While I’m confident that satellite radio is sure to fail that doesn’t mean that new and cool products for the service aren’t worth noting. Starting today XM’s Skydock is available for purchase from a barrage of retailers including Amazon, who has it for about $95. If you recall, the Skydock is essentially a glorified cigarette charger and turns any iPhone (or iPod Touch) running the XM iPhone app into a satellite radio, that is assuming that you’ve attached the magnetic antenna to your car’s roof.
Personally, I’d prefer an HD radio dock, which doesn’t require a hefty monthly subscription.
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.
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.
September 27th, 2009 2:08 PM | by Christen da Costa
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.
Rhapsody, the all you can eat music subscription service, has officially submitted their iPhone app to Apple for approval into the iTunes App Store. Since Rhapsody offers access to up to 8 million+ songs for a flat monthly fee it’s up for debate as to whether or not Apple will approve an application that competes directly with their iTune’s offering.
The app will work over WiFi, 3G and EDGE, though I’d imagine the latter of the three will deliver very poor sound quality thus negating any Gen 1 iPhone users from subscribing to the service. Much like Pandora and AOL Music apps, which are totally free, the Rhapsody app will only stream music – you can’t download any songs to your iPhone or iPod Touch – though you’ll have to be willing to plunk down $15/month to gain access to their library of tunes. Upon release of the app Rhapsody will offer a limited time trial.
I have a hard time believing that a Rhapsody app will sky rocket the service to similar levels of success like Pandora, but I’m not sure if that’s Rhapsody’s intentions at this point. They’ve also got plans to offer a similar app for Android devices, which might prove more successful since that Mobile OS is being offered across a variety of handsets and devices that aren’t tied to any one distribiture, such as Apple’s iPhone.
Arghhh! We waited, we hoped and now QIK is available for the iPhone, iPhone 3GS that is. I’m gonna go out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that Apple, not QIK has crippled their application. You see, QIK’s core offering is the ability to stream live video from almost any handset to their website. This allows people to register for an account, post some code on their site and then let others watch their nefarious activities from their living room couch. Robert Scobble from my understanding is a big fan and user. He was lucky enough to score a hacked version on his Gen 1 iPhone many a months ago and yes, it streamed video, which is well before the 3GS even became a rumor so we know it’s not hardware related. So this version, available in the iTunes app store now, is limited to sharing video via SMS, email, Facebook and can be posted to blogs using Wordrpess, Blogger and others. Disappointed doesn’t even begin to describe my dismay. QIK I’m kicking you to the curb, that is if I actually used your app. Call me when Apple approves the real version.
BTW, that email address they provide ‘iphone@qik.com’ doesn’t even work. I tried to reach out to them and ask why the app doesn’t stream and it came back ‘Delivery Failed’. Don’t post an email address and then forget/not enable it
These days the app store is a flush with more useless than useful apps. But behold the Shoot It! app! The app itself is quite simple. You take a photo, add some text, and then punch in the recipient’s mailing address and presto, 2 to 3 days later they’ll receive a glossy 4×6 pictured post card. It’s a brilliant resolve for anyone on vacation and doesn’t wanna drop a couple bucks on a prefab post card.
The app costs $0.99, but that fee goes towards the first post card. To continue sending cards, though, you’ll need to visit their site and register with your credit card info. At $0.99 they can’t be making much since the cost of a stamp is $0.42 and the card and ink probably runs them about $0.10. Anyway, it is a super neat idea and will be the next app I download when I head on vacation.
Soon, Apple retail store employees might be ringing customers up using an iPhone or iPod Touch thanks to a new and innovative card swipe reader called Square. At the heart of the system is a small plastic cube that plugs into the headphone jack. That in fact is a tiny swippable credit card reader. The cards data is then transferred to an iPhone Square app where the customer can input their signature and an email address for receipt. Once the data is processed by Square’s proprietary processing system, the customer then receives a copy of their transaction complete with a Google map clipping depicting where they made their purchase.
Apparently, the app and Square hardware is currently being tested at Self Edge, a denim store in NYC.
Chances are that you’re not the suit wearing, corporatey type if you’ve recently invested in a Sidekick LX 2009. When I think Sidekick I think teen or tween, twisted baseball cap or somebody of any age with a penchant for anarchy. Still, that didn’t stop the fine folks at T-Mobile from kicking out ‘Sidekick sync’, an app that brings push email, Exchange support and attachment viewing to the device. But, all this doesn’t come cheap. You’ll need to plunk down $4.99 a month and every month after to keep using it. With that said, ditch the flip and get hip with the Berry.
As talks of a turn-by-turn GPS arriving on the iPhone heated up, so did the debate as to whether or not companies would charge a monthly fee. Then AT&T released their Navigator app for the iPhone and reaffirmed everyone’s suspicions and ultimately leading many folks to say or suggest that you’re better off buying a standalone GPS unit. Fear not, though, because Navigon has got your back.
Today, the company released the first turn-by-turn GPS application for the iPhone that doesn’t include a monthly fee. In their infinite amount of wisdom they probably realized how profitable and fast they could move a GPS system that would only have a one time fee and zero hardware costs. So starting today, right now you can grab their iPhone application, which provides many of the same features found on a standalone GPS unit for $69.99. The price will increase to $100 on August 15th when they’ll probably issue the app’s next update. Just keep in mind that the app is a whopping 1.29GB, which can probably be attributed to the map data.
So what features are included with Navigon’s iPhone app? Voice announcements, intelligent address entry, Reality View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro, real signpost display, day and night mode, direct access to your iPhone contact list, the latest NAVTEQ maps, 2D and 3D map views, access to user defined POIs, one click take me home and more.
