Magellan Sails Over To The iPhone, Finds It Flat

Magellan has finally gotten in on the whole iPhone game with their new Magellan iPhone app. And it works for the iPod Touch too! It does so in the same way that the Dual XGPS300 works to give the iPod Touch aGPS. Magellan has a car kit like the one from TomTom that does same the trick for the iPod Touch.

Also, while your iPhone or iPod Touch is plugged in they will be charged. Plus, you will be able to enjoy a sound that is slightly louder than the ones on your device thanks to the built-in ones on the car kit.

And so Magellan begins sailing the seas of iPhone turn-by-turn navigation. But will it and the others be able to stay afloat as Google continues to follow their ‘get it for free’ business model? Stay tuned. [read]

TouchDJ

So here’s another thing that you can do with your iPhone – dj-ing. After some problems getting approved for the app store, the Touch DJ app is finally here. There’s a lot do on the app. For example — you can get your mixing done visually, do live remixes with the onboard sampler, drop fx and you also get to pre-listen tracks before dropping – full on professional dj style. And what if you suck at putting tunes together? You will suck in a more sophisticated way than you ever have through your iPhone. [read]

Star Wars Trench Run Game

Do you want to relive every moment of the climactic sequence of events that led to the destruction of the Death Star? Better yet, do you want to be the one who destroys it? Well guess what? Now there’s an app for that! Called Star Wars Trench Run, this game drops you right into the thick of the action with hordes of TIE fighters chasing you.

You are to steer the X-Wing and make that narrow route through the thermal exhaust port to hit the weak spot. In the mission mode, you are led through the cinematic effects with dialogues from the movie. In the arcade, you get to choose your poison and take on the baddies in a classic space dogfight. Go ahead, knock yourself out and may the force be with you! [read]

Google Earth Update For iPhone

Google has been rolling out the 2.0 update to their iPhone Google Earth app and the new features are pretty exciting. Of the many new things, you can finally make custom maps on the app by syncing Google My Maps to it. [read]

ShopSavvy For The iPhone

ShopSavvy has been Big in Japan where everyone uses their phone to do everything including shopping. ShopSavvy has also been on Android for over year now, letting the green robot’s followers shop at ease through their phones. Now iPhone owners can do the same.

Okay, so the developers are called Big in Japan but ShopSavvy does scan the barcode of an item to give you all the relevant information and also deals. So if you are in a shop, hunting for a big pack of wipes, you might be informed that a shop two blocks away has a better deal. But even though that means shop owners might lose business it does make shopping easier for their customers, so they are supporting this app. [read]

Fit Or Not

Here’s a lesson in why you should just skip some of the apps in the app store. This new app called ‘Fit or Fugly’ passes judgement on your beauty. Yes, it actually tells you if you look good or bad or fugly. Yet another app that taps in to the everlasting well of human vanity. Meh.

Ravensword: The Fallen King

Fans of RPGs, gather round your respective monitors. This is the story that you are all familiar with. A really great RPG game is now on the iPhone as Ravensword: The Fallen King. This is one game that RPG geeks cannot afford to miss on their iPhones. And if  you have never played an RPG before, this can be a great one to start with. This is not a classic RPG board game like Settlers of Catan for the iPhone but a well made 3D Fantasy RPG.

iPhone App For In Store Appointments

Apple has declared that they will be making an app that will allow iPhone users to schedule in-store appointments for Apple Stores from wherever they are. Now that’s a nice way to integrate the shopping experience with the iPhone. [read]

Apple Adds App Approval Status Tracker

Apple now allows app developers the peace of mind of at least knowing what stage of the approval process their app is in. A new feature added by Apple gives the status of apps as they go through the approval process.

You and I might not think much of it but this translates to a bit more clarity for the developers. They have always complained about how tough it is to communicate to the iPhone app reviewers. So instead of leaving them in the dark, this tracking feature tells them how tantalizingly close they are to approval. Hopefully, Apple is feeling the pressure to streamline and organize the process now that the app count has reached 100,000. As more developers race to get a piece of the action, Apple will be forced to make the process easier on them to and that means having to handle less complaints and queries and clarifications. [read]

Punch Him In The Face With Your iPhone

We all have that annoying friend who we would love to haul over and roundly beat up. But you obviously cannot do that in real life without falling out with your friend and/or getting thoroughly beaten up yourself in the process. The answer is in a new stress/anger/frustration management iPhone app called FaceFighter.

The app lets you kick, punch and block your opponent, all the while seeing bruises and bandages appear on his face. You can also knock out his teeth. To get started, you have to take a picture or choose one from your camera roll. Then you follow the app’s instructions to line up the face with the cut out, zoom in, zoom out and all that. Then you are ready to knock the living day lights out of that guy, virtually of course.

This is not much of a game although it is not as simplistic as that app that lets you shoot things that your camera is seeing. Still, if you do not want to spend $0.99 for the paid version, you can download Face Fighter Lite, which is free. [read]

Universal Studios Can Has iPhone App Too

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is the latest big name to have released its own iPhone app. This is not a stand-alone app that lets you borrow their titles online but it will enhance your Blu-ray movie viewing experience.

The latest group of Blu-ray releases from the company – American Pie Presents, 9, Inglorious Basterds, etc. are going to come with two BLU apps. These BLU apps can be used by iPhone and iPod touch users in conjunction with certain Blu-ray players.

The pocket BLU app allows you to remotely interact with your Blu-ray player through a sleek iPhone interface. It features advanced remote control features, a pop-up keyboard and more. Social BLU allows you interact with Facebook and Twitter if your Blu-ray player is connected to the Internet.

Premiere League On iPhone Via Sky TV

You can now watch the Premier League and more on your iPhone through the newly launched Sky TV app for the iPhone. For £6 per month, users will be able to access live TV channels that are part of the Sky Sports bundle including Sky News, Sky Sports channels and ESPN channels.

The app currently works only over WiFi and not 3G and that is because O2 forbids its customers from using any such app in its T&C. That’s because the carrier has their own similar services to protect. Existing Sky subscribers will have to pay separately for this service and new customers will have to apply for a Sky customer ID. [read]

Ding! First Round Of UK iPhone Battle

As you might know, Orange UK has recently started selling the iPhone and in response to this new competition Vodafone and O2 have gone in to defense mode. To keep more customers on its side, Vodafone sent out an email to all those who had registered with the carrier prior to the iPhone release, in which they claim that their’s is the network that is the fastest for the iPhone.

In a slightly surprising move, O2 has begun offering an unlocking service for the iPhones. No, they are not going to hack any iPhone you bring in but they will unlock their own iPhones at the end of a contract. They are going to charge a £15 fee for it and they are also warning that the process might take some time, as long as up to 14 days. Even though they are charging for it, it would seem like they are trying to ring up some customer good will by doing this. Once they have unlocked the iPhones, the customer can insert any SIM card in to their iPhone and start using it legitimately.

O2 has also asserted that they have seen tremendous growth in their data network. According to the company — data usage on their network has grown 20 times in the last 12 months, doubling every 4 months. They are also offering free home broadband to people who buy into the tethering option to use their iPhone as a wireless modem.

Analysts have also been quoted saying that the iPhone is the best way to make customers pay more, even in this recessive market. But Vodafone is surely on the right track because what iPhone users mainly want is network strength. They are paying an awful lot to get the connectivity and hence they expect a lot in return. [read]

Orange has only just started selling the phone, so it is too early to say anything about them. But as far as the response goes, it has been extremely positive. The company has tweeted saying that they have recorded more than 30,000 iPhones on the very first day. For a phone that has been launched months back, this is really good indeed. The Droid has sold 100,000 units through the first week and it is a newly launched phone that has gotten positive reviews. Orange’s free film-themed app has also received a lot of success, hitting the number on spot in the entertainment category and the number two spot on the free apps category.

Hilton iPhone Apps To Give You More Choices

Guests of the Hilton hotel might soon be able to check in remotely and have food waiting for them when they arrive through multiple apps being launched by Hilton. I say might because once they reveal the app, it will still have to go through the App Store’s approval process. These apps are going to give you many more options and will “help you manage your stay.” [read]

Taptu Goes Real Time

Taptu is already well loved for their friendly mobile-searching app and now they are about to kick things up a notch. They have partnered with the real time search engine OneRiot to bring you search results as they are unfolding across the web. [read]

First iPhone Worm Rickrolls Jailbroken iPhones

This has been the main worry about everything Mac, They do not have viruses now, true but as they start to get more popular they will attract the attention of malware creators. So in that vein of paranoia, we have news of the first ever worm for the iPhone.

You can cut out the screaming and the deep breathing exercises because it is a) completely harmless and b) only effective on jailbroken iPhones. It does things like change the wallpaper and rickrolling users, so it is not exactly destroying your iPhone yet. A worm on a jailbroken phone is a worm on a device that has already been tampered with. So you can wait for the first ever worm on legit iPhones before you hit the panic button. [read]

Complete Car Control Via iPhone

Okay, this is certifiably crazy. In fact, we should probably start a ‘gHacks Certifiably Nuts’ award just for these fellas. But I must admit that what they are is doing is pretty cool. We know that the iPhone can already be used to start your car remotely but fully driving with the iPhone kinda takes the cake.

So what you do is you take some electronic control circuits, hook them up to control your steering, acceleration and brakes and then control them wirelessly. If you want a less vague and more accurate description, check out the videos. It is quite nicely done and I especially love the fact that they are using the accelerometer to control the steering.

The result is pretty 007-ish — that you can drive your car through your iPhone. Look M(a), no hands! [read]

HD Radio Comes To The iPhone Via Gigaware

Now that the Zune HD is out, your least favorite co-worker who loves to make fun of your liking for Apple has probably been going on and on about how his Zune HD does HD radio and your iPod Touch does not. Setting aside the all important the question of how many good HD radio stations are there near you, you can now get back at him saying “there’s an app for that!”

But that would be kinda half true because even though iBiquity has made an app that plays HD radio on your iPhone, you still have to get an additional hardware for accomplishing the feat. The device is called Gigaware Navigation Controller and is essentially an HD tuner with iPhone integration. It allows you to seek and auto tune as well. Plus there is Facebook tagging and iTunes tagging.

Works with the latest iPhone and the iPod Touch. Available on RadioShack. [read]

Sparkz Projector For Your iPhone

Do you want to spend a lot of money on a pico projector that will work with your iPhone/ iPod Touch/iPod Video? If you do, you can now have the Sparkz dock that lets you connect any of those devices and more to it so that you can project your favorites onto a nearby screen. It will support a/v and VGA inputs too.

Other than this extended support for inputs, it has a resolution of 640×480, stereo speakers and a 60-inch viewing area. It charges your docked device while it is projecting and it comes with its own tripod. The price so much goodness? A mere $495. Hey, I did say a lot of money. [read]

Balloon!

There’s a new app on the app store and it is called Balloon! It is sort of a ‘message in a bottle’ meets social networking kinda app that lets you set off random bits of text with an image into cyberspace. These bits are called balloons and they directed at no one in particular and you have no control over when, where or whom they reach. So where is the fun part?

You can catch balloons that others have set off, add some text to them and let them go again. This way, balloons go on drifting, collecting text and slowly building up interesting stories of their own. Things like these get better with time and participation, so in a bit you might start catching very interesting balloons of your own.

But the most fun part and also the crux of the app is the tracking ability through which you can track your balloon and see whom it has reached and what has been written on it. And the developers have very intelligently made this a paid-only feature. So when you download the free version, you can do everything except tracking. The paid version is for $2.99.

UI seems light-hearted and cartoonish, so I think most of you will have a lot of fun using this app. [read]

Shazam Goes Premium with Shazam Encore

The popular song identification app has finally released their ‘premium’ version as promised earlier. And as everyone was anticipating, this new app is a paid for app.

They do add some new features to make this upgrade worthwhile for you. You can now have songs recommended to you based on the songs that you have tagged for indentification, see what is popular and search for music through the app. Another major part of the upgrade is a performance speed boost. There is also a car mode in this premium app and it apparently allows you to operate the app even when you are driving a car.

If there’s one thing we don’t need in this world – it is another thing to distract drivers.

The new premium app is called Shazam Encore and it has been released alongside a new free version of the Shazam. This new free version does less than the original version and its users will be limited to only five track identifications per month. Those who have original Shazam app can keep on using it as it is. The Encore is going for £2.99, €3.99 or $4.99. [read]

Knocking Away MMS

You can finally stop whining and cursing about AT&T’s broken promises and lame delays in rolling out MMS because now you can do more than what MMS allows you to do through a new app called Knocking.

With this app you can share up to 100 photos almost instantly with another Knocking user. MMS does not allow you to share entire albums at once but Knocking lets you do that. And the app works over both 3G and WiFi, all the more reason to love it. Other than those obvious advantages, there is another greater advantage that MMS will never be able to give you.

You can control what the other person is seeing through the app, making it much easier to share what you really want to share. Knocking had Facebook connect and through that you can share your ‘knocks’. If you hurry, you might be able to get it for free for yourself and others because this app is free only till the first 50,000 downloads. If that seems a lot, you have to remember that this is the App Store we are taking about. It might reach that number extremely fast. [read]

This time around, the iPhone gets awarded the ‘Worst Phone Ever Award’, gets a new 3GS rumor, gets completely unlocked and a lot of other things. Not to mention some great new apps, which is business as usual for the App Store.

If you want more Apple news, tune into the weekly Apple round up on Otaku Gadgets tomorrow.

News:

iPhone Devs Farm Phone Numbers

Seems like iPhone Devs have been farming app users’ telephone numbers again. This time it is Storm 8. Storm 8 makes games, the ones that you see above. And all of them have been accused of carrying a special code that collects the user’s phone number without permission. This has been revealed in a lawsuit and Storm 8 has (sort of) acknowledged that the apps do this. [read]

$99 8GB iPhone 3GS For Christmas [?]

Boy Genius Report claims that they have insider news about a new iPhone offer that will hit AT&T before Christmas. They claim that the iPhone 3GS 8GB model will start selling for $99 only. Before you get into a tizzy, remember that there is no proof of this right now. Not even a suspicious looking flyer. [read]

RFID On The iPhone [?]

So there is this rumor that says Apple is testing out next-generation iPhones that have an RFID chip. What Apple intends to do with it is unknown at this point though. They might enable using the iPhone as a credit card. It might become the new way to shop at (Apple) stores. It might also enhance the Find My iPhone feature. Whatever it does, it will probably be an industry-first. Do we know another RFID-enabled consumer phone? [read]

iPhone China Sales Disappoint

The iPhone Sales In China have disappointing, really so. The first week after the launch saw only 5000 phones sold. The high price and the other factors are being blamed for this. [read]

Quirky’s Beamer Flashes The iPhone

Quirky is a company that has been coming up with really interesting accessories for the iPhone. They now have a new case on sale that adds a much-wanted feature on the iPhone – a flash. Not Flash as in Adobe, but an LED flash that can be switched for a 10-second period (single button press) or can be kept on as a flashlight (double button press). The case itself comes in two parts and hardly adds bulk to the device. Handy for shooting in low light. [read]

Aussies Love The iPhone

A survey by Millward Brown suggests that the iPhone is perceived as the biggest phone brand in Australia. [read]

CNET UK Hates iPhone

CNET UK has all of a sudden award the Worst Phone Ever editorial award to the iPhone. According to the editor, the iPhone is a great computing great device but it fails at being a great phone. [read]

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Apps:

App Store Has More Than 100,000 Apps Now [Official]

Apple has confirmed officially that the App Store has reached over 100,000 apps. Woot! So now you have that many more reasons to love/hate the iPhone. If you just hate having that much competition as a dev or having to trawl through all that as a user, you know you are not alone. [read]

Louvre App Coincided With Louvre Apple Store

The new Apple Store at the Louvre Carousel, the first French Apple Store ever, will open on the 7^th of this month. Coinciding with this is the introduction of the Muée Du Louvre’s very own iPhone app. Through it, visitors can soak in the beauty of the artwork and take a virtual tour through the museum. Best of all, it’s free! [read]

App To Cure Fear Of Flying

Are you afraid of flying? Don’t worry, there are a lot of other people out there who suffer from the same fear. Thankfully, now there are people who help others overcome their fear of flying. Virgin Atlantic has been helping those who are too afraid to fly through various seminars called Flying Without Fear. Now they have an app that will help do the same for iPhone users. It provides helpful tips and is modeled on the successful strategies that are used at the seminars. [read]

iPhone App Acts Like TiVo for Radio

We already have a lot of radio apps for the iPhone but this one does something new. Called the Public Radio, it allows iPhone users to record their favorite NPR programs and then listen to them in their own time. [read]

Stacks For The iPhone, Springload Your Apps

For those who have an unlocked iPhone, here’s a way to better utilize the four app slots on the iPhone’s home screen. Much like Stacks in the OS X Dock, the Stacks app for iPhone allows you to pin multiple apps one slot. This can be done for any or all slots. The is currently in alpha. [read]

Unlock iPhone OS 3.1.2 With Blacksn0w

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this and it is finally here. Available on Cydia, the Blacksn0w app lets you unlock the new iPhone OS 3.1.2 and the new baseband. [read]

In other news, did you know that the iPhone is closing in on Blackberry’s market share? Read all about it and more (Droid, HTC, Google) in Otaku Gadget’s phone news round-up for this week.

Comixology are the people who made the brilliant free comic reader on the iPhone. Now they have gone ahead and added 71 Marvel Comics titles to the in-app purchase catalogue. The titles include names such as The Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, X-Men Age Of Apocalypse and X-23. The comics are priced at $2 each. One bad news – it is US only.

The title are also available on iVerse and Panelfly. iVerse users get the same deal and Panelfly users actually get them for $0.99 each [read]

Do you like time-lapse videos? You know, the ones where a very long event is shot in video and then compressed into a short footage? Like the growing of a sapling or the setting up of a stage? (that rhymes!) Now you can easily make videos like that with your iPhone, thanks to an app called the Timelapser. Clearly, the developers have spent all their efforts on making the app, not naming it (or making an good UI for it). And for one buck, you have no excuse for trying it out. [read]

Do you meet Spanish-speaking people frequently but can’t speak the language to save your life? Worry not, the Jibbigo iPhone app has you covered. It is a nifty little app that converts your speech (English) to Spanish right as you speak. The converted text is then turned to speech and played over the microphone. It also works in reverse, saving you from uni-directional conversation. And the best part is that the entire thing is done offline, so you don’t have to worry about it not working in places where you can’t get a signal to go online. At $25, it is much cheaper than hiring your own translator to roam around with you wherever you go. Besides, some conversations should always stay private ;) . [read]

Sometimes, we all feel like blowing off a bit of steam, using heavy artillery and generally blowing things up with a heavy machine gun. Of course, we can’t always do what we want. So what do we do when we feel like a tightly packed box of gun powder just waiting for a spark? We get a new iPhone App called Firepower and blow the head off the annoying co-worker end every other annoying thing. I mean virtually of course. You can’t expect to get the real thing for $1, that too on your iPhone. You can also point it at you PC when the thing goes BSoD on you! [read]

This is about Settlers of Catan. Do I see you jumping up and down going yes yes  yes yes yes? Well then, you would be happy to know that this popular board game is now available as an iPhone app. The the premise of the game is that you and (up to) three other players are on a tropical island and you have to beat the others by gathering 10 victory points. You get points for capturing settlements, building roads, etc.

You can play against other humans or against the AI. There is no multiplayer mode on this and so you have to physically pass the phone around in order to play the game with your friends. For $5, this is a nice game to help you spend those snowed-in days with your friends and family. [read]

Want to watch live NBA games on the go? Now you can do that for $40/year on your iPhone and other mobile devices. The NBA is offering full live games on mobile devices, up from only the highlights that it used to do. For the fee, you get to watch up to 40 live games per week (wow) and also access to up to two days of archived game. You can even pause and rewind up to 30 seconds during a live feed. Currently available on AT&T and T-mobile USA. Way to get more dedicated viewers NBA! [read]

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Before I sign off, I have to show you people this. It is the next big update on the iPhone. It is so good, it is actually delicious. In fact, I am wishing I could get one custom-made for myself right now!

Also, how could I not post this video in this iPhone post! It pokes fun at the iDon’t Verizon Motorola Droid ad campaign.