SheGeeks

Hailed as a revolutionary device, the iPhone is a welcomed addition to my collection of gadgets. The iPhone has increased my productivity and I’d rather spend time surfing the web from my iPhone than my laptop. With that being said, there’s entirely too much functionality missing from the iPhone. It’s great for playing games and surfing the web, but it misses the mark with a lot of features that even the “dumbest” phone phone. Here are 6 apps/hacks that you can try out to bring certain functionality back to the iPhone.

*Note: All of my recommendations require your iPhone to be jailbroken and are available via Cydia. Please see a great jailbreaking resource put together by the awesomesauce Sarah Perez.
                    

1. WeatherIcon

This is a very useful hack that overlays your original Weather App icon to display the correct weather stats of your area complete with an icon that changes to match your local weather conditions. Now you no longer have to open the weather app just to receive a quick overview of the current weather.

Check out this awesome review on the WeatherIcon.
      

2. Cycorder

Normally I would just use Qik to record a video via my iPhone. However, there’s a lot of little hoops to jump through in order to accomplish this. Enter Cycorder. It’s a video recorder (duh) for the iPhone. Playback, audio, and quality are great!
        

3. Winterboard

Themes galore for your iPhone! Winterboard is a necessity for my iPhone and quite frankly, the only reason as to why I must jailbreak my iPhone. (See first image in post to get an idea of what Winterboard can do)
   

4. Live Time

Just like the weathericon hack, LiveTime sets the correct time on the clock app. It also sports an animated “second” hand.
  

5. Clear All SMS

Swiping your finger for each text message in your inbox can be quite the tasks if you’re a text fanatic. Clear All SMS provides an option for you to simply delete all of your text messages at once. Try Erase Contacts to do the same for all of your contacts.
         

6. iLog

iLog is quite possibly the best call/sms manager for the iPhone. The iPhone misses a lot of functionality and data when it comes to call stats and being able to forward individual sms messages to others let alone viewing individual messages. iLog aims to fix this problem and does a great job of doing so. Unlike the other apps, iLog isn’t free for very long. The developer allows you to use the app for up to 5 days before you have to purchase the app. Personally, I think it’s worth the money.

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Today the entire world had the opportunity to witness Obama’s Inauguration. To be honest, I missed the speech due to lack of sleep, but I caught everything that came right after the speech courtesy of CNN HD on DirectTV.
      

However, before tuning into CNN I tried Ustream.TV’s iPhone app that was released last night (just in time). My initial impressions of the app was sub-par. I gave it a 3 star rating in one of my tweets about it. I was hoping to watch the inauguration using their app on my iPhone. Why? Because I can. I wanted to see just how far technology would take me. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of TV, though CNN has become my favorite channel lately next to CWTV for Gossip Girl.
    

Where Failed Technology During the Inauguration

So what happened? Well about 5 minutes into watching the inauguration on the CNN channel via the Ustream.tv app, Ustream dropped my connection. When I tried to get back in, the stream lagged tremendously. Apparently, Ustream.tv had some problems holding up to the tremendous load. This isn’t surprising, but it is a bit disappointing. Clearly, we still have a long way to go before the internet replaces TV, but it was well worth the try. The video & audio came in clear, and had the connection been kept up I would’ve continued to watch the events from my iPhone.

Not only was Ustream having problems, but I experienced numerous delays with Twitter, their search service, & Facebook. Yet all of these services held up better than I would’ve imagined under the tremendous load of today’s historic event. Many of my friends who didn’t skip class to attend the event, watched the process on Facebook as much as possible. Though a few did revert to the TV (like I did) once the buffering and connection drops became an annoying problem.
      

The Future of Technology & Media: Together

Still the TV was a much better way of viewing the events and CNN did a great job of showcasing a technology of the future: Microsoft’s Photosynth! For those that don’t know, Photosynth is a technology that allows users to experiences their photos in a 3D/360-degree way. It takes all of the photos from one event and finds relating points on each photograph to connect them and make them into something much more than just a picture. Just head to the website and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about for yourself.

CNN did an excellent job of demonstrating the entire inauguration, more specifically when Obama was sworn in. Thousands of people sent in their photos of the event and CNN used those photos to create a 3D picture of the event as it appeared in the moment from various different angles. It’s an absolutely amazing work of technology and there couldn’t have been a better event to demonstrate its capabilities. I was thoroughly impressed and I’m sure the average user would be blown away.
    

To The Future of America & Technology

The entire day was a great look at the future of America and the change that I deeply believe Obama will bring to life, especially with technology. From the new redesign of White House website, to Obama taking over the White House’s Twitter account, I was proud and inspired to be able to witness and participate today’s festivities and events. Here’s the the future of America & technology!

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The iPhone is phenomenal! Yes, I said it. It’s one of the greatest innovations to ever come to a mobile device. I absolutely love it and quite frankly, I don’t want to live without it. Just about everything that I do online is some how, some way accessible via my iPhone. I check my mail, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and even my feeds via my iPhone a lot. I’m sure most iPhone owners do the same. However, this morning I realized that my iPhone has actually helped to make me more productive in my day-to-day routines. Here’s how!
    

Before The iPhone

I sleep next to my iPhone. You’re crazy if you own one and you don’t do the same. Before owning an iPhone I would normally roll over out of bed and head straight to my laptop to get to work. However, a lot of time was wasted because there were numerous tasks I would need to perform before really getting to the meat of my workload. Every blogger hates this.
    

Cutting Down On Extra Tasks

This is where the iPhone has drastically cut down how much time I spend doing certain things and even how much time I spend on my laptop. When I wake up, I grab my iPhone and check my mail. The iPhone has made it too easy to delete multiple items at once, respond to emails quickly, and even check a couple of messages on Facebook and Twitter all before even sitting up in bed. While doing all of this, I make mental notes of anything that I need to do on the laptop that couldn’t be done on the iPhone. I also add new tasks on my iPhone as I go along.

What does this mean? Well, I spend half as much time in my inbox (or at least it seems that way mentally). I also spend less time looking at the same service and open less tabs in Firefox throughout the day. Sounds pretty productive so far, right?  I thought so too.
    

Just The Beginnging…

So far, the flow of my day is a lot better after incorporating these routines with my iPhone in the morning. Now, when I open Firefox, I go directly to the “meat” of my work which consists of checking in on Google Reader, blogging, FriendFeed, & opening Twhirl to participate in conversations on Twitter. It also has me thinking of other things I can do to cut down on the how much time I spend on particular services and online in general.
     

Are there other ways that you might be using your iPhone to cut down on tasks and make your day more productive? Share your tips and secrets in the comments section!

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