To begin you need to download a software application from Simplified Media that runs on Windows, Mac and Ubuntu machines and is free. Then you need to set up an account. Finally you need to chose whether to share your iTunes library or music folder. The application then goes through your music library to set up for streaming.

Note, that you can share your library with up to 30 people and all they have to do is download the software application to their computer and be invited by you. Nice if you want to share music libraries for free with friends on your computers. Also, the application lets you share your photo library across computers and users as well (there is a separate iPhone/iPod Touch app for photo sharing but I am not using it).

On to the iPhone/iPod Touch application. Once you are set up on your computer you then enter your account information into the app and it will pick up your music library. If your library is large this will take time between the computer application and the iPhone application. Have patience, it’s worth it. Also, if friends are sharing their music libraries with you they will show up in your media libraries.

Once the remote library you want to connect to is loaded click on it to access artists, albums, genres, songs and playlists. I used my iTunes library so my Genius playlists appear as well. Select a choice or search remote library(ies) for artist, album or song. I chose a playlist and shuffled my songs. The first song starts to play displaying the artist and song and album artwork. There are tabs to get more information about an artist as well as lyrics.

I’ve had Simplify Music for the last 2 weeks and have had no issues. Reading the reviews on the iTunes app store it does seem that some people are experiencing issues and bugs with the newest release but I have not run into any of them. I am actually streaming my library from a connected network drive with my iTunes library then on a Windows desktop which is connected wirelessly to my home network. Lots of places for music to slow down or run into lots of buffering of my music. However, everything runs smoothly. The only time I get some buffering is when the first song plays from my selection. Other than that I go from one song to the next with no interruption.

Some things to note about Simplify Music 2.

• It will not play DRM songs bought via iTunes.
• Your computer needs to be on in order to stream the music. There is no “cloud” where music is uploaded to, it is being streamed directly from your home (or business or wherever).
• Sometimes sound quality isn’t as good as if you were listening to the song directly on your iPhone/iPod Touch. I’ve noticed this with louder tracks.
• The app must be open on your iPhone/iPod Touch to play, it doesn’t work in the background like the iPod app.

Simplify Music features include:

• Works over Wifi and Edge/3G
• Easy setup, no router configuration
• Handles MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC and Apple Lossless files
• Search by artist, album, and song title across connected computers
• Ability to create on-the-fly playlists
• Resume playback from when you quit the application last
• Scrobble songs to your last.fm profile

As I stated previously, the app has worked perfectly for me and was easy to set up. I love that I have access to my whole music library and an added bonus is I can share my music with friends either for free on their own computers or on their iPhone/iPod Touch if they bought the app. One thing I plan on doing now I have Simplify Music on my iPhone is create more playlists to have on hand. The Genius function in iTunes works well for me pulling out songs I haven’t listened to in ages and puts them into interesting playlists.

If you have $7.99 to spend and are looking for a way to have access to your entire music library on your iPhone/iPod Touch without taking space on the device then I highly recommend Simplify Music.

Do you have a different way you access your music library remotely? Do tell.

***** (5.0/5.0)

Lexic includes 4 games,

• Quest – Trace words, collect gold letter tiles, rack up points, and advance to levels of ever-increasing lexical intensity.
• Blackout – Create words and clear the screen to advance to the next round. (I still have yet to clear the screen, it’s tough!)
• Cascade – Race against the clock to create words as the tiles move.
• Statis – Create as many words as possible with frozen tiles on the screen in a set time period.

If you like word games definitely check out Lexic. It’s better than Boggle and addictive as can be.

Do you have a game that you are addicted to that you think I should try?

The first thing you need to do is add your membership/reward cards to get rid of that clutter on your keychain and in your wallet. Because I own an iPhone 3GS with autofocus I was able to scan the barcodes of most of my membership cards and CardKing let me know a card was scanned successfully with a beep. I checked the numbers, made sure the barcode looked right and then saved the information. My sports club was listed as a merchant and I selected it but it didn’t want to scan the barcode. So, all I had to do was enter the number under the barcode and I was all set. It’s that easy for over 1000 merchants, vendors and associations in the CardKing app.

If you are using an earlier generation of the iPhone or an iPod Touch then you can enter the number under the barcode of each card you have and CardKing will generate the barcode.

If a merchant doesn’t exist in the app you can add a custom barcode by putting the name of the store/vendor in. selecting a category, scanning the barcode and then selecting the proper barcode format (Code-39, Code-128 or Codabar).

I entered all my reward/membership cards using their barcodes. I then entered in my AAA card, a couple of hotel reward cards and my license number all of which have no barcodes to work with but numbers I want to have easily on hand.

I have used some of the cards with barcodes I scanned at the merchant site without difficulty. For scanning purposes it is recommended not to have a screen protector but I have had no problems with my crystal clear screen protector as long as it is clean (I quickly wipe off fingerprints before presenting to cashier).

I like that when I open a card I can get more information like a link to the merchant/vendor website, phone number, ability to locate stores near me and email the merchant.

A couple of features I would like to see are

• Ability to categorize cards/numbers in folders. I would love to be able to have all the cards that need to be scanned up front which I can do easily by organizing them within the app but I would also love to then have a folder for numbers I want to store but don’t need as easy access to like my reward cards.
• Since the app has information on merchants it would be great if they incorporated specials or coupons available if any for each merchant I have in my list.

Overall I find CardKing to be the king of reward/membership cards and being free makes it tops on my iPhone apps list.

Do you use CardKing or a similar program?

****½ (4.5/5)

My-Cast features include:

• Real-time, animated radar
• Weather Map with conditions, temperatures, dew points, wind direction and wind speed overlays
• Animated Visible and Infrared Clouds
• Interactive StormWatch map with National Weather Service alerts
• Complete severe weather warnings, watches, and advisory alert text
• 7-day forecast with high/low temperatures and chance of precipitation
• Hourly forecast with temps, wind speed/direction and chance of precipitation
• Forecast graph including past, present and forecast wind, dew point, temperature, and sky conditions
• Save your favorite and recently viewed locations for anywhere in the U.S.
• Shake for live data refresh
• One-button push for GPS positioning
• No ads!

When you bring up the radar map you pinch the screen to zoom in and out which is nice having the iPhone gestures incorporated.

The chart shows wind, dew points, temperature and sky. I like the sky graphic showing whether it is sunny, cloudy, snowing or raining.

Forecast can be viewed daily or hourly. High and low temperatures as well as chance of precipitation are shown. Living in a snow area I wish the forecast had snow total amounts. Those are found though under Alerts.

Alerts are given from the National Weather Service and are fairly detailed for current location.

I really like My-Cast. Visually it is one of the nicest complete weather apps in the iTunes store. It could have a more detailed forecast but other than that I have no complaints.  I’m glad I spent the $3.99 for My-Cast Weather.

****½ (4.5/5)

I post to Twitter frequently throughout the day sharing my status as well as items from Google Reader that I find interesting. I also post to Facebook fairly often throughout the week and use Flickr to store and share my photos. Momento let’s me look at these feeds broken down by day which are called Social Moments and let’s me input more information which are called Moments.

From the app developer, Momento has the following features.

- Write privately about your activities, thoughts and experiences quickly and easily.
- Tag memorable events, people you meet and places you visit for a fast and effective way to browse and search your Moments.
- Custom tags provide the flexibility to categorise and keyword Moments however you wish.
- Attach multiple photos to each Moment from your iPhone’s camera or photo library.
- Rate Moments to see your best days at a glance.
- Connect with popular web services to import, search and browse your online social activity.
- Passcode protect Momento to keep your Moments safe and secure.

Supported social feeds:
- Facebook statuses
- Twitter tweets
- Flickr photos
- Last.fm loved tracks
* More coming soon

Momento is the start of a great diary/journal application with lots of room for more features.

• Landscape mode. Right now you can only input and view in portrait, landscape especially for input would be ideal.
• Clickable links. I would love to be able to click on a link in a Twitter or Facebook item and have it open in Safari.
• Go to Flickr when click on the photo.
• Add tags to feed items.
• A web or desktop application to complement the iPhone/iPod Touch app. I would pay for a desktop app that imported and exported my entries.
• Backup/Restore option. I restored my iPhone recently and lost my data. While I could get back my feed items I didn’t have my Moments and photos that I had tagged on certain dates.
• Import calendar items. Some people would love to have their daily calendar as part of their diary/journal.
• Generic feed support. I would love to be able to have control of feeds that show in my timeline, especially my personal blog. This would also make it so people could add social services that aren’t supported at the moment like Photobucket and Google Reader shared items.

Momento is a beautiful app that has the potential to be a great diary/journal app. With a desktop or web application to go with it I think it could be the best app in the iTunes store. Let’s hope the developers are hard at work integrating more social services and listening to reviewers and users about feature requests.

****~ (4.0/5.0)

Review: Reeder – appadvice
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Hits the App Store – Gizmodo
GV Mobile 2.0 for Jailbroken iPhones Released – iPhone Hacks
MobileRSS: An iPhone Google Reader App with Social Media Integration – makeuseof.com
Review: Synotes, a symple notes app with two-way sync [iPhone App Reviews] – Just Another iPhone Blog
Quick Review: eBuddy Pro for iPhone – The iPhone Blog
Some Things for Mac, Some Things for iPhone. Reviewed – MacStories
Protect Your iPhone (and iPod touch) While Cooking – Apple iPhone School
AppStoreHQ Taps Into Twitter For iPhone App Recommendations – TechCrunch
12 “Wow Factor” iPhone apps [iPhone Applications] – Just Another iPhone Blog
iPhone and Mac Developers Raise $143,000 for Haiti in 24 Hours – Mashable
Your iPhone Can Hurt You! – iPhone Download Blog
Video Review: Speck See Thru Satin for iPhone 3G/3GS – Gear Diary
LockInfo 2.0 is out for iPhone [Jailbreak Apps] – Just Another iPhone Blog
Review: On the road with the Magellan Premium Car Kit – The Unofficial iPhone Weblog
This Week’s Best iPhone Apps – Gizmodo
Review: NDrive USA Navigation for iPhone – The iPhone Blog
Best of the best, U+3G iPhone holder – iPhone Life

Please share any articles not listed here that you found interesting this week.

I would love for you to take this poll and leave a comment as to why you like/love the feed reader that you currently use and if you have changed from other readers.

When you start Flickit Pro there is a menu on the bottom of the screen where you can view photos from your account and favorite people, view recent activity, explore Flickr, upload photos and view/change your settings. The interface is very appealing to the eye and easy to use.

I love the ease of uploading photos. You can take a photo from within the app or upload from your library and camera roll. I choose to upload from camera roll since I use ProCamera to take my photos. When I have taken multiple photos and want to upload them with new titles, descriptions, tags, into different sets and groups I can do it in a straight forward manner. First, I select the photos from the camera roll by clicking on them and a checkmark appears next to the photos I select. Then, a screen shows the photos and I click on each photo to add title, description, tags and set. Then I hit the upload button and I’m all set, the photos are uploaded to Flickr with all the information needed, I don’t have to edit it on Flickr and I don’t have to put all the photos in the same set like in other apps.

The other nice feature in Flickit Pro is called PhotoFlow which is a nice way of browsing photos in the app. It’s like CoverFlow for music where you can browse photos in a nice flowing manner by swiping through to view photos. My one gripe here is that it only works in portrait mode, I would love to be able to do a PhotoFlow in landscape mode.

You can also browse individual photos using a swiping gesture to move backwards and forwards between photos, and also view photo details including comments. Photo browsing features are enabled for all types of browsing including favorite contacts, searches, Flickr Interestingness (current favorites on Flickr), nearby photos and your groups.

One thing you can’t do when browsing photos is save them to your iPhone which would be great. You can email them and favorite a photo but not save it. Hopefully that is something that will be added in a future update.

Is FlickitPro worth $3.99? For me it is since I have a premium account with Flickr. I will start adding new sets and taking more photos while I am out with my iPhone.

Do you use Flickr? Do you have a favorite app for uploading photos to Flickr? Will you try FlickitPro?

Flickit Pro Rating: ****~ (4/5)

• 10 Jailbreak Apps for iPhone to Boost Your Productivity – iPhone Download Blog
• iHome+Sleep – A Free, Pretty Alarm Clock App – iPhone Alley
• Blue Plate Special: ProCamera Basic For iPhone – Gear Diary.  NOTE: ProCamera Basic is on sale for FREE and ProCamera is on sale for $1.99.
• View MobileMe Photos, Videos With MobileMe Gallery App – iPhone Alley
• Infinidock App for Jailbroken iPhones Lets You Enable a Horizontal Scrolling iPhone Dock – iPhone Hacks
• Geodelic Location-based Discovery for iPhone – The iPhone Blog
• iType2Go Pro Review for iPhone and iPod Touch – APPMODO
• Dear Aunt TUAW: What’s the low down on battery packs? – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• Facebook iPhone App 3.1.2 Released: Fixes Bug Causing Incorrent Matches in Address Book Sync & More – iPhone Hacks
• Review: Switch Easy Torrent for iPhone 3G/3GS – Gear Diary
• Apple selects iAccounts for iTunes Cover Feature AppStore Essentials – Crazy Mike’s Apps
• Simplenote Goes All Freemium On Us – iPhone Alley
• AT&T matches Verizon, reduces iPhone unlimited monthly plan by $30 – AppleInsider
• How To Use NPR’s Free iPhone/iPod Touch News App – makeuseof.com
• Synotes: Beautiful Notes App for iPhone – MacStories

So, check out this articles and share any that you found this week that may be of interest to us.

I downloaded Fast Contacts a couple of days ago when it first became free and have been very happy with the app as well as the response from the company when i had a question (more about that later).  The first thing I noticed was a number on the icon badge which represented the number of upcoming events, a couple of friends’ birthdays.  What a nice surprise!  I had been looking for an application that kept track of birthdays for me.

The second thing I checked out was the coverflow option to scan my contacts.  All you need to do is open up the app, be on a page with a list of contacts and turn your iPhone/iPod Touch landscape and coverflow appears, just like when you are browsing songs in the iPod app.  A lot of my contacts don’t have photos so it was nice to find that i can show only contacts with photos and then brush through the coverflow.  Just think about it, you can’t remember a contacts name but what they look like and know you took a photo of them (you must be very popular!), you can just flip through till you find the photo of them and voila, you have a name!

With Fast Contacts you can:

• Visualize contacts using coverflow.
• Be notified of events like birthdays and anniversaries.
• Search your contacts by name, company, phone numbers, address, title and even notes.
• Sort contacts alphabetically, by events, prefix, first name, last name, suffix, nickname, job title, department, city, state, zip and country.
• Add, modify and delete contacts.
• Send out email by group (groups must be created outside of Fast Contacts).
• Choose from 5 different themes to display contacts.

I like Fast Contacts.  It feels like I have more control of my contacts than with the Apple app.  There are a few things to note or ask for.

• I noticed that my default ringtone within the app was set as Marimba which it isn’t in my settings.  I use Custom Ringtones for both my default and many of my contacts.  While Fast Contacts doesn’t display Custom Ringtones it also doesn’t change your ringtones.  I sent an email to Spiceloop, the creators of the app and they responded quickly that it was a limitation of Apple’ iPhone software development kit.  While you can change your ringtones in Fast Contacts I won’t because of the limitation on Custom ringtones
• The buttons on the status bar are small, I wish they were a bit larger to work with.
• It would be nice to have the option to receive push notifications for upcoming events.

If you can get Fast Contacts while it is free I will say you are getting a great bargain.  Otherwise you will have to pay the price to have what Fast Contacts bill themselves as, a “Contacts application on steriods!”

Rating: ****½ (4.5/5)