Google Earth – £0.59

Google Earth – (Requires Data Connection)

It’s the start of another week which means another set of Top 5 Apps! To start this week off, I have selected the Google Earth App. Ok so you are probably thinking well we already have Google Maps with the iPhone so how would Google Earth be any different. Well, it isn’t that much different in all honesty but it does have a couple of nice points. Firstly the Google Earth App allows you to zoom out enough to actually show the Earth which looks sleek. Ok so that wasn’t a great point but i’m saving the best until last… The navigation on the Google Earth Map seems somewhat better than the integrated Google Maps built into the iPhone. You seem to be able to zoom in much quicker and the images render really fast. Also you can spin the earth around with ease. The next positive is the Landscape View. Google Earth lets you use your iPhone in Landscape, something that the Google Maps App is missing. Finally the Google Earth App takes advantage of the Accelerometer and when you tilt the iPhone the map tilts with it which looks really cool! Overall it’s an App you might as well install. If you like looking at Satellite imagery the Google Earth App will be quicker than the Google Maps App too.

Car Mania App

This next app is for gamers who like strategy! Car Mania is another Flight Control, Harbour Master, style game but this time its… Cars! The objective is to guide the cars to the correct buildings without letting them crash! Unlike Flight Control and Harbour Master though you can actually stop the cars by tapping them. But leave them standing still too long and they will get very mad! Also you need to watch out for road works as they pop up now and again and need to be fixed quickly before there is too much congestion. Car Mania is a great little App for a mere 59p you can get some great fun from it and it’s definitely one of those Coffee Break Apps! The Graphics are nothing special but look nice and inviting. There is sadly no Lite version but for 59p you can’t go wrong! Overall I defiantly recommend you add this app to your collection. Any fans of Flight Control and Harbour Master are sure to love this too!

iEmoji App – (Only works iPhone to iPhone)

This next App I have had for a while. Sadly Apple failed to add in emotes for the iPhone (crazy Apple). This App however fixes that, well it does to some extent. iEmoji adds a whole host of emotes that you can send to fellow iPhone Users. Faces, Buildings, Cars, Sports, Plants, Thumbs Up, Clocks, there is lots in the collection. You can send these over SMS or use them in your notes etc. The App unlocks the ability to use them and you use them within your normal Apps by simply clicking the globe icon on the iPhone keyboard. (Full set up instructions come with the App). The only downside though is only other iPhone users can see these if you use them in your SMS, I have a few friends with iPhones so it was ok for me but if you use them when sending to a non iPhone the recipient just sees squares. In order to send non iPhone users emotes just use the standard   : )  : P   as these will be converted on the majority of phones to a emote. Overall it’s an excellent App if you know people with an iPhone as there is lots of emotes otherwise don’t bother!

Flickr Sendr App – (Requires Data Connection)

Next Up is Flickr Sendr. Your out and about, you spot something unbelievable, something you will never get to witness again, something so amazing that your finding it difficult to breathe! What do you do? Get your iPhone out snap away and upload the images to Flickr of course! Flickr is probably has the largest collection in the world of some fantastic and not so fantastic. The iPhone has become the highest used device on Flickr and now there is an easy way to upload you images. Flickr Sendr is a great little App that allows you to choose an existing image or take a new one and with the click on a button upload it directly to your Flickr Account. It does take a few minutes to set up as you need to allow Flickr Sendr to have access to your account via an API key. But once you have done this your ready to go. Take a picture click upload and seconds later it’s on your account. The only problem at the moment and I believe this will be fixed in further updates is that users are reporting landscape images are being cropped and added to Flickr. Not sure why but I’m sure it will be fixed soon.

myConvert App

My Final App of this Week is a useful tool. If you have ever been in a shop as Mum has given you a shopping list… 4 Ounces of flour…. 6 Eggs… We have gone metric for many things now in the UK and have been for some time but there’s bound to be some time you need to actually work out what 4 Ounces is in grams… Well that is what myConvert is for. It Converts everything form Volume to Speed, Temperature, to Weight, Fuel Consumption to Data Download. It can convert anything. You might think, I don’t need this App, but I’m pretty sure one day you will, and that day will probably be the same day you can’t get a connection to the App Store to Download this little gem! Definitely download this, it’s Free! Leave it there on your iPhone / iTouch and one day you will thank me that you did!

So that’s another week of fantastic apps for you to try. If you have any apps you want me to check out Tweet me (@marksblog) , add a comment, e-mail me just get in iTouch! (See what I did there! )

This is where the question comes in, is there a way to download the audio from a YouTube video? Your probably saying yes there is but they either don’t work very well, loose quality or you have to pay for them! Well not anymore….

Video2MP3.net is a free converter that will extract the Audio from a YouTube Video and allow you to download it as an MP3. Not only that but you also have the ability to download a High Quality version, which when I tested, didn’t appear to me to have lost any quality from the original audio from the Video.

In order to use the service you simply copy the original web address on YouTube, paste it into the box on the website hit convert and sit back and let the website do the work for you. If you want a High Quality version it does take a little longer but in my opinion it’s worth it to get that full quality! Definitely give this a go!

A Note to FireFox users: You are able to install an addon available HERE, this will add a download to MP3 and download to High Quality MP3 under the description bar of every YouTube video. This will then link you to the Video2MP3 Website and just saves you from having to copy and paste the address.

Have you used Video2MP3.net? Does it work for you? Have you come across other converters worth noting? Your Comments are welcome below.

Doc2PDF.net allows you to quickly choose the file you want to convert from your Local Machine and quickly see the result in seconds. It converted the 150k Document in seconds and opened immediately in Acrobat Reader within the Browser.

PDF Online also allows you to quickly upload a .DOC file, as long as it is under 2MB in size, and convert it into a PDF. The only downside to this service is you will need to give your e-mail address in order for the service to send you the PDF.

There were some differences in the converted document between the two services:

As clearly shown the there are differences between how the two Services have converted the Files. PDF Online is actually much closer almost exact to the original Word (.DOC) file.

Overall if you want to quickly and simply convert Word Documents, Powerpoint Documents or Excel Documents both services are able to offer this for free. If you don’t wish to give out your e-mail address the Doc2PDF is for you however if you want more accuracy* to the original document the try PDF Online. (* I only tried this one document and therefore Doc2PDF maybe more accurate with other documents.)