Google Goggles for Android Only, Why?

Google Goggles

Maps Update: Public Transport Mode (Singapore)

Everyone in Singapore who has an iPhone would know that when you search for a route to take, you could only select the travelling mode from either vehicle or by walking. I'm not sure when this kicks in but hey!, it is now working for Public Transport mode as well!

You could see which bus or train to take to reach your destination, a feature which was previously not working. A pictorial below shows how to go to Safra Mt Faber from my Current Location:

Another thing you might have notice is the recently added Traffic Flow feature on the map. It is not a completely new feature just that it aren't available in Singapore before. Traffic Flow shows real time traffic conditions in various colours, Green for Clear, Yellow for Moderate and red for Jams. Very useful!

Google Street View was supposedly out for Singapore in a news article recently but i have yet to see this function on my iPhone 3GS anyone has any idea how it shows up on the iPhone please let me know.

Updated Google For iPhone now in App Store

An all-new Google for iPhone was recently released in the App Store and announcing the news from the Official Google Mobile Blog, Alastair Tse, Software Engineer said: "Hello, iPhone users! We have just received the good news that our new version of Google Mobile App for iPhone was approved and is now available on in the App Store everywhere."

For those less utilitarian and more flamboyant, Google have exposed a visual tweaks settings called "Bells and Whistles". You can style your Google Mobile App in any shade: red, taupe, or even heliotrope but i find this kinda boring as it only changes the colour, nothing fancyful. If you're on a faster iPhone, like the iPhone 3GS, you may want to try the live waveform setting which turns on, as the name suggests, a moving waveform when you search by voice.

The accuracy of the voice search aren't 100% right all the time, Google might want to consider acquiring Dragon for voice dictation? Anyway searching by voice could be improved by selecting your spoken language or accent, although the list is not very comprehensive, i assume more will come forth later on in the updates.

Clicking on the left side of the search bar, you can bring up a search menu which lets you select from "iPhone and Web, Maps, Images, News and Wikipedia". This function i believe is worth mentioning as it aren't obvious.

A list of useful Web Apps are also present in the App's Dock, examples are Gmail, Calendar, Docs etc. Unlike the search results, this Web Apps opens out in Safari Browser instead of in the app itself. To overcome this, you could simply search Gmail and open it from the in app browser. Although i would just create a bookmark on the Springboard and check my email faster that way.

All in all, i believe this Google Mobile Map has come a long way and i would recommend it for faster searching on the go. If you haven got it on your device, its time to check it out on iTunes Google Mobile App and did i said it was FREE?

Note: Voice Search works on iPhones only.

How to Create a United States iTunes account w/o a credit card

Alright, im pretty sure that you have experienced this before, you saw an interesting app on the web and went to iTunes to get it but found out that it is only available in the US Store.

So what are you gonna do? So here is how you can create a US iTunes Store account w/o a US based credit card, courtesy of Apple =)

iPhone Price Plan War

Now that Starhub and M1 are both going to start carrying iPhone in Singapore from 9 Dec onwards, Singtel will no longer be monopolizing on the iPhone market. This will definitely be good news to those who wish to jump on to the iPhone wagon as prices gets more competitive between Singapore's 3 cellular network provider.

Looking at the price plan across these 3 service providers, it is clear that M1 is the better choice. With 10GB of data bundle and a price cap at $36, who wouldn't be interested?

For those that aren't interested before about the iPhone 3GS for whatever the reason, be it the size, the price, now it is the time to get it. It will be the best phone experience you will ever get. Already having an iPod Touch is no excuse to ditch the iPhone, it is an UPGRADE, and that was Apple's plan all along! Read the following article: iPod Touch, Apple's "Weapon of Mass Comsumption".

For the different pricing, check out Starhub, M1.

Someone also tabulated out the comparison of all 3 service providers on a Google spread sheet.

I really hope that Singtel would revise its plans too, especially for existing customers like me. 1GB is apparently not enough, i have burst it this month already and had to turn off 3G and GPRS totally, crippling my iPhone with only Wi-Fi to fall back on.