I’m just playing around with it and it hasn’t even been 2 hours since I installed it but I’m really digging it! Aside from the fact that I had to manually install the wireless drivers, all went smoothly with the install.

Writing this post from Firefox in 9.10

Ubuntu Linux 9.10

Overview of Features

The most recent version has an improved grid interface. Once you set up your cable or satellite provider, it’s easy to scroll through the grid or change the time and date. If you’re looking for a specific show but can’t remember the time nor the channel, you can utilize the search function, which comes via an icon on the bottom. Search results are broken down into “Showing Today”, “Upcoming”, “Netflix” and any other sources found. Selecting a show will give you an overview of it and in some cases a preview, as well as the ability to download from iTunes, add to your Netflix queue, invite someone to watch, record with TiVo, or set-up a push notification alert. It is worth mentioning that push notifications only work for upcoming episodes of TV shows. One of the coolest features is the Streams, which allows you to stream a TV show on your iPhone, if available.

The Movies tab allows the user to read a synopsis, view trailer, and find theaters and show times. This feature makes use of GPS to provide the nearest theater information. One thing we wish it had is the ability to purchase tickets but there are other apps for that.

For those who want to keep up with entertainment news, there is the News section, which pulls entertainment headlines from E!, CNN, MSNBC, and USA

Conclusion

i.TV is loaded with features but there are still some things we’d like to see in upcoming updates. For example, expanding the remote support to other devices, not just TiVo. The good thing is that the developers are always working hard on improving and adding features and we hope they continue to make good on their promises. Given the popularity of this app, there is nowhere for i.TV to go but up. We expect it to continue to mature as time goes on. For the serious or even the not-so-serious TV lovers out there, this is a MUST HAVE app. Oh, and its price is even better, free in the AppStore. So there, no excuse not to get it!

Once you’ve installed the app, it is easy to set up your blog. You simply launch the app and enter your blog URL and credentials and you’re good to go. Within seconds, you will see your posts and comments appear.

Writing A New Post

Writing a post is a very straight-forward process. The compose screen is broken down into five parts: Title, Tags, Categories, Status, and the Body of the post.

The Categories field, which is optional, is populated by the categories you may or may not have set up on your Wordpress blog, so you simply pick one or more. The Status is obviously the status of the post. The options available here are: Pending Review, Private, Published, Draft and Local Draft.

Local Draft means the draft exists only in the iPhone app and has not been uploaded to Wordpress, while Draft is the option you want to select if you want your draft to be uploaded to Wordpress. Published, as it clearly implies, publishes your post to your blog for the world to see.

On the bottom of the compose screen you have four icons: Write, Photos, Preview and Settings. You can attach as many photos as you’d like to your posts but one annoying thing to me is the fact that it automatically inserts the photos to the bottom of the posts. I wish there was some sort of way to be able to change the placement of the photos to in between paragraphs, for example. This could be accomplished with the help of a visual editor in the app as opposed to having to log in to the Wordpress site to manually adjust them.

The Preview, at least for my site, does not load my actual blog theme. Not sure if this is happening to other people, or if this is the way the app works. It gives me a message stating “Sorry, the theme for your blog could not be retrieved. A simple preview is shown below.” This is no big deal, really, since the “simple preview” is pretty much the post sans the blog theme.

Settings, on the other hand, allow you to set a publishing date and time for your posts as well as specifying a password if you want to make the post available  only to people to whom you provide the password. I have never tested this option as I haven’t felt the need to write such a private post, but the option is there for those who feel they need and want to use it. Settings also allow you to turn “Resize Photos” ON or OFF.

Pages

If you have different pages set up on your blog, Wordpress 2.0 allows you to edit them and even create new ones. When creating new pages, you can leave them in Draft mode if you’re not finished with them, and then return to finish them either on the app or directly by logging into your Wordpress blog from the web. Definitely a nice feature to have.

Conclusion

This app has been very solid in my use so far, as was the case with version 1.0. You can add and manage multiple blogs and it is simple enough to use. All in all, I really like this app and for the blogging enthusiast or the serious blogger with an iPhone, this app is a must. Add to that the fact it is free and you have no excuse not to have it. My only complaint is that, as I mentioned above, it would be nice to have a way to change the placement of the images in the posts written with the app. That said, I understand the limitations and realize that it would require some sort of visual HTML editor. Maybe Wordpress would bring this to version 3.0?

Tweetie 2 has now been out for a few weeks and it improves on the user experience of the original Tweetie app. Atebits, the developer of Tweetie, has implemented quite a few touches to make this app a pretty good and simple Twitter tool.

One of my favorite features is the ability to swipe over a message on the timeline. This gives you several options, such as reply, retweet, mark as favorite, or go directly to the user’s profile. When composing a new tweet, you have the ability to select recent hashtags, use the @people picker, attach a picture or pictures, since Tweetie 2 now has support for multiple attachments, along with geotagging and even the ability to shrink URLs.

Tweetie 2 Compose Screen

You can now edit your Twitter profile right from the app, which was not an option with the original and should you get a phone call in the middle of composing or reading the timeline (because after all it’s a phone!), you’re brought right back to where you were thanks to full persistence. Tweetie 2 also has landscape support all throughout the app and the UI feels very fluid and intuitive. Direct messages are displayed in threaded form, making it easier to read and reply.

Twitter Profile

Tweetie 2 is full of features but perhaps my favorite is the that URLs open right inside the app instead of firing up Safari. Not sure if it was just me but this was aggravating and I found myself forgoing clicking on URLs at times.

For those of you with more than one Twitter account, you’ll be pleased to know that Tweetie 2 support multiple accounts. The app has a price tag of $2.99 in the AppStore but it’s all worth it in my opinion if you want a simple yet elegant and effective Twitter client.

The commercial hints at various things that Verizon says the iPhone doesn’t do but ‘Droid’ does (this is apparently how they will refer to their upcoming Android device). Now, while I don’t entirely agree with all their “iDon’t” points, I believe that Android is a mobile platform that is maturing day by day and getting better and more exciting in recent weeks.

Whether “Droid” can be a hit for Verizon Wireless and be a pain in Apple’s rear remains to be seen.

No doubt a huge testament of the big success that the AppStore has been for Apple and it continues strong with no signs of slowing down.

Congrats Apple!

Let’s jump to the present time, two years later. We have seen many other platforms come along sporting great UI’s and challenging the iPhone such as Palm with their WebOS, Google with their Android OS, and more recently Nokia with their not yet released Maemo 5 OS. These aforementioned mobile UI’s look great and can seriously challenge the iPhone’s, which in my opinion, will need a refresh soon to keep up with the newcomers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the iPhone’s UI looks dated yet but Apple will have to refresh it at some point to keep up in the race.

HTC’s Android version (Sense UI) is hot and so it’s the Nokia’s Maemo UI running on the upcoming Nokia N900. There is no denying that. I really, really like some of the UI touches and niceties that we’ve seen so far, particularly from these two devices and also from the Palm Pre, so I asked myself this: Would I consider making the switch to one of these devices at this point and time?

The answer is: I don’t think so (this is not a definite NO and I could change my mind tomorrow). Why? The Apps, simply. There are close to 65,000 apps in the iPhone AppStore, compared to about 10,000 in the Android Market and a measly number in Palm’s App Catalog. While I know that more apps don’t necessarily translate into better apps, this is not the case here, from my experience. There is a lot of developer commitment to the iPhone platform at this time (this too may change, I realize), and that translates into a lot more choices when it comes to apps.

That being said, not everything is fine and dandy in the iPhone world and there are some things that make me really upset. Namely Apple’s arbitrary and anti-competitive rejection of apps like the most recent Google Voice rejection, currently being investigated by the FCC. I realize that the iPhone is a closed platform in many ways but I have come to accept and live with its limitations. Maybe tomorrow I will change my mind and switch to another platform but FOR NOW at least, I’ll stick with iPhone. After all, life is not perfect!

Here are two videos – the HTC Hero (Android) and Nokia N900 (Maemo 5). Check out their UI’s.

Last night while trying to access Netflix Watch-Now on my XBox 360, I kept getting timed out. Initially I thought it was something on my network but I received this email from Netflix today apologizing for the inconvenience and offering a link to apply a small credit my account. Big kudos!