Iphone apps for the culture hungry
March 10, 2011
London: British Museum £2.99
This app offers iPhone users an audio and visual guide to a fascinating collection of historical artifacts: look and learn about the Rosetta Stone, statues and sculptures. Listen as the Parthenon Sculptures come to life. Discover why the Benin Bronzes were spattered with human blood. Hear how the Easter Island statues caused anarchy. Star app rated in The Sunday Times Top 500 Apps 2011 and shortlisted for best tourism experience in BT Visit London Awards 2009.
Quirky London £1.19
Use on your iPhone or iPad for an impressive guide to London’s hidden gems . This is the app to buy if you want to discover the smaller art galleries and enjoy their cultural feasts.
The new iPhone app, Quirky London is packed with museums, art galleries, pubs, clubs and venues that make London truly great. Quirky London aims to uncover the city’s secrets and present them to you in one easy-to-follow guide complete with maps, images and the nitty gritty info you need for your visit.
Ashmolean in Oxford £2.99
The Ashmolean museum of art and archeology in Oxford has the acolade of being the world’s first university museum opened in 1683. This app works well as a companion to your visit as it is a talking guide to 50 of the most important objects in the museum’s collection.
British Library: Treasures £2.39
If you are a book lover as well as a technosmart then you will find this app essential as a way of exploring rare exhibits such as Nelson’s Trafalgar Battle plan written before the battle, Jane Austin’s Teenage writings, the Beatles handwritten lyrics, and the world’s oldest Bible are some of the many treasures to wet your appetite.
- If you want to find these treasures go to apple itunes store
- Need an iPhone in order to access these apps – visit our buy online webpage
Apple iOS 4.3 software upgrade
March 9, 2011
Apple’s update for the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone, and iPod touch devices with iOS 4.3 offer some interesting features and it is reckoned to be one of the better updates for your Apple devices.Personal Wi-Fi
The iPhone 4 can now be turned into a personal Wi-Fi access point for up to three devices via a 3G data connection. However, users will have to ask their operator to enable tethering before it can be used – and some providers will charge for this service. BGR’s Jonathan Geller also says that mobile phone operators should be able to increase the number of supported wireless connections via the iOS 4.3 personal hotspot feature from the default three devices to a maximum of five.
Personal Hotspot Feature
You can have Wi-Fi with you wherever you go. Download iOS 4.3 on your iPhone 4, and the next time you find yourself without access to Wi-Fi but in a 3G zone, the iOS 4.3 will enable a Personal Hotspot and share your cellular data connection with your Mac, PC, iPad, or other WiFi capable devices. You can share your connection with up to five devices at once over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB — with up to three of those connections using Wi-Fi (default setting). Every connection is password protected and therefore secure. IPhone 4 will detect when your Personal Hotspot is no longer in use and will turn off automatically to save your battery life.
Safari gets faster
Your mobile Safari browser will run much faster as it will now have the same Nitro JavaScript engine that runs on the full desktop version. JavaScript is up to twice as fast as in iOS 4.2 which means you get more speed behind each page load including sites with lots of interactive features.
Airplay for iPhone videos
Following this update, you can stream your favourite videos from your iPhone to your Apple TV – this is not just for personal videos – third party apps can take advantage of this feature too. Wireless printing is also now possible with AirPrint. In addition, music, movies, and photos can now stream from your Photos app. So you can shoot a home video and instantly share it with everyone in the room. Even AirPlay-enabled apps and websites can get the big-screen treatment with iOS 4.3.
Live video and photo effects
If you have a camera on your Apple device you can now use the Photo Booth app, which allows users to take live snapshots with different effects such as Kaleidoscope, Twirl and X-Ray and then share or send them to a friend. Now you can also play your iTunes library from anywhere in the house. This means that if it’s on your Mac or PC, you can play it on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over a shared Wi-Fi network. So with iOS 4.3 it will be possible to stream all videos, podcasts, music and photos to all devices, from both a Mac and PC.
The iOS 4.3 upgrade is available now via Apple’s app store iTunes.
Who will not benefit?
The new update will not be available for iPhone 3G or the second-generation iPod touch as they simply don’t meet the iOS 4.3 spec. So perhaps it is time to upgrade you apple devices. Read our article on Ipad 2 and check out deals for iPhone 4 online with our sponsored links.
- Visit the ‘buy iPhone online page’
- Visit the Three website
- PAYG iphone page on o2
- Visit the apple store
- Visit the Carphone warehouse website
The best deals can only be found online.
Ipad 2- what’s new?
March 6, 2011
When Apple’s new iPad was released in March 2011 it was described by Apple’s late boss, Steve Jobs, as ‘a giant leap forwards’. The upgraded features of iPad 2 were expected to keep Apple products at the top of the sales market. The iPad 2 tablet has gained a duel core processor which is the A5 chip – this will enable the iPad 2 to perform many operations at twice the speed of the original iPad released in the UK in May 2010.
The iPad 2 is priced in line with the current iPad from £429-£699. It is possible to buy the original iPad at discounts of up to £100 and such discounts will no doubt increase as keen consumers rush to be the first with the latest model- thereby releasing some refurbished and secondhand iPads into the market.
New features on the iPad 2 are a pair of cameras (iPad 1 did not have a camera), a rear facing camera capable of shooting 720p HD video and a lower resolution front-facing lens suitable for video calling (VGA). Along with the updated hardware, Apple unveiled new applications for the iPad 2, including the video editing package iMovie and music making programme, Garage Band.
The iPad 2 is thinner and lighter than its predecessor and easier to handle on a flat surface. It will run on the operating system iOS 4.3, now updated to iOS 5. The screen of the iPad 2 is the same size and resolution as the original iPad but is aimed to be more sensitive to the touch in that it will allow you to ‘play’ musical instruments on the touchscreen using GarageBand; you can save your rendering on iTunes and email your recordings to friends or interested parties. Apple claim that the internal graphics hardware have been substantially improved so that some operations will run nine times faster. These improvements make the device a superior games companion. Battery life remains the same – up to ten hours of heavy use.
The new thinner, lightweight, faster tablet can be protected by buying a new, novel ‘smartcover’ which is estimated to cost between £24 and £44 – the new cover not only rolls across the screen to protect the tablet, but also puts the iPad to sleep. The cover is multifunctional as it can also be used to support the iPad at a perfect angle for typing, or watching videos. The The Belkin Pleat Sleeve shown below costs £24.99 but can be bought for around £8.60 from Amazon (see link below).
However, the deciding factor when considering whether to buy the iPad is the availabilitry of apps. The iPad beats the competition hands down for its range of dedicated programs (more than 10,000) their quality and and selection of films, TV shows and music downloadable from the iTunes store. Apple’s lead has been shortened by its rivals but it still remains ahead.
So where do you go to buy a 16GB WiFi only model (£429); or a 64GB at approximately £699? Apparently, Orange and T-Mobile networks are selling the iPad 2 bundled with mobile data subscriptions. We will keep you informed regarding PAYG options in the near future.
- visit the apple store
- Visit Amazon UK | Amazon website
- itunes store | apple itunes
This article has been re-purposed and then re-published. The original article was found in the Sunday Times Newspaper, on the BBC website and Apple’s advertising link.