iPhone

Image courtesy of TomTom

When TomTom pre-announced its iPhone turn-by-turn app and cradle accessory, a lot of people (including me) assumed it would let iPod touch users become first class GPS citizens. This appeared to be an incorrect assumption after TomTom released the first version of its $99.99 iPhone app...

TomTom U.S. & Canada (iTunes App Store)

However, this has all changed in favor of iPod touch owners according to this AppleInsider article...

TomTom app updated to support iPod touch, first-gen iPhone

The TomTom GPS cradle kit is priced at $119.95. This means this is all quite a pricey combo if you don't already have an iPod touch.

8GB iPod touch + TomTom app + TomTom cradle kit = $418.94

Even the app + kit combo comes to $219.94 which is quite a bit more than many of the low-priced dedicated GPS units.

TomTom for iPhone (product page)

I've spent a lot of years fussing with servers and networks. So, this item in CNET...

Cisco launches iPhone security app

...with Cisco, security, and iPhone in a single subject line is interesting (ironically, Cisco sued Apple over the iPhone name before the Apple iPhone's launch). SIO is an acronym for Security Intelligence Operations.

Cisco's SIO site describes it as: Early-warning intelligence, threat and vulnerability analysis, and proven Cisco mitigation solutions to help protect networks. But, from what I see this free iPhone app...

Cisco SIO To Go (iTunes App Store)

Doesn't tell me anything I couldn't find using nslookup. It didn't see to tell me much else of use from a cyber security aspect.

The app doesn't even record the domain names and IP addresses I typed into its search box. So, a recheck requirings retyping the name or IP address all over again (and again and again for repeat checks) on the iPhone's virtual keyboard.

This app is a huge disappointment. I don't understand how an industry giant like Cisco allowed it to be released.

ngmoco is probably one of the most successful iPhone game development firms. Their...

Touch Pets Dogs

...game is a particularly interesting product for a couple of reasons...

First, it looks like a well drawn and thought out dog simulation descended from the amazing Nintendogs game for the original Nintendo DS. Nintendogs, more than any other game, probably convinced more parents (including me) that it was ok to buy a Nintendo DS for their child.

Second, it has an interesting bimodal customer rating. Of the 2211 ratings, 888 gave it five stars (high) while 632 gave it one star (low). The rest of the ratings are evenly split (193 two stars, 259 three stars, and 239 four stars). This is one of those games that you either really love or really hate it seems.

Third, it has an interesting pricing model. When I saw the free game, I assumed it had some kind in-app purchase system for purchasing virtual goods. I only played with it for a few minutes and could not find an in-app store. Instead ngmoco has a tiered model rating from free to $29.99 for a series of five versions of the same game: Free, 99 cents, $1.99, $9.99, $29.99. Each step up includes more food bowls.

Will this model work? The free Touch Pets Dogs app is currently #4 in the Free Games Apps list. However, the only paid version in the top 100 paid games is the 99 cent version sitting at #92. I suspect some kind of in-app micropayment system might be more profitable.

The annual holiday travel season is just around the corner. If you have an iPhone or iPod (touch or otherwise), you might want to dust off the iTunes Travel Guide section to find apps, podcasts, audiobooks, music, language translation information, and even "staycation" material. Here's how you find this hidden collection of travel gems...

- Start up iTunes
- Select "App Store"
- Look at the "App Store Quick Links" list in the right sidebar
- Select "Travel Guide" (currently the last item on the list)

I'm not sure why it is quick linked in the App Store since most of the guide's suggestions are not apps. I believe it was launched just before this past summer. But, much of its recommendations are useful regardless of the travel season.

Drive, fly, and hike safely! And, stay tuned to MobileContentToday.com.

The popular free Google Earth for iPhone app just got a major update...

An update to Google Earth for the iPhone

Version 2.0 adds:
- Support for custom maps created using the My Maps interface on your desktop
- Simpler icon picking for browsing layers of information such as Wikipedia articles
- Support for 31 languges (up from 18).

I spoke with Google Earth for iPhone development team members Peter Birch (who wrote the 2.0 announcement linked above) and Mike Morton this past January. You can listen to this 20 minute podcast using the embedded audio player below.

13 of my iPhone apps were updated in the past week. Updates 1MB or larger are noted in parentheses. You may note that some of the apps listed were on one of my booted apps list. They are shown as updated because they were unsynced with my iPhone rather that completely removed from my iTunes app library.

Apps that do not have comments in the list below indicates that the update is simply a bug fix release or an iPhone OS 3.x compatibility update with, perhaps, some bug fixes.

1. Box.net 1.3 Instant login. Faster folder browsing. Rotate document preview screen.

2. Facebook 3.03 (1.3m) Japanese & Chinese localizations

3. HP iPrint Photo 2.0 Crop/rotate using pinch/drag. High print quality. Print multiple photo sizes. Select plain or photo paper.

4. msnbc.com 1.1.1 (1.4m)

5. myStarbucks 1.1 (8.6m) Post favorite drink to Facebook or Twitter. Share location on Facebook or Twitter. Food Carousel (landscape viewing mode). Connect to Facebook or Twitter

6. Night Camera 3.0.2 Golden Ratio added to aspect ratios

7. reMovem (free) 1.4 (1.3m)

8. Seafood Guide 3.0.1 (3.4m)

9. Shazam 1.8.0 Backward compatibility with OS 2.0. Send tags to Facebook mini-feed

10. TweetDeck for iPhone 1.1.1 (1.3m) Video record & update (3GS only), Facebook account support. Post status updates to Facebook. Create Facebook groups. bit.ly account support. Landscape compose.

11. WhitePages Mobile 1.3.2

12. Wikipanion 1.5.5f (1.1m) Polish & Swedish localization

13. WritePad 2.2 (1.5m) Undo button (shake still works)

What a difference a decade makes. You can see my old but well-preserved copy of the 1999 Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide next to the latest digital version on my iPhone...

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide 1.1

This is not one of those book-in-an-app iPhone apps that I've come to dislike to much over the past year. It takes the movie guide book's movie review content and placed it in a searchable database.

It starts up with a list of reviews of recent movies (Current Picks). This is fast and handy to use and read. The problem comes when searching for other movies. The version 1.1 update description notes that this update has faster searching than the 1.0 release. However, it still takes far too long. Using a stopwatch, I found that searches typically took between 25 and 30 seconds before the first result appeared on an iPhone 3G. This process should take no more than 5 to 10 seconds. I was also disappointed to find that movies could not be grouped by, for example, genre and date (all science fiction movies between 1970 and 1980, for example). It would also be nice to have some kind of random movie discovery feature for those times when you want to watch something but just can't figure out what might be interesting.

The movie reviews themselves are well-written and interesting. As you might guess from the size of the 10 year old book and the 24,000+ count of reviews in this app, this is a team effort with 10 editors listed in the app's information section.

Disclosure note: The Leonard Maltin Movie Guide 1.1 for iPhone was provided free of charge by mobileAge for evaluation.

Screenshot courtesy of The Weather Channel Interactive

How hot are games for the iPhone (and iPod touch)? Would you believe The Weather Channel decided to jump in with an iPhone game offering? I had to reread the press release in my inbox to make sure I hadn't misread it. But, yep, here's their first game. And, it is not even waether related...

Weather Channel Puzzle Trek 1.0 (game)

Its normal price is $1.99 but is currently available for 99 cents. It has 45 scenes (puzzles). And, the images can be used as wallpaper. Its requirements section mentions compatibility with the 2nd generation iPod touch. So, if you (like me) have a 1st generation model, don't buy this app.

I'm not a puzzle app fan. But, if you are, it has a 4 star rating (out of 5) based on 14 ratings.

YouTube video courtesy of TitanMagazines

So, who doesn't like Wallace and Gromit? I'm guessing the answer is close to no one. However, I can tell you something I generally don't like... Single apps wrapped around a single book or comic that clutters up iPhone and iPod touch screens. Titan Magazines released four Wallace and Gromit comic books apps for 99 cents each. Well, actually, one of the four is free right now. You can find it at...

Wallace and Gromit: Digital Comic #1, The W Files

To their credit, there a couple of hidden surprises "under" some of the pages. But, I still wish they had chosen to distribute these and future Wallace and Gromit comics through the various comic book reading apps already available for the iPhone. I noted last week how Marvel Comics is distributing (selling) comics through these apps...

Marvel Comics Available on iPhone via 4 Different Apps

Image courtesy of iBiquity Digital

I'm really enjoying seeing the slow but steady trickle of more functionally sophisticated hardware accessories for the iPhone. The latest is the...

Gigaware In-Line Control with HD Radio for iPhone

...available from Radio Shack for $79.99. It works with the free...

HD Radio 1.0

...iPhone app that lets you tag songs playing on HD radio stations. My 5th generation iPod nano has a radio which I never use (except for testing right after buying the nano). So, I'm not the target audience for this hardware accessory.

Unfortunately, with 180 user reviews, the app (and presumably the hardware) has a 2 star (out of 5) average rating with 123 of the reviewers (68%) giving the minimum 1 star rating (ouch).

Via the Wall Street Journal: App Watch: HD Radio for the iPhone