Bo Stern

Sounded promising, but the latest versions have crashed immediately when starting them on my 32Gb iPhone4 iOS 4.2.1. Also found that it would sometimes check me in to several locations in rapid succession, while driving by. Not that useful.

Very useful iPhone app for scanning, storing, organizing, searching and retrieving business cards. Very good at OCR extracting all the information from each card.

Very thought provoking, subtle and extremely well directed cinematic interpretations of the 10 commandments, on the backdrop of everyday life in late 1980'ies Poland. The Decalogue thus consists of 10 1 hour long movies, each dealing with one of the commandments, but in highly unexpected and intriguing ways. Some say it's one of the best movie works ever produced. It is the antonym to Hollywood productions in almost every aspect. Deeply touching and sometimes extremely emotionally "naked" stories, set on the very drab and gloomy backdrop of then still communist Poland which thus enables one to acutely focus on the essential themes and rediscover our common humanity.

Good vibes, brings me right back in the movie each time. Have to turn down my subwoofer a notch though as it otherwise causes seismic activity.

The future is here. This iPhone app lets me speak (short) sentences and then have it translated and spoken in any other language (supported). Tried with with some Chinese friends and it worked quite well. Of course it also works the other way, so this app really breaks down language barriers instantly.

Brilliant app which allows me to make a complete 360 degree panoramic photo in my iPhone4, and upload it freely to a website which enables the viewer to pan through all the viewing angles. Lets me share the upload location via Twitter.

Brings me back to the paths and vistas of Nepal, like floating over the Himalayas. Extremely pleasing soundscapes, almost meditative.

John Serrie, one of my favorite New Age musicians. Timeless beauty, breathtaking soundscapes, brings me into a deep place of relaxation and sense of serenity. A frequent and welcome "guest" on Hearts of Space and Sirius Spa73.

Great replacement app for the now defunct Simplify and to some degree the Lala service (never app enabled). Enables remote streaming access to my entire iTunes music library via my iPhone. Needs an Audiogalaxy Helper app running on the box where iTunes is located. It allows you to add additional directory for it to index, i.e. beyond iTunes locations. The iPhone app allows for music access via playlists, artist, album or search. Starts streaming / playing almost instantly. Skipping/FFw also quite response. Shows album art. Facebook and Twitter sharing option (of current song being played). Noted some issues with songs showing up multiple times in the app, hence only the Maybe recommendation.

The jury is still out on this app. I liked the idea, but keep getting the error

NSXMLParserErrorDomain error 5

after I start the app / log in. Have opened a conversation with TwitVid tech staff. They contacted me with some follow up questions this morning, so presumably they're looking into it. Will update when issue is resolved. I like the instant accessibility and ubiquity of posting a video via twitter.

One of the best roles for William Hurt in a time when the Cold War still very much was ongoing, 3 years before Reykjavík. Each junction in the movie is subtly enhanced by the austerity and misery of the sovjet society, how power was abused by and corrosive of KGB officers and public servants, especially when fueled by illicit access to western goods. Hurt is simply eminent in his portrayal of a local police man (militia), straight as an arrow, trying to solve a triple murder mystery, being obstructed by the DA and KGB every step of the way due to their unsavory and selfish interests being at stake. When he finally uncovers the ugly truth, he is helpless, in danger of loosing his life, his back against the wall. There are plots within plots, each underscoring the dreams of all russians of obtaining "western freedoms" one day. Every member of the cast played their roles superbly. I can watch this movie over and over, and never get tired of it. It is a great reminder of why the sovjet system had to collapse eventually.

Nifty time zone conversion utility. Easy to use, does the job.

Truly amazing, almost magical application enabling instant translation from a configured language to another (installed as a language package). By simply holding the phone above the text to be translated, the camera view in the phone will in real time show the translated version. Currently only Spanish->English and English->Spanish packages are available. The application will in real time replace the original text with the translated version, even to the extent of using the same font, color and other shape characteristics as the original. The translations might occasionally flicker and shift depending on the angle and steadiness of the phone, but will for the most part do an astonishing job. Hand writing is not recognized. Besides the instant visual translation, it also allows for lookup translation, i.e. typing a word and getting the various translated variants (list view) which is handy all by itself. Finally, no network connection is required to use the app!

A worthy competitor to Kindle and iBooks as eBook readers on the iPhone, even if not quite as polished in all aspects. Greater selection of free titles. The purchase experience leaves something to desire, as it requires opening the browser, even if the site is optimized for mobile. For older books the reader has a really cool feature of allowing the reader to either read the OCR scanned, "clean" text version or the original raw scan, including whatever marks and annotations those versions held. Mainly I'm excited to have a decent reader for Google's likely vastly expanding library.

So far one of the best books I've read this year. Highly recommended. Very similar to the plot in the Bourne Identity, except this book almost feels like a real world account. Great attention to detail and coherence. Good reading experience in iBooks on the iPad.

My preferred RSS reader on the iPad. Presents key feeds in a very pleasing and beautiful magazine layout format, including my Twitter and Facebook feeds. Comes with some suggested feeds, but allows adding any other feed. Uses a page turning gesture to move forwards and backwards in the feed. Expands links in tweets so each tweet appears like a newspaper article, headed by the tweet text itself and the body derived from the link (if available). Extremely easy and intuitive user interface. All graphics and layout effects are cool, smooth and natural. Love this app!

Seems very identical to the web based version, apart from the automatic background location updating capability (opt in) and easier approach to finding and adding friends, plus a few new settings such as distance units and map type.

Provides both (Windows) Remote Desktop Connection and VNC access to my work pc and Linux development box, for both iPhone and iPad. A must have for quick remote adhoc access to computers. Typically requires that your company VPN profile has been installed on your iPhone or iPad in order to penetrate the corporate firewall. Great UI, easy setup, fast response, intuitive interface.

My all time favorite Beatles Album. Some of the best classics from start to finish, such as Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, ObLaDi-ObLaDa, Helter Skelter, Julia and many more.

Really like it. Easy to operate, handle and clean. Does not make a mess. Clearly enhances bouquet and flavor. Beautiful appearance while stored.