Youtube background play in iphone - IOS 7

Back in IOS4 or 5 days, this is an interesting use for youtube. i.e. let youtube run in the background while keeping the phone in your pocket. In this way many music videos, or music lists can be enjoyed. One might wonder why there is a need to do and suggest to use Apps like Pandora or other streaming services.

But this is pretty popular in developing markets like India, Indonesia etc. You can find Hindi music compiled for 2-3 hours or all hit songs in a playlist as typically the streaming services are not available in these countries.

So now with IOS 7, this is a cool development. If you are using youtube in Safari or Chrome, then it lets you use in background. Just click home button (the play black stops) then bring the control center (swipe from bottom to up) then press the play button. That's it. The music / stream starts in the background.

Happy listening folks.

Google Maps available on iOS

Finally, maps is available on iPhone. No longer I need to use the maps in browser or alternatives such as waze. The problem is in Singapore, we've only one good maps application which is Google Maps. Waze is perfect in USA (or at least in SFO where I used for quite a while) but in SG needs a total overhaul.

Anyway back to google maps and now wish I can make it default ;)

iOS6 - Passbook, United Airlines

My first pass book@ Tokyo-Singapore.

It works, though the staff were pretty new and not sure what to do. Luckily  the supervisor knows about it (may be she is the only one with some communication) and let me in.

It'd be good if more options are available. Usefulness point of view, not much but it's "cool" :)

No iOS6 for iPad 1st Generation. LIfetime of less than 2 years ??

Source: CNET
I am surprised by the decision of Apple to drop iOS6 support for 1st gen iPad or iPAD-1. Some says, this is due to the slower processor, less memory or low hardware spec. Whatever the reason is this is really a strange way Apple behaved.

I've invested $500 around 18 months back (SG got the iPad few months later) and now no more updates from Apple. Hopefully they won't stop the support :)

Apple iOS release 5.1 (not 5.0.1 but real 5.1)

Just updated my iPhone to iOS 5.1. Main reason for the upgrade is to 'try' whether this solves my battery drain.
Ofcourse it will take couple of days before I can really fell the improvement (if any) but there are few useful updates caught my eye.

First one is the increase in 'app' download limit from current 20MB to 50MB. This is a big thing to me because whenever I update the app's the 'frustrating' popup comes and asks me to connect to Wi-Fi. Now I can forget this part most of the times.

Second is the "removal of photo from iCloud photo stream". In the past we can't remove a single photo. With 5.1 this is added. Lame but I am used to apple so never bothered about this. By the way I started to use Google+ for photo update so it is easy to share with friends :). So this is not a really big deal to me but I can clean up old 'pics'
[EDIT]: This is not really 'removing from iCloud but only from your iPhone". So if you happened to sync your iPhone & iPad to the same iCloud account there is no way you can remove it from iCloud :|


Third is the "camera shortcut" which is always present next to "slide to open" in lock screen.

[Update]


Surprisingly my batter life improved and now it can last one full day :)

Secondly the "push mail" seems to be improved. In the past I see delayed 'push' but now I can see the popup on my iPhone before it appears in my exchange.

So it looks like there are some good improvements in 5.1 (Singapore version)

iOS5 finally previewed - Not quite exciting.

Finally Apple announced iOS5+iCloud this morning. For the details visit engadget 

Best (or rather pending for sometime) new stuff is Wireless sync. I could do that with Windows mobile years back. Android was great and finally iPhone does that.

Notifier, camera, todo's & twitter integration are other notable features. I am not a great fan of 'cloud' stuff given the connectivity woes. Perhaps Japanese or Koreans would love to have them but for me in SG, I still prefer my data to be with me on the hard disk.

Anyway the iOS5 availability is in Fall which means somewhere after September 2011. So we still have few months before we can see the improvements.