After what seemed like an eternity, the Google speech recognition search update for iPhone is finally available. (Hint: Just click on the “Get App” button and you’ll get it.)

So how does it stack up to the video? It works as advertised…beautifully! I decided to search for the obvious, Chinese food, and it promptly brought up the many Chinese restaurants in my neighborhood. I then went back into the app and saw that it remembered my search history, and I saw “Opus comic strip” which had been missing from my Sunday comics. I said “Opus comic strip” and it quickly brought up several links, one in particular was the answer to my question: the comic has been moved to the web. I tried others, “Nickelodeon’s Big Green Help” and “Auto Bailout” - all worked seamlessly.

This is a rarity in the speech/voice recognition software world. Usually promises are made and magic is expected but, we all get a nice bag of nothin’ because of one malfunction or another. I’m interested in what all of you think of it, when you’ve tried it out.

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Google released a video today, demonstrating the new update to Google’s Mobile app for iPhone. Supposedly launching today (hope it doesn’t crash iTunes when it happens,)
you do search in the Google Mobile app by speaking to it. As most app can do now, it knows when you have lifted it o your ear, and when your done. The video show that it is flawless and works beautifully.

Time will tell though.

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Much has been said about the iPhone. That it’d never amount to much. That it is a fad and won’t last. “What does the iPhone offer that other smart phones don’t? The answer is not much.” And so on, and so on.

MacDailyNews has a beautiful long list of all the quotes from the folks who balked at Apple’s ambitions and innovation.

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I just had to post the entire blog post that Richard Sprague wrote on January 18, 2007, saying that the iPhone would fail to live up to expectations; and that 10M iPhones would not be sold by Apples deadline of within the calendar year of 2008.

Steve Jobs says Java is history
In this quote with the New York Times

I remember the lessons I learned working with the Newton team many years ago. I was in Apple’s marketing department at the time and we did this big fancy user study which basically proved that nobody would buy the thing at the price and functionality we were building. So what did we do? We shoved it into the market anyway because it was “cool”. Cool is great, but you still need to make phone calls.

Gee - I’m not carrying around a second phone. Are you?

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Yesterday, in its fiscal Q4 08 financial results, Apple revealed that their iPhone has surpassed Research In Motion’s Blackberry sales, all in a total of one year. Apple blew past and exceeded it’s past 4 quarters, selling more than the expected 4 million units of iPhones. Apple cleared nearly 6.9 million iPhones. In this telling report, Apple is now the 3rd largest mobile phone maker by revenue, trailing just behind Nokia and Samsung. Apple is ahead of once giants Sony, LG, Motorola and RIM.

Apple also exceeded sales estimates in the Mac and iPod department as well, selling more Macs than in any quarter and more ipods than any non-holiday quarter. With Macs, Apple sold 2.611 million, more than the company has ever sold in one quarter in its history.

From Apple Insider: “Apple last week saw a “very, very strong launch” of new notebooks, according to Jobs, although the company separately notes that rumors and press leading up to the launch likely caused customers to delay their new Mac purchases until the new MacBooks were released. Apple is unsure how much the economy impacted Mac sales.

Jobs said netbooks still represent a “nascent category.” He considers the iPhone a form of entrant to the netbook category as it performs many of the functions, just in a smaller form factor. That said, he noted that Apple hold some very “interesting ideas” in the netbook arena should the field evolve into a booming market segment.”

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Jason Grigsby and his team have launched the Obama ’08 iPhone app today. What does it do? It provides a way to be plugged into the Obama/Biden campaign, providing tools giving you the ability to actually make a difference!

Find your local Obama/Biden campaign headquarters, and get updated on the vents going on, and how you can participate. Call friends to get out the vote, and see the stats of callers, compare your results to other callers; browse videos and photos from the campaign, read the Obama/Biden campaign plan to turn the country around, receive updates and most importantly - Get Involved!

Download it here!

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As a web and graphic designer, brand expert, and web journalist, I have many, many bookmarks and massive amounts of information I need to collect and remember. Until the amazing and innovative Evernote showed up, I was an ADD mess and my office was a battlefield of papers Post-It Notes and notebooks. Evernote is an application and your own personal database that…well… I’ll let them tell you: Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and make this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere.

How it Works

Evernote lets you “capture” information: text, photos, entire web pages, parts of web pages, scribbled notes, text on a coffee can, photos, old Post-It notes, your water bill, text on a t-shirt, and yes - even Voice Memos! The only thing it doesn’t do is slice and dice your vegetables for you. The best feature is your ability to access Evernote anytime, anywhere. How so? Evernote automatically syncs your information, clips, photos, everything you have captured, to a server. There’s no need to remind it to do so or set a timer, and it syncs to all your devices - desktop, cellphone, and your online account. All versions are intuitive and easy to use and because it is so across the board accessible, you rarely run into a situation where you cannot make, retrieve, or edit a note. Evernote is available for iPhone and Windows mobile capable cell phones.

Have an object with text on it that you want to remember? How about some scribbled notes on a napkin, or a white-board that you want to erase, but want to keep the info that’s there first? This is where the Evernote’s camera capture comes in. Hold the object, t-shirt, coffee can up to your web cam, and boom. It takes a photo. Here’s the revolutionary part: it can scan and read what is on that photo. The white-board? Just take a photo of it with a regular camera and import it in. You also have the options of creating voice memos or text memos. Tags are a great asset to collecting and organizing your information. You can group items together by any name. Each new note has a field for Title, Tags and Source. Search for “Design,” it will pull up all items with Design involved.

What’s the Cost?

Evernote is free up to 40MB of space. After that it is an annual fee of $45.00. That is pretty cheap compared to most storage systems, and not all of them have the superior capabilities that are included.

What can I do with it?

A few things you can do with the application (although the list is endless):

Collect Research for Writing and Blogging

I’m a journalist in many ways, and Evernote helps me retain a lot of information, photo reference, and research material. Sure, I could bookmark, and I do have a huge collection of bookmarks. However, with Evernote I’m able to collect small snippets of information, quotes or any other information I would need, all in one place. No need to click on a bookmark and scour a web page to look for that item I wanted to use. I rarely need to remember an entire web page, just the information that is relevant to my story or blog entry. Need to remember what web site the photo or quote came from? When you copy and paste into Evernote from the web, the link to the source web site is put with the content.

Save Paper and Say Bye-Bye to Post-It Notes

If you’re employed or in school, inevitably you will have lists, notes, and Post-Its to remind you of little items that come up throughout your day. I have been known to be the Post-It King. My mind is constantly on overdrive and there are light-bulbs popping in my head all day. When I remember something I forgot to add to my list in “Things” (a Getting Things Done application) I immediately grab a Post-It Note, write it down and slap it on my computer, desktop, In-Box or somewhere I’ll be sure to be reminded. Evernote tosses that habit and wasted paper aside. Not only is it more efficient, it saves paper and you can share these items if you need to with colleagues, friends, or the PTA. Your office will be cleaner, and you won’t have that nagging feeling like you’re bombarded with, “Look at Me!” neon Post-Its everywhere.

Create an Inspiration or Idea File

Entrepreneurs like you and me always have ideas that hit us at any time of the day, even on weekends. Capture your ideas in a notebook file. Write it down, log it into Evernote if you have your cell phone, or take a picture that will be a visual reminder. I have 2 online side businesses that I am preparing to launch. I have a notebook file for each of them, and I throw everything that is about them in those files. One of my favorites is the Inspiration notebook file. I am constantly seeing illustrations, artwork and graphics that I am drawn to and inspired by.

GTD - Assisting in David Allen’s Time Management System

For those who don’t know, there is a system that I use for time management called “Getting Things Done.” This system, (aka GTD) relies on what is called a “Brain Dump” - meaning you sit for an hour or more and write down all the things you need to do. Getting all the tasks going on in your head, out and into a trusted system, allows you to focus and be more efficient. Using a notebook file for everything you need to do; you can then move these items into whatever software you use to schedule and process these tasks. Like a collection bucket for your brain!

The Uses of Evernote Endless:

Create Library of Knowledge -

Web coders can archive code snippets they use on a repeated basis, prepare for a trip to Europe and collect a library of history or sites to see.

Archive Receipts - have them available in one place come tax time

Digitize Collection of Recipes - cooking recipes or technical recipes

Genealogy Archive - Collect all of your family’s history, all in one place

Window Shopping - Weird but - think about it.

Student Studies Archive notes, Flash Cards, and research

Do you have uses for Evernote I haven’t listed? Let me know in your comments and I’ll add them to the list!

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I feel a little late to the party to cover this but, here goes: There are plenty of apps now in Apple’s iTunes iPhone App store, but unlike brainstorming, quantity over quality should have been ruled out. Many Apple sites and blogs have their top 10 lists, but I’d rather just tell you which ones I’ve found useful. In part 2, I’ll go into the games I have found not only fun, but absurdly addicting. This time though, it is all about the Productivity!

Things - David Allen’s Getting Things Done time management system is one of the best around to keep me organized and sane. Things is modeled after the GTD system and does a beautiful job. It hits all the right notes for me - simple, clean, and follows 95% of what the GTD system offers. I’m still waiting for the version they were to release ($39.00) but this one does the trick for me. Things syncs to my desktop, making my GTD ecosystem cohesive and as one.

Wordpress - The crew at Wordpress got this one right with their first try. I use Wordpress for this blog and others, I even tutor clients on how to use it. Without Marsedit, Wordpress can be kinda clunky and slow. Sure we now have Google’s Turbo, but not for the iPhone.

Thankfully, we know have Wordpress for the iPhone. Oy! That means I have no excuse for not blogging consistently, I can do it from anywhere. The UIE is gorgeous, as you’d come to expect from anything made for OS X. I think the best part is the ability to write entries anytime, anywhere, and save them as local drafts. That alone would be worth the price, if they ever do charge for it.

Instapaper - I constantly find great articles and research resources on the web I’d like to read, but when I find them I just don’t have the time to read them on the spot. Instapaper fits the bill, saving web pages for you to read on the go and you don’t need an internet connection. You have the option to view the pages as they actually look on the web or as plain text. It is free, but for an inexpensive $10.00 you can upgrade to Pro which has Tilt Scrolling, among other good morsels to make it even more helpful. I did not find on the free version this surprising jewel - syncing with your desktop!

1password - I never imagined that my once small stack of Post-Its with my web usernames and passwords would grow to the size they are today. As each day passes in our Internet 24/7 lives, the more log-in information we collect. 1Password makes logging into any web site a breeze. Starting with the desktop version, they simplified this process, and anytime you log in, 1Password asks you whether you’d like that information saved. After that, you’ll never forget another log-in again.

Evernote - This app began as a desktop app, just as 1Password did. The thing that makes Evernote rock is that you can put anything in it so you NEVER forget. Here’s some examples of what this sharp program allows you to do: gives you the capability to copy entire web pages by manually copy and pasting, taking a screen shot of a web site and storing it, throw photos, text, color swatches, wine labels, anything you like - and the best part is the “take a photo note.” You can choose “iSight Note” and find anything that has some text on it, hold it up to your desktop camera (I use my iMac’s iSight.) Save it and do a search for what text was on that item - This sucker READS text on anything, truly cool and helpful. I’ve used some magazine pages, just because I didn’t want to tear them out. One particular use for me is my Whiteboard in my office - Just in case I forget to transfer anything that’s there, I take a pic of it before I erase it and start brainstorming again.

More on Evernote will be coming in my complete review of the app coming soon.

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Now that the iPhone 3G, the 2.0 software, the app store and MobileMe have had time get their kinks worked out, and had a chance to breathe a little easier, the spotlight now is being moved to Apple’s other big seller: Macs. The MacBook line in particular, will finally have it’s day in the spotlight, all by itself - for once.

The rumor mills have kicked into high gear since Apple’s third quarter 2008 conference call, when Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s Chief Financial Officer repeatedly mentioned some new mysterious products in the pipeline that would impact 4th quarter gross margins.

“We are working to develop new products that contains technologies that our competition will not be able to match. I cannot discuss these new products, but we are very confident in our product pipeline.”- Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer

Many of the Apple forums and professional Apple tech sites such as Apple Insider, Venturebeat’s MG Siegler and MacDailyNews began to speculate about what Oppenheimer was hinting at. The possibility of the debut of the i-Tablet, a version of the now famously ugly older step-sister of the iPhone, the Newton. Others have drooled over the prospect of an iPhone Nano, which to me is really putting the cart before the horse.
Why would Apple put out a cheaper, candy-bar size iPhone, so soon after the 3G launch? Makes you wonder what kind of kool-aid they’re drinking.

The better, more solid bet is the MacBook line getting a re-fresh. What kind of re-fresh? Try an entire line of MacBooks with an all aluminum case, possibly glass track-pad, and more curves, taking cues from the MacBook Air. What about the insides? Would you believe no Intel chips at all? That’s the rumor.

Apple Insider explains:

As such, people familiar with these plans say an upcoming generation of Macs, lead by a trio of redesigned notebooks, won’t adopt the Montevina chipset announced as part of Intel’s Centrino 2 mobile platform earlier this month. What’s more, those same people suggest the chipset employed by the new wave of Macs may have little or nothing to do with Intel at all. (This should not be confused with the primary CPU, which will continue to come from Intel.)

Whatever Apple decides, I’m sure it’ll be a smart one that gives a nice swift gut-kick to the competition. Some are also speculating that in order to move that gut-kick in motion, some MacBooks are going to be at a price point of $1,000.00. Mesh that with the new design, solid architecture, and of course the sharp, OS X and you have a nice razor belly rub.

So there you have it: Apple’s mystery products solved. I’ll bet all my chips on the MacBook line being refreshed please!

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If you have a iPhone 3G, then you know all too well that the power gets sucked up from the battery over a period of 8 hours. 3 or less if you have the 3G turned off. I haven’t done a scientific survey, so those numbers are just guesstimates.

I knew about this issue before I even got my 3G iPhone, so as I usually do, I started to research the options available for back-up battery options. I looked at many sites, and eventually picked FastMac’s iV battery pack. It has twice the full runtime of the iPhone’s existing power cell, a light on the side the camera is on, (but on the opposite edge) and it was unanimously the Editor’s choice for Best In Show at the 2008 MacWorld.

This was my first official online purchase on my iPhone, which made it that much more sweet. One problem though. I didn’t think about the fact that maybe the 3G wouldn’t fit in the pack. I thought, “Hmm. I’m sure it’ll work, why wouldn’t it?” This was after seeing that the iPod dock I had fit perfectly.

After a week of nothing other than an e-mail stating that now my iV battery pack would ship in “just 7 days!!” - I received a phone call from them to verify my address. I asked, “One question - will this work with the 3G phone?” The guy told me, “well, yes it will work, but if you’re willing to wait 4-8 weeks, we’ll send you the new 3G model at no additional charge.” SWEET!

Of course I went for it. I had already been without battery back-up for 14 or so days, 4-8 weeks will fly by. So, the reason for this post is: I highly recommend FastMac. They “Get It” when it comes to the Apple experience and especially the fan base. Those t-shirts are another testament to that - the one I like best is the black shirt with the official Apple, “Works with iPhone” label.

Now if I could just wrangle them into an affiliate program, I’d be set.

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