Finally. Although it took an unexpected great length of time, Skype is here. And it is available for both the iPhone and iPod Touch. The interface is crisp and simple. It allows for calls and chat.

But there is a small catch.

Although Skype to Skype is still free, there is one tiny issue: Calls on Skype for iPhone work only if your in range of a Wi-Fi Network. So your call quality will depend on the wireless networks nearby. Calls will not work over the cell phone network on the iPhone, while chatting will.

Of course, iPod Touch users will need a mic and speaker if they don’t already have one.

rooster

If at all, this new iPod would launch this coming fall.

Happy New Year,

rooster

Music:

VLC Remote Free – a very useful app for those that have VLC player and would like a remote.  Its a bit tricky to set up but well worth the effort.

Last.fm – just a good way to get some music if you have the Internet.  Based off of the useful site.

Pandora Radio – works like Last.fm and just another source for some music that you may not own.  The only problem with this and the above app is its inability to run in the background, so once you exit out so does the music.

Tools:

a2Z Unit Converter Pro – a handy unit converter that goes as far as currency and blood volume

AP Mobile News Network – A news App that gets you some great and mostly depressing news. 

Emerald Time – not that useful, just interesting. Gives you the exact time derived from some complicated sources.

ePokerHelper Lite – a Texas hold’em app that helps you with decisions.  Meant for those games were you have a whole bunch of fast players that don’t give you the time (for me, the very long time) that it takes you to do pot odds in you head. This version does not actually give you the pot odds equated with your bet, which makes it not as useful, but rather gives you a percentage based on your hand. Not really for advanced players.

Free Translator – Gives you the translation in the other language. So if you typed in “Hello” for Mandarin it would give you the actual Chinese character and not just the Arabic version , “Ni Hao”.

iTranslate – Picks up where Free Translator left off and gives you the Arabic lettering system.

Google Mobile App – Initially very cool because it houses all the Google Open Source apps. But not as impressive because it just links you to the website.

i. TV – one of the best ones out there. Tells you theatre listings, tv channels, and allows you to watch some trailers

Flixster – I use this with i.TV.  It shows you what movies are in Theatres, the Box Office, Upcoming, coming out on DVD. Has nicer visuals than i.TV.

MagicPad – The best To Do pad that I have found. I have tried a number of others and they just seem to compicated and busy. I like this one for its copy and paste ability and simplicity.

Wikipanion –  a nice Wikipedia app that gives you a nicer and easier to use user interface than safari.

Discover – One of the coolest apps ever. Lets you transfer stuff onto your ipod via the web.  A must have.

Email2SMS – A texting service that seems cool enough but the texts arrive way after they were sent. I’m keeping it hoping for an upgrade.

Shazam – An app that uses the nonexistent microphone on your iPod Touch to identify music playing in the background at a party or something. Really cool app, but as of now vestigial. I’m hoping  on getting a sleek microphone to use with this and the next app.

fring – a VoIP app that hooks up to a number of VoIP services for free.

Night Stand – a fancy digital clock when your iPod is on your dock.

RemotePad – allows the user to use the iPod Touch as a mouse for your mac or PC.  A bit tricky to setup but well worth it.

TWC – The Weather Channel – a bit more detailed than the one that comes with the iPod.

WiFinder – A app that finds surrounding WiFi that your iPod doesn’t and sees if it is password protected or not. Haven’t used it too much but I think it will come in handy sometime. 

KTdict C-E – A Chinese dictionary. The best one I have found. Gives you the character, Pinyin, and translation.

WorldWiki – An app that gives you some useful facts about each country in the world.

Eureka – A Look up engine for words and their meanings. 

Trivopaedia – A very cool app that houses tons of facts about anything. From “Apollo missions” to “Best and worst films ever” to “Flower meanings” to “Morse Code” and “Brightest stars”.

Backgrounds – You probably already have this one, its just a useful Background downloader that uses the Internet to house hundreds of them.

Visual stuff:

Dice – a cool but not very useful app that has good visuals of well . . . dice.

Zippo Lighter  - a cool concert app.

Cradle – employs both touch and the accelerometer to move newton’s cradle. Fun to play around with.

Games 1:

iChess – I’m not very good at chess and the computer seems to be quit intelligent. It allows you to play against an opponent or computer which is nice. 

“Worder” and “Word Wrap” – two apps that are a play off of the online game “Text Twist”.

Sudoku 101 – a nice free app that allows you to play in Chinese Characters and Roman numbers. This free app only allows you to play up to difficulty level “moderate”. This doesn’t seem high but was still challenging.

Sudoku  - a visually appealing free Sudoku app that has higher difficulty levels than the above.

Tetsuki – a game I’d like to learn, looks fun.

Games 2:

Enigmo – a cool puzzle app that has very good visuals and doesn’t get old.

TapDefense – a cool line wars app. Very addicting.

Topple – fun and free for now, so get it fast. Was actually kind of difficult.

Lux Touch – a simplified game of Risk. Very fun.

The above are merely apps that I have found useful or fun, you may not.  But if you have any other, maybe less known apps that you would like to share with the community just comment on them. 

rooster

Well hopefully this is about to change.  PasteBud, a web-based service will soon hit the market. Although the website is not up yet, the developers have promised it will bypass the App Store altogether.  It will function through bookmarks and allow users to browse between pages and highlight text, hit a copy button, access another page, and paste the text.

The release date is approaching and we now know this important service will be available soon.

2.2

As previously announced, Apple has released the new iPod Touch and iPhone Update 2.2.  And there’s a lot to like about what they have done.  They’ve tweaked and added some great new features. 

• Podacast downloading over WiFi AND Phone Internet service. However, we’re not happy that you can’t subscribe or download huge podcasts; there is a cap on the size ( a 10MB cap).

• On Safari, while scrolling through a long page, tap the bar at the top of your screen containing the time and battery and Safari will automatically scroll up to the top of the page.

• Double clicking the home button in any application, or with the screen off will bring up the music controls.

• To completely exit an application to save battery power. Press and holding the home button for approximately 5-8 seconds. This will help boost battery life if you run lots of different apps regularly.

• Holding down letters on the keyboard for an extra second will pop up some extra symbols associated with those letters. After it pops up, slide your finger over to the symbol you like and let go.

• When you are in the Mail app’s inbox view, slide your finger from left to right on a message and a ‘delete’ button will appear.

• When typing a lot of text in Safari turn it to horizontal view. The keyboard will be larger have a larger gap between each letter allowing for fewer errors while typing.

• When viewing a website in Safari, if you want to check the url of a link before clicking it, hold your finger on the link and a bubble will appear showing the URL that the link is tied to.

• A quick way to open a link in a new window in Safari is to open a new page, tap the bookmarks icon, tap the history folder and then just click on the last page you were on.

• If you do make a type while typing just hold down and a bubble will appear allowing you to find the exact spot where you made the mistake.

• Double tapping the spacebar will insert a period.

• If you have trouble typing on the small keyboard and really want to use the bigger one just go to www.meebo.com.

• In Google Maps, double tapping zooms in and single tapping with two fingers zooms out.

• when watching a movie  press pause and press foward and hold it down and this will make your video go slow motion to fast foward.  Just don’t press pause before you do it.

Guide your Caveman (or Women) thru multiple courses found in the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages that wind to and fro, past hazards (lava pits, tornados and such), while you pick up power ups (like bones you can throw as weapons, extra traction for your tires, and oil slicks) you can use against the your opponents.

You Can either:

a. Race – in which you must beat your opponents to the finish line

-or-

b. Gather – in wich you must pick up more items than your opponents.

-or-

c. Multi-player

• 9 different tracks
• 9 different power-ups
• 11 different vehicles

The iPod Touch 2G

The new Touch is finally here . . . and what a pod it is.  Only 8.5mm thin, with a great new contour design to fit perfectly and comfortably in the palm of your hand.

New Speakers: Just like the iPhone it now houses a external speaker so you can hear your music even without headphones.

Its Genius: 

The iPod Classic, iPod Nano, and iPod Touch all have a built in personal DJ.  Genius is a smart playlist maker on the iPod that picks songs based on other songs and places them nicely in a playlist for you (Before, only iTunes could do this).                                                                      

Example:

1. Your playing a song and like it so much you want to hear others just like it. 2. While playing the song, you tap the Genius symbol near the top of your iPod Touch.3. A new playlist appears in your playlist with that song as its title and songs like it as its contents.

Of Course, it has a great 3.5 In display with superb 3D positional sound, a built in Application store, built in Wi Fi, accelerometer, and kind of a GPS.  The GPS tells you your “approximate location, gives you directions, and traffic in that area.

The iPod Touch 2G also includes a Nike Plus iPod Sports built in reciever (You still have to buy the one for your shoe though) – Your own personal trainer for your work outs.

A new Battery & Size:

• Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged
• Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged

Prices for the iPod Touch 2G:

8 Gb : $229.00                                           16GB : $299.00                                32GB: 

1,750 songs                                               3,500 songs                                    7,000 songs

10 hours of video                                       20 hours of video                           40 hours of video

- Watch the Guided Tour Here:

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/guidedtour/