well, i said i would do an iPod post a while back so i suppose, since i have had it all of 4 weeks now, i will post up my top apps, a few tricks, tips and whatever hints i can remember.

some of them may be obvious to the veteran iPod touch people, but this is my first iPod touch so i’ll include all of the stuff i would have liked to have found while searching ~ enjoy!

in no particular order:

tips, and hints

  • pushing the ‘Home’ button 2X at any time will bring up a ‘Music’ screen; Play, Pause, Next & Prev
  • you can use any photo in your collection as your wallpaper; when viewing the photo in the iPod press the button in the lower left hand corner (tap the screen if you need the Menu to appear) and then select ‘Use as Wallpaper’; once you do that you can then zoom in or out with pinching and then set the area.
  • to Turn Off the iPod Touch simply press and hold the Sleep button until the slide bar appears on the screen, then slide the bar and off it goes. i turn mine off once or twice a week, clear the memory out.
  • in order to fully exit a program you must press and HOLD the ‘Home’ button for 5-10 seconds, once this is done it completely exits the program and does not leave any trace of it in the memory. i use this when exiting large, memory hungry apps like Google Earth
  • to take a screen shot press and hold the ‘Sleep’ and ‘Home’ buttons simultaneously and breifly; you wil hear a shutter sound – then you may access the pictures in ‘Photos’ then ‘Saved Photos’
  • you can still adjust the audio processing, which i thought was lost when i switched from my nano to the Touch, but the settings are accessible through ‘Settings’ and then ‘Music’ and ‘EQ’ and set away.

my favorite apps

all of my apps are free. aside from the fact that i simply refuse to buy any of them, i feel its a waste of money because no matter how much i may Want the apps, there are much better things that i Need that my $ can go towards. plus, im friggen broke!!!

  • Zenbe – zenbe lists is a rather useful app. i use it for any-and-everything that needs a list; including To-Do lists, Topics List (topics for this blog), Music (to dl), Movies (to watch/buy or dl), Acura EL and Acura Integra GS-R to-do lists (automotive to-do list) a Before I die list and the list goes on…it is very easy to use, its FREE, downloaded from the iTunes App store and it syncs with an account online (here) so you can access it online.

  • Tap Tap Revolution – i do not think anything really needs to be said about this app. it was featured in the commercials and its even better than it looks. with it you can download different songs of different difficulty level for free and they are updated, it would appear, at least daily. the one thing that took me a while was to figure out how to hold the device and to play with 2 hands v. 1 hand, and i also turned off the ‘drum ‘ feature where you have to move the iPod in different directions to mimic hitting a drum; it just seemed to be too much for me to do that quickly enough to get back to hit the keys, but may be thats just me.

  • Google Earth – absolutely amazing app. it is a BIT choppy, but wow the graphics are incredible, its free, the my location finder is relatively accurate and the pan & tilt functions are also amazing. a great app, i love being able to go to France and Switzerland from my couch – a side note, i did try out earthscape, and while it was less choppy it definetely had a worse quality less quality picture than that of the Google Earth app.

  • Stanza - stanza is another great app downloaded from the iTunes App store. it is a great e-book reader that supports landscape mode, is seamless with page transition and has such a vast library of FREE e-books to choose from, i can’t imagine why anyone would not have this app on their iphone/touch. get here

  • Blanks – this little app helps to improve your vocabulary by allowing you to fill in the Blank with the appropriate word basically learning your vocab words in your free time. if you have read any of my other posts you KNOW that i believe proper communication is the key to happy living; that said proper vocab usage is the root of it all. bone up on that vocab!
  • PAC-MAN lite – needs no introduction, this is a classic version of Pac-Man with a twist! the twist being the way you can control the Pac-Man; you can swipe with your finger, you can use a little joystick or you can even use the accelerometer to direct him, works great and plenty of fun!
  • Marble Mash - depending on when you grew up you may remember the game Labyrinth game – this is the updated digital version – its a ‘futuristic’ like interface (as opposed to a wooden box) and all you have to do it move the ball around, using the accelerometer, avoiding all the obstacles. actually, the girlfriend and i’ve beaten the game and i will tell you there are 156 levels – my score was something like 7 million…3 hundred 25 thousand…9 hundred……4…..i dunno, but it was fun none-the-less!

  • Remote – another app that needs NO introduction. this app, straight from Apple and downloaded from the App store, allows the user to remotely control iTunes on the PC of their choice – and it works damned well! a few hints: you must be on the same network (wi-fi), you must allow the program through any firewall (Vista owners) and you must have port forwarding set up on your router. once you do that, RESTART YOUR COMPUTER, then open the Remote program on the iPod/phone (be in front of your comp) then iTunes will open and display a code for you to enter into the program, enter said code and away you go!

  • Mini-Piano – this is a lite version, meaning you only get may be 1 octave (im not great with my music vocab, sorry) but it is a fun little thing to play around with. you can kinda do the jaws theme…hah
  • Flashlight - of all the things that i should have on my person at any given time, like my wallet, SS card, pocket change so i wont be charged with loitering, of all that you can rest assured that my Touch will be the one that is constant. its great when im trying to find something and i dont want to disturb someone sleeping, or, for example, if you car somehow obtains a mind of its own, starts going bat shit crazy and honks whenever the hell it feels like it, while in gear, particularly during a ride through downtown, late at night, with every passing car looking at you with a piercing stare and then you have use Flashlight to see what f-ing-fuse to pull to get the honking to stop so the cops wont pull you over and find your stash dog riding shotgun….Flashlight is there.
  • TightVNC - this is NOT a app for the iPhone/Touch… then WTF man, why is it here?! well, it is program that will make the using of other programs o-so-simple. download it here and install it. what it does is, first off shows you your IP (for those of you who do not know how to find it, or want to, through command prompt) your IP will be important, trust me. secondly, it will open a port for you and provide a password to protect that port. you MAY or MAY NOT have to allow the port through the Windows firewall as well, i am not sure if TighVNC did it automatically for me or not. but be certain to restart after any install like this.
  • VNC - this app IS for the iPhone/Touch – more commonly Virtual Network Computing. one you have installed TightVNC, go ahead and install VNC on your Touch. once installed use the settings from TighVNC to input into VNC on the Touch, it will connect over your network and you will have, in your hand, a virtual desktop. it is a bit slow for me, as i have dual monitors, but once i got used to it, i fell in love. its great when i just want to Play or Pause something on Youtube or Todou. go here for more information on setting it up. haha, i almost forgot to mention that its terribly addictive to mess with family and friends when they are on the comp and you are, o i dunno say in the back yard and you keep minimizing the window and they keep trying to open it….ahah, thats funny i dont care who you are!
  • ngRC – OK this is my most enjoyable and most used, aside from Flashlight, app. this app, found here allows the user to remotely control their Windows Media Center right from the Touch!! not only that, this app is NOT installed on the Touch, no no, that would not be next generation (the ng in ngRC – RC being remote control) this app is installed on your PC, once installed it gives you complete control to VN C through your IP address. im not going to go into how it works, and what is installed on your comp, but what i will say is that this app works great. i can control volume, change the TV station, switch to a DVD, a stored DVD, switch to Music, and even type in a channel number or words (if need be) this program also may benefit form the TightVNC program mentioned earlier; however i do believe i had to open a port (port 8080) in my Vista Firewall and once i did that it worked great. the one thing that i cannot get to work is viewing the information ON the Touch. what i mean is that i am able to use the Touch just as i would the Remote Control for the Media Center, however another feature that ngRC has is the ability to SEE what you have on your computer and then select it; you know your music library and such. after messing around with it a few times, i got my Windows Vita comp to display a message that it was blocking another port, once i told it to UNblock it i was able to view all of my files, yet i am still unable to select the file and play it that way. yet i CAN select the file if i use it solely as a remote and navigate on my computer monitor. im sure its just a bug or two that i have to work out, if i get more info ill post it up, or if you have info on how to help me please feel free to comment or shoot an e-mail. also of mention is that there are 2 versions, you want the newer of the 2, which i believe is beta 2, but if you follow the link above it will direct you to the proper version just wanted to clarify, if possible.
screenshot

ngRC in all its glory baby (this is version 1 not 2)

other tid bits

  • if you have a wordpress blog, as i do (obviously) go to wordpress.com in safari on the Touch or iPhone, click the bookmark (the PLUS icon) icon THEN click ‘Add to Home Screen’ and you have yourself a nice WordPress widget!! when you click on it you are brought to a page where you can post, add a bookmark and see your stats for the day. go to the app store, search for wordpress and download the app. once installed, click on it, input your info and your off. its much snazzier than what i had been using (see the crossed out stuff about) but the one thing it DOES lack is the Stats – weird!! so, i guess for now at least, im going to keep the both of them as the Widget DOES show the stats, yet the app allows me to more easily look up old posts; plus the app has a better GUI…..its prettier…
  • another item i tend to use is Google Talk. i used the same process as i crossed out above – i navigate to the Google Talk address in Safari, selected the ‘+’ icon too add bookmark and selected ‘Add to Home Screen’. now, if i ever walk away from my comp while talking with someone i can respond, or at least let them know ive moved away from the comp. it works rather well. i will say that you cannot use it in Landscape mode when you add it to the home screen, however if you navigate to the website you are able to. also, you do not have to hit the ‘Send’ icon each time, simply hitting the Return button on the keyboard works perfectly.

so theres my list. i will say, with the programs i currently have chances are that i will never jailbreak my iPod Touch – the only reason i had considered it in the first place was to get programs like VNC and ngRC, yet since i have these programs, since they work perfectly and since they were FREE why would i jailbreak my Touch and risk voiding my warranty or bricking it? and i may need that warranty…..i dont like the volume and sleep buttons…they seem incredibly vulnerable to mishap, but time will tell.

before i forget, ive also linked my gmail and Google Calender to my iPod Touch. it works perfectly, as excepted. the one snag i ran into was setting my iPod’s time zone. it was initially set for cupertino, CA (which must have been where my iPod came from) and im up in NY….SO when i initially synced my calandar info all the times changed in an effort to correct the appointments for what it THOUGHT was my time zone but in-fact wasn’t even close. so, in closing, check out your time zone! i think we all know how to set up the gmail account, that ones easy and straight forward. however, setting up the calendar to sync with my Google CalendarS i used this (nuevasync!) and it works PERFECTLY. i can add and delete events from the iPod and it will appear online within seconds, i can also add and delete events from my google calendars just like normal and my iPod will update automatically. of note, i did not see a marked decrease in battery life once i set up nuevasync.

and that, as they say, is that. enjoy!