Do Not Fold

It’s back in town! Erm… London that is. The annual Future Of Web Apps (FOWA) conference by Carsonified. Book your tickets now, because last year was really good. I booked my tickets from the moment there where any available. Yes, I’ve got me one of those early-bird tickets… yay!

The conference is held on 1 and 2 oktober and the speakers include Aza Raskin (Mozilla), Dustin Diaz (Twtter), Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV), Kevin Rose (digg), Michael Arrington (TechCrunch), etc. If you are going too and you want to meet-up, let me know!

Actually… it works with ANY iPhone app that’s not available in your local app store. Officially, this is not possible, but there is a workaround. Clearly Apple has made it possible to download all free items from any app store around. Here’s how:

1. Open iTunes on your mac/pc
2. Click the ‘Sign Out‘ option in the ‘Store’ menu
3. Switch to an other iTunes Store (at the bottom of the store’s homepage)
4. Go to the app’s download page and click the ‘Get App‘ button (make sure the app is free, otherwise it won’t work)
5. A popup window will open, click the ‘Create New Account‘ button
6. Register a new account and select ‘None‘ on the payment methods page (next to Visa, Mastercard, amex, …)
7. All done… Your app is downloading. Just sync with your iPhone or iPod Touch and you’re done!

If you haven’t heard from Line Rider yet, click here and forget you’re plans for the rest of the day. A couple of years ago it started with a flash movie but today it has had loads of updates and extra functionalities. Yesterday it has been ported to the iPhone (iTunes link)! Loads of fun!

Last year in December I bought my iPhone for 380 euro (in London). Stupid decision, because I could have bought it for 299 euro in New York a couple of months later. Anyway, I didn’t know that I was going to NY in March so I bought it in London. Last month I realised that if you want to sell iPhone apps on the App Store, you’ve got to have an “official” iPhone (not unlocked, registered at Apple). Bummer.

I’m proud to say that I’ve just sold my iPhone for 360 euro. Which is just below the 380 euro I bought it for. So I used an iPhone for 9 months and lost 20 euro. If I would have bought it in NY I’d made 60 euro profit! :D

iPhones in Belgium are sold out completely so from the moment I decided to sell mine, I ordered a new one (3G). Lucky me, next Saturday it ‘ll arrive at the Mobistar shop. So I will only be iPhone-less for one day :) Expect my first app soon on the App Store! I can’t wait to experiment with the 3G and GPS functions.

As you might have read I’ve got myself an iPhone developers certificate now. Cool eh :) I’m still learning the shizzles and nizzles in Cocoa Touch, but I need some good ideas for iPhone apps. I don’t promise to actually make your app-proposals – but if it’s really good – I might. As we speak, I’m finishing off my CoffeeCounter app, which is really stupid actually, but a good practice. You can count the coffees you drink a day and I’m planning to let you twitter them automatically. I know, pretty stupid (like most other iPhone apps), so give me your ideas people!!

I’m not the guy that tests all the iPhone apps, but some of them are really cool and worth talking about.

Like for example Apple’s Remote app (free, download). With Remote you can enter your iTunes library (mac/pc) from your iPhone. When I’ve got guests at home, I just put the iPhone in the middle of the table and let the people descide which music my mac plays. And with my Airport Express the music plays on my surround system in the living room. I just love it when everything just works perfect.

Two other great apps are Shazam and Midomi (both free). Ever listened to a song or had a melody in your head where you don’t remember the name of artist of? Just sing, hum or let it record the tunes from the radio and it will try to find the artist, song name and even a link to the iTunes Music Store to download it immediately. If I told this to someone five years ago, he would laugh me out loud. Apple is the way to the future! Shazam definitely works better than Midomi, but Shazam only allows real music — no singing or humming.

There are loads (and loads) for games for the iPhone. Most are really stupid, like for example Apache Lander (free), but others are really amazing. Enigmo is one of them (€7,99). It’s the only game I play regulary actually.

I know, there are loads of other apps to talk about, like Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, AIM, Twinkle, Flashlight, Facebook, Brain Challenge, Moto Racer, Pac-Man, Monkeyball, Critter Crunch. But buying an app is like a real border to me. I bought CBKart which I shouldn’t have and Enigmo which is worth any penny so I’m not sure if I’ll buy any more.

There is one app left worth mentioning, I Am Rich. This app has been deleted from the app store because of the price: €999,99. Some people thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. 8 People bought that app – really amazing imo :) Read more here.

Another deleted app is Box Office, the developer doesn’t know why Apple deleted it, but my guess is Apple is preparing it’s own Movies app. Probably to watch movie trailers and checking out the box office or something I guess. Video recording apps aren’t allowed too. Apple is definatelly up to something.