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I know why your calls keep dropping. In fact, I know why your Youtube videos won’t load fast enough. I know this because I’m using SpeedTest for iOS, a utility that lets me benchmark how fast data is being transferred over either Wireless or 3G. Within seconds, I can tell if my internet service provider is giving me the speed I’m paying for. I can also use SpeedTest for iOS to see exactly how fast AT&T’s 3G data network is, instead of just taking their word for it.

SpeedTest for iPhone is a version of SpeedTest.net, a trusted website in pinpointing how fast your internet speeds are versus the speeds of other users. SpeedTest is a fantastic tool when you’re trying to figure out why your videos load slowly, or why the internet just seems to feel laggy. Whether you are streaming a Netflix movie and not getting the speed that you’d like or playing an online game and noticing that your game is lagging alot on multiplayer, with the push of a button, you have the real results of your network speed.

The Three Crucial Factors

When using sites like Youtube, uploading photos to Flickr, or generally browsing the web; you are depending on three different speeds to deliver a fast connection. The first factor is ping, which is used to measure how long it takes for a packet of data to travel from your computer to the selected internet server. The smaller the ping time, the better.

The next factor in your overall web speed is download speed. This is by far the most advertised number by your Internet service provider. Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon usually offer tiered Internet, which is based on the download speed that you get. The higher the speed, the faster your computer will download files. The average speed for a high speed internet provider is around 20Mbps. Mbps means Megabits per second, which translates to your computer downloading 2.5MB of a file (Megabytes) every second. That means a 1GB file will take almost 7 minutes to download.

The last factor in overall speed is upload speed. Upload speed determines how fast your computer can send information to a remote server. This is important for when you’re uploading large files like pictures or movies to a website. This is usually significantly lower than your download speed. Most service providers have slower speeds for upload which might be the cause of extremely long waits when uploading a video to YouTube.

Running a test from SpeedTest will allow you to pinpoint the speed of your Internet. A 5Mbps Internet connection will take about 30 minutes to upload a 1GB file. A 10Mbps connection will only take 15 minutes to download a 1GB file.

SpeedTest Wherever You Are

Now that you know how extremely useful speed tests can be in troubleshooting a slow Internet connection, you probably want to run a few! Now, you could just open SpeedTest.net on a computer, but what if you want to easily compare results and always be able to run tests without depending on a computer? Then look no further than SpeedTest for iOS. It uses the same powerful features as the SpeedTest web interface, formatted for a portable device.

To begin, open up the app and tap “Begin Test” and it will start calculating your Ping, Download Speed, and Upload Speed. Within a minute, you’ll have real results on how fast your network is currently transferring data. SpeedTest saves your results, making it easy to look back and compare speeds. It even can display two different icons for whether you tested it over WiFi or 3G.

Using Speed Test, I was able to determine that AT&T is giving me 1.77Mbps download and 0.75Mbps upload. SpeedTest also lets you know your current Internal IP, External IP, as well as your approximated location. Finally, SpeedTest lets you convert from Kilobytes to Megabytes so you can accurately determine how long it will take for you download a large file.

Conclusion

SpeedTest is an amazing tool to have on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Its simple interface makes it incredibly easy to start a speed test and troubleshoot your network. The next time a neighbor complains about their Internet being too slow, show them SpeedTest for iOS and start testing away.

With hundreds of available servers for testing, you can always find the closest server that gives you an extremely accurate result for your Internet speed. SpeedTest works efficiently and looks great while doing it.

It’s often the hardest to convince yourself to pay for an app that’s very similar to another free app. That’s a big reason why most iOS users just stick with Mobile Safari for browsing from iPhone or iPod Touch; it’s included with their device for free, and just works. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?

For everything that it does well, though, Safari is still pretty lacking. It’s great at rendering standards compliant sites, and even works decently to switch back and forth between several pages. But start trying to multitask between multiple sites and Safari’s shine starts to wear off. Web browsing on iPhone feels so similar to browsing from your computer, it’s easy to start using it more like it’s a computer until you’re frustrated that Safari is reloading sites each time you switch pages and can’t do things you’ve done for years in a normal browser such as viewing the source of a site.

Clearly, a better solution is needed. While all browsers on the App Store have to use the built-in Webkit rendering and Javascript engine, many designers have set out to improve on Safari within these constraints. Today, we’re going to look at 360 Web Browser, a newer alternative browser app that packs tons of features into a mobile browser. With a bold look and more features than we could possibly cover in a review, it’s definitely one interesting browser. Keep reading to learn more about it.

Getting Started

Browsing the web, even from a mobile device, is so simple nowadays that we do it without thinking. 360 Browser includes more features than your average mobile browser, though, so before you start browsing you can flip through the included guide to view its most popular features.

360 Web Browser’s icon and interface didn’t stand out to me at first, but don’t worry if you don’t find them attractive. The browser’s main interface looks much like Mobile Safari, only with a tab bar and extra buttons on the bottom.

The good news is, browsing is incredibly snappy. 360 Web Browser handled multiple tabs and rich sites with ease, and didn’t reload pages when switching between tabs. If you were only looking for a tabbed browser that worked as good as Safari, you could use the app just like you would any other browser and you’d be fine.

As you’re using 360 Browser though, you’ll likely start noticing some significant differences. Tap and hold on links and images, for example, and you’ll see a popup with options that look more like a right-click menu on a computer. Now, just swipe your finger down to the option you want, and you’ll have your other page loaded in a new tab or bookmarked quicker than you could in Safari.

Browser, Meet Multitouch

360 Browser’s most unique feature is the arc menus. Tap the circle button in the middle of the bottom bar to open it, then drag your finger up and select the option you want. You can’t just open the arc menu and then select an option; you have to tap and drag to the option you want in one motion. This is a quick way to increase the font size or bookmark a page in one tap.

Plus, in full-screen mode, the arc menu gives you even more options so you can take advantage of tabbed browsing while maximizing your screen space. You’ll have to play with the arc menus for a while to get used to them, but after awhile, it’s almost like using a Swype keyboard.

You can also use multitouch gestures to navigate between pages and more. Similar to mouse gestures in Opera and several popular plugins for other browsers, you can swipe with two fingers to switch tabs or go to previous pages. You’ll find settings for each gesture in the browser settings menu, or just try out the different gestures to see how they work for yourself.

Taking Your Mobile Browsing Further

Even though 360 Browser already pushes the envelope with its included features, it doesn’t stop there. Just like in Chrome, Safari, or Firefox on your computer, 360 Web Browser lets you add even more features with addons.

Tap the gear button and select Add Plugins to get started. You can choose from a variety of prebuilt plugins that let you view a site’s source, translate it, save it to Instapaper, and more. Tap the plugin for more info, then install it if you wish.

Now, to access your plugins, press the gear button and select Plugins. This time, you’ll see a small bar on the bottom of the page with your plugins. Tap the one you want to run. Here you can see the source code of http://techinch.com/ right on my iPod Touch. If you’re a web developer or are just curious about how sites are made, you’ll likely find this one plugin extremely useful.

Another very useful included feature is the offline pages mode. Tap the gear icon and select Offline Pages to open pages you’ve already saved, or press the plus button on the offline pages bar to save the current page. This is a great way to make sure you can read the sites you want on the go, even if you don’t have an internet connection.

360 Browser also lets you download other files to access later, though sadly, this was one area the app didn’t work quite right. You can theoretically view flash videos and save them through 360 browser, but most sites didn’t work with it and the ones that did offered html5 videos already. We tried to save documents to the downloads folder, but they simply opened in a new tab.

Tweaking 360 Browser

With many features come many settings, and 360 Browser includes a ton. The gear menu gives you quick access the the things you’ll need the most, but to tweak the browser further, select Settings. Here you’ll be able to choose the user agent, set a default search engine, lock rotation, and more.

The browser also includes several free themes that you can preview and apply if you don’t like the default look. There are also a couple of paid themes you can buy with an in-app purchase if you wish. I personally liked the default interface, which is almost like a darker version of  Mobile Safari’s UI, but if you’re one that likes to personalize everything, there’s plenty to choose from here.

Conclusion

360 Web Browser just may be the iOS browser with the most features. I was impressed at how good they integrated everything and made the app feel simple to use even with a barrage of options. It provides a much more desktop-like browsing experience than most other apps, and handles multiple pages great. Plus, if you have an iPad, you’ll be able to use 360 Browser on it with their upcoming Universal update.

What browser do you use on your iOS device? Have you switched to 360 Browser or another browser app, or just kept on using Safari? Let us know in the comments!

As the editor of one of the best iPhone app publications around, I spend a lot of time in the iTunes App Store. Significant portions of my every day life are spent browsing new offerings, spotting trends and checking out the latest updates to already popular applications.

Every time I visit the App Store I can’t help but notice how broken it is. Searching and even browsing for apps is an incredibly inefficient process that gobbles up time easier than playing Angry Birds. Below we’ll discuss what’s wrong and why Apple needs to quit dragging their feet and implement a fix already!

A Lack of Progressive Improvement

Apple debuted the App Store in July of 2008. The idea was simple, to let anyone and everyone have a shot at creating great applications for the iPhone and distribute them in a widely publicized forum. The result was a carefully planned gold rush.

The unprecedented influx of developers has led to the current number of well over 300,000 applications available for download to anyone with a mobile device containing the logo of our favorite fruit-inspired technology company.

How has Apple responded to this growth? Despite receiving the occasional minor facelift, the iTunes App Store is almost identical to what we were using three years ago. Sure, the system worked well for a few thousand apps, but isn’t it starting to show some inefficiencies now that we’re pushing half of a million?

Search Clutter

To illustrate some of the problems, let’s run a typical search. I’m a sucker for note-taking apps so I opened up the iTunes store, navigated to the App Store section and then ran a search for “notes”.

We’ve already hit a problem. I took special care to first navigate to the App Store section before running my search, but did that give priority to apps in my search in any way? Nope. Instead, I get all kinds of movies, songs, shows, books, audiobooks and of course, apps.

If I scroll down far enough or use the navigation, I finally find the applications section. Here I choose between the iPhone and iPad applications. Where’s the option to only view universal applications? There isn’t one. The categories aren’t mutually exclusive, but your search options are!

The Sea of Icons

Once I decide to search only iPhone apps, I’m brought to a grid of apps that meet my search criteria. With a fairly generic search term like the one I entered, you get tons of results. I don’t know exactly how many results, because this isn’t printed in the results. Nor does it tell me how many pages of results there are, just “Page 1″ along with “Back” and “Next” links at the bottom of the page.

Notice how little information I’m actually receiving here: the app name, icon, price, category and date of the last update.

From here I’m forced to judge an app based solely on its name and icon design. This inevitably leads to tons of unnecessary clicking to view an app’s dedicated page only to immediately realize that it’s not what you’re looking for at all.

If only iTunes had some sort of list/icon hybrid view capable of showing you more information. Oh wait, it does.

Wouldn’t something laid out like this be great for searching apps? The app icon could be where the album art is placed and the app description could go where the song list is on the right. It’s already built into your iTunes music library so the format is familiar and they could include a similar view-switcher so that the old icon grid view is still there for anyone that wants it.

Drilling Down

An even bigger problem with the endless sea of icons is that there’s no way to refine my search any further. My search likely yielded hundreds or even thousands of apps, why can’t I filter the results and save myself a few hours of searching?

For instance, from this point I should be able to tell iTunes to only show me the results for the free apps with 3+ stars in the productivity category. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with the pitiful results that iTunes gives me. Or am I?

Better Search Already Exists

You might be thinking that this is all nice in theory, but the App Store is a huge database that can’t just be filtered willy nilly without intense code overhauls. However, the truth is that it’s really not that hard for the system to drill down further. In fact, everyone else is already doing it.

Services like Uquery offer App Store search with the exact features that I’m requesting from Apple. Notice the layout of the results and the filters on the left.

Chomp, another popular App Store search service, takes things a step further and even adds a screenshot to the results. This is in addition to a brief description (which admittedly could be a bit longer) and filtering options. It’s extremely nice to be able to get a look at the app before clicking to find out more information. I’d love to see something like this from Apple.

The iPad Already Does It

For users who prefer to search for apps on the iPhone rather than in iTunes, you fall into the same problems. And yet again there are third party developers like AppShopper offering a better experience.

The crazy part is, Apple seems to understand at least the filtering aspect of the problem, and they’ve even addressed it, just not in iTunes or on your iPhone. Check out what iPad owners get when they search the App Store.

Look at that! Apple has included numerous filters that make it easy to trim your results from thousands to something much more manageable. I’ve waited patiently for these to make their way into the Mac and the iPhone App Store search, but it still hasn’t happened. Apple has the created these cool features and implemented them in a single location, and they work great. Don’t you think it’s time to roll them out across the board?

Conclusion

I absolutely love the App Store. It’s literally one of the best things Apple has ever created and has come to define the current generation of personal technology. However, it’s starting to outgrow its infrastructure and Apple needs to begin taking steps to address this issue. I shouldn’t have to look to a third party to run a basic search on Apple’s marketplace.

For now, I’ve made my iPad the primary place that I go to search for apps. Hopefully, Apple will begin to roll out similar filter features on other platforms. Until that happens, you should check out Uquery and Chomp for desktop browsing and AppShopper or one of its fifty competitors for browsing directly on your iPhone.

Leave a comment below and tell us your preferred method of searching the app store. Do you search Apple’s tools or have you switched to a third party solution?

It’s now March. Spring is descending upon us and 2011 (the year of the iPad 2) is getting into full swing! You should know by now whether the grand health plans you laid out in the dark heavy depths of winter are bearing fruit.

Whether it’s all going great and you’ve never been fitter, or you’ve hit an exercise wall, Full Fitness may be just the thing to bring new energy and fresh inspiration to your exercise routines!

Full Fitness

While there are a huge number of health and fitness apps on the App Store I’m going to have a look here at Full Fitness as a potential way to invigorate your exercise routines (and health generally). It’s one of the more popular workout apps, is well priced at $0.99, and takes over from the excellent iFitness App that ranked very highly in its day!

If you’re looking to turn your iPhone into the perfect exercise companion then Full Fitness could be the App you’re looking for – it boasts a huge exercise list and includes some unexpectedly useful features!

Design & Interface

Something that, to my mind, can instantly make or break an app is the design of its interface. I can’t stand cluttered, ugly, or insistent Apps, and have a definite standard when it comes to App icons (nothing tacky please). Fortunately, Full Fitness has a good looking interface that’s effortless to get to grips with!

It uses a simple tab bar for navigation, an example of good functional design, and makes nice use of a red and grey color scheme. The best design features become obvious as you begin to truly use the app: the exercise photographs are a good quality and the graphs look great once you’ve filled them with data!

Getting Your Heart Going

The primary functionality of Full Fitness is to provide you with a huge database of exercises and routines that will get you that much nearer to your fitness goals. You can’t argue with the database on the detail front – it includes over 300 exercises, all with pictures, videos, and text instructions for the uninitiated.

Simply tap the video icon on the exercise page to see a short demonstration!

In addition to the detailed explanation of all the exercises, I find the solid categorization of all the exercises a really nice touch. You can search by body part, specific muscle (using a rather medical diagram), or equipment. The list of immediate categories is a good way to get started and includes such areas as:

• Abdominals
• Arms
• Back
• Chest
• Legs
• Shoulders
• Cardio
• Stretches

Personally, I have found the equipment category to be particularly useful if you’re on the move or away from the gym, as it allows you to find those exercises that can be done without the aid of expensive (and practically immovable) equipment.

Alongside the database of exercises Full Fitness also provides users with some predefined workout programs and the ability to create and customise their own workouts, allowing you to tailor them to your own specific needs. The preset programs are in two categories; sports-specific and goal-orientated.

The goal-orientated programs include such workouts as:

• Beginner Program
• Weight Loss Program
• Muscle Building Program
• Business Travel Workout
• 30 Minute Chest Workout
• And many more…

The sports-specific programs are more self explanatory. They are primarily designed to help you prepare and condition for a particular sport – anything from tennis to golf! These programs come with detailed descriptions of the workout ethic behind them and prebuilt workout plans, and are sometimes even broken down into pre-season, in-season, and post-season routines.

While there is a lot of choice, it would still be great to see more sports and activity specific programs. I love snowboarding but am always caught out in the first couple of days by the intense pressure put on muscles you normally never use!

Tracking Your Progress

The last piece of major functionality that Full Fitness provides is a way to keep track of the exercise you’re doing and monitor your overall health and fitness progress. You can enter details for each specific exercise session including details like weight and repetitions to keep an extremely close eye on your progress!

Full Fitness also allows you to add your own custom exercises so you can keep track of those as well.

For those of us who are less concerned with pushing up weight and reps and are instead aiming for more long term goals, Full Fitness also allows you to track your progress in a less time intensive way. You can monitor your body weight, BMI, and measurements.

It’s really useful to be able to track your weight and BMI if you’re pushing for a more healthy lifestyle, and Full Fitness does both of these things elegantly. It also includes a calorie counter – a clear attempt at broadening the scope of the app. However, it becomes a rather laborious task to keep track of your food intake on Full Fitness, if that is what you want then there are better Apps out there!

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re looking for a way to track and push forward in your workout routines, or simply a good way to invigorate and inspire your approach to exercise, Full Fitness could be the app for you! It’s a great way to turn your iPhone into the perfect workout buddy, for only $0.99.

On a final note it’s worth saying that, while Full Fitness can be a good companion, your ultimate success will depend entirely upon your commitment to the cause – your iPhone can’t exercise for you….. yet.

Everyone’s current favorite rumor regarding the iPhone 5 points to the possibility of the glass back plate being changed to aluminum, similar to that seen on the iPod Touch. The glass back on the iPhone 4 has reportedly caused several problems both structural, with breaking and scratching, and functional, due to difficulties with painting and camera interaction on the ever illusive white iPhone 4.

Also, an aluminum back would both be lighter and cheaper to manufacture, which aligns with rumors about Apple seeking to reduce the overall cost of the iPhone.

Personally, I really like the glass back. The iPhone 4 is heavy, but in a good way that makes it feel like a solid product. I’m actually much less prone to dropping it than my extremely light iPod Touch, which always has a way of slipping out of my grip.

Today we want to know what you think. Would you prefer an iPhone with an aluminum back or are you a fan of the glass currently seen on the iPhone 4? Vote in the poll on the right and tell us why in the comments below!