AppStore freeware roundup

Recently, I found several useful/interesting applications in AppStore. And, they're all free. There are two well-designed games, Labyrinth LE and BreakClassic. The former features tilt control to lead a steel ball passing a wooden labyrinth. There is a commercial version, which costs $6.99, providing 500 stages instead of 10 in the free edition. The latter is a classic brick breaking game features really good graphics. If anyone doubts the graphic computing ability of the iPhone 3G, he/she should take a look at this game.

Besides games, I also download productivity applications such as 1Password, YouNote, and Convertor. 1Password helps you keep login/account information of websites. YouNote allows you to create any kind of notes (text, voice, draw, even with geolocation infos). Convertor is very useful when I want to convert my weight from pounds to kilograms. Note: Convertor is no longer free; it costs only $0.99 tho.

Last but not least, there finally exists a universal IM client! It's named Palringo. With a clean interface, I can now access IMs like Windows Messenger, AIM, and Google Talk anytime, anywhere, no need to worry about the company internet blocking policy. But it's not perfect. First, you have to register a Palringo account (free to register). Second, there is just one contact list that contains all buddies in different IMs. Third, you can't choose to login only Windows Messenger or AIM, once you fire up the application, it'll automatically login all the IM accounts. I'm still looking forward to Fring showing up in AppStore or through jailbroken installers. For now, I'll say Palringo is an OK option since it crashes often on my iPhone...

iPhone 3G 使用心得

說真的，這隻iPhone規格不是頂漂亮 (拼規格口水戰首推iPhone 3G v.s HTC Diamond)，可是有些小地方，真的很貼心，來談談這陣子使用下來的感想，我很小氣，都沒有花錢買軟體，所以只測過免費軟體。


首先是AppStore相對熱門的遊戲類別，Aurora Feint這個game是must have!!! 有一天我下午專心coding了三小時，可是午休的時候沒睡覺著迷的玩這個game玩了40分鐘。而喜歡DDR的人可以體驗一下TTR (Tap Tap Revenge)，以免費遊戲而言，這兩款的質感與耐玩度都十分高。

儘管公司網路擋掉所有的IM，我仍很少在iPhone上用web-based的IM，因為web-based很不穩定，如果有專屬的IM client (例如AIM)，狀況可能會改善很多。Safari配合google.com/m(Google mobile版)，已經漸漸改變我閱讀的習慣，在iPhone上的Google Reader預設只顯示標題，有興趣的主題我再點進去看，可以有效率的擷取新知(?)。再來就是Weather，早上出門前會看一下氣溫決定穿著，我設定了LA與El Segundo兩個地方，因為上班的El Segundo靠海，高溫往往低約五度。Map有個鍵可以按一下就將地圖定位到自己目前所在地，結合Google Map show traffic，每天下班去健身房跑跑步做重量後我都會check一遍，決定我上路的時間點，另外最近因為在看房子，地圖有一步步導覽(Google Map directions step-by-step zoom-in)對平常有記路名習慣的人來說，已經很足夠了。2MP的相機，在光線充足的地方，拍出來的照片還算ok，看房子的過程中我會隨手拍個幾張紀錄。

此外我還抓了一個meal splitter，可以計算這餐如果有人有喝飲料有人沒喝，那每個人該出多少，還可以設定小費的百分比，算是無腦人外食的方便計算機。可以隨時隨地上網之後，真的想到什麼東西都可以順手查，雖然所費不貲，就趁暑假享受一下等開學再把data plan退掉吧 XD

目前想要購買/下載/使用的軟體有：

1. Nally for iPhone - it's simply a must


2. TranslateIt! (剛剛發現了WeDict，試用後再來報告)


3. MSN for iPhone (dedicated client plz)


4. Terminal for tethering & hacking (jailbreak + openSSH可做到，越獄猶豫中...)


5. Where 加強版 (Where的gas buddy很遜，只找得到特定幾家的加油站，可是概念很棒)


6. Gmail client (push mail & tag feature support plz)


7. nike+ toolkit for iPhone (那我就去買個arm band來戴，這暑假我變慢跑控了)


8. US TV guide (我很訝異在AppStore搜尋tv出來的只有瑞士跟紐西蘭的guide...)


9. Simple Comic for iPhone


10. AnySync (這是我自己亂想的，因為我很討厭目前的Sync模式，限制太多，理想中應該要自己想要本機上的什麼檔案在iPhone上，用拖拉的方式就過去)


11. Copy-n-Paste (沒有這個真的很不方便，尤其是現在打字要一個字一個字按很慢...)


12. Chinese Input Method (iAccess 讓我期待中)

其實iPhone還有很多改善的空間，可是，怎麼說呢，他就是一個會帶給你樂趣的gadget :)