The iPod Nation

Since the launch of Apple’s App Store many cool apps have become available to iPhone users. Many of them are catered to bloggers and media reporters allowing them to retire their notepad and pencil for their iPhones. It’s no coincidence that many iPhone users out there also are bloggers, many bloggers fall right into the iPhones target market and these 10 apps are perfect for those bloggers on the go.

Originally posted on 10000word.net

1.SpeakEasy Voice Recorder
Average Rating: 3 Stars Price: $4.99

From the developer: Record and playback notes, reminders, or just about anything from your iPhone’s built-in microphone. SpeakEasy gives you a recording studio that fits into your pocket. Intuitive and fun, SpeakEasy is the premier voice recorder for your iPhone.

• Record voice memos, reminders, lectures, meetings, or anything you wish.
• Add a title, comments, or even a photo from your photo library or camera while recording.
• Group and organize your recordings by category.
• Interruption protection lets you pick up and continue your recording after a phone call interruption.
• Pause and continue recording with a single touch.
• Playback and quickly scan your recordings with the touch slider.

2. Writing Pad
Average Rating: 4 Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Store notes and send email using ShapeWriter on your iPhone. ShapeWriter is a revolutionary text input technology that enables you to enter text into the iPhone by tracing word shapes rather than typing letters. Each shape traced on the soft keyboard with your finger is recognized as a word. Error correction is fast and easy. For rare names and acronyms, type only once and you will be able to shape write the next time. Shape writing is many times more efficient than letter-based handwriting recognition.

3.WordPress
Average Rating: 3½ Stars Price: Free

From the developer: Robust but simple to use, the WordPress for iPhone Open Source application allows you to create and edit content on your WordPress blog(s) with support for offline use. The app includes the following features:

• Support for WordPress.com blogs and self-installed WordPress blogs (version 2.5.1 and higher)
• Embedded Safari for true previews of posts
• Full support for tags and categories
• Photo support for both camera pics and library photos
• Support for multiple blogs
• Ability to password protect a post, save as draft, or mark for later review
• Auto-recovery feature recovers posts interrupted by phone calls

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Sending picture messages via MMS is just as popular as sending a text, yet it’s funny that the innovative iPhone isn’t able to do this. That’s where the new app Palringo comes in to help. Palringo links with many popular IM services, such as AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and others, and allows you to send text and picture messages from your iPhone. It does this fee without depleting your SMS limit. Palringo is working on getting voice messages up and running for the iPhone very soon too. This isn’t a replacement for SMS messaging however, as it goes though your instant messaging network and you must be logged in to use it. It does come in handy and is a useful little app that makes it a lot easier to send images on your iPhone.

-Ray

[Source: macworld ]

The former jailbreak app Voice Dial for the iPhone is now available on the App Store. Voice Dial allows you to record voice samples for your contacts in your address book then bring up that contact with just the sound of your voice. You can also activate Voice Dial by using the two-press home button method or set up a tag to activate it. At $25 Voice Dial isn’t a cheap app, and there’s sure to be similar apps available pretty soon for less than Voice Dial but at the moment Voice Dial is a pretty good voice dialing application that comes in handy when you really need it. -Ray [Source: gizmodo ]

A cool new app is coming soon for the Apple iPhone that turns your iPhone into a wireless drive for file storage. As seen in the video you can quickly and easily upload music, video and other files and folders onto your iPhone wirelessly. This is a great way to back up important files or take them with you for meetings and presentations.

-Ray

[Source: gotzune ]

Need a stand for your iPod Nano while you’re on the go?  Check out Naja’s Flexible Rotating Dock Stand for the iPod Nano.  This stand is very different from those I have seen elsewhere.  Instead of feature the regular base, it uses a flexible, moldable wire to keep it upright.  The iPod Nano itself is held in a snap-in case.

The presumed way that you would utilize this “stand”, is by wrapping the plastic coated wire around something like a pole.  This would enable you to attach your iPod on something vertical.  If you are bound to experience surfaces which are not flat, then this may be the perfect stand for you.

-Jameson

[Source: iLounge]

The snazzy new Last.FM UI

The Last.FM logo

The infamous AudioScrobbler logo

This article was originally posted on the InspireTech blog. Before that it was posted on “Advant-garde”.

I’ve been using Last.FM for several years now. Last.FM is a social music/internet radio/playlist site which keeps track of what music you listen to through the use of a plugin called Audioscrobbler, which essentially records what tracks you’ve played on your computer’s music player (usually iTunes or Windows Media) and sends them to your online profile. Once record, the website begins to take statistics on how much you listen to certain genres, certain artists, and certain songs. The reason it does all of this is so it can give you recommendations for new music based on what you previously listened to. In addition to this, you can create radio stations of your favorite artists, and listen to stations created by your friends. This makes it really easy to discover new and fresh music

The radio stations can listened to through your browser or via the Last.FM software that is available for Macs, PCs, and Linux. In addition to this software, there are many other user-submitted programs available to enhance your experience. There are tons of other cool features that I won’t mention here, so you have to check it out for yourself.

My personal favorite feature is the ability for users to make their own embeddable music chart widgets, which can be used to show people the latest tracks you’ve listened to on your blog or web page. (I have one embedded in my blog’s sidebar!). These widgets automatically update and are available in Flash or Javascript form.

Recently Last.FM introduced the beta of their new interface. You can check it out by creating an account, though I’ve provided a picture of it for you.

The software can be downloaded here, and you can create an account here. My username is thwritingwriter, if you feel like adding me as a friend.

-Jameson

[Source: Advant-garde]

Official Product Photo

Pads

Sequencer

Effects

App Icon

This article was originally posted on the iPhone Spies blog. Before that it was posted on the Advant-garde blog.

Aside from buying a ridiculous fitness application for my iPhone from the App Store by accident, I hadn’t bought any “paid” applications since the App Store’s opening. Today I changed my mind and decided to drop $20 dollars on a music application after being amazed by a video review. The application I purchased is named “Beat Maker” and it is probably one of the most advanced applications I have seen thus far for the iPhone.

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Yesterday Apple released the 1.1.5 Software Update for iPod Touch users who don’t wish to upgrade to 2.0 software. This update doesn’t offer any new features, but instead provides security fixes and stability updates. If you want to check in on any of the new features that come with the Firmware 2.0, you are going to to have to hand over the cash to get it.

-Jameson

[Source: TUAW]

With the iPod Touch Upgrade finally released, we are wondering how many people are going to be paying the $10 to upgrade to the latest Firmware to to use the App Store.

Along with the App Store as the main feature, there are a number of features which could cause you to buy. MacWorld Writer Christopher Breen Lists them off in this article:

Existing updates: As I speculated earlier, all the applications included with the $20 January iPod touch update are included with the iPod touch 2.0 update—Google Maps, Mail, Weather, Web Clips, Stocks, and Notes are all present and accounted for. If you purchased an iPod touch early on and, inexplicably, didn’t update the thing in January, you now have that update and more for half the original price. (Those who feel compelled to announce their displeasure at paying twice the price for these advanced features only to have them offered for less money half a year later are invited to express themselves in the Comments area below. With sliced onions at the ready, I am prepared to cry you a river.)

New updates: The iPod touch 2.0 update provides many of the same slick features provided to iPhone users—push e-mail with Microsoft Exchange support, updated language and keyboard support, searchable contacts, support for MobileMe, multiple calendars, a calculator that switches from standard to scientific when you turn the touch sideways, support for viewing a broader variety of e-mail attachments (iWork and PowerPoint files, specifically), mass delete and moving of e-mail messages, parental controls, and the ability to take a screenshot of the iPod’s interface by holding the Home button and then briefly pressing the Sleep/Wake button.

The App Store icon joins the home screen of your iPod touch after you update to the 2.0 software.

The App Store When you update the iPod touch, the App Store icon appears on the Home screen. Those who are concerned that their iPod touch, as a “lesser iPhone,” will be unable to run many of the applications offered at the App Store can rest easy. The vast majority of these applications will work splendidly with the iPod touch (or, at least, as splendidly as they will with an iPhone). A few that rely on pin-point location—meaning the GPS found on the iPhone 3G—may be a little or a lot less useful with an iPod touch that can’t seem to find its way with Wi-Fi triangulation.

Remote control: Given how useful and desirable Apple’s Remote application is—the application that allows you to wirelessly browse and control your iTunes library and Apple TV—it’s a little surprising that it wasn’t bundled with the iPhone and iPod touch updates. Instead it’s offered as a free download from the App Store. To my mind, this is the most immediately useful application available from the App Store and completely worth the $10 you pay for the update.

Buy once, use many: If, like me, you own more than one iPod touch, you’ll be thrilled to know that you can update multiple iPod touches with a $10 single copy. As long as the update is on your Mac, you can plug all the iPod touches you own into that Mac and update them.

The iPod touch User Guide and iPhone Web Applications join your bookmarks list.

Download once, use many: Speaking of multiple uses, if you have an iPhone and an iPod touch, you win again because once you download an app from the App Store, you can place it on all the iPhones and iPod touches associated with your Apple ID. For example, on my MacBook Pro, I purchased Pangea’s Enigmo on my original iPhone running the 2.0 software. I later plugged my 16GB iPod touch into this same Mac and when it synced, Enigmo and all the free applications I downloaded from the App Store were also copied to my touch. (Note that I updated the touch on a different Mac, which tells us that applications transfer because of Apple ID association rather than association with a particular Mac or iTunes library.)

Free help: After you install the update, tap Safari and check your bookmarks. At the bottom of your bookmarks list you’ll find two entries that weren’t there before—iPod touch User Guide and iPhone Web Applications. (Do the same with an iPhone and you see iPhone User Guide and iPhone Web Applications.) Tap either and you’re taken to an iPhone and iPod touch-friendly website that provides a wealth of helpful information.

So is this upgrade worth ten bucks? Find me a better bargain on the planet and my money’s yours.

-Jameson

[Source: MacWorld]

This article was originally posted on the iPhone Spies blog

The good guys over at Engadget have compiled a list of what they think were the worst and best iPhone App’s released for the iPhone yesterday. Go read their article (it has pics!). We have the basic list and reviews here for you.

The best:

Remote
Apple mixes it up with the indie developers and turns in a responsive, intuitive and extensive interface for controlling iTunes remotely. Setup is a breeze — though we weren’t really expecting anything less from Apple — and we’re nerdy enough to sit two feet from our computer and choose songs via the iPhone. This app clearly benefited from the money, time and testing advantage Apple has over the “competition.”

Ms. Pac Man
Good old school vibe, nice choice of control methods, and solid, professional feel. Game makers take note, you could learn something from one of the classics.

File Magnet
This one is kind of cool. It lets you upload PDFs, Office documents, pictures, movies, and audio files wirelessly to your phone to view or listen to. It requires Leopard and a separate uploader app, but it works seamlessly and does exactly what it claims to. We’re hoping they add some basic editing functions here, or allow you to export to other apps that can.

Guitar Toolki
If you’re a guitar player, this has a handful of tools (tuner, metronome, etc.) that are actually useable and handsomely presented. Still, the plucked strings could be a bit louder if you’re trying to use them to tune.

CityTransit
If you live in NYC, this service not only gives you a full MTA subway map and separate line guides, but also provides a location based stop-finder, and OTA updates of train trouble or service outages direct from the source. At $2.99, you probably can’t afford not to have this in New York.

Twittelator
The free (and superior) alternative to Twitterrific. It may not be as handsome, but it’s not hard on the eyes, and definitely gets the job done a lot smoother.

Bomberman Touch
It’s got a badly translated plot, old-school graphics, and control that we can live with (though it’s no Ms. Pac Man). Oh, and it’s Bomberman.

Hold Button
This might be the single greatest “productivity” app ever coded.

The worst:

AIM
You’re kidding us, right? This is the best chat we can get for one of the world’s most advanced phones? Almost every instant messenger program that was available for jailbroken phones make this look like My First Coding Project. Buggy UI, annoying lack of mute, no icon message updates (or updates at all), and rapid fire message downloading when you reopen make this pure, unadulterated fail.

NetNewsWire
No ability to add or remove feeds, improper display of feed names and hierarchy, and no way to zoom out on large stories or pictures are just a few of the problems we have with this app. Back to the drawing board — the competition isn’t sleeping guys. Like a lot of free apps, it just feels like a sleazy way to tether you to an online service.

Twitterrific
Well it looks nice — but jumpy, sluggish performance make this a pain to use. Also, ads? It doesn’t inspire us to pay for this, it inspires us to download Twittelator.

Facebook
What’s the point of an application that offers slightly less functionality than the iPhone site? The world may never know.

NYTimes
Okay, you’re the world’s greatest news source, right? So why can’t your iPhone app load pictures or update properly, and why are you using our miniscule bandwidth to display ads? We don’t know… do you?

Ebay Mobile
Look, we all need to shop on the go, right? But we don’t all need to use an application that looks like its buttons were lazily stolen from Flash templates circa 1999. It’s ugly, it’s sloppy. It doesn’t alert you to bidding wars or potential upsets. Get it away from us.

Almost, but not quite

Super Monkey Ball
Touted as being the high-water-mark for the iPhone’s graphics performance, Super Monkey Ball doesn’t disappoint in that department. Controls are difficult (to say the least), and that can dip the fun-levels kind of low — since you have to tilt the screen away from you to move the monkey, you sometimes miss the action altogether. Still it’s a good time once you get the hang of it, though some of those kinks can be pretty maddening (no real pause?). Needs some tightening up, but still quite playable.

Mobile Flickr
Worth the cash if you’re a Flickr addict, and mobile uploads are a joy, but a serious D- on presentation, and suffers from the buggy feel of so many of these apps.

Whrrl
We’re loving the concept, and plan on tricking our friends into joining up into our own little Whrrl-based restaurant-reviewing mafia, but this is another app that needs (a lot) more time in the oven.
-Jameson

[Source: Engadget]