December 2008 Archives

We couldn't resist the temptation to look back on the best apps of the year (or half-year, since the App Store hasn't been around that long), but we wanted to give you something you could use. These aren't the flashiest or most novel apps that came out; instead, these are the ten we find ourselves using the most.

New iPhone owners, take note: these are the ten workhorses we couldn't live without.

AP Mobile News Network (free, available here): We love to read news on the go, and this app offers quick headlines. It's much faster than the New York Times news app, and delivers even more results.

Camera Bag ($2.99, available here): Not only is this photo app fun to use, but it lets you make artistic creations in seconds. We like the Helga filter the best. It give a moody, washed-out look to any setting. 

Wi-Fi for AT&T ($.99, available here): Going online at an AT&T hotspot, such as those found in Starbucks, is a snap with this app. It takes the hassle out of logging on.

Google Mobile App (free, available here): Start your searches here. Google helps you find results quickly, and even includes an audio search so that you don't have to type.

Listomni Lists ($6.99, available here): The best list-making app on the iPhone, Listomni is incredibly helpful for remembering tasks you need to do or items you need to buy.

Midomi (free, available here): What's that song? Midomi will tell you. Use it to identify a song on the radio or input lyrics from a song running through your head.

Pandora (free, available here): When we want to hear streaming music, we find ourselves turning to Pandora every time. This app lets you create custom stations, so that you can hear the songs you like best.

Remote (free, available here): Remote was the missing link in our home stereo system. Now we can doze on the couch while easily controlling the music playing on our computer.

Shovel (free, available here): Stay in touch with what's getting dug on Digg.com with Shovel, an excellent reader for the site. It lets you view all the comments on a post, and is much more stable since its recent update.

Where (free, available here): There are many GPS-enabled apps for the iPhone, but Where is our favorite. We use it to find nearby gas stations, events, movies, and Starbucks locations.

Watch New Year's happen around the world live with a variety of international Webcams. New Year's Eve Webcam ($.99, available here) lets you browse a list of 15 popular locations across the globe, including Australia, France, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Each location offers a countdown timer to midnight for that time zone. You can even choose to watch people party on the street or watch the fireworks in the sky.

Yes, your iPhone can even be a noisemaker. Blow into the microphone to hear the horn, and watch it unravel on the screen. New Year's Blowout Horn (available here) even includes a countdown timer, so you'll know the exact second 2009 begins, and a music player for listening to New Year's songs afterwards.

New options abound to buy Apple's widely coveted piece of music-telephone machinery.

As of Dec. 28, Wal-Mart now sells a $197 8GB or $297 16GB version of the iPhone with a two-year AT&T service agreement.

Wal-Mart will place iPhone 3G kiosks in about 2,500 of its retail stores, the company reports.

Meanwhile AT&T now offers a refurbished version of the 8GB iPhone for $99.

Rumors had spread that it would be Wal-Mart offering the $99 version. Not so.

Transform your iPhone into an indispensable companion for choosing, evaluating, managing, and enjoying wine. With Wine Enthusiast Guide ($9.99, available here), you'll have a team of experts with you every time you select a bottle of wine. With a few taps you can access up-to-date details, reviews, ratings, and retail prices for over 64,000 wines.

Here's the all-in-one personal finance tool you've been waiting for, and it's completely free. Track, budget, and manage your money on-the-go. Sign up for an account on Mint.com (available here), add your online banking accounts, and access them anywhere. There's no need to enter your transactions, since the Mint.com app automatically syncs with your online banking accounts.

Apple has been calling the iPhone a gaming platform lately, and a few more apps like I Love Katamari ($7.99, available here) could make believers out of us.

This is an iPhone version of a hugely popular bizarre PlayStation game from Japan. You play as a small prince, son of the King of All Cosmos, whose job it is to roll a small sticky ball (a katamari) around so that things will attach to it. As the ball grows, you can collect larger and larger items.

You play by tilting the iPhone in any direction, and the game is surprisingly responsive. Choose from one of four mode: story mode (roll up requested items), time attack mode (roll up as much as possible in the time limit), exact size challenge mode (get your ball to match a given size), and eternal mode (work at your own pace, without any limits).

We love the silliness of the game, and dig the pop Japanese score that goes with it. While it's one of the oddest premises ever for a video game, I Love Katamari is a crazy good time.

If $9.99 for Zagat to Go sounds like $10 too much to you, download this free alternative, instead. Mobile by Citysearch offers tons of local listings for restaurants, hotels, bars, spas, and stores. Nearly every listing gets a star rating (at voted by users) and many have reviews.

If you don't want a list view, Citysearch will also map out its results. There's also a search feature that lets you look for a particular name or term, or search in a different location.

We like the convenience and price of this app, but we'd also like the developers to add a few improvements.

As is, Citysearch will find the 10 places nearest you for any category, but there's no way to get additional results if you don't like those 10. There's also no way to filter restaurants by cuisine, which seems like a huge oversight.

Finally, we wish the summary pages showed which listings have user reviews. You need to select an listing to see if anyone has written a comment for that location.Since the user comments are fun to read, we'd like to be able to find them easier.

If you've every wondered where your iPhone's power goes, download Battery Log ($2.99) and find out. This app displays your battery usage in a graph showing you when you're consuming the most power. A slider lets you zoom in and out. Note that you need to launch the app to update your battery information.

If you'd like to check your eyesight or that of your children, give EyeChart (available store) a try. This free app gives you a pocket-sized chart you can use anywhere. While it's not as accurate as the test you'd get at an eye doctor's office, it can let you know early on if there's a vision problem that should be diagnosed.

The iBreath Alcohol Breathalyzer ($89), from the David Steel, lets users assess their intoxication level with a few simple steps. Learn more from Judy Mottl here at InternetNews.com The Blog. Below is a video of the peripheral in action:

They outlasted 2008's downturn -- and even managed to come out on top. So what's next for the year's few big winners? And is social networking really going to disappear? Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #12:

It's a little late to send cards to your friends and family, but there's still time if you download Christmas C@rds ($1.99, available here). This app offers an easy, creative way to create personalized e-cards right on your phone. Choose a template, add photos from your album or camera, write a message, then send it out. There are over 50 templates and the customization controls are simple, so you can create your perfect card in no time.

To quickly get the scoop on what's happening around you, download NowLocal. This news app uses the iPhone's location services to automatically deliver news from the best local sources, wherever you are. As you move from place to place, NowLocal makes it easy to stay informed.

New survey says Apple faces market challenge from Research in Motion's touchscreen smartphone. Who will emerge the victor? RIM makes inroads into the consumer market with the Storm and other new smartphones, according to ChangeWave Research survey. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #11:

Play along to your favorite Christmas carols with Christmas Piano by iChristmas ($.99, available here). It includes 20 playable songs and four different instruments. Even the most musically-challenged can follow along with a quick swipe of a finger to change the tempo. There's a scoring system to keep it interesting and to help you improve.

You'll be saying "No way," when you download iStethoscope (available here) and discover one more amazing thing that your iPhone can do. Simply wear your earbuds or headphones and press the corded microphone against the pulse spot on your neck. You'll be able to hear your heartbeat perfectly. The app even counts for you, telling you your pulse rate. It's a neat tool to use during and after a workout, to check your active and resting heart rates.

The iPhone, like other smartphones, is increasingly finding its way in the server room. Virtual management appliance vendor Kace recently released a version of its KBOX Management Module to help IT better manage iPhones in the enterprise, while Citrix has an ICA client to bring Windows apps and developers to the iPhone in the works, for instance. Learn more here at ServerWatch.com.

A week after Microsoft signed on, HP becomes the next Apple competitor to support the iPhone. iPrint Photo, a free application, for the iPhone and iPod Touch designed to let users easily print photos wherever there's access to a wireless network and HP printer. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #10:

If there's caroling in your future, or yuletide songs sung by the fire, download Santa's Bells ($.99, available here) and add a jingly accent to your music. It includes three different sets of bells, each with a unique set of sounds. The app is velocity sensitive, so the faster and harder you shake your iPhone, the louder the bells become. It also includes nearly 10MB of sound samples, so you won't hear the same one-second sample over and over again.

It's sneaky, but we like it. If you've ever had trouble getting out of a boring call, iGottaGo ($.99, available here) is the app for you. Start up this app while you're on the line and you can play high-quality sounds that require you to cut your call short. Options include a crying baby, static, loud traffic, nearby construction, an approaching train, loud airplanes, and a busy airport.

Research firm AdMob has completed a survey of Wi-Fi activity on mobile networks and found that Wi-Fi requests in November were at 8 percent, up from 3 percent in August.

In addition, 42 percent of data requests on the iPhone came on Wi-Fi, a possible result of reported 3G difficulties on the AT&T network. Apple had an astounding 78.5 percent of the Wi-Fi activity on mobile devices according to the November report.

The iPod Touch entertainment device and Sony PlayStation Portable gaming unit were also among the top Wi-Fi mobile gadgets, despite their lack of phone capabilities.

With all the buzz about iPhones and BlackBerries and Androids, can the mobile phone business really slow down this coming year? That's what research firm IDC reports.

IDC says the global economic crisis will bring sales of mobile handsets down 1.9 percent in 2009 from this year. Mobile phones haven't dropped since 2001, according to IDC.

Customers may choose to hold on to their current phones if they're not breaking down, even as their contracts run out.

The good news: IDC says sales of mobile phones will rise again in 2010 as the economy rebounds. And we'll splurge more on the new gadgets then. Well, can't wait that long!

Since the iPhone doesn't have a to-do list of its own (pretty please, Apple?), we've been on the lookout for a feature-rich app that does the job. The best we've found is Listomni Lists ($6.99, available here). This app stores several to-do lists for different categories, such as groceries, general to-dos, gifts to buy, music to buy, and movies to see.

You're free to make up your own lists, as needed. For example, we made one called Hardware, because we can never remember what we need to buy at the hardware store.

When you've finished with an item on one of your lists, you can tap to check it off. That's essential—the buzz that list addicts feel when we check off an item is what keeps us going. The app also includes a lock, in case you want to keep your lists private. The only thing we could want is a desktop app that syncs with it.

This is the best list app we've found so far, but if you have a different favorite let us know in the comments.

The iPhone is a bargain-hunter's delight, and nothing makes saving money easier that Fresh Deals, available here. This app shows you the best sales going from a variety of savvy shopping sites. You can view all the deals on one page, or select the category you want to see, such as Baby, Computer, or Electronics.

The interface can be a little tricky, so let us show you around:

Even though every page shows only four products, you can scroll the line of pictures to the left to see more deals in that category. It took us a while to figure that out. Not every deal has a picture, and we'd like to see that fixed. Below the line of pictures you'll see a description of the highlighted deal, and below that is a bar that shows how new or old the deal is.

When you've found something that interests you, you can e-mail it to yourself or to someone who you think would be interested. We think it's a great all-in-one tool for finding the Internet's biggest bargains.

ClairMail, a Novato, Calif.-based mobile applications provider now offers a mobile banking solution for the iPhone.

The service allows users of the iPhone and other mobile phones to access account management, fund transfers, bill payments, and ATM/branch locators.

According to ClairMail, the app is highly secure and is the only solution provider that can deliver two-way mobile banking and payments functionality on smartphones across messaging, mobile Web and client applications.

"As iPhone use continues to rise, it becomes increasingly important for financial institutions to offer a convenient, secure and easy-to-use mobile banking and payments solution that leverages the rich user interface capabilities of the iPhone," said Joseph Salesky, CEO of ClairMail, in a statement.

Hanukah begins at sundown on Sunday this year, and with Mobile Menorah ($.99, available here) you can light candles even if you're traveling. Use your finger as a virtual match to first light the Shamash and then drag it to light the others. Watch the candles burn down over the course of the evening. You can even set the burn rate. A portion of each sale will be donated to plant trees in Israel.

Technology junkies (like us, for example) can get their fix from Tech News (available here), a perfectly simple app that displays the latest tech headlines from the Internet. It's powered by Techmeme, and does a great job of pulling from a variety of sources. The only things we'd add are date and time stamps after each headline, and an option to view headlines from either blogs or more established sources.

With the upcoming Orange Bowl and BCS National Championship college football games around the corner, AT&T plans to place a "cell on wheels" in the parking lot of Dolphin Stadium in Miami.

Increased traffic is expected on iPhones and other devices on AT&T's network at the games. AT&T will have personnel onsite at the stadium to monitor network traffic.

In addition, the carrier plans to add voice channels to its two existing cell sites inside Dolphin Stadium and to ramp up high-speed third-generation (3G) capacity for thousands of calls and data sessions.

According to AT&T, its 3G network is now accessible in 335 major metropolitan areas in the United States.

Today, one of the classics of PC and console gameplay, SimCity ($9.99, available here), is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch. SimCity is the game that started it all, the first title in the Sim virtual universe created by Will Wright.

In SimCity, the player plans, builds, and manages a metropolis. According to the Electroinc Arts Web site, players "Maneuver through lush cityscapes with a mere flick of your finger. Plan, build, and manage your thriving new metropolis from budgets to bulldozers, taxs to tornadoes."

Here are some features of SimCity for the iPhone:

Touch, tap, drag and flick to create a thriving metropolis!

Zoom in and out of your vibrant cityscapes by pinching

Eight tool categories give you the ability to plan, zone, build, bulldoze, and manage your city

Tutorial, starter cities and 3 difficulty modes for fun and challenging gameplay

Take charge of the city budget and decide where best to spend taxpayers' hard-earned Simoleons

Public works management including Water, Power, Garbage and Recycling

Public and private transportation with roads and rail

SimCity made its first appearance for the Mac and Amiga platforms almost twenty years ago, in 1989. It first appeared for a PDA/smartphone platform, the Palm OS, ten years later.

It's well known that Apple positions the iPhone and iPod touch as much for gaming as platforms for making phone calls, surfing the Web, accessing e-mail, watching video and lisening to muisc. Thanks to the enthusiasm of users and developers for the iTunes App Store, particularly in the area of entertainment and games, Apple does indeed have the hottest mobile gaming platform on its hands right now.

You buy and unlocked iPhone 3G in a few markets, but that's not the case for most regions, including - as you all know - the U.S. Well, it took a bit longer than expected, but it appears hackers have finally cracked the latest version of the iPhone.

The iPhone Dev Team plans to release an iPhone 3G unlocking procedure and software on New Year's Eve. They've codenamed it yellowsn0w. To implement yellowsn0w you'll have to already have jailbroken (baseband 2.11.07 or earlier) your iPhone 3G to run third-party applications.

By unlocking your iPhone you'll be able to use it wither GSM carriers other than Apple's official operator partners, which includes the very first iPhone partner, AT&T. As a result, you'll be able to keep your T-Mobile service, if you're partial to it, and still use the iPhone, for example.

Keep in mind, because the iPhone 3G's cellular-wireless broadband radio isn't compatible with T-Mobile's 3G network, it will only transfer data at much slower 2.5G EDGE rates, just like the original iPhone - to the chagrin of many - did with AT&T. Voice service will work just fine, however.

Unlocking also voids your warranty with Apple and some services, such as Visual VoiceMail, may not work correctly or at all

Also, don't be surprised if the next iPhone 3G firmware update breaks the new unlock, starting up the game of cat and mouse between hackers and Apple all over again.

Orange's exclusivity agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in France is in jeopardy. French regulators have issued an order to France Telecom (Orange's parent company) temporarily stopping the carrier from having sole rights to the iPhone.

According to the country's competition authority, the deal "by nature introduces a new factor of rigidity in a sector that already lacks competition." Orange and Apple are a little over a year into what's supposed to be a five-year agreement.

The plan is for the country's competition authority to delve more deeply into the matter while the ruling is in effect. Meanwhile, other French operators can sell the iPhone.

The 12 Apps of Christmas: #9

A fun little game to pull out while visiting with relatives, Christmas Trivia: Are You Smarter than Santa? ($1.99, available here) tests your holiday knowledge while teaching you customs from around the world. It offers multiple choice Christmas Trivia questions and a multi-player mode so that up to four can play. The app also includes a Christmas countdown.

We're new to "tower defense" games, but that hasn't stopped us from loving this well-created strategy game. In Tap Defense (available here), creatures from Hell are invading Heaven, and you need to fight them off. You do this by building towers that have unique offensive abilities. You earn points after conquering each wave of attackers, which you use to build more towers or reinforce the ones you have. It's simple and completely addicting.

Smule, the developer of the first app—called Ocarina ($.99, available here)—that turns the iPhone into a musical wind instrument has launched a contest to find the best and most creative Ocarina players. It is backing the contest with $10K in prize money

Ocarina enables users to blow into their iPhone's microphone to generate music. Players hold down a combination of holes to change pitch or tilt their iPhone to alter vibrato rate and depth.

The company's posted an invitation for the contest here at YouTube, where players are encouraged to post performance videos. Prize money goes to the top ten performers, based on YouTube ratings and reviews of the videos. See here for details and contest rules.

Smule says it hopes to "showcase some truly great performances, as well as discover some extremely creative and possibly wacky demonstrations of the Ocarina's expressive nature."

The contest ends on Friday, January 9th, with winners set to be announced the next day.

In related news, Smule updated Ocarina to version 1.2 today. Now users can record and share their performances with others.

Anyone with kids (or friends, for that matter) and an iPhone or iPod touch knows that no matter how hard you try, it's close to impossible to keep their hands off your smartphone. So why not challenge their reaction skills and dexterity? DoApp, the developer behind myLite and myLighter, has released an application that should keep children and adults alike challenged and (better yet) occupied when they're playing with your Apple device. Called React ($.99, available here), the title is a game that challenges dexterity and accuracy by presenting players with a series of random tasks: pinch, poke, slide and shake. After completing a task, a new task appears, at faster rates the higher the level.

Apple says CEO Steve Jobs will not keynote next month and it's the last year Apple exhibits at Macworld Expo. While it is the end of an ear, the announcements are not surprise to some. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

It's a little multi-purpose tool for your iPhone. Cute, eh? It includes a heart rate counter, a measuring tape, a digital caliper, two levels, a flashlight, and an emergency SOS light. If you think one or more of those would be helpful to have on hand, it's well worth the $.99 (available here) price.

The 12 Apps of Christmas: #8:

Christmas is coming to Flint Island, but the evil sky spirit clearly hasn't heard that this is supposed to be the season of goodwill. While stealing the children's presents from under the Christmas tree he accidentally takes "Rock" and will only let him go if his good friend "Roll" can collect all the musical notes from this favorite Christmas carols. Get some holiday cheer by rotating your iPhone to guide through the mazes in Christmas Rock'n'Roll, available here.

Here's a little bit of surprise: Microsoft has just released an application for the iPhone. Called Seadragon Mobile, the program is supposed to allow users to easily and smoothly browse and manipulate large numbers of hi-res images on their Apple smartphone. So the technology should enable users to, for example, zoom in and out of the details on a detailed map with little if any lag time between views.

According to Microsoft's Live Labs:

The aim of Seadragon is nothing less than to change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays all the way down to cell phones, so that graphics and photos are smoothly browsed, regardless of the amount of data or the bandwidth of the network.

It's already available on a number of platforms, including Microsoft Surface, and in Photosynth and Silverlight. Now we're bringing that same graphical smoothness right to the iPhone in your pocket.

Consider the following four "promises" of Seadragon:

1. Speed of navigation is independent of the size or number of objects.
2. Performance depends only on the ratio of bandwidth to pixels on the screen.
3. Transitions are smooth as butter.
4. Scaling is near perfect and rapid for screens of any resolution

See here to download and learn more about Seadragon Mobile for iPhone.  You can also check out this Silverlight video depicting Seadragon to see the technology in action.

You have to wonder why Microsoft didn't take Seadragon mobile on Windows Mobile first. After all, its own mobile-device platform is under heavy threat from the likes of Apple with the iPhone, Google with Android and RIM with BlackBerry right now. While it isn't going to disappear anytime soon, it wouldn't have hurt Windows Mobile's prospects to have been the mobile platform to demonstrate this technological advancement first. Right? 

The 12 Apps of Christmas: #7:

Connect your iPhone to a set of speakers, start up The Salvation Army Christmas Music ($2.99, available here), and you've got holiday music to last throughout all your parties. Use it to call up whatever kind of Christmas music you're in the mood for, including children's songs, classic hymns, jazz songs, or Salvation Army brass. One dollar from your purchase will go to the Salvation Army.

If you've taken some blurry shots with your iPhone's camera, you'll appreciate SteadyCam, available here, which is free for a limited time. Once you press the shutter button, the app will automatically take the photo when your iPhone is stable. The photo will then be saved to your camera roll.

During the holidays, it wasn't uncommon to find my brothers and I playing a board game in the backroom while others mingled at the buffet. With the introduction Astraware Board Games ($4.99) for iPhone and iPod touch, we won't even have to get off the couch to ignore all the merriment going on around us.

The program, available here at the iTunes App Store, features eight classic board games: Chess, Backgammon, Ludo, Checkers, Reversi, Nine Men s Morris, Snakes & Ladders and Tic Tac Toe, the last a current favorite of my 8-year old.

According to Handmark, which now owns Astraware, the title's been optimized for play on the iPhone and iPod touch. So it allows players to shake their device to shake the dice, touch and slide their piece to move it. In addition, players have the choice of playing against the CPU, against friends using "hotseat" multiplayer (passing the iPhone around) on one device, or against a friend on two separate devices using a local Wi-Fi connection.

See video below for a demo of Astraware Board Games.

Zuma was one of our favorite games on the classic iPod, and we've been disappointed that there's no iPhone version. Now our wait has been rewarded with Blackbeard's Assault ($.99, available here), which takes the same premise and gives it a pirate flair. Arrgh!

In this fast action game, trails of colored balls advance on you, and you remove them from the board by shooting other balls from your canon. We like that there are multiple canons on each screen, so that we can select the one that has the best shot. When the advancing balls get too close, there are power-up shots you can use to mow them down.

This game has 20 different levels and 3 difficulty modes. It automatically saves your progress, so if you need to switch out to take a call or duck the boss, you can finish your game later.

Thank Jobs an app like this finally came along. We love that AT&T offers free hotspot access for iPhone customers, but we loathe the tedious sign in procedure, which requires you to visit a Web site, enter your phone number, receive a text message, and then click on a link in order to get the free time.

That bother is over now that we have Easy WiFi for AT&T, available here. This app makes signing in to AT&T hotspots a one-step operation. You'll need to create an account on it first, doing so when you have an open WiFi connection. After that, you can simply tap the app to get access to AT&T hotspots. In our testing, it sometimes took tens of seconds to work and sometimes worked almost instantly, but it always worked.

Author: Naomi Graychase

Mark/Space, the creator of The Missing Sync synchronization software, announced today the release of Fliq Notes, a handy notes application for iPhone and iPod touch. The note-taking application, available for free at the Apple App Store, lets users create, categorize, search, and sort notes and memos by name, date, event, and category. Fliq Notes also allows users to send, or 'beam,' and receive notes over a Wi-Fi network with other Fliq users on an iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac or Windows PC. More details are available at the Mark/Space Web site.

Post courtesy of Wi-Fi Planet.

Former Big Blue executive wants to overturn a court-ordered ban on working at Apple. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #6:

If you love Christmas music, you'll love iChristmas: Christmas Carols ($.99, available here), which makes it easy to sing along to over 100 much-loved carols. Select a carol from the list and you'll get the lyrics and, for most of the songs, an instrumental version to sing along with. It also comes with two fun extras: a mistletoe photo that you can hold over your head, and some jingle bells that you can shake to the beat.

Astro Pachinko, available here, mixes the classic Asian arcade game with trivia questions, so that you not only need to shoot your ball well to get a good score, but answer varied questions, as well. You can choose to play with either American or English trivia questions. We prefer the English, since that set doesn't have a lot of sports questions.

Griffin recently upgraded its TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk iPhone and iPod audio solutions. The former is a stereo headset, while the latter is an adapter that turns any headphone into a headset.

Both have been updated with the same new and improved in-line, noise-canceling microphone, and they're compatible with the iPhone, iPod nano 4G, iPod touch 2G and iPod classic 120GB.

A ControlMic button allows users to Play, Pause and Skip music. Press the button once to pause, twice to skip forward a track and three times to skip back a track. You can also use this button to answer calls or send them to voicemail.

Just about the only thing missing from these peripherals is a built-in volume control. You have to adjust volume on the iPhone itself, either on the screen or through the switch on the left side of the Apple smartphone. It would be nice not to have to fumble for your iPhone to increase the volume when driving, for instance.

TuneBuds (left) features washable ear cushions in a three sizes—small, medium and large. You pick the one that's most comfortable for you. We liked the middle-sized ear cushion. If you, like us, have allergies or simply build up a lot of earwax naturally, you'll find the ability to clean this rubberized buds quite convenient and useful.

As Griffin points out, the buds conform to the ear and isolate sound; they do it quite well, actually. It's like you're listening to music while surrounded by a layer of water filtering out the sounds of the outside world. Not bad.

Our one concern regarding the buds is how they muffle sounds a little too well sometimes. This is fine when listening to music but could prove a little dangerous when driving.

Think you've got real strength? Then test your punching prowess with Punch-O-Meter ($.99, available here), a surprisingly addictive little game that lets you fight alone or trade punches with a friend without doing any damage. It calculates your punch score based on multiple factors such as speed, strength, and straightness of the punch. You'll get immediate feedback from your punch, a visual meter that shows your numeric score, and one of forty comeback phrases commenting on your ability.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #5:

We love the ancient Chinese puzzle game of tangrams and we love this free holiday edition, which offers over 70 puzzles (12 of which have holiday designs). Listen to Christmas music play as you rearrange the seven pieces to fit the designated shapes. Tangram Puzzle Pro: Holiday Edition, available here, is an elegant and enjoyable blend of two cultures.

The Wall Street Journal reports that South Korea will allow foreign smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry to be sold in that country.

According to the Journal, the move is part of an effort by new president Lee Myung-bak to open South Korea's market.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics together account for around 90 percent of handset sales in South Korea, the newspaper reports.

The Journal says by opening up the smartphone market to RIM and Apple, the Korea Communications Commission aims to become more in line with trends in global technology.

The New Oxford American Dictionary is now available for download to the iPhone and iPod touch. The dictionary contains more than 250,000 entries and definitions with content stored locally so it can be used without a wireless connection. It is the first of several Oxford University Press dictionaries Handmark plans to offer through the iTunes App Store. Check out the New Oxford American Dictionary ($19.99) here.

Handmark's just released a version of the game Platypus for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download the side-scrolling shooter here at the iTunes App Store for $4.99. Based on the Mac and PC game from Idigicon and developed by Astraware, this arcade game is based off of characters and scenes made from modeling clay.

The original creator hand-built every ship, tree, and explosion using clay art, photographed them and created digital graphics for the game. Explosions within the game "splat" instead of "bang", for instance.

Here's a description of Platypus from Handmark:

Using a choice of control methods including the iPhone's built-in accelerometer, players pilot the venerable F-27 'Platypus' across squashy fields and trees, avoiding the snowy mountains to defend peaceful Mungola from invasion. Enemy ships disappear in a splat, and several different power-ups are available to assist with the 20-level mission across 4 huge clay scenarios.

See video below:

Yey, one of our favorite childhood board games has come to the iPhone. In Mastermind ($1.99, available here), you work as a code-breaker, guessing a pattern of colored pegs setup by the computer.

After you make a guess, the computer tells you how many pegs you got in the right color and right position, and how many were the right color but wrong position. Use logic to determine what the correct code could be.

This version has three levels of difficulty and can also be played with symbols, which is perfect for the color-blind.

For years we've found it difficult to catch our favorite acts in concert because we never knew when they were coming to town. JamBase, available here, solves that.

Create a user account at www.jambase.com and enter in all your favorite currently active singers and groups. Then, log in to the app with your account info.

In just a few seconds, the app will tell you which of your favorites will be playing nearby in the coming months. It can also tell you every act that will be playing nearby, if you're looking for ideas for a night out.

Walmart's not talking but published reports claim that a smaller Apple smartphone is headed for the biggest retailer. It would sport 4G of storage and go for only $99. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #4

Counting down the days till Christmas is one of the joys of the season for the young and young at heart, and iAdvent ($.99, available here) gives you a simple digital way to do so. Like traditional advent calendars, each day has a box for you to click on. Inside each box is a fun Christmas fact, which you can e-mail to family and friends.

Quickly dial the customer service numbers of over 600 companies and skip directly to a person with this fantastic little app (available here). Don't wait through annoying voice prompts any longer: get through to an actual human being with Dial Zero. It's useful, fast, and simple.

The iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch is, to put it mildly, a massive success. Launched in July, the App Store now contains over 10,000 applications. Not only that, users have downloaded some combination of those apps more than 300,000 times. Above is a mosaic of an iPhone (put together by taptaptap) created using images of the App Store's thousands of programs. Click the picture to enlarge it. See below for today's top ten free and paid apps.

 

Flickr recently updated m.flickr.com with, among other enhancements, the ability to view videos on your mobile phone, starting with the iPhone and Google Android-run handsets, of which the T-Mobile G1 is the only model available so far. It expects to greatly grow the number of supported phones in the coming weeks. See here for the additional features that have been added to make Flickr more mobile friendly.

About a month ago, QuickOffice released it's first iPhone app, MobileFiles. The software gives iPhone users a way to access, view and retrieve files stored remotely in their iDisk folder from an iPhone or iPod touch. Per our request, the company recently posted a video that walks you through some of MobileFiles features.

“MobileFiles files a void for MobileMe users. It’s a frustration to have access to all other MobileMe accounts expect for iDisk, especially for mobile professionals," explained QuickOffice VP of product management Paul Moreton to iPhoneGuide.com. "This is Quickoffice’s first of many iPhone applications and it’s filling a much needed gap in accessibility.”

Here's more info on MobileFiles capabilities:

View files on your iPhone or iPod Touch in landscape or portrait mode, with pan and zoom

Download from multiple iDisk accounts or friends' shared public iDisk folders

Store downloaded files on your iPhone or iPod Touch for faster offline viewing or listening

 Manage your files with our built-in Filemanager for convenient file organization

 

You can download MobileFiles here at the iTunes App Store.

Quickoffice is in the process of developing a version of its eponymous mobile office suite for the iPhone.

New confirmations surface on a rumored, 4GB version of the popular Apple smartphone in time for the holidays. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.

Economics are driving down sales for everyone except you know who. Apple sold 4.7-million iPhone 3Gs during the third quarter of 2008, allowing it take 12.9 share of the total smartphone market, according to Gartner.

RIM increased BlackBerry sales by over 325 percent over the past year, helping it to move from 10th to third place in this mobile handset category. Meanwhile, Nokia continued to lead all others, accounting for 42.4 percent (15.4 million) of the 36.5 million smartphones during the period. HTC took fourth place and Sharp fifth.

Symbian is still the leading smartphone platform,, as it could be found on 49.9 percent of smartphone shipped. It was followed by the RIM OS with 15.9 percent, iPhone OS X with 12.9 percent, and Windows Mobile with an 11.1 percent share. The quarter was the first in which the iPhone platform outsold Microsoft's, a significant milestone.

Expect Google's Android platform to shake things up further when the fourth quarter results appear.

See here at InternetNews.com for the full story.

Eating out, part 1: If you love restaurants, this app is a must-have-and a terrific bargain, too. For less than the cost of one printed Zagat guide you get reviews for major cities around the world. If you're a frequent flyer, you'll never again wonder where to get a bite. If you stay close to home, you'll discover places you never knew in your own city.

Zagat to go '09 ($9.99, available here) can determine your current location and give you reviews for nearby spots, or you can pick from locations anywhere around the globe. Filter on criteria that matter to you, such as price or service, or use the included lists to survey only the best locations. Besides restaurants, the app also includes nightlife, hotel, and store reviews.

While we'd love to say the app is perfect, it's missing a few features. Perhaps they'll be added in an update.

You can't narrow down your choices by using two filters (such as finding only vegetarian restaurants in the West Village) and you can't view several locations on a map at once. (There's a map option, but you can only view one location at a time.)

A few improvements would make this essential app even better.

Eating Out, part 2: Business diners especially will love this handy, simple, and completely free app, which makes choosing a restaurant and making reservations blissfully simple.

Start by either letting OpenTable (available here) use your current location or picking another. Then select when you'd like a reservation and how many are in your party.

The app will instantly show you 20 top restaurants for your area where you can get a table. It even provides descriptions, price estimates, and a map showing all the places on your list. You'll have a great spot booked in under a minute.

In testing, we were blown away by how OpenTable removes the tedious process of calling restaurants and asking if they have an opening. We also love that registered users can send directions to friends with just a few taps. The developers have really thought of everything with this slick and simple application.

Dallas-based AT&T announced yesterday that it will cut 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its workforce. However, as demand for mobile service on devices such as the iPhone increases for AT&T, the company plans to add jobs in mobile, video, and broadband.

This should keep from giving iPhone users a headache. AT&T is still the only service offering iPhone access.

The company cited economic pressures, a changing business climate and a more streamlined organizational structure as the reasons for the cuts.

See here for more on this story at InternetNews.com.

Instead of scrolling through your address book manually, this new application allows you to find and call a contact using only the sound of your voice.

One missing feature for the iPhone has been a voice dialer. Now iPhone has one. Instead of scrolling through a long list of contacts, the new Melodis Dialer can find the contact, list it, and call it.

The Melodis Dialer is quick and accurate. Just click the application icon, and then hold down the green bar and say the name of the contact you wish to see (see below). If you say "Len Lerer" - you'll get the contact listing for him.

If you say "Call Mike Bean" it will dial the number (see below). Or if you have multiple numbers for Mike Bean, just tell the dialer what number you want "Call Mike Bean mobile."

The application automatically indexes all contact information, and it uses what Melodis corporation calls "Crystal Engine" search technology that accepts voice rather than text commands.

The application is a free download available from the iTunes Store.

Hint: Put the dialer icon in the lower bar of the iPhone for easy access (see below). 

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #3

Planning the office gift exchange becomes a little easier when you've got Secret Santa ($.99, available here) on your iPhone. Enter everyone's name in the app, designate any matches to avoid, then pass your phone around and let everyone draw a name. the app will ensure that no one gets their own name.

People is a white pages application that lets you search for the address and phone for almost anyone. Use it to search over 180 million public listings (that's 80 percent of U.S. adults) with only the information you already know.You'll find it saves you a fortune in 411 calls. Check it out here at the iTunes App Store.

RoadTrip with SmartScan is Griffin Technology's newest FM transmitter that's been certified for the iPhone and iPhone 3G. It will also transmit audio to your car stereo from your 1st and 2nd-gen iPod touch, 2nd, 3rd and 4th-gen iPod Nano, and the 80/120GB iPod Classic.

SmartScan searches the radio dial for the three clearest frequencies and automatically programs them into preset buttons. The RoadTrip's model-specific - interchangeable - cradles ensure that each device will fit snugly on top of a flexible neck, all while charging your iPhone or iPod in the vehicles cigarette lighter or 12-volt accessory socket. See here for more info.

Searching and, by extension, advertising on smartphones is about to get smarter thanks to a company called Proximic.

On Tuesday, the company announced Proximic Agents, a language-independent approach to mobile searching for the iPhone. Through "Point to Search" technology, the software facilitates use of interfaces such as touch screens rather than the keyboard typing of ordinary PCs.

Proximic Agents also provides access to 1 million news feeds.

"It's the easiest way to stay on top of the information you are interested in from what is one of the world's largest news databases," said Philipp Pieper, CEO of Proximic, in a statement. "And Proximic Agents does the work for you, freeing you to do the things that are far easier to do on mobile phones."

You can download Proximic Agents here at the iPhone App Store.

Tired of Thanksgiving leftovers? Let's go out to eat. But where? Urbanspoon, a free download available from the iTunes Store, can help you decide.

Urbanspoon determines your location using the 3G's GPS or by triangulating position on the First Generation iPhone. It then spins a wheel, much like a slot machine.

If you don't like the restaurant suggested, give your iPhone a shake and the wheels roll again. Shake again for another suggestion.

You can set the wheels so that only restaurants serving one kind of cuisine, or in a certain neighborhood, or in a certain price range are suggested.

Once urbanspoon suggests a restaurant that you'd like to go to, tap on the restaurant's name and address, phone numbers, even reviews - from newspapers and former customers are available.

Bon Appetit!

There are a number of programs for the iPhone that will allow you to listen to the radio. Most of them allow listening to formerly aired programs, much like a podcast.

Perhaps the most popular application like this is the ones National Public  Radio (NPR) operates in cooperation with local station affiliates. With the program, you can listen to the latest NPR newscasts, top national stories, and local news stories.

Not all local public radio stations have set up this mobile edition of NPR, however. Check with your local radio station.

Also, NPR - along with several radio partners - is developing a program that will allow you to listen to its programming in real time, just as it is being broadcast. But you don't have to wait for that program, MPR - Minnesota Public Radio-  already has one for its signals.

Minnesota Public Radio allows listening of its three streams of audio in real time. With the MPR program - available as a free download from the iTunes Store - you can listen to the classical or popular music channels as well as the news channel, which is the main broadcast, heard in Minnesota on their network.

The live stream works using Wi-Fi or via the 3G or Edge network.

With good signal strength for these networks, the listening experience is robust. If you temporarily lose the network connection, then you'll have to restart the program and the stream.

One drawback of the program (really one of the iPhone OS) is that it does not allow multitasking. If your phone rings, or you want to browse the web, then you'll have to restart the MPR program to listen again to the stream.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #2

Decorate the perfect Christmas tree right on your iPhone. Arrange colored lights, ornaments, candy canes, and icicles just how you want them with Christmas Tree Decorator ($.99, available here). (Be careful not to drop any, though, or you'll hear it shatter.) When you're finished, you can watch your tree sparkle as you count down the days until Christmas.

Want to improve your vocabulary? Blanks, available here, is a simple tool for learning new words. It works like a game, showing you a word definition and giving you four choices for your answer. Select one and drag it to the hole in the paper. You'll instantly see whether you were right or wrong.

Living on a budget is hard, but Balance keeps it simple. If you rely on a debit card but you're never sure how much money is left on your account, then this app is for you. Enter your debits and credits and let Balance keep track of your available funds. The latest version, available here, adds password protection.

If you're spending way too much at the App Store, AppSniper ($1.99, available here) can help-and pay for itself in just a few uses. This guide shows you which apps are on sale and even which are free, so you can snap up bargains. It even lets you track apps that you're interested in, so that you can see when their price drops.

The 12 Apps of Christmas, #1.

Keep your Christmas shopping list easy and on budget. Better Christmas List ($2.99, available here) is the simplest way to manage holiday shopping. Set a budget for gifts and then make an entry each time you buy a present. The app keeps track of your balance, so your generosity doesn't get the better of you.

Let your high-tech iPhone become a low-tech sign with this simple and humorous app. Signboard (available here) lets you display text large enough to be seen from afar, so that you can send a message to someone across the room or out the window.