iPhone notes

I have had an iPhone for about a month now, and I thought I would make some notes about my favourite apps and some useful things you can do with the device:

Google Sync: http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/sync.html syncs the iPhone's contacts list with Gmail contacts, and syncs their calendars too. When I got the phone, this allowed me to move the phone numbers from my previous phone onto the new iPhone, because the previous phone could sync its contact list with Outlook Express, and Outlook could export its address book as a comma separated file, and Gmail contacts could import that file. Note that when you first setup Google Sync it will overwrite any contact and calendar information already on the phone, which wasn't a problem for me with a new phone.

The Safari web browser on the iPhone is pretty good and better than I expected, but clicking on links on webpages can be fiddly because links are usually very small, and similarly typing urls with the iPhone onscreen keyboard is error prone. My favourite method of avoiding these two fiddly issues is to use a bookmark that takes me to the next unread article in my Google Reader queue. Of course, to use this you have to be using Google Reader and have subscribed to a bunch of rss feeds with it. This feature is hidden away in Goodies tab of Google Reader's settings pages, but on that page there is a 'Next »' link that has to be bookmarked.

Setting up this bookmark on the iPhone can be quite difficult, since you will find that Google redirects you immediately to the webpage containing the unread article, so you end up with a bookmark to the redirected page instead of the Google address you want. The simplest way to get around this problem is to sync the iPhone's bookmarks with your computer's bookmarks, and create the bookmark on the computer. I have my iPhone's bookmarks synced with Internet Explorer, and because I use Firefox usually instead of Internet Explorer on the computer, I was able to delete all the bookmarks in Internet Explorer and start again from scratch with only the bookmarks I wanted synced on the iPhone.

Apps:

FStream can stream live BBC radio on the iPhone The stream urls are listed here: http://bbcstreams.com/ Note that the streams for Radios 1, 2, 3, and 4 do not work for me here in California, but all the others all work fine. It's kind of amazing that I can now listen to Radio Five Live while driving around here when I have the phone hooked up to the car stereo. It's like I have created my own little media bubble. You can also stream talksport with FStream. The stream url is mms://utv-talksport.wm.llnwd.net/utv_talksport and the stream format is 'Asf'.

Stitcher does a nice job of stitching podcasts together into 'virtual' radio stations, and although I can't listen to live Radio 4, as noted above, Stitcher makes a fine alternative since there are so many Radio 4 podcasts. It would be possible to download and listen to the podcasts using the native itunes and ipod apps instead of Stitcher, but Stitcher is a lot more convenient, and also Stitcher is a good source for finding lots of interesting new podcasts.

Favorater is a nice picture based speed dial, that was written by a friend.

Where's George?

wheresgeorge.com sounds like a website for discovering the location of outgoing president George W, but in fact it lets you discover where the dollar bills in your pocket have been and track where they end up. Just enter the serial number of a bill along with its series year and then you can see where that bill has been, or at least you can see where it was when other people used wheresgeorge to update the status of that bill. The website claims to track more than 144 million bills of all denominations (not just the dollar which has George Washington on it).

Last week I received a dollar bill that had been marked in the corners with wheresbill stamps, as shown. According to wheresgeorge, the bill was in Las Vegas on 26th December, when incidentally I was also there too. However, the bill then travelled 239 Miles in 21 Days, 6 Hrs, 58 Mins (an average of 11 Miles per day) before it made it into my posession. I have spent the bill already. Who knows where it will turn up next, but if someone else updates its entry on wheresgeorge I'll find out.

Best of 2008

Best Tracks
10. The Helio Sequence - Can't say no
9. Talkdemonic - Black Wood Crimson
8. The Helio Sequence - Hallelujah
7. Bloc Party - Talons
6. Bloc Party - Flux
5. Little Joy - The Next Time Around
4. Little Joy - Unattainable
3. Little Joy - Keep Me In Mind
2. M.I.A. - Paper Planes
1. MGMT - Time to pretend

Best Albums
5. The Wedding Present - El Ray
4. Talkdemonic - Eyes at half mast
3. Bloc Party - Intimacy
2. Little Joy - Little Joy
1. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

From the 33 gigs and 2 music festivals I went to in 2008 Rodrigo y Gabriela is the band I would most like to see again.

Best Movies (of the 38 that I saw in a cinema in 2008)
5. Synecdoche, New York
4. Burn After Reading
3. Cloverfield
2. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
1. Juno

Best Game
The Bourne Conspiracy, of course ;-)