iPhone Applications

The official Microsoft Remote Desktop app is available for free on the iOS App Store. Now those with a Windows computer can access their desktop from anywhere with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 6.0 or later. Microsoft even offers an online help page to assist iOS users with connecting to their Windows PC.

Remote Desktop makes it possible to connect to a wide range of Windows machines, log on and manipulate the computer over a wireless data connection. Thanks to remote desktop protocol (RDP) and RemoteFX supporting Windows gestures, iOS users can enjoy multi-touch functionality while connected. Improved compression and bandwidth usage means even high quality video and sound can be streamed using the Remote Desktop app.

If it feels like you are scaling Everest every time you try to achieve a goal, you are not alone. A new, free app named after the infamous summit is designed to help you meet and track your goals through calendar reminders, progress updates, and the support of an online community.

Once downloaded, you create a profile, add a milestone you want to reach, and then choose to either do it privately or share it publicly depending upon how much support you feel you need. EVEREST then asks you to create a series of steps you need to take in order to meet your goal. Push reminders are sent to you when those steps need to be completed.

Goals can be as simple as remembering to meditate once a day or to learn to cook ten dishes. Co-founder and CEO Francis Pedraza told TechCrunch the startup believes “the biggest untapped resource in the world is human potential,” and the point of Everest is to help you achieve that potential.

Square Cash is a new, free service that allows users to send money through email. With a limit of up to $2,500, the program requires a sender to compose an email, cc cash@square.com and enter the amount you want to send. There are no extra fees or steps aside from linking a debit card to your account through the Square website and hitting send. It’s a simple, one-step process. The funds are deposited in the recipient’s linked account and available in one to two business days.

Square Cash is primarily an email based system, but Square has developed an iPhone and Android app which opens a keypad that allows the user to enter in the amount they wish to transfer, and the app automatically places the amount into an email and cc’s cash@square.com for them.

Foursquare announced its new updated iOS app today on its blog. The location-based social networking service now offers real-time recommendations for a "small batch" of iOS users. The new feature sends users notifications about the best items to order or about money saving deals based on their current location.

Foursquare promises that the real-time recommendations will be "in everyone's hands" very soon, but for now all users can enjoy the new "Right Now" and "Friends at a Glance" features by upgrading to version 6.4.

The "Right Now" button allows users to check which friends are currently nearby, and the "Friends at a Glance" option offers a quick look at each friend’s most recent check-in. Users can also see what their friends have been up to by tapping their profile and viewing their check-in history.

The first day of enrollment for ObamaCare (aka the Affordable Care Act) has not been going very smoothly. Heavy internet traffic has caused delays with the healthcare.gov website, and glitches have made it impossible for people to create accounts and access the health insurance exchanges. While Federal officials claim the system is working, albeit very slowly, Americans are being told by agents at the Customer Service Center that the system is broke, and that they should try again tomorrow .

President Obama even went as far as to compare the healthcare.gov issues to an Apple product launch:

"Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t. That’s not how we do things in America. We don’t actively root for failure. We get to work, we make things happen, we make them better, we keep going."