Free iPhone Apps in Europe

Second in row will be an article about the iPhone again. Since i do have my iPhone now for quite a while i thought about giving out some hints what apps i think are really cool and what apps are just wasted time or money. We have right now access to more then 50.000 (fiftythousand) apps in the appstore. There are really a lot free apps as also a lot payed apps. Most of the payed apps can be replaced in ther function by free apps, but in some cases the structure and design of the payed app is just more appealing.

In first i like to state the free apps i have been using or testing and which i can recommend for

Brain Tuner Lite

Brain Tuner Lite Screenshot

This is a small game which gives you 20/60/100 small arithmetic problems. They are all just in the manner of X + Y = Z. All you have to decide is, are they right or wrong. The game will save the highscore times, which makes you automatically try harder next time. Having less then one second per problem is good target to keep in mind.

Shazam

Shazam Song Recognition

Shazam enables your iPhone to recognize songs you are listening to in radio or somewhere else. As long as the song is the original playback of the song and no whistle or similar, it will take a short snapshot of the song, send it to the shazam server in the internet and try to find out what song it is. It will then present you the song found with title, album, interpreter. This is a very usefull tool, i use it quite often, whenever i listen to a song i would like to buy in radio, markets, internetstreams. It also sometimes finds original songs zu remixes, if you keep playing a part of the song, that is not too heavy distorted for the remix.

Cocktails

Cocktails - ever wondered what exactly you are drinking right now

This small application shows you the ingedients of cocktails. If you ever wondered what exactly the cocktail you are drinking right now is made of, then you can now start up Cocktails and check what your drink should be made of. Sure it is not analyzing the current drink, but it tells you what this cocktail should be made of. The database itself is hosted in the internet, so you need a data connection for using this app. But it hase really a lot of different drinks inside.

Fahrplan

Fahrplan - Schedule for Bus and Train

This is now more a german app. Since it uses the german schedules for busses and trains, but i am quite sure there exists apps like this for almost every country. For Germany this is really one of the best apps i ever found. It allows you to find the next connection by bus or train. It also is possible to use GPS to find the next station and calculate the connections from there to your desired destination. This is really quite helpful if you are in one of the big cities of germany. It will show you the shortest way by bus, train, subway, tram … One of the really most usefull apps i´ve ever used.

Nearby

Nearby shows you interessting locations nearby

Nearby is really simple and intuitive in its function. You just tell the app where you are or even let it find out itself by GPS and it will show you alle points of interesst around you. It will find restaurants, cinemas, parks, historic places, even some personal stories if they´ve been added to the database. This comes in usefull if you are somewhere in a city you´ve never been before and have no idea what to do or where to go. Nearby is also a very usefull app i would recommend.

WordPress

Wordpress gives you a quick access to your blogs

The wordpress app allows you to quickly gain access to your blogs on wordpress.com. The app allows access to multiple blogs and gives you an easy interface to quickly write a small post or some idea for drafting on your iPhone. Since it will connect to wordpress.com it will also require you to have internet access on your iPhone. I actually put a lot of my drafts with this app. But never got the time to write them for publication later on. I really like this app because i can quickly give me a note about what would be interessting.

This would be it for todays free apps in european/german appstore. I will continue with some paid apps tomorrow or mayby today evening and some more free apps as soon as i have time to test them

Vodafone Mobile Connect – Icon popping but no App starting

Hi there, after a long break i decided to put my many drafts into publications and i will start up with a common problem on OSX. At least common for mobile internet users, using the “Vodafone Mobile Connect” System. Quite often there will be a popping icon but no launch at all of the application. A lot of people wondered already and it took me a while to find something on the net for it. Since there are so many questions on this but so less answers i decided to put also a solution online, which should work fine.

As soon as you have the described problem you will probably not have a cleaned log, which somehow denys the next start of the app. To remove the lock please first remove your MobileInternet Stick and then go to

OSX HD (Volume #) > Library > Application Support > Nova Media > VMC

in here remove the file

ppp_session.log (move to trash and empty trash)

as soon you have complete this, you reconnect your usb device, startup the application and everything should be running smoothly.

There is also one more thing i urge you to do. Often the image compression for lowering transfer rates is active. This will result in a bad display of images on web pages and similar. I`ve put a small script in, which should be started right after internet is being connected. The script will tell the server to not use images compression. Which will increase your used bandwith, but show up much more nice images. If you are not using a flatrate system, but a pay by (bandwith) usage system, i recommend staying with the image compression enabled, since this will reduce your cost. You can find the script on the bottom of the article.

In the newest VMC there is the posibillity to change this within the software, without the need of a script. I have not yet received a report if this helps, but you can still give it a try. In your Vodafone Mobile Connect app go to:

Settings > Optimisation and move the slider all the way to the left. Delete any temporary internet files so they cannot be read from the cache.

Script only for usage with Vodafone:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use IO::Socket;

$host=”1.2.3.4″;
$port=4201;

$SIG{PIPE} = \&pipeHandler;

foreach $argnum (0 .. $#ARGV)
{
if ($ARGV[$argnum] eq “-d”)
{
$DEBUG=1;
}
if ($ARGV[$argnum] eq “-l”)
{
$LOG=1;
}

}

sub pipeHandler
{
$sig = shift @_;
msg(“Caught SIGPIPE: $sig $1″);
return;
}

sub sendData($)
{
my $data = shift;
my @byte = split(/ /, $data);
foreach (@byte)
{
print $socket chr int hex $_;
}
}

sub msg($)
{
my $msg = shift;
if ($DEBUG)
{
if ($LOG)
{
($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year)=localtime();
$year+=1900;
$mon+=1;
$mon=substr(“00″.$mon, -2);
$mday=substr(“00″.$mday, -2);
$hour=substr(“00″.$hour, -2);
$min=substr(“00″.$min, -2);
$sec=substr(“00″.$sec, -2);
open(LOGFILE, “>>/var/log/bmctl_5.log”) || die “Logfile /var/log/bmctl_5.log could not be opened for writing!\n”;
print LOGFILE $mday.”.”.$mon.”.”.$year.” “.$hour.”:”.$min.”:”.$sec.” “.$msg.”\n”;
close(LOGFILE);
}
else
{
print STDERR $msg.”\n”;
}
}
}

while (1)
{
msg(“”);
msg(“==================================================”);
msg(“”);

msg(“Connecting to $host port $port”);

# create a tcp connection to the specified host and port
$socket = IO::Socket::INET->new(Proto => “tcp”, PeerAddr => $host, PeerPort => $port) or die “can’t connect to port $port on $host: $!”;

# using autoflush(0) to keep data get  there right away
$socket->autoflush(0);

# send the compression off packet
msg(“Sending ‘compression off’ packet (257 byte)”);

sendData(“62 6d 69 63 02 01 01 01 80 00 00 24 42 36 37 33″);
sendData(“32 33 35 31 2d 32 30 37 45 2d 34 31 33 41 2d 42″);
sendData(“45 35 38 2d 35 31 34 30 37 45 44 30 32 44 42 41″);
sendData(“10 00 00 05 32 2e 31 2e 36 10 01 00 01 31 80 04″);
sendData(“00 04 31 30 32 34 80 05 00 03 37 36 38 80 01 00″);
sendData(“0a 57 69 6e 64 6f 77 73 20 58 50 80 06 00 02 49″);
sendData(“45 80 07 00 0f 4f 75 74 6c 6f 6f 6b 20 45 78 70″);
sendData(“72 65 73 73 50 03 00 04 20 00 00 00 50 01 00 04″);
sendData(“20 02 00 00 50 02 00 04 20 02 00 00 50 04 00 04″);
sendData(“20 02 00 00 50 00 00 08 20 03 00 00 20 01 00 00″);
sendData(“90 01 00 05 21 00 00 00 00 90 00 00 09 21 00 00″);
sendData(“00 00 00 00 00 00 30 0c 00 01 30 30 0b 00 01 30″);
sendData(“30 0a 00 01 30 30 09 00 01 30 30 08 00 01 30 30″);
sendData(“07 00 01 30 30 06 00 01 30 30 03 00 01 30 30 02″);
sendData(“00 03 31 30 30 30 01 00 03 31 30 30 40 00 00 11″);
sendData(“01 c8 30 4f cc 41 55 8f 82 96 10 d2 88 32 4a 8a”);
sendData(“90″);

$socket->flush();

# read answer from socket
$x=sysread ($socket, $answer, 65536);
msg(“Received “.length($answer).” bytes”);

while ($x>0)
{
# sleep for 30 minutes
msg(“Sleeping for 5 minutes”);
sleep(300);

# sending the keep_alive data
msg(“Sending ‘keep-alive’ packet (8 byte)”);
sendData(“62 6d 69 63 02 03 00 08″);
$socket->flush();

# read answer from socket
$x=sysread ($socket, $answer, 65536);
msg(“Received “.$x.” bytes”);

}

msg(“No answer received, terminating the connection!”);
close($socket);

msg(“Sleeping for 1 minute to prevent to fast respawning”);
sleep(60);

}

Thanks to Peter for the script, you can also downlod it directly here

Sending in (servicing) the iPhone (sda on rent)

If you red the article before this you can easily guess why i came to the conclusion of sending in my iPhone. The good messages up front: I got a new iPhone sent instead of a repaired old one. They actually found something is wrong with my iPhone (i didn´t think they would). So i am now owner of a new iPhone which has some trouble with home-button and distancesensor in the front. The new home button now feels as on half way down there would be a small step. So accidently i already did not press hard enough wondering nothing is happening. And this happened not once either…

But its endurable till i send it in next time. Now for the bad news, the week my iPhone was on service i was given a replacement business mobile. They gave me a Telekom – SDA, some weired business mobile running a old version of windows mobile. No touch screen, crappy menus and the worst browser i´ve ever seen. Oh yes you guessed right, IE mobile … Not liking IE on WinXP or WinVista i actually thought of them as some kind of superbrowsers after experiencing the IE mobile on the sda mobile. Think about one of those good old green-colored display WAP-Browsers pointing to a non-WAP page. Yeah, this almost is the feeling i got. Next problem i encountered, receiving a SMS, where do i read it? The SMS-hotkey directly puts you into “Write a new SMS”… The menu also… Solution is, go into new message, abort message, go back to inbox, find your message read it. Somehow i feel set back to win98 ;P

So after this terrible week without my iPhone i was so happy about receiving another new one that will go with me to Russia. I already was afraid of taking the sda to Russia…

Resetting the iPhone (5 times) … Race condition? Backup?

Hi there, sorry for the long break. Again this article will be directed to iPhone users. I think every standard user and for sure every hardcore user already heard about it. The blue screen of death, oh no sorry, the silver apple of death. It looks like there is still a worm in the apple iPhone. A lot of people complain about there iPhone crashing. I never had this problems in the beginning. But after installing some apps through the appstore and also adding some contacts i startet to feel some laggy behaviour within my phone. The contactlist loads longer and is not usable for a amount of time. During installing of apps the Appstore is horrible slow, up to not working. And after killing the appstore by pressing the home-button for 5 sec. i find myself back at the desktop. Now moving the installing app to the right desktop, playing a bit with the phones other apps and reinserting the appstore, i suddenly have a black screen. There is still sound through clicking somehow, but no graphical response after all. Sometimes after killbutton and/or keyprotection-button (Powerbutton) and waiting some time it comes back.

But not this time. I switched my iPhone off and back on. Seeing the silver apple logo at the boot screen i was waiting patiently. Nothing happens in the first 3 minutes. I started wondering whats up with my new phone. Leaving the iPhone for half an hour didn´t change anything on its condition. Still the biten apple boot screen. Switching it off and back on just ended in the same screen.

So i started looking around in the internet and quickly found some nice instructions on how to reset your iPhone. The way for resetting is pretty easy, you just need newest iTunes and your iPhone with USB-cable present but unplugged.

1. Unplug your iPhone from the PC/Mac and turn it off
2. Turn it back on but keep the Home-button (the one in the bottom center) pressed
3. Keep it pressed until you see an USB-cable pointing to a CD-iTunes-Logo
4. You are now in recovery mode and can savely plug in the USB to your PC/Mac
5. iTunes should now automatically detect your iPhone and ask you, if you would like to recover
6. Press Yes, the recover will be a full reset… So have your contacts and similar backed up
7. iTunes will now download the 240MB+ Firmware for your iPhone and install this
8. Hopefully having a backup, directly after reboot, you can select which backup to use for restore
9. On Windows without Outlook all your calenders will be gone … iCal (Mac) / Outlook (Win) works
10. In iTunes click in the menu “Find apps purchased”. This will download all apps to your local iTunes
11. Press your iPhonesymbol to the left and go to Apps. Select Sync all Apps or select the Apps to sync
12. Never interrupt a Appinstall-Sync within iTunes during restore. At least in my system i had to start again
13. Try always to download/buy apps with your iTunes and sync them afterwards to your phone

Now about 1-2 hours should be gone just for one restore. Happy about having my iPhone back working i started playing again with it, shouldn´t have… Two hours later i again began the recovery process. Somehow i always had to recover after the following steps are been made:

1. Install / Update app through appstore on iPhone
2. Open appstore while app is installing/updating
3. Kill appstore since it takes way too long for loading
4. Move app to another desktop while installing
5. Open appstore again and kill it again while installing
6. Play a bit with some buttons/icons whatever (up to 4 clicks should do it)
7. Recover your iPhone

Short time after finding this race condition and testing it 2 times more i posted at apple discussions. No answer yet but may have been bad luck anyway with finding this just for mine iPhone. For now i just do not do anything during installation of apps.

cu soon

Reservation please

Coming back from my trip to my parents I found myself in a slightly overcrowded train. Already having bought the ticket the day I started, last Friday, I went to the station having a feeling of having a nice trip home. The first train was the same as Friday, almost empty and lots of double seets. But as soon as I had to change trains I realized this would be totally different from what I was hoping. Already at the door I faced 6 people sitting in the space between the waggons. Five minutes later I was fighting my way through the train. The whole gangway was also overcrowded. After taking 20 minutes to get through the first and a half waggon I decided to just stay where I am right now. Have faith I told myself, someone will get out the next station… Yeah, noone got out the whole f……. distance. The only thought I had throughout the whole trip was
RESERVATION PLEASE

Train stations and a phone connected to the internet – changing dictionary

Sitting at the Station after missing the train made me realize what amount of stress you can avoid having an iPhone connected to the Internet. It begins with checking for the next train to depart floating over to killing time by watching YouTube ending in figuring out how to write this blog in English and not having every second word reset to the closest match in the main language. So if you like to write messages blogs or similar not in your default language you will have to activate another keyboardlayout for your iPhone. This can be achieved by selecting the properties at the mainscreen. After that choose common properties and go
down to keyboard. Now you can select all languages you would like to write in. The default layout won’t be changed but you get another button on your layout showing a world globe. By touching that button you change the current keyboardlayout and also the corresponding dictionary. You now can type with spellchecker in the language you intented to.
Back to the trainstation which I never thought to be that boring at a Friday midday. Hell even even watching ants crawling the road down in one long line is much more interresting. At least there are some changes during watching. The only change ever to happen at a small village station would be a train rushing through without stopping. But even this is totally boring since there would be only two types of trains. The one stopping and the one not stopping. One could come up with statistics which end in a probability of a train stopping by. But I am not that kind of person at least not while waiting for my train and having the wide world web sitting right beside me.
After waiting for almost two hours I finally got into the train. Was about time my battery almost went empty. Luckily I catched a seat with a powersupply. This way I was able to endure the first part of my trip. Did I mention I like kids? At least as long as they smile or not crying around. My bad I sit right there with a family having a hyperactive child with them. I truly like the iPod integrated into my iPhone. Having the iPod turned on writing on this post the time went by pretty fast. This is truly more a gaming and freak device than a mobile phone. But that damn short battery period. As soon as you listen to music, watching YouTube or just being active on the iPhone the running period shortens extremly. I already started thinking about getting one of those battery enhancers but as you look at them they sure do not look like small and fine. Especially not if you think about them docking them onto your iPhone which actually makes your mobile suddenly become totally unhandy. The enhancer easily enlarges your iPhone by half of the size. Nearly fitting into the pocket of a straight trouser it almost won’t fit into a backpck now. But till now there is no alternative to get one of these hellmachines.

Children of the night

As soon as you see bright stars and the moonlight is floating over the earth.

As soon as horizon fades from red to a dark blue.

As soon as the sun takes the last hop and everything is covered in darkness.

As soon as the fields and the grassland are just shadows and schemes.

As soon as the enemy blood is glittering on the blade in the moonlight.

As soon as a crackling noise drones as day itself.

As soon as music becomes a omnipresent rythm.

As soon as the net revives and the information flow glowing in our eyes.

As soon as the code quickly takes new shapes.

As soon as time is just a no more relevant factor in the base of the universe.

As soon as our environment is just a peripheral body of thought.

We awaken – Children of the night