What’s In The Box

Like other Maximo headset products, you get more for your money than just a wired headset. Inside the package are the high-fidelity isolation headphones, three pairs of rubber ear tips (Small, Medium, and Large), a two-foot extension cable, and a small silver carrying pouch for your earphones.

The first thing you will notice when removing the headphones is that the earphones have a little weight to them. They are, indeed, metal — no cheap plastic to be found here — and they are heavier than a more cheaply-made plastic earphone housing. The materials used and build quality of the earphones inspire confidence and, in my case, I was expecting a superior sound to the headphones I’ve used in the past.

Design and Performance

The Maximo iMetal Isolation headset has a lightweight aluminum alloy body for the headphone housings. As previously mentioned, the earphones themselves are high-fidelity isolation earphones with 9mm neodymium drivers and a maximum SPL output of <120dB — quite a bit of sound even for the most robust listenenr. The headset cable is four feet in length and includes an additional 2 feet of extension cable, if needed. The connection is via a 3.5mm connector with stereo audio and mono high-definition condenser mic.

What all that means is that these headphones can crank out the sound and the whole idea behind “isolation” is the rubber ear tips are supposed to fit snugly in each ear, both eliminating outside noise while giving you, the listener, the best sound experience possible for your music, podcasts, or movies. In addition to a rich audio experience, these headphones are equipped with the aforementioned condenser mic for phone calls. Where each earphone cable meets, there is a soft-touch button for call answer/end and song pause/skip. The soft-touch button also supports the triple-tap for moving to the previous song on your list. Very handy indeed.

The carrying bag is a nice extra. When you are done listening and want to stow away your headphones, just coil them up and put them in the pouch, pull the drawstring to close, and worry less about the cable getting tangled up. With the extra 2-foot extension cord, you can wear your iPhone or iPod just about anywhere on your person and still have enough headphone cord length for comfort.

A few years ago, I switched to isolation-type headphones when I bought a pair of Sony headphones with the rubber ear tips. Once making that upgrade, I’ll never go back to standard earbud earphones. The quality of sound and the isolation of outside noise is simply too good to pass up. Given that my previous experience has been my Sony product, that is what I have to compare with these iMetal Isolation headphones.

Before you can enjoy these headphones fully, you need to spend a little time to find the ear tips that work best for you. With small, medium, and large tips to choose from, you want to find the ear tip that fits snuggly and comfortably. You might even find that one ear canal is bigger than the other and you could end up with a medium tip on one ear and a large tip on the other — that’s just fine. It’s nice to have the option.

Once you have the right fit, start to enjoy some very rich sound. The basses are punchy, the mid-range is solid and the highs are clear. For the price, I was quite impressed with the quality of sound I got to experience with the Maximo iMetal Isolation headset. The volume is impressive – I never got close to turning things all the way up because it gets plenty loud. Even when I turned it up, the headset remained clear and the audio did not distort in any noticeable way.

Taking phone calls is a cinch with this headset. When a phone call is coming through, the music will pause automatically and you can choose to accept the call. The call audio will come through your headphones in stereo, then just talk freely and the tiny condenser mic on the headset cord will pick up your voice just fine. I had no complaints from people I spoke to on the phone while wearing this headset.

My only concern with the headset is the fit of the rubber ear tips. In order to provide the most comfort possible and to ensure a snug fit so you can be reasonably active while wearing this headset, the rubber used in the tips is very soft and flexible. You need to insert them in your ear with care so as to not form TOO tight a fit – when fitting them too tightly, I found that the ear tips can create an uncomfortable “suction” in the ear. This can be remedied by removing the ear tips and replacing them more carefully in your ears, and also verifying that you are using the correct size for your ear. If they are too small, the suction effect is more likely.

Conclusion

The Maximo iMetal Isolation headset is a good quality headset that provides rich sound for the money. I like the aluminum alloy material for the headphones, the selection of three different sizes of ear tips, the soft-touch call button, and the extension cable and carrying pouch. This headset offers a lot of nice features and a great isolation-experience sound for a reasonable price. They are just a little more expensive than the Sony headphones I bought a few years ago, but in my opinion, offer a superior sound experience. I do feel it is necessary to deduct some points for the too-soft rubber used in the ear tips that can sometimes create an uncomfortable suction in the ear. Otherwise, this headset is a quality product that you should be satisfied with.

Rating:

Pros:

• Aluminum alloy metal housing for headphones
• Includes extras (two-foot extension cord, carrying pouch, and 3 sizes of ear tips
• Sound isolation experience
• Standard 3.5mm connector for iPhone

Cons:

• Ear tip rubber is very soft and can form a suction in the ear which can be uncomfortable

It’s time for App Avalanche 14, and this week we’re taking a look at the Finance category in the App Store and at what’s Good, Better, Best, and, of course, the CrApp. If you are looking for some good finance apps, there are a load of apps in the App Store in this category. Unfortunately, there seem to be a ton of very mediocre apps (according to reviews left by App Store visitors), and it takes a bit of sifting through the coal dust to find some diamonds. Read on to learn about some Finance apps you may want to try for yourself!

Good

Accounts, by SVT Software,  is a fairly simple, straight-forward app for keeping track of your accounts, like checking, savings, etc. Reconciling your accounts is as easy as placing a check mark next to the item that has cleared your bank. You can export your data as a CSV file for backup, protect your accounts with a passcode, and add unlimited accounts. You can get it here for only $.99 cents.

Better

iXpenseIt, from FYI Mobileware, Inc., is an expense tracking app that is rich in features. It includes user customizability, graphical reports, full text search, mileage tracking, and even storing digital photos of your receipts by using the iPhone’s camera. Export your records as a CSV file. This app appears to be a great tool for the business person who must keep track of expenses and receipts. Get it here for $4.99.

Best

Bloomberg, from Bloomberg LP, is a free app for using the ever-popular Bloomberg financial tracking services. Create a customizable list of stocks to follow, news, company descriptions, market leaders, market trends analysis, and much more. It’s a free app to give you accurate, timely information about the world’s financial markets. Get it here for free!

CrApp

CreditTrak, from Venkatramanan Krishnamani, is an app for storing up to three credit cards (credit card information). The description is a bit misleading in that it advertises the ability to “activate” up to three credit cards, but this app in no way gives you any kind of electronic access to your credit card information. It promises that you can “build excellent credit faster than you can imagine.” Really? Hmmm. So basically if I use this app, enter my credit card information, then manage every single aspect of my credit card transactions, payments, balances, etc. myself, then I’ll have the credit score of my dreams. I have to pay a buck for all that self-help? If you feel inclined to try this app, do so at your own risk. It’s a bit stinky to me; like a bag of burning CrApp left on my doorstep on Halloween night. I’m just sayin’.

That’s it for App Avalanche 14. If you agree or disagree with what’s been designated Good, Better, Best, or CrApp, let your opinion be known! Leave a comment or two, visit the forum, and come back next week for more!

I don’t know if you have tried this (I have), but if you attempt to sync your iPhone with any computer other than the one you originally synced with your iPhone, you will receive a warning that your iPhone is “synced with another iTunes library.”  Your only choice at this point is to “Cancel” the operation or “Erase and Sync” because your iPhone can only be synced to one iTunes library at a time.  Or CAN it?

Thanks to a set of most excellent instructions from the Shiny Things blog of Andrew Grant located here, you can sync your iPhone with one or more additional computers. Read on to learn more!

As I said before, Andrew Grant has posted excellent instructions to sync your iPhone with computers other than your original. Rather than go into repeating all the details of this method, I will instead provide an overview of the steps that Andrew has put together and refer you to his blog for the detailed, play-by-play so you can do this yourself!

In order to sync to more than one computer, there are some needed modifications to iTunes that will then let you sync different data on your iPhone with more than one computer. For example, you may want to sync contacts and calendar items on your work machine, but sync all your media (songs, podcasts, movies, etc.) on your home computer.

According to Andrew Grant (thanks for your hard work on this, Andrew!), the first thing you want to do is backup “iTunes Music Library.xml” and “iTunes Music Library” (Tunes Music Library.itl on a PC) to a safe location on the computer you want to sync with. You will modify these files so you can safely sync with this computer.

On the computer you currently sync your iPhone with, find your iTunes Library ID. Andrew has posted instructions on how this is done. The idea here is that you want your second machine to have the same iTunes Library ID that the original has so your iPhone won’t know the difference. Again, this process is explained in detail by Andrew.

Once you have followed all of Andrew’s instructions, you should be able to plug your iPhone into the second machine, select “Manually manage music and videos”, you will NOT be prompted to erase any data, and you are ready to roll! Again, special thanks to Andrew Grant for posting this handy tip on his blog. Make sure you go to his blog and follow the steps precisely.

It’s time for App Avalanche 13, and this week we’re taking a look at the Entertainment category in the App Store and at what’s Good, Better, Best, and, of course, the CrApp. There’s at least 26 (!) pages of Entertainment apps and counting. After exhaustive research by our highly-trained TiPb staff (please note: author taking massive liberties with the truth here; likely exaggerating), these apps have been hand-picked for YOU. Given that this is unlucky Avalanche 13, written on the 13th, I’m sure the author of the CrApp is feeling quite unlucky for being featured here! 

Good

Crazy Pumpkin, by Ezone.com, is just in time for Halloween. This is a fun and useful app with many features, including digital Jack-o-lantern, scary sound effects, multicolored flashlight, and even a pumpkin-carving design tool with more than a thousand face combinations. It’s a great way to get in the Halloween spirit and will certainly be a winner with kids and adults alike. Get it here for FREE! 

Better

iDaydream, from Brian Smith, is reminiscent of laying on your back and watching the puffy clouds float by. Swipe your finger across the virtual sky and create clouds that float by. Change the sky from blue to sunset and watch the clouds change with the lighting conditions. Sometimes you have to lean back in your office chair and watch the clouds go by — on your iPhone! Get it here for $.99 cents.

Best

i.TV, by i.TV, LLC, is a free movie and TV guide for the iPhone or iPod Touch. It allows you to quickly find your favorite TV show or movies playing anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. You can even view previews and movie trailers, detailed show descriptions, celebrity bios, and even write your own reviews and share them. It’s a media guide at your fingertips. Get it here for FREE!

CrApp

Babe-O-Meter, from Chillingo Ltd, stands for “Bogus Analytic Biometric Entertainment”-O-Meter. How cute. So basically, you shake your iPhone or iPod Touch for four seconds and see how “babe” you are. Wouldn’t you rather just consult your Magic 8-Ball for answers to the greater questions in life, like “should I drop $.99 cents for this CrApp?”  Put down your Magic 8-Ball and let me answer that one for you: No. Skip this charity app (charity for the developer, that is) and move on.

That’s it for App Avalanche 13. If you agree or disagree with what’s been designated Good, Better, Best, or CrApp, let your opinion be known! Leave a comment or two, visit the forum, and come back next week for more!

It’s time for App Avalanche 12, and this week we’re taking a look at the Education category in the App Store and at what’s Good, Better, Best, and, of course, the CrApp. There’s an abundance of apps to choose from, and the Education category has pages and pages of good stuff (and some that isn’t so good). Here at TiPb, we’re all about culling through the mediocrity to see if we can deliver a few precious gems (and one piece of coal, of course!). Let’s get started after the break!

Good

Spacetime Converter, by Elliptics, Ltd., is an app that may have you looking at the world (and space) around you in a whole different way, and how you relate to it. It is a calculator that makes use of geometrized units (where speed of light is unity) and lets you conveniently convert between space and time. Instead of how many months until your next birthday, how about how many miles? A fun educational tool that weighs in at 4 1/2 stars and can be found here for $.99 cents.

Better

iSign, from Aaron Basil of iDev2, is an animated phrase book of 800 American Sign Language (ASL) gestures. Each phrase is fully animated by a 3D character, providing both a detailed view of hand position and motions and even some facial expressions. Apparently it’s a big file, but if you need a good ASL reference that you can take with you on your iPhone, this may be it. Users gave it a 4 1/2 star rating, and you can get it here for $8.99. 

Best

Elements: Flash Cards, by Lucas McGregor, is a flash card app for your iPhone or iPod Touch to help you learn the chemical elements. You can practice memorizing them in just a couple minutes a day and even do intense drills. Learn the elements by name, symbol, atomic number, or atomic weight. What a great idea! Wish this was around when I suffered through high school chemistry! Customers give this app 5 Stars! Get ithere for $.99 cents.

CrApp

aDriverTest, from Andrea Cantadori, is one of those apps that really makes you scratch your head and wonder who fell asleep at THIS wheel in Apple’s venerable app approval department, or were they RUI (reviewing under the influence)? It absolutely BEGS for a lawsuit. As far as I can tell, the purpose of the app is to measure driver response time (implying the driver is under the influence??). When running the app, you watch a green arrow on the screen and when it turns into a brake pedal, you tilt the iPhone forward to simulate depressing the brake. The better you are with response time, the more full your mug fills with beer (!?!). Clearly a drinking game. It gets better (or worse?) – the app description encourages you to try this behind the wheel (holy CrApp!), depressing the actual brake of your car each time the brake appears on your iPhone screen, as the iPhone’s accelerometer detects the motion. This is the part where all good (and even hack) personal injury lawyers begin licking their chops. I guess I should at least hand it to the developer for utilizing the accelerometer, right? I don’t even want to link this 1-star app. If you must look, then just use your iTunes search.

That’s it for App Avalanche 12. If you agree or disagree with what’s been designated Good, Better, Best, or CrApp, let your opinion be known! Leave a comment or two, visit the forum, and come back next week for more!

The iPhone is an excellent traveling companion, whether you are still sporting the iPhone 2G or loving you some GPS-equipped iPhone 3G. Google Maps, music, movies, and apps are several of the features that make traveling more sublime, but all this functionality requires a lot of juice, and if you haven’t noticed by now, you can’t swap your iPhone battery when you’ve run it dry. What to do? Read on for this week’s Tip!

Following are some suggestions for the road warriors and frequent flyers who must conserve power and/or be opportunistic about charging their iPhones!

1. Carry a spare battery. Ha, just kidding. Unlike most other smartphones, the iPhone does not have a user-replaceable battery. Instead, you have to be prepared to charge at anytime, anywhere. Carry your iPhone’s power adapter with you (the new ones are quite small, but apparently pose a risk of breaking and electrocuting — be careful, and trade it in for replacement as soon as you can!). Airports have power outlets scattered throughout and if you have a little spare time before or after your flight, plug in to juice up your iPhone.
2. If you are in a meeting or conference, try to arrive early enough that you can sit near a power outlet, if possible. You can also charge your iPhone via USB connected to your laptop. When you need power, it doesn’t hurt to get creative!
3. If you have an iPhone 3G, try disabling 3G under “Settings” to conserve power. The 3G network is faster, but just like a car using more gas the faster you drive, so goes the battery life of your iPhone when on the 3G network. Unless you really, REALLY need speed while surfing the net, drop down to EDGE for a while to save your battery.
4. Dim your screen. The brighter your screen is, the more power you are using. If you can handle a dimmer screen for a while, then save your battery life by adjusting the brightness to a lower setting.
5. For convenience, take along something like the Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger. Hotel rooms are sorely lacking in available power outlets, so if you have a Belkin Mini Surge Protector with you, you just added THREE power outlets and two USB charging ports to hopefully meet all of your power needs. You can get it here in the TiPb Store.

It’s time for App Avalanche 11, and this week we’re shaking things up a bit over here at TiPb. Given the App Store is truly an avalanche of apps with more piling up each day, it’s just about impossible to keep up. Instead, we’ll present to you what’s Good, Better and Best in the App Store according to what reviewers have said — folks just like you and me who downloaded the app, tried it out, and gave it 1 to 5 stars. We’re also going to throw in a CrApp — an app that just seems to stink to high heaven. Let’s get started after the break!

Good

Thumbtacts, by Crimson Research, Inc., allows one-handed searching of your contacts. To find a contact, touch an option (letter or character string) and then look for matches. Coming in with a solid 4-star rating from reviewers, here are just a few of the comments: ricol says “nice, effective app, but interface needs improvement.” Jim Watson said, “Finally an easy way to access my contacts.” Get it here for free.

Better

TapeMe Voice Recorder, from Axel Wolf of Tausendstern Inc., allows you to easily record memos, meetings, reminders, or other audio on your iPhone. It offers a simple 3-button interface and was given a 4-star rating from reviews. Here are some comments: Seeyadude said, “Great little app and worth the price. Very simple to use on the run.” iTep says, “Love this application!” Get it here for $.99 cents.

Best

iExchange, from Thomas Garaio (www.garaio.com), is an app for viewing a colleague’s Microsoft Exchange based calendars from wherever you are. Check your colleague’s calendar to see when they are in the office, when they are available for meetings, etc. Reviewers gave it a 4 1/2 – star rating. Some comments: Bradley36 says, “Very handy app. Get’s the job done. No bugs or problems.” a odd person says, “Nice icon. Looks promising.” Get it here for $9.99.

CrApp

Aqua, from Alec Bellanca, is an app that simulates the flow of liquid as you tilt and touch your iPhone. See the icon here? That’s about as good as it gets. No, you probably don’t need glasses or need to change your prescription. Yes, it appears to be THAT bad. You may feel better about yourself giving your $.99 cents to charity. Then again, maybe the developer is seeking charity. The 2-star reviewer rating seems generous. If Apple exercises zero quality control in their App screening process and if some developers insist on submitting their CrApp and put their name on it, well… your CrApp just may end up here, for the world to see, with your name. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

That’s it for App Avalanche 11. If you agree or disagree with what’s been designated Good, Better, Best, or CrApp, let your opinion be known! Leave a comment or two, visit the forum, and come back next week for more!

Not sure if you’ve checked lately, but the App Store is ever-growing! So far more than 100 apps have been featured on the App Avalanche, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Time to dive in for another app-stravaganza with iPhone App Avalanche 10!

New

Big Bang Board Games, from Freeverse, Inc., is a winner of multiple Apple Design Awards and is now available for your iPhone.  Includes classic games like Chess, Backgammon, Checkers, Mancala, Reversi, 4-In-A-Row, and Tic-Tac-Toe. Great 3-D graphics, auto saves your games, landscape and portrait mode, and more. Get it here for $7.99.

The Tag Show, by John Ellis of Dove Valley Apps, is a quick and fun way to view slide shows of public image feeds. Just specify what you are looking for in the “search” and this app will randomly find images from various photo sharing sites. Save images to your photo album and listen to your music while swiping your way through the images you find. Get it here for free. 

Jewel Quest II, from Digital Bridges Limited,  includes over 50 immersive puzzles to solve and an intriguing story line to follow. In the spirit of Bejeweled and Trism, this app offers similar puzzle-solving fun with features customized for use on the iPhone. Get it here for $8.99.

What’s Hot

Diner Dash, from PlayFirst, Inc., is an iPhone port of a popular PC game where the objective is to help Flo, a restauranteur, grow her business from small greasy spoon to 5-star restaurant by seating, serving, and clearing out customers to make room for more. The quicker you get customers to their tables, the more they will tip. The more money you earn, the more improvements you can make to the diner and even to the point of getting new properties. Get it here for $9.99.

Constitution for iPhone and iPod Touch, from Clint Bagwell Consulting, is a copy of the U.S. Constitution for convenient reference on your iPhone. When is the last time you read the U.S. Constitution? Now you can carry it on your iPhone wherever you go, accessing the Constitution via each Article, Amendment, and even a list of the Signers. Get it here for free.

Stitcher Radio, from Stitcher, Inc., gives you free streaming news and entertainment radio right to your iPhone. Choose a topic and Stitcher will “stitch” together the best, up-to-the-minute shows dealing with that topic. No worries if interrupted by a call; this app will resume where you left of. Get it here for free. 

Top Paid Apps

Line Rider iRide, by inXile Entertainment, is an iPhone port of the internet sensation, Line Rider! The concept is simple yet fun and addicting: draw the terrain with your simple pencil tool; including ramps and dips, or whatever you can think of; and send the boy on the sled down the track. Includes a community of users with track sharing so you can download tracks made by others and enjoy the fun on your iPhone. Get it here for $2.99.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed, from THQ, Inc., allows you to experience the Star Wars universe as never before – on your iPhone! Use the Force powers of Grip, Lightning, Jedi Mind Trick, and much more as you use the iPhone’s touchscreen to engage your enemies. Flick and swipe the touchscreen to activate the different powers of the Force. Enjoy a new and engaging story in the Star Wars universe. Get it here for $9.99.

iFish, from John Moffett, simulates the fun of fishing on your iPhone. Cast your line with the flick of your wrist. Feel your iPhone vibrate when you have a hit, pull back to hook it, and then reel it in with the swiping of your finger. Choose from 10 different locations to catch a dozen different kinds of fish. Includes beautiful scenery, life-like water sounds, and even a tracking feature to list the fish you’ve caught. Get it here for $.99 cents.

Top Free Apps

Goodrec, from Goodrec, Inc., is an easy way to make, find, and remember recommendations for restaurants, nightlife, books, movies and more from your friends and sources you trust. This app brings up an interactive map of your location with recommendations for restaurants and more. I simple “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” give you a quick look for fast decision-making. Make your own recommendations and include photos in seconds. Get it here for free.

iSlots, by Chris Miles, is a Vegas slot machine on your iPhone. Realistic graphics and sound effects give you the experience of playing a slot machine without the risk of losing your hard-earned cash. Your credits are saved for you, so when you return to the app, you can pick up where you left off. Get it here for free.

Earthscape, from Churchill Navigation, is a very unique app that lets you participate in an on-going 3-D rendering of a photorealistic planet Earth. Take pictures wherever you go your pictures will automatically appear on the virtual globe for everyone to enjoy. Get it here for free.

Thanks for stopping by once again for App Avalanche 10.  Keep your eyes open for next week’s Avalanche. Also, please comment on your favorite apps – why are they your favorite?

It seems like ages ago that our iPhones were updated to allow moving icons around and, lo and behold, even to a 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.) screen! Back then, it was gratifying to have the capability to do it, but unless you had a ton of web pages bookmarked and web apps galore, there wasn’t much need to go beyond screen #2, maybe to screen #3.

Now, everything has changed. With the advent of the iTunes App Store, there are a bazillion apps available for download, many of them FREE! If you are like me, you’ve already downloaded like crazy and now you’re staring at an iPhone with apps occupying six screens of real estate and threatening a seventh. Feeling more and more like a hoarder every day, I need to get organized! How so on the iPhone? Read on for this week’s Tip!

The iPhone isn’t your grandpappy’s phone. Nosiree! There are no “categories” to sort your apps into. One thing I miss when I’m using my iPhone is the feature found on a basic Palm device – categories. Sorting apps is easy if you can put them in their own “bucket”. With the iPhone, we’re pretty much left to our own devices with respect to organizing our apps. Perhaps this is so because, aside from bookmarked web pages and web apps, 3rd party apps were not considered at first.

Now, we have to make some choices with respect to organizing the growing number of apps on our iPhones. I’ve decided to include a couple of the more obvious methods, and then I’m throwing this problem out to everyone else – “everyone else” is YOU, faithful reader. Leave your comments and/or get cracking in the forums if you haven’t done so already!

Here are some sorting methods in my order of preference:

1. Popularity – place the apps you use the most on the first couple screens. Don’t be afraid to move some of the default Apple apps off the front page, especially the ones you seldom use. You’ll create more instant access to your prime-time apps!
2. Categories – although there is no way to designate categories on the iPhone, you can sort them in categories of your own by memory. For example, your first screen could be your most accessed apps, your “home” screen. The next screen could be apps that you classify as “utilities”, then “media”, “web apps”, “games”, and so on. If one category is far and away larger than the rest, put it at the end so you have room to add more!
3. Alphabetical – simply A to Z; could be challenging for some, but ask a friend for help if you get stuck.
4. Chaos Theory – just don’t worry about it and let them all fall where they may. The nice thing about the iPhone is the ease of flipping to the next screen. All the apps are large icons for easy finding. No worries.
5. WARNING: this method is NOT tested by TiPb and you’re on your own with this one. Peter Ha over at CrunchGear has posted a method for moving apps to a mysterious and invisible 10th screen. Apparently, you can push apps into the iPhone Ether (a virtual storage area when the number of apps on your iPhone exceed 148. Wow.)

In the wake of new Apple stuff and the 2.1 update, it’s time to return our focus to what’s REALLY important — Apps at the App Store! If you’re at work, put the “back in 10 minutes” sticky note on your door (if you’re at home, you have no excuse) and have a look at this week’s App Avalanche 9!

New

Asthma-Charter, from Dr. Lee Konowe, Ph.D, is a peak flow measurement and medication recording tool for your iPhone. It is designed to assist you and your doctor in monitoring and logging your asthma treatment. It includes a doctor reporting feature so you can conveniently share your peak flow measurement information with your doctor. Get it here for $4.99. 

Wurdle, by Darrel Johnson of Semi Secret Software, is a fun, fast and flexible word game for your iPhone. The objective in the game is to find and trace as many words as you can on the game screen before time expires. If you run out of words, just shake your iPhone and the game board shakes up as well, giving you more possible combinations. Compare your score with others online. Get it here for $1.99.

Trulia Real Estate Search, from Trulia, Inc., is an iPhone version of the popular Trulia real estate search app. Find homes for sale in your area, Open Houses that you can plan on attending, scan through photos of homes, and even check out the area on the map feature. Customize your searches, save bookmarks of homes you like, and even email them to family and friends. Get it here for FREE.

What’s Hot

MetaSquares, from MetaTools, Inc., is a strategy game where you pit your will against your iPhone’s AI and battle it out on the game board to see if you can win the most squares. Capture all four corners of a square to win the square; the larger the square, the more points you earn. The first to score 150 points with at least a 15 point margin of victory wins! Get it here for $2.99.

Garf, by Mauvila Software, is an iPhone version of the old classic memory game. Exercise your memory by pressing the buttons in the proper sequence as shown. Like many video games, you get 3 lives in this game so you have a chance to repeat a sequence if you mess up. Multiple levels and high scores. Get it here for $1.99.

DataCase, from Aaron Kobayashi of Veiosoft, LLC, turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a wireless drive and file viewer. It works directly with Finder and Bonjour, allowing you the ease of drag-and-drop of your files to your iPhone as if it were a disk drive. Whether it’s a Mac or PC, as long as you have a wireless connection, you can save and view files on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Get it here for $6.99. 

Top Paid Apps

LED Football, by Catherine Eng of touchGove, is a hark back to yesteryear (the late 70′s, to be exact) and truly one of the first handheld electronic games. The original LED Football game is faithfully recreated on your iPhone. Press the virtual buttons on your screen, move your LED player up the field avoiding the LED opponents, and score a touchdown! Best of all, no plastic buttons to wear out after hours of playing. Get it here for only $.99 cents.

Spore Origins, from Electronic Arts Inc., is an iPhone version of the insanely-popular desktop game. Using your iPhone’s accelerometer for control, guide your tiny creature through the many perils of the primordial ooze, customizing your creature with better offensive and defensive features along the way. Swim, float and ooze through 30 levels. Get it here for $9.99.

Real Soccer 2009, from Gameloft, brings the excitement of soccer to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Perform amazing soccer moves with the help of your touchscreen. Includes 198 teams with real player names and great 3D graphics for a realistic experience. Throw the ball in by tilting your iPhone! Supports several different languages and includes 12 stadiums modeled in 3D. Get it here for $9.99. 

Top Free Apps

FlipBook Lite, from Josh Anon, is an app for making doodles come to life on your iPhone and share them with family and friends. Remember those stick figure flip cartoons you used to make? I sure do. Now, use your iPhone to make your own animations, including importing your photos to use in your animated feature movies! If you have made something you are proud of and want to share, upload your creation to flipbook.tv. The Lite version is limited, but the full-featured version is available for $9.99.

Air Sharing, by Avatron Software, Inc., is an easy way to take your documents on the go and view them on your iPhone. Mount your iPhone as a drive on your Mac, PC or Linux system, drag and drop your files that need viewing (several different formats are supported), and then view your documents wherever you go. Save time by downloading docs you need to read for reading later on the plane or commuter train. Usually $6.99, get it here for a limited time for FREE.

White Noise, from Todd Moore, is an app that provides looping background noises so you can tune everything else out so you can sleep or relax. Beach, rain, wind, chirping crickets, the sound of and air conditioner – just several of the sounds available. For a limited time, you can get this app here for FREE.

Thanks for stopping by once again for App Avalanche 9.  Keep your eyes open for next week’s Avalanche. Also, please comment on your favorite apps – why are they your favorite?

This week’s Tip brought to you with thanks to clayrussell over on Twitter. 

On the eve of the much-anticipated iPhone update 2.1, this Tip is timely and will hopefully help you avoid much pain and suffering. As I said before, my iPhone sync times are somewhat horrendous. Although you can manually cancel a backup, my iPhone always defaults to performing an automatic backup before syncing my data, and the backup time is long.

Most of my syncing is uneventful, but sometimes a call comes through in the middle of a sync and effectively torpedoes the process. I could eat breakfast during my first sync attempt and, if interrupted by a call, I could have lunch over my second sync attempt (I kid, I kid!). Seriously, though, the last thing you want is a phone call during your sync. To avoid this problem, there is a very simple solution.

1. Tap “Settings” on your iPhone
2. Slide “Airplane Mode” to “On”
3. Sync as normal
4. Enjoy!

New

Kanji Flip, from Andre Khromov, is a flash-card type app for learning Japanese Kanji. It incorporates an intelligent progress tracking system for faster learning by “remembering” which kanji you have the most difficulty with and flashing those cards more frequently. It includes 2,230 kanji from the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. If you want a study aid for learning Japanese Kanji, get it here for $2.99. 

Alli’s Jigsaw Puzzle, from Rogobete Christian, is a puzzle game for your iPhone that provides 30 high-quality puzzle pictures for you to solve or use your own pictures from your photo library. Just tilt your iPhone for either portrait or landscape mode. There is also sound, music and animation, with three different themes to choose from. Get it here for only $.99 cents.

AccelaStudy Vocabulary Builder, by Charles Sieg of Renkara Media Group, Inc., is a flash-card approach to increasing your English vocabulary for anything from graduate school exams, university entrance exams, professional advancement, or just the satisfaction of building your own personal vocabulary and language proficiency. More than 500 words are available with synonyms, definitions, and use in a sentence. Many more features are included. Get it here for $14.99.

What’s Hot

MLB.com At Bat, from Major League Baseball Advanced Media, lets you follow every Major League Baseball game on your iPhone. While you’re taking a 7th-inning stretch at work, see how your favorite team is doing. It includes real-time box scores, play-by-play, and video highlights. The app also detects your network to provide the most efficient video encoding. Get it here for $4.99. 

Dynolicious, by BunsenTech, LLC, is an app that uses the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer to measure your auto’s 0-60 acceleration, quarter-mile elapsed time, horsepower, lateral G’s, and several other performance metrics. A history is saved so you can compare different performances and track developing trends. Use this app to track and compare performance after making modifications to your car. Please use on a closed course for your safety and safety of others. Get it here for $12.99.

NetNewsWire, from NewsGator Technologies, Inc., is an RSS reader for your iPhone for reading millions of sites and weblogs that publish RSS feeds. When you read a feed on this app, it is marked as being read everywhere so you won’t see it pop up again on your Mac or other computer. Save items for reading later via the Clippings feature. Get it here for free.

Top Paid Apps

Seismometer, by Johan Nordberg, is an app that measures everything that vibrates, shakes, moves, or jostles. Next time you’re in an earthquake, just whip out your iPhone and pretend you’re a real seismologist! This app uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to take measurements on two axes, then calculates the resulting energy and produces the results on a rolling logarithmic scale. Get it here for $.99 cents.

PocketGuitar, from Shinya Kasatani, turns your iPhone into a virtual guitar. Press and strum strings to create sounds from six different instruments: acoustic-electric guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar, muted guitar, electric bass, and ukulele. Choose effects like distortion, chorus and delay and edit parameters. Get it here for $.99 cents.

Election ’08, from Aaron Brethorst, is an iPhone app that keeps you current on up-to-the-minute polling data for all 50 States and the District of Columbia for the 2008 Presidential Election. Will it be Obama or McCain? View graphical representations of this election and see how your candidate is faring in the battleground states and view the sources of the many different polls. Don’t forget to vote! Get it here for $.99 cents.

Top Free Apps

Sportacular, from Jeff Hamilton and StreamingScores.com, is an app that provides fast, up-to-the-minute scores, standings, stats and news for several major college and professional sports. Get the skinny on MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, and NCAA football and basketball games. League and conference standings and the NCAA Top 25 are updated daily. Get it here for free.

WhitePages Mobile, by WhitePages.com, is the iPhone equivalent of accessing more than 180 million people in the U.S. for finding contact info anytime, anywhere. Use the Reverse Phone Lookup feature to identify callers you don’t recognize.  Use the Auto-Detect Current Location feature to get maps and directions. Check it out for many more features, and get it here for free.

Puzzloop Free, from Hudson Entertainment, is the lite version of the original Puzzloop game first introduced in 1998. Eliminate balls that roll along a rail and connect three or more balls of the same kind to eliminate them. Get the lite version here for free.

Thanks for stopping by this week for App Avalanche 8.  Be sure to stop by next week for another Avalanche of Apps. While you’re here, what are YOUR favorite apps, and why?

We’ve covered the “what to do with your old iPhone” question before in a previous Tip. Although you could feasibly use your old iPhone as an iPod Touch, backup phone, paperweight, doorstop, etc., money can have a strange way of changing attitudes and behaviors. If you have a strong sentimental attachment to your old trusty 2G iPhone and want to keep it that way, stop reading now and continue your 2G love-fest. If you think you can handle an extra $500 or $600 bones in your purse or wallet, then this Tip is for you.

The venerable Erica Sadun over at tuaw.com posted about this very subject about the steady rise of first-gen iPhone prices. She wrote the following:

From easy-unlocking to contract-free usage to eco-consumerism, consumers are looking for those original units and paying premium prices to get them. A majority of phones are heading outside the US for resale while growing demand at home keeps resale prices high.

It’s just the good old-fashioned basic economics of supply and demand. New iPhones require a contract with AT&T and, unlike the first-gen iPhone, they can’t be bought off the shelf for later activation. The 2G iPhone can be bought, unlocked, and used contract-free. Just a quick browse on eBay and you will find that 2G iPhones are selling for about $500 for the 8GB model and $600 for the 16GB model, respectively. Obviously, the better the condition, the more likely you’ll fetch a higher price.

As I write this, I’m staring into my open nightstand drawer at my 2G iPhone. Do I see an older, unused iPhone or do I see a stack of Benjamin’s? Needless to say, it’s very tempting right now to take advantage of the current market conditions where you can get top-dollar for your used iPhone. What are you waiting for? If you won’t sell, then what are you doing with your old iPhone?

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and make sure you let eBay know where you got this Tip — I want a piece of the action!). 

Hopefully it’s a long holiday weekend for at least a few of us, so what better to do for your Labor Day than kick it in the iTunes App Store? There are more apps piling up with each passing week. It’s time for iPhone App Avalanche 7!  

New

RunKeeper, from Raizlabs Corporation and FitnessKeeper, Inc., is a location-based app that utilizes the iPhone 3G’s GPS functionality to track the daily performance of runners, cyclists, hikers, walkers, or anyone else moving. It tracks duration of activity, distance, speed, and pace. You can also log your activities at www.runkeeper.com. Get it here for $9.99.

Asphalt 4 Elite Racing, from Gameloft, is a racing game for the iPhone that allows you to race against your friends in WiFi mode. There are 28 licensed rides from the likes of Ferrari, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Chevrolet Corvette, and more. Enjoy 3-D graphics and race through 9 different cities, all the while controlling your car using the iPhone’s accelerometer. Get it here for $9.99.

Toy Bot Diaries, by Iugo Mobile Entertainment, gives you control of a tiny Toy Bot to navigate through several physics-challenging levels using your Bot’s magnetic boots and grappling hook to overcome obstacles and challenges. Help the Toy Bot find his missing datapads to restore his memory and help him along his top-secret mission. Engaging comic-inspired graphics enhances your enjoyment. Get it here for $3.99.

What’s Hot

Fire Drop, from Ravi Korukonda of xCube Labs, is a puzzle game for the iPhone where your objective is to burn the simmering cauldrons into raging flames and follow the monk as he splashes words of wisdom for you. Tap on 3 or more adjacent cauldrons of the same color to destroy them. Achieve higher scores as you destroy more cauldrons with one tap. Get it here for free!

iDoodle2 lite, by Josiah Larson, is a powerful and fun drawing app for the iPhone and you can enjoy many of it’s basic features for free! Draw, sketch, use different colors, save your drawings, use the eraser and “blob” tool, and more. Undo or redo your work with the half-flip of your iPhone. Get it here for free!

Space Out, from Binary Square, Inc., pays homage to a couple classic games of yesteryear: “Space Invaders” and “Breakout.” Even the sound effects hark back to the late ’70s. Ahhhh, those were the days! Use your brick-breaking skills to shoot down the pesky aliens overhead. Includes various power-ups and a triggered multiple-ball mode! Get it here for $2.99.

Top Paid Apps

Air Hockey, by Bryan Duke of Acceleroto, brings the fun of air hockey to your iPhone for one or two-player action! If playing alone, you can select from easy, medium and hard AI settings to make your game more challenging. The first to score 7 points wins! Enjoy realistic air hockey physics and sounds as you send the puck careening off the sides to beat your opponent’s defenses and score a goal. Get it here for only $.99 cents.

Billy Frontier, from Pangea Software, Inc., is being sold at HALF PRICE right now at the app store and only for a short time, so check it out! It is a space cowboy game that is a combination of adventure and action. It is four games in one: Dueling, Shootout, Stampede, and Target Practice. Graphics and sound are also touted as being top-notch. Get it at 50% off (for a limited time) right here for $2.99.

AP Top25 College Football 2008, from The Associated Press, is the standard measure of power in NCAA football for your iPhone. Flick through the weekly poll to see how your team fared against the nation’s best. Get weekly game scores, recaps, photos and podcasts. Tap on the teams to view their progress through the season. Get it here for $.99 cents.

Top Free Apps

Wikipanion, from Robert Chin, is an iPhone app designed for easy search, navigation, and display of Wikipedia information. It provides easy to read custom formatting pages, quick table of contents browsing, searching, search autocompletion and more. Entries load much faster than from the main Wikipedia web page. Get it here for free!

Hanoi, by Ian Marsh, is the classic Towers of Hanoi puzzle game for the iPhone. Enjoy the relaxing scenery as you move your pile of discs from one side of the screen to the other. Keep in mind that you may only stack smaller discs on top of larger ones! Get it here for free! 

IM+ All-in-One Mobile Messenger, from SHAPE Services, is an award-winning all-around chat client that includes AIM/iChat, MSN/Windows Live Messenger, Jabber, ICQ, Yahoo, Google Talk and MySpaceIM. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family without incurring the cost of text messaging, because it’s FREE to use! Get it here for the low cost of free.

That’s it for the iPhone App Avalanche 7.  Be sure to stop by next week for another Avalanche of Apps!

It’s late at night and you can’t sleep. Your significant other has already called it a night and you’re bored out of your mind.

In both scenarios above, you desperately want to catch up on your DVD backlog, but who has the time? Well, read on for this week’s Tip on how to turn your iPhone into your very own silver screen!

You are probably well aware of the ability to watch videos on your iPhone. You can connect to iTunes and rent movies, download to your iPhone, and enjoy. You may not know, however, that you can squeeze your own DVD collection (or at least several titles from your collection) onto your iPhone to watch whenever you wish.

In order to watch movies on your iPhone, the video file needs to be compressed. There are numerous applications out their on the web that you can purchase for a nominal fee and start “ripping”, or compressing, your movie collection. However, one app that I’m fond of that just so happens to be free of charge is Handbrake. 

Handbrake is easy to use. Just load your DVD, start up Handbrake, and it scans your DVD for the files it needs to compress. Just make sure you select the proper format for your movie; Handbrake will rip your DVD in the format you preset, i.e. iPhone or iPod Touch, iPod Classic, etc., depending on the screen size. Once the scan is done, you click “Start” and your movie file will be compressed in about an hour or so. Once compressed, just copy the file to the “Movies” section of your iTunes Library and then sync your movies to your iPhone. You are now ready to take your DVD library with you wherever you go!

Keep in mind that you should only compress movies that you OWN (ahem). Now you can plug in your headphones and watch a movie on your plane ride or with your head propped up on a pillow in bed without disturbing anyone. The sound quality is great with the headphones and the picture quality is surprisingly good too. Whether it’s your favorite movie or television series, try it out today!

That’s it for this week’s Tip. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and please only watch movies on your iPhone when in a seated position — and NO, driving a car doesn’t count as a “seated position”). 

It’s time for App Avalanche 6!  What’s new in the App Store? What’s Hot? Which apps are people paying their hard-earned dough for? What about all those Free apps? Which ones are at or near the top of the charts? For answers to these questions, keep reading for iPhone App Avalanche 6!

New

TanZen, from Craig Kemper of Little White Bear Studios, is the iPhone version of the classic tangram puzzle game. With over 100 puzzles and growing, your objective is to move and rotate the 7 shapes (puzzle pieces) and fit them together in a shaded puzzle area. Work on puzzles in any order and even save your progress on several puzzles at once. Get it here for $2.99.

Loan Shark, from August Trometer of FoggyNoggin Software, is financial software to assist you in calculating your payment, interest rate, and loan amount of a loan. You can view the full amortization of your loan over it’s lifetime and even compute the effects of making more than the minimum payment. Save your loan figures for comparison shopping and even find lending institutions in your area. Get it here for $4.99.

Par 72 Golf, by Chillingo Ltd., may have mixed reviews but offers three 18-hold par 72 golf courses with mountain, desert, and ocean environments. Experience 3-D hills, fairways, traps and greens. Select your club, check the wind and distance, and swing away to enjoy realistic ball flight and roll. The game saves your progress and you can listen to your own music while you play. Get it here for $7.99.

What’s Hot

aSleep, from Marcello Catelli of Signs Studios, is an app for sleep, relaxation, meditation, or yoga. Set the timer and fall asleep to soothing sounds or melodies. Relieve stress to the sounds of the beach, rain, wind, musical instruments, or a variety of other sounds found in nature or made by man. Get it here for $.99 cents.

LocalEats, by Magellan Press Inc., helps you find the best 100 restaurants in the top 50 cities in the U.S. Eat where the locals eat. Find the best restaurants nearest you and get driving directions to get you there. Read user comments to help you make your dining decision. Get it here for $.99 cents.

StarSmasher, from John Bowers, is a 3D arcade-style space shooter. Battle a never-ending wave of alien ships, dodge asteroids and proximity mines, and collect power-ups along the way to improve your odds. Earn extra lives and keep playing to set a new high score. Get it here for $2.99.

Top Paid Apps

iDrummer (iDrumHero), by Nicholas Grant, is inspired by games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Tap out different drum patterns and see if you can set a new high score. Or, if you want to just play around without any pre-set patterns, enter “Free Play” mode and start drumming whatever you want. You can even play along with music on your iPhone. Get it here for $.99 cents.

iWik: Wikipedia for the iPhone, from Hampton Catlin, is an app that makes Wikipedia a much more pleasurable experience for viewing on your iPhone. Specialized servers change content to be more precise by reformatting the content for your iPhone screen. A portion of all proceeds goes to Wikimedia Foundation. Get it here for $.99 cents.

Preschool Adventure, from 3DAL, LLC, is an opportunity to get involved with your preschool-aged child with these fun, interactive learning activities. There are four mini-games that help your child learn about different animals, parts of the body, sea creatures, and the names of different shapes. Get it here for $.99 cents.

Top Free Apps

Newton’s Cradle, from Grant Hull of Enabled Solutions Pty Ltd, is a fun exercise in physics. Touch and grab one of the simulated steel balls and let it go. Watch as it strikes the others and results in a reaction from the other side. Utilize the iPhone’s accelerometer to view the effects of tilting your iPhone while the Cradle is in motion. And who said physics isn’t fun? Get it for FREE right here.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge, by Kris Collins at Audi of America, Inc., is an Audi A4 driving simulator. Maybe many of you are like me — this is the closest I’ll get to experiencing an Audi A4. Steer your virtual A4 through a series of progressively more difficult driving courses by using the accelerometer of your iPhone to control your car. Race against the clock to beat your best time. Get it here for FREE.

Brain Tuner, from Bridger Maxwell of Gengar Studios and Elliot Lee, is an app for keeping your brain in tip-top shape in just minutes a day. It’s also less expensive than “Five Minute Abs!” Challenge yourself with a series of math problems and see if your basic math skills improve in speed and accuracy. Get it here for FREE.

That’s it for the iPhone App Avalanche 6.  Be sure to stop by next week for another Avalanche of Apps!

App Avalanche 5 promises more new, popular and free apps to check out and download to your iPhone at your whim. What you WON’T get is any mention of apps costing $999 — these apps are far more affordable and useful. If you don’t have the time to sift through hundreds of apps at the iTunes App Store, just take a look here for a summary. Read on for iPhone App Avalanche 5!

New

Picoli, from Thorsten Lubinski of Alazar GmbH & co. KG, is photo retouch app for you iPhone. No longer can you only do touch-ups to your photos on your Mac or PC! Thanks to an array of high-quality filters and sophisticated image processing algorithms, you can professional edit and improve your pictures. Get it here for $4.99.

Carrie’s Dots, from Chris and Charles Hanson, is an iPhone version of the old classic paper-and-pencil game, “Dots.” For two players, it’s great to engage in a spirited match while you’re waiting for your food, your plane departure, or anything else. If your game is interrupted by either the event you’re waiting for or a phone call, your game is saved and you can start where you left off. Get it here for FREE.

PegJump, by Jerry Jones, is the iPhone version of the classic wooden board and peg puzzle game. For some reason, I usually encounter this game at restaurants. Start with one empty hole, then start jumping pegs over other pegs, removing the jumped peg, with the object being to end up with only one peg — tougher than it sounds! Get it here for FREE.

What’s Hot

Bubbles, from Jesse Grosjean, is all about getting your Lawrence Welk on. Manipulate the bubbles with your fingers, pop them, and listen with pure joy as you reminisce your childhood bubble-popping days. Somehow I suspect my fellow writers have already downloaded this and are steeped in the Zen of Bubble-Popping as I write. Get it for FREE right here.

Lucky 7 Slots, by Griffin Technology, brings the excitement of Vegas video slots to your iPhone. What happens on your iPhone, STAYS on your iPhone. Place your bets and let the 7′s spin. Your score is saved for the next time you play. Get it here for $1.99.

Restaurant Nutrition, from Foundation Surgery Affiliates, is an app to help you view nutritional information for numerous restaurants, fast-food or otherwise, to assist you in your personal diet. The app will also help you locate the desired restaurant. Know what’s in your food, because after all, you ARE what you EAT! Get it here for FREE.

Top Paid Apps

Face Melter, by Nico Becherer, is an app that allows you to take advantage of your iPhone’s multi-touch screen and pinch and pull your photos to look how you like, then save the results. Import photos, use photos from your Camera Roll, or take a new photo and get started melting some faces! Get it here for $1.99.

Tip, from Carlos Perez, is a simple app for determining the tip amount you wish to leave a server at your favorite restaurant or other activity. Set the percentage, the number of people dining, then the amount of the bill and let this app do the rest. Your settings are saved for the next time you use the app. Get it here for .99 cents.

MobileChat, from Shaun Harrison, is an instant messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It supports ICQ/AIM/.Mac/MobileMe, WindowsLive/MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, and Jabber. You can be online with multiple chat accounts at the same time, and if you lose connectivity, this app will keep your connections live until you can reconnect with EDGE, 3G, or WiFi. Get it here for $2.99.

Top Free Apps

Tris, from James Addyman and JamSoft, is a port of that ever-famous work-productivity-killer, Tetris. Drag pieces around to where you need them to drop, then tap to rotate them into place. Interrupted by an incoming call or text? No problem. Your game is saved. Submit your high score online to compete with your friends. Get it for FREE right here.

Cannon Challenge, by Discovery Interactive Technology, is very similar to the classic artillery video games you may have played in the pass. Adjust elevation and velocity to lob a projectile at your target. Your aim (if it’s good enough) is to destroy! Each subsequent level becomes increasingly difficult, with more targets, higher-value targets, and some targets requiring precise timing to destroy. Get it here for FREE.

Simplify Media, from Dmitry Dolinsky of Simplify Media, Inc., is an app for listening to your home computer music collection right on your iPhone, no file transferring required! Stream music from up to 30 friends as well. This app works over WiFi and EDGE/3G and is FREE to the first 100,000 iPhone users, so download today for FREE right here.

That’s it for the iPhone App Avalanche 5.  Be sure to stop by next week for another Avalanche of Apps!

The iTunes App Store is faring well and apps are flying off the virtual shelf, but lest we forget, web apps used to be the only game in town for anything 3rd party on the iPhone (unless you jailbroke your iPhone – you rapscallion you). There is a plethora of web apps that iPhone owners use day-in and day-out. The internet is a big place, but fortunately people like Kelly Sonora are happy to share tips like www.NursingDegree.net, where writer Christina Laun has posted “iFit: 50 Coolest Fitness and Health Apps for the iPhone.”

There are numerous apps listed, including categories like fitness Tracking, Calculators, Diet and Nutrition, Working Out, Relaxation and Inspiration, Medication and Diagnosis, and Miscellaneous Health. Some links may be broken, but for the most part, Christina Laun has compiled an impressive treasure trove of fitness web apps that are designed for access from the iPhone.

Check out web apps like MyNetDiary and FitReach for keeping track of your workouts, diet, and manage your weight goals. BMI Calculator and Daily Calorie Calculator can be used for approximating your Body Mass Index and the number of calories you should be ingesting each day. Food Information Database and iPhone Diet are apps you can use on your iPhone to get nutritional information from your favorite restaurants and manage your diet and monitor your nutritional intake.

With Pump10, you have access to view numerous workout videos on your iPhone; view workout videos while you are at the gym. FitSync is a good way to keep track of your workouts online and select workout programs. These are all just a few of the 50 apps listed; visit the site from your iPhone and try them out for a more healthy you!

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  Thanks again to Kelly Sonora for the lead and Christina Laun of www.NursingDegree.net for the article. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and working your iPhone’s accelerometer in one hand and eating a Twinkie in the other do NOT “cancel each other out”). 

Brett Terpstra of TUAW fame has posted a tip here that offers a step-by-step procedure for… sitting down? … a way to CHANGE the felt marker into something a bit more professional and readable.  Read on for the step-by-step and check out Brett’s article as well!

If you wish to dispense with the Felt Marker font and go with something more professional-looking and easier to read, the power to do so rests in your hands, no Jailbreaking or hacking required. This method, by the way, will also change existing Felt Marker Notes that you’ve created, but requires that you enter each Note and follow the steps.

First, go into Settings on your iPhone, select General, then Keyboard. Select International Keyboards, then scroll down to Chinese and select either Chinese keyboard (Simplified or Traditional). Then, activate Pinyin and you are ready to go.

Next, hit your Home button and open up your Notes app. Tap on the screen to pull up the keyboard. You should now be presented with a small “world” icon just to the left of the “space bar.” Tapping the “world” key will switch your keyboard to the Chinese one, then tap a letter and you will see the font has changed. Tap the “world” button again and your keyboard returns to English. Now, anything you type on the particular Note you opened will be in the new font. If you open an existing Note and change the keyboard, the entire text of the Note will change to the new font.

Each time you start a new Note, you will need to tap the “world” key to switch keyboards, tap a letter, then switch back and the font will be changed. To avoid this step each time you need to quickly enter a new Note, you might consider making several Notes in advance, titled with a number or letter.

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  Thanks again to Brett Terpstra at TUAW.com for finding this little gem. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and who came up with the Felt Marker font as the standard in the first place?? Felt tips are so 1975).

Fortunately for those of us with BiSSD (Bloated iPhone Slow Syncing Disorder), there is a solution, brought to you by Michael Sitarzewski of Zerologic.com.  In response to Michael’s step-by-step procedure, another contributor to the Mac/iPhone community, Hendrik Holtmann, has also addressed this issue with a small app posted at eidac.com.  Thanks to Michael and Hendrik, slow backups could be a thing of the past.

First, let’s take a look at Michael Sitarzewski’s method found at zerologic.com. Michael provides fair warning that his method will DISABLE the backup feature for your iPhone, meaning that when you sync, your data WILL NOT be backed up.  He also suggests that backing up your personal data can be accomplished via MobileMe over-the-air syncing (and we all know how well MobileMe has been working, right?) or Time Machine.

In his own words, let’s have a look at Michael’s step-by-step from zerologic.com:

Seems easy enough.  If you prefer to avoid making changes using Terminal, then Hendrik Holtmann’s app may be more to your liking. You can read more about it and download it from eidac.de here, allowing you to enable or disable backing up your iPhone with just the click of your mouse.  A link is also found on his site for PC users.

Armed with this knowledge from very knowledgeable contributors to the iPhone community (many thanks to both of you, Michael and Hendrik!), you can now proceed to sync your iPhone without fear of a lengthy, time-consuming backup. Backup when you WANT to.  At least you now have the option.

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and please remember — using the Tip above will result in NO BACKUP of your iPhone’s data.  You were warned! Caveat Emptor, baby!).

It’s the end of July and there’s still plenty of summer left, so snow and avalanches are still many months away. Fortunately, any time of year is perfect for an App Avalanche, and there are always new and updated apps in the App Store for your iPhone. It’s time for App Avalanche 3!

New

South Park Imaginationland, from RealNetworks, Inc., brings the world of South Park to your iPhone. What’s not to love about controlling Butters and his adventures in the South Park universe? Bounce Butters through over 60 levels as he tries to rescue Imaginationland. Get it here for $9.99.

Fotomatic, from SoundSpectrum, is an app for viewing your favorite photo albums from Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa sites. A nice feature is the ability to view albums while other photos download. You can choose from different animated slideshow themes and view your photos on the go, or even view public photo albums. Get it here for $4.99.

BeatMaker, by Vincent Bongiomo of Intua, is a music creation studio combining features of professional drum machines, samplers and sequencers. It is designed for an intuitive music-making experience with sampling from the original sound-bank or BeatPack, a free synchronization companion to expand your audio library. Start making music by downloading here for $19.99.

What’s Hot

AOL Radio, from AOL (naturally), is powered by CBS Radio and provides over 200 stations and over 150 CBS radio stations from across the U.S. Music, sports, talk radio and news right on your iPhone. Give it a listen by downloading here today for the low price of FREE.

Yelp, by Yelp, Inc., is an app that takes advantage of the location feature of your iPhone and can help you find just about anything. Looking for a restaurant that serves certain kinds of food? Need a gas station? You can pick from general categories or narrow your search to specifics, then read reviews from local Yelp users! Get it for free here.

WHERE, by uLocate Communications, is another location-based application that ties in some of the other popular location-based apps like Yelp and Eventful. Find restaurants, the cheapest gas near you, local events, and more. You can even locate your friends with BuddyBeacon. Download it for free right here.

Top Paid Apps

Units Convertor, from Yuchao Zhou, is an inexpensive app for converting measurements like temperature, length, mass, weight, volume, pressure, and power. That’s a lot of stuff to convert! It has a very simple interface — just turn the wheels and you can get multiple values for a single measurement. Get it here for only .99 cents.

Brain Challenge, by Gameloft, is a highly-acclaimed brain training simulation for your iPhone with 43 mini-games to keep your brain in tip-top shape and on your toes. You can train in the categories of Visual, Memory, Logic, Math and Focus. It’s also toted as a great stress relief – now can’t we ALL use a little of that? Get it here for $9.99.

Solitaire, by Mobilityware, is the classic game of solitaire for your iPhone. It is the Klondike version, which is also the most popular version and most well-known. Your game is saved when interrupted by a call, which is a nice feature. Your best times and number of moves are saved as well. Get it here for $1.99.

Top Free Apps

Labyrinth Lite Edition, by Carl Loodberg of Codify AB, is a throwback to yesteryear and the old wooden labyrinth, requiring the twisting of knobs to tilt the surface and guild your steel ball safely to the goal without dropping through one of many holes. Now, the sky is the limit on the iPhone – tilt your iPhone and guide the ball through 10 fully-playable mazes. Get it for free here.

BreakClassic, brought to you by Anton Butsev of bootant.com, is a simple classic brick breaker game. The developer is listening to reviews and has indicated that ‘pause’ control and other features are going to be added. It’s nice to have developers that listen and improve their product, and what more can you ask from a free app? Get it here.

Sudoku (Free), from Darren Sillett of Mighty Mighty Good Games, allows you to choose from four different skill levels and provides an assortment of puzzles in different styles to play the popular game of Sudoku. You can pause the game and continue where you left off. Also, hints are available as well as storing your best times. Get the free version here.

That’s it for the iPhone App Avalanche 3.  Be sure to stop by next week for another Avalanche of Apps!

It took a little while for me to get used to the iPhone’s “soft” keyboard — large hands + tiny keyboard = baby elephant playing piano.  Even though I’ve become rather proficient with the iPhone’s keyboard, I’m always on the prowl for anything that will help with my speed and accuracy.  This week’s Tip is all about some keyboard shortcuts, brought to you by and with special thanks to George by way of Adam Pash’s article at lifehacker.com.  Keep reading for some helpful keyboard Tips (and check out Adam’s article for yourself)!

Unless you are building aircraft, skyscrapers or bridges, shortcuts/cutting corners are a GOOD thing.  Take typing on the iPhone, for instance.  There are a number of time-saving (and finger-tapping) ways to maximize your iPhone’s keyboard.

When entering a web address, and you need something other than a .com (.com key already provided on your iPhone), then just tap and hold on the .com key and three other common domain options will appear.  Just tap the one you need and you are on your way.

Similarly, if you are entering an email address, you’ll notice that you don’t even get the .com key on your keyboard.  I believe this is a serious (VERY serious) oversight on Apple’s part, but at least they provided a solution by enabling a pop-up list of domain options when you hold down the period ( . ) key.  If you get in the habit of using this shortcut, it’s just a matter of time before you are, well, saving time!

For those sending out Spanish language texts, emails, etc., did you know that if you hold down the ” ? ” key or the ” ! ” key, you can invert those characters?  Give it a try!

Finally, what if you need to accent a letter?  The name “Chloe”, for example, may need an “acute” accent above the “e”, like this: “é”.  To do this, just hold down the “e” key and a pop-up will give you several options to choose from, as illustrated above.

Try experimenting on your own with the iPhone keyboard and see what kind of surprises may be waiting for you.  This experiment can be particularly handy and satisfying while waiting in the long line at the DMV.

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (but it could be fun adding accents to everyone’s name that you know.  Kinda weird… but fun).

With your iPhone in hand, let’s get buried in some apps right now with App Avalanche 2!

New

ColorTilt, from Karen Weems at IMAK Creations, utilizes the iPhone’s accelerometer and touch screen to select a background color and then finger paint at your pleasure. Save your artwork in your iPhone’s Photo Library, simply shake your iPhone to erase. See how creative you can be! Get ColorTilt for only $.99 here.

Little Pine Tree, from Benxing Entertainment, is a story book for children that “reads” the story while you flip the pages with the swipe of your finger. A great way for your kids to have fun while learning, and fits easily in your pocket or purse. Download Little Pine Tree here for only $.99.

Urbanspoon, by Wanderspot, LLC, is a free app that can help you answer the age-old question: where do you want to eat lunch? Using the iPhone’s GPS, just shake your iPhone and Urbanspoon will randomly select a restaurant in your area. It even includes ratings so you have a better idea of what you are getting yourself into! Get it for free right here.

What’s Hot

MySpace Mobile, from MySpace.com, helps you stay connected to all of your MySpace friends, right from your iPhone. Send and receive messages, browse your network of friends and see their status, upload and share photos from your iPhone, and even search for new friends.  Get it here for free!

SmugShot, by SmugMug, adds photos to your SmugMug galleries online as you shoot them with your iPhone. All photos are geotagged and places the location of your pictures on Google Maps. You receive a 14-day free trial and 50% off the first year. Get SmugShot right here.

Bomberman Touch – The Legend of Mystic Bomb, by Hudson Entertainment, is a version of the prolific and much-loved Bomberman series designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Guide Bomberman through each level by tapping the touchscreen. Download it here for only $7.99.

Top Paid Apps

Texas Hold’em, from Apple Inc., is a very realistic app for playing one of the most popular poker games in the world today. Just rotate your iPhone to switch from first-person to above view. Opponents are realistic in both appearance and behavior. Get it here for only $4.99.

Units, by Shashwat Parhi of Crossroad Solutions, is a simple conversion utility for the iPhone or iPod Touch. With an interface that looks like a calculator, just punch in the numbers and watch Units convert in real time. There are three user-assignable buttons for conversions you use the most. Download here for only $.99.

Recorder, by Dan Walton of Retronyms, has a simple one-button interface for recording memos, discussions, sounds, interviews, or anything else you want to record. You can record for minutes or hours (or until you run out of memory on your iPhone!). Download it here for only $.99.

Top Free Apps

Pandora Radio, by Pandora Media, Inc., streams music over the internet directly to your iPhone. Search by artist name or song name and Pandora will create a station playing your song and other songs like it. Pandora for iPhone is fully integrated with Pandora on the web. Get it for FREE right here.

Shazam, brought to you by Shazam Entertainment Ltd., is an app that will tell you what music you are listening to! If you are listening to music and wonder who the artist is and the song name, then just hold your iPhone to the music (with Shazam running) and Shazam will tell you the artist and track name. Get it for FREE here.

PhoneSaber, from Alex Price of TheMacBox, is a handy app for those inconvenient times that you leave your real lightsaber at home and happen to run into the Sith. With five different colors to choose from, activate your lightsaber and enjoy the sound effects as you swing your iPhone around. Download it for FREE here.

Thanks for dropping by for the iPhone App Avalanche 2.  Now head over to the iTunes App Store and download some apps so your iPhone doesn’t feel all empty inside!

When I picked up my shiny black iPhone 3G last Friday, I knew I was going to have to pay the inevitable rate increase for data (another $10 smackers a month).  I also knew I would (hissing a curse under my breath) lose my built-in 200 text messages per month.  AT&T’s SMS packages offer a laughable range of offerings:  $5 a month for 200 messages, then an Olympian leap to $15 for 1500 messages and $20 for unlimited.  What, no room for $10 a month for, say, 750 or 1000 messages?  But I digress.

The basic idea goes thusly: AIM (and thus your AIM app on your iPhone) is able to send free text messages by sending them to +13522225555 (or whatever the phone number is).  There’s a bit more to it, of course, so be sure to click on through and read Carlson’s walkthrough.

(Post updated since publication by request)

Civilizations rose and fell.  Rivers carved canyons.  Stars twinkled into existence, then died.  All this while we waited for iPhone 2.0 and the App Store.  If you were lucky enough to upgrade your iPhone 2G to 2.0 or have a newly-acquired iPhone 3G, and you have upgraded to iTunes 7, you now have access to the App Store on either iTunes or your iPhone and the 3rd party native apps downloading extravaganza can commence!  If you are new to 3rd party apps, new to iPhone and/or iTunes, or just want a little guidance before diving into the App Store, then read on after the break for the App Store walkthrough!

There are two ways to access the App Store: either on your iPhone or through iTunes.  Let’s start with the iPhone App Store experience.  With your iPhone in hand, tap the App Store icon. The user experience is very similar to using iTunes on your iPhone, so if you’ve been an iTunes user on your iPhone, then the App Store will feel very familiar.

The page that greets you when you enter iPhone’s App Store will give you the option to look at New Apps that have been added and the most popular and frequently-downloaded Apps under What’s Hot.  Apps are displayed in a list with up to 5-star ratings and price.  Along the bottom you’ll find tabs for Featured, Categories, Top 25, Search, and Updates.

Here is a screenshot of the Featured New Apps.  You can scroll down to view over 20 new apps here.  A similar view is available if you select the What’s Hot button.

Tap on categories and a list of different app categories appears with the number of apps in each category. Just tap on a category to then browse the list of apps in that category. Selecting the Top 25 tab will give you a list of the most popular 25 apps so you can see what your iPhone peers are using.  Be the first to review and rate an app!

The Search tab will display a list of available software as you type in the name, just like searching for music in iTunes.  Once you find an app you are looking for, just tap the name and you can then see the price and select it for more details and for purchasing.

Here is an example of what you will see once you’ve selected an app from the list.  More detail, like app name, the company or person that developed it, the number of reviews and 1 to 5-star rating by other iPhone users, and the price.

Just click on the price and confirm your purchase and your iPhone will download the app.  If the app is larger than 10mb, then a wifi connection will be required.  After all, AT&T doesn’t want you tying up precious bandwidth on their 3G network with massive downloads.  Once downloaded, you can enjoy the app.  The next time you sync with iTunes, the app will sync with iTunes as part of your iPhone backup.  Then, if you ever have to restore your iPhone to factory settings, your apps will be included when restoring from backup.

Finally, there’s an Updates tab so you can check and see if there are, naturally, updates for the software you’ve downloaded.

That sums it up for the App Store on your iPhone.  Give it a try today and download some cool apps!

Now let’s move on over to the iTunes App Store, which is fully integrated into iTunes and functions practically the same as downloading music or movies.

Just click on the App Store in iTunes and you can browse all the apps by category, popularity, most recently added, and even by the top FREE apps available for download.

Browse through lists of the top 10 Paid apps and Free apps, or see even more apps in these categories.

You can get a quick look at Staff Favorites and What’s Hot (popular).

Click on an item you are interested in and get a better description, including the author of the app, price, release date, and file size.

Also included on the app detail page are screenshots (if provided) and Customer Reviews.  You can get more detail about what others think of the app and get a better sense of whether or not you want to make the purchase and download it.

If you click the Buy button, your iTunes account will be charged and the app will download in iTunes.  Then, the app will load to your iPhone when you sync.

Fortunately, the App Store on both the iPhone and in iTunes is easy to use and full of fun and useful apps already.  Check it out today and start downloading apps to your iPhone — you just may be surprised at how powerful your iPhone really is with the right apps installed.

Even though the folks at Apple are toting the iPhone 3G as being business-friendly by offering some extra functionality and Exchange support via the iPhone 2.0 upgrade, the iPhone has always been a worthy platform for the business and finance-minded user (in my humble opinion).   Case in point,  the list of twenty-five (yes, 25!) different financial apps for the iPhone at currencytrading.net. I’ll cover briefly just a few of these apps in today’s Tip and you can explore the rest to your heart’s content.

iCalc Mortgage Calculator is great for finding out what your mortgage payment will be when buying a new home, or you can use it to figure out what your payment WILL be once your interest-only payments expire (ouch!).

Another useful app is Currency Exchange. Given the free-fall of the dollar, it’s not a bad idea to have a way to see how it stacks up against other world currencies.

iTIPZ Tip Calculator is exactly like it sounds – let this app compute your tip, split it as many ways as you have payers, and even let it round off the number for you.  Sweet!

Compound Interest Calculator helps you compute how much moolah ($$$) you can save over a period of time.  Remember when you were young (cough) and someone much older and wiser told you that if you saved $5 a week for 30 years you would have a gazillion dollars due to the magic of compound interest?  Yeah, well, I didn’t save the $5/week either, but at least if you start now, you can use this app to set your goals.

These are just four of the twenty-five apps at currencytrading.net.  Just head on over there at the speed of a click to see the rest.  If you have finances on the brain, there’s bound to be an app there that will be useful.

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (ok, ok.  I may have exaggerated the “gazillion” you can save via compound interest if you sock away $5/week.  It’s more like a bazillion).

Looks like we’ll have to add analyzing shipping manifests and tracking import/export data to help wanted ads and patent watching. It’s tough being an Apple enthusiast, no?

The folks over at Import Genius have reason to believe that the 3G iPhone is already stateside. After analyzing data from thousands of U.S. customs declarations for Apple, Inc. they have found 188 unidentified containers of a product never before imported by the company. Hint, hint: 3G iPhone.

“They have never before reported this product on their customs declarations,” says Ryan Petersen of ImportGenius.com. “The fact that they are importing millions of units, combined with dwindling stocks of the first generation of iPhones, clearly supports the Citi analysts predictions.”

So where are we going to get the next 3G rumor from? Someone who dug through Steve Job’s trash? Should the paparazzi start following him around? Can’t we just fast-forward to June already?

Thanks Ryan

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