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Pocket Universe For the iPhone
I love laying outside and staring at the stars. It’s amazing how small we are, and how minor our problems are when you look at the size of the universe. I use to be real good at spotting a bunch of different constellations. I forgot most of them now. I pretty much can only find Ursa Major in the summer and Orion in the winter. Yesterday I discovered the iPhone app Pocket Universe. It’s pretty much a pocket planetarium, and very cool. It uses your location, time, and date to show you what the sky should look like. For the iPhone 3GS, is uses the compass feature and even adjusts based on what direction you are facing. In town where I am at, it’s hard to see many stars. There is just too much light pollution. At the end of the month we are heading to the lakes camping. I can’t wait to put this app to work then. It will be cool to be able to locate planets, and constellations, and other objects in the solar system.
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My Favorite iPod Touch/iPhone Apps
I have had my iPod Touch since November and haven’t talked much about it. I got the 32 GB version because I thought it would replace my current iPod. I would have gotten a bigger one if they made one. It would be nice to fit all my music one device. I hate weeding out stuff, but oh well.
The truth is I don’t use my Touch as an iPod very often. The interface on my old iPod is just better. I can control it without removing it from my pocket. I didn’t think that would be a big deal, but it is. I pretty much only listen to my Touch when my other iPod battery is low. I still love my Touch though. I bring it everywhere just to see where I can get WiFi. WiFi is beginning to be everywhere. Most restaurants have it, the Mall has it, and I even found a gas station that has it. I will now drive out of the way just so I can get some internets while I am getting gas. I don’t have a ton of apps on it yet, but I thought I would share some of my favorites.
Must haves – These ones are super popular that most people should know about and everybody should have.
- Google Earth – Just ‘cus it’s cool.
- Pandora – To discover new music.
- Slacker – A lot like Pandora.
- Iheartradio – To listen to radio stations all over.
- Facebook – I find the app easier to use than the site.
- Twitterriffic – There may be better Twitter apps, but this one just works.
Weather – The Touch has a weather app build in, but I like these two for more detailed information.
- The Weather Channel
- AccuWeather
Games – There are tons of games. Here are some of my favorites.
- Topple – One of my first games I bought. I think it is free now.
- Sudoku – Sometimes I get board enough to play Sudoku.
- Labyrinth – Pretty fun game, and much easier than the wooden version.
- Tap Tap Revenge – Fun game to rock out to, just wish it had more songs.
- Adventure – One of my all time favorite games. If you didn’t play it on the 2600 you won’t understand.
- Yahtzee – It’s, well, Yahtzee.
- TapDefense – It’s Desktop Tower Defense for your palm.
- PenguinLite – How can catapulting Penguins not be fun?
Video Watching – The Touch comes with a YouTube app, but these two are cool too.
- Joost – View what Joost has to offer.
- Ustream – Watch Ustream videos.
Misc – Other cool apps.
- Stanza – This is an awesome app if you want to read books on your Touch. You can download and read tons of books for free, or for fee.
- VNC- Because it’s just cool controlling your computer from your iPod.
- Mint – I never used the site until the app came out. It’s nice to get a quick glance at all my banking accounts on my Touch.
- USA Today – I nice app to catch up on the news with.
- Remote – Great for remotely controlling iTunes.
That’s just a few of my favorite apps. Maybe I do have quite a few apps.
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Play Adventure on your iPhone/iPod Touch
Back in 1984 I discovered a simple, but awesome game for my Atari 2600. It was simply called Adventure. To this day I still play the game from time to time on emulators. There isn’t much to the game. You just wonder around looking for the trophy to bring back to your castle while avoiding being eaten by the dragons. The coolest thing about the game was that on the hardest level, everything was always found in different places. Back in 1984 that was a cool thing. Every time you played the game it was different. Well, today I just discovered that the game is also available for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I already downloaded it and played it. It’s so cool to play one of my favorite game on my iPod. Now I am off to find what other childhood memories I can relive on my iPod.
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New Cat
Ok, no election talk here today. There is plenty of that elsewhere on the net.
Over the weekend the wife brought home another animal.
She doesn’t really have a name yet. The wife has had a different name for her everyday now. I am not really ready to have another cat, but she let me get one of these.
Yes, I got an iPod Touch. Since we can’t get iPhones in North Dakota, it’s the next best thing. It’s pretty cool and worth living with another cat I guess.
