Some very exciting developments in the iPhone apps world this week. Check out these 3 must-have apps:
1. DropBox
Create an account at GetDropBox.com, then effortlessly sync files between your home computer, work computer, and your iPhone. You can even take pictures/videos from your iPhone and upload them directly to your computer. Cost: FREE. This absolutely kills the $4.99 Air Sharing app’s revenue model.
Amazingly seamless syncing of files between your computer and iPhone.
2. RedLaser
RedLaser uses the camera of your iPhone as a barcode scanner. Scan anything from books, to candy and it will instantly search for the product on Amazon and Google. Great for price matching when buying electronics. Cost: $1.99.
Hold over any barcode (RedLaser)
Runs search on Amazon and Google for the product.
3. ZipCar
Much anticipated ZipCar app is finally out. Find a nearby car using the built in GPS function, reserve it via the iPhone interface. Once you initially unlock the car with your KeyCard, you can then unlock/lock/honk the horn from your iPhone. Really impressive stuff, and will definitely up my Zipcar usage. Cost: FREE (Zipcar membership required)
Locates Zipcar locations near you.
You can unlock, lock, and even honk the horn using your iPhone.
One of my favorite features on Ooma is the ability to receive voicemail via e-mail. Not only does Ooma alert you via e-mail when you have a new voicemail, but it has the option to e-mail the voicemail message itself as an MP3. I did end up upgrading to Ooma Premier service, and it looks like the “attach file” feature is only available in Premier. Even so, when you first get the Ooma, you should try this feature out during your free Premier trial period.
To enable this feature, go to your Preferences > Voicemail, and see the Voicemail Notifications area:
After saving your changes, all of your voicemails from now on will be e-mailed to you. If you elect to receive e-mails on your phone, it makes it amazingly easy to check your voicemail when away from your Ooma hub.
On the iPhone, simply click the e-mail attachment, and it will open up the voicemail file in the iPhone quicktime player:
Could not be easier!
Just read about this new feature for Yelp’s iPhone application. After relentlessly shaking my iPhone with no sign of the new feature, I deleted the App and then reinstalled it from the AppStore. After shaking 3 times, like magic, the new augmented reality feature was born. Follow these instructions if you have an iPhone 3Gs.
1. Delete your current Yelp Application (if you have it)
2. Download the Yelp application from the AppStore
3. Go to the main yelp results page on the Yelp App (after selecting that you do not have a Yelp account, or logging in)
4. Shake your iPhone three times and you will see this:
5. Click the Monocle button at the top right, and prepare to have your mind blown:
Indoors it does not work so well, but the cool factor makes it well worth the install.
Edit 9/7/09: Use this link to receive $25 free from Lending Club when you sign up.
Microloans are all the rage now. With my “high-yield” savings account getting around 1.4% interest as of date, I needed something with a little more oomph. I had some success with Prosper (despite 2 of my 12 notes defaulting), and shortly after Prosper entered its “quiet period” I got into Lending Club.
The interface of Lending Club is clean, and because you can invest as little as $25 in a loan, they make it very easy to help hedge your risk by diversifying into many different small loans. I only put a little money in to experiment, but so far it has resulted in impressive results:
Here are the notes I have invested in, with some details obscured for privacy:
Transferring in funds in and out of Lending Club has proven to be relatively painless, and I plan to continue small investments to see how my strategy works. No defaults as of yet, but it is still early. My first defaults did not show up in Prosper for at least a few months.
Anyone else have any success stories with Micro Loan sites?
Edit 9/7/09: Use this link to receive $25 free from Lending Club when you sign up.
After having many headaches getting a LAMP environment running on Windows Vista, many limitations were soon reached, and I decided to set up a local Linux development server. Keep in mind, I had zero experience configuring Linux, so it came with its fair share of roadblocks. Once it was up and running, however, I realized it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Here are the parts I used:
I am still tied to Windows Vista for my environment at work, so I needed a way to edit my PHP code, and view live web pages on Vista (testing in Firefox, IE, Safari). I realize this testing could all be done via VirtualBox with avoiding Windows altogether, but as mentioned, I need a Windows machine at work (for now).
I did the initial configuration of the server using a faithful KVM switch. After the nitty gritty was done, I set up Samba to allow a networked drive in Windows that mapped to the /var/www/html directory on my Linux server.
After Samba was set-up, even a Linux novice like myself was able to do the remainder of the PHP/MySQL/Apache set-up using an SSH client on my Windows machine. Using my favorite code editor, I was then able to start development, saving onto my mapped network drive, thus completing my local development environment.
Web entrepreneur.
