Air PlayIt is a FREE media client and server for streaming both music and video over your local network as well as over the Internet. There are currently several apps that do either part or all of what this app offers, but none of the free apps in the app store offer both the functionality as well as quality that this app offers. There are though still a few issues that will prevent me from using this as my primary video application, I will outline them below. However for a free app, they do a good job of delivering what they say they can deliver. This is not a universal app, but both the iPhone and iPad version are available for free in the app store and both function in the same way other than general lay out.

As of writing this I have yet to find an application that can perform better than Air Video. I use this app regularly and have reviewed it; not only does it have a large portion of the features that I would like to have in an app such as this, the cost is relatively inexpensive ($2.99). It is also a universal app and I have very few problems at all with the app or the server. Upon downloading and using AirPlayIt, one of the first things I noticed was how very similar the UI looked to Air Video. Although I suppose there are only so many ways to present the content, I almost had the stinking suspicion that they were inspired by the later.

The experience of setting up the server and getting going took relatively little time, I downloaded the server at:http://www.airplayit.com and started it up and then tab by tab went through all of the preferences to get it configured properly. This is where I noticed a few features that Air Video didn’t have that we’re quite nice. Setting up was easy and I had the ability to setup permissions on a folder level for each users. The users each could have an individual password and could be things like: adult, kids, guests. The idea being that the content which is not age appropriate and perhaps not guest appropriate could be secured behind a password preventing these users from accessing those folders. There is also the option of setting up audio files allowing you to stream an audio library in addition to videos.

After setting up the server I began testing out the app, again very simple to get going. This was when I started to notice some of the issues that I referenced above. One of the first problems I noticed was that it did an encode of every video I played regardless of whether or not it was needed. This posed a serious threat to my system as this encode also used up all of the available CPU. This however was remedied last week with an update to the app that allowed me to specify it to force an encode or not. By default this is now off which means it is no longer a problem. Also when encoding a video file, whether needed or not, the video itself paused roughly every ten seconds. This pause is enough to make the viewing process a problem. Luckily now that I can have it not encode the files that is a lot better. The viewing process is very similar to Air Video, although Air Video uses their own custom player which you may or may not like. AirPlayIt allows you to switch easily between full screen or partial screen when on the iPad, and adjust things. You can also use ’s Air Play to watch th video on any air play enabled device such as an TV, but here is where that went wrong, unfortunately it does not support background watching of the video. This means if I leave the app while the video is playing or even hit the sleep button on my device, the video stops. This one issue alone cost them a full star and makes the app not usable for me. More often than not I use such an app with my TV and so to essentially loose this ability means that I cannot use it.

But for those of you who do not use it for anything more than paying on your device, I think you will find that the feature set more than makes up for any of its short comings and the fact that it is free means it hurts you nothing to try it out. They’ve done a nice job with both the client and the server and have features in the client such as compression queue, download to the application, and a history of video files you have watched. These are features that I have not seen in a lot of other apps and they are great to have. I was quite skeptical when I first found this app as to how it would match up to competition. But I think they have done a great job and with a few additional (but necessary) features could have a 5 star application.

Because iMessages go over ’s servers and not your carriers server, they are free and unlimited. The greed of the carriers has led them to charge incredible rates for something that amounts to less than an email. Still to this day, even if you have an unlimited SMS plan, carriers are ripping you off whenever you send an international SMS by charging high rates. Depending on the type of message, the cost can be $1 or more per message. But thankfully with iMessages you can now stay in touch with friends and family abroad without the added cost.

When sending the iMessage, just be sure to send it using + and then the country code and then the phone number. Using 011 or any other format will not work unless used from your address book. For example if sending to France: (since I have friends and family there) I would put: +33 and then the full phone number including area code.

* WARNING: it is absolutely essential when sending iMessages internationally that you verify that you are using iMessages instead of SMS to avoid a huge surprise bill at the end of the month. Of course this is as simple as ensuring that the bubble is blue, every time (yours, not theirs) and if done properly, the user will always be replying via iMessage as well. For me, I have my ‘caller id’ setup as an email address which guarantees that they will always reply as an iMessage since they cannot send SMS (and bill me) to an email address.

Combined together with a few good apps, I can get most things done, from email to IM to programming. With each of these I can do the majority of thigns I would for work. This makes for a nice way to concentrate on my job while hanging out in the park (with WiFi of course) or at the coffee shop, without having to lug the laptop around. At present all of my work lives on an internal server, which means once I connect through the VPN and then via the iSSH app (Which I have found to be the best SSH app in the app store) I can connect to the remote server and access all of my work. Using Screen (if you are a linux/unix user and don’t know screen, look it up, you’ll love it) carefully configured to work exactly as I want, I can pick up on my work exactly where I left off. Should I get disconnected from the internet unexpectedly or need to shutdown for a while, screen automaticlly saves my place where I left off. This technique has even been useful while in the office when going to your standard boring meeting if I want to continue working on something right from my iPad.

Add in the native email app which allows me to stay responsive as needed, and then of course IM. I use BeejiveIM (pronounced beehive) for IM, it is a fantastic IM app with a variety of options available for configuration to make it the perfect app. You can connect to a variety of services, just about every service out there. And since we use it pretty heavily for communication at the office this is a great way for me to stay in touch. And of course, don’t forget the native Music app or Pandora or Spotify. These apps provide me with the musical entertainment I need to stimulate my mind and keep working. I use this together with my bluetooth headphones which keeps me completely wireless and productive.

Working like this is even better now with iOS 5.0 which has the notification center, that means that I no longer have notifications interrupting my work, but rather displaying a small banner at the top of the screen while keeping me working. The only down side to working like this is that there is a lot of functionality missing (that I hope  brings to us in the future) for working with a bluetooth keyboard. For example there is no “send” button on the keyboard, that means if you are in iMessage or sending an email, after you are done typing the email or iMessage, you will still need to touch the screen to send. Navigating between apps must still be done via touching the screen. But most bluetooth keyboards do come with extra keys for going to your home screen and controlling your music. You can also use a lot of key combinations available on your laptop such as command-c and command-v for copy and paste. Here is the keyboard that I use and recommend above all others: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=logitech+bluetooth+keyboard&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=9528725514121470562&sa=X&ei=g9z8TtrxMOf30gG9m9i8Ag&ved=0CHsQ8wIwBw

Using google with exchange isn’t very different than imap but it does come with its benefits and downsides. Personally I opt to use exchange for my gmail account as the imap ports are blocked while on the network at my office, so this is a good way around it for me. Some of the other benefits you get is that you get the data pushed to you instead of your device having to fetch it. That means you get calendar, contact changes and emails as soon as they are sent. This also means less battery usage as your device doesn’t have to spend as much fetching. With exchange, you can also access all, or a limited subset of your gmail calendars and have their data pushed to you. You get all the benefits of exchange when it comes to scheduling appointments and inviting attendees. The main downside is the lack of the notes feature that you get with imap, allowing you to use the  native notes app and store them with your gmail account. I am not sure why this is not available for exchange accounts in iOS.

To setup the account, simply go to settings -> mail, contacts, calendars -> add account. Make sure you choose Microsoft exchange as the account type. Then add it as you previously have, using your gmail address for the username. After hitting next it will attempt to verify and then ask you for more information, all you need to fill in is the server: m.google.com then you are all set! To setup calendars (picking and choosing which calendars you can access from each device) simple visit the following page from your device: https://m.google.com:443/sync/settings/ and login using your gmail credentials. You will then be able to choose which calendars to display for this device.

For those of you with multiple devices there is a trick you can use to make sure you that you always receive the message no matter which device you have before you. Setting up iMessages is similar to FaceTime in that you can register multiple email addresses for reception of messages on one device. These email address can only be used on one device. But in the case of your Apple Id you can put this on multiple devices by simply using it as the Apple Id on both devices. After doing so you will then receive any iMessage that is sent to that address on both devices.

To make this work even better, I have switched the “Caller Id” to my Apple Id on all of my devices so that when I send a message to someone via iMessage it will always present as my email address (Apple Id) rather than my cell phone number (when sent from my iPhone), this will immediately enable reception on both devices.

If done properly, this means you can sit down and have a conversation on one device and then continue that conversation later on another. I use a wireless keyboard with my iPad sitting on my desk at work. While there I will have many iMessage conversations. Then when I leave my office if someone replies to those conversations, I will continue to receive the messages on my iPhone while away from my desk. I can also see the entire conversation including messages I have sent on all devices linked to this Apple Id.

In previous versions of iOS, these emojis were only available in Japan, however many clever apps made it possible to unlock them. I have been using emojis on my devices by unlocking them since iOS 2.0 (I believe). But now with iOS 5.0, anyone can use them by simply turning them on. Be aware that for the most part, only fellow iOS users can receive them. Additionally if you send an SMS to a google voice number, even on an iDevice, they will not be able to view them. But if the user has Mac os x lion or any version of iOS, they’ll be able to see them. You can us them with any app on your idevices including mail. I even have them in a few contact records.

To turn them on head on over to settings -> general -> keyboard -> international keyboards -> add new keyboard -> Emoji and that’s it! To use them, once you have it turned on, when your keyboard is up in view simply touch the globe icon next to the space bar (on the left of it).

To do this you will need a desktop application such as Phone View. I use this application to gain access to the file system of my iDevice without jailbreaking it. Once setup and running, Phone View will allow you to navigate to the app directory for the game. Once there, poke around a bit, MOST games will store some sort of a data file in or around the documents folder or the library folder for that app on your device. This data file is what you will want to move between devices and/or backup for restoration later. The data file will generally be in a format such as json or xml, don’t change the structure of this file only change values. If you simply want to cheat at the game the do the following:

1. Make sure you are out of the game and that it has been removed from the multi-task bar. Games that are still running likely have all the game data stored in memory and may overwrite the data file later.
2. Download the file to your local machine.
3. Create a backup of the original just in case.
4. Open the original (not the backup) and edit the necessary sections.
5. Save the file.
6. Using Phone View, place the file back into the exact location you found it.
7. Launch the game and see the difference!

This especially works with games like My Town, and other such games, by simply adjusting things like money and or points you can dramatically alter your state in the game. If something goes wrong, rename the backup to the same as the original and replace and you should be back to where you started.

Enjoy!

Head on over to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and down to the Shortcuts section, here you can create short cuts for entire phrases. Unfortunately  Does now allow the inclusion of carriage returns in the outputed text so if you would like to have the in your signature you will need to create multiple signatures. Here is how it works for me:

Shortcut ———–> Phrase
sig0 —————> Thanks,
sig1 —————> Paul B. Yorke
sig2 —————> myemail@email.com
sig3 —————> myotheremail@email.com
sig4 —————> — Sent From my iPad — (or iPhone)

Then when typing an email I simply pick and choose which aspects of the signature I want. It is a little hard to remember which shortcut represents which phrase but after a while you get the hang. I also may name my signature email portions as: sigehome or sigework as a means of easily remembering. Then simply add on the compents of the signature you want.

This is a little more work than I’d like to have to do but it is certainly a lot better than having to type it all out every time.

I have heard many complaints in the past regarding the iPad app which closely resembled the iPhone app in a larger form. I too have not been a huge fan of the format they used. Now with this update they have fixed a lot of the usability issues that users have had as well as giving us a nice new design. You can view recently watched shows up top as well as recommended shows by category. Or navigation through the browser or your Instant Queue. They have done a great job with this update providing us with a better user experience.

I have seen a few complaints online that they left out the ability to use AirPlay with this version of the app, while this is true I do not see it as a valid complaint given that AirPlay only works (currently) with an TV which already has a Netflix app on it. I fail therefore to see the need to have an AirPlay option available.

Here are the notes from Netflix regarding this update:

New in Netflix v 2.0

1. Netflix now available in Latin America for iPhone and iPad
2. New iPad UI for all regions – US, Canada, Latin America – requires upgrade to iOS 5
3. Addressed stability issues
4. For support questions please contact us at mobilesupport@netflix.com

For the past several months, my home button (on my iPhone 4) hasn’t been working properly. It started off rather innocuous, just behaving a bit odd, randomly, and not really reproducible. But as time went on it got to the point that it only worked (actions requiring pressing the home button) one out of every 10 or so attempts.  This made certain tasks down right difficult if not impossible, such as screenshots, working the multi-task bar and other things requiring the home button use. For a while, having the beta on my device, I wasn’t sure if this was just a bug in the software or if it was a real hardware problem. After the public release of iOS 5, I settled on it being a hardware problem that was quite the annoyance.  For those of you experiencing this problem, please read on there is hope!

After doing a bit of research online I found that this problem is fairly ubiquitous and actually can be found as far back as right after the launch of the iPhone 4. The solutions I am seeing online generally tend to be revolving around going to Apple and having them replace or repair your iPhone. Not only will this cost you but there is also a good chance you may be without your iPhone for a period of time. Luckily this is *NOT* the answer.

As it turns out this is a software issue, and I found a solution online that seems fairly random but I can tell you that it truly does work. After months of dealing with this problem, I have finally fixed it on my iPhone and am very relieved. I have no idea why this works but it does. To fix it on your iPhone simply do the following:

1. Plug your iPhone into a power source (I assume any power source will work, I plugged it into a computer that did not have my iTunes library and this solution worked.)
2. While plugged in, hold down the home button until Voice Activation turns on.
3. That’s it! Your iPhone is now fixed.

For some reason this resets the home button on your iPhone, it is not clear to me WHY your home button would need to be reset, but there it is folks. This worked for me and I am very happy to have my home button back again.  Feel free to leave comments below about your experience with this issue.