iPhone Apps On The Today Show and 2UE

Hit the ground running today with an appearance on the Today Show where we talked about some of the more quirky apps you can get for the iPhone.

First was Balloonimals whereby you blow into the microphone on your iPhone or press the screen with your iPod Touch. Watch the balloon inflate and then give your phone a shake to start constructing your Balloonimal.

Then there was the Drunk Dialler, which is bound to be popular. It will not allow you to dial in a telephone number if you are swaying – ie, have drunk too much alcohol. Of course if you have a speed dial or are still capable of texting, you still might do something you regret.

Next is a favourite called Shazam, which allows you to hold your iPhone to a piece of music and it will name the song. It will even connect you to iTunes so you can download it.

Then there is the app simply called fishing, which allows you to simulate a real fishing experience. There is even a reel on the interface of the iPhone so you can reel in the big one.

Finally there was OldBooth, which is kind of fun and quirky, and allows you to take a picture of yourself and superimpose features from different eras, such as the 1930s or 1940s.

On 2UE I talked to Steve Liebmann about the story doing the rounds at the moment of an Apple employee leaving the latest iteration of the iPhone lying around. Whether it was done as a sly marketing plan, or a genuine mistake, we’ll never know. If it is the real deal then it looks like some of the technology will be catching up with the likes of the HTC Desire, which was recently released.

Had a few calls, too. David said he could pick up all the free-to-air channels except channel 41. Even after trying to both auto and manually tune the units, it would not work. I suggested that he get an aerial expert in to have a look.

Daryl wanted to know if he could put all his cabling for his home theatre and music gear in the one pipe and would it affect signals etc. The short answer is no, as long as everything is properly insulated.

John queried why his three-year old Navman GPS was showing him driving on a road where a field used to be. It comes down to updates, updates, updates. For a fee, you go to the Navman site and you can buy the updated maps. New roads are going in all the time and that is what has happened to John and why he has new road that is not on his GPS.

Robert wanted to know what is the best television – an LCD or plasma. Had this question a few times over the years, and basically it comes down to your own preference. In that past, plasma’s tended to suck out a bit more energy than LCDs, but Panasonic claims its latest range has addressed some of those issues. I like LCDs for movies and plasmas for games.

Peter wanted to know if downloading hotmail or gmail emails affected you data usage. Yes, downloading them does, but if you don’t open them, then it doesn’t.

David has analogue televisions in two different rooms and was querying as to whether he could use a single set-top box for both television and then split a cable from the box. You could, but both televisions would have to play the same channel, so it would be ideal to get to set-top boxes.

David was having problems with his signal, but it more sounds like he needed a signal booster than an aerial technician coming out to see him.