Applications

For Senior Editors Bonnie Cha and Kent German, Future Apps' new language program for the iPhone and iPod Touch may be just the thing to get them around Barcelona next week as they attend the GSMA Mobile World Congress in that famed Spanish city.

iSpeak is a set of translation apps that can convert words and sentences from English to another language, or vice versa. You type your phrase into the app, which quickly translates your text. If you're not sure how to pronounce the phrase, pressing a button triggers the app to speak the words aloud. iSpeak got … Read more

Apple reportedly is gearing up to offer location and multi-touch developer tools in its Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system, according to a report in AppleInsider

The geolocation tools will take a page from the iPhone software development kit (SDK), by way of the CoreLocation framework, according to AppleInsider. The CoreLocation works inconjunction with the Mac's networking hardware, aiming to provide a GPS-like experience.

Apple's next generation OS will also provide developers with programing interfaces that are Cocoa-based, as a means to maximize the use of the multi-touch features within the MacBook and MacBook Pro … Read more

Internet phone company Jajah can turn the iPod Touch into an iPhone. (Download from CNET Download.com.)

The company, which competes with other low-cost Internet calling applications such as Skype, announced Thursday a new application that will allow Touch users to call and text messages using a voice over IP network instead of a carrier's cellular network.

All that is needed to start making calls is the Jajah application, the latest version of the iPod Touch, a microphone headset, and a Wi-Fi connection. While the Jajah service can reduce calling costs up to 98 percent, the fact that it … Read more

The work at Adobe Systems toward getting its nearly ubiquitous Flash technology onto the Apple iPhone goes on...and on, and on.

Speaking with the Bloomberg news service on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen acknowledged that even after months of striving, a workable version of Flash for the iPhone remains a tough nut to crack.

"It's a hard technical challenge, and that's part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating," Narayen told Bloomberg Television. "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us … Read more

Apple may be planning a new section of the App Store dedicated to premium game titles that will put more cash in the pockets of developers.

The new section will supposedly cater to games that sell for about $20, according to the blog PocketGamer.biz, which first reported the rumor.

The new section will be restricted to only games of large publishers, rather than titles created by smaller gaming developers that are already offered through the main App Store, the site said.

PocketGamer believes that Apple will likely introduce the new section its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

The … Read more

Slacker Radio for iPhone 1.0 (and iPod Touch) may be late to the party of streaming-music apps for the iPhone, but that's no reason to overlook it.

The excellent, free app offers up a sleek, dark display and a lot of visual goodness, from large album art to visual icons for your favorite and custom stations.

Sure, we've got a few complaints, too, but if you're deciding whether to add another music app into the mix, this First Look video may help you decide.

Following the release of HP's iPrint Photo application, which allows printing from the iPhone to capable HP printers, River Past Corporation has released another wireless printing application with one key advantage: the ability to direct output to printers from any manufacturer.

The new iPhone app, dubbed Air Photo, requires a server to be installed on a host Windows or Mac OS X system. That means it's not a direct-to-device solution like HP's offering. The software's description reads:

"Set up the printer only once on your computer, then simply tap "Print" with Air Photo … Read more

The latest version of Apple's iLife--shown off at Macworld earlier this month--will ship Tuesday.

The new software comes with updates to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand that Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller detailed during Macworld. For example, you will now be able to sort photos by the faces of your subjects in iPhoto and take $4.99 lessons from famous musicians in GarageBand.

iLife '09 will be bundled with all Macs starting Tuesday and will cost $79 if you're planning to upgrade from an earlier version. If you bought a Mac after the new version was announced on … Read more

One of the iPhone's more ridiculous limitations is its inability to sync with host computers and transfer files back and forth. An enterprising developer, however, has written an application that allows not only computer-to-iPhone file transfers via Bluetooth, but also iPhone-to-other mobile device file transfers.

Unfortunately, the Bluetooth file transfer application will only be available through the cydia distribution framework for jailbroken iPhones.

A video, embedded below, of the transfer tool shows files being moved from a Mac to the iPhone, and subsequently from the iPhone to a Sony Ericsson phone:

The tool appears to be based on the … Read more