Wednesday 26 September 2012

BrushDJ App shortlisted for an award

The Appsters Awards are like the glistening and much talked about Oscars, but of the App world. With the award winners chosen by a well chosen judging panel of independent experts, the best of the best apps will be competing for the 12 titles up for grabs. One of the titles is The Start-Up App 2012 and the designer of the BrushDJ App is delighted to be in the shortlist with six other competitors.

BrushDJ is a great idea for making sure that you brush your teeth for long enough, it does this by playing two minutes of music from your collectiom, encouraging you to brush your teeth for long enough. BrushDJ is also useful for setting reminders to brush your teeth twice a day, floss, use a mouthwash or when the user is next due to change their toothbrush or see their dentist or hygienist.

As well as being shortlisted for the award, the developers of BrushDJ were over the moon that the BrushDJ app that they built for their client had recently been featured on the BBC Newsite ‘BBC Click’ too.

But who were the makers that designed this fantastic, healthy and great fun app? It was AppWareof course.

Appware’s client (Dentist, Ben Underwood) felt that sometimes it’s hard to know when the two minutes is up so it’s great to have that timed by your favourite song, some electric toothbrushes have built in timers, but listening to the buzz can get a little boring. The BrushDJ makes brushing your teeth fun, and first thing in the morning, when you’re a little sleepy, the BrushDJ App will help wake you up with your favourite song and you can have a bop along while brushing your teeth.

If you want to find a more fun way to brush your teeth then download BrushDJ, the greatest app for brushing your teeth!

For more information on the App take a look at www.brushdj.com





Friday 21 September 2012

The new iPhone5 – what’s new and should I upgrade?

The New iPhone is out, the iPhone5. You’ve seen it in the media, you’ve seen the waiting lists being offered in various mobile phone shops and you’ve heard the hype, but why should you upgrade to the iPhone5?

It’s a bigger screen, but it hasn’t just gone big for the sake of being big. It’s bigger so you can view more in your calendar, so you can have more apps available on the main page and you can see more of the website page that you are on too. With 44% more colour saturation and 18% more pixels, not only is the screen bigger it’s better too, and the colours stand out more and the pictures are clearer. The iPhone5 allows you to watch widescreen HD Video and TV in all its glory, as it should be.

It’s a faster internet service via LTE wireless technology (4G) which is well known for its speed, but it’s been done in such as way that it will not drain the battery life, meaning faster internet connection for you, but not a faster draining battery.

The new A6 chip also gives you everything twice as fast as the A5 chip did, so launching Apps, attaching emails and opening web pages can be done twice as quickly. However even with accelerated speed the iPhone5 battery has more than enough power to last throughout the day, including 8 hours browsing, 8 hours talk time and 10 hours video playback time.

The earphones are new and exciting too, better known as EarPods. Over one hundred different types have been tested on over 600 people, ensuring they work through sweat and water while staying in place in the hottest and coldest climates.

The camera is improved too with panoramic views being able to be taken and it’s also easier to take better low-light images with noise reduction. Siri has improved from the iPhone 4S as Siri now works with more languages and with more places, understanding you question in a better way, therefore giving you better answers.

The iPhone5 offers you maps designed by Apple that can be seen 3D as real images where you pan around and zoom in wherever you want. The maps also offer directions that speak to you turn by turn (powered by by market leaders TomTom) to help you get where you are going easier.

Should you upgrade? If you contract is up for renewal then it’s probably worth it, but if you already have the iPhone 4S then there are really no vast improvements that would urge a need for the upgrade, especially now that i0S6 is available for download for free.


Thursday 20 September 2012

iOS6 – What is it?

Most of us are waking up this morning and seeing that our iPhones, iPads or iPod Touches are offering the download of new software, which is iOS6, this is all well and good, but what is this new software and what extra things is it going to offer me?

Maps
Apple have designed a new maps system, so as well as the usual view you can see maps of the world for real, either at ground level looking up at the buildings (US only unfortunately) or sky level, looking down at the roof tops. The graphics are very detailed and allow you to zoom in and out, tilt and rotate. Turn by turn navigation is now available (powered by TomTom) along with real time traffic updates that routes you around jams.

Siri
Siri (only on 4S and 5) has been updated to talk and understand more languages and be able to work in more countries around the world, meaning you can get more done easily, wherever you are. Whether you want to find out what is on at the cinema and the reviews of what is on, or even open an app. Siri can do it for you with no tapping involved.

Facebook
It’s now even quicker and easier to get your stuff on Facebook, when you take a photo you can now upload straight to Facebook, you can tell Siri you status update, when friends change their contact details on Facebook, it can change in your contacts on your phone immediately and events and birthdays on your Facebook calendar can automatically go into your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

Shared Photo Streams
This allows you to share groups / streams of photos with the people you want to share them with, direct to their Apple handsets, if they haven’t got an apple handset then the photo stream can be seen on line. All recipients can like and comment on the photos.

Passbook
This is a very new and exciting part of the update, it stores all your coupons, shop discount cards, tickets and boarding cards in one place, meaning that when you need to use them you can just scan them. One of the most exciting parts is that if you scan in the boarding pass and your flight terminal changes, you iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch will tell you.

FaceTime
Facetime now works over the cellular network too, not just wifi and you can receive facetime calls from your iPad through your mobile number meaning you will never miss that important call again.

Phone
Things can get pretty hectic and sometimes you can’t take that call from a friend you haven’t spoken to in ages, well now things have changed. When you decline a call your iPhone will ask you if you want to set a reminder to call them later or if you want to send them a message, a selection of pre-written messages will then pop up. You can also set a ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature on your phone, and select which calls you will accept if things are getting really out of hand and you’re uber busy.

Mail
Your e-mail system has been updated allowing it to be easier to add photos and videos to your emails. There is also a VIP list where you can put all the important people whose emails you do not want to miss.

Safari
Browsing has now got better, the iCloud tabs keep track of which pages you have open and whatever apple device is handier at the time, the page you were on will come up. Safari now saves the pages, not just the links, on your reading page so if you’re busy you can stop and start as you please. And if you’re uploading photos on eBay, Gumtree, etc you can select photos from your camera roll without closing down Safari.

Accessibility
The iPhone and iPad have now been made easier for everyone to use, whether you are hard of hearing, have sight problems, or learning or mobility problems, iOS6 has features that can help you, VoiceOver, Assistive Touch and a built in hearing aid feature to name a few.

Camera with Panorama
The times of shouting at large groups and family to move in a bit at the left, and squeeze in at the right are long gone with this new update. The new feature (only on 4S and 5) means you can shoot up to 240 degrees, horizontally or vertically. Then the hardware and software work together in seconds to create a seamless, high-resolutions panoramic shot for you.

Find my iPhone
Sometimes we leave our iPhone, iPad or iPod touch in places when our minds on other things, now you are able to track where you left it and sent a message to the device, with your number and get it back.

Find My Friends
The friends and family who share their location with you will feature on your map, so when your mum is running late to see you, you’ll be able to see where she is and how long it will take for her to get there.

So in Summary
When you get the pop-up to say “iOS6 software download available” click on it quick, all these great updates and advances are waiting for you!