As you may have mentioned, lot of iPhone apps (especially games) run by default in landscape mode! You can easily force the app you develop to run in landscape mode! Let’s see how:

1. In Xcode find the file [YourAppName]-Info.plist and open it up.
2. Right click on the table and select “Add Row”. Select “Initial interface orientation” and set the value to Landscape (left or right).
3. Right click again and add Status bar is initially hidden.This is optional, it has nothing to do with view orientation, but it will hide the status bar.
4. Open [YourAppName]ViewController.m file and uncomment the following:

   // Override to allow orientations other than the default portrait orientation.
   - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
       // Return YES for supported orientations
       return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait);
   

5. Change the code you just uncommented to look like this:

   - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
       // Return YES for supported orientations
       return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight);
   }

   Parameter interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight starts the app with the Home button at the right side. interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft starts the app with the Home button at the left side. Set the same landscape orientation that you’ve set in Info.plist file.

Things is a task management app by cultured code. Thing is a mac-only app available for mac and iphone. I’ve been using things for about one month now (both desktop and iphone version) and I am pretty amazed with it. I love the app’s simplicity and ease of use. Most of the task management and to-do apps I’ve tried in the past, were complicated leading to bad user experience. Things is exactly the opposite. 

Hitting the hot key, the quick entry panel appears (most of my to-dos are entered this way). From here you can create a new to-do, put it in a category, project and of course tag it. Desktop editions supports also “area of responsibility” feature. I have two areas: home and personal, but you can create as many as you like. Creating a project is easy and you can create as many to-dos as you like within project. Deleting tasks is as simple as drag and drop the task on the trash icon in the bottom left corner.

The best part comes when you use both Things for Mac and Things Touch for the iPhone. Opening Things on iPhone, automatically syncs your to-dos with Things for Mac (supposing that you have Things open on your mac and that iphone and mac are on the same wifi network). Checking done things, fades the task out, so it looks different from non completed tasks. At the end of each day, completed tasks and project are moved to Logbook (which is an archive of your completed tasks). You can customize this and log completed tasks hourly or weekly.

If you are tired of complicated task management apps, you should give Things a try. It is a little bit pricey but it worths every penny! Using both desktop and iPhone versions is the best way I’ve discovered to keep my to-do tasks organized.

I released (thanks to Mint for that) that around 1% of Typpz visitors view the blog using their iPhone and Mobile Safari. As with almost every site that is not optimized for viewing on cell phones, viewing from an iPhone means zooming in and out the parts of the page you want to read. To make those 1% a little bit happier, I built a very simple web app that parses and views Typpz blog content right from your home screen and as shown on the screenshots above, content is readable without having to zoom in and out. The web app is built using Dashcode and one of its preinstalled templates.

The url for Typpz blog mobile edition is http://blog.typpz.com/mobile. When viewing from an iPhone, you can push the “+” button on mobile Safari and bookmark the app right on your home screen. When accessing typpz mobile app from a saved bookmark on iphone’s home screen, there is no top and bottom  navigation bars (yeah no chrome at all) like in Safari which means more space filled with content.

Ok here is a bunch of photos I took since I got my iphone! Next to come are a review for iPhone 3G (I want to use it for two weeks so I will be able to judge the battery life better), a list of the apps I use on it and reviews for some of those apps .

If you have an iPhone, you will probably have came across webclip icons.  Webclip icons are the icons that apear on your iphone homescreen when you bookmark a web site. It is very easy to create a webclip for your own web site. Let’s see how:

1. Create a 57×57 png icon with your logo or whatever you want.
2. Save the image as “apple-touch-icon.png”.
3. Upload the image to the root folder of your web site (not the root of your server, the root of your site).
4. Do not mind about designing a glossy icon because MobileSafari (the browser of iPhone) will create the glossy effect by itself.

You can see the webclip I created for Typpz blog on the screenshot. As I mentioned glossy effect and round edges are created by Safari, I just uploaded this image.

So I bought an iPhone 3G. I have installed the WordPress app from the app store, so I am writing my first post straight from my iPhone alongside with some screenshots (you can take screenshots on your iPhone by pressing the home and sleep/wake button). I will post a review for the iPhone and for WordPress app soon. The screenshots are from Big Oven iphone app (free app with lot of recipes), iphone ipod playing Atmos, MacBreak weekly podcast and my home screen’s second tab with my installed app (all of them are free).

Most of you have sometime listened to a podcast. If you do not know what a podcast is, wikipedia explains it in well written way. Most of the podcasts I listen to are technology-oriented. They cover a wide variety of technology topics though, from MS Windows to Mac or general tech topics like security or Programming. So here is the list of the podcasts I usually download alongside with a short description (the podcasts are randomly listed, so it does not mean that number one is my favorite and number ten my less fave).

1. Windows Weekly by Paul Thurrott: Ok most of you know Paul from his great blog about Windows. Great podcast with many information on future Windows versions and reviews for MS products.
2. MacBreak Weekly: Leo Laporte and company talk about everything on Macs and all the thing that Windows should do, but they do not.
3. Apple Keynotes: This one should be known to everybody. A video podcast with the Apple Keynotes. I love the moments when Steve Jobs talks about new Apple products. The podcast is updated only when an Apple keynote takes place, so do not expect weekly updated.
4. Floss weekly: Thats another podcast from the TWiT team. The podcast is Linux oriented with wide theme coverage about KDE, OpenJDK and various Linux and Unix themes from programming to user interface and security.
5. Security Now by Steve Gibson: That is the ultimate podcast about IT security. If you are interested into these subjects you should definitely give it a listen.
6. net@night by Amber McArthur: Amber talks about various web themes such as web trends, web too and reviews some known services like Gmail, Yahoo mail and others.
7. The WordPress Community: This podcasts is here to keep listeners informed on what is happening in the WordPress labs, so if you love this open-source platform as I do, this podcast will give you all the info on what to expect from WordPress future versions.
8. Identity Management Buzz by Sun Microsystems: A podcast targeted to those that like security and identity topics like OpenSSO, OpenID, identity information management etc.
9. Daily GizWiz: This is a podcast about gadgets. So if you count yourself as tech-addicted, listen to this podcast and discover future technologies straight from the labs.
10. NASACast video: Video podcast from NASA with small clips from experiments and missions and many info about planets (especially Mars).

Occasionaly I listen to some podcasts with general themes. Some of them are: The Wall Street journal, Wild Chronicles Digital by National Geographic, Transitions by John Digweed and Futures in Biotech. All the podcasts I mentioned in this post can be downloaded from iTunes music store for free, so if you are interested in them, just type the podcast title in itunes search field.