I have recently been looking for a good free RSS reader. Why do I feel a twinge of guilt when I say I’ve looking for a free one? Anyway it couldn’t just be any RSS reader. I had a list of criteria that it had to meet.

Google reader synchronization.
I want to be able to add to my RSS feeds whilst at my computer so it was important that the reader app would sync with whatever I added to my Google Reader account.

Manually organize subscriptions into folders.
I wanted to have the ability to group feeds into folders rather than have a single long list of feeds or some sort of automated sorting.

Built in Web Page viewer.
I didn’t want to have to leave the app to view a feeds web page in Safari.

Look good and be easy to use.
It is important to me that an app looks good and is easy to use.

This criteria allowed me to draw up a short list of half a dozen or so apps. I couldn’t find an app that satisfied all of the above criteria, but Of those I looked at, two really stood out. iNews O by gdiplus and MobileRSS (Free Version) by Nibiru Tech.

iNews O is a very feature rich and customisable RSS reader. Notable features are its option of displaying feeds in a tiled manner rather like magazine thimb nails, the ability to customize the navigation bars and the impressive range of export options which include Mail,Instapaper, Read It Later, Twitter and Facebook. Despite these features it still lacked one important thing for me; The ability to arrange and group feeds into folders of my creation.

The RSS reader I finally settled on is the free version of MobileRSS. MobileRSS Synchronizes with Google reader and whilst I can’t manually create a folder structure, it does maintain the folder structure I create in Google reader.It does have a built in browser and it can display feeds for the small screen. Export and integration functions are quite good allowing you to send to Twitter, Facebook, ReadItLater, Instapaper, Delicious and Email.

In all these are two very good apps but I think it is the simplicity and clarity of MobileRSS that wins me over.

Link to the Proporta website

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Speaker dock
A speaker dock is one of the most used accessories I have ever bought. The JBL On Stage IIIP is a highly rated unit with good sound quality. I own a JBL On Stage speaker and have found it to be well made, faultless and produce high sound quality. If you want the added ability to view your video and photos on a television screen you could consider the Klipsch iGroove SXT MFI iPod Speaker System which also provides an S-video output.

The JBL On Stage IIIP

Klipsch iGroove SXT MFI

Alarm Clock
If you are wanting to pair your device with your radio alarm clock; the Sony ICFC7IP Clock Radio for iPod looks like a choice that a lot of people are very happy with. It is a reasonable price and includes a full function remote control. The only thing that some people have highlighted as a problem is the display being too bright.

Sony ICFC7IP Clock Radio

Device stand
If you use your iPod or iPhone at your desk, as an alarm clock or like to watch a lot of video content you may find a stand useful. The Mobis Technology Xtand for iPod Touch 2G or iPhone is a well engineered solid aluminum king of stands.

Mobis Technology Xtand for iPod Touch 2G

Mobis Technology St-188 Xtand for iPhone 3g

iPod Touch microphone
The features of the iPod Touch can be extended considerably with the addition of a microphone. Adding a microphone allows you to make recordings, take voice notes and even use your Touch as a Skype phone. There are a few different microphones available but I feel the tiny ones are most useful. I would like to get a ThumbTack Micro-Microphone but it looks like the Mini Microphone is also a good option.

ThumbTack Micro-Microphone Black for iPod Touch 2g & iPod Nano 4G

Mini Microphone Mike & Speaker for ALL Apple iPod & iPhones

Stylus Pen
Yes I know what you’re thinking; Why would anybody need a stylus for an iPhone or Touch when you can just use your finger. I agree, in most cases your finger is fine but I have a few drawing app which I think could be easier to use with a stylus, as well as a couple of freehand writing apps. Its not easy writing with your finger. I also think if you wear gloves a lot a stylus could be particularly useful. It seems the stylus of the moment is the Pogo Stylus which also comes with a useful clip that keeps it attached to your device.

SELECT Pogo Stylus Pen for Apple iPhone 3G, 3G S (Black)

FM transmitter for the car
Perhaps the most useful FM transmitter is one that not only transmits your music to your car radio but also charges your device and provides a means to hold it. The Griffin RoadTrip 6195-RDTRPB with Smartscan seems to be a reasonable option as does the Cygnett GrooveTransmit. Both of these devices provide a cradle for your iPhone or Touch which is supported by a short flexible gooseneck with a cigarette plug on the end. If you feel you don’t need the charger or cradle you could try TeckNet MT-096 or Griffin iTrip

Griffin RoadTrip 6265-RDTRPB2 for iPhone and iPod

Cygnett GrooveTransmit FM Transmitter/Charger and Cradle for iPod and iPhone

TeckNet MT-096 Apple FM Transmitter For Apple iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S and other iPod Player

Car mount
If you don’t need an FM transmitter but just want to mount your device in your car, perhaps to use as a GPS you may want a simple car mount. The Kensington Car Mount seems to be a simple solution with good reviews. Alternatively the Sunwire – In Car Holder & Charger looks good and comes with a charger. The possible advantage of the Kensington option is it seems it will take a wider range of devices plus you don’t need to remove them from their cases. Macally make a mount that fits into your car cup holder. If your cup holder is rarely used the Macally mCup could be a great solution. Be aware that unless very thin you will probably need to remove your case with the Macally solution.

Kensington Car Mount for iPod and MP3 Players

Sunwire – In Car Holder & Charger – iPhone 3G/3GS

MCUP Adjustable Car cup holder mount for iphone and ipod

AV dock
There are a range of docks and cables that allow you to plug your device into sound systems and/or televisions. In my opinion a dock is a little more convenient than cables as it means you don’t have to fiddle about with…well…cables. The Logic3 WIP040 Prodock is a versatile dock with great reviews on Amazon. If you prefer cables you could try the Griffin HomeConnect – iPod audio / video cable. Please note that the video component of this cable does not work with the iPhone or Touch but does work with other video iPods that can send video through their headphone jacks.

Logic3 WIP040 Prodock for iPhone/iPod

Griffin HomeConnect – iPod audio / video cable (video does not work with iPod Touch or iPhone)

Protective case
I spent a lot of time looking for a case before I settled on the one I currently have. I was looking for one that was quick and easy to use, protected the whole device yet when in use covered the face as little as possible. It also had to look good. I didn’t want film covering the screen, case on the front of the device or the need to remove the device from a pouch to use it. What do you mean I’m fussy? My searching finally paid off when I found the Proporta Leather Style Protective Case. It is a very smart looking leather effect case with a flip up front cover. The iPhone or Touch is held to the back cover of the case by a couple of covered metal grips so when open your device is fully exposed. I have owned this case for almost a year now and still love it.

Proporta Leather Style Protective Case (Apple 2G iPod touch) – Black

Proporta Leather Style Protective Case for Apple 3G iPhone

Additional battery power
The battery on the iPhone or iPod Touch runs down quite quickly when being used for video, games and other graphic or processor intensive applications (See my post on extending battery life here). When traveling, this can become quite an issue. The solution is an additional battery and or solar charger. In a previous post I recommended the Freeloader Globe Trotter, a portable charger/battery system that can be charged by its solar panels. This appears to be a perfect solution but having owned it for a couple of months I find my self unable to recommend it again. If you’re away for long periods of time and unable to find regular charge points you may require a battery with a solar charger. The PowerMonkey Explorer’ Portable Charger has some very good reviews and is an incredible versatile device. If you don’t require the option to charge via the sun I would consider the Kensington Battery Pack And Charger or the mStation Mohpie Juice Pack- Case & Rechargeable 1800mA Battery. The advantage of the mStation option is it takes the form of a case which means you don’t have to worry about separate batteries and cables.

PowerMonkey Explorer’ Portable Charger – Yellow

Kensington Battery Pack And Charger For iPhone And iPod

mStation Mohpie Juice Pack- Case & Rechargeable 1800mA Battery for iPod Touch 2nd Gen

mStation Mohpie Juice Pack- Case & Rechargeable 1800mA Battery for iPhone 3G

There you go! Ten suggested Christmas gifts for the iPhone or iPod Touch user. I won’t be at all offended if you want to send me one of them

The links in the copy above are my Amazon affiliate links. I searched many many different sites for products I would want to buy and in every case the products I selected were available at Amazon and at a lower cost.

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You can make any image on your device a wallpaper by selecting it in your photo library, tapping the icon in the bottom left corner and selecting “Use as wallpaper”

To get images into your device you need to set iTunes up to sync with iPhoto or the folder containing your wallpaper images if your not using iPhoto.

Long Version:

What sort of image can you use as a wallpaper? Wallpapers can be obtained in a veriety of ways. Any photograph you have stored in the photos app on your device can be used as a wallpaper. You can also download images from a number of places on internet. These have been specialy created for use as iPhone wallpapers and are the correct size and aspect ratio and the images are usualy composed to fit well within the iPhone format. You can download my specialy designed wallpapers here if you wish.

If you are using iPhoto it’s not a bad idea to create a new album to keep your wallpapers in. You can then sync this folder with your device. If you are not using iPhoto, you can keep your wallpapers in a specified folder on your hard drive and sync with that.

Copy the wallpaper images you have downloaded or created to your iPhoto album, designated folder, Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements. Connect your iPhone or Touch to your computer and open iTunes. In the library column on the left click your device icon. Now click on the Photos tab. Make sure “Sync photos from” is checked then in the pulldown menu either select the folder where you placed your wallpapers or select iPhoto. If you are just syncing selected albums rather than all photos make sure your wallpapers are in an iPhoto album and that it is selected in the list. Press Apply (or sync) and the images in iPhoto or the selected folder will be copied over to your device.

On your iPhone or Touch, navigate to your photos and select the wallpaper you wish to use. You dont have to use a specialy made wallpaper image, you can use any photo you wish. Tap the icon in the lower left hand corner that looks like an arrow jumping out of a box. Sometimes you need to tap the screen once to make the icons visible.?

The menu that follows will contain the option to “Use as wallpaper”. On the iPhone you could also assign an image to one of your contacts.

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The iPhone is a wonderfully versatile pocket computer. Thanks to the tens of thousands of available app’s and the flexible way they can be arranged on your iphone or Touch, it is easy to set up individual screens to cater for specific workflows. Having more than a passing interest in internet marketing I thought I would set up a screen of app’s and links to serve my assorted internet marketing needs. This was the result: (Instructions for creating web links are at the bottom of the page.)

iPhone apps for internet marketing

1. iThoughts. A mind mapping application to plan your workflows and business models. Im currently using iThoughts but also give MindNode a look.

2. Shortcut to Google Keyword tool to help you select a niche and populate your pages with appropriate keywords so they can be found when people search for them.

3. DomainScout. A domain name search tool so you can check the availability of your preferred domain names. The thing I like about DomainScout is, as you discover various names you like you can add them to a favorites list. As names pop into your head during the day you can check their availability and add them to an ongoing list.

4. Go Daddy. Once you have found your domain name of choice you will need to buy it from a company such as Go Daddy. Yep there’s an app for that.

5. A shortcut to a hosting company such as HostGator will allow you to host and control your website via Cpanel, all via your iPhone or Touch.

6. WordPress for iPhone will allow you to add to and edit your WordPress Blog. Prefer TypePad? Well you may want to look at the TypePad app.

7. A shortcut to ClickBank. Search for products to promote and check your sales on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You may also want to look at the CB Stats app.

8. TweetDeck is great, not just for checking and posting tweets but it also allows you to search and connect with people talking about things related to your niche.

9. Facebook app allows you to interact with your Facebook contacts and post happenings for all to see.

10. Analytics Agent. Having a good Google analytics app on your iPhone or iPod Touch will help you keep track of how well you are doing online as well as giving you an insight into what your potential customers are looking for. Analytics Agent has a nice interface and is easy to use but you may also want to take a look at Analytics App.

11. The PayPal App. Keep tabs on your ingoing and outgoing payments with the PayPal App. You may also want to look at Pay Mobile.

12. Documents To Go. A text editor so you can write articles or blog posts whilst away from the office. I’m still looking for a solution that enables me to edit the same documents regardless of whether im on the desktop machine or iPod. Many text editing App’s claim to sync with Google Doc’s but the ones I have looked at don’t really sync, they just allow me to upload and download documents. The best solution I have found to date is Documents To Go, and its desktop syncing app. With this you can make a change to a document on your iPhone and sync. When you open it on your desktop machine it will be updated. It works equally well going from desktop to iPhone as well.

13. iTimeZone allows you to see what time it will be in your location at a certain time in a different part of the world. This is very useful for making sure you don’t miss webinars and teleseminars by your favorite overseas marketing mentors.

14. Shortcut to Online Success Coach. I like to have a shortcut to the web page of my current online marketing training course or tutor. I am currently with the Online Success Incubator which is part of TechTamers. After many months of looking for the right assistance, I chose the Online Success Incubator because of its extensive archive of information, Step by step guidance through the whole marketing experience, affordability and general no hype approach. If you’re looking for help getting started in Online Marketing I would recommend Online Success Incubator. They do a good news letter here

15. Briefcase. Online marketing is a continuos learning experience and you will find that you will accumulate a quantity of training courses, ebooks, tutorials, videos and audio. Its very useful to be able to get this info onto your iPhone so you can learn whilst away from your computer. There is a large collection of apps available to help you do this but I rather like Briefcase. Briefcase allows you to easily browse all of the files on your computer and pick out the ones you would like transfered to your device. It also allows you to view or play back most media types.

16. Instapaper. There will often be times when you will come across articles and web pages online that you would like to read but don’t have the time. Instapaper allows you to easily mark any webpage to be read later. Your iPhone will then sync with your instapaper account and download the articles to your device allowing you to read them at any time, on or off line.

17. What Tasks. One way to ensure progress is to keep a short daily to do list. What Tasks is currently my favorite allowing me to manually arrange the order of to do items and keep multiple lists so I can create long term as well as daily lists of goals. It is also nice and easy to use unlike many full blown get things done app’s.

18. Fenix Notes. Its always useful to have a quick and easy note taking system. I have taken a liking to Fenix Notes largely because I can open it and take a note very quickly.

19. Safari. Where would an internet marketer be without a web browser…

20. Or email for that matter.

Incase you are wondering how to get shortcut links to websites onto your iphone or iPod Touch this is how you do it. Use Safari on your device to find the webpage you would like to save a link to. Tap the + (plus) icon in the menu bat at the bottom of the screen. Select the Add to Home Screen button.

I hope you have found this article useful. Please leave a comment if you know of other good internet marketing app’s or sites I could have added to this list.

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Reboot

Often all that is required is a simple reboot. Your iPhone/Touch is really just a pocket computer. Like all computers if you never turn it off or restart it, problems can develop. This is possibly the the most common cause of iPhone/Touch problems. In normal operation your device is constantly switched on. When you press the power button at the top or when it appears to turn its self off It is actually just going into standby mode mode. This is so that it can jump into life again the moment you want to use it. To restart your device simply hold down the power button at the top until a red slider appears. Drag the slider to completely turn off your device. Don’t worry all of your data will be retained. Turn it back on by holding the power button again for a second or two. Be aware that its quite normal for your device to take a minute or so to start up from cold.

Force Quit

Forced Restart

Sometimes a crash can be so severe that your device completely locks up. Fortunately there is a way of forcing it to restart. Hold down the power button as above but this time hold the home button at the same time until you see an Apple logo appear. This will actually force the machine to completely restart which will again take a minute or so.

Replace a troublesome application

If you have completely restarted your device but there is still one particular application that insists on crashing, you could try replacing it with a fresh copy. Make sure you have previously synced your device (before your app became troublesome) so you have a copy of all your app’s in iTunes. Delete the troublesome app by holding your finger down on it until it starts to jiggle. Tap the x that appears in the top left corner of the icon. The app has now been deleted and can be replaced with the copy in iTunes on your computer (You had previously synced your device hadn’t you?). Plug your device into your computer and wait for iTunes to open. In iTunes click your device icon in the column on the left; then click the Applications tab in the main window. Make sure the app you deleted from your device is selected for syncing then hit the Sync button in the bottom right. A new version of the app will be coped from your iTunes library and loaded onto your device.

Replacing your settings

No amount of restarting will help if it’s the actual data on your device that is corrupt. Luckily Apple has provided a way to replace key data. Open the settings app and select General.Scroll down to the bottom and select Reset. The first two items in the resulting list are Reset All Settings and Erase All Content and Settings. Ignore the other four items. Settings are all the ways in which you have customised the device for your own use and content is the media and data you have loaded on to it. Resetting settings will restore your device to its initial condition but keep all of the media you have added to it. Erase all content and Settings will completely remove everything leaving your device with just its Operating system and default apps, as when purchased. If you now re sync your device with your computer it will be populated with a nice fresh copy of your content.

Restore

If you are still experiencing problems it could be time to wipe the slate clean and start again. iTunes provides an option to completely remove all data from your device, including the operating system, then replace it with a fresh copy. Plug your device into your computer and wait for it to do a final sync and backup. Select your device in the left hand column. Make sure the summary tab is selected in the main screen and click on Restore. iTunes will now download the latest operating system and restore your device to its original factory settings. At this stage you will be asked if you wish to restore your iPhone or iPod Touch as new or restore all of the data and settings from the backup. There is of course a risk that restoring the data from the backup will reload corrupted data on to your device but it is probably easier to try this option first. If you still experience problems simply perform the operation again, but this time chose to set up as new.

I do hope this information has helped you restore your iPhone/Touch back to the smooth running device it was when you first starting using it. I welcome comments, additions or corrections.

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