Celebrities have tendency to bubble up across CES, but it’s not often one of them is an honest-to-goodness exhibitor. Seth Green, the most excellent comedian behind Robot Chicken and a big player in Family Guy, used CES 2012 to announce his investment and advisory role with an app called Shodogg. It’s a pretty simple HTML5 app which lets you quickly share mobile videos to your PC, tablet, Google TV, or just about any other web-enabled device. They’re aiming to launch a native iPhone app in March, and given the heavy “platform agnostic” angle, you can expect this on Android sometime soon.

Sharing streaming video can be tricky if the source doesn’t want to play nice, and even when they do, DLNA is still farm from perfect. Though there’s definitely room for an app like Shodogg, I think the biggest thing about it is that Seth Green is involved. Call me shallow. It’s just good to see smart celebrities getting entrepreneurial. Who knows, maybe if more of them focus on app development, the next generation of programmers could enjoy some amount of social prestige.

You can find out more about Shodogg over here, or jump right in and sign up for the alpha.

Apple has posted a short tip on how to share the iPad and iPhone apps you like right from the iTunes App Store page. If you click or tap an App Store link here at TiPb, or are simply browsing and come across something you know will interest a friend or special someone, it’s great to be able to send it them via email. Here’s how.

Whether you shop on your computer, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can use Tell a Friend and Gift This App to share your enthusiasm with friends. On an app’s page in the App Store on the computer, click the downward pointing triangle next to the Buy App or Free App button to see the options–Tell a Friend, which lets you send an email link, and Gift this App, which lets you buy the app for someone else. On the iPhone and iPod touch, scroll down to the bottom of an app’s page to find the buttons for those options. On the iPad, use the links on the upper right of an app’s page. In all cases, you’ll be asked to sign in with your Apple ID if you haven’t already, before you complete your intended action.

There you go, that’s it! If you have any other cool ways to share your apps, let me know!

Source: Inside iTunes

School’s out and it’s time for a break from work. Curious which are the absolute best apps and games to take with you on your much deserved summer vacation? Odds are you’ll want to share your adventures, brush up on local attractions, and stay connected while you’re having fun. Luckily there are tons of apps available in the App Store that makes organizing and sharing your vacation from your iPhone super simple.

Whether you want informational apps for your own use or social apps to share, we’ve got you covered. Read on for TiPb’s top 10 most recommended, most must-have summer vacation apps to get your started.

• Top 10 apps for new iPhone owners
• More top apps

Gowalla

For regular everyday check-ins, I typically use Foursquare. But for trips, Gowalla wins hands down. It acts as somewhat of a “digital passport”. They offer stamps and pins for completing trips and checking in at certain places (similar to Foursquare badges).

You can also upload pictures and comments on places that you’ve traveled to. Sometimes you’ll pick up items when you check into places. You can either drop them elsewhere for someone else to find (and to become a founder of a place), or you can choose to add them to your pack where they’ll permanently stay. I’ll typically drop items I’ve picked up more than one of and save more rare and unique items in my pack.

Gowalla also allows you to share check-ins and pictures to Twitter and Facebook as well which makes it even easier to let your friends and family follow along with your adventures.

Free – iTunes Link

Instagram

I use Instagram on almost a daily basis but it’s especially cool for sharing pictures on vacation. Not only does it upload your images to a plethora of services (Twitter, Facebook, etc) – you can also add all kinds of cool filter effects to your photos before uploading them.

I’ve always found uploading photos directly to Facebook to be hit or miss. I always use Instagram now. It’s fast and connects to all the services I want to share to. The user interface is simple and uploading a photo only takes seconds, which is great when you’re constantly on the go and just want to share a quick snapshot.

Free – iTunes Link

TripAdvisor

While you may have already loaded some GPS and navigation apps, you’ll also want to make sure you have additional information about certain places. TripAdvisor is a great app to find out about hotels and attractions. You can read and write reviews straight from the app. I know we’ve saved ourselves some heartache by checking user reviews for certain hotels and restaurants before making our decision.

It’ll work regardless where you’re at so this is a great one to have on board for virtually any type of trip. And don’t forget to write reviews for future travelers as well!

Free – iTunes Link

Beautiful Planet HD

No matter where you’re traveling, Beautiful Planet has tons of pictures, facts, and descriptions of the most amazing travel destinations on Earth. I’ve found a lot of really cool destinations just by browsing through the app in my spare time. While on vacation, you can not only learn about the places you’re visiting, but find other really cool areas to check out.

This app is perfect for vacationers that want to spend a lot more time outdoors than they do indoors. I also recommend this to travelers who don’t necessarily have a strict itinerary and really want to spend more time exploring than anything else.

$1.99 – iTunes Link

Navigation and/or information apps

No matter where you’re going, some type of GPS app should be on the top of your list. I personally prefer Garmin StreetPilot when I travel but you’ll want to pick the GPS app that covers the areas your traveling to. That’s why I’m not picking a technical “favorite” for this category. What you will want to use will differ based on where you’re going. Just pick one that covers the area you’re traveling to the best.

You can also look at specified navigation apps as well. I live on a lake and love the water, so I picked up an app called Marine&Lakes. These types of navigation apps are great for specified areas and a lot of times contain attractions or areas that you’d never otherwise discover.

Prices will vary depending what apps you choose to use.

Your top summer vacation apps?

So there you have them, our top 10 best iPhone 4 apps to get you started. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

The iPhone has a built in camera and with its always-on internet connectivity, it’s a great way to share your pictures with friends, families, colleagues, and the world.

• Send via mail. The classic iPhone way to send photos is through email. Just choose a picture, multi-select up to five and tap Share, or copy and paste a dozen or so right into the body of your message and send away. (Pro tip: the share button compresses your photos into smaller files for easier transport, pasting them in keeps them in full size for higher quality). This is also great if you’re sharing with someone who has a computer, since Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix — almost everything! — has an email client to receive them.
• Send via MMS. Yes, the iPhone finally has MMS so the same way you send photo via mail you can now send them via the Messages SMS/MMS app as well. This is the best option if you’re sending to another phone, especially a feature phone that doesn’t have email.
• Upload them to galleries. The iPhone will let you upload to Apple’s own (subscription required) MobileMe gallery. You can also upload to the popular Flickr site, and there are (of course) apps for that.
• Post them to a social network. If one-to-one is too few, and one-to-many sounds more like it, you can share your photos with your friends, your followers, or the whole wide world through your favorite social networks. Facebook is obviously huge here, with the app letting you upload and comment (when it works!) on photos. Thanks to integration with TwitPics and other, similar services, many popular Twitter clients like Twitterrific, Tweetie, TwitBit, etc. let you post pictures to your Twitter timeline for your followers to enjoy (and tweet back about).
• Hand them your iPhone. And for your non-computer friends, you can just launch the Photo app and pass them your iPhone. The modern equivalent of sneaker-net, after a few moments even your least tech-savvy family member will be swiping, pinching, and otherwise enjoying your camera work right into the palm of their hand.

How do you share photos on your iPhone? Have any special tips or tricks you can share? Let us know in the comments!

Pointy Heads Software’s Knocking Live Video [Free -iTunes link] is the first official iPhone app capable of streaming live video over 3G and WiFi connections. But getting it approved for the App Store was no easy task as the app was first rejected. Then Brian Meehan, lead developer, plead his case to Mr. Steve Jobs. According to Ars Technica, Meehan sent a very convincing letter that caught the CEO’s attention.

Meehan even “humbly” requested that Jobs himself review a demo of the app and reconsider it for approval. He then fired off the e-mail to Jobs at 11pm on Saturday, November 21. An Apple executive, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted Meehan at 8:30am the following Monday morning to discuss the app and its rejection. He revealed that the order to reverse the app’s rejection came “directly from the top.” Within three hours of the phone call, Knocking Live Video was approved for sale via the App Store.

Many other developers have had difficulties with the inconsistencies involved with the App Store review process, seeing their apps rejected. Perhaps now we will start to see Apple loosen their grip a bit more when it comes to App Store approvals. At least all the developers hope this turns out to be the case…

[Via Ars Technica]

BusinessWeek has an article up on Apple and Google considering app-sharing tools and — hold on, let’s deconstruct:

People like apps. “Tell a friend” buttons or, you know, actually physically showing someone a great app is difficult and far too real-world-contract requiring. However, Apple has iPhone 3.0 on the way, and with it — someone thinks they could enable something that might somehow enable and incentivize app sharing. And Google is considering enabling the same type of “recommendations”. Maybe.

Okay. Rewind.

Apps make a lot of money. Apps could make more money if not just the store or developers were selling them, but if users could push them to (at?) each other as well. Sound familiar? To the 5 of you reading who once owned Zunes, it probably does. Welcome to the Social. Just please don’t use the term “squirt”.

The theory is this. I love me some Peggle. I use a variation on iPhone 3.0′s P2P (peer-to-peer) connection technology to “share” Peggle with Leanna and Chris, who will then gobble it up, have tons of fun, and curse me for their loss of sleep time, likely in that order.

It’s not a crazy idea, even if Microsoft was already on to it years ago. iPhone 3.0 will already let you invite friends to join in multiplayer games. That could, theoretically, be extended to offer purchases for the game if they don’t already have it. Likewise, the BT-range limit could be extended to WiFi network or even cell provider (Oh, hi, AT&T infrastructure!)

To further promote the recommendations/sharing, Apple could — again theoretically — offer referral fees if/when the recommended/shared app is eventually converted into a sale. (Of course, the App Store, even under 3.0, doesn’t offer demos, so that would likely need to change first).

It’s an interesting idea at re-intermediating software sales. Microsoft is already “squirting” among Zune users, which makes sense given their very different, subscription-focused model. But the question is, with Apple being Apple, is it something they would do? Is it something they should?

And don’t be squirting no fart apps in our general directions! (Sorry, had to be said!)

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!]

We’ve now gotten a few reports and some screenshots of yet more new functionality in iPhone 3.0 Beta 3.

First is “merge”. If you already have bookmarks, contacts, or other data on your iPhone (for example, if you synced it over via iTunes) and you enable MobileMe, a menu will slide up asking if you want to merge the data, not merge (i.e. replace), or cancel.

Next are “Publishing to MobileMe”, which shows a direct upload status bar, and new options to view published items on MobileMe, or “tell a friend” (via MMS?).

More screenshots after the break, and for a far more detailed look at the beta releases so far, including WiFi Auto-Join also posted today, check out our massive iPhone 3.0 walkthrough.