May 09 10
BradiPad, iPhone iPhone, radio
Attention all public affairs and news junkies, there is a free iPhone app (which also works on iPad) called C-Span Radio, (iTunes link) which is great. It is a simple app that gives you access to a live stream from A. C-Span radio (I didn’t know this existed!), B. C-Span 1 (audio only), C. C-Span 2 (audio only.) In addition, you also get access to the C-Span podcasts.
Look, I have pretty much given up on getting anything meaningful out of CNN, Fox, or the other networks. Commercial radio is the pits, and that does not leave much else. The C-Span Radio app fills a niche, has no partisan ax to grind and – it’s FREE! *waves arms* Perfect for in the car. Go get it. 
Apr 30 10
BradiPhone iPhone
The news that Apple had bought Siri prompted me to try the Siri app. (Okay I had never heard of Siri before this hit the news, but I’m glad I did.)
Wow! This app really rocks, you just speak into it and it searches. With GPS awareness it finds what you want near you. Mainly I have been testing it for local search. The voice recognition is very good and there are always times, like in a car when typing is difficult so the speech recognition is handy. You can also type if you need to be quiet. For local search Siri, queries several local search directories: Yahoo Local, City Search, Yelp, Localeze, Allmenus and more. This give a much more comprehensive search than any one of these local search engines would alone.
Siri is great. Try it.
Apr 08 10
BradeBooks eBooks, free, iPhone, ipod touch, kindle, nook
There are a lot of places to find (legal) free ebooks. My favorite is Manybooks.net because it will let you download different formats of each book to fit different ebook reading software and hardware.
You might think that these public domain (and some creative commons) ebooks are just a lot of old junk, but it depends upon your interests. If you dig and get creative with your searches you can dig out quite a bit of interesting old fiction and non-fiction. For instance there are some good US Civil War, memoirs and regimental histories, World War I memoirs and histories, lots of biographies, and history in general available. There are also old religious tracts which might interest the faithful.
In fiction there are wonderful mysteries and many youth adventure stories for young readers. And that is just scratching the surface. The Edwardian’ s, folks from 100 years ago, had a command of written English that we can only envy today. It would do us all good to expose ourselves to it a little more.
How to Get Your Free eBooks on Almost Any Device (Including Kindle and Nook)
So say you got a new Kindle or Nook reader, and you have found some good books on Manybooks to read, now you want to get them on your reader – How? Fortunately Manybooks has the best help pages with simple instructions for just about any ebook reading device.
All you iPhone, iPod Touch, Kindle and Nook users should try looking for some free books to read, in rough economic times free is good. Come back and let me know what you found interesting.
Apr 05 10
BradiPad, iPhone app, iPad, iPhone
The Dragon Dictation App for iPhone is just plain cool. It recognizes what you say, turns it into text and lets you email it or send it as a SMS text message. Even better it is free.
Look even if you only use it to send reminder notes to yourself by email while you are driving it is worth downloading this app. Much better than just, audio only, voice dictation.
Try it.
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