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iSnooze Uses iTunes to Turn Your PC Into an Alarm Clock

Jared Moya — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:01:41 +0000

Program lets you schedule times for iTunes to wake you from your slumber, complete with spacebar-activated snooze function.

The worst thing about an alarm aclock, aside from the fact that it heralds the start of each work day with unabashed indifference, is that there's usually no way to customize what music wakes you from your slumber. Some are at the mercy of a computerized terrestrial radio DJ, and the more sadistic (or lazy) opt for the default pings of the ubiquitous buzzer we've all come to know and hate. But there is an app for that - a PC app anyways. ISnooze (direct download link) is a tiny program for Windows that runs quietly in your system tray and allows you to schedule times for iTunes to wake you up, complete with a spacebar-activated snooze feature. Features:

Spacebar activated snooze, and configurable snooze time.
Gradual volume increasing.
Multiple alarm schedules.
Playlist selection.
Temporary pausing when you reach your computer to give you time to shut it off.

Instead of being held hostage to the playlist of some distant radio conglomerate you can wake up to the soothing (or body-thumping) beats of your favorite playlist, artist, album, or podcast; on the weekends you can wake up to your favorite movie or TV show if you want. When it comes to podcasts you can check out Dark Ambient [iTunes link] and White Noise Lounge [iTunes link] that provide soothing soundscapes for you to download. There's also several to be found HERE. Want to create a truly custom nature soundtrack of whatever length you want? Then go to Naturesoundsfor.me. It allows you to mix four different sounds (birds, waterfalls, creek, ocean, snowstorm, thunder, animals, drums, and more) and export to a .MP3 file. The more daring might opt for the sound of Darth Vader (yes, Darth Vader!). Here's one I made. So the next time you wake up wanting to kill your alarm clock, perhaps iSnooze is just what the doctor ordered. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com | @jaredmoya

>> Download iSnooze 1.3.3 (Direct Link)

The Best Free Social iPad Apps

Hannah — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:49:56 +0000

A round-up of the best free social iPad apps that will keep your digital life thriving.

Is there anything the iPad can’t do? This list of free social iPad apps will help you stay in touch with friends and family, without having to spend a dime. Hootsuite Manage your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn accounts in one go with the Hootsuite iPad app. You can use up to 5 social networking accounts at a time for free - if you have more, you will need to pay $5 per month for a Pro account. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you can sync with your existing Hootsuite account, or create a new one from scratch. The Hootsuite app comes with many of the desktop client’s features, including the ability to schedule status updates, geotag tweets and automatically shorten links. Flipboard Flipboard consolidates the latest updates from your social media accounts and uses them to create a personal magazine. Compatible with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr and more, Flipboard eliminates the need to switch between accounts. The digital magazine updates in real time and provides link previews and full-size pictures. You can still share, retweet and comment on items through Flipboard, and the magazine layout is far more beautiful and interesting than Facebook or Twitter’s designs. StumbleUpon The StumbleUpon app lets you take your Stumbles mobile. Search other people’s stumbles, stumble your own items, and share content through Facebook, Twitter or old-fashioned email. If you’ve already signed up to StumbleUpon, you can sync the app with your web account. Otherwise, choose from the app’s list of interests or type a word into the search box to get started. Yelp Yelp is a community review app where you can search for local businesses, including stores, restaurants, bars and cafes, then read other users’ reviews of the establishment. You can post reviews, photos and tips for other Yelp users and get contact information and deals for local businesses. The app also comes with a check-in feature, so you can share your location with friends through Facebook and Twitter. Beejive Beejive comes in two versions: separate free apps are available for Facebook, Twitter, Google and other instant messenger programs, or you can upgrade to Beejive IM with Push Notifications. The separate apps enable you to message and chat with contacts using various IM accounts on your iPad. For $9.99, the Beejive IM with Push Notifications app gathers all your IM accounts into one interface, so you don’t have to switch between windows. Beejive is compatible a range of messaging programs, including AIM, Facebook, Google, Jabber, MSN/Windows Live and Yahoo! IM. Gowalla If you’re a travel junkie and want to share your travel tips with friends (or show off your latest destination), Gowalla can help. Find out where your friends have been, what they recommend, and get local expert tips on what to see and do at major cities and destinations around the world. You can access photos, area guides from Gowalla users, Disney and National Geographic, and use Gowalla’s “nearby guide” to find out what’s happening in the area. This travel app currently covers areas of the US, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. hannah@zeropaid.com

Leave no Question Unanswered: Top 5 iPhone Search Apps

Hannah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:19:42 +0000

5 iPhone search apps that will help you answer those burning questions anywhere, anytime.

Remember those days when you had to wait until you were at a computer to look up information? With the dawn of the iPhone era, that time is well and truly over. Here are five top iPhone search apps that cover everything you could possibly need - and much, much more. JumpSearch The JumpSearch iPhone app has access to 40 popular US websites, meaning you can find what you’re looking for without having to type out the full URL of a search engine or store. The website categories featured in the JumpSearch app include storefront and web retail, news and sports, book sellers, finance, reference, general search and social networks. Once you tap in what you’re looking for, you can choose which store or search engine you want to use to find it. You can mail the search results to a friend or open the page in Safari to browse further. Price: $1.99 Siri OK, Siri isn’t technically an app, but it's still worth a mention. Siri is an intelligent personal assistant installed on the iPhone 4S. Like a real personal assistant, you can ask Siri questions and it will perform tasks on your iPhone or provide you with answers. You can ask Siri for restaurant recommendations, directions, business details and web searches. To access Siri on an iPhone, hold down the Home button until “How can I help you?” appears on the screen. Siri is currently only available on the iPhone 4S. Price: FREE (pre-installed on iPhone 4S) AroundMe When you’re in unfamiliar territory and hunger strikes, you want to get cash, or you need to find a gas station, the AroundMe iPhone app will come to the rescue. Choosing from business categories including banks, bars, drug stores, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, movie theaters, restaurants and taxis, you can find almost anything you need. AroundMe shows you where relevant establishments are located and maps out the route from your current location. You can save the information to your contact list or email it to a friend. Price: FREE. Zillow The Zillow iPhone app takes the hassle out of house-hunting by letting you scout out rental and purchase prices in any neighborhood in the U.S. As well as getting “Zestimate” sale and rental values for any individual home, you can search homes for sale and rent by location, or have a peek at those in the area you’re driving or walking through. If you want a certain-sized apartment, or need to stick to a budget, Zillow can help you find homes using search filters. Save homes for later, share them with friends or show your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Price: FREE Wikipanion As the King of reference websites, a Wikipedia iPhone app is a must for those moments when you just have to find out the answer to something. Wikipanion streamlines Wikipedia access for iPhone users. It contains intelligent features, such as a table of contents browser that knows where you are in the page and bookmarking. You can view your history grouped by last visit and also use the Wiktionary dictionary without leaving your current page. Wikipanion is advert free, so you won’t get noisy pop-ups interrupting your browsing sessions. Price: FREE hannah@zeropaid.com

RapidShare Launches Mobile App for iPhone

Jared Moya — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:38:09 +0000

New RapidShare app for iPhone lets you share, upload, or stream content on the go.

File-hosting site RapidShare is expanding its reach to the mobile phone market with the launch of its new iPhone app. RapidShare for iPhone ensures that users always have access to their stores files so that they can manage and send them on the go. Users can share, upload, or even stream virtually every multimedia format with and on the app. Store a couple of movies or playlists of your favorite songs, for example to stream on your iPhone while you're waiting to catch a flight. "The iPhone app expands our supply of services onto the mobile sector," says Alexandra Zwingli, CEO of RapidShare. "This app is only one further step in our process of continuously improving our service in the best interests of our customers.” Features:

File Manager: to manage and download files
Share: send files quickly and easily
Bookmarks: access the most frequently used files directly
Audio: organize files in playlists and play them directly on your mobile device
Instant media: record and save pictures and videos easily
Settings: configure access via Wi-Fi networks

[gallery link="file"] As I mentioned a few days ago in listing alternatives to shuttered file-hosting site MegaUpload, RapidShare allows free users to upload an unlimited of data with no maximum file size that is deleted after 30 days. RapidPro customers get unlimited file storage durations and enhanced download speeds.

The RapidShare for iPhone app is free for RapidPro customers (RapidShare with RapidPro), but costs $3.99 for free RapidShare users (RapidShare for free user). RapidShare adds that a mobile app for the iPad will be released some time in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com | @jaredmoya

Google Music: New Music Service is Like iTunes Meets Facebook

Jared Moya — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Now you can download and stream music on the go while also sharing purchased music with family and friends via Google+; Artist hub allows unsigned artists to sell music directly to fans.

Google Music officially opened for business the other day, becoming the third main digital music store alongside iTunes and Amazon. A beta version launched back in May, but until now it was merely a cloud music storage service and lacked music for sale. That's all changed. Google has worked to hard to make sure that it stands out from the competition, tying it into its Google+ social networking platform so that you can seamlessly share purchased tracks with family and friends. Many surely wonder whether it can even compare to the mighty iTunes, but this feature should somewhat alleviate those concerns. Google Music is sort of like iTunes meets Facebook, combining digital music sales with social networking interaction. Google Music also offers a trove of unlimited free daily MP3 downloads of music you'll actually want to hear, unlike iTunes. Today for example, features the likes of Jane's Addiction and Coldplay. One you download a track and save it to your Google Music library you can select the "share" button to post the track on your Google+ page for whatever circle of contacts to see. Friends are then able to listen to that track (once) and perhaps buy it themselves. ITunes might have Ping for users to share music with family and friends, but who, if anybody even uses it? Google Music still has the free music cloud dtorage service that holds up to 20,000 songs, though unlike iTunes and its Match subscription service, users have to upload all of their songs. Another great feature in Google Music is the new artist hub. Now bands can sell their music directly to their fans. Build your own artist page, set your own prices, and sell your songs on your own terms (70-30 split with Google). "Whether you’re on a label or the do-it-yourself variety, artists are at the heart of Google Music," writes Google in a blog post. "With the Google Music artist hub, any artist who has all the necessary rights can distribute his or her own music on our platform, and use the artist hub interface to build an artist page, upload original tracks, set prices and sell content directly to fans—essentially becoming the manager of their own far-reaching music store." So taken altogether Google Music is definitely pulling out all the stops to really set it apart from the competition. Download the Google Music app HERE if you haven't already. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Apple’s iTunes Match Goes Live with iTunes Update

Jared Moya — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:25:45 +0000

Long-awaited iCloud update allows users to access their music library from anytime, anywhere; for $24.99 per year iTunes matches and adds songs in your library to iCloud, uploading only those songs not available.

Apple is shaking up the music industry once again, finally launching the highly anticipated iTunes Match service with the latest version of iTunes, version 10.5.1. ITunes Match allows users to store their entire music library in the cloud - iCloud - and listen to their music anytime, anywhere. For $24.99 per year users can stream their music on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC - whenever you want and wherever you are. How it works is that iTunes Match scans your music library, determines what music you own, and then adds it to iCloud for you to stream. ITunes Match will only upload those songs not available in iTunes. "Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices," said Apple in a press release. "Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality." ICloud went live early last month with iTunes version 10.5, and Apple promised iTunes Match would be available sometime "later," but before the month's end. That deadline came and went, and iTunes Match was limited to extended developer testing until today. What makes iTunes Match so remarkable is that it will legitimize illegally downloaded music. The service can't determine what music has or has not been legally purchased. So for those of you out there sitting on 400GB+ MP3 treasure troves, record labels might just have finally found a way to get money from your after all. The only limit to this, however is that iTunes Match has a 25,000 song limit for music not purchased in iTunes so you might have to pick winners and losers as far as what music you want to have in the cloud. Google launched a similar Cloud-based music streaming service back in April with Google Music. Though free, Google Music requires users to upload all of their music with a 20,000 song maximum. For those with slow Internet connections it could be weeks or months before you were through. If that's not a concern you could always bypass the single account 20,000 song maximum by setting up several different gMail and Google Music accounts. You could, for example have one dedicated solely to house music, and another to hip hop. I have two: one for Beatles and guitar-themed tunes, and another for House and Electronica. To get started with iTunes Match, first download and install iTunes version 10.5.1. Next, open the iTunes Store and select "iTunes Match: from the right-hand sidebar. Once there, select the "Subscribe for $24.99" tab. What do you think about iTunes Match? Do you plan on subscribing? Stay tuned. jared@zeroapid.com

Top 5 Camera Apps for the iPhone

Jared Moya — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:51:33 +0000

A rundown of five of the best camera apps available for Apple's iPhone.

These days there really is no excuse to be a bad photographer, especially for Apple iPhone users. IPhones are increasingly sporting cameras that give standard handheld digital models a run for their money. Helping matters are the creation of apps that are able turn otherwise boring and stale snapshots into stunning photographic works of art. Now there's quite a few camera apps available in the iTunes app store, amd so sorting through all the clutter can take quite a bit of time. There are camera apps for fun and pleasure while there are also camera apps for important family moments. Some of them have filters to choose from to make your pictures seem more interesting while others can turn your surroundings into a 360-degree panoramic picture. Some are instant. Some are for vacation. Some are clean. Some are for art. One thing they do all have in common, however is that they will make your pictures look like you're a seasoned photographer. Here's a list of what I consider to be the top five camera apps of the bunch.

1. Instagram

Probably the most popular iPhone camer app of them all. Instagram as over 10 million users, is free, and simple to use. Instagram allows users to take stunning photographs with the the help of an array of filters and tilt-shift blur effects. Features:

Custom designed filters and borders such as XPro-II, Earlybird, Rise, Amaro, Hudson, Lomo-fi, Sutro, Toaster, Brannan, Inkwell, Walden, Hefe, Nashville, 1977, and others.
Linear and Radial Tilt-Shift blur effects for extra depth of field.

It allows for instant sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Posterous. Price: FREE 2. Camera+ The Camera+ app boasts of the ability to turn the iPhone's standrad camera lens into a high-quality SLR(single lens reflexive) lens. It'll help you shoot the best photos with your iPhone that you possibly can. Camera+ comes packed with several useful features that your standard camera app doesn’t include, and wil make sure your pics will improve the instant you start using Camera+. Features:

Exposure and focus control.
Photo flashlight.
Digital zoom.
Shooting modes.
FX effects.
Clarity transformation.

Share your pcis on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Price: $0.99

3. Big Lens

Big Lens is another camera app that claims to turn your iPhone into a professional SLR camera. You can snap a picture and then edit it by setting the aperture, changing periphery blur levels, or adjusting background light to create various effects. I like Big Lens'smart focus and background adjustment tools. You can focus on an object in the foreground, for example, and then blur or darken what's behind it. This can make for some amazing photos, several of which are shown in the demo video below. Features:

Smart Focus System.
Aperture Control.
Filter Effects.
Instant Focus/Blur Tool.
Before & After Preview.

Share your pics via e-mail, Facebook, Picasa or Dropbox Price: $0.99

4. 360 Panorama

360 Panorama is a camera app for the iPhone that should be standard issue for everyone. It's one of those fun apps that you'll always find a use for. From stunning vistas to a crowded room you're able to capture it all. Simply pan the camera and watch as the 360 Panorama app stitches the images together to form a seamless picture of the world around you. You can instantly share your panorama via email, Twitter, or Facebook $0.99

5. Hipstamatic

The Hipstamatic is camera app for the iPhone that brings back the old time look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras of days past. With the swipe of the finger you change your lens, flash, or film type. Each combination adds a unique touch to your picture. It comes standard with four different lens, three film and flash types. There are five other 'Hipstapaks" available for 99 cents each that include various combinations that recreate other old toy cameras. Features:

Swap lenses, flashes, and films for hundreds of different effects.
Order real analog prints delivered to your door, right from the app.

Instantly share your prints to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr. Price: $1.99 . What are some of your favorite camera apps for the iPhone? Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Top 10 Free Apps for the New iPhone 4S

Jared Moya — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:07:35 +0000

A collection of ten of the better free apps around for new iPhone 4S owners looking to get the most from their new Apple device.

It's been a little over 3 days now since Apple launched the new iPhone 4S, and according to the company it's already sold more than 4 million units. “iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” said a company spokesperson in a press release. “iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever.” With so many iPhone 4S units sold, many are ostensibly first-time Apple iPhone buyers, and it's worth taking the time to make a list of some of the more useful apps available. For those whom the iPhone 4S is just an upgrade the list is still a useful reminder of what's out there.

1. Facebook

Inclusion of the Facebook app goes without saying right? With more than 800 million active users on the social networking platform worldwide it's safe to say you're among them.

2. Turntable.fm

This free app that I've discussed before allows users to take advantage of Turntable.fm: The social music-streaming site that lets people play and listen to songs with friends and others. If you haven’t checked it out yet, Turntable.fm gives music fans an opportunity to become a DJ for a day or to simply sit back and listen to others play.

3. Twitter

Twitter may already be built into iOS5, but the formal Twitter app is also something you want to have installed. It offers additional features like the ability to monitor your Twitter stream in real-time, and to enable notifications to see your most recent "@ mentions."

4. Pulse News

If you read the news at all you'll love Pulse News. Pulse takes your favorite websites and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic. Tap on an article to see a clean and elegant view of the news story. Save stories for reading later across all platforms or sync them with Instapaper, Read it Later and Evernote. You can also share articles via Facebook, Twitter, and even eMail with the a few taps.

5. Spotify

The Spotify music streaming service launched back in July, and has slowly risen in the ranks of popularity thanks to the fact that it allows users to stream music for free on-demand. The free version is ad-supported, but can be upgraded for as little as $4.99 a month to remove them.

6. Instagram

Instagrams is the Cadillac of camera apps for the iPhone. It turns even mediocre pictures into dazzling masterpieces. With it you can transform everyday moments into works of art you'll want to share with friends and family, and you can with the click of a button in the app.

7. Google+

Google+ is, of course, the latest addition to the social networking world, and has been working overtime to eventually replace Facebook. One of its more attractive features is that it "makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler." Unlike the Facebook mobile app, the Google+ mobile app allows you to choose with whom you wish to share a status update, post, or pic.

8. Dropbox

Dropbox is a essential free app for your iPhone 4S because it allows you to save and sync documents and files to all of your devices - computer, iPad, and iPhone. You can also use the the service (free for up to 2GB) to share files with family and friends.

9. Kindle

Why to buy books, newspaper, or magazines to read from Amazon's Kindle Store to read without having to fork over $79 bucks to buy a Kindle reader? Then the free Kindle app is for you. The Kindle app gives you access to over 1,000,000 books in the Kindle Store plus over 100 newspapers and magazines. You can customize your reading experience by choosing the background color, font size, and either portrait or landscape format. Amazon Whispersync also remembers your last page read so you can pick up your book where you last left off.

10.Netflix

Alright, so the app may be free, but the Netflix service behind it is not. Still, what makes it so cool and worthy of mention here is the fact taht you can stream TV shows and movies directly from Netflix to your new Apple iPhone 4S! The Netflix iPhone app lets you stream content to your iPhone over Wi-Fi or 3G, meaning that no matter where you are, you'll be entertained. . What are some of your favorite apps for the new iPhone 4S? Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Apple Launches iTunes 10.5 with iCloud

Jared Moya — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:53:55 +0000

Stores music, documents and photos on Apple's servers and lets people access them wirelessly on Apple devices; iTunes Match expected in coming weeks.

Just as promised Apple launched iCloud earlier this morning with its latest version of iTunes, version 10.5. What iCloud does is stores your music, photos, apps, contacts, calendars, documents and more, syncing the data across all your devices (Apple and PC). When content changes on one device, all your other devices are updated automatically and wirelessly over W-Fi or 3G. I've already mentioned free music streaming services for Apple devices as well as how to watch your favorite NFL games for free, but iCloud, and the soon-to-be-added iTunes Match will certainly expand your entertainment opportunities. “iCloud is the easiest way to manage your content, because iCloud does it all for you and goes far beyond anything available today,” said Apple when announcing the launch of the service earlier this month. “You don't have to think about syncing your devices, because it happens automatically, and it is free.” What iCloud is is this: Purchase a song or an album on iTunes and it appears on all your devices. When you buy a track with your iPhone it'll appear in iTunes the next time you use your iPad, and vice versa. It stores your purchase history so you can download and play previously purchased iTunes content, including music and TV shows. Still to launch is iTunes Match. Promised to debut sometime "later this month" (US only), the service will cost $24.99 per year, but will amazingly allow users to access stored music not purchased on iTunes. That means your vaunted music library acquired by ripping MP3s from CDs, or from illegal downloading, will be accessible on iTunes iCloud whenever you want and wherever you are, without syncing. The way iTunes Match works is like this: Here’s how it works: It scans your music library to determine which songs are available in the iTunes Store, and automatically adds them to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, anywhere, on any device! Music is streamed from iCloud at a 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality. Using iCloud with a PC requires Windows Vista or Windows 7; Outlook 2010 or 2007 is recommended for accessing contacts and calendars. However, at the moment iCloud doesn't appear to be working on PCs just yet. To get started with Apple's iCloud downlaod iTunes version 10.5. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Facebook Finally Releases Facebook for iPad App

Jared Moya — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:51:40 +0000

Sports features not available to users of online Facebook site like the ability to snap and upload pics directly in the app using the iPad's built-in camera; Facebook for iPad apps allows users to play games and apps on the go, chat, and flip through photos as though they were in real photo albums.

Today Facebook finally released it's long-awaited Facebook for iPad app. The social networking company had been working on a iPad-enhanced version of the app for more than a year, and seems to have lived up to its promise for a “slick design” that has been “carefully designed and optimized” for the iPad. "Today, it's finally here," wrote Facebook engineer Leon Dubinsky in a company blog post. "With the iPad app, you get the full Facebook experience, right at your fingertips. It's a fun way to keep up with friends, share photos, chat and more." Indeed it is. The Facebook for iPad app turns the social networking site into wholly new experience, allowing users to flip through albums as though they were real. Using a combination of swipes and pinching motions users can flip through and zoom in and out of pictures. "It's like having a slideshow with all your friends and memories, wherever you go," adds Dubinsky. Facebook for iPad also promises fast and convenient navigation. Games, apps, groups and lists all appear in a menu on the the left-hand part of the screen, saving you the effort of having to search for what you want to do. And all it takes is a tap, slide, or pinch to scroll from one screen to the other. Games and apps are, of course, playable on the Facebook for iPad app, perhaps making games like Farmville or Cityville even more addictive now that they can be played on the go (Wi-Fi or 3G). Messages and notifications are displayed the top of every screen, just as they are with the online site. When it comes to sharing pictures, unlike with the online Facebook site users can snap and upload pics directly in the app with the iPad's built-in camera. Facebook is the latest company to design an app exclusively for the iPad. Skype and Turntable.fm are among the many that have chosen to help usesr take advantage of the tablet's portability. Facebook may have taken a long time to get the app ready, but it seems the wait was well worth it. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com Facebook for iPad (iTunes)