apps

SEATTLE--If you've ever wanted to hand control of your life off for a day, let me recommend putting it in the safe care of iPhone applications.

That's what I did Thursday, a day for which the plan I had originally made fell through.

So, late on Wednesday night, as I was pondering what to with myself here Thursday--I'm in town for the Gnomedex conference, which begins Friday--I started thinking about my brand-new iPhone 3G and all the applications I've heard you can get.

And it occurred to me that it could be quite an experiment to turn my day over to the direction exclusively of some of those apps. I already had downloaded a couple, but as I looked around on Apple's App Store, I found that there were countless others that could help get me through my day.

I began the morning by booting up LocalEats, a free app from WhereTheLocalsEat.com that offers up lists of the top 100 places to chow down in 50 American cities. It makes its suggestions based on where you are and then sorts them, nearest first.

LocalEats had a few suggestions that sounded good, but before I set off in search of food, I thought I'd give another app, UrbanSpoon, a chance as well. … Read more

On Wednesday night, Facebook previewed the next version of its popular iPhone application, which has retained one of the top spots in Apple's App Store since its launch in early July.

The new mobile version is a complete overhaul that shares much in common with the redesign of Facebook's Web version--a move that could be paving the way for mobile advertising and applications later on down the road.

The biggest addition in version 2.0 is support for real-time status updates, including integration with the service's messaging and live chat. At the time of launch, users will … Read more

One of the common complaints about Apple's iPhone--and one that did not get solved with the launch of the iPhone 3G--is the lack of a copy-paste function. An independent developer, Zac White, recently unveiled his open-source solution: OpenClip, a standard for other iPhone application developers.

He's not the first one to have that idea: another developer, Preston Monroe, has created a hack called iCopy that lets iPhone owners copy and paste between the e-mail and Web browser applications.

OpenClip is not a standalone app but rather a technology that developers can incorporate into their iPhone applications, should they … Read more

Apple has reportedly acknowledged the fact that many third-party iPhone applications have been crashing on launch, according to AppleInsider.

One of AppleInsider's readers says that after he contacted Apple about the problem, he received a response from CEO Steve Jobs himself: "This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September."

Apple representatives did not immediately have confirmation.

That was the full extent of Jobs' e-mail, AppleInsider said. While the most talked-about mobile-software problems for Apple right now are still the issues with MobileMe, crashing apps have been causing a … Read more

We've talked about Simplify Media here before as a great way to listen to music from your friends' iTunes music libraries (Windows and Mac). In fact, Simplify Media was one of our 10 best downloads of 2007. The minute you fire it up, you'll see why--as long as you and your friend both have a free account with Simplify Media, you can stream and listen to each others entire music collections on both Windows and Mac. But, the latest release of Simplify Media for iPhone and iPod Touch lets you take all of that music with you.

To … Read more

Today I had one of those what-the-heck software moments that occurs when a program breaks where it's least expected. A premier feature in the iPhone application I was tinkering with had vanished after a version update.

1Password for iPhone, first reviewed by my colleague Josh Lowensohn, is better known by its Mac counterpart, which encrypts log-ons and passwords on the Mac and automatically fills them in on Web pages. Windows users can think of it as the rough equivalent to RoboForm.

Since a smooth move like that requires multiple programs to run concurrently--something presently prohibited for iPhone applications--1Password for … Read more

Congress learns all about cookies (not the delicious kind...but maybe the del.icio.us kind), Gmail goes down, and Google proves to be a terrible communicator. Also, the Amazon Kindle may take off after all (har har), and Twitter baffles us completely regarding its follow/follower spam prevention thing. In sum, it's a Tuesday, but it feels like a Monday.

Google apologizes for Gmail outage http://www.crn.com/software/210002714

PC World: Google Apps hit by prolonged Gmail access problem http://www.pcworld.com/article/149524/

Android may be … Read more

It's been just a month since the App Store hit the streets, and the number of applications has skyrocketed. That doesn't mean they're all winners though. The vast majority are downright useless, buggy, or simply overpriced. Heck, some have even been removed by Apple because of all-around lameness. Since our inaugural list of absurd iPhone apps was a big hit, we've picked another group of 10 that are even more absurd than the first ones.

Note: this list is not the same as the version that was published Monday afternoon. Glagow Coma Scale has been replaced with 40 Cozy's Pour1out in light of creator Brent Thompson's comment about the people it's helped. That's not so absurd.

1. GottaGo Price: $1.99 This is one of those apps you hope is some sort of sick joke. Designed to get you out of a bad date or an awkward conversation, you can use GottaGo to ring you up with a fake phone call that looks real to your unsuspecting date. All you have to do is set the time like you would an alarm and it will call you, with faked caller ID and everything.

Why it's absurd: Be a decent human being and tell someone when it's just not working. They'll probably respect you more and it'll tie things up better than trying to explain why your apartment being on fire means you'll have to skip dessert.

2. DrinkBuddy Price: $3.99 Having trouble figuring out if you're drunk or not? Why not use your phone? Instead of a breathalyzer, DrinkBuddy uses the ancient art of math to give you generally precise indications of how inebriated you are based on what you've had to drink. Better yet, you can link up with your friends and see what they've had to drink, and record your past benders in a log that can be e-mailed to friends.

Why it's absurd: A night out is fun, but mass quantities of liquids and $200-plus handsets do not mix. Also, the fact that you could accidentally e-mail your mom at 2 a.m. with your J?germeister exploits seems like a really, really bad idea.

3. 40Cozy.com's Pour1out Price: $2.99 We've seen the popular Carling iPint, which was later pulled from the US app store--at least that one had a game attached to it. This one by the folks at 40Cozy.com is a dressed up way to sell foam coolers for 40 ouncers of malt liquor, while letting you pour our virtual booze with a simple tip of your phone.… Read more

We tried to give NBC the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Olympic streaming, but then we tried it. And it's ridiculous. Also, we wonder if the iPhone makes you fat, even as it fattens Steve Jobs' wallet. We also discuss the technicalities of invisibility cloaks, and opt-out of Obama's aggressively hip Internet outreach campaign.

Defcon ends with researchers muzzled, viruses written http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10013156-83.html

Judge orders halt to Defcon speech on subway card hacking http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10012612-83.html

Apple hits 3 million … Read more