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By Jon Cohen

The number one thing that makes the iPhone such a winner is all those apps. Apps let a smartphone become smarter, and granted all the major players in the smartphone world offer apps. You should note that Apple has more apps. for you to download then Blackberry, Android (Google), Palm/HP (WebOS), Nokia combined. One thing you need to know if you don’t already own an iPhone is that the majority of apps. are free. This fact is one that often shocks people who look at my iPhone and comment on all the apps on the phone and makes the remark “You must have spent a lot of money on apps.”

Here is a list of a few of my favorite apps.

• Facebook, does this app. even need an explanation? I think not.
• Dropbox is a web (cloud) based file storage system that gives you full access to files and allows you to access them anywhere you go.
• SoundHound, a great app that will figure out the music that is playing and give you info like artist, title, and album. It will also link you to YouTube to watch the video as well as the iTunes music store to buy the song. Very cool, very powerful.
• PhotoShop Express will allow you to do quick and impressive edits to photos. From changing colors to cropping, to adding boarders and more. It is one of the simplest apps out their, plus it is free!
• Another free app is Urban Spoon, a Vegas style slot machine that helps you choose local restaurants with a spin of the wheel. It uses the iPhone GPS to locate where you are and then points you to restaurants in your area that meet your requirements. Whether it is Food type, Price, or locations. Trust the spoon to point you to a great place to eat.
• Echofon / TweetDeck / Twittelator – Best Twitter apps out today. All feature full and rich interface and make sending out “tweets” simple.
• Last is a very addictive game called “Plants vs. Zombies” it is not easy to describe in a few words. You are planting plants to fight zombies as they try to attack your house. Simple game but tons of fun. Great for everyone!

When it comes to accessories I will not be so specific to give out brands and such, rather the accessory types.

The number one thing is a speaker system, regardless of you listening to the music you moved from your computer or the music that can be heard from streaming music apps, it is a pain to listen to on the iPhone’s speaker. So get a good sounding set of speakers and if you find a pair that have the iPod dock built in then you can recharge the phone at the same time. Staying on the topic of sound, a good pair of headphone would be a very nice add on. Yes you do get a pair of Apple headphones in the box, but after a month with them they will go from a white color to a off-white and full of dirt. Plus sound of a better headphone can really help you enjoy the iPhone. The last accessory is a case, although I don’t use one, many people do love to trick out their iPhone with a cool case. A case will also help protect the iPhone from bumps or drops.

Their you have it, 4 Days of the iPhone 4. In conclusion I will state if you are going to buy a smartphone then the iPhone is the best choice for most people. If you currently own the iPhone, iPhone 3 then this upgrade to the iPhone 4 will be a welcomed change. But if you are like me and had the iPhone 3GS, you may not be so sure if you should upgrade. The benefits listed in the past three days of posts lead me to believe it is well worth the upgrade. I do realize it is not for everyone, and to spend the money to change a year old phone. Thus I leave it to you to make the decision.

By Jon Cohen

For day three I decided the battery would be the first think I tested. Before I went to bed I set up the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. Both started with full batteries and Wifi was on for both. Data was turned off on the older 3GS, but not for the iPhone 4. I thought by doing this would balance the scale since the new iPhone has a better battery. I hypothesized that I would find both phones with similar battery levels by morning. Also, I left the same 3 apps open on both phones, and after a refreshing 8 hour sleep I woke to find the iPhone 3GS’s battery was down to 72% and the iPhone 4 was at 84%. Through the night I did get 10 emails and a lot of “tweets” which both phones displayed in the  morning. I knew the iPhone 4 had a bigger battery, but I suppose I didn’t realize how weak the older 3GS’s battery was.

I moved on to the HD Video next. On the phone the video looks sharp and is very clear. I was able to do basic edits directly on the phone as well iMovie is an Apple app. that allows for more rich features so if you want to edit and add titles, music, etc. it would be a great app. to get. I found myself wondering what it would look like once I looked at it on the computer screen. One of the nice parts of the iPhone is how it seamlessly integrates with social media. With the ability to upload to YouTube from the camera app. and how simple it is to post a video to Facebook or Twitter. The downside is that HD video can not be uploaded directly from the phone. You’ll need to use a computer to upload the HD footage. Below I have posted a short video I took from the phone and uploaded directly to YouTube.

As mentioned yesterday the software bug that I have noticed, it is not the much spoken about antenna or the proximity sensor, but the ambient light sensor. This sensor dims the screen when you are in a dark space (like a movie theater or outside at night). From what I can see, the sensor does not work well when compared to the older 3GS version. On the  iPhone 3GS the sensor would dim the screen within seconds, on the iPhone 4 it does not dim at all. A small issue for me, but still a pain in the butt when sitting at the movies and checking my email.

Tomorrow I look at some of my favorite apps. on the iPhone, as well highlighting a few popular accessories that can help enhance your iPhone experience. After all you’ll want the iPhone to fit in with your lifestyle and accessories are a great way to do that.

Read Day 1

Read Day 2

By Jon Cohen

So as you may have noticed it is SUMMER! This means from most a chance to get out of the house head to the beach or go on vaycay. Before heading to the lake or on to the airplane lets make sure you have the right gear to capture those amazing moments that you will want to live in motion beyond your memories. Today we will look at a few options for small and compact camera’s that can be used to catch all the events happening over the summer.

I will be looking at the simple “shoot and share” camcorders, these are very popular. First thing to remember is that small and portable does not mean crappy picture. With all the advances in technology over the last 5 years we have seen the most to smaller devices that can give you just as good quality as your 3 year old camcorder. Where most of these newer video recording devices fall short is when it comes to night usage. Yes some do have LCD mini lights that come built-in, but for the most part they don’t really do the job. So with that being said you will need to make sure you are in a well lit area to do pleasing night videos. Other then that these small camera’s are great. Most offer 720p HD video output. But don’t be fooled by the HD logo, they still give you the same picture you seen on your television during HD programming. In fact the philosophy that bad video capturing will bring you bad video output, this is nothing new, but now that bad video is in HD. So please remember to hold steady, don’t move the camera to fast from left to right and please, please, please remember that video only looks good one and that is horizontal so keep the camera the right direction.

Now that we got the basics out of the way lets look at brands to try out. Kodak, Flip Video, Coby and Sony each of these use the basic built-in flash memory for quick capture and each offer a quick transfer solution to bring the video to an editor or directly to the web (though the computer). After testing a few, I found that all give nice video during the day, and the Sony was the one that gave the nicest and most accurate colors during testing. By far the Flip Video was able to offer the cream of the crop with the SlideHD a touch screen based video camera, it should be noted it is also the most costly and newest to the market. While the Kodak and Coby where great value choices. None of the tested units gave great results in night or indoor use, but as stated before if you are in a well lit location you can get very pleasing video.

Regardless of which product you choose you will be able to easily share these  memories online or with friends and family by hooking the camera up to the television. Now stop surfing the web and get out their and enjoy the summer.

By Jon M. Cohen – New Media Specialist

“What is Twitter?” My 65-year-old mother asks me? This question emerges after she is told that Elizabeth Taylor is on Twitter (A celebrity she is fond of). I look at my mother and just pretend she never asked the question and go on with my day. I think to myself; “Elizabeth Taylor is on Twitter, this may be a sign of the end of the world”. Yes, I do say that tongue in cheek, but the real significant point to take from this fact is that Twitter is getting big, real big and even for people who are so non-technology related (both in age and knowledge).

As for the masses, the average everyday person who is using Twitter and loving it we have seen a great step forward in how and what people can tweet about. Like traditional mass media that evolved from print to audio to video we see with the addition of video to the new Apple iPhone 3GS great changes are on the horizon. With the native ability to post video from the iPhone to YouTube, Mobile Me or share it with email or MMS it gives iPhone owners a lot of choices; but the missing parts to this equation in my view is the ability to share these rich media files with Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed. But like in most situations like this, when we see a gap in the technology we can find ways to fill the gap, thus with the iPhone SDK, developers have had a chance to create Apps that can help bridge the gap.

One Video App that I have had a chance to test out is an iPhone App called TweetReel. It is a simple and clean looking App that offers great functionality. Colin from TweetReel was kind enough to disclose to me that even though the App is launching July 7, 2009 and is a great way to share your videos and pictures from the iPhone; this will not stop the TweetReel development team to continue improving the App. He feels that TweetReel will see some great improvements from the soon to be released iPhone 3.1 software update.

From my testing, I have had good experiences with this App. The only issue that I have seen with this App is related to a short video I took and was posting it to my Twitter when a phone call came in, after the call the iPhone went back into the TweetReel App but was not able to keep video saved. My solution to the issue is to capture the video in the native camera app and then just use TweetReel to post the video to my Twitter feed. A simple and effective solution!

One of the nice features of TweetReel is the easy user account setup, and because TweetReel uses your Twitter name your followers have a consistent way of finding you. The price for TweetReel will be $0.99 on launch day (July 7, 2009) and then move up to $2.99. In my opinion this is a small price to pay to get this level of integration to Twitter. Some other future plans for TweetReel include the addition of Facebook, as well being able to save video (thus fixing my above stated issue).

I would highly suggest giving TweetReel a try; it is a great App that has a lot of value for anyone who likes to share video in his or her Twitter feed. My TweetReel, My Twitter

Well, democracy is running wild around the world!

As the United States plans on lifting the embargo on Cuba, we see a move by Facebook to allow a democratic vote to set the “Terms of Service – the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Facebook Principles”. A move that is quite in contrast to the move that Facebook made about two months ago when they told all users that they own all the users content on the site. But why make such a huge 180-degree turn? Why let people vote? Can it really be democratic? These are only answers that time will tell, and the actions of Facebook in the next few months will really show the users and the world if they believe in democracy or if this is just a big hoax. 

Some interesting points to keep in mind are the following;

1. Will Facebook users even read the proposed changes document? It is to be assumed that most users of Facebook are not aware of the right that they have given to Facebook originally and further more don’t have the patients to read the suggested changes.

2. Will Facebook China be allowed to vote in a democratic election? Since China has not had a democratic vote politically for years, it can be assumed that the governing rulers will not want to allow such freedoms. As well all other non-democratic countries, will they have a chance to vote?

3. Will Facebook be opening themselves up to a world of unexpected user expectations by suggesting that they are now democratic? It would be assumed that by letting the users vote on this topic that Facebook users may now expect and want to vote on all other future changes since this precedent is being set.

It is a good move in my opinion to let users vote and get involved, I am not sure if I would say it is the best idea because once pandora’s box is opened it will be very difficult to close and now Facebook users will expect to vote all further changes. This might cause even greater push back against Facebook in years to come; as it can me assumed that Facebook will not want to release control.