AR iPhone app tracks satellites in space… right through the ceiling of your house

There are a couple popular options for holdiing your iPhone and iPad skyward to see what stars are in the skies above you. Now, SightSpaceStation uses Augmented Reality technology to show you satellites orbiting the earth. Though ‘Space Station’ is in the name, that is only one of the many major satellites it will show you. You can choose which of the major orbiting objects you want to see the path of and know the time it will be overhead. Along with the majors are all of the other ones you might find very interesting, including Sirrius and other satellites you might like to know about so you know how your reception will be.

It isn’t all about what is above you, pointing your iPhone camera all around will show you where satellites are, including the other side of the earth. I wonder if it will pick up Santa’s route this year.

All of the buttons and screen information is self explanatory. The count down being shown is for the Space Station… other major space items are available to track.

Sweeping around the sky, in this case from my living room, the many satellites in space are shown. Some have their path lines showing. I stopped looking at the East sky here where Voyager1 is passing by.

Tapping a satellite via the SightSpaceStation screen gives you a quick overview of what the satellite is.

Selecting the quick info box takes you to more advanced information on the particular space object.

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Elmo is back on the iPhone, for the holidays… and the kids

Elmo is back on the iPhone. He and his friends where added earlier this year via an app from the folks at IDEO. It was a fun bit of software for kids, and maybe during some long meetings.

The app has reappeared on my iPhone as the new version has holiday updates.

Right off, you will notice the snow and holiday lights around the boarder of Elmo’s Monster Maker opening screen. And when I say ‘you’, I mean your kids… what adult would possibly play with monsters? Someone raise their hand so I’m not the only one!

New to Elmo’s Monster Maker is holiday hats and noses. After you choose a base monster, you tap the top of the head to cycle through the hat options, then eyes and nose. You can tap on any of these areas to change again if the new nose doesn’t match the eyes chosen, etc…

When your done, your new monster is ready to entertain.

All of the monsters created like to sing and dance if you give them the option via the ‘tunes’ icon on the lower right corner of the screen. The ‘undo’ button in the upper left corner takes you back to the ‘builder’ to make a new monster.

Tapping the camera icon in the lower left corner of Elmo’s Monster Maker brings in the photographer to snap a picture of your creation.

The picture is saved to the iPhone’s Photo area so can be used for a variety of other things that you make with your photos (cards, emails, share…). One items I can’t find a setting for is the background image though.

Using the iPhone camera to create art

I do love to take pictures with my iPhone camera. The quality of the camera is getting better model by model and the software to use with photos I have taken for my mistakes, the images are finding their way to many place. I use them on cards, as backgrounds… and even to share with friends.

Just about the time I’m happily taking nice clean images, a ‘camera’ app comes out that goes back many years. Hipstamatic is an app for the iPhone which changes the way pictures are taken. It isn’t an app that you use to process images in your Photos area, this app actually processes thing differently for the picture being taken at that moment. Which means you can’t go back and change your mind and it requires more time to take a picture. Thus, this will be an app you will use when you going for a particular look that you have thought about up front.

The Hipstamatic app allows you to mimic many very old cameras through lens and film choices. There are 8 films and 6 lens options… you do the math. Oh, and there are different types of flashes too, 7 of them.  An ordinary green ball on an ordinary wood floor, isn’t so ordinary anymore.

Each of the films and lenses you can choose have unique properties, much like going from one manufactures camera to another (yesteryear, these days they are pretty closely matched until you get into the high dollar pro lines).

Below is side by side two films and lenses to see the slight differences that can be found by making tweaks in Hipstamatic prior to taking your pictures.

Choosing a picture in the ‘Recent Prints’ area results in a view of what lens, film and flash was used to make that image. Like I said earlier, this is not a filter your applying to a photo in your iPhone, these are the images as they were taken. If you ‘share’ your images out to others on Facebook, the picture includes the below information so others can see the lens/film chosen.

From the front of the camera image you can see which lens your currently using. Along the bottom is the action buttons (left to right): Change film type being used, change flash, choose what graphic your using when looking at the ‘camera’ on your iPhone screen, the cart is for purchasing additional lenses and film types, and button to the far right is for flipping the ‘camera’ over. Yes, you did read the ‘buy additional’ correct. Hipstamatic comes with a limited of very nice and functional lenses and film types, but you can buy more via in-app purchase.

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Using free apps on the iPhone for finding the best prices

Your getting hit with a ton of Black Friday and Cyber Monday ads. All claiming the lowest prices anywhere. Either they are pretty low or they are a limited quantity of silly low prices. If your not going to be in line at 3 am, but want to make sure your getting an actual good discount, here are a few free options for the iPhone to help you.

There are many sites that offer information for the best pricing. Rather than spending your whole time looking at your iPhone Browser, there are quick apps that connect to those services for you and just pull back what you need. Time is important when your looking at a shelf the latest hot item and everyone around you think they found the deal of the century.

First, aim your Twitter account to watch Twitter’s own Earlybird Offers.

Now, set up the free GroupOn app on your iPhone. I recommend you do this early on so you know if your city is covered. They don’t have all of the US covered but all of the major cities and some of those coupons will be honored in ‘other’ towns. This app will allow you to see if someone else has a ‘coupon’ price for less than what your looking at. No coupon clipping needed, the discount bar code shows on the screen of your iPhone.

To wrap up, the heavy hitter of the three free apps. Red Laser lets you take a picture of the bar code on the item you looking at, then tell you where the best price is. The list that Red Laser brings back is pretty nice, and very quick. You have the info you need for making the buying decision if you buy now or walk for a better deal elsewhere. One item that bit me not too long ago was passing on a deal in front of me for one on the screen but the other option was out of stock by the time I got there.

Discounts and Deals found using the iPhone

Ready for the craziness they call Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Asside from long lines, there are other deals to be had if you know where and when.

Nice that there is a free iPhone app for that, The Dealmap. As the name implies, this is an app that will tell you what deals are around you, the particulars of that deal which you can share with others if you like. There… you have the full story, now let’s deep dive a bit more.

Starting the app up, let it find you and you will quickly get a map with drop pins of discounts all around you. Tap a pin to get the Business name and a brief on what the deal is. Tap that result to drill into more details on the business and discount particulars.

The map is nice but sometimes your looking for a name rather than a spot around you. Just choose the ‘List’ button in the upper right corner to jump to a scrollable alphabetized list. Tapping any of the items drills down to more detail like the map view does.

The Dealmap app shows you more than just what discount you can expect. You can also see the particulars on the deal and who posted it to the service. The address and phone number, as well the very important thumbs rating from others. Don’t forget to tap one of those thumbs when you get a discount so others can see if it is as good as it appears!

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