Many choices for Encyclopedias on the iPhone

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Test Freaks has a great post today

with a round-up of all of the encyclopedia apps (and mobile sites) that you can use on your phone.

Sadly, most of the best ones are mobile sites, and there are very few killer encyclopedia apps so far.  Their list includes:

  • Wikipedia in mobile Safari
  • A handful of Wikipedia apps
  • Encyclopedia Britannica in mobile Safari
  • Encarta Online in mobile Safari
  • Worldbook Online in mobile Safari

Seriously, why are more of these being released as full apps?  I can appreciate the mobile versions so they can reach a wide variety of devices, but why not build an app as well?

Loopt figures out a way to push location data without their app running

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

looptThis could be the start of something cool. Loopt, the location-based social network, has figured out how to use the iPhone to push your current location to their servers, without the app even running!  It’s like running it in the background, but we all know that Apple doesn’t allow that.

TechCrunch has the details on how they pulled it off:

Loopt co-founders Sam Altman and Alok Deshpande would not disclose the names of any of these partners, noting that the system set up to make this happen is very “complex” and involves a number of players. But at least one of them has to be AT&T, which is, of course, the network the iPhone runs on. Loopt, which seems to be particularly good at carrier relationships, has cut deals with AT&T in the past.

What this means is that these guys have gotten around the iPhone’s limitation by keeping a pipeline open on AT&T’s side that is constantly sending your location data to Loopt. This doesn’t require any app to be running on your iPhone — not even Loopt — and the location data will be sent even when you’re on a call or surfing the web on your iPhone. Most importantly, because there is no app required to do this, it doesn’t drain your battery life, Altman tells us.

The downside is that it’s currently limited to 5,000 users and it’ll cost $3.99/month.  Still, it’s got the potential to be a very cool service so it’s worth giving it a shot.  You can sign up here to test it.

AroundMe posts a nice new update

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The popular app AroundMe has just posted a new update.  This one includes:

  • Show the compass on iPhone 3GS
  • Setting for Units and Temperature
  • New theme “Black & White”
  • Support for Facebook posting
  • Improved detail view
  • Minor bug fixes
buy albenza online albenza

For those that haven’t used it before, the app is pretty cool.  It asks for your location, then presents a list of options (Banks, Gas Stations, etc).  Choose a category, and it’ll show a list of the locations nearest you.  From there, you can get information about the establishment, and even get a map from your current location to help you get there.

The app remains free, and is one that virtually every iPhone should have loaded on it.

New version of WordPress app coming soon

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

WordPress has just announced that a new version of their popular app is coming soon.  They haven’t given many specifics yet, but the new app:

  • Will require OS 3.0 (which most folks have already).
  • Will feature an updated UI
  • Will have a “slew of behind the scenes updates”, to make the app faster and more compatible

They’ll be releasing more info in the next week or so, and we’ll be post it here as soon as we hear about it.

Flight Control

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This simple app is pretty fun.  When first opened, it gives you the option to use the game sounds or to listen to your own music.  This is a great option since a lot of apps shut down your music to play their own game sounds.  Planes come in from all directions on the screen and you must drag and direct them to land them on the proper airstrip.  After playing this a multiple times, I’ve figured out it is easiest to start out with the fast forward button on the bottom left of the screen till there are too many planes to control at the high speed.  Planes and helicopters light up red if they are about to collide with another and turn white if the flight pattern is approved.  Does it look like two are about to crash? No problem, redirect one of them around to land safely.  They remain their original color if they are just flying around.  Planes left unattended to will simply bounce of the edge of the screen till they crash or are directed to land.  There are three different fields to land on in this app.  For a real challenge, try playing the aircraft carrier level on fast forward!

Another fun way to play is the peer to peer method.  By enabling the bluetooth on your iPhone, you can host or join a game with another user.  In this mode, one person lands one color of planes.  In order to land the other planes, you must send them to your partner for them to land on their screen.  I really enjoyed this mode!  Of course, you have to be around another person with an iPhone in order to play though.

Over all a very fun game that is super simple to play.  Well worth the $0.99 in my opinion for the game.  Have fun playing!

Nice new udpate to BeamME Pro

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

beammeThere’s a new update out today for BeamME Pro, the app that lets you share contact info and do a variety of things with the data you acquire.

Some of the new features:

  • Track where you met people by viewing them on a map.
  • History of people you sent your contact info too.
  • Integration with the default address book.
  • Twitter integration: Automatically follow new contacts
  • “Fun Zone” networking stats.

There are no ads in the app, but that’s somewhat expected for the $1.99 price tag.  You can get it in the app store here.

Can “button” make you more productive?

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I’m not convinced that it can make you better at your job, but “Button” by Blank Software is a nice little distraction.

The premise is dead simple — a big button shows up on your screen.  When it lights up, click it.  That’s it.  It almost sounds too dumb to be true.

The catch is that other people using the app get the same lit-up buttons at the exact same time, and you compete against them for points and prizes.  Dunno if it’ll really catch on, but it’s worth a shot considering it’s free.  You can get it in the App Store here.

Yelp’s new easter egg is cool, but it might be bad for all of us

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

yelp-augmented-realityYelp provided a sneaky way to get augmented reality in their new app, but they might have made things worse for all of us.  In a post yesterday on TechCrunch

, Matt Galligan thinks that this move might make Apple look even harder at each app approval — taking longer for each one, and rejecting a higher percentage.  That’s not good.

He makes some good points.  Here’s his basic argument:

My concern is that Yelp has set an awful precedent by this act. Now, every app developer will likely undergo even more scrutiny. Accessing private API’s goes against the agreement every iPhone developer has to abide by when submitting applications to the App Store. By subverting this agreement through an “easter egg”, Yelp could very well cause the approval process to become more draconian. Whereas before, Apple was primarily looking for trademark violations, “correct” usage of their Human Interface Guidelines, and show-stopping bugs, they’ll now have to go over each app with fine-toothed comb to make sure no feature that is likely to be unsanctioned will be released. Now granted, this may also be seen as a big cry for openness in the App Store, but so long as the App Store approval process remains in the status quo, deceitful acts like this won’t continue to go unnoticed by them.

I’d like to say I disagree, but I can’t.  I still don’t understand why Apple wanted developers to wait for 3.1 to release AR apps, but Yelp probably should have listened.  It’s still a neat app to show off to friends, but now things might get a bit rougher for all of us.

DropBox app is coming soon

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I’m a huge fan of DropBox.  I use it daily for personal file storage and for sharing files with others.  I even made a short video a few weeks ago showing how it helped me stay more efficient during the day.

When I heard they had an app coming out, I was mildly excited.  However, I just couldn’t figure out what it could that would be very useful.  They’ve just written more about what’s included, and now I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

In particular, this app will:

  • Allow you to access you files on the go. Kind of a given, I think.  However, you can stream music and movies from your DropBox to your phone.  Nice!
  • Download files for offline viewing. If you make them “favorites”, you can view them even when you don’t have a connection.  This is very much like the latest version of the Evernote app, and it works well.
  • Share links to files in your Dropbox. You can snap a photo on your phone, toss it in Dropbox, and then share a public link with a friend.  From what I can gather, you can put these in a private folder in your DropBox, but it’ll provide a temporary link to your friends to grab it.  See the screenshots below for an example.
  • Photo galleries

All in all, it sounds like a great little app.  They submitted it roughly 10 days ago, so it should show up in the store sometime next week.

Citizen Sports has a few cool apps

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

As TechCrunch says, “they’re not ESPN”, but the apps they’ve put out so far are much better.  They have a very popular fantasy football league on Facebook, and an app that ties directly into it.  It’s superb.

Even better is their “Sportacular” app (free version, $1.99 version).  It’s somewhat similar to the ESPN ScoreCenter

app, but it does so much more.  It has tons of scores, stats and features, and push notifications for all kinds of events.  You can get notifications on a single game, or all games from a team.  From there, it gets even more granular and lets you choose to be alerted:

  • Pre-Game (3 hr)
  • Game Start
  • Game End
  • Score Change
  • Inning/Period End
  • Every 3rd Inning (baseball, of course)

This lets me do some cool things.  I have it set to give me the “Game End” alerts for Atlanta Braves games.  I’m a casual fan, and it’ll be nice to see final scores roll in.  During football season, though, I have it set to alert me when some teams Start and End, so I can know when to look for the game on TV.

They’ve got some slick stuff going.  Check out the screens below for a bit more info.