Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Good news for all of you Foursquare addicts, after a couple days of noticed absence, the Foursquare iPhone app is now back on the App Store."

This was regarding version 1.6, which was released into the store and then pulled when it was discovered to have been released too early. So they put it back in after fine tuning it, and now they have updated again, since as of yesterday version 1.7 is now available for free in iTunes.

"The first Google Buzz client is now in the app store, The Next Web's Tim Difford reports. Buzzie, from developer Alberto Hierro, gives you full access to your Buzz account, and also lets users who don't have accounts (or don't want to sign in) see what people are buzzing up in their area."

Called Buzzie, it's available now in the iTunes Store for $2.99 USD. I haven't gotten enough use out of Google Buzz to make having an application worthwhile. Have any of you, or do any of you use Buzz frequently? If so, how do you like it?

"Top app maker CJApps has launched a brand new contest to promote the hit game Finger Maniac 1.1, available on the iPhone and iPod touch devices. In the latest update of the game, players are invited to try the 1Million point challenge. Between the dates of 3/1 and 5/1, players will be able to play this challenging mode and the first to reach 1 million points will win a brand new Apple iPad!"

Basically you get 90 seconds to type out as many 10-letter words, as fast as you can. Once you complete this you get rewarded with points. First person to reach 1 million points is the winner! Contest runs until 5/1 so best get going if you want to be in the running, they are already into day 11 of the contest.

"On Wednesday, March 10, 2010, Certified Public Accountant Stephanie Davies, age 39, was at her place of business, the Financial Services Group, located on SW Miley Road in Wilsonville. Ms. Davies reports she was approached at the front counter of her business shortly after 9 a.m. by a young male subject seeking directions to a local motel. The male asked that these directions be written on a piece of paper, and Davies complied with his request. During this moment of distraction, the male suspect grabbed Stephanie Davies' iPhone from the counter and fled the area in a motor vehicle."

Ah but little did he know she had purchased a tracking program for her iPhone. Once the deputy arrived to talk to her, he logged into the victim account and then used his own iPhone to track it down. The funny thing is, this happened at our agency, so I was the dispatcher for the event. Another successful recovery, and according to the deputy, the thief was quite surprised. I don't know which program she used (initially I thought it was MobileMe) but as soon as I find out, I'll let you know.

UPDATE: Turns out she was using the AT&T Family Locator service, $9.99 USD per month for up to two phones, or $14.99 USD per month for up to five phones. You can find more about the service here.

"How about a nice thick wooden case for that upcoming iPad? While it does double the width of the iPad and make it significantly more unwieldy, it does look nice. This is certainly a "case" of form over function. Har."

I can see using this, if I wanted to use my iPad for a picture frame, cycling through my iPhoto library. Other than that, not so much. They are going to sell for $79.95 USD and are from a company called Vers, which also sells iPhone cases made from wood.

"CBS Interactive today released the 2010 March Madness application ($9.99 app store). Big difference over last year? 3G streaming of games! It is just a shame that the iPad won't be out until April."

You can get the paid app here, for $9.99 USD, but the free "lite" version has highlights and pretty much everything the paid version does except for the live streaming video of the games. I agree it's too bad the iPad won't be available for it, but at least you will be able to use the iPad with MLB At Bat 2010!

"Not content with answering tech questions from Americans, Steve Jobs this week answered a question from all the way over in Sweden."

So Jezper asks via email if he will be able to tether his iPhone and his iPad, to which Steve replies via email from his iphone... No. 

"To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its Schlage LiNKTM home-management system, Schlage today announced it is offering a $50 rebate for Starter Kits purchased through April 30. Lowe's and RadioShack will offer an instant rebate at the cash register while all other rebates will be mail-in."

If you aren't in any hurry, you can also enter the Schlage giveaway over at iLounge. Details about the rebate though, are here, and you can pick the starter kits up at a number of stores, brick and mortar as well as at Amazon.com, where they offer the Schlage LiNK Wireless Keypad Deadbolt Starter Kit System, Satin Nickel as one of the applicable products.

"Media Memo reports that popular ringtone site Thumbplay has launched a new subscription music service, offering consumers unlimited streaming for $10/month with the option to purchase songs from a catalog of 8 million tracks at the same $0.69-$1.29 price points found on Apple's iTunes Store."

Not only that, but they have also snagged a MobileMe Executive from Apple, Pablo Calamera, and hired him as their Chief Technology Officer. Thumbplay is also planning on offering iPhone and Android apps later this year, so we'll see how that goes. 

"Anyone familiar with Mission: Impossible has heard the famous lines, "this message will self destruct in 5 seconds." Now there's an app equivalent with TigerText."

While the app itself is free, there are costs involved, at least for sending since receiving messages is always free. After your first free 100 messages that you have 15 days to use, it costs $1.49 USD per month for 250 messages or $2.49 USD per month for unlimited. Someone like Tiger Woods (coincidence in the naming of this app per the developers..yea right) definitely could have used this and probably would have opted for the unlimited plan.

"FreshDirect, a leading online grocer in New York City, has released a new application to allow FreshDirect users to place grocery orders directly from their iPhone or iPod touch. Developed by digital firm Schematic, the application is designed to deliver the same functionality as the FreshDirect web site, allowing users to create, submit, and update orders and schedule and update delivery times right from their device."

I wish more stores would do this, as it is no one really does it like this around my area. You can also search the store for items, select from previous orders or your favorite list, and even see product recommendations based on your past orders. If you have an in-progress order, you can save it and resume later. This app, free in iTunes, is also integrated with the FreshDirect web service so if you start an order on your iPhone, you can finish it up on the web. Or the other way around if you prefer. Anyone out there using this store? If so, how does it work?

"Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi issued a 13-page report last week in which he estimated that the iPhone's gross profit margins were an astounding 57.8%. Those margins tower above Apple's competitors with RIM estimated to have 43% profit margins, Nokia 33%, Motorola 32%, and HTC 31.7%."

And while it may decline in the future per The Street, Saconaghi thinks it will increase since prices have increased since Q3 2009 to Q1 2010, from $588.00 USD to $638.00 USD, and demand doesn't seem to be subsiding. He also sets a target stock price of $250.00 USD. Well, let's see what June brings.

"The Washington Post, which has stated it doesn't plan to build a New York Times-like paywall, is opening up another source of revenue: A paid iPhone app."

The app sells for $1.99 USD and is in the iTunes Store now. For the price you get a year of "customized access and offline reading." With the slump in newspaper sales, I would imagine more are going to come up with something like this to generate revenue.

"Comcast's app acts as a hub for the company's video, voice, and data services. Now the just released version 2.0 of the app adds new DVR control functions for select markets. Previously Comcast customers could use the iPhone OS app to manage their Comcast voice mail, sync address book, access email, view TV listings, and watch trailers for on-demand programming."

Unfortunately for my friends that have Comcast, it doesn't work yet in Oregon. The only states they are using it in are PA, DE, VA, MD, MA, AR, TN, AZ, and UT but they say additional markets will be brought out soon. The app is free for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and require compatible Comcast services.

"Alright, lets pat the pockets and run through the mental checklist one last time before security: Passport? Check, front pocket. Headphones? Definitely in your backpack. Boarding pass? Uh oh. Where'd that boarding pass go?"

This story seems so appropriate considering the previous one about Virgin America. Trinity Mobile is one of the leaders in the mobile ticketing area, and they announced in the last couple days a 1200% increase in usage of their mobile boarding pass from 2008 to 2009. In 2008 there were 50,000 users and in 2009 Trinity Mobile hit the 600,000 mark. In 2010 Jupiter Research says that over 2 billion mobile boarding passes will be issued. I can see why, how handy would this be?

"As the battle between HTML5 and Adobe Flash continues to heat up, Virgin America has chosen a side: its brand new web site design ditches Flash in favor of HTML."

I read in a story not long ago that the iPhone might be a driving force in this, and now it appears that is coming to pass. Virgin wants to make their site as compatible as possible with the mobile user, specifically the iPhone, so customers can access their site as well as do mobile check-ins. How many other companies are going to make this switch? What are your thoughts?

"If you've been watching TV over the last few days (and who hasn't, with that USA / Canada hockey game and the tsunami coverage), you may have seen the latest in the series of iPhone ads."

So mom obviously is happy since she says "It's unbelievable how much better family trips have gotten..." She uses her Southwest Airlines App, then slides over to her Gate Guru app and to top it off she checks out her lights at home with the Schlage app. Speaking of Schlage, their LiNK system does a lot more than turning on and off lights. You can also lock and unlock doors, live-stream footage and control your thermostat to name just a few. I'm in the process of remodeling our kitchen and living room, and I'm tempted to buy one of the locks to give it a try. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm not exactly what you would call a "handyman" when it comes to home repair but I think Schlage makes it pretty simple. 

"iLuv today made available the latest generation of its iPhone- and iPod-ready clock radios. Unlike nearly any other alarm clock, the iMM178 has a "bed shaker" pod that vibrates to wake those who either don't respond to sound or need to keep the alarm quiet. The shaker also provides a less risky alternative to headphones in bed as it has a speaker for its own listening environment."

This supports 2004 or later dockable iPods and iPhones, and it will use the time from your device in case you lose power so that is a nice feature. It's available today according to the news, however at Amazon they show it as not released yet [affiliate link]. It sells for $99.99 USD, and you can have it in any color as long as it is black. If you want one that works with regular iPods (doesn't appear it works with iPhone or iPod Touch) you can still get the previous version at Amazon [affiliate link] for $41.02 USD.

"Would you enjoy Netflix on your iPhone? Netflix would really like to know. Not that they are considering putting their app on the iPhone, or more importantly, on the iPad. But hypothetically, if they did...would you be interested?"

The last time a survey came out they were in preparations for PS3 and Wii versions so hopefully this means that Netflix will offer something for use on the iPad at least, if not the iPhone. In case you are wondering, the text of the survey was this:

"Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes.

There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?"

I would likely watch, what are your thoughts?

"With spring training beginning this week, Major League Baseball has rolled out today the 2010 version of the popular iPhone app, At Bat 2010."

Last year At Bat 2009 was a great app, but it was priced at $9.99 USD if I remember correctly. MLB At Bat 2010 is available now in iTunes for $14.99 USD. This is causing me to really debate the need for it, even though I did get a lot out of last years version. I don't see a lot of upgrades for $5.00 USD premium over the previous version. Now if this works on the iPad, which I'm assuming it will, then I may have to change my way of thinking. Anyone out there going to spring for this version?