but don’t want to use it because you’re computer uses so much electricity.

I have that problem regularly. It’s all very well having tonnes of usage allowance between midnight and 9am, but I don’t really want to run my computer overnight as a) it’s a fire hazard and b) it consumes a large amount of electricity.

So, yesterday, I found a solution to the issue. I found an app that will download your files for you and store them on the iPod. Then, when they are done, it will open up a port (8080) that you can browse to on your computer and download the files back locally.

The screenshot below is the file server page that can be browsed to in any web browser on your local network once it is activated within the app (click to see larger size):

I find this app so useful because I can run it all night and it won’t make a sound and won’t cost the Earth. Perfect!

You can get the full version here at £1.19, or get the free version here – but bear in mind that with the free version you can only store 10 files at a time.

Continue reading »]]> It’s not 3.2, but it’s something…

This appears to be a minor update from Apple, but it has a few important fixes. Wikipedia quotes the following:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard
• Fixes security bugs in webkit and recovery mode

Sadly, I won’t be able to download the update for the time being as my iPod Touch is out for repair for the second time!! Very annoying. I shall be complaining to Apple!

Anyway, head over to iTunes and see for yourself whether it is any good!

Continue reading »]]> I recently stumbled across this free app, available on the App Store, which is designed to work as a remote control for Windows Media Center on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The app works over wi-fi, so you’ll need a wi-fi connection for it to work. You’ll also need to download the Mediamote server from here and install the software.

Once it is installed, simply run the Mediamote app from your iPod Touch or iPhone, select the PC that it is installed on and then you are good to go.

Now it is up and running, you’ll see that the app has some quite concise options that allow you to control most aspects of Media Center.

When I tried this with the Windows 7 Media Center, I was very pleased at how quickly it worked and how all of the buttons worked properly.

I would recommend this to anyone who can’t afford to shed out of a new Media Center remote but would like something simple and easy to use.