Hanged, UPS Mobile, Trip Journal, Hippo Remote, Audible.com — TiPb Picks of the Week

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chris’ Pick: Hanged

My pick of the week is the game “Hanged”. I first saw this app as a “must buy” mentioned in Entertainment Weekly magazine. It is a hangman game that uses nice graphics, cut scene animation, and a continuing storyline. The words you try to guess are from am ongoing letter from one lover to another. It is nicely done, and at $1.99 it is cheap enough to give it a try! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Derrick’s Pick: UPS Mobile

UPS Mobile helps you keep up to date on all your packages being shipped, I recently ordered some iPhone cases and other items online and this app really helped me keep up to date with my packages. [Free - iTunes link]

Georgia’s Pick: Trip Journal

I have always been enamoured with this application; It has a beautiful interface and many different ways in which to use it. It’s so fun an easy, even though I hate to write down trip information, I end up entering even quick day trips with my children. It can also keep track of my children’s growth and places we went and use it to keep in touch with family members overseas. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: Hippo Remote

Hippo Remote is in all basic sense – a Wifi remote for your computer (Mac or Windows) Getting Hippo remote to work with my Mac was the easiest thing to get it to work than any other remote Wifi remote I have used, as for the PC, Hippo Remote has a free VNC software that you can install to make the process easy. The neat thing about Hippo Remote, is that it contains “profiles” for multiple programs & OS’s in addition to having a simple touch-pad-mouse. I ended up using Hippo remote for the Media PC I gave to my parents & they use their iPhones to simply control it. I highly recommend it. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Audible.com

Getting from Montreal to Vegas and back this week for CES involved four flights and countless hours of waiting before, in between, and after. While I often listen to tech-focused podcasts on my iPhone, given the tsunami of tech I faced at CES, I decided I needed a diversion, a palate cleanser… a break! So, I used up a few lingering Audible.com credits, got myself some audio books, plugged in my headset, and tuned out (and only once nodded off!) From biographies to biotech, science fact to far-flung fantasy fiction, Audible has an every growing range of books to suit a wide range of tastes. If you’re commuting across town, flying across country, or just trying to get through the daily grind, give Audible a try. Getting a monthly account gives huge savings on the individual titles. [Variable - Web site link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

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

Hanged, UPS Mobile, Trip Journal, Hippo Remote, Audible.com — TiPb Picks of the Week

Found Footage: That sinking, gonna-need-a-new-phone feeling

Filed under: Found Footage, iPhone

What other recent TV show (Big Bang Theory aside) has given geeks as much cred as Chuck? The hourlong spy-dramedy returned with first-run episodes this week, but promptly threw a wet blanket on our enjoyment by... well, just look. No matter what Andy Ihnatko's experiments demonstrated, I don't think a pile of white rice is going to fix this.

Past episodes of Chuck have featured an all-knowing classic Mac, a thinly veiled dig at our favorite iCEO and a weaponized G5 tower, much to our delight. We've been loyal fans, NBC, but we must protest the wanton cruelty shown to an innocent smartphone in this scene: it's brutal, it's damp, and it will not stand.

[Apologies to our international readers for the US-only Hulu clip. Once there's a geographically agnostic version of the video available, we'll link to it.]

Found Footage: That sinking, gonna-need-a-new-phone feeling originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Found Footage: That sinking, gonna-need-a-new-phone feeling originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Street: Features can’t sway Apple customers’ trust

Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhone

Jason Schwarz over at TheStreet has written an article analyzing Apple's current position in the marketplace and what Apple's competition needs to do in order to catch up.

The article focuses mostly on Apple's iPhone/iPod + iTunes ecosystem, which isn't surprising. Though Mac sales bring in a fair amount of cash to the company, Apple's handheld market is the company's most current success story, and everyone from Microsoft to Palm to Google has spent the past several years trying (and failing) to duplicate that success.

Schwarz notes that Steve Jobs's recent claim that, "We see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon," doesn't necessarily apply to the feature set of the iPhone or its integration with iTunes, but rather Apple's financial success and brand impression. He has a point. Recent ads have been trying to sell the Droid on its feature set, telling us all the things that Sega does that Nintendon't - er, I mean, all the things Droid does that the iPhone doesn't, but trying to sell the Droid on features hasn't exactly toppled the iPhone's dominance quite yet, and all indications are that the Nexus One isn't likely to take a big chunk out of Apple's smartphone sales, either.

Continue reading The Street: Features can't sway Apple customers' trust

The Street: Features can't sway Apple customers' trust originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Street: Features can't sway Apple customers' trust originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fishy Android apps may have been malware, says researcher

Suspicious applications that may have stolen users' online banking credentials have appeared on the Android Market, the Google-run app store for its mobile operating system.

Apple Offlines FingerWorks.com on Eve of iTablet and… iPhone 4.0?

When Apple bought multitouch maestros FingerWorks for their talent (and patents, ‘natch), they kept FingerWorks.com and all it’s old product photos and pictures online and intact. No longer, according to MacRumors:

The removal seems to correspond with the impending announcement of an Apple tablet later this month. One possible explanation is that Apple will finally be implementing many of the same advanced multi-touch keyboard gestures that were originally pioneered by Fingerworks.

And, again to speculate widely, a possibly closely aligned iPhone 4.0, since Apple has proven over and over again that they’re very good at leveraging technology developed for one platform to another.

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

Apple Offlines FingerWorks.com on Eve of iTablet and… iPhone 4.0?

Dragon Dictation and Search now updated and support iPod touch

Filed under: Developer, iPhone, iPod touch

If you lust after Dragon Dictation [iTunes link] and Dragon Search [iTunes link] and own an iPod touch, your prayers have been answered. Nuance, the creator of both apps now have updated versions of the free apps that allow 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch devices to dictate and search all they want. Of course you'll need a microphone if you don't use the Apple included headset/mic.

iPod touch users were sorely disappointed when the Dragon apps came out last month, but they should be happy now. In addition to the iPod touch support, the new version of Dragon Dictation has an enhanced UI, and allows the app to figure out when you are done dictating when there is silence. This is configured on the iPhone settings menu, rather than in the Dictation app itself. There is also an opt-out button if you don't want the app to send your list of contacts to the Nuance server for enhanced recognition. Dragon Search also has an updated UI and sports some bug fixes.

I think the major complaint against the Dictation app is the 20-second limit on length of the audio clip that will be processed into text. That may be to keep the bandwidth to the Nuance servers low, but I think it is the only real weakness the app has.

I think it's likely we'll see more updates of these apps with extended features. The apps are free for now, but Nuance has said they may not be free forever, so if you crave and app to send a quick email or text, or search the web using only your voice, best to get off the dime and download these puppies.

Dragon Dictation and Search now updated and support iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dragon Dictation and Search now updated and support iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WakeMate wristband works with iPhone to help you sleep better

Perfect Third's WakeMate Bluetooth wristband uses actigraphy analysis and your cell phone to help determine the best times for sleeping.

Opinion: Stop inventing mobile phones

Joanie Wexler of Network World wonders if the mobile industry should take a breather for a few months while broadband wireless network buildouts and mobile device management capabilities catch up to the demands of today's smartphones.

Review: TextExpander for iPhone

This time-saving utility is already a useful typing aide for the iPhone and iPod touch. And if more iPhone apps integrate TextExpander, it will become even more useful.

Review: TextExpander for iPhone

This time-saving utility is already a useful typing aide for the iPhone and iPod touch. And if more iPhone apps integrate TextExpander, it will become even more useful.

Fingerworks.com Content Pulled Ahead of Apple Tablet Announcement

The content of Fingerworks.com has been removed this week after remaining online for nearly 5 years after the acquisition of the company by Apple. The removal seems to correspond with the impending announcement of an Apple tablet later this month. ...

Rumor: The iPhone’s next GPU

Filed under: Hardware, Apple, iPhone

The Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU, of any modern computing device is an important piece of hardware that offloads 3D graphics rendering from the main processor. At CES 2010 last week, chip manufacturer Imagination Technologies may have spilled the beans on the GPU for the next generation of iPhones.

Imagination unveiled the PowerVR SGX545 GPU core design at CES, which is the only mobile phone GPU capable of OpenGL 3.2 and DirectX 10 level effects. The SGX545 also includes OpenCL support, which means that unused processing cycles on the chip can be used to offload work from the main CPU. The SGX545 is also multithreading-aware, and can provide an additional speed jump when used with multi-core processor designs such as the ARM Cortex-A9.

Imagination noted that they have produced a test chip for an unnamed "lead partner," which could very well be Apple. The Cupertino Kids have used PowerVR graphics in every iPhone and iPod touch, and many industry pundits believe the next generation of devices could be powered by a variant of the ARM Cortex-A9. Apple is also an investor in Imagination, having purchased a 9.5% stake in the chip manufacturer in 2008 and 2009. So it's very possible that the SGX545 could be churning out pixels in the next handheld you buy from the Apple Store.

Rumor: The iPhone's next GPU originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumor: The iPhone's next GPU originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Infinidock App for Jailbroken iPhones Lets You Enable a Horizontal Scrolling iPhone Dock

Now the French Want the 4th Gen iPhone in May!

No sooner did France Telecom prop up iTablet rumors do French site Challenge.fr start some “4th generation iPhone coming in May” craziness.

Now, we have no reason to believe this, but since Apple is so secretive, anything is possible (and frankly it’s nice to see some good old fashioned iPhone rumors amid all this iTablet hype!). Here’s the deal, translated by iphon.fr:

• “Apple to launch a new iPhone in May”
• “It will be the fourth version of the well known smartphone launch on the 29th of June 2007. A way to counter the Google attack”
• “Apple will launch, in early may 2010, a new version of its iPhone, as we heard from some mobile operators.”.

Apple, of course, has announced and launched new iPhones in the June/July time frame for the last 3 years and they don’t often change their cycles. So does that make this fake, le fakety-fake fake, or just fake enough to hide an early launch? Get crazy with the French and their carriers by letting us know what you think!

[Thanks Laurent for the tip!]

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

Now the French Want the 4th Gen iPhone in May!

PhotoPin tracks GPS data for digital camera photos

Codethink's PhotoPin for the iPhone tracks GPS data as you take photos with a separate digital camera, so you can easily apply GPS metadata to your photos.

Nuance adds iPod touch support to mobile speech apps

Both Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search now work with second-generation models of the iPod touch after Nuance Communication updated its two apps over the weekend.

France Telecom VP Says Apple Tablet Coming Soon - With a Webcam

Touchscreen Accuracy: iPhone Compares Favorably to Other Smartphones

In a report published late last week and gaining significant attention today, MOTO shares the results of some simple testing conducted on the iPhone, Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris, and Google Nexus One, assessing the accuracy of the touchscreens on ...

Droid doesn’t. Have touchscreen accuracy, that is…

Filed under: Hardware, iPhone

Now there's a nicely-documented fact that you can throw back in the face of that annoying friend of yours who got a Verizon Droid and who keeps saying "It's just like an iPhone!"

According to a report cited on AppleInsider this morning, the touchscreen accuracy of the iPhone is much better than that of three Android phones: the Motorola Droid pushed by Verizon, the HTC Droid Eris, and the new Google Nexus One. Why is that important? Well, when you're trying to tap a link on a website, for example, chances are very good that you're going to be successful on the iPhone and not on the the Android phones.

The tests, performed by MOTO Development Group (no relation to Motorola), measured touchscreen accuracy with a simple test. On each device, a drawing app was launched and a tester drew straight diagonal lines in both directions across the screens with a finger. iPhones showed straight lines in situations with both light and medium finger pressure, while the Android phones showed zig-zag wavy lines across the screen. MOTO stated:

"On inferior touchscreens, it's basically impossible to draw straight lines. Instead, the lines look jagged or zig-zag, no matter how slowly you go, because the sensor size is too big, the touch-sampling rate is too low, and/or the algorithms that convert gestures into images are too non-linear to faithfully represent user inputs. This is important because quick keyboard use and light flicks on the screen really push the limits of the touch panel's ability to sense."

Several user comments on the MOTO site validate the findings. Have any TUAW readers been able to compare touchscreen accuracy on an iPhone and an Android device? Leave a comment below.

[via AppleInsider]

Droid doesn't. Have touchscreen accuracy, that is... originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Droid doesn't. Have touchscreen accuracy, that is... originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nexus One loses to iPhone in touchscreen accuracy tests

The Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, and the iPhone have been put to the test to find out which smartphone has a better touchscreen.