Since the release of the iPhone 3G more and more people are browsing the web in the iPhone Ready version of Safari. It is true that Safari on the iPhone is capable of rendering full web pages but that doesn’t mean that you want your readers to have to wait for your content to load. Luckily, it is quick and easy to take your iWeb Blog and make it iPhone Ready allowing your readers to keep up on your articles while on the go.

To create an iPhone ready “site” of your iWeb blog you’ll need to download the latest version of Dashcode. This can be achieved by installing the free iPhone SDK. Once you’ve installed Dashcode via the free iPhone SDK you’ll be ready to start your iPhone ready iWeb blog creation.

To create an iWeb Blog site for the iPhone:

1. Open Dashcode and select a Web Application Template for RSS

2. Change the Title of the RSS Feed by clicking on the default entry and allow it to match your sites title
3. Select Application Attributes

4. Under Properties, enter the Feed URL of your iWeb RSS feed. You can find this by clicking the RSS feed link on your iWeb site.

5. Verify that the feed is being pulled correctly by clicking the Run button at the top of Dashcode - This will launch an iPhone Simulator and display your site as it would be viewed on an iPhone. If your feed is working correctly, you’ll see your latest posts displayed in the Simulator

6. Close the Simulator and return to Dashcode. You can Set your Home Screen Icon (the image that would display on an iPhone Home Screen) or save the site to your Hard Disk. Click Share and then Save to Disk, select the location you’d like to save your iWeb Blog that is now iPhone Ready
7. Upload the folder that you just created in Dashcode to your web server and save it to within your iWeb folder.

Your site should now be ready for iPhone users to view. Create a link to the folder you just created on your web server on your iWeb Page and let your readers know that they can follow you quickly and easily on their iPhones.

Here is a final product of our test iWeb Blog that is now iPhone Ready.

GrandCentral, a phone service from Google that lets you “ring” multiple phones anytime you receive a call, has recently released their own iPhone application GrandDialer. We’ve discussed GrandCentral previously and how combining it with Gizmo allows you to turn any Mac computer into a free phone.

Now some of those same capabilities are available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

With GrandDialer, you can dial numbers from your iPod Touch or iPhone and have your number appear on the person’s you’re calling Caller-ID appear as your GrandCentral phone number. It does not use VOIP but instead will ring your iPhone or another phone of your choice and then call the individual you dialed.

To setup and make a call with GrandDialer.

1. Download and install the app to your iPhone or iPod Touch.
2. Open the application and click Settings

3. Enter your GrandCentral username and password

4. Select edit phone numbers, and enter the phone number you’d like to “ring” before any calls are made. This can be your iPhone or any other phone you’d like to call from.

5. After you’ve entered a ring number, you can return to the main screen, enter in a number you’d like to call and start using the GrandDialer.

With each call GrandDialer will ring either your iPhone or any land line number you entered previously and then ring the the number you entered to call once you pick up the line you wished to call. The individual you’re calling will see your GrandCentral phone number in their caller-id.

This feature may be especially beneficial to individuals that have setup a business line with their GrandCentral number and still want to keep their mobile phone number private from people they’re calling.

Simplify Media has been around for a while now. Recently, Simplify Media released their very own iPhone app on the App Store free to the first 100,000 downloads. The idea behind Simplify Media is that it expands on the built-in iTunes sharing by allowing you to share your library over the net, including your iPhone. Here’s how it works.

First, download the Simplify Media software that resides on the computer that contains your iTunes library. The software is available for OS X, Windows, and even Linux. Once you have installed the applicaiton, the software will walk you through the process of setting up a screen name and password.

Next, you can choose what you want to share. You can share nothing at all, your iTunes Library, your music folder. Also, you can customize the folders you want to share.

If you have Simplify Media installed on more than one computer (between work and home, my iTunes library is spread accross 3 macs), then Simplify Media automatically connects to those shared libraries.

 Any shared libraries show up in the ‘Shared’ menu on your iTunes sidebar. You can now have one iTunes library but listen to your tunes from anywhere.

Simplify Media for your iPhone

As luck would have it, we here at Maciverse were part of the first 100,000 to download Simplify Media’s iPhone application and we wanted to see if it was as easy and fun as its computer counterpart. For the most part, we weren’t disappointed.

Launching the iPhone app takes you to a screen where you enter your screen name and password.

Just like iTunes, Simplify Media then connects to all of your shared iTunes libraries.

 From there, you can listen to your music or podcasts just like your iPod. But what about when you’re on the go? To test this, we took our little family on a trip to the local Target store for some back to school shopping. While there, I was able to connect to my shared library over the iPhone 3G connection without any problems. The only problem I did have was that my iPhone’s battery was low and the streaming quickly drained it. Other than that, the music came in without a pause or choppiness.

An additional surprise was that you also have the option of viewing the lyrics from the iPhone app.

Drawbacks

You can’t watch your iTunes movies/TV shows, just your music and podcasts. Also, the app depends on being able to connect to Simplify Media’s servers in order to establish a connection. The next day, while trying to test out the application again, I got the following error:

I got the error when I was connected via WiFi instead of 3G. However, after a minute or two, things connected just fine and I was up and listening again. One last issue, isn’t really a drawback, but the application was working well enough that I clicked the iPhone earbuds button thinking it would pause the music. Unfortunately, my iPhone’s iPod library started playing instead. 

Conclusion

Simplify Media lives up to the hype with respect to centralizing your iTunes library and the iPhone application works like a charm at least over WiFI or a strong 3G connection. The iPhone application is priced at $3.99 after the first 100,000 downloads. So if you can snag this app for free, all the better.

Its clear by the long lines, the millions sold, and the number of software downloads since July 11 that the iPhone has been a success for Apple. One of the reasons that the product attracts so many people is its almost unlimited capabilities. The software that is available allows users to play games, watch video, listen to music, and stay connected to their work as well as their hobbies.

One of the free software applications that is available to iPhone and iPod Touch users is Wordpress. Wordpress, a very common and widely used blogging and web publishing tool, was released for the iPhone just a few days after the 2.0 firmware was made available. The Wordpress application for the iPhone focuses on making it quick and easy to post and update contact on all the Wordpress websites you have on the internet.

The following guide will walk you through connecting to your Wordpress site and how to post and update content.

After downloading Wordpress for the iPhone, open the application and click the “Add a blog…” button on the screen.

Next, enter in the Blog Url, Username, and Password that you use to login and update your Wordpress site. After entering the information click save

If you successfully entered your login credentials you should now see the title of your Wordpress site on those available on the menu.

Select the blog or Wordpress site you’d like to update or edit, once it has loaded you’ll see a list of recent articles. To write a new article click the small pencil and paper icon at the bottom right corner.

The next page you see will allow you to enter the Title of the article you’re writing, enter tags, and add categories as well as enter status. Once you’ve updated details about the content you’ll be writing, the window is open for you to type your article. This will be the true test of how skilled you are at the touch button keyboard.

Press the Categories button to mark the categories that the article falls under.

One of the best parts of Wordpress for the iPhone is that it allows you to keep local versions of the articles you create. Feel free to write up a post, but wait to post it to the internet at a more convenient time. It also allows you to write and save data when you are out of 3g and Wifi range. To do just, just leave the status as Local Draft.

After you’ve set all the article variables and written your new content you can Save or Post the article to your site by simply pressing either the Post or Save buttons. Once posting the site, your Wordpress on the iPhone application will upload the information to your Wordpress Site and make it visible to all your viewers.

Updating web content while mobile has never been so easy.

Apple’s recently released iPhone 3g has been received by consumers across the globe with open arms. And although the hardware updates and price cuts have helped make the device extremely popular, the software updates and new 3rd party applications is what makes the new iPhone something special.

When Apple announced that they would be allowing 3rd party developers to create applications for the iPhone they quickly showed a few games and the capabilities of their mobile communication devices. It seems that the iPhone would finally be able to bring decent games to a mobile phone.

After downloading the iPhone software updates I quickly spent $9.99 on the iPhone version of Super Monkey Ball. While the price point is a bit high compared to other phone based games, Super Monkey Ball is filled with over 100 levels and a diverse game play option. I felt comfortable spending the money and now know that it was money well spent.

Gameplay

For any game to be successful on a phone it has to have outstanding controls. This is often an issue for games on other mobile phones, but the iPhones touch screen and accelerometer make the gameplay quick and easy.

Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone is like the previous versions of the game. it takes the gamer through a large number of courses as the guide for a monkey in a ball. On the iPhone you tilt the device left and right, forward and backwards, with the intent of guiding the monkey ball to the goal destination. This makes for outstanding game play as it delivers a level of difficulty but still makes it easy to pick up and just know how to play the first time you try it out.

Story

Super Monkey Ball for any gaming system hasn’t had much more of a story than being a puzzle game with different approaches and ways to solve a puzzle. In that sense, this version of SMB is just as entertaining as the others. Pick your Monkey, play the courses, rack up extra lives by collecting bananas, and avoid those fall out drop offs.

The way that Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone works in a linear structure of game play is by forcing the user to finish all the courses on a map before being able to play the next. This offers a challenge to the gamer but ensures that they don’t miss anything the game has to offer.

Overall Feel

In many ways Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone completely blasts away any other game on any other gaming platform. It has a unique phone gaming experience, unique controls, is challenging, and was easy to learn.

The only thing I wish the game had was some sort of multiplayer aspect that would allow you to sync up with your iPhone using friends. Compete for higher scores and faster times on course completion. This capability could be limited to WiFi networks but would add a new gaming experience to SMB iPhone.

Conclusion

For one of the first of the next generation of Phone games, Super Monkey Ball is great. I find myself playing this all the time.

The game seems to be great for replayability. A must for any mobile platform. I’m slowly working through the easy and hard difficulty levels for all maps and still work back to the initial levels with as much enjoyment as I do those I have not yet finished.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, spend the $9.99 on Super Monkey Ball. You won’t regret it.