Skype on the iPhone - Splash screen

Yes, it’s true, Skype is finally available for the iPhone and boy has it been worth the wait!

I only found out yesterday that Skype was officially on its way into the Apps Store.  As it is probably my second most awaited app, since I bought my iPhone 3G, I was really hoping that it wouldn’t be a disappointment.  I needn’t have worried, so far the Skype iPhone app is even better than I had anticipated.

The interface is slick and intuitive.  The text messaging part of the app works well, as I had expected it would do. However, what has blown me away is the sound quality of the calls using Skype Out!  Wow, I can now phone unlimited times back home to any landline in the UK from my iPhone for only 3 Euro a month!!! I am a very happy bunny!

The application only works over WiFi, so it is not perfect, but then it was very unlikely that Apple would have risked upsetting its partners by allowing VoIP over 3G, wasn’t it.

Also, having installed and used the application without any problems today, I was surprised to see the comments from other users on the App Store.  The average rating is currently about 3 and a half, which I couldn’t understand until I saw that it is made up from 1 star and 5 star votes.

In other words, it appears that Skype on the iPhone either works perfectly or doesn’t work at all.  I will of course update you if the situation changes, but at the moment I am very much in the former camp!

Check out Skype for the iPhone now – this is definitely a must have app!

There are quite a few decent ebook readers currently available for your iPhone, including eReader, Bookshelf and Wattpad, but my personal favourite is Stanza, by a company called Lexcycle.

Stanza on the iPhone 3G

You can either choose to download a book from a HUGE database of FREE books online, or you can transfer a book from your PC or Mac to your iPhone over Wi-Fi.

Downloading books really is a breeze, but I find the book transfer to be a little bit of a pain and hopefully this will be something that the developer will improve in a future release.

Once you have downloaded or transferred your choice of reading material to the iPhone, you are able to add a book cover, so that you can scroll through your library in a similar way to how you would scroll through your album covers on the iPod part of your phone. And then you are ready to start reading.

You turn pages in Stanza, by simply swiping your finger from right to left across the screen, as if you were flicking a page. Alternatively, you can tap on the right for the next page. And when you close down Stanza, it will automatically bookmark the last page you read, so that it is all ready for you the next time you open the application and read that book.

The fonts on Stanza are very good. You are able to read a book comfortably, without hurting your eyes and you are also able to turn on a “night interface”, which is basically white text on a black background.

Stanza is simple, but effective. It just works. Oh and did I mention that it is FREE! Go and get Stanza now, this is definitely a Must Have App for both the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Byline Google Reader on the iPhone

Up until last week, my iPhone RSS Reader of choice had been Byline, developed by Phantom Fish, and available in the iTunes Application Shop for only £2.99. Google Reader is my preferred desktop RSS reader and for the past four of five months Byline, which acts as a superb interface to Google Reader, has been the number one most used application on my iPhone by far.

The cool thing about Byline is the ability to browse offline, allowing you access to web pages without a connection, so perfect for the London Underground journeys or flights in Airplane mode. Byline archives web pages linked to by feeds you have starred, allowing you to save any item you want to read or website you want to browse offline.

I LOVE BYLINE!!! That is, I did love it until it died on me on Saturday!

After much cussing and swearing, when I realised that my favourite iPhone application was not going to start working after a simple re-boot, I decided to do a little research online as to what I might do to get it working again and almost immediately I came across news that Google had released their own native web application for Google Reader on the iPhone. As I was at home with a wifi connection, I decided to give it a try!

Google Reader on the iPhone

Getting Google Reader on your iPhone is simply a case of pointing your Safaris browser to the iPhone Version of Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/i/).

Once logged in to your Google Reader account you arrive to an iPhone friendly home screen, displaying all the folders of your news feeds. Okay, it does not look as sexy as Byline, but boy does it work!

It is fast, way faster than Byline. You are able to skip through your news feeds and read those that are most relevant to you and ultimately work far more productively.

I only had Google’s Google Reader loaded on my iPhone for a matter of minutes, before forgetting that I was trying to fix Byline. Nor have I bothered to look since.

All the time that I am able to get online for my feeds then, the Google Reader is definitely my new RSS reader of choice. I added the cool icon to my front page screen and haven’t looked back!!! In my opinion, this is a must have app.

That is not to say I have totally given up on Byline. The next time I am going on a trip and know that I need Byline offline browsing capability, I will make an effort to get it working again. Until then, I am more than happy with my new favourite app!