October 2008 Archives

It's Brian Eno day! Developed by ambient music pioneer Brian Eno and musician/software designer Peter Chilvers, Bloom ($3.99, available here) explores uncharted territory for an iPhone app.

Part instrument, part composition, and part artwork, Bloom's intuitive controls allow anyone to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies simply by tapping the screen. A generative music player takes over when Bloom is left idle, creating an infinite selection of compositions and visualizations.

After testing it, we're completely entranced.

You can let Bloom run by itself and create a perfect ambient backdrop to whatever you're doing, then tap anytime to add your own elements to the composition. Controls let you customize the mood or shuffle between moods.

It's Brian Eno day! Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards created by ambient music pioneer Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt, and first published in 1975. Designed to help artists of all types work freely and creatively, each card contains a phrase or cryptic remark that can be used to break a deadlock. The cards help you find a way around a problem by coming at it from a different angle. This app, available here, includes all five editions of the cards. We love the thought-provoking yet open-ended phrases, which give you just enough to stimulate a new way of thinking.

Apple's iPhone isn't just for the deep-pocketed crowd. A new study reports that the popular smartphone's buyers are increasingly skewing toward lower incomes -- and helping Apple grow its user base despite the current dismal economic conditions. The iPhone demographic study, conducted by comScore and released this week, also found that Overall iPhone use increased 21 percent between June and August. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

Will or won't AT&T offer free Wi-Fi hotspot service to iPhone and other smartphone users? That's been the question on many people's minds for a long time now, ever since the carrier promised such a service months and months ago. Well, an SMS message sent to iPhone users yesterday revealed that, yes - at last - the time as finally come for some free Wi-Fi love from AT&T.

The free Wi-Fi service doesn't end with Starbucks: AT&T is enabling iPhone users to connect to any of its 17,000 hotspot locations, which also include those at Barnes & Noble stores, among thousands of other places. It also isn't limiting the free Wi-Fi service to iPhone owners.

Starting on November 4th - when the smartphone launches - it'll be made available to BlackBerry Bold users with unlimited data plans. AT&T said it plans to bring free Wi-Fi support to the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 and the BlackBerry 8820 later this year as well, in addition to other mobile devices in the future.

Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available here.

Despite shaky economic times, the biggest wireless carriers are making money -- thanks to demand for advanced, Internet-enabled smartphones (lead by the iPhone) and data services. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

Created by Slate Magazine, Poll Tracker '08 ($.99, available here) delivers comprehensive, timely information about the upcoming presidential election. Relying on data and analysis from Pollster.com, this app analyzes all available polls and produces graphs and charts for every state. You can also view historical trends, voting patterns, and estimated electoral vote counts.

Stay in touch and get the hot stories even when you're on the go. Shovel, available here, provides a list of the top stories from social news Web site Digg.com. Browse the front page or delve deeper into eight major categories. You can even view pictures and comments, and also send links to friends.

We love to see new and innovative ideas come to the App Store, like this creation which lets you read the first issue of Jeff Smith's award-winning comic Bone on your phone. Panels are in full color, and you simply tap or swipe to navigate. At only $.99 (available here), it's cheaper than buying a comic. We hope more issues will soon follow.

Never get stuck again. Crossword Help, available here, finds words matching a pattern, synonyms, and anagrams. The advanced searching options let you specify letters you don't know, whether a letter is a consonant or vowel, or if there's a variable number of unknown letters. The app also includes a full thesaurus, so it's handy to have on hand when writing.

As the media fawns over the iPhone and emerging line of Google Android-powered devices, Microsoft claims there's plenty of innovation in Windows Mobile. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

The highly-touted Genius function comes not only to the iTunes 8.0, but to iPhone 2.1 software. To install it, however, you must have Genius downloaded it onto iTunes using your iTunes account. The iPhone must then be synced to that iTunes. Again, iPhone Genius does not automatically download with iPhone 2.1 software, but with syncing of a Genius-enabled iTunes. (And we discussed Genius on regular iTunes in the second-to-last column.)

Once you're set up, Genius is added as one of the iPhone Playlists. Touch the iPod icon, then the Playlist tab.

Genius will now be the first option. Hit Genius and your music collection with be shown, in alphabetically order, listed by song. Select a song you would like to use and the software will make a playlist for you with comparable songs, just like the big brother version on the PC/Mac.

There are a couple minor differences between the iTunes Genius and the iPhone Genius, the first simply because of size.

Astraware Sudoku has been released for iPhone and iPod touch and is available from the Apple App Store now.

In addition, Astraware Sudoku ($1.99, available here) includes a puzzle generator that can create an unlimited number of true Sudoku puzzles. Players can also enter Sudoku from newspapers or magazines and complete them within the game, and use all of the included assistance features to help solve them.

A Puzzle of the Day feature allows players to download daily puzzles directly to their iPhone using Wi-Fi or a cellular data connection. Players can select their difficulty level and, on completion of the puzzle, submit their time to Sudoku of the Day to see how they compare against other players around the world.

This innovative and addictive puzzler allows gamers to take control of Biggs, a friendly, furry forest dweller with an unending hunger for tasty critters. Using his long tongue, Biggs must set the food chain in motion by launching smaller critters into the waiting mouths of larger ones, clearing the screen and filling his belly. Humorous and fun, Critter Crunch ($7.99, available here) will keep you entertained for hours on end.

Graffitio, available here, unlocks a hidden world of secret messages all around you. You can find virtual graffiti walls all over your town where other uses have shared their thoughts. Use it for any kind of message: let people know what you thought about a restaurant or tell people about an upcoming rock show. Walls are geotagged to their locations, so as you move around you'll discover new walls and new messages.

Explore the properties of the elements and the standard amino acids with The Chemical Touch ($.99, available here). A touch sensitive periodic table on one side and amino acid companion on the other, it provides a wealth of information at your fingertips. Recolor the periodic table by selecting properties other than atomic mass to visually investigate periodic trends.

Halloween is almost here, and Carve3D is ready to help you try out pumpkin designs in three dimensions. You can rotate your pumpkin, enlarge it, and tap on the screen to carve out shapes (go slowly for best results). The app, available here, includes a spooky graveyard setting and eerie sound effects for just the right ambiance.

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the launch of the original iPod MP3 player. Who would have thought then that Apple would become the company that effectively killed the CD , as it went on to dominate the mobile music player and - with iTunes - download markets.

While it took until 2004 for Apple to ship the first million iPods, as of March of this year that number had grown to over 150 million units. Nothing else comes close.

The iPod, in its many carnations, lead directly to the iPhone—a product that's turned the smartphone market on its ear on its way to becoming yet another lucrative business for Apple—the iPod touch, and the iTunes App Store, which - to date - has resulted in an astonishing 200 million downloads. With the addition of support for pictures and video, all of today's iPods are far more than music players.

See the video below for Steve Jobs introduction of the first-gen iPod earlier this decade:

Check out the press release for the original iPod after the break.

It's photo week on the blog, so we're exploring some of the cool paid apps that let you do surprising things with your iPhone's camera. CameraBag (temporarily $2.99, available here) lets you create different looks with your iPhone's camera, such as imitating the output from a plastic Holga camera (here called "Helga") or creating smooth black and whites, a la Ansel Adams.

Other looks include 1974 (faded and tinted), Lolo (over-saturated color, like a Lomo camera), Cinema (dramatic and moody), 1962 (dramatic black and whites), and Infrared (simulates a popular landscape photography technique).

Taking photos with CameraBag is incredibly fun. We love how bizarre the Helga setting makes portraits, or how the Lolo setting makes still lifes pop like a diner's neon sign. The app also works with pictures stored in your photo library, so you can give any image the CameraBag treatment.

This free app, available here, gives you something well worth paying for: better sleep. Do you find it hard to sleep in a hotel or on an airplane? The ambient sounds in White Noise Lite are ready to help. Choose from eight sounds—waves, thunder, crickets, rain, grandfather clock, chimes, white noise, or fan—to help yourself relax and sleep more deeply. We found it soothing to have White Noise playing in the background, even when working. We also like that it has a timer setting, so that your relaxing sound won't play all night.

The guys that brought a virtual flame you can actually blow out uses the same audio processing engine for entirely different purposes.

Smule, the guys that brought you Sonic Lighter - a virtual flame you can actually blow out - is offering a new title in the iPhone app store. Called Sonic Vox ($0.99, available here), the app contorts your voice while you are talking, turning the iPhone into (in the words of Smule) "a magical Microphone of sorts." All you need to do is swipe your finger across the iPhone's touch display to get the various real-time vocal effects.

Here's a video showing Sonix Vox in action:

The T-Mobile G1 (the first of the so-called gPhones) may be selling like hot cakes, but that doesn't mean it and the platform it runs on, Google's Android OS, has gained the same level of mindshare with the consumers as Apple's iPhone.

Take the chart below from ComScore, for example.

It shows that when it comes to Internet searches, the iPhone leaves gPhone(s) in the dust. ComScore determined that folks performed searches for iPhone 550 percent more than for gphone, google phone, G1 and android (as it relates to Google) combined.

Granted, Google and the open handset alliance (OHA) - the cosortium behind Android - has done an excellent job of garing support for Android from mobile industry as a whole. However, it appears they've still got their work cut out for them if they want bring awarness of their mobile platform up to the same level iPhone.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Fans of P!nk can now download an application devoted to their favorite singer for their iPhone or iPod touch. Called P!nk's Funhouse, the app features previews of her new album, news, photos and other information deemed essential to connect fans to P!nk's world. There's also a full discography including liner notes and a picture gallery. Users can customize the home screen inside the app as well as browse P!nk's Page and official web site. You can get your P!nk iPhone party started here.

The revised and updated iPod touch offers a slimmed down profile and bulked up features. While the change is more evolutionary than revolutionary, it makes using the player a lot more pleasant.

It's odd that Apple's marketing has dubbed this version the "funnest iPod ever" in ads, since all the fun features it's showcasing—the ability to download games, a built-in accelerometer, multi-touch controls—aren't new with this version. Still, there are plenty of new features to get excited about.

The Outside
Pick up the iPod Touch and you'll notice immediately that it's thinner than its predecessor. All versions are just 0.33-inches deep (as well as 4.3-inches tall and 2.4-inches wide, with a weight of 4.05 ounces). The back is now gracefully rounded, so it feels better in the hand.

The iPod touch has gained a few worthwhile physical features already found on the iPhone. It now has external volume buttons on the top left, so users can nudge the volume up or down without unlocking the screen. The touch also now has a speaker—an iPod first—so users can listen without headphones or earbuds. It doesn't provide the fullest, richest sound, naturally, but it's a helpful addition for those times when you want to share a song with some friends.

The Inside
The iPod touch comes with iPod software version 2.1.1, so you won't need to upgrade the software to get access to the online App Store. (Older iPod touch owners had to pay for the upgrade.)

That means this iPod touch also supports the new Genius feature, which enables the iPod to create playlists based off one starter song. In our testing, the Genius feature performed amazingly well, creating playlists that captured the mood and style of the original song, while still offering some variety. We spoke to an Apple representative who said that the algorithms behind the Genius feature analyze the playlists of millions of iTunes users, examining how they combine songs. They also consider iTunes Store purchases, seeing which songs are bought together. Contrary to what we expected, it doesn't create playlists by matching genres or beats-per-minute.

Messaging addiction hits new heights as users communicate everywhere these days.

A new study by Osterman Research reports that workers are messaging everywhere, and at all hours, in response to work demands. The addiction is leading to "risky" mobile device user behavior. See the full story here at InternetNews.com.

 

Subsidies to get iPhones in more hands have a way of adding up.

AT&T's success in selling Apple's iPhone  is haunting the top U.S. phone carrier, at least for now. Because AT&T offers subsidies on the iPhone to help discount its price for consumers, strong sales of the gadget will boost the carrier's revenue but hurt its profit margins. That weighed on AT&T's third-quarter results and drove shares down 6 percent on Wednesday.

See here for the full story at InternetNews.com.

It's photo week on the blog, so we're exploring some of the cool paid apps that let you do surprising things with your iPhone's camera. This affordable little app will have you and your friends laughing. Juxtaposer ($.99) lets you combine any pictures quickly and easily. Using simple controls, you can select an image from one photo and add it to another. The program, available here, offers an unlimited undo, so no mistake is permanent.

This free app, available here, lets you make calls by speaking any contact name or phone number. Just say any name in your contact list. You can say the entire name or just the first or last name. It even works with company names. You can also speak the phone number, when calling someone not in your address book. Be sure your mouth is near the microphone for good results.

Today, an iPhone or iPod touch user will unknowingly (unless Apple figures out a way to throw up some virtual streamers and confetti) download the 200 millionth application from the iTunes App Store.

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs was happy to note during yesterdays fourth-quarter earnings call, that's a remarkable achievement. After all, it launched the App Store only 102 days ago, on July 11th. It is, perhaps, even more significant than the 6.89 million iPhones moved during the same period.

Speaking to analysts during the call, Jobs said, “The 200 millionth app! We've never seen anything like this in our careers.”

It took Apple 60 days to hit the 100 million mark but only 42 to double that number of iPhone app downloads.

There are currently more than 5,500 applications in 19 categories for download from the App Store, which is available to iPhone users in 62 countries around the world; the majority of the apps that are for sale go for less than $10, while about 700 of them are free.

Meanwhile, Jobs used the word "incredible” to describe the rate at which developers are submitting new applications for approval.

Perhaps the flood of submissions has been helped along by Apple's dropping the non-disclosure (NDA) agreement for iPhone developers earlier this month; a move that should have also helped foster innovation, by allowing developers to share ideas without fear of recrimination from Apple.

Author: Troy Dreier

It's photo week on the blog, so we're exploring some of the cool paid apps that let you do surprising things with your iPhone's camera. Picoli (temporarily $2.99) lets you easily retouch the photos on your iPhone. Thanks to an array of high quality filters and sophisticated image processing algorithms, you can professionally edit and improve your pictures. Use it to control brightness, sharpness, saturation, illumination, contrast, and much more. Learn more about Picoli here at the App Store.

Author: Troy Dreier

Firemail adds a feature that the iPhone should have had all along: the ability to write e-mails in landscape mode. Doing so allows for a wider keyboard, which is easier to use. You can either start a new note in Firemail or reply to an e-mail by first hitting Reply in the Mail app, then switching to Firemail. Your reply will be there waiting for you. Check the app out here at the iTunes App Store.

Apple reported a stronger-than-expected 26 percent rise in quarterly profit, driven by strong sales of its new iPhone, and sent its shares up 10 percent on Tuesday.

Apple shipped 6.89 million iPhones in the September quarter, the first since it released a faster, next-generation model. Mac shipments increased 21 percent from last year to 2.61 million, while iPod shipments rose 8 percent.

"They posted very positive iPhone results, higher than people were expecting, but the concern is for guidance on the December quarter," said Shelby Seyrafi, analyst with Calyon Securities.

Company executives said Apple was not sure how the economic downturn would affect it, but emphasized its product line-up was strong and its balance sheet solid.

See here for the full story at InternetNews.com.

Author: Troy Dreier

It's photo week on the blog, so we're exploring some of the cool paid apps that let you do surprising things with your iPhone's camera. Flickup ($1.99) is an application for uploading photos to Flickr directly from your iPhone using the same interfaces as the built-in camera and photo albums applications. You can geotag your photos with one touch and set defaults for even quicker uploads. You can also send links to your images directly to Twitterific. Learn more about Flickup here at the iTunes App Store.

Author: Troy Dreier

'Tis the season for a little something spooky, so try this fun, free app. This Halloween-themed puzzle game, available here, comes from the creators of the popular WordSearch app, and offers multiple backdrops, touch-and-trace input, creepy words, and a scary soundtrack.

With Say Where, Dial Directions asserts to have released the first application to let users speak locations and business searches to access popular web sites for mapping, reviews and other information.

Here's how Say Where works. Just speak into your iPhone and say any place: like "524 Broadway" -- "Delfina Pizzeria" -- "Golden Gate Bridge" or "dog parks". Then choose the website to launch!

Check out the free app here at the iTunes App Store.

Verizon, Sprint and others are facing the pressure of wooing customers with deep discounts on pricey smartphones —even AT&T is suffering weaker margins. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

Author: Troy Dreier

It's photo week on the blog, so we're exploring some of the cool paid apps that let you do surprising things with your iPhone's camera. Panorama ($9.99), as you'd guess, lets you take panoramic photos. Take several horizontal photos with the app and it stitches them together using cutting-edge image processing techniques to produce a single photo. You don't need to align your photos perfectly - Panorama, available here, will still create fantastic results.

Author: Troy Dreier

The Mobile News Network, powered by the Associated Press, helps you keep up-to-date with what's happening anywhere, in your hometown or across the globe. Personalization options let you choose exactly what news you want to see. Select from entertainment, sports, election coverage, finance, and more. The app, available here, even offers news videos and photo galleries (although you will find an occasional ad).

iSuppli reports that iPhone/iPod integration will hit 58 percent next year, up from 39 percent in 2008 So, for the first time, the majority of all cars sold in this country will be ready to dock with Apple's massively popular smartphone and music player. The reason: Simple supply and demand. iSuppli writes:

U.S. consumers for the past few years have been demanding improved connectivity between their vehicles’ audio/video systems and their Portable Media Players (PMPs), particularly iPods. Automakers have responded to that demand in a big way...

To support a broader range of portable music players and and devices, Automakers will offer USB interface options in 33 percent of cars in 2009, more than double this year's percentage.

Bluetooth wireless connectivity will become either standard or an option in 82 percent of cars next year, up from 55 percent this year.

Don't panic when someone sends you an SMS, instant or e-mail message that seems to be written in a foreign language. This list will help you decipher the lingo so you'll know you asp from your EMA.

Author: Judy Mottl

Ahead of the hotly anticipated T-Mobile G1 smartphone's arrival in stores next week, early reviews show not everyone is convinced that the Android-powered handset is ready to take on the Apple iPhone or muscle onto the turf of Windows Mobile or the BlackBerry.

Yet among reviewers and industry watchers, there's still little doubt that the G1 offers big potential for driving smartphone innovation.

See here for the full story at InternetNews.com.

It's not just hype that's made the iPhone the hottest smartphone around. If you're due for an upgrade, take a good look at the iPhone 3G.

Author: Troy Dreier

A few early adopters probably regretted their decision when the iPhone 3G was released. While the original iPhone was a game-changer that spurred forward a category often lacking in innovation, the iPhone 3G delivers several features that were much-needed (such as 3G connectivity) and some that were pleasant surprises (such as GPS mapping).

So it's sad that the people who couldn't wait to get their hands on the original are still locked into their two-year contracts. Maybe for its next trick, Apple could do something about cell phone pricing models.

The iPhone's new features
The biggest omission in the original iPhone, and the biggest improvement this time, is 3G connectivity. That means you can load Web pages, download e-mails, and load maps much faster that with the original model. During weeks of testing the New York City area, we typically saw pages load as quickly as over our broadband network at home.

Apple's official reason for not including 3G on the original iPhone was that it took too great a toll on battery life, and it's true that this model has worse battery performance. It's rated for five hours of talk and 300 hours of standby. Plan on charging it every evening, especially if you watch video or play games. While someone who only makes occasional calls or listens to music can go two or more days between charges, people who use the 3.5-inch, 480 by 320 pixel screen often will find the battery draining much more quickly.

The iPhone is also making inroads to the workplace with this version, which includes support for Microsoft ActiveSync for push support of e-mail, contacts, and calendars. It also includes Cisco iPsec VPN support. We weren't able to test the workplace features, but we did test the iPhone with MobileMe, the successor to Apple's .Mac suite of online tools. [Click here for a full review of MobileMe.]

When used with a MobileMe account ($99 per year), the iPhone sends and receives e-mail, contact, and calendar changes to and from the desktop. Add a contact in Apple Address Book on your desktop and it will show up on your iPhone in minutes, using over-the-air syncing. While it doesn't offer true push functionality, as Apple originally claimed, it's proven itself nearly as fast in our testing, syncing typically just a minute after a change.

The phone's GPS mapping won't replace a dashboard GPS navigation unit (it doesn’t offer real-time turn-by-turn directions or 3D maps) but it does make it simple to find out your current location and get directions to wherever you want to go. It's always been accurate in our testing, showing our position to a half-block. Just as handy is how it works with other iPhone applications, showing, for example, a contact's location with just a tap. [For more on iPhone’s location-based technology, click here.]

Author: Troy Dreier

One of the most ingenious apps we've seen, RulerPhone ($2.99), available here, lets you measure anything even without a tape measure. Simply place a credit card, gift card, or driver's license next to the item you want to measure, then use the app to take a picture of the item.

The app computes the scale based on the included card, letting you drag your finger along the object you want to measure to get your results. The app was amazingly accurate in our testing, and fun to use, as well.

Author: Troy Dreier

Want to know what's on tonight or when a favorite movie is showing next? i.TV, available here, is a couch potato's must-have. The ultimate TV and movie guide, this fab freebie lets you quickly and easily find out when your favorite movies and TV shows are playing.

We love how simple it is to select the right cable or satellite service, and that i.TV lets users write and submit reviews while they're watching a show. It also lets you view nearly 6,000 TV previews and movie trailers, so you can get a quick sample to see if a program looks as good as it sounds.

Author: Judy Mottl

Apple contends a lawsuit by two iPhone users alleging faulty handsets and poor-service quality should be dismissed, saying the plaintiffs had not properly followed its warranty claim requirements.

In a motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Apple said the users, Jessica Alena Smith and Wilton Lee Triggs, failed to make a warranty claim for a repair, replacement or refund, which had been stipulated as part of Apple's one-year limited warranty provision.

Apple also cited a state warranty law that requires buyers to notify companies of product issues before taking court action. Apple said that by taking legal action, the Smith and Triggs breached signed warranty contracts.

The suit, initially filed by Smith on Aug. 19 and later joined by Triggs, was to continue today in court. Both Apple and the plaintiffs asked for the proceedings to be pushed back until November, citing scheduling conflicts.

Author: Troy Dreier

Holiday season is here, and if you're a shopping procrastinator you'll love having Holiday Countdown ($.99) on your iPhone letting you know how many days to have until each celebration. The app, available here, shows multiple countdowns at once, and lets you choose which holidays you want displayed. You can also customize the look by adding your own background image.

Author: Troy Dreier

Looking for a burrito joint open now? An Irish pub nearby? A gas station you can drive to before your tank hits empty? Yelp, available here, is here to help. Use it to search for places to eat, shop, drink, relax, and play, then read reviews from an active community of locals in the know.

It's simply to add an extension to a telephone number. Simply place a comma between the ten-digit phone number and extension number. When you tap on that contact to place a call, the comma will pause dialing between the phone and extension numbers, allowing the receiving end to accept the extension for what it is. So there's no need to enter the extension manually ever time you call a particular contact that requires one in your iPhone's address book when you get a comma involved. See iPhoneHacks for details.

Lonely Planet's released a series of Audio Phrasebooks for iPhone and iPod touch.

Each Audio Phrasebook application includes over 600 spoken (and phonetically written) phrases using native language speakers, covering everything from health (I’m allergic to antibiotics) to going out (Where can I find a pub?). Applications are currently available for English speakers with phrase translations in Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, Thai, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Drawing heavily on the layout of Lonely Planet’s print phrasebooks, the iPhone applications allow users to select a relevant phrase category such as Greetings or Eating Out, by tapping that category on the iPhone's touch screen and then flicking through corresponding phrases using the iPhone's multi-touch feature to find the phrase they need.

A further tap shows the foreign language translation and plays the audio through the iPhone’s speakers - enabling the phrasebooks to be used as both a translation and learning tool.

Lonely Planet’s Audio Phrasebooks are available for $9.99 at the iTunes App Store here.

In related news, Lonely Planet's just released versions of its Audio Phrasebooks for Java-phone users. These are also available in ten languages, but drop the number of included phrases with both text and audio translations down to 200.

In a 2008 Lonely Planet survey of over 18,000 travelers worldwide, 80 percent said they use their mobile phone ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ when travelling. And 56 percent said they took their iPod with them when on holiday.

IT mans the barricades against new generation smartphones from Apple and Google. Blackberry still rules the roost, according to this article at CIO Update.

Author: Damon Brown

iTunes wasn't the only dramatic change recently as the iPhone also got a nice, shiny update with 2.1. Aside from a portable version of Genius, discussed in my last column, the improvements are incremental, but important.

Author: Troy Dreier

Ski season is almost here, and Snow Report ($2.99) is an essential tool for skiers and snowboarders. The app, available here, give you access to hourly ski and snowboard reports for over 1,200 resorts in the U.S., Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Austria, Chile, and Argentina. Use it to check ski conditions while driving to the mountains and improve your chances of riding first chair at the resort with the most fresh powder.

Author: Troy Dreier

Keep Trapster open while you drive to avoid a costly ticket. This app, available here, keeps track of your current location and warns you when you approach a speed trap, red light camera, or other traps. Also, if you know of a speed trap that isn't in Trapster's database, you can easily send it in.

Battery life for the iPhone, especially for those who use Wi-Fi a lot and 3G, could - to say the least - be better. Thankfully, there's now some help to keep your Apple smartphone up and running longer. The Mophie Juice Pack, already available for the original iPhone, will soon ship for the iPhone 3G as well.

` This peripheral is a sled that houses a rechargeable lithium polymer battery within an ergonomic, comfort-grip case with a soft-touch, non-slip finish. Sure, it adds a bit of bulk to the iPhone, but I believe most would be willing to lose a little sleekness every once in a while for far better battery life, especially when an outlet isn't in sight.

What exactly does the Juice Pack deliver? It is supposed to provide up to 350 hours of additional standby time, 6 hours of talk time on 3G (12 hours on 2G), 6 hours of Internet use on 3G (7 hours on Wi-Fi), 28 hours of audio playpack and 8 hours of video playback.

The iPhone 3G Juice Pack goes for $99.95. You can pre-order it now. And it will start shipping on October 30th. See here to learn more.

Ilium Software made a version of its Windows Mobile application eWallet available for the iPhone back in July. Now it would like to enlist its advisory board (its customers) to help it bring another title to the iPhone, ListPro.

ListPro, available for Windows Mobile and the Palm OS, is a reusable list manager that includes custom columns, column types, sorting, totaling, item highlighting, alarms, and synchronization between a PC and mobile devices. In addition, hundreds of pre-configured lists are already available on Ilium's web site.

While they've made a lot of progress towards this goal, the going hasn't been easy and - it appears - Ilium has run into a bit of a crossroads, according to the company blog.

Of course ListPro, even though relatively simply to use, is an extremely complex piece of software. Anytime you offer the level of customization that ListPro does, you’re looking at a ton of work. Throw synching into the mix and you’re talking about a monumental task.

That said we’re faced with a bit of a dilemma and we want to get your feedback.

Here are some of the problems Ilium says it’s facing:

 

First off, Ilium is behind schedule, having originally expected to release ListPro for the iPhone in August. Now its looking at at early next year, but only with limited functionality.

 

Because of missing its original deadline, instead of being an early entrant in the list maker/task manager category for the iPhone, Ilium will face a ton of competition from those who’ve already entered the market right off the bat.

 

To bring all of ListPro's functionality to the iPhone, it is going to have to completely rethink the user interface.

 

Synchronization with the desktop is essential, as Ilium found out from customers with the release of eWallet for the iPhone a couple of months ago.

Ilium proposes two solutions:

 

A simplified (and possibly free) edition of ListPro that is more of a limited companion to the ListPro desktop software than a full featured mobile application of its own.

 

Or complete the port of the full edition of ListPro to the iPhone, with syncing, of course. This would take quite a while to complete and isn't guaranteed to be a success.

They go on to list the advantages and disadvantages to both routes. And would like to know how you would handle the dilemma if you were the Product Manager. You can do so here.

As of October 3rd, 300 of the 4,000 or so iPhone apps were location-aware, according to Skyhook Wireless. 61 percent of these applications were paid.

Skyhook is an excellent position to track these numbers because it is their technology that determines location for the iPhone. A third of these apps use integrated GPS, a third Wi-Fi and a third a hybrid of GPS, cell phone towers and Wi-Fi to determine location.

Top categories include Social Networking, Local Search and Navigation, representing over 50 percent of location-aware app downloads. These are followed by Public Transport and Sports. See pie chart above for a complete list.

[Skyhook via O'Reilly Radar]

Redfly. Foleo. Olo? Yes, Olo.

Active Innovation Management's taken the idea behind Celio's Redfly and Palm's Foleo smartphone companions to show off a concept computer of its own, the OLO. The OLO, if it were real, would basically be a dumb-terminal that becomes a functional laptop when paired with an iPhone.

Simply snap the iPhone into the front of the OLO, as seen in the picture, and you're ready to go. The iPhone provides the OLO with its CPU, memory and touchpad.

Is there a market for this type of device? Perhaps.

Celio's Redfly, available now, provides the same type of function described above for Windows Mobile phones. While Palm, on the other hand, dropped the similar Foleo companion for Treo smartphones just before it was to ship because of the negative reaction the concept received from the press, analysts and consumers.

Foleo’s main purpose, as is Redfly's and presumably OlO's, was to allow users to view and edit e-mail and documents from a smartphone more conveniently, automatically synchronizing files back and forth between itself and the mobile handset. You would have also been able to access the Internet for Web and e-mail, edit Microsoft Office documents and more on Foleo without a smartphone present.

In the age of netbooks, where people have learned to sacrifice a certain level of performance for a low price and portability, maybe devices like these mobile companions have a better chance of finding a niche. The price has to be right, however.

Celio, for instance, recently dropped the price of the Redfly to $200. That's less than half the amount it cost originally.

We’ll report more on the OLO computer as more details become available and if it moves out of the concept stage and into, say, reality.

Author: Troy Dreier

Here's a fun and simple program for a fall day. Autumn ($.99) lets you watch the leaves fall right on your iPhone. Choose a background image from your photo library or from one of the included backgrounds, then tap to watch the autumn leaves fall. You can customize the number and size of the leaves to get just the right look. Check Autumn out here at the App Store.

Author: Troy Dreier

We all face the same problem every year: how to carve the Halloween pumpkin? Sketching out ideas beforehand is time-consuming, and not everyone is good at sketching. Instead, let Crazy Pumpkin, available here, help you. The app lets you try out facial features by sliding them into place. With over 1,000 eyes, nose, and mouth combinations, you'll find something you like.

 

Author: Ray Everett-Church

The first step to recovery, they say, is to admit that you have a problem. So the ability to admit that everyone in my household has an unhealthy addiction to our Apple iPhones would seem to be a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, the iPhone addiction is making my family, and all of our iPhone addicted friends (of which there are a lot!), make choices that are unhealthy for our privacy and security.

The brilliant design and general ease of use of the iPhone are attracting many "CrackBerry" users, and fans of other fun mobile devices -- what folks in the substance abuse world call "gateway" drugs. My previous addiction was the Nokia E61i and a Blackberry before that, and even then I was already showing signs of the growing problem of unsafe behavior.

The signs were there with those other devices, but as the iPhone addiction has swept through my home, it's become clear to me: as more functions, capabilities and data repositories move out into the "cloud" where they can be accessed by clever devices like iPhones, the need for drop-dead easy authentication is even more pressing.

What brought it home to me was watching as the three bipeds in our home (as soon as our cats evolve thumbs I’m sure they’ll be demanding their own iPhones too) constantly scrambling to create passwords that are iPhone keyboard friendly, rather than being driven by strong security.

Author: Troy Dreier

There are several good radio apps for the iPhone, but after trying WunderRadio ($5.99) we may never touch AOL Radio or FlyCast again. Wunder Radio, available here, links to thousands of streaming stations, and makes it simple to find local content or stations from anywhere around the world.

We especially like that it often links to different bandwidth streams for the same station, allowing us to choose the one that works best. Users can also listen to NOAA weather radio streams for many areas and bookmark favorite stations.

WunderRadio is clearly the best choice we've seen for radio lovers so far with the iPhone

Author: Troy Dreier

One of the best location-based apps, Nearby helps you discover places around you that have been recommended by other Nearby users. The app uses the iPhone's GPS ability to find your position, then shows you a map marked with other people's comments. Use it to find a recommended restaurant or discover nearby shops you never knew about. Check Nearby out here at the App Store.

Below are a few tips from iPhone Alley on how to quickly silence your iPhone when receiving an incoming call. They also show you how to send those calls to voice mail.

 

press sleep/wake (top) button to silence iPhone

 

or press volume button (either one) to silence iPhone

 

quickly press sleep/wake button twice to send incoming call to voice mail

 

quickly press button on iPhone headset twice to send incoming call to voice mail

[via MobileAppsToday]

AdWeek reports that Google is developing some new mobile ad formats specifically for the iPhone. Get the full story here at MobileMarketingToday.

Author: Susan Schrank

Gearing up for the holiday season, AT&T is letting iPhone 3G buyers set up their accounts online. Customers will still need to visit a retail store to activate the phone and complete the purchase, but AT&T says the new online account set up should cut down on the time they spend in line.

New customers can do a credit check and see if they're able to port an existing phone number to AT&T. Current AT&T customers can check their eligibility to add a new line for the iPhone.

Apple already has a similar offering on its Web site, which makes us wonder why it took AT&T so long. And, will we ever be able to take care of the whole process online?

Post courtesy of MobileContentToday. 

Author: Troy Dreier

Frequent fliers, this one is a must-have. Flight Status ($4.99) lets you check the status of thousands of flights worldwide from your phone, using data from 1143 airlines and 4246 airports.

Check status either by route, flight number, or airport. The app provides gate and terminal info, estimates for arrival and departure, baggage claim info, and more.

We like the Trips section, which lets you track all of the flights for a trip on one screen. Rather than scrambling to learn how much time you have between flights, you can find out with just a tap. We also appreciate the option to search an airport's flights for a given time period, to see if flights are leaving on time or if there are massive delays.

Check out Flight Status here at the iTunes App Store.

Author: Troy Dreier

This shopping app isn't just great for cheapies, but for anyone who has trouble thinking of holiday purchases. Start your planning now with Cheapskate, available here at the App Store.

It lets you create lists of people you'll be shopping for, then take photos of gift idea while you're out shopping. The app keeps track of where each idea was found. We love the simplicity.

When you're ready to buy, just use Google Maps to find your way back. It's the perfect app for shoppers (like us) who see great gift ideas while browsing through stores, but then forget all about them once we're home.

It's bargain hunting time. Shares of Apple Inc. rallied more than 9 percent Friday, as investors saw a newly attractive valuation in the battered stock and anticipated new laptop computers. See here for the full story at InternetNews.com.

Author: Troy Dreier

If you enjoy sampling new wines, but have a hard time remembering what you've tried in the past, Wine Pad 2 ($2.99) is a great way to keep track. Use it to record a bottle's name, vintage, price, rating, color, clarity, aroma, and taste, as well as your personal comments. You can even take a picture of the label for your wine library. Check it out here at the App Store.

Author: Troy Dreier

Use Last.fm's 5 million track library to get personalized radio on your iPhone. You can create custom stations based on any artist or genre, then listen commercial-free. The more you listen, the more it learns what you like and recommends new music. The app, available here at the App Store, even provides artist bios and concert information.

The iPhone's success is helping Apple, developers and even the competition

Way, way back in 1981, Apple ran a provocative ad headlined "Welcome IBM. Seriously." The ad was in response to IBM's debut of the company's first personal computer -- a market Apple helped pioneer years earlier, and which Big Blue's entry was set to further legitimize. Apple's competitors in the mobile market aren't taking out ads (yet) welcoming the iPhone, but they sure sound grateful. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

Author: Troy Dreier

If you bill by the hour, you're going to appreciate having TimeLogger ($4.99) on your iPhone. Simply start a timer when you begin a job and stop it when you're done. The app, available here at the App Store, runs in the background even when you're using other apps and it lets you run as many timers as you want.

Author: Troy Dreier

If passwords are too much of a hassle for you, install A Personal Assistant and get all your data in the palm of your hand. You can monitor bank accounts, credit card transactions, track cell phone usage, and even view your Netflix queue. The program uses 128 bit SSL encryption and offers a remote destruct option, should you lose your iPhone. Check it out here at the App Store.

Author: John Roling

When Apple’s iPhone 3G was announced, Apple made a big deal about supporting Enterprise email. The problem for Lotus Notes users was that “Enterprise” initially only meant Microsoft Exchange. And while that hasn’t changed for built-in iPhone connectivity, IBM has made Lotus Notes on the iPhone a reality with Lotus iNotes Ultralite.

IBM Lotus iNotes Ultralite is a web application that you access through the mobile Safari web browser on the iPhone. You go to the same URL you are used to for normal webmail access, and the email template is smart enough to serve up a mobile browser optimized version of your Lotus Notes.

Lotus iNotes Ultralite Homepage

Notes Ultralite includes access to the following pieces of your Lotus Notes:

Your inbox

The Sent mail view

The All Documents view

Your trash folder

Your Day At A Glance daily calendar

Your Contacts

When you access your inbox, you can read all of your messages (including rich text HTML messages,) reply, forward and create new emails. You can move the message to the trash or even take already read messages and mark them as unread.

During these transactions, you are actually accessing your live email file on the server so changes are instantaneous.

Lotus iNotes Ultralite Inbox

In addition to the normal email functions associated with the Inbox, you can scroll through everything you’ve Sent from Lotus Notes and you can also view every document in your entire mail file by going into the All Documents view. Lastly, you have the ability to look at anything you’ve deleted within the last 48 hours by checking the Trash folder.

Access to these basic functions are pretty decent, but there are a couple caveats. First, you have no way of seeing your folders or moving email to a specific folder within Lotus Notes. That means that if you have an email saved in a particular folder and not the inbox, the only way to find it is by checking the All Documents folder.

That in itself wouldn’t normally be much of a problem, but there is no Search function within iNotes Ultralite. This causes a problem if you have to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Trying to find a message out of thousands in your All Documents folder without being able to search takes too much time. It CAN be done, but it’s fairly tedious.

Sending a new email

i.TV, a free television and movie programming service for the iPhone and iPod touch, is now available for download from the iTunes App Store.

The service presents users with relevant and up-to-date TV and movie listings based on their current location and other customizable profile settings. It also gives them access to movie trailers and television previews that can be streamed directly to their device.

Users can organize the television listings according to categories such as channel, show, and genre. And the application provides background information for most programs, including celebrity photos, biographies, show synopses, ratings, and reviews.

In addition, there are a number of community-focused features that enable users to discover programming and socialize around entertainment. So users can use i.TV to recommend shows through an e-mail alert to friends, rate shows, write their own reviews, and respond to reviews written by other members of the i.TV community.

Softalk has released the first spreadsheet for the iPhone. The application's name gets right to the point: It is called Spreadsheet.

Available for download from the iTunes App Store for $7.99, Spreadsheet features over 50 functions with the ability to e-mail spreadsheets created on the iPhone to a mailbox for subsequent opening in Microsoft Excel 2003 or above.

Spreadsheet provides a scrollable zoomable view, along with cell formatting features and a other standard spreadsheet functions:

 

Multiple cell types, including Numeric, Date, Time, Currency, Percentage and Text

 

Cell formatting options, including bold, italic, text and background color, cell sizes and alignments.

 

Copy/cut/paste operations. (Now if only Apple would spread this capability to the iPhone as a whole.)

 

A range of functions, including date/time, math, statistical, string and trigonometric functions.

 

Export (via email) to external spreadsheet applications.

You can't use the iPhone's touch screen and soft keyboard (the only means of entering data) with gloves on, as the display requires contact with your skin to work. Not much fun on a cold winter's day.

Enter DOTS Gloves.

With these gloves, available in knit ($15) or ragg wool ($20), you'll never have to bare your fingers again to use the iPhone's touch screen. That's because each glove is adorned with three metal dots - for as many fingers - that mimic the touch of bare screen against an iPhone or iPod touch's display - keeping the screen smudge free in the process.

And, since the dots in the DOTS are smooth and curved, they're supposed to pose no danger of scratches.

The gloves are available in regular and large sizes and in a variety of colors. You can choose to have dots on one or both hands. And you even get to pick the color of the dots themselves: black or white.

PocketMac for iPhone ($29.95) allows Mac users to sync three of the most popular personal information managers (Microsoft Entourage, Lotus Notes and Meeting Maker) to the iPhone. It also backs up users' text messages and call logs. For a full list of features, see the video below and here.

The Paragon Software Group's developed a version of the Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for the iPhone and iPod touch, with firmware 2.0 installed. Merriam-Webster's database contains 225,000 entries, including more than 10,000 new words and definitions. According to Paragon, its SlovoEd engine compresses the database to a minimum of memory space (8.8MB) while allowing users to quickly perform multiple lookups. The dictionary is available for download now from the iTunes App Store for $24.99.

Author: Troy Dreier

Anglophiles, take note. Monarchy ($.99) is a one-of-a-kind app that give you instant access to everything there is to know about the English monarchy from 1066 to the present day. The easy interface gives an overview page (with picture) for each king and queen, plus a detailed biography. Check it out here at the iTunes App Store.

Author: Troy Dreier

When you open up the browser on your iPhone, you're probably looking for quick information, so download this app from the king of quick information and save yourself a few steps. Google Mobile, available here, not only lets you run fast searches, but also offers suggestions as you type.

Author: Andy Patrizio

The introduction of the iPhone 3G last July did wonders to pop Apple's place in the smartphone market, with users dumping their phones to switch to Apple's device.

But Apple will be hard-pressed to maintain its growth curve as new challengers enter the market.

That's according to research from the NPD Group, which found that Apple's slice of the smartphone market went from 11 percent in June to 17 percent of the market overall by the end of August. Apple had quite a run of sales during that three-month period at 24 percent of smartphone sales.

Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown has launched The Daily Beast, a Web-based magazine that’s also accessible in an iPhone-friendly edition. In addition to original commentary, The Daily Beast, according to FAQ on the site, "sifts, sorts, and curates" content from other sources—just like a number of other blogs and news aggregators on the Web. The effort is being funded by Barry Diller's IAC new media group.

[via MobileContentToday]

Author: Troy Dreier

If you work in design, you'll find it handy to have Color Expert ($9.99) on your iPhone. This is an interactive color wheel and swatch library that helps artists and designers identify, capture, and showcase color. Use Color Expert, available here at the App Store, to pick colors from photos, slides, and swatches, then create matching color schemes. You can search Pantone libraries, Web safe colors, and HTML colors.

Author: Troy Dreier

Securly store your credit card numbers, bank accounts, and passwords safely with LockBox. This app protects your data with a PIN so that it's always close at hand, yet completely protected. Get it here at the App Store.

Author: David Needle

Were the terms in AT&T's two-year service agreement for iPhone customers deceptive? Plaintiffs in a class action suit against Apple and AT&T Mobility believe so and Wednesday, a federal court in Northern California agreed there was enough evidence to let the case continue. In doing so, the District Court for Northern California dismissed AT&T's motion for arbitration and denied Apple's motion to dismiss the case. Apple could not be reached for comment.

The companies are charged specifically with violations of federal antitrust laws and other consumer protection laws. The complaint alleges Apple and AT&T restricted voice and data services to the iPhone after signing the two-year service agreement (common to many phone plans), but did not reveal those restrictions at time of purchase.

Click here for the rest of this story at InternetNews.com.

Up until now, no calls on the iPhone were free. You had to use your anytime or weekend minutes to make them. And international calls ran up additional charges for airtime.

Now a new and free program, Fring, lets you use programs like Skype on your iPhone.

Skype has been available for PC and Mac users for several years. It uses a technique called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). With it you can make make calls to anyone using the bandwidth of the internet. All you need to do on your computer is download Skype and then if your friends also have Skype, you can call them.

If they don't have Skype, you use Skype-out and dial their home, work, or cell numbers. Skype-out costs a few pennies a minute.

Call quality is good - like a cell phone call - but not quite as good as using Skype on your computer. I've tested the program with calls to South Africa and England.

Fring - which has been available for jailbroken iPhones (those that have been hacked to run unofficial software) for a while - allows programs, like Skype, MSN Messenger, and ICQ - to work on the iPhone. It works on 1st and 2nd generation iPhones, without having to fool around with their software.

After downloading the Fring from the iTunes application store, just type in your user ID and password from the VOIP program and you're ready to make those calls.

Fring works on the Wi-Fi system, not the 3G or Enterprise connection, so calls don't count against your minutes.

So download Fring, which is free, and give it a try. Let us know how it works for you.

If you haven’t had enough exposure to Presidential election politics, the Obama/Biden campaign has released two new applications. One application (www.barakobama.com) is the main Obama for President web page, now formatted for the iPhone. To use it requires you enter your email address and ZIP code, but you don’t have to donate.

The other program —downloaded for free from the iTunes Application Store—has a number of features to motivate and organize supporters and volunteers. It organizes you contacts, prioritized by battleground states, so you can call them and tell them what you think about Obama.

You can also see national statistics&—how many calls are being made to friends, and how the number of calls you’ve made compare to national leaders. There is information about how to get involved, receive updates, learn about local events, and get fact sheets on the Obama/Biden plan for issues facing Americas.

The McCain/Palin campaign have no similar applications, at least not yet.

Songwriters will have to wait until another day to see an increase in the royalty rate they receive for digital music sales. Yesterday, the three-member U.S. Copyright Royalty Board ruled the rate would stay the same, at 9.1 cents per song. Songwriters will recieve a 24-cent rate for ringtones, however. Those who write the songs the whole world sing can thank Apple, in part, for the lack of pay raise. The country's top music retailer threatened to shut down iTunes should the board have ruled in favor of a rate increase, as that would have -in effect - made operating iTunes unprofitable. Apple's threat may have been bluster, but it almost certainly made the Royalty Bard sit up and take notice.

Author: Philip L. Graitcer

iPhoner resolves problem pairing first-gen model with Bluetooth peripherals after firmware upgrade.

 

I installed iPhone software 2.1 on my first generation iPhone. iTunes asked me if I wanted to, so I did. Pretty please. The software download went flawlessly. Afterwards my phone worked – the same as before. And that was good – “do no evil” – although some 3G users say that there is better battery life. I noticed no difference with the 2.1 update.

I plunked the phone in my pocket and went off on a business trip. For two days the phone worked well. When I got home, I hopped in my car and no Bluetooth connection to the audio system. I kept getting a message that the Bluetooth couldn’t connect. The phone seemed to pair, but the keyboard that is used to enter the pairing passkey never appeared.

After fooling with this for 30 minutes, I put in a call to iPhone – 1800-MY-IPHONE. After a 30 minute wait (“due to the high volume of calls…”) I got through. No prior documentation of the problem, so we tried restore from backup (control-click on iPhone name, or right-click on iPhone name). That didn’t work. Then we just did a “Restore” from the iTunes page. That took some time – all the content had to be reloaded into the phone.

But the next time I got in the car, Bluetooth worked! No idea what happened – perhaps a faulty software download.

Apple's posted an update to iTunes 8.0.1. It says the minor software upgrade improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• Seamlessly plays the current song when creating a new Genius playlist.

• Improves syncing spoken menus to iPod nano.

• Addresses an issue of deleting HD TV episodes when downloading.

• Improves checking for updates from the App Store

• Improves accessibility with Windows.

• Addresses problems syncing Genius results to iPod.

• Addresses a blue screen error on Windows Vista when connecting iPod to your computer.

To upgrade to 8.10 select Help and then Check for Updates from within iTunes.

Author: Troy Dreier

Phone calls, music, directions… and even inner peace. Who knew an iPhone could deliver so much? Meditator ($3.99), the best meditation helper in the App Store, available here, makes it easy to sit quietly and look inward anywhere you go.

Set how long you'd like for a session, and how much time you need to get settled before you begin. You can even set interval timers, so that you know when a certain amount of minutes has passed.

We love the versatility of this app, which lets you save three mediation configurations, so that you can start up a session with just a tap. We also love the alert sounds, which include bell, gong, and thunder sounds.

The controls let you set different beginning, interval, and ending sounds, so that you don't need to use the same sound each time. Use it for silent mediation, or choose one of four natural ambient sounds (forest, ocean, river, and storm) for a peaceful backdrop.

Author: Troy Dreier

If you want to keep an extra close eye on your investments in these days (and who wouldn't?) you're going to want Bloomberg on your iPhone. Leave it to the market news source that's become the Wall Street standard to deliver an incredibly useful and detailed financial app.

Bloomberg offers news, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders and laggers, price charts, market trends, and more. You can even use it to create customized lists of stocks to track. After using it for a while, we're crazy about the ability to drill down into data, and to easily track a portfolio.

A few minor ads support this free app. Check it out here at the iTunes App Store.

There are a lot of cool iPhone apps, but few combine coolness with the same level of real-world applicability as RulerPhone.

This application lets you use the iPhone's camera and any credit card-sized item to turn the device into a measuring tape capable of accurately sizing up objects ranging from a few inches to well over 10 feet in size.

The card—anything with the exact dimensions of a credit card - i.e. a gift card, MetroCard, driver's license—is used as a reference for measuring anything in any picture taken by the user. According to the developer, the software is useful as an on-the-go tool for apartment-hunters, furniture-buyers, or anyone requiring a quick measurement.

You can learn more about RulerPhone and see a video of the app in action here.

RulerPhone is available at the iTuns App Store for $2.99. There's also a few version, called RulerPhone Lite, at the App Store that lets you measure anything up to 1.5 feet.

Author: Troy Dreier

Election-junkies, you're going to love having this app on your iPhone. Election '08 ($.99), available here, gives you up-to-the-minute knowledge of which candidates is currently leading in the polls in each state. Advanced features include a section on just the battleground states, a list of poll sources, and historic polling data for all of 2008.

Author: Troy Dreier

Stitcher Radio offers a new way to get current broadcasts to your iPhone, delivering free personalized news and entertainment radio streams right to you. Start by choosing a topic you're interested in and Stitcher will "stitch" together the best, up-to-the-minute shows on that topic from sources such as NPR, BBC, ESPN, and CNN. Check it out here at the App Store.

Mailtrust's Hosted Exchange 2007 solution, which supports ActiveSync for Windows Mobile devices, now offers that same functionality, including push e-mail, calendaring and contacts for iPhones with firmware 2.0 and higher installed. Exchange Active Sync maintains a secured connection between the Exchange Server and the iPhone so that when a new message or meeting invitation arrives, the iPhone is immediately updated. Mailtrust is in the process of developing options to sync the iPhone with its Noteworthy platform, a hosted e-mail solution that's not based on Microsoft Exchange.

Lotus iNotes ultralite is a stripped down version of the IBM's enterprise e-mail and calendar application for the iPhone. It is accessible through the iPhone's Safari browser and is free to those with a Lotus Notes software license. But while IBM's push to fight off Microsoft's dominance in the e-mail arena has lead it to the iPhone, there is a catch. Check out the full story here at InternetNews.com

Author: David Needle

When you're going to be interviewed about the mobile device industry, there's a very good chance you'll be asked about the hot-selling iPhone. Nokia's president and CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, didn't wait for the question.

"I'm the first one to note, before being asked, that Apple made a big favor to this industry to show the U.S. and other consumers that this can be very exciting," Kallasvuo said shortly after the start of last night's Churchill Club event in Santa Clara, CA, where he was the featured speaker.

Later, moderator and Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard, asked Kallasvuo if he specifically liked the iPhone.

"Whether I like it or not, I definitely admire the people who make it happen," Kallasvuo said. "I give Apple a lot of credit and thank Apple. They have done a service to the community. We have a credible competitor."

"For the time being, they're a niche player globally, but I need to take my hat off to them. It's well done. We need to be able to respond."

Part of that response is expected today in London, where Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is set to unveil its own touchscreen-based smartphone, called "Tube".

Click here for the rest of this story at InternetNews.com.

Tomorrow, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) will issue a ruling on whether to raise, lower or hold steady fees songwriters get from digital music stores. A hike may lead Apple to shut down iTunes, as it could make the most-popular music marketplace (online and off) unprofitable to maintain for the iPod and iPhone-maker.

Click here for the full story at InternetNews.com.

Today, Apple announced that it was dropping its non-disclosure (NDA) agreement for iPhone developers. The announcement came in the form of a short letter posted to Apple's Developer Connection site. It reads:

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

While a pleasant surprise, Apple had no choice - really - but to kill NDA, which was not doing anything to help foster innovation. Developer's can now share ideas without fear of recrimination from Apple.

Author: Troy Dreier

Not a tool for finding a nearby bar, PubSearch ($.99) is a fast and efficient research tool for medical professionals and students. It lets you access the millions of research papers indexed in PubMed. By combining a simple, efficient user interface with fast access to the database, it lets you concentrate on finding the research articles you need without getting in your way. The app, available here at the App Store, includes EZProxy support, so that even when you're away from your institution's network, you can (if your institution uses EZProxy) access the full text of articles in any journal your institution subscribes to.

Author: Troy Dreier

Sure, the iPhone includes a weather app, but the information it offers is pretty limited. If you need a little more information to plan your day, download WeatherBug. It puts live, local weather conditions from over 45,000 locations at your fingertips. View severe weather alerts, weather cameras, detailed forecasts, current radar, and satellite maps. Check WeatherBug out here at the App Store.

Author: Damon Brown

In his last column, Damon Brown took a close look at the new iPods Apple rolled out at its "Let's Rock!" event earlier this month. This time around, he focuses on software: specifically, iTunes 8 with its new Grid View and much-hyped Genius playlist feature.

iTunes 8, which you would have been automatically prompted to download by now, has a few subtle differences overall. For instance, the Mini Player option has been switched to the View menu and the Shuffle has been moved to the Controls menu, neatly divided into "Turn Off Shuffle," "By Songs," "By Albums," and "By Groupings."

That said, the biggest hype has been around two additions: Album Grid and Genius. Let's look at the (slightly less cooler) Album Grid first.

Start up iTunes 8 and it will automatically recheck your songs for downloadable album covers. It will then default into Album Grid. All your songs are listed, via the album cover, in a vertical column. At the top the category listing can be reorganized by Album, Artists, Genre and Composer.

You'll see a control bar next to the categories. Move the control bar to adjust the size of the album and, therefore, the amount of album covers shown per row. The search function - located in the upper right hand corner - works exactly the same. Also, as usual, you can use the icons next to the search bar to list or Cover Flow your collection.

Finally, the much-hyped Genius creates on-the-spot playlists based on what you're in the mood to listen to. The Genius Sidebar is available immediately in iTunes 8 - a sidebar will pop up asking you to turn it on. First, it will ask you to log into your Apple Store account so Genius can recommend available songs to you (if you don't have an account, it will ask you to create one).

Rumor has it that Verizon Wireless, the second largest mobile operator in the U.S., could become the second carrier in this country to offer the iPhone. Supposedly, Verizon and Apple are currently in negotiations, with an announcement expected for the next Macworld show, which takes place in January.

This rumor runs contrary to reports that AT&T, which has benefited greatly from the iPhone, is set to maintain its iPhone exclusivity through at least the end of the decade. If true, however, Apple would have to change out the GSM/UTMS (3G) radio currently in the iPhone for a CDMA/EVDO (3G) to support Verizon's network.

Verizon was, reportedly, Apple's first choice as a carrier-partner for the iPhone. Talks between Apple and Verizon apparently started a couple of years before the introduction of the iPhone in January 2007. But an agreement couldn't be reached in the end because Apple wanted too much control.