While everyone and their mother has an app these days, Google's decided to emphasize YouTube's mobile site as the wave of the future. It's faster and more feature-filled than the YouTube app; they even made a video to prove it.
Crucially, the video quality is much better. There are also features packed into the mobile site that aren't available on the app, including the option to like or dislike a video, suggested search results, and the ability to create playlists. According to Google, the YouTube site can also be updated more quickly and frequently than native apps, meaning that mobile browser users will get the best of YouTube first.
It's clearly a bid by Google to acclimate people to web-based apps, and why shouldn't they? A native app like YouTube on the iPhone is subject to the whims of Apple—as a small for instance, the YouTube app still uses the five-star rating instead of thumbs up or thumbs down—while on the web Google is master of its own domain. It also, as Google points out in its own blog post on the subject, allows for a more consistent YouTube experience across platforms. Will it be enough to get people firing up their mobile browser instead of tapping their adorable YouTube app icon? I'm guessing no, not yet. But if the quality and feature gap continues to grow, it's only a matter of time.
Blog Post: YouTube Mobile gets a kick start
It's well known that the mobile internet is huge and growing fast; what's surprising is exactly how fast. According to a recent report, within 5 years more users will connect to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs. YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably — playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we're excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006.
We launched YouTube on mobile devices in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available on the mobile site (m.youtube.com). While this suddenly opened up the possibility to access videos on the go, our site, mobile browsers and the hardware had limitations that prevented the mobile experience from keeping up with YouTube on the desktop. Today, more than ever, we know that you want to be able to find and access your favorite videos wherever you are. That's why we've been working hard to roll out an updated version of the mobile site.
Here's what's new about the new mobile site:
* It's really fast.
* The new user interface incorporates larger, more touch friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
* It incorporates the features and functionality you've come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists,the ability to designate "favorite," "like," or "unlike" videos directly from your device.
* As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you'll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.
As the world continues to go mobile, we think this is a great improvement for users who want a more consistent YouTube across many devices, no matter where they are. We're launching in English only today, but will be rolling it out in other languages in the coming months. You can access the latest YouTube mobile site from your iPhone or Android browser. To learn more, visit m.youtube.com to check out the latest improvements.
Apple last week began banning iPhone apps containing “overtly sexual content.” But on Monday the company said it intends to leave apps from major publishers, such as
Playboy and
Sports Illustrated, untouched.
In an interview with
The New York Times, Apple’s vice president of marketing Phil Schiller explained the company was responding to complaints from concerned parents and female customers.
“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see,” Schiller told
NY Times’ Jenna Wortham.
Though the move is sure to mitigate complaints, and even please some developers turned off by raunchy content cluttering the App Store, it’s questionable why the
Playboy and
Sports Illustrated apps, which contain images of partially nude women, wouldn’t offend the same customers. Schiller explained that the
Playboy and
Sports Illustrated apps came from more reputable companies.
“The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” Schiller said.
The retroactive kind-of-sort-of ban of sex-tinged apps is certainly leaving some developers sore. Wortham interviewed Fred Clarke, co-president of a small software company called On the Go Girls, who lost 50 apps as a result of the ban. Clarke had been making thousands of dollars off the App Store, but no longer.
“It’s very hard to go from making a good living to zero,” he said. “This goes farther than sexy content. For developers, how do you know you aren’t going to invest thousands into a business only to find out one day you’ve been cut off?”
Apple from day one has said porn was not allowed in the App Store, so developers instead coded apps that contained only partial nudity. (Some were able to
sneak full nudity into their apps, but not for long before Apple slammed the ban hammer.) Apple last year implemented a Parental Controls feature to prevent children from downloading content that Apple deemed “17+.” However, the feature still allows the App Store to display search results for 17+ content even if an iPhone has been configured to prohibit downloading such apps. Clearly, the Parental Controls tool has not been effective in addressing parents’ concerns.
iPhone users, we’ve got a free gift for you!
Mashable’s new iPhone app [iTunes link] is live in the App Store, offering an entirely new interface and a bunch of new features. These include:
Whether you’re using it on your
phone or your desktop,
Google Buzz is quickly becoming an interesting and popular way to share content with your Gmail friends. However, because it’s tied to Gmail, Google Buzz is also tied to your web browser. That can be fine for lots of instances, but what if you what if your primary Gmail account and the account you use Buzz with aren’t the same? What if you want to have Buzz act like more of a regular application than a browser tab?
While we’re sure that plenty of Buzz-specific application clients are in the works, we’re going to show you how you can create your own Buzz Application for Windows, Mac or Linux. As a side benefit, you can utilize this technique with practically any web application out there!
The Rundown on SSBs (Site-Specific Browsers)
To create our stand-alone copy of Gmail (and by extension, Google Buzz), we’re going to create what is known as a
site-specific browser (SSB). An SSB is a web browser instance that is created specifically for a certain website or web application. It has its own desktop shortcut and can appear as its own application.
Most SSBs will eschew more advanced browser features and add-ons (meaning you see the web page and not the toolbar and navigation components), keeping the focus just on a singular app or app suite. So why would anyone want something like this? Well, it makes it easy to keep a certain website or web app separate and distinguishable from other tabs. It also keeps the focus on just that app. Plus, if your main browser crashes or you accidentally close it, your SSB isn’t affected.
It can also be good for users that want to login to multiple accounts of the same service, depending on what type of SSB tool you use. Plus, for the advanced user, some SSBs support different scripting extensions that can add in extra or custom functionality specifically to that SSB — functions that might not be available for the standard browser.
Choosing the Right Tool
There are a number of different programs for creating your own SSB.
Bubbles for Windows was one of the first general purpose SSB tools. It uses Internet Explorer’s rendering engine, meaning that it will display sites the same same way as Internet Explorer does on your PC. With Bubbles you can see your app from the system tray and get desktop notifications and drag and drop local files to your app.
Bubbles shares cookies with Internet Explorer, meaning that logging into two Gmail accounts at once is not the easiest thing to do. However, if that’s not what you need and you just want a good separate Gmail and Google Buzz client for Windows, you can download the free
Bubbles for Gmail SSB.
Fluid for Mac is easy to use and customize, plus you can add in scripts and other additions if you want to get really geeky. It uses Safari’s WebKit rendering engine — so it’s fast — and you can take advantage of any of the Safari add-ons (like Agile Web Solutions’
1Password), which makes it really slick.
However, like Bubbles, Fluid shares cookies with Safari for Mac. Again, this means that logging into multiple accounts of the same service is pretty much out of the question. We expect this to be fixed in the future, but as for right now, it’s not really an option. For developers that want to have customize an SSB and also distribute it to other users, check out the open source
Fluidium project. Fluidium is in many ways the successor to Fluid.
Google Chrome (Windows and Linux Only) Google’s Chrome browser has the ability to create an SSB from any browser tab. Google calls this Application Shortcuts. To create an Application Shortcut, navigate to the page you want to access and then click on the Control this Page button (the icon that looks like a document) and select “Create Application Shortcut.” Then designate where you want a shortcut to be created. Now, when you launch that shortcut, you’ll be taken to that page. Like other SSBs, the address bar and navigation bar won’t be visible.
Sadly, like Bubbles and Fluid for Mac, Google Chrome’s SSB tool still shares cookies with the Google Chrome browser. Again, if you want to login to the same service under multiple accounts, this isn’t the option for you. But it is a darn easy way to create an SSB.
Mozilla Prism is a standalone app or a Firefox extension that creates site-specific browsers that are rendered using Firefox’s Gecko engine. If you use the standalone app, you just need to enter in an address, an application name, and designate where you want the app to be located. If you use the Firefox Extension, you can turn any website into an SSB just by clicking Tools, “Convert to Website Application.”
Unlike Fluid, Chrome and Bubbles, Prism stores cookies for Prism apps separately from Firefox. This is fantastic for anyone with multiple accounts with the same service (like Gmail) who don’t like to shuffle between logins day in and day out.
For us, this is a killer feature — because one of the downsides of Google Buzz is that it is explicitly linked with a particular Gmail account. For teams or small businesses that want to use Buzz from a main account (like we do at Mashable), this is a way for multiple users to share an account, without having to give-up access to their personal mail or personal Buzz messages.
Creating a Google Buzz App in Prism
The process is pretty simple, but we’ll walk you through it step-by-step.
Step 1: Download Prism either as an extension or stand-alone app. Both options are virtually the same, so which one you use really just depends on your preference.
Step 2: Either double-click on the Prism application or go to Tools -> Convert Website to Application in Firefox.
In the address bar, you want to fill-in:
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#buzzChoose whether you want the app to be on your Desktop or in your Applications folder (or in the Start Menu for Windows) or both. You can choose to have a navigation window or not (we’d rather not have it), if you want status updates and notifications, and if you want to enable navigation keys.
By default, Prism will select the website’s favicon, in this case, a small Google logo, but we’ll want to replace that with something that looks better at a larger size.
Zandog and deviantART created a great PSD of the Google Buzz logo. I made just a couple of tiny modifications and resized it to 512×512 and saved it as a transparent PNG file. You can download it and use it for you own Buzz icon if you want something that will look nice in your task bar or Mac dock.
Here’s the image:
Right click on this image and select Save As. Then, in the icon dropdown box, select “Choose Image” and find the PNG file you’ve saved to your hard drive. This will be your Buzz icon.
Click OK.
Step 3: Double-click on your Buzz icon to launch you new Buzz app.
That’s it! Now you can use Buzz in a stand-alone browser window without distractions and you can remain logged into a different Gmail account in Firefox, Chrome or Safari.
Make Other Sites into SSBs
You can use Prism (or Fluid, or Bubbles or Chrome) to create single-site browsers for other websites. Just follow the steps outlined above, replacing the Gmail URL with the site of your choice. Keep in mind that if you are dealing with a site that uses cookies for login info and you have or want to simultaneously access multiple accounts of the same service, Prism is the best option to use. Otherwise, it all comes down to a matter of preference!
Do you ever create site-specific browsers? What features would you like to see in a full-blown Buzz client? let us know!
It ain't the first company to do it, but Logitech's new iPhone app is certainly one of the easiest to get into. Oh, and did we mention that it's completely free to download? Available now in the App Store, Touch Mouse transforms your handset into a wireless trackpad or keyboard, and thanks to its reliance on vanilla WiFi signals, you won't need any proprietary equipment to get it up and running. It's fully compatible with both Mac and PC platforms, and it's obviously a pretty fantastic way to control your HTPC without dragging a full-fledged keyboard / mouse into the living room. Hit the source link for more details, and be sure to let us know how it goes in comments once you give it a roll.
In this week's self-contradictory app roundup: Videos, recorded! Hoops, shot! Stuff, copied and pasted! Photos, LEGO-ed! Navigation, given away! Classic movies, obsessively documented! Marbles, gratuitously exploded! Rivals of Yelp, doomed to die! And more...
If you'd rather view this post as a single page, click here.
Simplenote: An app that's similar to, but obviously better than, the built-in notes app, if only for its online syncing abilities. The app is now free, though you can still download a paid, ad-free version for $5.
Facebook: Facebook! You probably already have this. But if you don't, get it now, because it has fully customizable push notifications. If you have the app, just check for updates. If not, it's still free.
LEGO Photo: Takes photos, and converts them into pixel art, in which the pixels are actually little LEGOs. Sort of. There's a nice ripple effect when rendering photos, though the results, unless your subject is well-defined, can be kind of muddy. Free.
CoPilot Live Directions: CoPilot is an all-around decent turn-by-turn app, and it's one of the cheapest available. This version, though, lets you use the app for free for 30 days, after which voice directions, traffic, and a few other features are stripped. But you still get to keep turn-by-turn directions for free, which is pretty amazing.
Momento: A
very pretty journaling app. Unless you've felt the specific urge to keep a journal or scrapbook on your iPhone before, it's hard to recommend this. But if that's something you're into—apparently this is a
thing, now—then there isn't a nicer way to indulge your habit. $3.
iVideocamera: When this video camera app came out, it was a joke—it recorded postage-stamp-sized video at a stuttering framerate, without sound. Now, it records at a decent resolution—320x486—at a full 10fps. This conforms to commonly held definitions of "video," almost! There's still no sound, but this is the best you can do without jailbreaking. A dollar.
Turner Classic Movies: TCM's got an extensive database of vintage film trivia, previews, posters and other info—it's an invaluable source for people who like films that are older than they are. The app is a faithful adaptation of most of the web content, including a lot of video. As a non-buff I found a fair amount to be entertained by here, though I wish it was a little less than three dollars.
Pastefire: Remember
Pastebot? It was great. Pastefire is like that, sliced in half: Any content you paste to your online Pastefire account, or into a bookmarklet, shows up on your iPhone in Pastefire. One you've got it set up, it's quite a bit faster than sending an email, and the app gives you a lot of options as to how to deal with the pasted content once you've got it. Free.
Typograffit: Instant ransom letters! It's pure gimmickry, but pretty well executed. $2.
Dark Nebula: is great. It's basically a marble labyrinth game
with guns, and explosions. My opinion here doesn't really matter, though, because over the weekend, this app—normally a dollar—is free. The discount is live now, so GO GO GO.
NBA Hotshot: I laughed at how simple the original
Skee-ball game was, but I
kept coming back to it. NBA Hotshot used the same physics engine and general concept, so if you've already got one, you probably don't need the other. But if you don't, this simple throw-the-ball-in-the-hoop casual game is a brilliant timesuck, which you can play for a short or as long as you want.
MobileMe Galleries: Apple doesn't release official
iPhone apps that much, and adding a MobileMe gallery after all these months seems a little tardy. Thankfully, it's pretty good—better than Flickr's app, for example, and a nice value-add for MobileMe subscribers.
Yelp: So, uh, as I was writing this roundup, I got an email from Yelp. It was long, and it was announcing a new version of the app. Here's the part that matters:
Yelp Check-ins: We've now added the ability for yelpers to "Check-in" to businesses. This includes being able to broadcast your whereabouts and send Quick Tips to your friends on Yelp, Facebook and Twitter who, if they opt-in to these updates, will be able to see your location both via "Push" alerts, as well as on a map. Active users of this feature may receive "Regular" status of highly-frequented businesses. This means they are part of an active group of people who patronize a business and this moniker will appear next to reviews and tips and on business pages in the app, as well as on the business listing on Yelp.com.
In other words, Yelp probably just murdered FourSquare in its sleep. Yikes. There are some other nice updates to the app's augmented reality feature, account support and sharing faculties. Still free.
This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!(Via: Gizmodo)
Remember the old way you acquired applications? You read or heard about an app somewhere, and then you’d go looking for the web site of the software company that creates it. You installed them from DVDs that came with paper magazines. If you build new computers often, you probably have a list with links for the most important apps, or (like me), you keep a must-have freeware collection on your USB drive all the time.
Thanks to Apple and its iPhone App Store model, all of this might very soon become unnecessary, as companies are announcing similar app store that cater to owners of devices other than mobile phones. First it was
Samsung with its HDTV app store, and now Intel has unveiled
AppUp, an app store for netbooks.
The store itself is a desktop app for Windows-based netbooks; you download it, and install apps from there. Some of the apps currently on offer are Newsy, Boxee and Yoono. On the developer side, you can download the SDK for creating apps for the store and build your own; Intel claims that the SDK has already been downloaded 2,500 times.
Intel also offers a white label solution for different netbook manufacturers, who can create their own, branded versions of the store. We can probably expect these to come pre-installed on netbooks in the future. Intel, however, plans to expand the store beyond netbooks onto other devices, such as handhelds, smart TV devices, and even PCs. And why not? The app store is not as necessary on a PC or a netbook as it is on a mobile phone, but once you get used to the concept, it can be a neat, tidy, well organized place to find and discover software.
Samsung's been in the app game for a while, but now they're setting up a store to give apps to
all of your Sammy devices: TVs, phones, Blu-ray players, PCs, cameras and God only knows what else.
They've got apps built from the ground up specifically for your television, with features like weather, music, and so on. The apps are also available on Blu-ray products, with a first round of free apps available now and paid apps coming in the summer.
It's an open platform, which means that third party developers will be able to build apps for Samsung products, and Samsung has plans to bring apps to the rest of your devices as well.
Samsung Unveils First Ever Application Store For TVs, Blu-ray Players, Home Theater Systems and Select Mobile Phones
January 6, 2010
"Samsung Apps" to be Rolled Out in Multiple Product Lines to Support a New Dimension of Home Entertainment with a Few Clicks of the Remote
LAS VEGAS – January 6, 2010 – Samsung Electronics Co. ., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America Inc., market leaders and award-winning innovators in consumer electronics, today unveiled Samsung Apps, the world's first HDTV-based application store where users can download and purchase applications from select 2010 Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray Players and Home Theater systems via the upgraded Internet@TV – Content Service. As a result of this new application platform, content owners and developers will now be able to develop one app that works across multiple devices, delivering a more consistent and intuitive experience for consumers.
Samsung Apps provides consumers with an expanded, easy-to-navigate selection of content and applications from leading content providers and services - all driven by the new, faster and more flexible Samsung platform. Applications can be downloaded and viewed all while watching TV. The first batch of TV apps will launch in the spring free of charge, while premium apps will be available for purchase via the platform's transactional interface in the summer of 2010. Dozens of apps will be demonstrated on Samsung's latest HDTVs at Booth #11026 during the International Consumer Electronics Show, which will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, January 7 -10, 2010.
"Samsung's goal over the past two years has been to really push the envelope in terms of consumer experience with connected TV, and 2010 is no different," said Kevin Kyungshik Lee, Vice President of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. "The upgraded Internet@TV feature with Samsung Apps is another major step in terms of a truly personalized, easy to navigate and convenient connected TV experience, which is why we're offering it in the vast majority of TV models 40 inches and above and now extending those capabilities across multiple products."
As the "connected TV" market leader in 2008, Samsung was the first to deliver RSS feeds via its InfoLink feature, bringing news, weather and stock information directly to televisions for the first time. In early 2009, the company launched Internet@TV, the first widget-based TV service and quickly captured 75% of the connected TV market share. In October 2009, Samsung was the first to launch Blockbuster's streaming movie rental and purchase service on select HDTVs and Blu-ray players. This year, consumers will be interacting with their televisions through a wide range of applications. They'll be streaming HD video, viewing personal photos, interacting with friends, and playing casual games all with the push of a button on their remote control.
Samsung Apps doesn't stop at home –it also supports select mobile phones around the world. Samsung Apps Mobile is already launched in England, France, Italy, and Korea, and will expand to approximately 50 countries worldwide in 2010. Samsung Apps will become the integrated service channel that offers services for Samsung's various electronic products in the future.
A New Dimension of Home Entertainment
The diverse range of apps will span video, information, lifestyle, games, and sports. Content partners will include Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY, and Vudu. More apps from partners globally will also be available within the year. A variety of options in 2010 will truly fulfill the promise of a connected TV with immersive home entertainment experiences that are easy to access and use. For example, by combining Web-enabled features with live content, a consumer could track a fantasy sports team and chat with competitors while everyone watches the game live. Additionally, several apps in 2010 will allow interactivity between HDTVs and select Samsung WiFi-enabled phones. Consumers, for example, would be able to play Texas Hold 'em poker with friends where the TV screen shows the table and the phone serves as the controller, while showing cards in your hand like a real poker game.
Good for Developers, Good for Consumers
Using the Samsung Apps Software Developers Kit (SDK), content and application developers have new opportunities to build applications, content and services. The forthcoming developers program will be an open platform that encourages anyone from premium content owners to individual developers, to create their own applications. Samsung expects many additional partners to become Samsung App developers by the end of 2010, which will make the content and services offered through the platform more diverse and robust than current competing connected televisions on the market.
Rdio is the
super-stealth streaming music startup from Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom. While few have actually experienced the service,
Music Ally discovered that the company already has an
iPhone app. The free — but members-only — iPhone app [
iTunes link] was released yesterday and includes a very enticing description that directly attacks Pandora’s
(
) offering with intelligent innuendo.
Rdio’s touted features include on-demand music, unrestricted access, unlimited and collaborative playlists and push notifications for playlist updates.
Here’s what Rdio promises:
“Rdio is like carrying a giant MP3 player in your pocket – you have unlimited and unrestricted access to all the music, and you get to select exactly the song, album or artist you want to hear. And you can skip, pause, fast forward as much as you want.
Build your collection and compose your playlists on rdio.com and listen to them all on the go. Or search for just the right song when you’re out and it will start playing instantly.
- Carry your collection in your pocket
- Build unlimited playlists
- Search the entire Rdio catalog
- Notification when your collaborative playlists are updated”
It’s plausible that the application is just as
early first attempt, and was never designed to be exposed to the general public. Still, it exists. If it lives up to its claims, then this could prove to be one killer music app.
Rdio Screenshots
A few minutes ago, we got tipped off that Apple has begun a rollout of a redesign of the iPhone App Store within iTunes. It only took a quick
check of Twitter and the iTunes store to confirm that, indeed, the application description pages of the iTunes store have changed.
The new-look app store is cleaner, whiter, and brings the most important information closer to the top. The new screenshots section of the app store is immediately apparent (and welcomed). It’s not live for every app page, but it is working for most of them.
Want to compare the differences? Here’s a screenshot of the old design:
Notice the blue-gray background, the location of important description information on the right-hand side of the page (farther away from the where the eye usually focuses first), and how only one screenshot appears on the page.
Now compare it to the new design:
The background is white, the purchase button is bigger and more prominent, you can view more than one screenshot when you land on the page, and customer reviews appear near the top of the app store page, rather than on the bottom.
Our gut says that this redesign is better in every way. It’s easier to find the most important information and is a more efficient use of space. It’ll also probably help app developers with their sales. Honestly, we wonder why it took Apple so long to redesign them.
You’ve heard it a million times in Apple’s omnipresent iPhone and iTunes App Store ads. But how do you know which apps are actually worth downloading?
We’ve separated the wheat from the chaff among the thousands of available iPhone applications and picked out twenty of our favorites. These apps cover a little bit of everything. Want to keep tabs on your finances? Check out Mint or A Personal Assistant.
“There’s an app for that.”
Want to manage your address book better? Bento will keep you organized and Bump makes exchanging contact info incredibly easy.
If you’re looking to enhance your productivity outside of the office, check out LogMeIn Ignition, which lets you log into your computer directly from your phone, and QuickOffice Mobile for editing your documents and spreadsheets.
If you’re looking to pimp your phone without the help of an app, check out our top tips for
iPhone OS 3.0. Otherwise, hit the jump for more of our top iPhone apps.
A Personal AssistantMonitor your checking account, credit cards, and investments. Plus, keep tabs on cell phone minutes and flight itineraries.
Free;
www.pageonce.com
AP MobileGet your news fix in an easy-to-read format and get push notifications on your home screen as big stories break. A configurable toolbar lets you maneuver through categories (Entertainment, USA, World, and more).
Free;
www.apnews.com
BentoConsolidate data from your devices’ Contacts, Dialing, Google Maps, Mail, and Safari. You’ll find templates for everything from event planning and time billing to recipes.
$4.99;
www.filemaker.com
BumpExchange contact information with fellow iPhone/iPod touch users by literally bumping the two devices together.
Free;
www.bumptechnologies.com
FacebookiPhone’s version is best for viewing status updates and photos. You can also chat, look up phone numbers, and upload photos. Also available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.
Free;
www.facebook.com
FandangoTap “Find My Location” to get all the films at theaters in your zip code in a vertical list, including poster art, runtime, synopsis, and trailers; and to purchase tickets.
Free;
www.fandango.com
Kindle for iPhoneYou can browse the Kindle Store, and wirelessly download books. Plus, pick up from the exact same point on the Kindle reader when you bookmark pages.
Free;
www.amazon.com
LogMeIn IgnitionAccess your PC or Mac remotely. Pinch gestures let us zoom into portions of our desktop. You can also troubleshoot or view photos stored on your PC.
$29.99;
www.logmein.com
Metal Gear Solid TouchControl Snake as he battles diabolical puppet masters. Tap to fire, and use pinch gestures to zoom in and out.
$7.99;
www.touch.konami.net
MintSync with your Mint.com account wirelessly. Track your account balance and spending habits, or deactivate mobile access from your profile page, if your phone is lost or stolen.
Free;
www.mint.com
PhotogeneTouch-up photos by cropping, tweaking colors, and adding visual effects (such as comic book–style text bubbles). Thankfully, an undo button is also on hand.
$2.99;
www.i-photogene.com
QuickOffice Mobile Office SuiteCraft and tweak spreadsheets, even in landscape mode. Manage and password protect your files. Create and edit Word docs, and take advantage of its new autocorrect feature.
$19.99;
www.quickoffice.com
StreetEasy Real EstateFind homes for rent or sale near you with GPS. Tap a listing for a description, photo, and mapped location. Search by price or number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Free;
www.streeteasy.com
SkypeDon’t use your minutes. Use this app to place crystal-clear free calls over Wi-Fi; check voicemail; and send low-cost text messages.
Free;
www.skype.com
Tap Tap Revenge: Coldplay EditionPress colored balls in time with the British alt-rockers’ most enduring songs. This special version adds fresh themes and graphics inspired by Coldplay’s music videos.
$4.99;
www.tapulous.com
TelenavVoice-guided directions are now available on the iPhone, and TeleNav is an excellent service, offering 10 million points of interest. It’s also available on all other platforms.
$9.99 per month;
www.telenav.com
Tiger Woods PGA TourUnlike the console versions, this game uses the touchscreen to make putts and long drives with a swipe of your finger. Plus, create your own golf avatar.
$9.95;
www.eamobile.com
TweetdeckThis Twitter app elegantly recreates the column dashboard format of the desktop program. You can follow topics in real time, share photos, and post shortened links.
Free;
www.tweetdeck.com
WeatherBug EliteView heat indexes, wind speed, and hourly forecasts of your location. You can see photos from around the city, and watch a meteorologist give the national outlook.
$0.99;
www.weatherbug.com
YelpGet a star-rating, address, phone number, and a map of local businesses fast, using GPS triangulation. You can also bookmark favorite locations.
Free;
www.yelp.com
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