GadgetReview

TomTom’s Car Kit for the iPhone is now available for purchase at Apple’s online store.  But before you buy, consider the hefty price tag: $119.95.  And that doesn’t even include the necessary iPhone app, which costs an additional $99.  iLounge gave it a rating of ‘C’, which means it’s equitable in quality to the last US President, and that’s being generous, in the case of the President that is.

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For all you Verizon and Sprint MiFi users with an iPhone or iPod Touch, listen up.  There’s an app called Mi-Fi that lets you monitor your Mifi’s bandwidth, connected IPs, connection time and battery level.  I’m not sure how it jacks into this info, but I’m assuming it’s done over WiFi and doesn’t require any special tinkering.  I especially like that someone built an app for a product that isn’t available from AT&T, but rather their two competitors.

[via JKontherun]

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There aren’t too many iPhone apps out there that get me hot and bothered, let alone some DIY kit to go along with it.  But John Boile’s WiFi Router light dimmer, called Dimlit, has flipped the attention switch in my brain.

Attached to a WiFi router (aside from circuit boards and wiring) are 4 AC outlets.  Plug in any light and the router can control their voltage by using the accompanying iPhone app, which allows you to adjust the lights in variety of manners using a set of slider bars, tapping a button or waving the phone around in the air (accelerometer).  Hit the video below for a complete walk through, which includes the whitest dance party you’ll ever see.

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The Apple iPhone is beginning to scare me.  Seriously.  With all the various things you hear about cropping up, eventually I look for an iPhone to one day stand up on its own base and say, calmly, through its speaker: “Cogito, ergo I’m going to take over the world now”.

Or worse yet: “Welcome to Skynet”.

Anyway, another “hidden app” has apparently been discovered, and the crew at Apple don’t seem to be in a huge hurry to deny it, but it seems that iPhones everywhere are carrying the ability to receive FM broadcasts in their guts.  Yes, that’s right–your iPhone may just have a radio hidden inside it, and you never knew it.  The only thing that’s preventing you from using it right now is that Apple is busily “trying to reintegrate the Mobile iTunes Store purchases into the functionality of the program”.

I can’t help but think this might have been better for iPods than iPhones–why make people listen to their iPhone WHILE they’re listening to their iPod?  That’s just nuts…and largely unnecessary.

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Do you love magic?  Do you have an iPhone?  If so, get yourself over to the iTunes app store and plunk down $2.99 for what might be one of the more novel and original applications to hit the iPhone.  Called Rising Card, the application is based off the classic and popular trick performed by hundreds of magicians around the world.  It works like this: the magician tells you to think of a card and say it aloud.  The magician then magically makes your card slip out from the deck using what appears to be a set of invisible strings.

*Warning: Spoiler alert ahead*

Now you, the every day joe, can perform this trick on unsuspecting relatives, friends or complete strangers.  Upon initial launch of the app you’re presented with a set of instructions explaining how it works.  I found these a bit overwhelming so you might want to opt for the video tutorial, which requires a WiFi or 3G connection.  After the initial launch you have the option to officially launch the application, which will hide the instructions unless you hold down the ’settings’ button presesnted on the fake screen.

Fake screen you say?  Yup. The Rising Card iPhone app uses a fake screen to make your subject think you have yet to launch the application, but more on that in a sec.  One you fire up the app you’ll have to perform a secret move to fully launch- you swipe down on the screen with two fingers.  What will appear to be the app shutting down is in fact the fake screen launching. Each ‘application’ in the fake screen represents a card number while the 4 favorite buttons represent a suit.  So, while your mark says the card aloud you punch the card’s info in accordingly.  In order to truly dupe them into thinking you haven’t done anything underhanded, you’ll want to choose the suit first and then with a flick of a finger swipe left or right on the appropriate card.  This will give the appearance as if you haven’t launched an application yet, but be careful not to let them see you select the suit, otherwise they might get suspicious.  After that hand them the iPhone and tell them to launch the application, which unbeknownst to them is already running.  Then they just need to shake the phone to reveal their card.

While I did enjoy the application I did receive some skepticism from fellow techies.  They weren’t all that convinced that the app holds all that much allure since the mark has to say their card aloud.  Also, the app does require some knowledge of how the iPhone works otherwise the least suspecting could be the most skeptical – the faux screen is what sells it and if they’re not familiar with the iPhone’s app environment they might just assume that you punched something in.  Still, nothing beats the fake screen move and if the ‘pledge’ is presented correctly I truly think you’ll have some people begging you for the answer.

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Vonage, the VoIP telephone company, released their iPhone and Blackberry applications today.  You might wanna reserve your excitement,though, since this application does not work with preexisting Vonage accounts that cost $25 a month and provide unlimited calls in the US and up to 60 countries.

Nope, the Vonage app will make calls over your cellular (and/or WiFi if on the iPhone) connection to international numbers at a significant discount (up to 50%) when compared to what AT&T or other carriers offer.

In an ideal world you’d be able to use the Vonage Mobile app for the above as well as have the ability to connect to the Vonage home phone service that allows you to make unlimited calls around the world using your home’s Internet connection.  And at this point it seems unlikely that Vonage will ever provide this option since it will cannibalize the sales of their Vonage equipment.  Booooo!

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If you don’t have Dropbox I suggest you download it now.  I’m about 15 months into using the free file exchange service (up to 2GB, then you pay more) and it’s by far the cleanest and easiest to use.  It works by running in the background of your computer and acts like just another folder on your desktop.  Drag a file there and Dropbox will copy it.  Want to share a file?  No problem, just move it into the public section and create a weblink for any and all to use, or simply share a folder with a fellow Dropbox user.

Now the FTP like program has officially hit the iPhone.  Just like the desktop program you can access any of the files in your Dropbox, but the mobile version takes it a step further allowing you to record videos and photos directly, yes directly to the service.  Just select the folder you’d like to save the photo or video to, hit the camera button and you’re in business.  To share it you simply hit the ‘email’ button and the Dropbox app will automatically generate a link to the media.

If for some reason you don’t have access to WiFi or a cellular connection and need access to a Dropbox file you can download it locally to your iPhone by selecting the favorites button.  And if you share that file with someone, and happen to download it locally, the app will also prompt you to sync with the latest version, insuring that you’re up to date before, say, that big presentation.

The Dropbox iPhone app and service is free and available right now.

[via Cultofmac]

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A guy over at Wi-Fi Planet by the name of Mike Flynn put forth an interesting idea, one that’s almost as terrifying as it is plausible, and is possibly terrifying because it’s plausible, is the idea that the iPhone is actually a kind of disease.

Flynn believes that it has one primary symptom, to spread virulently through your life and force you to filter all your experiences in life through it.  The sheer number of applications, Flynn posits, allow you to do just about everything with your iPhone.  For instance, Flynn planned to take his wife to a movie.  His first thought was to check his Moviefone app, which he did, and the results it gave altered his plans.  An iPhone app changes his reading habits from magazines to books, since the iPhone doesn’t allow for magazine reading.  An iPhone app changed his music listening habits, his workout habits, and plenty else.

Flynn traces back the common cause of all this to one key point–the iPhone.  Without its many apps and sheer ubiquity, he wouldn’t have these problems, he claims, especially since he’s used Blackberries and similar devices without trouble, nor does he recall other people having these same issues with any other device.

So is the iPhone a kind of parasite?  The idea’s worthy of a horror movie, but whether or not it’s true likely depends on the user.  I personally wonder if he’s describing not so much a disease as an addiction (which are admittedly very close in nature, though addiction really isn’t caused by bacteria or viruses but rather at the genetic level), but that’s a fairly fine point on its own.  These things are here to stay, so we’re going to have to learn to live with them.

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Once again Apple has passed a significant landmark for their app store.  Today the company announced that over 2 billion apps have been downloaded from the 2 year old service.  According to Apple there are more than “85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.”

Apparently a half a billion apps were downloaded this past quarter alone, which means Apple should hit the 3 billion mark sometime early next year.  Now I’d like to see some app developer earnings info.

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Approved augmented reality apps for the iPhone are gonna start sprouting up like weeds any day now, and the first of many is the Bionic Eye.

Using the iPhone’s camera, compass and GPS the app is able to display POIs, otherwise known as Points of Interest, on the device’s screen relevant to where the camera is pointing.  Point the device down at the ground and it will show a list of close by restaurants, coffee shops and other relevant information.  Select a POI and the app will superimpose directional arrows to guide you to the location.

Currently the Bionic Eye app has 100,000 POIs and requires no 3G or WiFi connection to work – the info is contained within the 2.9mb application.  Currently it costs $0.99, and in order to use the subway feature, which is only available in NY, Chicago and Washington, you’ll have to purchase that information separately from within the app.

A short product video from the maker shows off the app’s features.  From what little I can see it still needs some work as the ‘augmented reality’ portion of the app seems a bit forced and heavy handed.  For instance, the screen just seems to be stuffed with POIs and only shows their general direction and lacks a significant ‘call out’ for the selected POI.

[via Cultofmac]

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