Sometimes it can be useful to take a screenshot of whatever is happening on your iOS devices screen.
Maybe you want to show off your latest gaming accomplishment, share a bug with others or even just to capture a websites content. Read more
Tag Archive for iPod
Griffin announce universal remote for iOS / Android
Mobile accessory maker Griffin has today announced a new universal remote product that integrates remote control technology into pretty much any iOS device or smartphone.
The Beacon Universal Remote takes the form of an infra-red transmitter controlled via an app installed on your Apple or Android handset. Read more
Etón releases solar powered i-Dock in time for Summer
The outdoor types at Etón are bringing out a dock for iPod and iPhone devices that draws its power solely from the big yellow light in the sky. Read more
Apple WWDC 2011 Coverage – iCloud, iOS 5, Lion!
Apple has unveiled a whole load of new technologies at this years World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco, California.
There’s a whole lot of information provided in a keynote speech that stretched over 120 minutes, but the important facts are these: Read more
Expandable Storage Comes to iPad via AirStash
One of the major downsides to owning an iPad (or iPod, or iPhone) is that you’re stuck with whatever storage your device came with.
If you bought the 16GB version, then that’s your lot, and it doesn’t take much to fill up that space.
On the other hand, Android or Windows Tablets usually come with an SD card slot, giving you up to 32GB at a time, more if you carry multiple cards around with you.
Luckily, US based company AirStash have developed a new device that will provide expanded storage for your iOS device.
The USB dongle combines an SD card reader, a WiFi access point and media streaming software to allow you to playback content on SD cards on your iPad or iPhone.
It’s a novel idea, but it does have some drawbacks. For one, you’d have to pair your iOS device to the AirStash, so couldn’t use WiFi for Internet use at the same time. You also have to carry around another device with you, and it doesn’t exactly look small.
Files are copied to your SD card by connecting the AirStash to your PC or Mac via USB. The built in software on the device then makes the files available to compatible devices that connect via WiFi.
Despite it’s shortcomings, this would be a great advantage to those who travel. You’re no longer confined to the free space on your iOS device for media, you could potentially carry a handful of SD cards with you which gives the potential for instant access to a sizable chunk of your media library.
AirStash don’t go on record with battery life, but we’d expect around 3 to 4 hours of continuous use before it needs recharging, so you could probably squeeze out a couple of feature films in a single sitting.
No word on UK availability either, though we have asked. US pricing is set at $99.
How To Turn on Home Sharing in iTunes
Apple have re-vitalized the Home Sharing option in iTunes for iOS 4.3. Previously, you could only share music between different PC’s on your home network that ran iTunes. But now you can stream to any WiFi connected iOS device too.
In this quick guide I’ll show you how to turn this on both in iTunes and on your mobile device.
iTunes Setup
By default Home Sharing is turned off, but it’s fairly easy to turn on. First make sure that you have the latest iTunes version (currently 10.2.1). Once you have it installed it’s just a few simple clicks to turn on Home Sharing:
- Open the preferences window.
- Select the “Sharing” tab.
- Make sure that “Share my library on my local network” is selected:
- You can also change any of the other settings to expand or restrict what media is shared.
- If you wish, set a password.
- Tick the last tick box if you wish.
- Click OK.
Your iTunes library is now being shared with Home Sharing.
iOS Device.
It’s only a couple of clicks to turn Home Sharing on on your mobile device as well:
- Open the Settings app.
- Select the iPod settings
- In the “Home Sharing” area enter the same Apple ID that you use on your iTunes machine.
- Next, open up the iPod or Video app and you should be able to select your iTunes library from the top of either App:
You can now listen to anything stored in your iTunes library, on your iPhone or iPad!
Apple Releases iOS 4.3
Apple has released iOS 4.3 ahead of the anticipated release of the iPad 2 tomorrow.
The latest update is for iPhones 3GS onwards, iPod touches and the original iPad. iPhone 3G owners need not apply.
This update brings a host of new features to users, some are obvious, some not so obvious, and some of little use to some users. Check out the new features below:
- Personal Hotspot – Specific to iPhone 4 owners, this allows you to share your 3G data connection to upto 5 devices – up to 3 wifi, 3 bluetooth and 1 USB.
- iTunes home sharing – Allows you to stream music, movies and TV shows from your iTunes library to iOS devices on the same WiFi connection.
- New Airplay Features – allowing you to play videos from your photos app, including camera roll. Also, 3rd party apps have been enabled on AppleTV. You can also play slideshows of your photos from your iPhone or iPad on Apple TV, using Apple TV animations.
- Faster Safari Perofrmance – Apple have migrated the Nitro Javascript engine from the Mac version of Safari to the iOS one, which promises up to twice as fast web browsing.
- HD Video out using Apple Digital AV Adapter – view 720p videos from Videos App, iPod app, Photos, YouTube, Safari, Keynote and enable 3rd party apps
- Ping Updates – Apple have made a few adjustments to the flagging social networking site.
As well as this there are a few new settings options:-
- Users can now change the number of times alerts are repeated.
- iPad users can now select whether the slider switch acts as a screen lock or mute switch
- Numerous other bug fixes and security updates.
Apple have certainly delivered with this release, it’s unusual to see so many new features for what is essentially a minor release. I, for one, am happy with the iPad slider switch adjustment as I often use my own iPad in bed and it was a real loss when Apple removed this functionality with iOS 4.2.
I can also testify that the Home Sharing feature works well, I was able to stream both my entire music library and some movies in my iTunes library to my iPad today with no issues whatsoever, other than album artworks taking a couple of seconds to download fully. We can forgive Apple for that though.
I can also report no problems personally with this update (on the original iPad at least), so go forth and download!
Review: Qmobile App for iOS Devices
One of the more popular names amongst enthusiasts when it comes to home storage is QNAP. Not only do their network storage drives offer quick and easy access to your files but they also come with a whole host of additional features like download stations, surveillance features for IP cameras, web hosting and print servers.
However, one thing that QNAP drives have become quite well known for is providing a home for your home media libraries. I myself use a QNAP TS209 network drive to stream all of my films and TV shows around the house and beyond. The problem is that, until recently, there was no official way to access the files on a QNAP drive from a mobile device such as the iPhone. But not any more!
The guys at Qnap have recently released the Qmobile App for both iOS and Google Android devices. In this review I’ll be taking a look at the iOS version of the app and showing how it can be used to access the media files stored on your NAS from anywhere.
I’ll begin by saying that this app is essentially an extension of the “Multimedia Station” interface on the NAS for mobile devices. The original version is viewable via a web browser and can prove useful in itself if you need to access the media from shared PC’s or from a friends house.
There are better options available for accessing the media on your drive, including the free TwonkyMedia uPnP server that comes with QNAP devices, but uPnP clients for iOS are not exactly great and, essentially, not free.
Enter the Qmobile app. Download-able for free from the Android or Apple app stores, it effectively mimics the interface of the 
web browser version on your mobile device. From there you can view your pictures, listen to music and even view certain video types over a WiFi or 3G network. It’s worth noting that this app can only playback the same file types that the web browser version supports, which means that very little video formats are supported (pretty much none except for Flash video). But audio and image file-types are well supported and I found I was able to access all of my photos and audio over a WiFi network with no problem whatsoever.
Of course, when it comes to accessing these files over a mobile network, you’re going to want to control how much bandwidth you use. Luckily the QNAP guys have thought of that. For one, you can simply turn off access over mobile networks, meaning it will only ever work in the presence of WiFi connections. Secondly, the App caches the audio files that you listen to locally, so you only download songs once rather than every time that you use them. This is great if you’re inclined to listen to certain songs over and over (as we all do from time to time). You can also set the number of songs that are cached so that you don’t chew up too much space on your mobile device.
In practice, I found the overall experience to be inconsistent. The music part works very well, songs streamed quickly to the 
devices and playback was flawless once it had cached for a few seconds. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for other areas: Photo’s took way too long to load (even thumbnails) meaning that if you were in a hurry to show an album to someone you may end up staring at your phone in embarrassed anticipation. As well as this, the video portion is as pointless as it is on the browser version; with so little support for open video formats it’s a wonder why QNAP even bothered. The difficulty in achieving this in a browser is understandable, but these are mobile devices designed for playing back video, surely something could have been done to sort this out?
That being said, the app is free and does offer a tailored solution for QNAP devices that makes it easier to access your media on the go. Providing you’re comfortable in setting up your home network so that you can access your NAS from the Internet, setup should prove extremely simple; just input your public IP or server name, your user name and password and the app does all the rest for you. Unfortunately, QNAP seem to assume that every home user is up to this task which just isn’t the case. It would be good if QNAP could provide a walk through on how to configure your NAS for internet access, but with such a wide range of network hardware and internet companies available it’s easy to understand why they haven’t.
