Can you believe it? I couldn’t at first. Now we are getting ever so close to the age of the Jetsons! I tested it out for myself. I tried listening to a wide variety of shows to try and stump the software but all attempts failed. It event detected when I was trying to listen to a commercial. The only thing that stumped IntoNow was a local news broadcast. The app also can not detect movies that have not been broadcasted on TV yet. I tried testing it with Paranormal Activity 2 and it could not detect it.

So what is magic juice for IntoNow? The software uses their own patented indexing technology called soundprint. They can identify what’s being watched down to the invidual episode.  They have an index that covers 140 million minutes of previously aired shows, equivalent to 266 years of video! I have played with the app a couple of times now and the transitions between screens is super smooth. The is also able to find shows within a few seconds which is impressive. Once its found a show, all you have to click is share, post a comment if you want, and click done. The one feature that is lacking that Miso and GetGlue both have is a gaming system. Miso and GetGlue awards you points and badges based on the number of times you checkin to a type of show or some other criteria. I do not see that as an option with IntoNow. They could add it later.

I love the app so far and I’m gonna try playing around with it some more but right now its my goto app for TV Checkins. More screenshots below showcasing more of the features.

I’m sure everyone and their brother has seen the news of the new Apple iPad. Its touted as being a revolutionary product. Apple says its to fill void between a laptop and a smart phone. It runs off the iPhone 3.2 OS and as such has alot of the same features of the iPhone minus the phone of course. Here are the main features:

I’ve read alot of the commentary online about the advantages and disadvantages. How its just a bigger iphone/ipod touch. How there is no multi-tasking or camera. No Flash in Safari, just like the iPhone.

I believe the iPad is not a netbook but a really polished internet appliance. This is a media consumption device. If you need the features of a netbook, Apple has those features already in their macbook line. I believe apple wants a polished device for doing one thing, consuming media. I think if Apple added multi-tasking, flash, and other “computer” related function, you would get a lesser experience. I do agree that will give the Amazon Kindle a run for its money. At $499 if I had to choose between a Kindle or iPad for an e-book reader, I’d choose the iPad.

I think that now that the world has seen what this device can do, it will become a model for other manufacturers to strive to beat, a benchmark so to speak. The iPad’s launch is similar to when the iPod came out back in 2001. There were other MP3 players in the market but Apple thought “existing digital music players are ‘big and clunky or small and useless’ with user interfaces that were ‘unbelievably awful’.”

As Steve Jobs mentioned in his keynote announcing the iPad:

“Netbooks aren’t better at anything. They’re slow. They have low quality displays and they run clunky old PC software.”

Apple is again trying to build a product different from the rest of the pack that others will try to emulate or surpass. Only time will tell if Apple’s gamble will pay off in the tablet market.

Sources: [Wikipedia] [iPad Keynote]

I just recently purchased an iPhone 3GS and these five apps are ones I found while doing some research for myself.  Now be warned, I don’t have deep pockets so I have not purchased any of these apps with the exception of Roadee. So instead of being a review, this is merely a list which showcases each app as described in the apple app store. Each of these apps should work with an iPhone 3G or 3GS. They will not work with the original iPhone since it did not have a GPS built-in.  Keep reading to find out more about the AT&T Navigator, CoPilot Live, TomTom, Roadee, and OSMTrack.

1). AT&T Navigator: $9.99/month

Basically once you download the app, you’ll be billed monthly on your AT&T wireless bill. I would suggest this to anyone that just needs a GPS application temporary like for a vacation or long road trip. The notes on the apple store page says you can cancel at any time.

FEATURES:

• Voice-Guided and 3D onscreen navigation
• Automatic rerouting
• Automatic map updates
• Real-time traffic updates

REVIEWS:

Review: AT&T Navigator for iPhone – Geek.com
AT&T Navigator GPS Review – PC World

SCREENSHOTS:

2). Copilot Live North America: $34.99

Copilot Live is developed by ALK Technologies and they make GPS software for mobile devices such as the the iPhone, Android and as well as laptops. Unlike the AT&T Navigator, all of the maps are stored on your iPhone itself so the application itself takes up 1.1 GB.

FEATURES:

• Turn-by-turn voice directions
• Rather than streaming map information, all of the map data is stored on your iPhone
• Portrait/landscape display auto-switching
• Automatic day/night mode
• LiveLink - apparently you can do location sharing and messaging with other CoPilot users.
• Live Weather information
• RV mode provides guidance for larger vehicles

REVIEWS:

CoPilot GPS Live navigation app comes to the iPhone – geeks.com
Co-Pilot Live for iPhone Review – PDA 247

SCREENSHOTS:

3). TomTom for iPhone: $99.99

The most widely known name in GPS finely has a GPS iPhone app but it is expensive! This app is brand name and just came out August 15th.  Just like the CoPilot, all of the maps on the TomTom are stored on the iPhone so the application takes up 1.2 GB.

FEATURES:

• Turn-by-Turn voice navigation
• “Tap and Go” – basically tap point A to point B and TomTom displays all the best routes
• Portrait/landscape display auto-switching
• Find an entry in your contacts list and TomTom will find the way there (assuming you have their address in the contact list)
• IQ Routes – TomTom’s trademarked smartest routes.

REVIEWS:

TomTom iPhone App GPS Review – GPSReview.net
Hands on: TomTom for iPhone review – TechRadarUK

SCREENSHOTS:

4). Roadee: $1.99

The Roadee is the cheapest of the bunch at just $1.99. The reason for it being so cheap is because it’s based on an OpenSource project called openstreetmap. “Openstreetmap is like wikipedia for maps,” quoted from the app description. The routing information is calculated and provided by another OpenSource project called CloudMade. I did purchase this app,  so I can talk a little bit about its features first hand. This app is not going to win awards based on its looks. It does some of the basic features needed in a GPS like turn-by-turn “voice” directions.  The developers says they are constantly fine turning the application so expect some updates soon. One of the caveats like AT&T’s offering, the maps are loaded on the iPhone and are downloaded as needed. So if your connection drops  or you have a slow internet connection, this may affect your map and routing info.  The install is only 5.1 MB.

FEATURES:

• Turn-by-Turn voice directions
• Ability to plot a course from your home to an address stored in your contacts
• Rudimentary points of interest
• Free Driving

REVIEWS:

None

SCREENSHOTS:

5). OSMTrack: Cost $0.99

This last application is not an application for giving you directions from point A to point B. This application is a tracking app that interfaces with OpenStreetMap project mentioned in the previous app. Had to throw a zigger in there to throw you off. This app is designed for people who would like to contribute to OpenStreetmap development in creating better maps for the OpenSource community. This is for the gungho adventurous types that want to go out there and fix all the wrong map data in the world or at least in your own community.

FEATURES:

• Direct upload to the OpenStreetMap
• Supports multiple tracks
• Precise information on current GPS accuracy
• Compass Rose
• Supports interruptions (basically has a pause recording button)
• Both standard and metric systems

REVIEWS:

None

SCREENSHOTS: