iPhone App Thread

SumnerH

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Jul 18, 2005
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MLB AT Bat 2011 is out now. Yippie.
Anyone figured out how to install it on an existing iPhone without upgrading the OS? I have no interest in figuring out how to re-root with IOS 4.0+, and it strikes me as ridiculous that less than 2 years from release they've essentially stopped supporting a stock 3GS.

Yet another reason I'll definitely be ditching the iPhone for an Android when my renewal period comes up.
 

czar

fanboy
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Jul 16, 2005
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Anyone figured out how to install it on an existing iPhone without upgrading the OS? I have no interest in figuring out how to re-root with IOS 4.0+, and it strikes me as ridiculous that less than 2 years from release they've essentially stopped supporting a stock 3GS.

Yet another reason I'll definitely be ditching the iPhone for an Android when my renewal period comes up.
I'm a bit confused. 3GS certainly supports iOS 4.0 upgrades. If jailbroken, you can try using Installeous (I took a peek and it appears they have the 2011 app) to see if you can override the 4.0 switch by downloading a cracked IPA-- I'm not sure if this works, though, because I don't know if they "if >= 4.0" trigger is in the App Store, in the code itself, or something that requires the program to run properly.

Really, the simplest thing to do is just upgrade to 4.1.x*-- if you want to jailbreak/unlock (is this what you mean by "root?") it takes like 5 seconds using either greenp0is0n or limera1n and then whatever unlock utility is the hot one at the moment (it has been ultrasn0w lately, but I haven't unlocked in 6 months).

*The reason I suggest 4.1 is I can promise you there are jailbreak tools out there to make your life very simple since that's the OS I'm running. Since my printer isn't supported with AirPlay, I saw no reason to go through the process again with 4.2, especially since untethered jailbreaks typically don't come out right with OS release.
 

Three10toLeft

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Oct 2, 2008
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Anyone figured out how to install it on an existing iPhone without upgrading the OS? I have no interest in figuring out how to re-root with IOS 4.0+, and it strikes me as ridiculous that less than 2 years from release they've essentially stopped supporting a stock 3GS.

Yet another reason I'll definitely be ditching the iPhone for an Android when my renewal period comes up.
Switching from iOS to Android to avoid software fragmentation?

Interesting.
 

dirtynine

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Dec 17, 2002
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Headed out on a business trip, which is relatively rare for me. Anybody using a travel expense report app they would recommend? I see a few in the app store but nothing looks amazing. It would be good to be able to photograph receipts, export to a CSV, etc.
 

CrouchingTonyHiddenPena

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Headed out on a business trip, which is relatively rare for me. Anybody using a travel expense report app they would recommend? I see a few in the app store but nothing looks amazing. It would be good to be able to photograph receipts, export to a CSV, etc.
Try Shoeboxed. While it gets poor reviews, I find it to accomplish everything you need and I wanted in it as well.

EDIT: Soemtimes poor reviews surprise me, as the app is actually quite useful.
 

sfip

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I'm seeing there are a bunch of apps for backing up your supermarket membership cards: CardBank, Key Ring, CardStar, etc.. Before I load one of these apps, which one(s) would people here recommended, including concerns about security of your information? Side note: I have a 3G and Key Ring apparently can't use Bar Codes unless you have a 3GS or up.
 

CrouchingTonyHiddenPena

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I'm seeing there are a bunch of apps for backing up your supermarket membership cards: CardBank, Key Ring, CardStar, etc.. Before I load one of these apps, which one(s) would people here recommended, including concerns about security of your information? Side note: I have a 3G and Key Ring apparently can't use Bar Codes unless you have a 3GS or up.
Cardstar is my favorite. It has specials built in, the nicest UI of any of them (IMVHO), and a very large bank of stores/locations for your memberships. I used to like KeyRing, but got sour on the UI, and had some errors when using the barcode scanner to begin with. I've been using Cardstar for a long time now with zero complaints, and get more compliments on its UI from store clerks/cashiers than I can count. Lastly, I have no security concerns. If someone wants to steal my membership info, they'll be helping add to my account purchase totals in the end. More power to them. My SSN is not listed on any memberships I use with the app.
 

sfip

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Thank you. I've downloaded it. I don't know whether it's worth loading another in addition since there are a few places this doesn't have like ShopRite which is 1 of my 2 most common supermarkets, but I guess only time will tell. Worst comes to worst I can always have the cashier key the number.
 

sox311

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Jan 30, 2004
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That's what she said.
CTHP,or others, what password app do you use?

I want to have it sync across my iPhone, iPad & Windows Laptop & PC, and my WP7 if at all possible, but the last isn't very important...

I just want it to sync on iOS and Windows OS... Desktop application if possible probably...
 

CrouchingTonyHiddenPena

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CTHP,or others, what password app do you use?

I want to have it sync across my iPhone, iPad & Windows Laptop & PC, and my WP7 if at all possible, but the last isn't very important...

I just want it to sync on iOS and Windows OS... Desktop application if possible probably...
I use Roboform. No support for WP7 yet, but it has the rest you need and should support it soon. It creates one main sync file accessed by all devices and platforms for each account. They've simplified it a lot with the new cloud structure in version 7. The only problem is that if you want is available for all devices and platforms you'll need their "Roboform Everywhere 7" product, which costs $20/year (only $10 for the first year though).

Honestly though, it's worth it's weight in gold IMHO. It's one of the few programs/apps I probably couldn't live without. At least I never want to try.
 

PBDWake

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So, question... I'm a bit irked by my unlimited data plan not allowing me to tether... but multiple people I know have told me there are apps that will let me use it as a tether, only nobody seems to know exactly which ones they are. Does anyone know one, or is this more urban legend?
 

derekson

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So, question... I'm a bit irked by my unlimited data plan not allowing me to tether... but multiple people I know have told me there are apps that will let me use it as a tether, only nobody seems to know exactly which ones they are. Does anyone know one, or is this more urban legend?
AT&T has been cracking down on people using these apps to tether anyway. They've been automatically enrolling them in the $45/month 4GB tethering data plan.
 

CrouchingTonyHiddenPena

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So, question... I'm a bit irked by my unlimited data plan not allowing me to tether... but multiple people I know have told me there are apps that will let me use it as a tether, only nobody seems to know exactly which ones they are. Does anyone know one, or is this more urban legend?
There are no options anymore really. Before you have needed to jailbreak and then look for MyWi. However, the good ole' days are over, as AT&T very recently released SMS warnings to those running MyWi (even to jailbroken phones), telling those taking advantage of free tethering that they will be cracking down from this point on. They even followed up the text warning with an official email warning. If caught, AT&T warns that they will automatically switch your data plan to the new tethering plan without your permission, subject to their official 4GB limit.

So it's not worth the risk anymore. This will head to class action status at some point, with a group arguing that such restrictions tell us how we can and can't use our "unlimited data plan". Hopefully one day soon they'll just charge us for unlimited data and let us use our paid for data how we please.

Read more here: http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-news/755094-t-cracking-down-mywi-tethering.html#post5900724
 

czar

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There are no options anymore really. Before you have needed to jailbreak and then look for MyWi. However, the good ole' days are over, as AT&T very recently released SMS warnings to those running MyWi (even to jailbroken phones), telling those taking advantage of free tethering that they will be cracking down from this point on. They even followed up the text warning with an official email warning. If caught, AT&T warns that they will automatically switch your data plan to the new tethering plan without your permission, subject to their official 4GB limit.

So it's not worth the risk anymore. This will head to class action status at some point, with a group arguing that such restrictions tell us how we can and can't use our "unlimited data plan". Hopefully one day soon they'll just charge us for unlimited data and let us use our paid for data how we please.

Read more here: http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-news/755094-t-cracking-down-mywi-tethering.html#post5900724
Firstly, you can only run MiWi on a jailbroken phone, so "even to jailbroken phones" is a bit misleading.

Secondly, if I've digested information correctly, AT&T doesn't have an API on the phone to track data usage, and people have shown that running MiWi isn't affecting their "tethering" stats on their account.

It sounds like AT&T is actually going after high volume users (not specifically MiWi ones) and are assuming they are tetherers from total use/rate-- which would jive with the couple sporadic reports of a few power iPhone users who got the message without tethering (not going to sift-through the modmyi posts to find out who exactly).

You certainly know more about this than I, so correct if I'm wrong, but as someone who sporadically uses his iPhone to tether, I've been keeping a close eye on the story-- FWIW I haven't received a text/e-mail combo myself, and I use MiWi.
 

CrouchingTonyHiddenPena

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Firstly, you can only run MiWi on a jailbroken phone, so "even to jailbroken phones" is a bit misleading.

Secondly, if I've digested information correctly, AT&T doesn't have an API on the phone to track data usage, and people have shown that running MiWi isn't affecting their "tethering" stats on their account.

It sounds like AT&T is actually going after high volume users (not specifically MiWi ones) and are assuming they are tetherers from total use/rate-- which would jive with the couple sporadic reports of a few power iPhone users who got the message without tethering (not going to sift-through the modmyi posts to find out who exactly).

You certainly know more about this than I, so correct if I'm wrong, but as someone who sporadically uses his iPhone to tether, I've been keeping a close eye on the story-- FWIW I haven't received a text/e-mail combo myself, and I use MiWi.
I meant "even to jailbroken iPhones" since they monitor heavy usage for non-broken phones as well. Sorry that was murky, but you are technically correct. With regard to data overall, your edit was what I was coming here to post almost verbatim. I'm reporting it as I understand it within the industry, but there is no official way to know how they are tracking the data usage. The warnings are being sent to a lot of MyWi users, which means only one of two things:

1) They added something to their API within 4.3 when they added the tethering feature. While this makes the most sense, nobody has been able to identify the source code for the tracking, so I don't buy it after looking further into it.

2) They are monitoring all heavy usage, and simply warning those who consume unusual amounts, which also includes jailbroken iPhones. (this seems most logical, as you point out as well)

Either way, they are tracking heavy data usage closely, jailbroken or not, making it not worth the risk IMVHO. This leads me to believe they at least have some code somewhere for data monitoring. Not necessarily code to identify MyWi or its users specifically, but simple overall usage patterns and amounts.

OSX Daily has more info on it, and they claim it's being sent to numerous MyWi users. I'll keep a close eye and ask around for more info. If I hear anything important, I'll post here right away for you.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/17/att-cracking-down-on-unofficial-iphone-tethering-mywi-users/
 

czar

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1) They added something to their API within 4.3 when they added the tethering feature. While this makes the most sense, nobody has been able to identify the source code for the tracking, so I don't buy it after looking further into it.

2) They are monitoring all heavy usage, and simply warning those who consume unusual amounts, which also includes jailbroken iPhones. (this seems most logical, as you point out as well)
I agree, and I'll further that it can't really be 1, since there is not a widespread usage of jailbroken 4.3's. Ergo, I'd venture that the vast majority of people using MiWi are on 4.2.x or even a bit earlier. It has to be a trigger on data usage (and if they were really clever-- usage rate, not total usage). It's something to keep an eye on, but this reeks of a situation similar to Comcast and their throttling a few years ago-- they don't really care what/how you are doing the downloading, they see connections and constant upstream/downstream and you are flagged.

Regardless, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

EDIT: BTW, thanks for the Cardstar tip-- that's one of those stupid little things that never even crossed my mind as another little thing the phone could do.
 

dirtynine

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Have you guys had trouble getting the Cardstar barcodes to scan at the register? It's very hit or miss for me.
 

czar

fanboy
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Have you guys had trouble getting the Cardstar barcodes to scan at the register? It's very hit or miss for me.
Only used it at Kroger (supermarket) self-checkout-- worked fine, although I had to pull it away from the scanner a bit before I got the beep.

I figure it'll be hit or miss (and their website sort of implies as much) but as a worst case scenario, I have to have someone key the number in-- still preferable to walking around with 10 rewards cards in my wallet, especially when I only use some of them (hotel rewards cards, Staples, etc.) once every 3-4 months.
 

PBDWake

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May 1, 2008
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Thanks for the feedback on tethering. I think I'll skip it for now. Outside of flash, there's not a whole lot of times where I'd need to tether, but couldn't either just use my iphone slightly less conveniently, or make it to a starbucks or something. Also, screw you all. I was reading through the thread looking for options, and was like "Hey, everybody keeps mentioning tiny wings. Maybe I should check it out". I hate all you bastards now.
 

sfip

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Have you guys had trouble getting the Cardstar barcodes to scan at the register? It's very hit or miss for me.
In the short time that I've had it, I've tried it at a few places and it seems to work much better if the cashier uses a scanning gun. I have an Otterbox and I don't know if that affects it.
 

Van Everyman

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Apr 30, 2009
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Here's a question: why when you open the link on your iPhone to a website that you have an app for does it not automatically open that app? Am I missing something?
 

mt8thsw9th

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Jul 17, 2005
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Can't find an official release date, but OOTP is coming to iPhone and iPad this spring.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/newsletters/nl0073/



Per the developers, due to fragmentation issues and Google's return policy, they've scrapped any plans for an Android version.
 

czar

fanboy
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Can't find an official release date, but OOTP is coming to iPhone and iPad this spring.

Per the developers, due to fragmentation issues and Google's return policy, they've scrapped any plans for an Android version.
They never disclose official release dates-- at least not in the 8 years I've been using OOTP. Mainly because (FBOFW) Markus is constantly editing code and is done when he's done.

The only downside is the iOS version and the PC/Mac version are not compatible, so you cannot sync your league across multiple machines. That said, I heard the price point is going to be $5 which should be more than cheap enough for time-wasting at the airport.
 

CrouchingTonyHiddenPena

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I have tried that they still go off an hour early it is really annoying.
What OS are you running?

My wife had the same issue with 4.2.x after DST, and the only thing that fixed it was an upgrade to 4.3.1. Shitty solution, but worth the battery drain to have accurate alarms again, especially since she's in trauma medicine and can't afford to be waking up at wrong hours.

I would delete the alarm, hard reset, and then sync without upgrading the OS. If that doesn't fix it, upgrade to 4.3.1.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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Apr 26, 2008
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What OS are you running?

My wife had the same issue with 4.2.x after DST, and the only thing that fixed it was an upgrade to 4.3.1. Shitty solution, but worth the battery drain to have accurate alarms again, especially since she's in trauma medicine and can't afford to be waking up at wrong hours.

I would delete the alarm, hard reset, and then sync without upgrading the OS. If that doesn't fix it, upgrade to 4.3.1.
Ugh I bit the bullet and upgraded to 4.3, not what I wanted to do but I did wake up at the right time today.
 

dirtynine

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Re. battery life - one simple thing I've found that translates into noticeably better life is just to click the top button before you put the phone in your pocket or put it down. I set a 1-minute lockout, so before I did this I was wasting an extra minute of screen time every time I stopped using the phone. It takes a bit of training to remember at first but now it's second nature.
 

B H Kim

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I'm going to bump this question, b/c I seriously do wonder if I'm missing something...
This would be a really bad idea. If I want to open an app, I can open the app. But, often I want to go to the web site instead and I don't want to be redirected to the app. For example, you can get a lot more information from amazon.com than from either of the Amazon apps, you can manage your DVD queue on the Netflix web site, but not from the Netflix app, a lot of news apps provide a completely different experience than their web sites, etc..
 

mt8thsw9th

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Right, I had to use Paypal last week to cancel a payment I sent to a wrong email address. I couldn't for the life of me cancel it in the iPhone app, but I was able to cancel via the web in Safari. I find most would be cursing that more often than seeing it as something beneficial.

A bit of a tangent, but outside of sites like Paypal, and save for the SoSH skin, most mobile-only versions of sites are complete crap. I don't have a capped data planned and I'm not on a "feature phone", so why would I need things to me no-frills. It drives me insane when I keep getting forwarded to the mobile versions of sites.
 

czar

fanboy
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Jul 16, 2005
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Right, I had to use Paypal last week to cancel a payment I sent to a wrong email address. I couldn't for the life of me cancel it in the iPhone app, but I was able to cancel via the web in Safari. I find most would be cursing that more often than seeing it as something beneficial.

A bit of a tangent, but outside of sites like Paypal, and save for the SoSH skin, most mobile-only versions of sites are complete crap. I don't have a capped data planned and I'm not on a "feature phone", so why would I need things to me no-frills. It drives me insane when I keep getting forwarded to the mobile versions of sites.
A well optimized mobile site probably takes between 1/4th and 1/10th the time to load-- may not be important if you get good up/down speeds, but if you're moving (on the subway) or somewhere that gets weak service (rural NH) it's very noticeable. Almost all mobile sites have a trigger at the bottom of the page to go to the standard view. This should also set a cookie for future visits.

I do agree that it bothers me how dumbed down some of these apps are. I can understand wanting to make it barebones graphically for the reasons in the last paragraph. I DON'T understand why I can't do things like transfer funds or pay my bills in my banking app. Just being able to check my account balance/pending transactions is almost totally worthless.
 

mt8thsw9th

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My biggest gripe was with Facebook. On Android the Facebook app is pretty terrible, so I'd have to use the mobile site a lot to see anything. The problem was it would keep pushing me to the Touch version of the site, which was pretty useless as well. Sometimes I'd I have to keep clicking at the bottom to get back to the full site or m.facebook.com.

I'm in the city 100% percent of my time, and I usually walk or take the bus from school/work, so lack of signal is rarely an issue for me.

Most recently there was a page on one of the financial websites (fool.com or something similar) that I emailed to myself because I needed to access it before a presentation in class. I go to open it up and it won't load in the mobile format, and the site had no option to switch to the full page. That's the kind of stuff that drives me crazy.
 

B H Kim

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My biggest gripe was with Facebook. On Android the Facebook app is pretty terrible, so I'd have to use the mobile site a lot to see anything. The problem was it would keep pushing me to the Touch version of the site, which was pretty useless as well. Sometimes I'd I have to keep clicking at the bottom to get back to the full site or m.facebook.com.

I'm in the city 100% percent of my time, and I usually walk or take the bus from school/work, so lack of signal is rarely an issue for me.

Most recently there was a page on one of the financial websites (fool.com or something similar) that I emailed to myself because I needed to access it before a presentation in class. I go to open it up and it won't load in the mobile format, and the site had no option to switch to the full page. That's the kind of stuff that drives me crazy.
Try the Atomic browser. I couldn't live without tabs, so I used it for a while on my iPad instead of Safari (although I later switched to iCab). Atomic (in both iPhone and iPad versions) includes a setting that causes it to appear to be a desktop browser so that it can access by default the full versions of web sites.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, I see that iCab does this as well and I prefer iCab (although I had never activated this feature before).
 

Van Everyman

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This would be a really bad idea. If I want to open an app, I can open the app. But, often I want to go to the web site instead and I don't want to be redirected to the app. For example, you can get a lot more information from amazon.com than from either of the Amazon apps, you can manage your DVD queue on the Netflix web site, but not from the Netflix app, a lot of news apps provide a completely different experience than their web sites, etc..
But isn't that why they all have the option to open it in Safari if you want? For me, it seems like the way this works w/ Google Maps (where there's a button on the browser) would make a lot of sense.
 

BC1994

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Does anyone have a recommendation for a very simple app for checking scores in real time on games (major sports and college)? I don't need anything fancy (I don't particularly care about "watching" a game online), but just want to see what the score is. I see there is an ESPN one, but don't want anything too bloated. It would be great if I could focus it down to favorite teams, etc. Thanks!
 

BoSoxFink

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Does anyone have a recommendation for a very simple app for checking scores in real time on games (major sports and college)? I don't need anything fancy (I don't particularly care about "watching" a game online), but just want to see what the score is. I see there is an ESPN one, but don't want anything too bloated. It would be great if I could focus it down to favorite teams, etc. Thanks!
The ESPN one you can focus on your favorite teams. With the ESPN one you setup tabs for the scores that you want to check. You can do one for each sport, and there is a tab called "My teams" where you can get all the scores of just the teams you care about. I use the ESPN scorecenter app often for checking scores.