Regator provides news aggregation for the more blog-minded

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

Catching up on the happenings around the blogosphere is a difficult task. Luckily, I happened to stumble upon John Burke's Download Squad piece on the release of Regator [iTunes link].

So, if you'd like to get caught up on the latest news, insights and commentary on Rod Blagojevich around the blogosphere (now that's a tongue twister), Regator could be of assistance.

Regator's user-interface is similar to USA Today's iPhone app [iTunes link]. A horizontal menu displays a number of categories -- such as sports, lifestyle, and entertainment -- that are touch-scrollable. Tapping on a category displays its subcategories. For instance, NBA news would fall under the basketball branch of the sports tree. While a breadcrumb trail displays your viewing hierarchy, the browsing menu disappears as you scroll down; this was my only annoyance with the app, although it's a relatively minor one.

Regator's stand-out feature is what it calls "trends." Like a tag cloud on a blog, in which bigger clouds are usually associated with more hot topics or issues, trends provides a listing of the latest hot topics around the blogosphere.

For instance, a look at sports trends shows Tiger Woods at the top of the list -- which is no surprise given Y.E. Yang's surprising victory over him this past weekend. And Brett Favre's retiring-unretiring-retiring-unretiring-retiring-unretiring puts him near the top of the trends list as well.

Regator is available as a free download at the iTunes app store. Domo arigato, Regator!

Regator provides news aggregation for the more blog-minded originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Regator provides news aggregation for the more blog-minded originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitterrific updated to 2.1, adds many new features

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

The Iconfactory's Twitter for iPhone client app, Twitterrific [iTunes link] , has been updated to 2.1. The new version has added several new features that make it far more useful than before. A few highlights:

• New "Load More..." button at the bottom of the timeline to retrieve older tweets
• New "Following" and "Followers" lists in author view
• Support for recording, posting, and viewing videos (recording and posting require iPhone 3GS)
• Built-in browser now supports landscape orientation
• Image links are now displayed in a photo viewer
• Long uploads now show a percentage completed
• Added in-app email support

The update comes with bug fixes as well, including improved typing speed, plugged memory leaks, and many more.

Twitterrific is the only Twitter client app I've used for my iPhone so far. The free version may be ad-supported, but even before this update its smooth interface and impressive functionality were enough for Twitterrific to make it to my iPhone's first page of apps. So far the update seems to run far smoother, and the added features, particularly "Load More..." and the Following/Followers lists, ensure that this will most likely remain my Twitter app of choice.

I don't have a 3GS, so I wasn't able to test the video upload feature in Twitterrific 2.1. Our own Dave Caolo used it on his 3GS to upload a ten-second film, and he said it took less than thirty seconds to upload it over 3G.

Oddly enough, even though the app has a built-in internet browser, it's still only rated 4+. Other apps have run into approval hurdles from Apple's app store requiring them to be rated 17+ because the built-in browser "could be used to link to objectionable content." Perhaps we're seeing the end of this practice?

Twitterrific updated to 2.1, adds many new features originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Twitterrific updated to 2.1, adds many new features originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Live! Tonight 8pm ET/5pm PT (With Patrick Norton!)

iPhone Live! comes to you tonight (Wednesday, August 19) at 8pm ET/5pm PT.

Joining us tonight to discuss Revision3’s new mobile application show, AppJudgement [iTunes link], will be the co-host of AppJudgement, HD Nation, and Tekzilla, Patrick Norton.

If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to address, let us know in the comments below or tweet them to @theiphoneblog.

Join in via http://www.tipb.com/live

Chat with you soon!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Live! Tonight 8pm ET/5pm PT (With Patrick Norton!)

Quick App Update: Twitterrific 2.1 Twitter Client for iPhone

Tapped into the App Store and what did I see? Twitterrific 2.1, the latest version of the grand-daddy of all iPhone (and iPod touch) Twitter clients, locked and loaded, just waiting for me!

Updates include:

• Load more button to get older tweets
• Followers and following lists in author view
• Recording, posting, and viewing videos (presumably iPhone 3GS-dependent)
• Built-in WebView now goes landscape if you want it
• Saves battery via improved location update handling
• Tap and hold menus for tweet, links, photos
• Reply and re-tweet now have tap shortcuts
• In-app email support
• Optimized for iPhone 3GS

If you’re a Twitterrific user — or you want to be — and give it a whirl, let us know how the update works for you. I’ll be testing it out for the next couple days via @reneritchie, so feel free to drop me a tweet there and help out!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App Update: Twitterrific 2.1 Twitter Client for iPhone

Fastest growing tech company is…RIM?

According to Fortune, Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, is the fastest growing tech company in the world. There isn’t much information on the rankings, but they are apparently determined various criteria including profits, turnover and investment return over three years. Though we already knew that RIM made a whole bunch of cash, Fortune reveals that [...]

80 million iPhones sold by 2012? It could happen

New reports forecast that Apple will sell 50 million phones in 2011, and more than 80 million in 2012, as worldwide expansion and popularity of the iPhone continues to grow. Apple shipped 13.7 million iPhones in the 2008 calendar year, and the number continues to grow. Last quarter alone, the Cupertino, Calif., company sold 5.2 million [...]

Apple’s new war: The battle to polish the tarnished App Store image

For a company known to masterfully drum up free press and unparalleled buzz, Apple’s recent struggles in the App Store public relations game have been uncharacteristic. But company executive Phil Schiller appears to have set out to change the tide. A flurry of e-mails sent out by Schiller in recent weeks gathered a great deal of [...]

Apple Releases Fix for MacBook Pro Hard Drive Issues

Apple today released Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, addressing issues with certain hard drives on the latest MacBook Pros models. Apple had been reported last week to be working on the issue, which involves intermittent "beeping" noises and occasio...

Snow Leopard Box Set Briefly Appears in Apple Online Store [Updated]

MacRumors has received word that a listing for the Mac Box Set version of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard briefly appeared in Apple's online store earlier today. While the page, which listed the box set as shipping within 24 hours, is no longer available on ...

Fix for Disappearing or Wrong App Icons Problem in iPhone OS 3.0

Twitterrific 2.1 arrives in App Store with a ton of new features

The new version of this power-user Twitter client for iPhone and iPod touch packs video publishing, a new account picker for quickly tweeting at friends, and a thick coat of polish.

Regarding iTunes 9 Allowing 3rd Party Devices to Sync

Boy Genius received some more screen shots of what’s alleged to be iTunes 9, showing a Samsung YH-J70JL Black — of all things — purportedly syncing with the front end of Apple’s media management empire. PreCentral.net jumped on this to ponder out-loud if Apple was having a change of heart regarding locking out Palm’s previous attempts to spoof an iPod ID and sync with iTunes on the down-low, and will now allow non-Apple devices access. TiPb, however, can see this playing out in only 3 ways:

1. The screen shots, or that specific feature at least, isn’t real
2. The ‘verse gets rebooted, Star Trek-style, and Steve Jobs ain’t in it.
3. Jobs is going nu-cu-lar and will allow every device except the Palm Pre to sync with iTunes.

Option 3 looking the most likely at this point?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Regarding iTunes 9 Allowing 3rd Party Devices to Sync

Review: Jeopardy for iPhone

This mobile version of the popular TV game show isn't very true to the original. But despite some weaknesses, it will still engage your inner trivia buff.

Navigon updates its iPhone navigation app

Navigon AG announced a free update for its North American version of iPhone navigation app, adding a couple of new features and enhancements to the MobileNavigator. Navigon’s route planning function known from the companies PND line enables users to plan a route with different destinations ahead of time. Taking advantage of ...

Qik for iPhone 3GS now available on the App Store!

Qik for the iPhone 3GS [iTunes link] can now be downloaded for free directly from the App Store. Do you have Qik on your iPhone already? Please note that that this version is a bit different. First, this version of Qik allows you to pull videos right from your iPhone 3GS ...

Simplify Photo streams your photos to your iPhone

Simplify Photo, from the same team that brought you Simplify Music, lets you share photos stored on your computer with your iPhone over the network.

More Purported iTunes 9 Screenshots Surface [Updated]

Earlier this week, MacRumors received several purported screenshots of iTunes 9, as well as a screenshot of a user's Facebook page demonstrating how the rumored social networking integration would automatically post iTunes track and playlist informat...

Rumors of The Beatles Coming to iTunes Renewed Yet Again

A recent report that Apple has scheduled a music-focused media event for September 9th has once again sparked speculation that The Beatles may finally be coming to iTunes. The speculation is primarily driven by the scheduling of several other Beatle...

Analyze This: 82+ Million iPhones to be Sold in 2012?

Yeah, so if the analysts are to be believed — and Hollywood is wrong about the world ending first - - Apple might just sell 82+ million iPhones in 2012 (not by 2012, but 82+ million that year alone!) accounting for 5.7% of the market.

RBC guestimates that Apple will dominate the media-centric category of smartphones, much as RIM will dominate productivity, leaving Palm and perhaps others to fill out 2-3 additional categories like personal information management, cloud-focused, etc.

The growth in smartphones is expected to come not only at the expense of feature phones, but of PC-class devices as well (fulfilling the so-called Post-PC prophecy).

Personally, we’re waiting for Apple to make an iPhone with the compute power of a MacBook Air that I can just dock into a MacBook shell when I need to do more serious work. Cloud storage, mobile compute power, dockable productivity. That’s the future we’d like…

[via MacRumors]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Analyze This: 82+ Million iPhones to be Sold in 2012?

Build your iPhone a dock from its own box

Filed under: Accessories, Hacks, Mods, iPhone, iPod touch

As the product of frugal New England Yankees, I like items that multi-task. If said item is something that could typically get thrown away, even better. Check out this awesome iPhone 3GS dock made from its retail box.

Since the 3GS does not ship with a dock (bummer), enterprising owner Vince Tang used the included USB cable, the docking "plate," which is that tiny piece of plastic meant to seat the phone correctly, and the sturdy box to create a dock. Specifically, he cut a hole in the box's lid, crammed the plate and cable inside and glued the daylights out of it. We think it looks pretty good (from the top at least).

In fact, if I hadn't sent my old iPhone to NextWorth in my 3GS box, I'd be making one of these right now. Well done, Vince!

Build your iPhone a dock from its own box originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Build your iPhone a dock from its own box originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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