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Filed under: Apple, Freeware, iPhone

PandoraBox provides alternate App Store view on iPhone

PandoraBoxPandoraBox [iTunes link] is like a free alternative iTunes App Store for iPhone apps. Probably its most remarkable feature is that it helps you find iPhone apps that are on sale, something that the iPhone's App Store oddly neglects to do.

It can tell you about apps that are temporarily free, or ones that have been discounted. It also contains tabs for Featured apps, New Apps, Favorites, and a More tab which takes you to a page that has Search and Settings tabs.

Favorites is useful if you want to keep an eye on an app and nab it if and when it goes on sale. For example, I'm not much of a football fan, but I'll watch Madden 2010 and if it drops to 1/2 price, I'll probably pick it up.

If you're an Android user, similar functionality can be found in an app called AndroidStats, which gives you "yesterday's price changes", and "biggest weekly movers" lists.

[via iPhone Atlas]

Filed under: Audio, iPhone

Jay's Favorite iPhone Apps: Shush

ShushI don't know how I ever lived without Shush. It's an algorithmic white noise generator you can keep in your pocket, and it shows how versatile the iPhone is. I first gave it a shot because it was written by one of my favorite developers, Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software, but I quickly found I needed white noise everywhere.

My neighbors were throwing a noisy party that kept me awake. I hit "start shushing," adjusted the volume slider, and drifted off. On an airplane, a baby started crying loudly. I hit "start shushing" and made him disappear. Not only is this useful, it gives you a satisfying sense of control over your own life.

With one button, you can sleep better and make all kinds of annoyances vanish, and nobody ever has to know your secret. As an added bonus, this is the smallest -- in terms of disk space -- white noise app out there. Because it uses an algorithm instead of a recording, it weighs in at around 100kb. That's worth way more than this app's 99 cent pricetag, and that's why Shush is one of my favorite iPhone apps.

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Games, iPhone

Bloom: Brian Eno's ambient music app for iPhone


Brian Eno is one of my favorite composers, so I was thrilled to hear that he was releasing a new composition tool for the iPhone. It's called Bloom, and it lets you generate, play and visualize ambient music. It's hard to explain how this works, but you basically tap the screen in different places to generate sounds. The sounds you play repeat periodically to form a composition. Because the notes are all on different cycles, the sound evolves as you let it play.

If it gets boring, you can shake the screen to clear what you have, or tap anywhere to add more sounds. If you don't feel like making anything up, there's also a "listen" mode, and once you have something you like, you can freeze it to keep new notes from being introduced. Each sound pops up as a dot on the screen, and Bloom can be mesmerizing to watch as a visualizer. I hooked my iPod up to a dock and some speakers, and let it run as a little art installation on my desk. That's pretty good for 4 bucks!

Filed under: News, Apple, iPhone

Steve Jobs confirms iPhone app "kill switch"

There's been some debate about whether Apple's ability to remotely disable apps on users' iPhones is for real. At Download Squad, we've had readers both affirming and denying the "kill switch" rumors. For a while, it seemed like an app blacklist had been found, but it turned out that it was just a list of apps that aren't allowed to access Core Location. Steve Jobs finally ended the debate today in The Wall Street journal, where he admits that the kill switch is real.

In the WSJ piece, Jobs "argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program -- one that stole users' personal data, for example -- to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store. 'Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,' he says." This shouldn't be a big deal, since Apple already has some control over what becomes available through the App Store. If something nasty does sneak by them, though, at least there's a countermeasure available.

[via Daring Fireball]

Filed under: Fun, iPhone

Another iPhone app pulled: this time it's PhoneSaber

Earlier this week, I told you how the $1000 do-nothing application called I Am Rich had been pulled from the iTunes app store. While I doubt many people miss that particular bit of software, the latest app to be removed from the store was actually kind of fun: it's PhoneSaber, a lightsaber simulator for your iPhone. It uses the accelerometer in your device to respond as you swing your phone, making noises straight out of Star Wars. It was also free.

According to TheMacBox, the creators of the app, "I've had a chat with a guy from THQ Wireless (who own the rights for Star Wars apps on mobiles) and as we were always expecting, PhoneSaber is not allowed to be on there." Apparently THQ discussed the idea of an official, licensed PhoneSaber app, which could be tied to Star Wars advertising. TheMacBox is being given access to the original saber sounds to develop the new app, and they're pushing for it to remain free. If you have PhoneSaber already, you're probably safe: since the creators removed the app voluntarily, Apple probably won't remotely delete it from your device.

[via Macenstein]

Filed under: Fun, News, iPhone

Useless $1000 iPhone app disappears - did Apple remove it?

It looks like Apple has removed one of the most talked-about iPhone apps in its app store. The app doesn't do chat, it doesn't connect you to any web services, and it doesn't even let you enter any text. It's called I Am Rich, and it does absolutely nothing. The price tag? A reasonable $999.99. Apparently having its red gem icon on your iPhone's home screen is supposed to bring you a grand worth of prestige.

When this app was first discovered, there was an immediate flurry of folks wondering how it got past Apple's screening process. Although I can't find any comment from Apple, and the app's creator hasn't updated his website, the app store link to I Am Rich no longer works. I wonder whether the author made any sales before it was removed. At around $100 to develop, a single sale would leave him with 10 times what he put in.

Filed under: Productivity, Web services, iPhone

iPhone App Review: Send gifts on the go with Gifter

We love to see iPhone apps that are designed with phone users in mind. Ports of desktop apps -- chat clients, games, etc. -- are all well and good, but the mobile-specific stuff really shines. Take Gifter, for example. It's an app that lets you buy and send gifts from your iPhone.

Can someone please write Gifter into a romantic comedy? We could totally see Tom Hanks frantically ordering flowers from his iPhone on the train. You can send more than flowers, though: Gifter is hooked up with vendors for books, movies, jewelry and even teddy bears. Now when you see those birthdays in your iPhone's address book, you can do something about them. It might not be the app with the most geek cred -- hey, they didn't drop any vowels from the name! -- but it works.

Filed under: Social Software, AOL, iPhone

iPhone App Review: iPhone port of AIM is close, but not quite there

One of the most striking things about the first crop of iPhone apps is the divide between those that work with the phone's user interface, and those that either don't take advantage of the phone or ignore the design specs altogether. The AOL Instant Messenger app for iPhone scores points in some UI areas, but could be more intuitive and feel more like an iPhone app in others.

We've got no complaints about the look of AIM, but there are some places where it doesn't feel right. For example, we were really hoping for a horizontal mode in this app, to take advantage of the wider keyboard. Groups are supported, but you can only view them one at a time, which makes them much less useful than on desktop versions of AIM. While a mobile AIM app like this is a dream we've had since high school, we favor the more intuitive Meebo mobile web app. It supports mutliple chat clients, too ... can we get an app store version of that?

Oh, and here's a tip, because we've seen a lot of people confused by this: to change your screenname, you have to go to your iPhone Settings. It's not in the AIM app itself.

Filed under: Social Software, iPhone

iPhone App Review: Twitterrific is even better than the desktop version

Sometimes Download Squad has to agree to disagree about a new app, and this is one of those times. Although some on the team have knocked the iPhone version of Twitterrific, I actually like it better than its big brother on the desktop. What can the iPhone version do that the desktop version can't? Well, for one, it can pop Twitter open within the app - sometimes you want to scope someone's page (to see what a friend was replying to, for example). I haven't seen another iPhone app that uses the same trick to browse web pages without quitting and switching to Safari.

Just like the browser trick, the rest of the UI is elegant. Tweets look great and are easy to read - the premium version lets you switch to a lighter theme that also looks good, if that's up your alley. @reply links are clickable, and short profiles are viewable without opening a webpage at all. I'll grant that there seem to be some issues with icon caching - when a tweet goes off-screen, the icon has to be reloaded when you scroll back to it -- but I'm not sure if that's an iPhone issue or a Twitterrific one. Throw in the ability to update your location with the iPhone's built in location services, and this is an app that uses the platform to its fullest.

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Utilities, Apple, Freeware, iPhone

iPhone App Review: Apple's Remote works, and it's free

If you've been looking for a reliable way to make your iPod or iPhone work as a remote for iTunes, look no further than Apple's Remote application. Just when you thought there was no way to tie the iPod and iTunes closer together, Apple's found another way for them to intereract. And It's free!

Just pop open remote, click to add a new library, and then enter the resulting 4 digit code in iTunes to give your iPhone access to your library. Now you've got an interface that looks just like the one you use to play music on your iPod. This'll work with any iTunes equipped computer on your network, and once you've set them up, you can switch between them easily. We even set up a little ad-hoc network with just a Mac and an iPod Touch, and Remote's performance was excellent. Did we mention it's free?

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