DokRemote: Remotely Control Your iPhone, iPod Music Player Via Web Browser

More likely than not, you are reading this article on your pc, laptop, or tablet connected to your wireless network while you iPod/iPhone is playing music on the desk thru speakers. You’re in a very comfortable position on your bed and the tracks playing don’t suit your taste. Stand up no more!

DokRemote is an iPhone/iPod music player remote control application built with your comfort in mind. As long as you’re on a device with a web browser that’s connected on the same wireless network as you iPod/iPhone is, you’re only a few clicks away from controlling the songs on your iPod/iPhone.

DokRemote Lets You Control Your iPhone's Music Thru Web Browser

DokRemote allows you to play or pause your music, skip backward or forward, control the volume and browse your entire music collection.

How To: Transfer Large Files Between iPhone and Other iDevices Over Existing Wi-Fi Network

DokRemote is snap to use. On the main view, the application displays a URL, which you’ll enter on your browser to control iPhone/iPod’s music player remotely via a web browser. Yes, it's that easy!

Get DokRemote on iTunes now ($0.99).

How To: Stream, Play MP3 & Video Files Embedded On Non-HTML5 Websites From Your Mobile Browser

You must have already aware of HTML5. It'a next-generation web technology that provides a standard for playing audio and video files. Advanced mobile browsers such as the built-in browser on your Android/iPhone and third-party apps like Opera Mobile and SkyFire support HTML5.

But here's the problem:

Not all websites are built with HTML5. Which means whenever you play any media files embedded on  non-HTML5 sites, they'll prompt you to download it.

Play, Stream All Music Files, MP3 Saved From Your DropBox

While you can always download the media file on your phone for later streaming (a podcast perhaps), why not play it right away? Doing the latter will not only save you time but also disk space.

Play Audio, Video Files On Non-HTML5 Websites Straight From Your iPhone/Android

You might want to enjoy a podcast before you finally drift off to bed, so here I'm going to share you a simple workaround on how to play MP3 and video files embedded on a website straight from your Android/iPhone browser -- no need to download.

Here's how:

Step 1 On your mobile browser, obtain the direct link of the file. In Opera Mobile we usually do it by opening the link in a new tab, until a download dialog pops up, as seen below (notice the download link):

With the above example, our direct link is: http://pbstatic.s3.amazonaws.com/introduction-to-monetizing-blogs.mp3. Copy it.

Step 2 Using your HTML5 browser (we recommend Opera Mobile), head to W3school Audio TryIt site. For video, point your browser here.

On your mobile browser, you should see something like this:

Step 3 In the <source> tag, replace the src attribute with the direct link of the file. Once you've done that, hit "Edit & Click Me" button.

And voila, you should be able to play the MP3 file directly on your mobile browser — no need to download boatloads of audio/video files!

AfterFocus Lets You Create DSLR-Like Blurred Effects On Your Android & iPhone

Have you ever wondered how to take photos with blurry background using your mobile phone? You’ve seen a lot of these images produced by professionals. Well, there are a couple of answers to that but I will name one here; lens.

A DSLR camera can easily give you these kinds of images because of its big image sensors coupled with a wide lens selection. The law of physics gives limitations to the hardware that can be used on our mobile devices.

StillShot: Create High Quality Photos From Any Video On Your iPhone

But worry no more! We present to you an application that will easily transform your boring shots to a masterpiece with only a few strokes.

AfterFocus Is The Photography App You Really Need To Try

AfterFocus for Android and iPhone allows you to take DSLR-like images. Those blurry background photos are now in your hands. Select a photo you want and draw some lines to identify the focus and background and the application will do the magic. Selecting the focus area precisely will greatly improve the final images to look natural and professional.

AfterFocus does not only gives you the ability to create blurred background of photos from your phone, but it also comes with a bunch of naturally looking filters such as cross process filter that looks so natural. As a professional photographer, I love seeing bokeh on my photos. Photos with shallow depth of field won’t be complete without bokeh, and its maker must be kind enough to include a filter that does just that. Add bokeh to your already great shot.

Viddy — The Instagram for Videos — Lets You Create Visually Stunning 15-Second Slices Of Your Life

What are you waiting for? Go now to Marketplace and AppStore and get this application. It’s like having photoshop and lightroom in your pocket. It’s the best bang for the buck!

AfterFocus for Android Free [Google Play Link]
AfterFocus for iPhone ($0.99) [iTunes Link]

About the author:

Griffith Boniel is a Bukidnon-based photographer, Nikon User, and a Nokia fan who's also passionate about social media, mobile and web technology. You can follow @gboniel on Twitter.

How To: Find, Locate Specific SMS Text Messages By Keyword (iPhone & Android)

There might come a time when you need to do a quick search for specific phrase or keywords on your phone's inbox. It could be a specific milligram of a medicine, the name of your boss’ partner or anything important that's being forwarded by a friend thru SMS.

But the problem: you don't have the time to manually search through your inbox, and all you've got in mind is the word "PIN" in the SMS text message.

Backup, Save SMS Text Messages To Gmail All At Once (Android)

There are many ways of making your phone achieve such feats but your solution perhaps may require you to rummage through your inbox with hundreds of text messages buried down there. As part of our commitment to provide you with the much-needed tools and resources to heighten your mobile experience, we bring you another awesome iPhone and Android app called Handcent SMS.

Free iPhone, Android App To Search SMS Text Messages By Keyword

Handcent SMS is a free iPhone and Android app that can search SMS text by keyword. Handcent SMS does not only offer you an SMS search feature but it also allows you to make it your default application to handle your SMS needs. Handcent SMS also comes with a built-in anti-spam capability so you can blacklist, stop those pesky spammers from ruining your day.

How To: Remotely Lock, Password-Protect Your Lost/Forgotten Phone Thru SMS

Handcent SMS also gives you the option to customize SMS alerts for individual contacts, from ringtones, vibrations, backgrounds and even signatures.

Download Handcent SMS for Android [Google Play Link]
Download Handcent for iPhone [Cydia Link]

About the author:

Griffith Boniel is a Bukidnon-based photographer, Nikon User, and a Nokia fan who's also passionate about social media, mobile and web technology. You can follow @gboniel on Twitter.

StillShot: Create High Quality Photos From Any Video On Your iPhone

With the growing list of new photography apps arriving to the App Store almost everyday, the challenge for most application developers today is still to bring something fresh and awesome to the pile each time.

Fresh as a daisy this time is the iPhone app of Macademia Apps called StillShot that promised to simplify the creation of photographs out of a video file.

If you ever had a need to create a high resolution images out of a video file on your iPhone — maybe you want to grab a photo of the golden moment in your life captured in video — well, then, StillShot got you covered.

Make A Photograph Out Of A Video With StillShot (iPhone)

StillShot is an ingenious iPhone that allows you to import any video file from your iPhone and transform that golden moments in the video into high resolution, still images. The creators of this app are the same guys behind the magical iPhone app GroupShot, one of the most downloaded app in the iTunes. StillShot costs you $0.99, but that is a price well worth paying if you're a person who takes a lot of videos.

StillShot is no-brainer to use. When you launch the app you should be greeted with the tiny "IMPORT FROM LIBRARY" button. Hitting that button should take you to your file library, allowing you to import a video file. Once video file is loaded, StillShot should analyze the frames one-by-one, allowing you to pick the ones you’d like to save. All done!

So if you're wondering about how to create a full resolution photo from any of your pre-recorded iPhone videos, then, grab this nifty app that does exactly like that!

Download StillShot for iPhone [iTunes link]

Viddy — The Instagram for Videos — Lets You Create Visually Stunning 15-Second Slices Of Your Life

In this socially-connected world, it's kind of a sin when you cannot hit that tiny shutter on your phone, add a '70-esque look on it, and then share it with your friends using this well-celebrated app in the world: Instagram.

Instagram is one of the most successful startup companies who made it big in the social media scene, attracting the world's biggest online empire — Facebook.

While nobody knows what the future holds for Instagram after its recent acquisition with Facebook, one thing is clear: video-sharing apps like Viddy will soon take the lead, making it the next big thing in social media.

Viddy: The Instagram for Videos Lets You Transform Your Videos Into A Work Of Art

Viddy (link) is a new breed of app for the iPhone (Android & Windows Mobile version is in the works) that lets you capture 15-seconds event in your life, give it a cinematic look, and then share it with those who matter most. Think of Viddy as Instagram, but for videos.

New iPhone App Lets You Schedule, Send Emails/Text Messages At Specific Time

Viddy is quite straightforward to use. If you're opening the app for the first time, you may need to create an account first. Simply connect with friends via Twitter, Facebook and your phone’s address book, and you're good to go. As with Instagram, you can go and pull a video from your gallery, or shoot a new one. Once a video is selected, trim the clip as you see fit using a film strip timeline seen at the top of the screen.

Once trimming is done, you can add cinematic look on your clip by applying "filters" (well they called it "production packages"). You'll surely find it enjoyable to select music, apply transition effects, and do the necessary edits to make your video looks professional — just like film.

Prezi: Create Visually Engaging, Rich Media Presentations, Slideshows Online FREE

As with Instagram, Viddy users also have a feed of other users’ activities. Users may also comment and like posts, and see what videos are trending or popular.

I'm beyond confident that Viddy will explode just like Instagram did. Viddy just got another financial boost from its new backers and partners including high profile celebrities and tech luminaries Will Smith’s Overbook Entertainment, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Shakira and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. This notable backing should propel the momentum of Viddy, which is now surging in popularity. Since its release, Viddy has attracted more than 10 million users, with another 300,000 signing up each day.

Transfer Large Files Between iPhone and Other iDevices Over Existing Wi-Fi Network

Download Viddy for iPhone HERE.

New iPhone App Lets You Schedule, Send Emails/Text Messages At Specific Time

If you're wondering about how to schedule, send emails on your iPhone or iPad at specified date and time, well, then, good news! A new email and SMS scheduling iPhone app just hit the iTunes yesterday that promise to do just that!

There are several occasions when you want to send emails straight from your iPhone, iPad at future date/time. For example, you might want to remind your co-worker (who's in the other part of the world and at a different timezone) to do an important task while you're in the middle of the night resting. Or you want to auto-notify your customers about a special promo that goes live in the next couple of hours.

Automatically Send Email Messages At Specific Time In Gmail

Whatever the reason is, email scheduling app for the iPhone or iPad will do you a favor.

Cronote Reminders: Schedule, Send Emails, SMS At Future Date/Time (iPhone/iPad)

Cronote Reminders (link) is the new iOS app that allows you to send emails and text messages at a specific date and time. Just specify the sending time, list down the recipients and let your iPhone auto-send that email/text message at predefined time.

The neat interface of Cronote allows you to send future email reminders to multiple recipients, which is manageable prior to final delivery. In addition, Cronote provides a website so you can manage your future emails and text messages even if you're not carrying your iPhone with you.

Automatically Send SMS Text Messages At Later Time (iPhone/Android/Symbian)

Download Cronote Reminders for the iPhone/iPad from the iTunes HERE.

How To: Transfer Large Files Between iPhone and Other iDevices Over Existing Wi-Fi Network

Recently on this blog we have talked about Software Data Cable, a truly nifty Android application that makes transferring of large files between wireless devices less of a hassle. Software Data Cable uses existing WiFi network to move and download files from PC to Android phone (and vice versa).

Software Data Cable is a must-have app for the Android! If you haven't checked it out yet, click here.

Turn Any Printed Documents, Notes, White Board Discussions Into PDF Using Your Phone

If you're wondering about how to do almost the same with your iPhone and Mac, well, then, good news! Deliver for Mac and iOS comes to your rescue when transferring large files over the air.

Deliver Lets You Transfer Large Files Between iPhone and Mac Using Existing Wi-Fi Network

Deliver for Mac and iOS exactly does what the title goes—it delivers files from one Mac or iDevice to another over wireless network. Deliver requires no pesky clicking and configurations and it is extremely fast and easy. All you have to do is download, install, and launch the app on your local network and you're good to go.

Here's a quick guide on how to transfer large files from iPhone to another iDevice over Wi-Fi network with Deliver:

Step 1 Download and install Deliver for iPhone, iPod and iPad HERE. For Mac, get it HERE.

Step 2 Launch the app. It should bring down a quick introduction on how to use it. But here's the gist: tap or click on a little bubble icon.

Note: you also need to launch Deliver on your Mac or any iDevice you wish to send your files to.

Step 3 Clicking on that bubble icon should bring up a list of other devices connected to the same network running Deliver. Just choose the one you want to send a file to and then click or tap the plus button.

Note: don't click the text button (looks like a rectangle with three lines), it's for sending a text message.

Step 4 From the list of available iDevices, just choose what you want and then Deliver will transport your file in an instant. You'll be surprised by how fast your large-sized files make it from your iPhone to your laptop.

Best Motion Detection, Sensor Apps for the iPhone, Android and Symbian

Deliver for Mac and iOS is definitely a must-have app you should install. But just as nobody is saint to give anything useful for free with no flaws, you may also experience frequent crashes on your Mac. Deliver for Mac is a little buggy and the interface definitely needs a face-lift. The iOS version, on the other hand, works perfectly so hopefully the Mac version will catch up soon.