While built-into the company’s own Windows Phone operating system, iOS is the next smartphone operating system to get this great piece of software and for a limited time it’s completely free.

The app isn’t just about storing notes on your mobile, just as with OneNote on Windows Phone it will upload your notes to Microsoft’s cloud storage service SkyDrive (you’ll need a Windows Live ID) so that you can share your notes with your PC and open notes created on the desktop when on the move.  Microsoft say of the new product.  OneNote users will also be able to view and edit their notes in the OneNote cloud app, that can be accessed through Microsoft’s Office Live service, or SkyDrive.

Microsoft OneNote Mobile is an easy-to-use note-taking application for capturing all of your ideas and to-dos on the go, brought to you by Microsoft Office.  With OneNote Mobile, create searchable notes with text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes. Then keep your notes in sync using free Windows Live SkyDrive cloud storage to access, edit and manage them from virtually anywhere, from your PC or almost any web browser.

OneNote was first introduced in Office 2003 but wasn’t really popularly used until touch screen computers became commonplace.  Now with Office 2010 running on many tablet PCs, it’s considered a stable of the Office system.  The extension of the software into the iPhone will only help professionals who need access to notes, and the ability to create notes on the move that they can then use and work with on their PC.

What is curious about this however is the release of OneNote for the iPhone at a time when the program itself still isn’t part of the Office 2011 suite for the Mac.  Microsoft have not commented on this but it would most likely be down to the current lack of touchscreen support in Mac OS.  Now that Apple are addressing this we can expect to see the next generation iMacs and MacBooks coming with touch screens.  Thus the next version of Office Mac, due sometime around 2013, should include OneNote.

With this omission it remains to be seen how useful people will consider OneNote on the iPhone.  Many iPhone users, probably most in fact, still use a PC and this will help uptake.  The lack of OneNote support on the Mac could damage the apps chances of picking up serious traction on Apple’s smartphone platform though.

There is also no word currently on a version of OneNote for the iPad or for Google’s Android operating system.  We can be reasonably certain that the former is already in development.  The future of OneNote, and indeed other Microsoft Office services, on Android is less certain however.  Microsoft haven’t made any announcement as regards this and could decide to avoid Android development altogether.

On the flipside, Microsoft have a long history of developing Office products for the Mac, and so this was only to be expected.  Microsoft have also announced that they will be bringing their new Lync communications platform to the iPhone later this year.

The app needs iOS 4.2 or higher to run and can be downloaded from the iTunes store.  There is no word yet on how long Microsoft will be making OneNote for the iPhone free to download, though it will probably be for 30 days or less.  If you are interested in trying OneNote on your iPhone or iPod Touch I wouldn’t leave it too long before you add it to your download basket.

A message posted by MuscleNerd on Twitter said…

Jailbreaking, the process of unlocking the iPhone, has received a great deal of attention due to the fact that doing so allows users to install non-approved software on the device.

Apple has publicly said that such a process would present security risks for users and have tried to bar jailbroken devices from updates and support.  This is a Battle that’s set to run and run.

The interesting thing to note about this however is will it go the way of the corporation or the consumer?  Clearly there is a growing Apple use-base out there who don’t want to be tied exclusively within the Apple eco-system.  You only have to look at the growing ranges of software to help you sync your iPod or iPhone with your PC or Mac without needing to have iTunes installed.

There’s no official release yet for the jailbreaking patch for iOS 4.1, but iPhone and iPod Touch users who upgrade can no doubt expect something to be made available soon.  Please bear in mind however that unlocking a device in this manner could invalidate any warranty or guarantee on your device.

Source : Engadget

I say it’s unusual though you have to take into account here that neither of these products are cheap, but neither will be the development for the operating system.

The update is being distributed via iTunes with users being alerted that it is available.  It fixes very little by the way of bugs but does add some interesting new features including the new game centre for multi-player gaming, the abaility to take HDR pictures, rent TV shows from the iTunes store and work with HD video on YouTube.

The update is available for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 and for the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch.

Version 4.2 of iOS is expected to be launched in November.

Today Opera Software announced the approval of Opera Mini for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The Opera Mini application is available for download in Apple’s App Store.

One of the main advantages of the Opera Mini browser is a feature called Opera Turbo which compresses the data before it is send to the mobile device. This not only speeds up the web browsing experience (especially on slower networks) but reduces the bandwidth costs of the user significantly.

Iphone and iPod users can download Opera Mini directly from their mobile devices or by opening the Appstore in iTunes to download it instead.

It’s just a matter of finding the right service that is compatible to the mobile phone. In the case of the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch the My Digital Life website posted a nice trick. Users can grab the AIM client for their clients and install it on the device. Then it’s merely a question of adding phone numbers as clients in iChat or any other instant messaging client on the phone. To be precise the account name will be the complete phone number of the contact including country and area codes. A valid phone number would be +123456789 for example. The + sign has to stand at the beginning.

Now start the AIM client software and send the new contact a message. He will receive it as an SMS. His reply on the other hand will land directly in the AIM client software.

The benefit of this method is obviously that it is completely free if the Internet connection is free. Do you know other ways to send free SMS with the iPhone, iPod Touch or other mobile devices ?

Disk Aid can transfer files between a computer running Windows or Mac OSX and an iPhone or iPod Touch. My older iPod Nano was not recognized by the software which means that it is most likely only working with the two devices mentioned above. A supported device is recognized automatically by the application. It reminds the user to install iTunes if that software is not installed on the local computer.

The application supported the usual file operations like copying files from and to the iPhone or iPod Touch, creating folders, deleting files, renaming and even copying folders with their contents.

No jailbreak is needed to use Disk Aid and the supported firmwares are 1.1.1 to 1.1.4. Great software if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch.

One program that has caught my attention in this sphere is SimplifyMedia. This is a new program which looks quite promising. How does it work? Once you download and install the application, it allows you to share your music libraries on iTunes and Winamp. You can set-up your account and share it with up to 30 friends. Of course, your work address will be one of those friends. However, since you can choose the others, you have access to a wide range of music.

The program also lets you access your library through your iPhone or iPod Touch. Just download the SimplifyMedia app for the iPhone and install it. A word of caution: your iPhone needs to jailbroken before installing the app. Then, you can use a local wi-fi connection to access your music. The iPhone integration is definitely this program’s biggest asset.

There are a few caveats. One, your host computer needs to be online or you cannot access your music. Secondly, you need to have both SimplifyMedia and iTunes running on the host machine. Thirdly, both host and target machines need a reasonably fast internet connection or the playback will be choppy, which is not pleasant for the listener. Lastly, it works only on Windows and Mac, so Linux users are left in the lurch.

The program is still in beta phase so it will definitely get better with time. I’d like to see them add support for more audio player libraries since not everyone uses iTunes or Winamp. What do you think of SimplifyMedia? Are there any features you’d like to see added? Which programs do you use to stream music over the internet?

With all these restrictions, it’s no wonder that most people who own an iPhone are frustrated and are always on the lookout for ways to run applications on their devices. After all, you would not want to pay so much money for something that has hardly any functions. However, it’s understandable to also be reluctant. These devices are expensive and if something goes wrong, it’s a lot of money down the drain.

Adam from Lifehacker has found a solution to your problems. He uses a software called ZiPhone. ZiPhone is free, open source application that works on both Windows and the Mac. This software basically hacks or jailbreaks the firmware code on your device so that all the restrictions are removed and you can use your device to its full potential. What ZiPhone does is put your phone into recovery mode while it hacks the firmware. The entire process is accomplished in under one minute.

All you have to do is download and run the application. Select the device (iPhone or iPod Touch), choose the jailbreak option and you are good to go. I haven’t tried this out for myself because I do not own either device but a fair number of people have used ZiPhone with excellent results. The only precaution is that if you applied a jailbreak to your iPhone previously, make sure to restore it to the latest firmware (1.1.4) before you use ZiPhone.

All in all, I’m curious. How many of you have hacked your devices previously because you were unhappy with the restrictions. Do you know of any other ways to jailbreak your iPhone?

Via (Lifehacker)

What you need to do is point the browser to the seeqpod url and then click on the plus sign in the middle of the browser bar.

The bookmark menu should be shown, touch Add to your home screen which should add the icon of SeeqPod to the home screen.

via Seeqpod Blog

While I’m not a heavy Last.fm user I tend to use it when I quickly want to listen to a new band I heard about or find out about similar artists of a band that I do like. Mobile Scrobbler sends data of the music that you are listening to to Last.fm which uses this information to suggest new artists and songs.

What I really like is that the developer is currently working on a function that streams Last.fm radio streams to the Iphone or iPod Touch. The announcement was made today and it could be that this feature will already be implemented in the coming days. The artists and track infos that are displayed will also be soon available in the software for the iPhone.

Usage Instructions for Mobile Scrobbler:

• Enter your Last.fm username and password
• Tap “Start Scrobbling”
• MobileScrobbler will login to the Last.fm site, and display a music note icon in the status bar letting you know the application is still running in the background.
• After logging in, press the Home button on your device and tap the iPod icon and listen to music. Any tracks you play should automatically show up on your Last.fm profile page after you’ve listened to more than half of the track.
• To stop submitting tracks, open MobileScrobbler from your home screen and tap “Stop Scrobbling”. The music note in the status bar will disappear and you will be logged out of Last.fm.
• To see how many tracks have been scrobbled or queued for this session, as well as the most recent status message from AudioScrobbler, click the “Session Statistics” button.

uTorrent application for iPhone:

The uTorrent webui software for the Apple iPhone makes it possible to start, stop and add torrents using the uTorrent web interface which has to be installed on the local computer that is running uTorrent. What I like is that you can access the web ui to get a quick overview of the current download and seeding status of your torrent files as well as a way to control any torrents through the iPhone.

This is in my opinion far better and secure than using a public computer to access the uTorrent web interface.

If you prefer small you have the choice between a 8 Gigabyte iPod Nano or a 1 Gigabyte iPod Shuffle. Users are given choices which is fine but the question that no one asked so far is about need. Who actually needs a new iPod ? Even if you own an old generation iPod you probably can’t justify a switch to a new product.

I have an iPod Nano with 4 Gigabytes for instance and a music collection that is above 10 Gigabytes. Do I need all of my music on a new iPod to be happy or is it enough to use smart playlists ?

Users who have a broken device surely have no other choice and I can fully understand that they want to go with the state of the art but everyone else ? Let us take a close look at the specs of the high end iPods:

The iPhone without phone ships with either 8 Gigabytes of space for $299 or 16 Gigabytes for $399. Both use a 3.5-inch multi-touch screen and support Wi-Fi (802.11b/g).

The iPod Classic is the only iPod family that uses a hard drive to store the data. The 80 Gigabyte iPod Classic retails at $249 while the 160 Gigabyte one at $349. The screen has a size of 2.5-inches.

Users who already own a 40+ Gigabyte iPod will surely not swap their device for a iPod Touch with 16 Gigabytes or less because it would mean that they would have to reduce the amount of files that are currently on their player. It is also unlikely that they will make the switch to the 160 Gigabyte model which doubles or even quadruples the capacity.

My prediction is that Apple will sell heaps of the iPod Touch simply because it offers a new user interface. This is a device to brag with; something that makes the owner stick out of the masses of iPod users.