Facebook for iPhone 3.1 allows users to add profile pictures and links from Facebook to their iPhone contacts.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Facebook's iPhone app is one of the most popular apps for the device. Version 3.1 brings some killer features to an already strong offering. Push notifications and address book sync, new in this version, are welcome additions.
Push notifications are a very logical addition. They have become Apple's compromise for not allowing apps to run in the background. Instead of having to fire up the Facebook app all the time to see if anything is new, you can now opt to get push notifications for new messages, wall posts, friend requests, friend confirmations, photo tags, events, and comments. This is way more efficient and allows you to only access the app when there is something new to check out, if you choose.
Facebook's new contact sync for the iPhone is particularly interesting. At first, I was a bit hesitant to try out the feature, worrying that it would overwrite the data that I had or add a lot of new friends on Facebook that I didn't really want as contacts on my phone. But it didn't cause any of the problems that I had imagined. Rather, it examines the contacts that you already have on your iPhone, trying to match it to a Facebook user. If it finds a match, it pulls down that person's profile picture, making it that his or her photo on your iPhone. It also adds other information, such as a link that takes you to that person's profile in Facebook's app. The feature doesn't seem to cause any data integrity issues, it just makes your iPhone contact information more robust. Even more interestingly, if one of your phone contacts is not your Facebook friend, it will (in most cases) still pull down their info from Facebook if it finds a match.
Version 3.0 was a big jump forward for Facebook's iPhone app. Even though its creator, Joe Hewitt, has since left the project and started boycotting iPhone app development, version 3.1 delivers some really cool features that round out Facebook's offering on the iPhone nicely.
An iPhone contact, post-Facebook sync, with profile picture and Facebook link added.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)
Facebook for iPhone 3.1's push notification options.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Apple has just put out a feature in the iTunes Store, called Rewind, that shows off the best and best-selling music, movies, TV shows, and apps from 2009. This year's edition is crammed full of information and I encourage you to browse through (iTunes link). The results are pretty interesting, although there are no real shockers. iTunes didn't provide download figures; it simply ranked the top-sellers. Here is a quick rundown of what stands out.
Not surprisingly, in the music category, iTunes staff picked Michael Jackson as artist of the year, with Kings of Leon taking home album of the year for their 2009 release, "Only By the Night." The top-selling single of the year was the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow." They also checked in at No. 4 with "I Gotta Feeling," giving them two songs in the top 5.
iTunes' best-selling games of 2009.
The apps category is particularly interesting. The top 5 best-selling games of 2009 are dominated by Electronic Arts. Four out of the five top games are made by EA, including The Sims 3 in the No. 1 spot, followed by Need for Speed Undercover, Madden 10, and Tiger Woods in the Nos. 3, 4, and 5 spots. Gameloft's The Oregon Trail breaks up the EA love fest by sneaking in at No. 2.
As far as other apps go, Navigon's Mobile Navigator grabs the top spot in best-sellers, followed by MLB.com At Bat, Textfree Unlimited, TomTom, Golfshot: Golf GPS, and SlingPlayer Mobile. Unfortunately iTunes doesn't give a combined list, so we don't know what app is really at the top of the pile.
Although the iTunes list is probably not representative of the most popular movies of 2009, due to its limited catalog available for viewing, we'll take a look at it nonetheless. It should be no surprise that punching in at No. 1 for most sales and rentals is "Twilight." Rounding out the top three, we have the stoner comedy/action movie "Pineapple Express" and Bond flick "Quantum of Solace."
iTunes also lists "Up," "Star Trek," "The Hangover," and "Adventureland" as some of the best movies of 2009.
Finally, we have the TV shows category. Yes, iTunes did make some TV episode sales in 2009, despite the existence of alternatives like DVRs, Hulu, and Netflix. The top-selling seasons were "Mad Men" (season 3), "Lost" (season 5), and "24" (season 7). "Family Guy" claims the best-selling episode with "Stew-Roids," followed by "Gossip Girl" with "In the Realm of the Basses," and "Lost" with "Because You Left."
2009 was a good year for content on iTunes. What were some of your favorites in music, movies, TV, and iPhone apps from last year (on iTunes or otherwise)? Let us know in the comments.
TweetDeck's new Facebook support.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)TweetDeck, the popular Twitter app for the iPhone, was pulled from the Apple App Store on Monday due to a crippling crash bug. An update was quickly resubmitted to Apple and the new version (1.1.1) is now available for download (iTunes Link). The new version includes Facebook integration, video uploading, and support for Twitter trending topics.
The Facebook support in TweetDeck for iPhone works very well, allowing you to add columns from Facebook by either selecting a feed of all your friends or separating them into groups. The feed support is restricted to status updates, so you cannot see when new photos or events are posted, but comments and Likes on status updates are visible. It also allows users to comment or Like a post from the app as well as post a message on someone's wall. Of course, Facebook's own iPhone app is a much more robust offering, but it is nice to have data from Facebook and Twitter centralized in one app.
TweetDeck now also offers video recording and uploading for iPhone 3GS owners. This service is supported by 12seconds, which has an iPhone app of its own. This type of short-form video plays nicely with the overall concept of Twitter and should help to cut down on upload times when posting new updates.
Additional features included in this update are the inclusion of Twitter trending topics, the ability to cross-post updates to Twitter and Facebook, nearby tweets, bit.ly support, and landscape composing. These are all features that make a lot of sense for TweetDeck and were surely highly requested.
A nice video of the new features, put together by the TweetDeck team, is included below.
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Dropbox's iPhone app lets you access your documents on the go.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Dropbox was one of the companies that I was shocked to see didn't have an iPhone app when the App Store launched last summer. The service seems like it would mesh perfectly with the iPhone. After all, one of Dropbox's competitors, Soonr, launched its iPhone sync app in January. Unfortunately, Dropbox was MIA from our favorite mobile device for a long time. However, on Tuesday Dropbox released version 1.0 of its iPhone app. So, how does it stack up? Is it worth the wait?
This iPhone app is a great addition to Dropbox's offering. If you already use Dropbox and have an iPhone, then this free app is a no-brainer. If you don't use Dropbox, this app could be the thing that pushes you over the edge. It works beautifully, giving you instant access (with a network connection) to any of the files in your Dropbox. It also includes a "Favorites" feature in which you can designate a particular file to be automatically downloaded to your phone for offline viewing.
The app can view images (jpg, tiff, gif), music, movies (mov, mp4, m4v), Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, and Numbers docs, PDFs, Keynote presentations, HTML pages, txt files and vcards. If you need to access a document in your Dropbox, this app will most likely allow you to view it. One of the cooler features is the music and movie streaming. If you have music or movie files stored in your Dropbox, they can be played back easily.
Finally, Dropbox lets you upload photos from your iPhone's photo library or take a new one to upload. While this functionality has already been implemented by many other apps (Flickr, Facebook, various Twitter apps), it still rounds out the offering nicely.
It's unfortunate that we had to wait so long for this app, but Apple's approval process, which often takes longer than five weeks, is partially to blame. As I said above, this app is a no-brainer if you already use Dropbox and it certainly acts as an incentive to new users.
You can download the Dropbox iPhone app here.
As if being the No. 1 free iPhone app of 2008 wasn't enough for Pandora, it has launched version 2.0 of its app just six days into 2009.
New features in this release include a progress bar for songs (finally!), 30-second previews for bookmarked songs, the ability to create a new station from a song or artist, artist information, cover-flow view for song history, and some sharing features.
While this update isn't anything revolutionary, it certainly rounds out the cool features in the app, like embedded iTunes purchasing. With Tuesday's Macworld announcement of iTunes downloads, now being possible over 3G, this could prove to be a very useful feature.
Creating new stations from artists or songs will add a lot to the capability and usefulness of this app as well. The new cover-flow view for song history behaves almost exactly like Apple's. The album covers flip over to reveal information on the artist and why that song was played. One annoyance here is that you cannot bookmark or purchase songs from this view. I suspect that this is an easily correctable issue.
The 2.0 update for Pandora improves upon an already killer and must-have application for the iPhone. It's available in the iTunes store.
Soonr's iPhone app.
Soonr, a Webware 100 winner in 2007, has a fresh new look and a killer iPhone application.
Soonr's free service and accompanying App Store download allows users to store up to 500MB of files, which they can access on the go, from the iPhone or a standard Web browser.
New users create their account on their iPhone and then download a desktop application (available for PC or Mac) which handles the synchronization of files. In the same form of other desktop-syncing applications, the user only has to choose the directories that they want to keep updated, and any changes made will be automatically uploaded. All of these files are easily accessible from the iPhone app.
Not only does Soonr allow you to have very quick access to your documents from the iPhone, but it also allows you to share the documents with other users. These users can view and comment on the file.
Unfortunately, Soonr does not currently enable users to edit these documents. But its application does include a wireless-printing feature, enabling users to send documents to networked printers when on Wi-Fi.
My only real gripe with the iPhone app is the lack of full-screen support within the document viewer. The iPhone's document viewer does a better job of actually displaying documents than Soonr's.
Soonr is a great solution for iPhone users looking to have constantly synchronized documents on the go. Soonr is very easy to use, fully featured and, best of all, free.
Men in Black playing on Joost's new iPhone app.
If ever there was a Web service that experienced a rapid fall from grace, it was online video start-up Joost. What started out as a much anticipated new service ultimately fell short of expectations and has recently struggled for attention. Friday, Joost released an iPhone app for its service that might be a game changer. Joost's iPhone app lets users stream and watch any of Joost's 46,000-plus videos for free.
Say what you will about Joost's library of content, the concept behind this app is fantastic. The ability to stream a movie, TV show, or other piece of video content on the go is great. I know the technology is nothing revolutionary--after all the iPhone has had a YouTube app, complete with streaming video, since the device launched. Even given that, when you load up Men in Black on Joost, it just feels like a whole different ballgame. This isn't a video of a dog on a skateboard anymore. This is real, Hollywood-produced content, delivered to your phone, for free.
I have not experienced the major hiccups that very early users, like MG Siegler did, so those issues seem to have been taken care of. I did notice some occassional stuttering of the stream over Wi-Fi. I am, however, disheartened by the lack of streaming support over EDGE or 3G. Joost requires a Wi-Fi connection to work.
Even though Joost appears to have a really slick UI (in many ways it does), it breaks some of the conventions for UI design set forth by Apple. Flicking to view the next page of search results does work. However, it does not slide over as you would expect, rather a spinning wheel is displayed while the next page loads. Joost also did not implement the incremental find that we have all grown accustomed to for searching.
For me, Joost's iPhone app falls just short of greatness. I really like what they are going for here, but I would certainly like to see more content added to Joost's library and support for 3G at the very least, if not EDGE. Even though the videos appear to choke at times, even over Wi-Fi, 3G should be more than capable of streaming video.
I hope that Hulu and Netflix, with their expansive content libraries, are paying attention to what Joost is doing because they are both prime candidates for this sort of mobile application. I get excited just thinking about having access to all of those videos (almost) anytime I want.
This is what Facebook's iPhone app should have looked like when it first launched.
Facebook on Tuesday released version 2.0 of its popular iPhone app (iTunes Store link). This release contains a lot of the functionality that is in the full version of Facebook, making the iPhone version much more attractive. Some key features added include friend requests, notifications, people search, photo tagging/captioning, full News/Mini Feeds, message attachments, and inbox search.
The application, overall, seems to be more snappy and definitely has a better look to it. The inclusion of friend requests and notifications is big here, adding a whole new level of usefulness to the app. People search is also an extremely useful addition to the app, allowing you to find people who aren't already your friends. Additionally, photo tagging is integrated very well and along with captioning, makes the photo uploading part of the app fully functional.
A point of pain and confusion among my friends since Facebook launched their iPhone app has been the lack of message attachments. Messages would not display their attachments, creating miscommunication between those using the iPhone app and those using the browser based version. Thankfully, that issue has been resolved in this update.
This is the version that a lot of people were expecting at launch for Facebook's iPhone app. Many were disappointed by the lack of wall posting (which was quickly added) and other features on day one and this update should do well to satisfy them.
Stitcher is trying to be to news and information what Pandora is to music. The service provides you with a variety of audio programming, broken down by topics, such as sports, technology, and world news. Sources for the app include CNN, CNET, ESPN, AP, WSJ, Reuters, and a variety of local sources. As you rate the various audio streams and podcasts, Stitcher learns what you might like and serves up content.
While there is a bigger market for music, I think that there is a sizable market for customized news and information. A lot of people listen to news and sports on the radio and Stitcher makes it easy to have a highly personalized stream to get you caught up on what matters to you.
Stitcher is a free, ad supported app. There is no word yet on when the app is going to be available to the general public, but the limited beta test ends at the end of this week.
Even after trading for Ken Griffey Jr., my White Sox are struggling against the Royals.
Even though I have dropped a lot of jaws by showing off the instantaneous video highlights that MLB.com's iPhone app provides, it is certainly lacking in the statistics department. ScoreMobile picks up the slack. The application gives live standings, lineups, and a variety of other statistics. Even though it doesn't have video highlights like MLB's app, the statistics provided here are much more robust.
The lack of sports applications that are available for the iPhone is really amazing to me. There is certainly a large market of sports fans out there, waiting to be tapped into. Despite the apparent void of good sports applications, ScoreMobile's app for iPhone is clearly the best available right now. It serves up rich and timely statistics and has a slick UI. The best part is that it's free, so it's worth your click to download it at the very least. You can give it a try here.
