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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1.First on the slab is Halloween Sounds by Pixel Narrative. Halloween Sounds is a collection of fifteen good quality spooky sounds and a spooky soundtrack that can be played by its self or as a background track to the various scary sound effects that can be triggered by tapping the appropriate tombstone icon. The volume and quality of the sounds is quite good and I can imagine it being a good audio accompaniment to your fancy dress occasion or you could plug it into a sound system at a party and invite passing guests to trigger sounds at will. Halloween Pro which is the pay version of Halloween Sounds offers the ability to trigger sounds remotely via a second device or set a timer so your chosen sound can be played after a set amount of time has elapsed.

2.Hallowcarver by WNRS is a surprisingly good pumkin carving app. You can choose which pumpkin you want to carve and display it on a selection of different spooky backgrounds. The actual carving process works very well, you draw the shapes you want to cut out of the pumpkin with your finger and they are automatically removed to reveal the flickering light within the pumpkin. Once your design is complete you can save it to your photo gallery, post it to a web gallery, share it on facebook or shout it on Twitter.

3.Horror Classics by Alexandru Brie is a collection of classic horror stories contained in a reasonably well presented app. The book reader within the app isn’t as pretty as some but is perfectly functional and offers the usual common features such as book marks, automatic scrolling and the ability to alter the font size. Improvements could certainly be made to the appearance and functions of this app but its still a good collection of classic stories at a great price.

4.Halloween Postage by Rogue Sheep is a Halloween themed postcard app than enables you to take a photo from your library and customize it in various ways before delivering it vie mail or Facebook or saving it to your photo library. It is a nice looking app and very easy to use with quite a good set of features but I think its appeal would be quite short lived. I would like to see a larger selection of postcard styles to choose from.

5.Zombie Pizza by Appy Entertainment, inc is fun and rather disgusting horror puzzle game where you find yourself having to create Zombie pizzas by adding eyeballs, guts, brains, hearts, bones and other such delights to a pizza base and flicking it out of the door before the zombies break in and eat you instead. It is a nicely designed game and despite its unappetizing subject matter is fun for all the family. My little boy loves it anyway.

6.On the subject of horror games; I felt compelled to add Resident Evil 4 by Capcom to this list of six. It is seen as one of the best 3D action shooters on the iPhone, the graphics are great, the controls work surprisingly well and above all it is actually quite scary…or am I just being a wimp?.

1.Halloween Sounds by Pixel Narrative

2.Hallowcarver by WNRS

3.Horror Classics by Alexandru Brie

4.Halloween Postage by Rogue Sheep

5.Zombie Pizza by Appy Entertainment, inc

6.Resident Evil 4 by Capcom

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Keep it sleeping

Make it sleep quickly.
Obvious, I know but the longer your device is awake the more power it uses. You can help minimise awake time by making sure the Auto-Lock feature is set to put your device to sleep as quickly as possible. Go to Settings > General > Auto – Lock and set it to the default 1 Minute. Don’t forget that you can also manually put it to sleep by pressing the sleep button at the top of your device.

Avoid turning it off
Unless you intend not using your device for quite a long time it is probably best to avoid turning your device off completely. Restarting your iPod or iPhone is likely to use more power than you will save. When not in use for short periods of time just use the sleep mode.

Turn off features you don’t need.

Turn Off  WiFi
If you’re not in range of WiFi or just don’t need to use it you could save a bit of juice by turning it off. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and switch it to off. Whilst there you could also turn off “Ask to join Networks”

Turn Off EQ
Having EQ turned on uses more of your devices processor and battery power. Turn off EQ by going to Settings > Music > EQ and selecting Off.

Turn Off Bluetooth
If this is something you dont use much make sure it is turned off. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and turn it off.

Turn off Location Services
Decide how often you use this feature and if its not very often, turn it off. Go to Settings > General > and flick the switch next to Location Services.

Minimise the number of times your device performs automatic tasks

Reduce how often your device fetches mail.
Applications such as Mail, fetch data automatically at pre set intervals. You can save a bit of battery life by reducing how often this happens. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and select a longer period of time in the Fetch list. Even better set it to manually. Whilst here you could also turn off Push. Rather than emails constantly being pushed to your push mail accounts they will simply be received according to your Fetch settings.

Stop your iPhone from searching for a network
If you know you are in an area where there is a very weak or no mobile network it may be a good idea to turn on Airplane mode. This will stop your iPhone from constantly trying to find a connection. Go to Settings and switch on Airplane mode.

Turn Off 3G
If you don’t require the speed that 3G offers, you may be able to save a bit of energy by just using EDGE. Go to Settings > General > Network and set 3G to Off.

Avoid bright screens

Turn down the screen brightness
The display on the iPod Touch & iPhone is a major battery drain. When its bright and busy its using lots of pawer. You can minimise its effect on your battery by keeping the brightness down as low as possible. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left as far as you feel comfortable with. You can also make it even more efficient by switching on Auto-Brightness.

Minimise the use of third party app’s
Using app’s that keep the screen illuminated such as games will of course drain the battery. The more you can avoid using these the more your battery will thank you. The most efficient entertainment your device can provide is playing music.

Don’t use colourful wallpapers
If you really want to take this to a silly extreme you could also make sure you don’t use any bright wallpapers. A black background requires little energy.

Avoid excessive processor use

Minimise the use of complex games
Its good to be aware that running many of the third party app’s such as games not only cause lots of battery draining screen activity, but also make the iPods processor work harder. This of course drains the battery.

If all else fails

Use a mobile charger or battery pack.
If you just enjoy using your iPod or iPhone too much to consider many of the above options, or you just need to play high octane 3D video games on your travels; you could always consider carrying an additional battery pack with you. Some battery packs also come with solar panels so you need never be without your iPod or iPhone again. Freeloader make a good range of solar and battery charging combinations. By far the most versatile and acclaimed is the Freeloader Globe Trotter. Take a look at the Freeloader range by clicking below.

Freeloader solar chargers

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01 Print from your iPod Touch or iPhone to any any computer via it’s mail application.

Wait, this isn’t what you think! This is so much better than just emailing a document to your computer and manually printing it from there. This method is automated and allows you to print anything that’s on your Touch or iPhone from any printer connected to any Mac anywhere in the world. Im sure there will be a Windows equivalent of this but im just going to cover the Mac method here.

Ok I admit, there is a bit of fiddling about to do up front but once done it works a treat. The idea here is to email the item to be printed to a Mac that has its email application running (in this case Apple’s Mail) and printer turned on. Mail then uses rules to automatically launch a script which prints the item it received. Credit for this method should be given to Martin Michel of macscripter.net who provides detailed instructions and has developed the AppleScript that makes it all work. I would suggest a minor change to the rule however.

a. Download the Pergamail AppleScript from here. This is the script that the Mail application runs to print what it receives from your device.

b. Create a custom rule in Mail by first going to the Mail menu item and selecting Preferences. Click the Rules icon and create a rule as shown below.

As you can see the action we are getting it to perform is to run an AppleScript under a certain condition. The AppleScript you need to choose here is the Pergamail one you have just downloaded. If Mail receives an email with the words “please print” in the subject line it will go ahead and print it. You can make the condition whatever you like as long as you remember to include it in the email you send from your iPhone.

Now whenever you send an email from your iPhone with the words “please print” (or whatever you set the trigger to be) it will automatically be printed… assuming you’ve remembered to turn your printer on.

What do you mean you can’t email an image from your favorite game?

You can actually email anything that appears on your iPhone’s screen. Here’s how you do it. When you have a screen that can’t be emailed simply press the home button and the power button together to take a snap shot of the screen. The snap shot will be stored in your photo library. Open your Photos App, Tap the “Saved Photo’s” library and you should see your screen grab. You can email any images in a library by tapping the share icon in the bottom left, selecting the image or images you wish to send then tap the share button again and select email. Don’t forget to include your trigger text in the subject line if you want it to automatically print.

02 Print from your iPod Touch or iPhone to any computer via a dedicated app.

You may prefer to buy one of the dedicated iPhone print applications available. There’s actually not that many to choose from. One of the more versatile ones seems to be Print & Share by EuroSmartz Ltd.

Print & Share comprises of two parts; an iPhone/Touch app and a desktop helper app. Once these have been installed and configured you can use the iPhone app to select and print files, emails, web pages, contact info or images from your photo albums or camera. The items you wish to print need to be selected via the app so you can’t simply print something interesting you come across whilst browsing the web or checking your mail. You would instead need to close the app you were using, open the Print & share app, then use it to locate the file you wish to print.

This works reasonable well but, in my opinion the limitation of having to select items through the app makes it less appealing than the first method I mentioned.

03 Print directly to your HP networked printer.

If you have a networked Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer you could stop all this messing about and print directly to that. You would need to download the HP iPrint Photo app from the app store which lets you print anything that is in your photo library. Of course much of what you will want to print wont be in your library but you can overcome this problem to some degree by taking screen grabs of anything you want to print. Pressing the power and home buttons together whisks a copy of your current screen off to your photo library, where it can be sent directly to your HP printer via the HP iPrint Photo app.

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Come with me on a geeky journey through time and pixels…

If like me you were born in the late sixties or early seventies you would have experienced the birth and development of video games during your childhood. The early games were simple, but it was an exciting time. Modern games are without doubt amazing and I wouldn’t want to go back to what we had then, but there was a certain magic about those first games that has now been lost, probably due to our familiarity  with technology. Remember the film Tron? Well, as children I think we really did wonder what went on deep inside the brains of those emerging computers.

The first known video game was a device called the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device patented in the US by Thomas T Goldsmith Jr in 1947. It used a collection of vacuum tubes to draw the trajectory of an imaginary missile which could be adjusted with various knobs to hit a target which was a simple overlay stuck to the screen. There was no such thing as computer graphics at this time.

There followed many one off attempts at computer based amusement, mostly run on university computers but It wasn’t until 1972 that the first truly successful arcade video game with wide spread appeal was developed by a new company called Atari. The game was called PONG. based on table tennis, it sold 19, 000 machines and and kick started the games industry we know today.

If you want to relive those heady days of PONG, Breakout, Space Invaders and Pac-Man you can do so on your iPod touch or iPhone. Outlined below are the key games of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90s along with their app store equivalent. Once again you can stand proud in the knowledge that you have saved man kind from the invading armies of flickering pixels.

1972 – Atari – PONG
Pong iPhone Edition. This is quite a nicely designed version of Pong which has been presented in a retro looking frame. Sounds, 2 player mode and Landscape play to come in a future version. Also take a look at Classic Qong Arcade.

1976 – Atari Breakout
Atari Super Breakout for the iPhone wont quite give you that retro feel until you switch it to its old style graphics option. This version is really quite customisable and even allows you to set your own background picture.

1978 – TAITO – Space Invaders
Taito’s Space Invaders on the iPhone is a faithful reproduction of the original set in an arcade cabinet complete with joystick and fire button. You can even switch it to very early versions of the game which were monochrome or used a colour cellophane overlay.

1979 – Atari – Asteroids
Astro Clash is the closest thing I can find to one of my favorites, Asteroids. It was one of the most popular games of its time and has been duplicated many times for many different systems.

1979 – Namco – Galaxians
Space invaders with a bit more interest,; Galaxians presented the added hazard of kamikaze aliens. This iPhone version of Galaxians seems to be the most authentic but check out the reviews before you buy. You could also try BugHunt

1980 – Namco – Pac Man
Namco have recreated PAC-MAN for the iphone which seems to be almost identical to the original. You have a few control options with this which can make game play easier, including accelerometer mode. If you’re not ready to spend the cash you could try the free version here.

1980 – Atari – BattleZone
BattleZone was another favorite of mine. It utilised  wire frame 3D graphics to create a futuristic tank battle and is considered to be the first virtual reality arcade game. The Touch and iPhone version is called Vector Tanks and is a rather good recreation or the original.

1980 – Atari – Missile Command
In my opinion this was when games started to get a bit creative. Missile command involved deploying missiles in the path of incoming nukes to in an attempt to save several cities. The iPhone version of Missile command gives you the option of playing with the original original game or a modern, graphically enhanced version.

1980 – Atari – Centipede
A clever variation on the Space Invaders/Galaxians theme; Centipede required you to shoot advancing insects before they reached you at the bottom of the garden. Like the other Atari iPhone games this version of Centipede gives you the option of original or revamped graphics.

1980 – Williams Electronics (who?) – Defender
I had a version of this for my ZX Spectrum called Penetrator, loved it. Planet Defence is the closest thing you will get to this side scrolling classic on the iPhone. Lite version available

1981 – Konami – Frogger
Not one of my favorites but a popular game nonetheless is Frogger. Could this have been the forerunner of a multitude of platform games? Frogger on the iPhone features some pleasant updated graphics which are not too far removed from the original.

1982 – Namco – Pole Position
You know, I’m sure some months back I had a version of this on my iPod Touch that sported the original graphics. Anyway Namco’s current iPhone version of Pole Position has some updated graphics but is otherwise much the same. Prepare to qualify! Lite version available

1984 – First Star Software – Boulder Dash
Unlike previous titles this cave digging, diamond collecting game was released on multiple platforms including the Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari 400/800 home computers. Bolder Dash for iphone features a choice of modern or original graphics.

1984 – Tetris
Tetris has complex roots but it was originally created by Alexey Pajitnov whilst working for the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. Tetris has evolved in a very organic way spawning many variations over the years. Tetris for the iPhone is a recent addition to a long string of Tetris games.

1991 – SEGA – Sonic the Hedgehog
I never had a Megadrive and have never played Sonic the Hedgehog. Now on the iPhone Sonic the Hedgehog is a faithful reproduction of the original of the craze hedgehog themed shenanigans.

1992 – id Software – Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein can be credited as being the forerunner of the first person shooter genre and was released on a multitude of platforms. It is said that secret level 3-10 is a replica of the maze from Pac-Man, including ghosts and power pills. Wolfenstein 3D Classic for the iPhone is is a faithful copy of the original. Lite version available

Well I’m all geeked out now so I hope you have found this brief journey back in time interesting. Please feel free to comment if you feel I have left anything important out. I now return you to the present.

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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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