This app allows streaming for all of your unprotected audio content directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch from your computer or up to 30 friends’ computer. The connection can be wifi, 3G or Edge for the iPhone and wifi for the iPod Touch. You’ll need a second piece of (free) software from Simplify Media for your computer where the audio content is stored, and it’s available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux. This is the software that actually streams the music. Best of all you can invite up to 30 friends to share music and have their entire music library at your fingertips. I have an iPhone 3G, iTunes, an iMac Core Duo, and it works flawlessly. I have tried it over wifi (best), 3G (better), & Edge (good) and have always been successful.

iTunes, Winamp, or Rhythmbox can be used as the music library application on the computer where the music is stored. Simplify also displays an artist bio page and lyrics for the currently playing song. Previously created playlists are also accessible. If you currently use last.fm, scrobbling is even available as an option.

A couple of things that should be noted:

Your host computer must remain on in order to stream music; the music is streaming from the computer, not the iPhone.

DRM protected music (including protected songs purchased from the iTunes Store) cannot be streamed. Although, all of iTunes music is now DRM-free, but if it isn’t, here’s how to fix that.

Cover art must be embedded in the music file in order to be displayed; Simplify Media will not grab the cover art.

If a call comes in while listening to music, it does not save your place or return to the app. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Simplify Media is a great way to have access to your entire music library anywhere your iPhone or iPod Touch has connectivity.

It’s free to share music from computer to computer [download page] and it’s currently $.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch [iTunes - link]. Software version 2.0 or above is requred for iPhone and iPod Touch.

First, let me say that I use these the most, but don’t confuse that with the best free apps ever made.

In no particular order:

TwitterFon

Facebook is ubiquitous, but Twitter is catching up. President Obama even uses Twitter. This app is actually pretty slick. It easy to share ‘tweets’ or take pictures on the fly. You can even reply, direct message, or ‘ReTweet’ easily right inside the app. Updating your Twitter status has never been so easy. You can follow people (even celebrities)  or have followers. Follow me by going to twitter.com/palaemon. Get it here.

Speed Dial #1

This app does one thing. One-touch dialing to whomever you want. It’s easy, simple and free. If you need more than one, there are
3 more. You guessed it: Speed Dial 2, Speed Dial 3, Speed Dial 4. As an added bonus, they are all different colors, so if numbers are not your thing, maybe colors will do it for you.  Get it here.

Vlingo

A nifty little voice recognition app. Use your voice to call a friend, get directions, or search Google. Easy, accurate, and I have to say It’s a little fun. Check out our full review of Vlingo here. Get it here.

NetNewsWire

RSS reader extraordinaire. This app is the way I catch up on my news, geeky or otherwise. You have to add your RSS feeds through newsgator.com, but you can delete right from the app. It has a built-in web-browser. This allows the user to not only view the basic feed info, but also see the article in its full glory. As an added bonus, there is an ‘open in safari’ button. Get it here.

Wikipanion

This is your basic Wikipedia app. Okay, so basic is totally an understatement. This is probably the most powerful Wiki app out there. The lengthy features include: bookmarking, lookup complete history, jump to topics, related links, move forward and backward through pages, search in page, adjust font size, email link, open in safari, look up in Wiktionary and landscape view. Whew! Get it here.

This app is currently  $15.99, so it’s one of the more expensive social networking apps around for the iPhone/iPod touch. But for What you get it’s worth the $$. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but unlimited text messages is $20/month or $30/month for families.

Okay, so instant messaging is all about keeping connected and staying in touch, right? Well BeejiveIM does that in spades. Not only can you have accounts to all the services listed above, you can manage your availability individually. For example, I want to be available to my spouse on MobileMe, but not all my friends on MySpace IM, or Facebook Chat… Check!

Another great feature is the ability to send SMS to your friends who refuse or are unable (read: old phone) to use email or IM. Using either an AIM or Yahoo! account, I can send IMs as text messages. The recipient is sent a text asking them if they want to receive or decline the message, and after they accept, then you are okay to chat. They still get charged the text message rates, but you are free to chat without worry. In order to send a text message, you can either manually enter a phone number or select it from your address book.

Okay, so we’ve talked about account set up and text messages. But what if the BeejiveIM app is closed? Everyone knows that 3rd party iPhone apps are not allowed to run in the back ground. Well, BeejiveIM has a nifty work-around: push email. In iPhone settings, choose BeejiveIM and turn on “push” and add your push-enabled email address.

If you already have a MobileMe account, then you are good to go. If not, get a free Yahoo! account. I used an old free Yahoo! account that I set up many years ago, but barely used and it work perfectly. Although, I have talked to people who have re-activated an old Yahoo! account and push just didn’t work. I have noticed that just setting up a new Yahoo! account just for BeejiveIM works well.

This feature works well with another great feature: BeejiveIM will keep you logged in to your IM services for up to 24 hours. As long as you open BeejiveIM once a day, you will essentially be connected forever. If the app is closed, and someone sends you a message, you will receive an email with not only the missed message, but a button that opens the BeejiveIM app so that a response can be made.

Let’s talk about features. Some of my favorites are:

Send/Receive Images/Voice notes through IM. Voice notes are done right in the app.
Send text/images as SMS/MMS to most carriers.
Easily switch between chats. Ability to shake iPhone to switch chats in BeeJiveIM.
Portrait or Landscape mode keyboard.
Push Notification.
Attachments available as a web link or in-line view.
Email chat log(s).
Buddy Icon support.
Growl-like display when typing.
Background wallpaper support.

This interface is sleek and beautiful. It’s exactly what you’d expect in a top-notch (who uses top-notch these days?) iPhone app.
It’s available for $15.99 here.

Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, CA housed the iPhone 3.0 preview event. And let me first of all thank Engadget for doing such an amazing job of covering this preview.

Let’s get right into it. The major announcements include:

Cut, copy and paste. This works across apps and with multiple photos in email. Also, shake to undo/redo.

MMS at long last! Also forward and delete multiple messages.

Unlocked Bluetooth functionality on 2G iPod Touch.

A2DP stereo Bluetooth.

Spotlight – Universal search feature added to the left of the main home screen.

Tethering built-in to the 3.0 software, but implementation is ultimately up to the carriers.

Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping. (ie contacts)

Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.

Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps.

Turn-by-turn directions with access to Core Data. (Access to Google Maps not included – aka B.Y.O.M)

Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now. Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth. (keyboard?)

Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won’t run in the background. (kills battery life)

Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.

Shake to shuffle iPod playback.

A new app called Voice Memos which lets you record notes and reminders.

A revised Stocks app with news stories and a landscape view.

Landscape view available for Mail, Text and Notes.

CalDAV support has been added to Calendar, along with subscriptions support in the .ics format.

Apple’s major apps have all been expanded with search functionality.

Note syncing to Mac and PC.

YouTube account support.

Form auto-fill.

Phishing protection.

A developer beta of OS 3.0 is available today, and the 3.0 update will be coming to consumers this summer as a free update to all iPhone 3G customers. It’ll also work for 1st gen iPhone owners, though they won’t receive A2DP or MMS due to hardware limitations. iPod touch owners will be able to update for $9.95, (Déjà vu, anyone?)

During the Q & A afterwards Engaget found out that due to “hardware limitations” MMS and A2DP are not going to be available on first gen iPhones.

The new design eliminates the click-wheel completely and opts for an earphone cord-based click system. The controls are located a few inches below the right earbud and has 3 parts: + and - for volume control and a middle button for the majority of the controls. The new system allows for one-click play/pause, two-clicks track forward, and three-clicks previous track. Holding down the button allows for a completely new experience – VoiceOver. This brand new feature actually speaks the artist and track information by holding down the button. If the button is held down long enough, a tone will sound. After that, the Shuffle will speak the current playlist and the begin listing all the playlists. Simply click again when you hear your desired playlist, and you’re good to go.

With the new 4GB capacity, enough for 1000 songs, it’s no wonder that Apple has finally brought multiple playlists to the iPod Shuffle line.

The new Shuffle retails for $79 and is available in black matte and silver matte, the same color scheme as the iPod Classic.

On the upside is the new, smaller size; the belt clip as a mainstay; VoiceOver; and the larger capacity.

On the downside is the lack of color options and the removal of the click-wheel. While this doesn’t sound like a downside, users who may want to use their own earphones are out of luck. An adapter is said to be in the works, but who really wants to pay more to use their current earphones – effectively driving up the price of the Shuffle?

Basically  the Safari+ features are just bookmarklets.

Bookmarklets are little pieces of Javascript code that can be saved as ordinary bookmarks in your web browser.
They enhance your browsing experience by giving you super-instant access to useful tools and special functionality.

All one has to do is save a bookmark, edit the bookmark, and then use the bookmark.

Once on the desired webpage, just open bookmarks and choose the desired function. For find in page a window pops up asking for the text to search. It will then tell you how many matches and highlight them for you on the page.

Another one of my favorites is the links in new window bookmarklet. I like to go to news sites and open a few windows, but I hate having to go back and forth.

This option gives you little “double windows” icons for every link on that page.

Just select one and Mobile Safari will open it in a new window.

These are just a few. For step-by-step instructions and more bookmarklets (like Mobilize Page) go to http://www.ipuhelin.com/en/safariplus/ right on your iPhone.

The gameplay is simple and responsive.

The game uses 2 mechanics. Tapping anywhere on the screen makes the ball jump, and the longer you hold, the higher he jumps. The game also uses the accelerometer to move left and right.

The goal is that of any other platformer: Stay alive and don’t get killed! To kill enemies, just jump on top. Sometimes enemies need multiple hops to be killed.
The graphics are clean and crisp, yet simple.

The player gets checkpoints in the form of gold stars and is able to continue from that point if he dies. After each level statistics are given including a “beat by” time that offers the player an “acheivement-like” gold medal.

The game is broken up into worlds and levels. The free “lite” version has 3 levels in a single world. The full version is on sale untill March 3rd when they plan to release the complete 3rd world.

Free Lite version available here [iTunes link] and full version available here [iTunes link] for $1.99 until March 7th.

Top-sided tabs are a little odd if you’re used to the traditional location just above the current window. It may take some adjustment, but it does seem to free up some real estate for the page currently being viewed.

Top Sites is a contact-sheet-style page  that displays the internet’s most popular sites. You can’t add specific sites, but it does learn your visiting habits. Initially it lists sites such as: Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and eBay, but just visit your favorite geeky site (geekshow.us of course) a few times and pretty soon it will show up on Top Sites.

You can change the size of Top Sites to display 6, 12 or 20 webpages.

Another nice feature is the ability to search or browse your history in a Cover Flow-style view. Very nice if you want to go back to that one site, and you don’t remember the name, but you remember what the site looked like.

I’ve been using Firefox for the past few months because Safari 3 was just too slow, and the longer I left it running, the slower it got. The last few days I have basically been running Safari and I have had absolutely no issues. No slowdowns, no bugs, and no crashes.

Available free for MacOSX 10.5 and Windows. Download it here.

Marvel announced at Comic Con that it would be releasing a ‘new’ medium – Motion Comics.

DC has already done this with Batman and Watchmen.

AppleInsider reports, “The series will launch with two titles from some of the art form’s biggest names. Astonishing X-Men will debut from Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, while Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev will weave readers into the new story of Spider-Woman.”

From the preview, the Marvel approach looks promising.

You will need 3 things to get started:

GarageBand

iTunes

An Unprotected audio file

If you have a protected audio file from iTunes, follow this MacGeek guide to strip the DRM.

Open GarageBand and create a new project. Although what you name your project will ultimately become the newly created ringtone name, you can change the ringtone info once it is in iTunes.

Once opened, You will see a piano track has already been added for you.

Delete this track by selecting ‘Track’ from the menu bar and choosing ‘Delete Track.’

Then click the red X/dot and close the floating piano palette.

With your empty canvas waiting, choose the non-protected song from iTunes that you want as your ringtone, and drag it to GarageBand.

At the bottom push the Cycle Region button. The icon is the same as ‘repeat’ in iTunes.

Once selected, you will notice a thin gold bar added above the track. This bar can be moved and resized. Basically, whatever this gold bar covers will be your ringtone.

You can click the ‘Play’ icon to check it. The ringtone will repeat once it reaches the end. It’s an infinite loop. <points for that reference>

Once you are satisfied with the placement of the gold bar, choose ‘Share’ from the menu bar and then ‘Send Ringtone to iTunes.’

Look for the ‘Ringtones’ folder in iTunes. Rename track if you desire.

If you have never added ringtones to your iPhone, make sure when you sync that you do so under the ‘Ringtone’ tab in the iPhone settings. Just select the ‘Sync Ringtones’ and choose either all ringtones or just a select few.

Well there you go. A much better (read: cheaper) way to get ringtone on your iPhone. If you have audio file or download sound effects that you want as ringtones, this method is perfect for that too.

Happy Ringtoning!!

Have you ever played that game where the goal is to slide pieces around in order to complete the picture? It can be fun, but after you solve it once, the fun pretty much ends there. Well, take elements of that, add colors, geometric shapes & a subway theme and you have Subway Shuffle.

The object of this addictive puzzle game by R Aubrey Hearn is to get your subway car to its destination. Each color token (subway car) can only travel on its own color line. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, the first few levels are almost remedial, but the difficulty curve jumps quite a bit at about level 14. Although the play can be maddening,  it can be lots of fun at the same time. Sometimes you feel like giving up, but then you see the light. However, for those who don’t see the light, there are a few options. first, there is a hint button in the shape of a question mark. If you get stuck, just click the “?” and Subway Shuffle will move a token in the right direction. The good news is that you can use the hint repeatedly until it’s solved. (Is “solved” the right word if you used the hint button to complete the entire puzzle?) Second, if you make an obvious mistake, you can just hit the back button and it will move the last token  to its previous position and subtract a “move” from your current number of moves. Third, you may also skip to any puzzle you want from the  All Levels menu. There are currently 85 in the full version, and about 10 or so in the lite (aka free/demo) version. It’s not a lot, but that gives you a smattering of levels to try.

That brings us to the “move” tracker. This convenient feature tracks how many moves you make. On the downside, it also correlates that to the minimum number of moves it takes to complete said level. (84/22  -  yikes!) On the Levels menu, it shows you which puzzles you have solved (including how many “hints” you may have used) with one green check mark. You get a second check mark, if you solve it within the given number of moves. You also get a preview of the level map and how many moves it’ll take to solve. Let me just say that I’m not looking forward to level 84 with its 329 moves or the last level at 589 moves. That’s more than 17 times as many moves as number 24 (34 moves), and level 24 is a doozie. Let’s just say that there are YouTube videos showing how to solve it.

Subway Shuffle was designed and developed by an MIT Computer Scientist. It’s compatible with the iPhone and the iPod Touch with the iPhone software 2.0 update.

The lite version is available for free here and the full version is available for $2.99 here.

There’s also a free demo for the Mac at SubwayShuffle.com

Here’s a video from their website:

The update is supposed to fix issues with stability in Safari, Apple lossless files skipping, and correctly rendering photos saved from mail.

Get updating people!!

With the announcement of DRM-Free iTunes music January 6th, I hoped upon hope that the move was retroactive. No such luck. So, it will cost me $.30/song to re-download my newly non-protected music. I have more than 200 songs; that’s over $60. Uh – No thanks.

Here’s a way to do it with 2 pieces of software. 3, if you want ID3 tags and album art. All Free.

iTunes (You will already have this, of course) Otherwise get it here

iMove HD available here (154MB file)

Jaikoz Audio Tagger available here

You will use iMovie HD to strip the DRM, iTunes to convert it to MP3 or AAC. And Jaikoz to automatically correct the ID3 tags and add album art.

When you fist open iMovie HD, it’ll ask for a title for the project. The title makes no difference because you won’t be actually saving a movie file. In the iMovie HD window, select the ‘Media’ tab located between ‘Themes’ and ‘Editing’. You will notice the media browser at the top right portion of the interface . Select the ‘Audio’ tab and locate the playlist which contains purchased music, or search by artist/title.

Once you have selected the song, drag it to the iMovie timeline where it says “Drag audio here to build your project.” Or select “Place at Playhead.”

iMovie needs a picture, any picture to be added to the timeline in order for it to be tricked into thinking that it’s going to be exporting a movie. Once iMovie HD is done processing the image, you want to slect ‘Share’ at the top in iMovie’s menu bar and choose ‘Share’ in the drop-down menu.

Ensure that ‘Expert Settings’ is selected in the “Compress movie for:” drop-down menu. Selecting ‘Expert Settings’ mode will provide the options to export the file as an audio file. Select the ‘Share’ button.

In the Export… dialogue, select “Sound to AIFF.” (Apple’s version of a WAV file.) In the Export drop-down menu, Choose a directory you will remember for iMovie HD to export to, you can also title the file here, and select ‘Save’. Depending on your machine configuration, iMovie will compress and export the movie project as an audio file in a couple of minutes.

Locate the exported AIFF audio file and drag to your iTunes Library. Right-click on the file and select “Create AAC Version” or “Create MP3 Version.”

Once completed right-click and choose ‘Get Info’ on the new file, edit meta data, and add album art. Or drag and drop your file(s) into Jaikoz. You may want to trash the originally purchased (unless you want to keep it for nostalgia) and AIFF audio files from your iTunes library.

Jaikoz’s main window is a little confusing, so just follow along. You want to drag your newly created DRM-free files directly from iTunes to the middle pane of Jaikoz. The free version of Jaikoz allows 20 edits per session. If you want to edit more, either restart the application after every 20th edit or pony up the $22 for the full licensed version.

Once the files are loaded into Jaikoz, highlight all the tracks. Right-click and choose “Auto Correct”

This is the easiest and best option. Jaikoz is a little slow (at least for me.) It uses the MusicBrainz database which is user-editable, ala Wikipedia. Sometimes this option doesn’t work OR it chooses the Greatest Hits of an artist, but you are wanting a particular album. In this case, right-click the file and select “Remote Correct,” Then a drop-down menu opens for you to choose “Manual Correct Tags From MusicBrainz.”

This feature is something that other [free] taggers do not offer. You can select any of the available options for that song/album/artist. The reason why it may have chosen greatest hits as its selection is because MusicBrainz data is ranked. The greatest hits might have a score of 89, but the album you want has a score of 66. Select the right one and choose “OK.”

Once you are satisfied, right-click the corrected tracks a choose “Save Changes.” Then right-click once more and choose “Close Files.” Rinse and repeat.

If none of these work for you, there is a third way. Go to MusicBrainz.org and search for that artist and find the album/track if available. Once selected, find the MBID for the track, release, or artist. Copy that in to the corresponding area in Jaikoz. There is a “MusicBrainz” tab along the lower third of the screen.

If you previously tried to auto correct this track, you will notice information already listed in this tab. Just delete all the fields and add the one you copied from MusicBrainz.org to the appropriate field. Once that is done, right-click track. Under “Remote Correct” choose “Update Tags From Existing MusicBrainz Id.”

Hopefully this works for you. If it doesn’t add the album art, iTunes does have a built-in option. Choose “Get Album Art” from the advanced menu. Unfortunately, it automatically checks every track in iTunes and not just selected ones.

In a letter to Apple employees, Steve Jobs acknowledges that his health issues were “more complex than [he] originally thought.” Jobs says he plans to return by the end of June.

(Just in time for WWDC…Coincidence?)

With hundreds of vendors and thousands of visitors, the expo hall was crowded. One major exception was Adobe, who late last year decided to pull out. A large empty space at the front of the south hall was noticeably vacant. The footprint was familiar and Adobe-shaped, but that didn’t stop people from doing crazy stuff to win prizes.

The most visible of the giveaways was Peachpit Press. The contestants just needed to be spotted wearing bunny ears. The catch was that prizes were given away every hour, so no rest for the wicked or the freebie whore, and among the included prizes were iPod Nanos and iPhones. The entire week was nothing but bunny ears, and even other vendors were wearing them. This type of giveaway was the most extreme, however most prizes were won by raffle. Easy enough. Walk by a booth (maybe more than once) and pick up a raffle ticket that cute young girls and guys were handing out as fast as they could. Show up later at a predetermined time, and (hopefully) if they call your number, claim your prize . Last year everybody was giving out prizes, but this year it was slim pickins.

The most popular raffle-style prize-givers were Speck (makers of iPod/iPhone cases), Elgato (EyeTV – DVR for the Mac), Microsoft and FileMaker Pro (Database software.) The last two allowed audience members to have a chance to win hourly after each product demonstration.

MacWorld was not just about new software and the latest iphone case; vendors often targeted the tired and weary user. From ‘Brain Tonic’ to a glorified back brace, users found everything they always knew they never wanted. It was all about getting bodies in the booth. That could was done by showing off intriguing devices, walking around the show floor advertising, or even having a Rock Band contest to win prizes.

For a description of the photos, check out the gallery bellow.

At the Phil Schiller-presented keynote Apple announced changes to iTunes, iLife, iWork, and new 17″ MacBook Pros.

iLife ‘09 - Updates to iPhoto include 2 new sorting options (Faces & Places), Facebook-like tagging, support for uploading directly to Facebook & Flickr, Slideshow themes and more Travel Book themes.

Garage Band has 9 free guitar and piano lessons. Also offering $4.99 Artist Lessons featuring John Fogerty, Sting, Nora Jones, Patrick Stump & Sarah McLaughlan. Garage Band – More like Rock Band.

iWork ‘09 – New transitions for Keynote. A Keynote App called Keynote Remote that allows the user to view and control slides from their iPhone or iPod Touch. New features for Numbers were also announced.

Also new subscription-based iwork.com was revealed. This Google Docs-like feature is in beta. Users of iWork ‘09 can choose to upload copies of any iWork-compatible document directly to iwork.com. They can then share it with any number of people, and each person gets a unique URL-link in which to edit the document, in either a current web browser or as a downloaded iWork document, MS Office document or PDF.

17″ MacBook Pro - Starting at $2799, these new aluminum enclosed laptops offer up to 8GB RAM (4GB included), 2.66GHz, and a new non-removable 8-hour battery.

iTunes - New flex price points: $.69, $.99, & $1.29. 8 million songs & music videos are DRM-free as of today with all 10 million by the end of the quarter.

iTunes song are now available for download over the 3G network. Same price, same quality.

The iPhone does not have built-in voice recognition, but that is the beauty of 3rd party apps. Vlingo is actually very accurate, especially for free. The Home screen has a great layout. At the top-left is a ‘Settings’ button, and on the top-right is an info button. Settings include content filtering, choosing either Google or Yahoo! as the default search option, turning on auto dial, and adding social sites. The info page lists tutorials and has a link to Vlingo FAQs.

The middle part of the main screen has a button that takes the user to the What You Can Say tutorial page. This page lists the simplest ways to get the most accurate results from Vlingo. The middle section also has a large Press + Speak button. This button can be either pressed and held or pressed before and after speaking.

The five tabs along the bottom are Home, Maps, Search, Phone, and Social. From the Home screen, the user must preempt the request with a command, such as “Call John Smith mobile.” Whereas, on the Phone screen, all one has to say is “John Smith mobile.”

The Maps screen works a little differently. After the user verbalizes the command, a Map It button pops up, and when tapped, it sends the results directly to the Google Maps App. Likewise, the results on the Search page are shown in the app, but when clicked, the user is taken to Mobile Safari. On the Social page, the user can select Facebook, Twitter or both. All results can be edited manually if needed.

Vlingo is really fun to use. Speaking requests instead of manually typing requests for Google or to get an address in Google Maps is faster, and I’ll admit it is also cooler too. I tried other voice recognition apps such as VoiceBoxDial and Google Mobile App with lesser results.

As of this writing, Vlingo is aware of a bug in the current 1.0.1 version, where about every 24-hours you must clear and re-enter your Facebook account information or get an error message asking you to do so. Since this is a known issue and it is all done within Vlingo, I have just become accustomed to doing it. If you have already spoken your status update when you get the error message, Vlingo will save your update on the Social page until you return.

Listed in the FAQ is a question pertaining to SMS and Email support. Vlingo states that these features will be released in future updates. Imagine being able to dictate email or speak a text message reply – all for free!

In order for Vlingo to be so accurate, the first time you use Vlingo it uploads the contact names from your address book. According to their privacy policy, they never use the info for anything else and just the names, not numbers or addresses are uploaded. Check out their privacy policy here and their explanation in the FAQs here. Although this process is quick and easy, some people have expressed concern for privacy.

Get Vlingo for free here.

Version 1.0.1 reviewed
iPhone software 2.0 or above required
Only the iPhone and iPhone 3G are officially supported
(iPod Touch 2nd Gen w/ external mic might work though)

In a word – No.

Oh it has web searches down pat. It even does voice-recognition for nearby searches fairly well. That’s all fine and dandy, but what about the Google “Apps” portion of the mobile software? Even though Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and more are all listed, they are actually just links to Google’s website. That’s right Mobile Safari is really handling all these Google “Apps.”

And some of them are pretty much useless too. Here’s why:

Gmail – add Gmail right to the mail app on your iPhone; there is no need to use the web version.

Calendar – you can only see one day at a time – no full month view for you.

Docs – sure, they’re viewable, but not editable.

Maps – are you kidding me? There is a Google Maps app built in.

YouTube – are you seeing a pattern?

I know Google is a Web-based product, but at least make it useful.

The Google Mobile App is separated into 3 sections: Search, Apps, and Settings. The Search section is pretty self-explanatory. There is a search box at the top that allows for text input. Planted on the left-side of that box is a spotlight icon that acts as a drop-down menu and allows the user to choose from these items: iPhone & Web, maps, images, news, shopping or Wikipedia. To the right of the search box is a button with a microphone icon. This allows the user to speak queries into the microphone rather than type them. What’s even cooler is that the Google Mobile App uses the iPhone’s proximity sensor. This senses that the phone is up to your cheek and shuts off the screen so nothing is pressed accidentally. Funny thing is: use of this sensor is supposed to be on Apple’s “no-no” list. I guess it pays to be Google.

The Apps section includes all of Google’s popular web apps. In addition to those listed above, it includes Talk, Reader, GOOG-411, News, Notebook, orkut, Translate, Earth and Blogger.

The third section is for settings. It allows preference changes for search, start screen and screen rotation. Normally, this would be rather lackluster and forgettable, but alas there is an Easter Egg. On the Settings screen, scroll down past ‘About.’ Try scrolling quickly – like you’re trying to get a half-page of extra screen from the bottom – and Voilà! You have an extra secret setting: ‘Bells and Whistles.’ Under this selection, the user may change the theme color, change the default sound to either ‘chicken or monkey’, or turn on ‘Live Waveform’ or ‘Open Links in App.’ Changing the theme color is fun because it opens up a color well for specific color choice. Neither of the new sound options are inviting or interesting. Who cares if you can see the ‘Live Waveform’ when you speak – you are busy speaking anyway. “Open Links in App’ only refers to searches – a nice feature nonetheless.

Overall the Google Mobile App is just a shortcut to their suite of web applications. The good thing is that it’s free, but the bad thing is that we have come to expect a lot more from Google. Check it out here.

Version 0.3.114 reviewed
For voice searches iPod Touch 2nd Gen required (with external microphone)
Price: Free

MacGeek

Keeping an Eye on Apple from a Geek’s Perspective

Dave here reporting live(-ish) from St. Louis, MO. My username Palaemon references a one-time character from an episode of Xena. I really liked the character and actually wrote on paper (gasp!) an outline of a series with him as the central character. (Wait – This is Geekshow not Dorkshow.)

Of course I love TV and movies; some of my favorites include Buffy, Angel, TNG, Star Wars, Friends, Doctor Who, anything Pixar, and Babylon 5 (get through episode 19 of season 2 – you’ll see!).  What geek doesn’t like games and music? Puzzle and action/adventure games are my favorite, and as for music I tend towards heavy metal (hey Wayne!)

My first computer was a Windows 3.1 Compaq from 1994. Although previously a Windows user, after meeting my partner, a huge “Apple Guy,” I gave the Mac a shot. For a while I had both Windows and an iMac. Now it’s all Apple, all the way, baby. In July the iPhone 3G joined my family of Apple devices and I started downloading apps. It’s really a mini computer in my pocket with the Internet accessible almost anywhere.

I have been part of Geekshow.us for about three years, first as a lurker, then as a semi-regular poster. I discovered the BuffCast and podcasting in general after its second episode and have been a fan of Two Geeks, Angel Investigations, GeekiNtertainment, and of course Geek By Night ever since. Seriously, I didn’t even know I was a geek. I thought that geeks and nerds were just different ways to say the same thing, however, Geek By Night showed me the way. Currently I listen to a few gaming podcasts, but all my geek news comes from Geekshow.us, and I am thrilled to give back to this community.

My focus at GSE will be in technology with an emphasis on Apple, the iPhone and its apps. I’ll showcase apps in a series called “Spotlight” and don’t be surprised if I have a few “Top 5” articles as well. Since I’ll be attending MacWorld San Francisco in Jan ’09, I’ll be posting some of my best finds.