Canada Day

I thought it was appropriate to mention something about Canada Day. July 1st is the anniversary date of the 1867 Constitution Act, in essense, Canada's birthday. There is even an iPhone application that is great for just this day.


Canada Day - iPhone version has just about everything you need to know about Canada, including:

-Etymology
-History
-Government & Politics
-Law
-Foreign Relations & Military
-Provinces & Territories
-Geography & climate
-Science & Technology
-Economy
-Demographics
-Culture
-Language
-International Rankings

It even includes the National Anthem. "O Canada! Our home and native land!..."

This informative little app even has plenty of white and red COLOURS! (spelled correctly, eh!)

Dragon Dictation

If you are as bad at texting as I am, you will love this app. Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application that turns your voice into text or email. Just speak clearly and the software application types the words out for you. You can even edit afterwards.



This Kick Butt application is available for your iPhone and iPad, and both apps are free at the iTunes store.

eBay for iPhone

I must admit, I've had never bought anything on eBay until just recently. I just downloaded eBay Mobile, the free iPhone application that lets you search and bid for items as you normally would on a computer. The big advantage of this great app is that you can do all of this on the fly. As your iPhone is mobile, so are all the applications you have loaded.


So if you are bidding on an item there is no need to sneak away to get online and check it out, or outbid someone else for that must have item. Just a quick and easy check with your iPhone and your done.

Bump

Bump is an iPhone application that allow you share things like photos and contacts with a gentle bump of both devices together. You can also become quick facebook friends.



Don't blame me though if you break a couple of iPhones by slamming them together. The application is called BUMP, and that's what you do... gently!

Name that tune with Soundhound

Soundhound is the fastest music recognition iPhone application I have ever seen. I like Shazam but this kicks its butt big time. Sometimes it will identify a song within a few seconds, instead of listening for a preset time and then sending it in for verification.

The latest version lets you bounce back and forth between Soundhound and iTunes for faster shopping of songs too! They also have a free version here if you want to try it out first, but it's worth spending the money on the full version.



Soundhound is easy to you use, and I've yet to find a song it doesn't know!

Project 365 Pro

Here is a great little application called Project 365. It allows you to take a picture every day of the year, as you normally do with your iPhone, and store it like a photo album for the year. The no-add version Project 365 Pro also lets you view it as a slideshow, and it costs just 99 cents.

Whether you want to record your child's first year, the year leading up to a wedding, the view from the same place every day or compare the yearly weather, Project 365 is for you. It allows you to crop images, add captions and view the day and year of the picture.


It's a great way to document one year of your life and get better at taking pictures at the same time. So get this app, get out your iPhone and take a new picture every day.

iPad

I must admit I was resisting the iPad for a while because I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro, so I really didn't see any reason for me to get an iPad. Last week in Vegas, I had a chance to play with an iPad, and right away I fell in love. What a great little device. I'm sure in the near future we will look back and laugh at the times we sat with a laptop... on our lap! Come on, it looks ridiculous having a laptop balanced on our knees, mouse on the side and trying to surf at the same time - just give up on trying to type anything.

I don't think the iPad will ever replace my MacBook, but it will get used plenty of times in place of it. For starters the screen is great. I've often moved my fingers to the screen to "stretch" the image instinctively as I would with my iPhone, to remember than I can't do that. Well with the iPad I can. Whether I want to read a book, read a blog, check the news, use an app or watch a show, the iPad is fantastic. It is simple to travel with, whether packed or carried by hand onto an airplane. I could go away and take only the iPad... and a swimsuit. No need for my laptop. Sorry Mr Kindle - you stay at home too.


The biggest downfall of the iPad is the lack of flash. No, not the camera flash, but the kind many websites still have. Some websites will only partially work on the iPad, and some flash games won't work at all. You can even buy a little portable keypad for any long typing you need to do. Otherwise it's like typing on the iPhone, except the numbers and letters are bigger.

Not a bad little package. The iPad definitely kicks some serious butt!