How I Use iOS Gesture for iPad

With iOS 5 for iPad, it comes with a handy gesture system.
You can use four or five fingers to swipe up while in home screen to bring up the multitasking app bar and swipe left and right to go to next/previous app that was launched earlier on.

Here's one practical example of how I use the gesture on my iPad during my eBook reading session.

I was going to read one my my gadget magazines which has pricing in Indian currency.

I launched my XE Currency iPad app before I fired up eBook reader.





In the magazine, I came across the pricing of a Blackberry Bold 9900. The currency stated is in Indian currency.

Without pressing the home button, I swiped left using four fingers, the XE Currency app returned instantly.





I keyed in the pricing in the India Rupees box, and I got the Singapore dollars equivalent instantly.

Satisfied, I used four fingers and swiped right to bring me back to my last eBook reading location.

This is the kind of great user experience that I can't have in Android tablets!

Neat!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad -

The Box in the Cloud with iOS

The hottest Tech news yesterday must be the offering of free 50GB storage for box.net iPhone/iPad users.


I guess that's a competitive move by box.net to compete with iCloud.

So, now you happily dash to the App Store to download the official Box.Net app only to find out that there's no way to upload file using the app. Only download is supported.



Well, all is not lost.

I've been a Box.net user for more than a year now, and I've never use the official app to do uploading and downloading of files.
Here's how and what I do to upload and download files.

Method 1: Uploading using email attachment
For every folder created in box.net, a designated email address is created.
Any attachment like jpg, doc files attached to an email sent to this email address will be uploaded to the corresponding box.net folder! Ingenious!
However, note that this is potentially unsecured as you don't need any login to use this method.

To find out this designated email address, just visit box.net in your safari app on your iPhone or iPad.
Click on your folder of interest, and then click the Options drop-down on the upper right corner. (see the diagram below).



Next click on the "Upload by email". The designated email address will be shown:


This will be the email address to email to for your attachment upload.

Method 2: Using an app with Box.Net Integration
A better way, which is my preferred way is to use a file/folder management app with Box.net integration.
I'm using the excellent Good Reader app.


Once connected to your Box.net account, all the folders in your Box account will be displayed in Good Reader.
From there, you can download file, create folder, upload file from/to your 50GB storage!
One catch here: as iOS only allow app to access the Photo Library and the Documents(invisible to user) subfolder in the app folder itself, the files to be uploaded can only be picked from this folder. To put in files in this folder, you can use the PC iTunes file transfer or "Open In Good Reader" shortcut in other apps that supports the "Open In" shortcut.

Method 3: Buy an Android device, which supports file upload
This is the option I least recommend!
I wouldn't want to sacrifice a better user experience iOS for this feature.

There you have it!
A whopping 50GB cloud storage at your disposal!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad -

Bluetooth 4.0 on iPhone 4S

I wonder why Apple did not emphasize more on the Bluetooth 4.0 used in the iPhone 4S.
It's the first smartphone to implement that!


If the specs are to be believed, Bluetooth 4.0 not only better its earlier version in terms of range (50m vs 20m), the most significant feature is the extremely short "setup time" like pairing and searching.
Bluetooth 4.0 has a setup time approximately 3ms vs Bluetooth 2.0's 6 seconds.

Now, this fast setup time is even faster than NFC's (Near Field Communication) 0.1s!

This may open a lot of nice features using Bluetooth.
Can't wait to see them!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad -

iPhone Upgrade vs Samsung Upgrade

What makes upgrading from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S less special than from Samsung Galaxy S2 to Samsung Nexus Prime?

I prefer to think it the other way round.

This is based on my personal usage of smartphone.
For me, iPhone 4S provides a lot more wanted features over iPhone 4 compared to that of Samsung Nexus Prime over Samsung Galaxy S2.

First, screen size.
The Nexus Prime has a bigger screen size at 4.65".
Do I need that much screen estate?
I'm currently using the 4.3" screen size Galaxy S2.
Yes, I would love that kind of bigger screen. However, I prefer to have a "palm-size" friendly phone which I can message without awkwardness with one hand. That I'm struggling with the 4.3". 4.65" is really beyond extreme.
For this, I would go for iPhone for the screen size.





Second, software:
I don't see any killer apps mentioned in the Nexus Prime that you cannot have in Galaxy S2.
I do see and impressed with the Siri voice recognition and control capability of the iPhone 4S that will not be in iPhone 4. And this may be what I need and will be using. I'm seeing this very useful when I drive on the road. Currently, I have make use of the stop at road junction red light to do a quick SMS texting.



Yes, I would sell my current Galaxy S2 for the iPhone 4S come 28th October 2011 when it comes to Singapore.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad -