Using an iPhone & iPad in Thailand Tips, App Reviews and News for the iPhone and iPad by Richard Barrow

How to Find Free Apps for the iPhone

This app for the iPhone is probably the easiest one I have found so far for discovering free apps. It is called Freed Apps. The full price when it was first released late last year was $3.99 but it has just dropped to free. I don't know for how long so you should be quick if you want it. And that is exactly what this does for other apps. Sometimes developers drop the price of their apps for only a few days just to move it up the charts or for it to get some new reviews. I have even seen some great apps go free for just 12 hours. You really do have to be quick. This app will let you find them in a number of different ways including by categories and top 25 charts. I have only been playing with it for a few days but according to the statistics, I have already saved $54 on the apps I have downloaded so far!

Download Freed Apps for free at iTunes >>>

UPDATE: This app is no longer free. The latest price is $1.99

Learn Timestable with Tables Splat

Learning your Times Tables has never been so much fun. No child should ever miss out on knowing something as important as their Times Tables. Tables Splat allows children to develop their speed and accuracy in this fun and enjoyable game.

It is always great to see new apps for the iPhone and iPad that are aimed at educating youngsters. The touchscreen tablets are an ideal tool and this new app called Tables Splat works very well. The concept is simple. It aims to help you memorize your timestable in a fun and engaging way. You start by entering your name and then choosing whether to play the game where you have to choose the answer or choose the missing number in the question. On the next screen you then choose which timestable you want to play. Then the fun starts. You are given 60 seconds to answer as many of the questions as you can. The music that accompanies it is very catchy and encourages you to go faster and faster. There is also a distinctive sound for every correct answer and then another for a wrong answer. There is a score sheet showing your top score for each timestable. I tested this out with some of my students and they really enjoyed it.

You can download Tables Splat from iTunes for 99 Cents >>>

COMPETITION: I like this app so much that I asked the developer if I could have a couple of promo codes to give away to readers of my iPhone blog. To win is very simple. All you have to do is post any comment below within the next 48 hours. Then on the evening of Saturday 26th February I will enter all of the names into a randomizer and the top two will win this app.

Learn to Speak Shan

Speak Shan is the first app ever made for learning the Shan language. Shan is spoken by over three million people in Shan State of Burma, northern Thailand, and southern China.

A new app, called Speak Shan, has been released for the iPhone for people to learn a minority language called Shan. There are about 400 words and phrases in the following categories: Greetings & Basics, Family & People,Numbers, Time, Weather, Feelings, Animals, Colors, Common Objects, Body Parts, Fruits & Vegetables, Food, Eating, Shopping, Going Places, Health and Fun Phrases. You will be able to hear each phrase spoken by a native speaker. There is also transliteration of the words with tone markers. This phrasebook is useful for some areas of Northern Thailand for example Mae Hong Son or Pai.

Download Speak Shan on iTunes for $1.99 >>>

Thanks to @extensions_th for pointing out this new app to us. Please let us know if you have spotted any new good iPhone/iPad apps.

Watch BBC iPlayer on your iPad

BBC TV and Radio programmes now on your iPad. Watch and listen live, or choose your favourites from over 400 hours programming from the last 7 days.

One of the most eagerly awaited apps for the iPad is the BBC iPlayer. Up to this point, we could only watch BBC programmes on the browser version of iPlayer. Now comes a dedicated app that makes full use of the touchscreen features of the iPad. Within the first 24 hours the BBC iPlayer app was download more than 55,000 times which isn't bad when you consider it is only available on one device, the iPad, and only for people in one country, the United Kingdom. At this moment in time, the iPlayer will only work if your IP address shows that you are residing within the UK. However, the BBC are planning a subscription based service later in the year for expats living abroad who miss their favourite BBC programmes.

I have been testing out the BBC iPlayer this afternoon and I have been pretty impressed with what I have seen so far. However, there are some limitations. Firstly, you cannot watch TV or listen to radio programmes by using 3G. You can browse the app with 3G but to stream the program you need to be connected to WiFi. The second problem is that the iPad app doesn't allow you to download the programmes. This feature might have been useful for people who want to download programmes before leaving the house or if their Internet isn't always that good. Sometimes I wasn't able to stream anything. The quality of the programmes that I was able to watch were good even at full screen. The sound quality was also very acceptable.

Track your Walks with RunKeeper

RunKeeper uses the GPS technology found in the iPhone to track your fitness activity, giving you comparable results to an expensive GPS watch at a fraction of the cost.

Sometimes when I go off exploring, it is useful to be able to track my route so that I can see where I went on a map when I get back home. It is also useful for me to have a record of how far I walked and how long I took. The iPhone app RunKeeper Pro does all of this and more. It is meant as your personal trainer whether you are walking, running or biking. The app makes it easy to track how far you went, how long it took, what your pace/speed was, how many calories you burned, and the path you travelled on a map.

At the weekend, I went for a walk around Chinatown in Bangkok. My intention was to get a feel of how big the place is by timing my walk around the perimeter. I used RunKeeper to do this. I clicked on "start activity" and left it to run in the background. The app uses multi-tasking so I was able to take pictures as normal and also tweet to my followers as I continued on my walk. I had set it up to give me an audible cue every time I had walked another kilometer. At the end I clicked "stop" and my route was instantly mapped. I was also able to tweet a bigger map from inside the app (see here).

The full price for RunKeeper Pro on iTunes is $9.99. However, for the month of January 2011 it is FREE! So, if this sounds like something that you might use, then download it quickly now!

Top 100 for Apps Around the World

This is a handy app for discovering the Top 100 iPhone apps for any country around the world. If you are like me and are always on the look out for new and popular apps, then the AppTop100 might prove to be very useful. It is very simple to use. First choose which country and then whether you want to see the Top 100 for either free or paid apps. The list price for this app is 99 Cents but at present it is free of charge.

There is another free app to help you find new and popular apps which is called Appshopper. As well as seeing lists of "popular" and "what's new", you can sort the lists to see just the "free" apps or the ones that just had a "price drop". You can also create lists by categories. Every now and then a $5 app is released for free for only 24 hours. This app will help you find them.

New iPhone and iPad apps for Thailand

The following are the latest apps released or updated for the iPhone and iPad over the last week and are useful for people living in Thailand.

Smart banking with KTB from your iPhone now. Krung Thai Bank have launched KTB Online@Mobile application that help you bank smarter. With the most highly concerned in security and ..	Collins Mini Gem Thai-English & English-Thai Dictionary is an up-to-date, easy-reference dictionary, ideal for learners of Thai and English of all ages. The dictionary covers about 10,000 words...	Wanna cook Thai food? Know how? iThai Cook Book is your presonal Thai sous-chef. It helps your Thai cooking experience full of joy and delicious taste. iThai Cook Book have got simply 5 Thai...	This FREE version has functions like FULL version but departure dates and return dates are limited within 7 days . ThaiFlight is the real simplest domestic flight...	iPoodThai is an English to Thai talking phrase book including 500 phrases and words. It is useful for people who are traveling around Thailand. It can also be a good starting point for those who...	HEdictionary English Thai for iPhone & iPod touch is a superlative dictionary not only for Thai to learn English but also for English to learn Thai. The comprehensive dictionary contains 4...
A complete introduction to the 44 consonants that make up the Thai alphabet. *Photos to illustrate the name of each letter. *Full name of each letter in Thai and Romanized script. *Translation of...	mySiamGold is an only application that helps you not to miss any valued data of gold trading investment especially in Thai market. mySiamGold helps you monitor easily the prices of both gold bullion...	Thailand Election and statistic information. -By Province -By Year This is a tool for Thai Voter and Politician. Language: Thai	This is useful to travel Thailand for the first time. You can listen the native pronunciation for every sentences. Thailand food menu included.	This app was designed to facilitate the process to memorize the Thai alphabet, including consonants, vowels, tone marks, and pronunciation rules. You'll also get a chance to practice reading some...	Learn to read and write the Thai alphabet the easy way with this app. It is especially helpful for people learning the Thai language at beginner or intermediate level. All schemes for writing Thai...
Thailand Post Office Database List of Thailand Post Office all over Thailand you can search by name, address, telephone number etc.	Longdo Traffic HD provides access to real-time traffic information for roads in Thailand. The traffic data provided by the Intelligent Traffic Information Center Foundation is overlaid on top of the...	The complete offline travel guide to the Khao San Road area of Bangkok. Our aim with this travel guide was to take the stress out of arriving in Bangkok and getting to your hotel. So no need to worry...	view information of Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre - view activities calendar - view floor plan - plan visit information and map - view facilities - share activity via email, twitter, facebook,...	★ Explore Bangkok... It's Fun ★ From major temples to young new designer shops, this guide shows you some of the city's most exciting spots to explore. You'll find relaxing places to stay, visit...	This is a fast PDF viewer designed to view large travel map files for Bangkok. Most PDF software on iPhone cannot handle large files well, they are slow in loading the files and...