Chris: Geek Guy

Simplenote is a free note-taking app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It was recently brought to my attention by Lifehacker, and I’ve been making extensive use of it since. As well as the iOS app, there’s a universal web application (which you can sign up for even if you don’t have an iOS device), and there are numerous third-party clients for PCs, Macs and other devices such as Android phones. I use ResophNotes on my home PC,  and the web app on my work PC (as I’m not allowed to install unapproved software).

So far, I’ve found the ads to be fairly unobtrusive, but it’s possible to remove them for a one-off payment of $4.99 (around £3), or sign up for the $8.99/year (around £5.80) premium service which also offers additional features such as as automatic backup, RSS and email features.

I’ve previously tried another Lifehacker favourite, Evernote, which provides a desktop client as well as an iOS app, but as someone who just needs to keep track of short, text-based notes, I found it bloated and unwieldy.

Be the first to comment on this post

Like me, Darren Wright is fed up of seeing notifications in his news feed from applications such as FarmVille. Fortunately there’s an easy way to solve this, which doesn’t involve unfriending anybody!

Just click the Hide button next to one of the offending notifications, and you will be given the option to hide notifications from that application. Even better, this also stops the notifications from appearing on the Facebook mobile site, iPhone application and third-party readers such as TweetDeck.

Thanks to Darren for bringing this to my attention.

There’s also the option of switching to Facebook Lite, a back-to-basics version of Facebook which does away with applications altogether.

Be the first to comment on this post

The BBC Future Media & Technology team have announced that their first official iPhone application, BBC News, is currently under development and due for release next month.

I’ve had a play with the online demo and it looks pretty slick, so I’m looking forward to installing the app when it becomes available.

The BBC are also planning to follow up with a BBC Sport application, and they’re also considering an iPlayer app in order to provide a richer experience than the current iPlayer mobile site.

Update: Sadly, these plans have been shelved for the time being.

Be the first to comment on this post

The official Orange Wednesdays app is now available free from the iTunes Store. You don’t need to be on Orange to use the app’s basic functionality (showtimes, reviews and trailers), and customers of Orange’s mobile or broadband services can also obtain free 2-4-1 cinema ticket codes through the app.

To prove that you’re an Orange customer, you need to enter either your broadband username or mobile number (unless you are using your iPhone on Orange, in which case this step isn’t necessary). If you go down the broadband route, Orange checks that you’ve entered a valid username. If you provide a mobile number on the Orange network, you will receive a text message with a unique PIN, which needs to be entered into the app to unlock the 2-4-1 functionality.

This is great for me, as my iPhone is on O2 but I also have an Orange phone supplied by my employer, which is only switched on when I’m on call. Previously I had to send an SMS to the 241 number to get my code (at a cost of 35p) and take my work phone to the cinema. Now I can request Orange Wednesdays 2-4-1 codes without even needing to switch on my work phone. Result!

Be the first to comment on this post