Six must-have iPhone freebies

Stream unlimited music to your iPhone or iPod Touch with the free Slacker Radio app.(Credit: Slacker)How do I love thee, iPhone (and iPod Touch)? Let me count the ways. Hmmm. Well, space doesn't permit me to list all 12,503, so I'll settle for six. As in, six free apps you absolutely positively gotta get. (Note: As with my previous batch of iPhone freebies, all links go straight to iTunes.)

• Mancala FS5 I love the Mancala board game, and this iPhone edition is even better. It teaches beginners the basics, automatically moves your beads, and supports Internet multiplayer! (You can even play against your AIM buddies.) Consider splurging on the $1.99 full version to enjoy ad-free play.
  
• NPR Mobile Though not an official NPR app, it lets you browse broadcasts by topic, series, and even commentator, then stream to your heart's content. It can also do a location search, great for when you're traveling and want to tune the car radio to the nearest NPR station.
  
• Slacker Radio Best. Streaming music app. Ever. I know some folks prefer Pandora, but I've always loved the Web-based Slacker and its robust custom-station building. The new iPhone app (pictured) is just plain fantastic. Read my full review here.
  
• Sportacular At the risk of ruining my geek cred, I do follow (and even play) some sports. Sportacular gives you scores, standings, schedules, stats, and more. It also lets you designate favorite teams so you can track them more easily.
  
• Stanza Remember the nine free e-books I wrote about awhile back? Turns out you can download them directly from Stanza, arguably the iPhone's best e-book reader. The latest version can also tap your eReader and Fictionwise libraries. Right now I'm devouring Charles Huston's exceptional crime-novel Caught Stealing.
  
• Topple Part Tetris, part Jenga, Topple challenges you to stack amusingly animated blocks as high as you can before the tower topples over. Great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. Again, here's my review.

Okay, you've got my picks. Now tell me what freebies are rocking your iPhone/iPod Touch boat these days. Try to stick with new stuff--everybody knows about Shazam by now. (And speaking of older freebies, here's an earlier batch of killer apps.)

• T-Mobile schedules the G1's European tour

Refreshingly, iPhone apes HTC with AniWeather app

All kidding aside, buying an iPhone and saying "gee, I wish this worked a little more like my Touch Diamond" really isn't a totally ridiculous thing to say. The topmost layer of TouchFLO 3D's one of the most refined UIs you can find on any mobile platform, and while we don't really see Apple ganking UI elements from it directly, independent devs are more than happy to do as they please. On that note, check out AniWeather -- now available in the App Store -- which looks suspiciously (nay, delightfully) like TouchFLO's weather widget and features totally wild animations that'll make even the most brutal weather conditions entertaining. What's next, a port of WinMo 6.1's 'Getting Started' app? Faceted replacement covers? Apple contracts with One & Co?

Eye-Fi functionality comes to iPhone via new application

We'd be fibbing just a wee bit if we said that Eye-Fi functionality for the iPhone has always been imminent, but now that it's real, we suppose we aren't too surprised. Announced today at Macworld, the Eye-Fi application will enable iPhone owners (that just so happen to also own an Eye-Fi card) to upload images taken on their handset to their computer and the web. Reportedly, the app will allow users to aggregate all of their photos from both the iPhone and a digital camera into "organized folders on a computer and to one of 25 online photo sharing and social networking websites." The app is also said to support geotagging just like the Eye-Fi Explore, though two crucial bits of info are sorely missing. First off, what happens with folks that don't own an Eye-Fi card? And second, when is this app even coming out?

Find the hidden menu in Google Mobile for iPhone

Google's iPhone app, Google Mobile, was already pretty handy with the addition of voice search, but it turns out that it's got more features than anybody realized. The Google Mobile team just blogged about an easter egg, a hidden menu in the app that enables some extra goodies. To find it, go to the settings tab in Google Mobile, and keep trying to scroll down below the "About" option at the bottom. Eventually, a menu called Bells and Whistles will appear.
So, what are these bells and whistles? Some of them are actually sounds: you can replace the default sounds with chicken or monkey noises. You can also change the color of the Google Mobile theme and see a live waveform when you talk. This is all kind of fun, but not that useful. Oh, but wait: the reason you really want to find this easter egg is the "open links in app" option. Some commentators argue that it should have been there in the first place, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

iPhone 3G unlock arrives at last, time to eat some yellowsn0w

So, it didn't quite land before midnight as some had hoped, but we're sure you were partying too hard to notice. The Dev-Team just launched its long-awaited iPhone 3G unlock, dubbed "yellowsn0w," and while they're still working out a few kinks (terming this release a 0.9 beta release), reports are already pouring in of successful unlocks. It's also been confirmed that this release will work with the iPhone's latest v2.2 firmware, and in fact requires that the phone be updated to v2.2 to run at all -- much to the chagrin of folks who've held off on that update at the Dev-Team's behest, we're sure, but hopefully all will soon be forgotten in the new year... already freer than the last! Hit up the read link for download instructions and caveats.

Update: Unfortunately, it seems yellowsn0w might be living up to its beta status, with plenty of commenters and others across the interwebs reporting problems getting "unlocked" iPhone 3Gs to pick up their preferred carrier. As always, proceed with caution, and prepare some loose papers that need weighting just in case.

Meet the iPhone Dev Team [Hackers]

The international team of code-monkeying playboys known as the iPhone Dev Team gave a talk at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin recently, where they presented a comprehensive history of iPhone hacking to date.

Yes, all we have here is an annotated hour-long PowerPoint, and yes, almost all of the content is of interest only to the actual haxxors that gathered at 25C3 to watch, but for me, it's a thrill to hear these guys talk about the software that we've covered and used ourselves for so long. It's also a thrill to hear little tidbits like the 180 IP addresses inside apple that the Dev Team guys have tracked as frequent updaters of Pwnage and Quickpwn. Up until this weekend in Berlin, most of the iPhone Dev Team had never met each other in person. And I only wish we could have gotten a quick camera pan over to the guys identified as the team members who wish to remain anonymous—in the corner, wearing "PwnApple" t-shirts, speaking Russian.

TimeXchange: Simple web-based timesheet management

Keeping track of billable hours is a crucial task for companies and individuals alike. And although there are literally hundreds of time tracking and time card applications, most are designed to be used in a very specific ecosystem. This can get tricky if you are working on a proejct with both employees and contract workers, and your tracking system is only designated to work based with regular employees. If you are a freelancer and you work with clients and collaborate with other developers, time reporting can be even more problematic.
These are the types of hurdles TimeXchange, which officially launched today, hopes to help overcome. TimeXchange, which bills itself as "part web-app, part social network," is designed to reduce data entry redundancy and help people using different backends work and collabrate together more efficiently.
This is how it works: you sign up for a TimeXchange account and create a new project, select your role in the project and then indicate if you are working by yourself or on a team. If working on a team, you can invite other users, indicate what level of control they have (can they approve timesheets, can they see budget and billing information), etc. If you are invited to join a project, you simply respond to an e-mail, and create your own free TimeXchange account so that you can collaborate with the rest of your team.
Here's where TimeXchange is different than a base level time or budget management repository: you can easily export your data into other formats or integrate with other services. You can export your data (either project or individual) as a PDF, CSV or QuickBooks file. In the near future, support for 37Signals Basecamp API and an iGoogle widget will allow you to import existing Basecamp project data and to-do lists.
There are also two iPhone apps iTimeX [iTunes link] (free) and TimeXchange [iTunes link] ($2.99) that let you update and log your time directly to your TimeXchange account from your iPhone or iPod touch.
If you are running a group or single project and are concerned about going over a budget, there is a budget feature that that can display real-time tracking in the dashboard, so you can track how much time you are spending and how much time your team members are spending and spot problems from the offset.
As someone who often works on hourly projects and collaborates with outside partners, I like the idea of TimeXchange. The interlopability with other systems sets it apart from other solutions.
TimeXchange is free for as many users as you want to use -- but if you want an ad-free experience, there is a one-time charge of $9.99.

iPhone 2.2 firmware is out, with Street View and podcasts

iPhone and iPod Touch users can upgrade their software to version 2.2 today. The update, which weighs in at around 250 megs, adds some highly-anticipated features. The two biggest for me are Street View in the Maps app and the ability to download podcasts from the iTunes Store. There are some smaller tweaks that you might appreciate, as well: that bug that sometimes kept messages from downloading in Mail is fixed, and you can click the home button when you're on any page of the home screen to go back to the first page.
Street View on the iPhone is every bit as cool as it sounds. It looks good in landscape and is really smooth to control. I suspect it won't be long before we start seeing photos of people holding up iPhone street view pictures of the place they're standing. Less flashy, but just as useful, walking and transit directions are available in maps now, as well. If you're an iPod Touch user, you're unfortunately out of luck on Street View for now, so far it's iPhone only.
Downloading podcasts was at the top of my wishlist for the iPhone (although I know a lot of you have lists of your own). It's always frustrating to finish an episode of a good podcast while you're out walking or on a train, and then wait until you get home to hear the next one. Not a problem anymore, thanks to the latest iPhone update. All in all, 2.2 offers some excellent new features. The only thing I have to complain about is the new Safari layout, which feels cramped with the address bar and the search bar smooshed in next to one another.

Weightbot: simple weight tracker for iPhone and iTouch

I love apps that make a very specific task as easy as it ought to be. That's why I love Weightbot, an iPhone/iPod Touch weight tracking app developed by Tapbots. I confess that I used to keep track of my weight in a Numbers document. It wasn't too much trouble, but I didn't look forward to it. With Weightbot, it's so easy that it's almost -- dare I say it? -- fun.
I snatched up Weightbot right away when I found out it was on sale for a buck during the holidays, and I was not disappointed. Its basic functions are pretty intuitive: move the slider to a date, click on the weight display, and set your weight. Other handy features: switch from pounds to metric, set a target weight, enter your height to get a BMI calculation, set a privacy code, and back up your data to a web account. The coolest feature by far is graph mode, though. It's a quick way to visually track your progress, and it includes your target weight and a trend line.

The Best iPhone Apps of 2008 [Bestmodo 2008]

Only five months since Apple launched the App Store, and there are now tens of thousands of apps. Don't worry, we did the hard part, trying them out and picking the year's best: We already selected our 20 essential iPhone apps not too long ago—November 14, to be exact. That's recent enough to still be fresh, but to those 20, we're adding 10 more, several of which have debuted between then and now. As a package, they're 30 apps every iPhone owner should take a close look at. They're what we use every day, and many of them are free. The complete selection of our previous 20 essentials plus the 10 new apps can be viewed in our special Bestmodo Phone App directory. If you'd like, you can peruse all of our first 20 here on one page, and also, see the new additions to the list separately here: EasyWriter: It seems simple—you can type URLs in landscape mode with its larger, more luxuriously spaced keyboard. Why not emails? EasyWriter solved it. Free; $2.99 for Pro edition
Facebook: For Facebookers (um, everyone, right?) it's essential—a beautifully designed, uber-functional implementation that's always with you. Free
EverNote: Already a popular web service and found on other devices, Evernote does something that every location-aware cameraphone should be able to do: quickly take and store geotagged photos so you can remember stuff. Free
Google Mobile: Google Mobile was a solid app (but not particularly essential)—and then came voice search. Free
RjDj: A totally unique music application that processes sound from your environment and replays it according to a set program, creating a trippy, always-evolving soundscape. Free to try; $2.99 expanded version
VLC Remote: One of the first apps we loved was the iTunes Remote—now, the Swiss army knife of media players VLC has one of its very own. Free ad-supported simple version; $1.99 for more controls and no ads
Wikipedia Mobile: Finally, the definitive Wikipedia reader for the iPhone. $2.99
Night Camera: Thanks to its accelerometer, your iPhone knows when it's being jiggled. Night Camera, simply and ingeniously, uses this data to make your low-light picture clearer. $0.99
Tweetie: Twitter apps: there are a lot of 'em. Tweetie, though, is the closest you'll get to the Twitter desktop experience, and therefore our best of. $2.99
Recorder: While not the sexiest apps, a good solid voice recorder can be incredibly handy—especially if you are a handsome FBI investigator in the town of Twin Peaks. $0.99