This trick also works on other music player or podcast apps like Pandora, Rdio, etc. It basically kills whatever media playback active on your iPhone or iPad once the timer's up.
App makers outside Apple know best what needs to be developed and what's not. Users'thirst of really useful, great apps are not left in the wild unnoticed. In fact, it motivates and drives competition among developers who create a great selection of apps for us to enjoy.
Unfortunately, great apps don't easily make its way to Apple's AppStore. Not because they're too buggy or useless but because of Apple's restrictive policy, preventing developers to accomplish something great.
In this post, we're going to explore some of the great, useful apps that exist in other mobile operating system but not in non-jailbroken iOS. These are apps that are sure a big hit and will make your iPhone a little less dumb once made available in iTunes.
I have a non-jailbroken iPhone 5 and just like you, I've been looking for iOS apps similar to Android's AppLock so I can restrict access to some of my personal & finance apps by protecting them with a password. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have a way out except for iAppLock, a jailbreak app that can password-protect apps in iOS devices.
The reason why Apple can't approve such apps is that it is a violation of terms for an application to make a system-wide change and make a password for individual app. Applications have to one-by-one add password locks if they want to. Yeah, I know. It sucks!
More in this category:
How To: Remotely Lock, Password-Protect Your Lost/Forgotten Phone Thru SMSOffline Answering Machine for iOS is undoubtedly one awesome app! This is a kind of software that automatically answers phone calls with your pre-recorded greeting and records/saves the voice message straight to your iPhone, bypassing telco's voice mailbox service. Not only can you cut your phone bills but sure you can avoid unanswered phone calls from important people.
Back in Symbian days, Voice Inbox is one of my must-have apps that does just that. If you still have s60v3 phones, you should go and get this app. Things you can do with it: replay voice messages anytime without calling an operator, see the name of the caller (not just a number), call back in a click.
As yet, neither Android nor iOS has an app for that.
Being able to record phone calls (and even Skype calls) is sometimes necessary, most especially if someone is giving you important directions over the phone. If you're confused or unsure what your mom or boss has said, you can turn to the recorded phone call and listen it once again.
Both Android and Symbian have decent working apps for that. For iOS, I can't still find any.
If you've been on Android in the past, you should have already heard about Tasker. Tasker is an award-winning app that brings complete automation to your Android device.
There are plenty of automation options you can exploit with Tasker; it can automatically send SMS to your parents when you're leaving the house, it can automatically switch your phone to “Silent” mode when you're in office, among others.
While there's IFTTT for iPhone you can explore, Tasker is far more advanced and feature-rich as compared to IFTTT.
There's no need for me to enumerate the pros of having an ad-blocking software installed on your iOS device. Unfortunately, ad-blocking software are too controversial that they don't even make their way to Play Store or AppStore. Unless you do the risky business of jail-breaking or “rooting”, you can block ads on your Android or iPhone.
Have something to add on this list? Buzz off in the comments below. :)
UPDATE: Sleep timer is already a built-in feature of Spotify on iOS. So no need to use the Clock app nor install additional app.
World's finest apps do not always come perfect. And that does not exempt Spotify, our personal favorite music streaming app.
Spotify's latest iOS app is still deprived of the most sought-after functionality as a music app: a sleep timer.
You cannot fall off to sleep while Spotify is playing in the background as it will obviously drain your battery. You don't want to get up in the morning with your phone's battery dead, right?
In this post, I'm going to show you how you can easily add that Sleep Timer functionality to your Spotify iOS app so you can still sleep to your favorite tracks without leaving your iPhone/iPad's battery dead empty.
As I mentioned above, Spotify's iOS client doesn't have a sleep timer functionality bundled to the app as yet. So we'll be taking refuge to another app called Music Sleep Timer to do job.
Music Sleep Timer is just another FREE iOS app designed to kill any media playback active on your iPhone or iPad. It works exactly like the sleep timer on your TV or airconditioner. Just launch Spotify, set the timer and sleep to your favorite tunes.
Music Sleep Timer is not only useful to Spotify. You can also use it to other music apps like Pandora or any podcast or audiobook apps.
Launch Music Sleep Timer and start timer, as seen below:
You're done.
While waiting for Spotify to finally bring the most-coveted sleep timer functionality in their next update, you may try Music Sleep Timer to temporarily do just that.
Got a another way to set sleep timer on your Spotify iOS app? Buzz off in the comments below and I will update this entry :)
Ever wanted to catch those nasty itchy fingers trying to grab your iPhone without your permission?
Well, as the popular cling goes, there is always an app for that!
Meet Guardian Cam, the iOS app that spies on anyone who tries to “spy” on your iDevice. Once activated, Guardian Cam automatically takes a picture of anyone who touches your iPhone or iPad.
The Guardian Cam app replaces the home screen with a dummy screen. If the dummy screen is touched the front-facing camera automatically takes a picture — good news for those who want to protect their iPhone’s or iPad’s security and privacy.
The app even has an upgrade for auto-flash in low light, an icon badge that displays the number of photos captured, and even an optional audio alarm that will not shut off until it runs after one minute. All photos are even dated and saved.
The Guardian Cam app is useful in order to guard against anyone using someone else’s iPhone or iPad without the owner’s knowledge. It’s also a foolproof way to catch anyone in the act of spying on the contents of any iDevice. The ultimate protection of course is against anyone attempting to steal the device, since the loud alarm will discourage anyone from finishing the attempted thievery. In short, anyone attempting illegally to look at a file, open an app, make a call, or to steal the device, is automatically caught on camera or subjected to a loud alarm.
If hard proof is needed to accuse someone, the outcome from Guardian Cam is all the proof you need.
Guardian Cam supports English and Japanese. It is compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5; the 3rd to 5th generation of iPod Touch; and iPad. Of course, the iDevice must have a front-facing camera.
Created by the Masatoshi Higashionna and Masaya Takahashi Co. Ltd. from Japan, Guardian Cam sells for only US$1.99 available worldwide at any App Store in the Utilities category.