Utilities

Email 'n Walk

Posted July 30, 2009 - 1:46pm by Marc Peter
Email 'n WalkDeveloper: Phase2 Media
Category: Utilities
Version: 1.0
Release Date: April 19, 2009
Size: 0.0MB
Price $0.99
Rating 10/10

Buy It Now At App Store
Right off the bat, DO NOT DRIVE WHILE USING EMAIL 'N WALK. Actually, don't drive and email even if you aren't using Email 'n Walk. 

Recently I began turning my iPhone to Airplane mode while I'm driving. In the past I was guilty of texting and emailing while driving. I have been guilty of being the guy who stopped short behind you, the guy who drifted out of his lane next to you, and most infuriatingly, the guy in front of you at the intersection who has no clue that the light has turned green. Now I am  the guy who honks at YOU and mutters words you would rather not attempt to lip-read as I pass you.

Private Surfer

Posted July 29, 2009 - 3:00am by Marc Peter

Private SurferDeveloper: Justin D'Arcangelo
Category: Utilities
Version 1.0
Release Date: February 20, 2009
Size: 0.1 MB
Price: $0.99
Rating 10/10
Get it at the AppStore!

Private Surfer from Justin D'Arcangelo brings some crucial functionality to the iPhone. Apple thinks of everything in it's OS development, but has neglected to include features in the iPhone OS that really should be available. One of these features is being able to surf the web without storing cookies, history or other site data on your phone. In OSx it is the trusty Private Browsing setting located conveniently in the Safari pull down menu for easy access. You can certainly manually purge this information on your iPhone by going to the home screen and diving into the settings for Mobile Safari. The drawbacks with that are speed of use, and you lose any data that you may actually want on your phone to make surfing some sites that you visit frequently faster.

WifiTrak

Posted July 27, 2009 - 3:00am by Marc Peter

WifiTrakDeveloper: Bitrino, Inc.
Category: Utilities
Release Date: Feb 4, 2009
Version: 2.5
Size: 0.2 MB
Price: $0.99
Rating 10/10
Get it at the AppStore!

WifiTrak is a great addition to any collection of utility apps. It scans and displays all available Wifi hotspots in the area and ranks their usability in order by MAC Address, signal strength (RSSI), WEP/WPA/WPA2 Authentication type, noise, and identification of secured or hidden networks.

WifiTrak does some really cool things. It can remember or forget networks with a Known and Forget List. It can also "Unforget". It can be set to give a custom notification sound when it encounters networks. It can be set to automatically scan for networks, and then customized even further by setting the scan intervals in seconds. It can connect to networks according to minimum acceptable signal strength. It can also redirect the connection to Known networks as you move about and it can store password information.

Speedtest.net Speed Test

Posted July 26, 2009 - 3:00am by Marc Peter

Speedtest.net Speed TestDeveloper: Ookla
Category: Utilities
Version 1.0.1
Size: 0.5 MB
Price: Free
Rating 10/10
Get it at the AppStore!

I have used this service from Speedtest.net extensively in the tech field, and have always been impressed by the ease of use, test speed and accuracy that this application delivers. The same stands for the iPhone and iPod Touch version.

Speedtest gives iPhone and iPod Touch users a quick, thorough look at a complete set of network stats. In under 20 seconds Speedtest whips out a download test, an upload test, and a ping test ,as well as determining the network type, the server location, External/Internal IP addresses and using the GPS feature, an exact Latitude/Longitude location for the device. The last feature I find to be very cool, I am not quite sure why, but it is. Something about knowing exactly where I stand I guess, or maybe its the Magellan-like adventurer in me.