Apps: Finance

The big companies have accountants and endless assistants to take care of their finances, so why not you? Sign up with Pageonce Bills financial-tracking services and turn your iPhone into a personal bill reminder! I need to stipulate that you have to enter real personal financial information into the Pageonce on-line system, which I am assured is well-protected (but you should read and understand the user agreements on the site first). Pageonce provided a test account so that I could write a review...

This video demo of the free PayPal app is great fun, using a couple of guys sort of in the same vein as the "I'm a Mac" commercials. A version just released lets you Bump to exchange money. You hold your iPhones, bump fists to exchange contact information, and then send money with a tap.

With MileBug, I can keep track of my mileage on my iPhone instead of buying those paper mileage logs every year.

 On the heels of the iPad's launch comes the AppFund:

It's that time of year again — time to give the government its due. And Tax Answers, a free app from H&R Block just released this week, is here to help you. I'm astonished, actually, at what it offers. It's not simply an app with a ton of information and tips. Rather, it connects you to H&R Block tax experts who are available to answer your questions — also free. The app connects you to the Get It Right(SM) Community which is manned by 1,000 H&R Block tax professionals ready to share their expertise.

 If you've been paying close attention, as most developers do, to the App Store, you may have noticed some changes.

1. New Releases only show BRAND NEW apps, i.e. version 1.0
2. Updates are not included in the New Releases

This is potentially a good thing for users but there are some downsides.

The good news is, you won't have to search through old apps to find new gems.  It might also discourage developers from submitting minor updates just to be featured on the New Releases page.  That will also cut down on approval time as fewer apps need to be reviewed.

 Apple recently announced a major shift in how they treat free apps and I have been mulling over what it means to developers, in addition to end users.

In the past, "In-App Purchases", or the ability to add features to an app, were only available for paid apps.  Free apps could not be upgraded, short of purchasing the paid version separately.  Now, users of these free apps can purchase upgrades.

On one hand, more choices are a good thing.  But I have some concerns.