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Best iPhone Apps and Accessories for 2009!

Being a tech news Junkie, and fond of the superior Ziff Davis line of publications, especially eWeek, I recently noted their list of top 20 iPhone Apps, which were ok, in my opinion--but then some were aimed at System Admin geeks like me. Anyhoo, after monitoring our own blogs and noting the excellent products being reviewed here, I thought we might do our own little end of year round-up. So, I will start it off with some of my favs after the break below (which will include at least one hardware item), and then hopefully a few more bloggers can pile on with posts of their own.



Voice Control

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I have been taking full advantage of the Voice Control feature of my 3GS. It works great. Some names do need to be simplfied.... It confused my husband and my father-in-law's names. I changed my husband's name to "Husband". Now, I press and hold my earbud mic and say "Call Husband". Problem solved. My wish: a sexy male voice - preferably Scottish.



ShowTime — $0.99 app lets first generation and 3G owners record video

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Our blogger Tari has posted a couple times about the recent influx of programs for recording and broadcasting video via your iPhone, including the first generation and 3G iPhones. iVideoCamera ($0.99) is currently the most popular video recording app. Now ShowTime - Video Recorder ($0.99) has entered the fray, and has much greater capability. iVideoCamera records at 3 frames per second, whereas ShowTime does 6.



Sneaking ads into iPhone apps

There is one thing that really frosts me with some iPhone apps: When they sneak advertising into an app under the pretext that it's an upgrade or as part of an upgrade.

I understand that content providers somehow have to pay for their content. Newspapers are closing left and right, magazines are struggling, and no one quite knows how to make money by taking the content online. I really understand that. But please be honest about it! Simply sneaking an obnoxious ad feature into an app as part of an "upgrade" is just not right. Announce it, give people an option, but don't make them "upgrade" to an app that'll then be polluted with ads without first telling them!



MusicSkin in action

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The MusicSkin (for my iPhone) with John Lennon in front of the Statue of Liberty has arrived, just in time for holiday photo-taking.

The plastic skin fits nicely on the back of the phone. Line up the camera hole (after first punching it out of the plastic) and the rest should fit. It was easy to peel off and reposition. I notice only a few wrinkles.

It changes my color scheme from pure black to a mix of black-and-white. (Other MusicSkins are quite colorful, but this one is more stark.) But it's noticeable. The first time I used it my cool nephew asked, "Where did you get the Lennon phone, Uncle Tim?!"

The image is so clear that you can even read the sign behind John and right at the base of Lady Liberty, which says "Keep Off Grass." I wonder if he thought that would be in the picture. Hmm...

One mistake I made was assuming there was also a clear sheet for the front of the iPhone, so I took mine off. When I put the old one in place I had way too many air pockets and bubbles, so I'll probably have to replace that and do a better job of it.

The packaging says you can also download matching wallpaper from the MusicSkins.com web site, but when I tried from the iPhone I got an error message, telling me it couldn't download the file through Safari. Huh!

This $14 accessory is certainly not essential -- unless you're a Beatles freak. Smile, and say "Peace..."

 



iLend

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Do you wonder where that book is you enjoyed so much last month? How about your favorite drill? Maybe you lent it out and can’t remember who you lent it to. You need iLend.  

This simple little app easily keeps track of whom you lent what, whether it’s a book, tool, article of clothing, or any other object.



The 12 Reviews Of Christmas: Bloody Xmas (Day 9)

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Games starring Santa seem to have taken a turn towards the violent this year, and Bloody Xmas is no exception to that rule.  I'm never thrilled to see Santa spill some blood (though at least you wouldn't be able to see it against his suit), but I'm willing to try and look past it if there's a decent game to be played underneath.  Unfortunately, Bloody Xmas just didn't do it for me.  There are other games with a similar theme that I found much more enjoyable, and that didn't go quite so overboard in the gore.



iPhone giveaway for students!

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At a college bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, students can enter to win a free iPhone every day, simply by reselling their textbooks. Staff members said that they have been noticeably busier this sell-back season, though they can't credit the iPhone giveaway completely.

Students who sell their books get to spin the big iPhone-A-Day Giveaway wheel. There are prizes on nearly every slot - though some are freebies such as "An Encouraging Smile" and "A Word of Wisdom." The grand prize is awarded  when the wheel lands on a small slice of black with the image of an iPhone.

If the student's spin ends up stopping at the spot next to the iPhone winning area, bad news. That's the only place on the board that doesn't result in a prize of any kind. Nada.

But just think of the excitement as a student spins the big wheel and it finally stops directly on the iPhone space. Pandemonium, right? Joy?

Not for one student. He told store employees that he already had an iPhone, and asked if he could get a Snuggie instead. Staffers convinced him that an iPhone was worth a lot more than a $20 blankie.

And this guy went to my university?? Standards sure have fallen...



Twittelator Free / Pro 3.5 - Landscape, Tweet Songs, Geotag, Lists oh my!

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This just came across the wires.. I use it so I wanted to share out as fast as I could.



Hand Held Hollywood Reviews the OWLE Bubo

Until I get an OWLE Bubo and can review it myself, here is Taz Goldstein of Hand Held Hollywood doing an indepth review on video, including test shots and gives some handy tips.  



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