Category: I-phone

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Be Put. Here’s the developer’s description of the app: “Send driving directions of your exact location to whomever you want. Whether you want to invite your friends to a secret party or tell your client where to meet, Be Put works. Recipients receive a secure and unique “FindMe” key that is required for getting directions. Best of all, if the recipients don’t have the app, they can still get directions via beput.com.”

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Be Put Screenshots

About the App

Here are the top five features you can expect to see in the latest version:

• Send your location with ease and security to your friends and family.
• Easy to follow, accurate driving directions.
• Recipients can get directions regardless of having the app or an iOS device.
• “FindMe” Keys are unique and expire every 5 hours for your safety.
• Retina Display friendly with an easy to use interface.

Requirements: iOS4

Price: 0.99

Developer: Grip’d

Vote for a Review

Would you like to see us write a full review of Be Put? Have your say in our poll:

Would you like to see Be Put reviewed in-depth on AppStorm?customer surveys

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the poll if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review! If you’re a developer and would like to have your app profiled, you can submit it here.

Over the past couple of years, AppStorm has grown from one small blog to a network of three sites (with some exciting new projects in the pipeline!). Today we’re asking for three minutes of your time to help us make AppStorm better than ever.

We’d absolutely love to hear your opinion, and will be awarding one random entrant a $100 gift voucher for either Amazon or iTunes – your call!

Take the 3-Minute Survey!

Competition Rules

• People who submit more than once will be disqualified.
• The winner will be picked randomly and contacted by email.
• Entries must be in before Midnight GMT on the 18th October

Since the beginning of iOS time, there have been a number of Twitter applications ranging from the most simple to the utterly complex. If you can do it with Twitter, then there’s probably an app that can do it too.

Then, with the release of the iPad, there came a new wave of Twitter accessing apps to fill up the larger screen with even more tweet-bling! So, if you are unsure of the Twitter clients available for iOS, are unsatisfied with your current client, or are even curious to glance at some alternatives, read on. I’ve listed 25 iOS apps that range from feature-packed to action-specific just for you!

iPhone Apps

Twinkle

“Twinkle is the first and most famous social networking application for the iPhone and iPod touch. Hundreds of thousands of people have sent more than 30m messages on the application since it’s launch. Friends have been reunited, new friendships have been formed and there have even been relationships started over Twinkle.”

Price: FREE

Twinkle

NatsuLion

“NatsuLion for iPhone” (a.k.a. “NatsuLiphone”) is a simple Twitter client for iPhone/iPod touch. It has simple, fast, and slick user-interface to enjoy Twitter. It’s based on NatsuLion for Mac OSX and it’s open source application, too.”

Price: FREE

NatsuLion

iTweets

“Anyone who loves simple iPhone SMS app for Twitter but wants to have twitter specific features like favorite or tweets deletion, here is the answer.

iTweets is a twitter application for iPhone and iPod touch primarily focusing on the simplicity yet supporting Twitter specific features.”

Price: $0.99

iTweets

Tweeterville

“Tweeterville is a cool Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod Touch with many options within the app to personalise it to your needs!

With Tweeterville you get to choose from many options of image services, use the inbuilt URL shortener, write long notes and send them via a URL, find nearby tweets via GPS location data, and much more!”

Price: $1.99

Tweeterville

iPad

Heltweetica

“Read, fave, retweet, @-reply, and direct message tweets. Retweet in both the old style and the new style. Use multiple Twitter accounts. Open links in the web browser, email links, or read them later with Instapaper.”

Price: FREE

Heltweetica

Tweet Flow

“Tweet Flow is one of the first Twitter clients specifically developed for the iPad. This application provides all the features you need to use Twitter on your iPad, with a very beautiful design. The background will also change depending on the local time (day or night)!”

Price: FREE

Tweet Flow

iPhone and iPad

Twitter

“Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world with the official Twitter for iPhone app.”

Price: FREE (One Universal app)

Twitter

Twitterrific

“Now a universal app for both iPad & iPhone, Twitterrific is the friendly, award-winning Twitter client that’s beautiful to look at easy to use and full of elegant features. Effortlessly read and compose tweets, search Twitter.com, filter message types and much more.”

Price: FREE (One Universal app)

Twitterrific

TweetDeck

“TweetDeck is the best way to stay in touch with what’s happening now on Twitter for your iPad. TweetDeck’s iPad optimized interface shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date wherever you are.”

Price: FREE

TweetDeck

Tweet

“Tweet – iPad Edition is a very fast and very stable twitter client for the iPhone, iPod and iPad. It offers simplicity for the novice twitter user and very powerful features for the expert.”

Price: FREE (One Universal app)

Tweet

Tweetings

“A simple and easy to use Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod Touch with an extensive feature list including lists, push and GeoLocation!

Follow your friends tweets, share your photos & videos, view conversations, who’s nearby and find out what’s trending at the moment or see who’s around you with Augmented Reality.”

iPhone Price: $2.99 (FREE version available)
iPad Price: $3.99

Tweetings

Osfoora

“Osfoora for Twitter is a fast and clean twitter client that gives you easy access to all of twitter’s functionalities. Osfoora features an elegant and clean Home screen that lets you access most functionalities in a single touch. With an elegant user interface, multiple account support, optional full landscape mode (customizable), and more, using twitter becomes a joy!”

iPhone Price: $2.99
iPad Price: $3.99

Osfoora

Echofon

“It is easy to do common Twitter tasks such as viewing your timeline, messages, replies, lists and favorites. Echofon has a powerful tweet-authoring where you can write tweets, take photos/videos and update your current location.”

(Free version available)
Price: $4.99 (One Universal app)

Echofon

TwitRocker

“TwitRocker is a twitter client application for iPad and iPhone.
The simple, powerful, and flexible user interface makes it very easy for you to operate for a lot of twitter tasks.”

(Free version available)
Price: $4.99 (One Universal app)

TwitRocker

Twittelator Pro

“Twittelator Pro is the ultimate Twitter client with every feature you need. The elegant design will make your social networking life run smoothly. Feel the pulse of the Twittersphere!”

(FREE version available)
Price: $4.99

Twittelator Pro

TwitBird

“TwitBird is a fast, flexible and full-featured Twitter client for iPhone and iPod Touch, and iPad in Pro version. It’s got a lot of the cool features that you’ve seen separately in other Twitter clients but rarely together. From timeline to map search and four beautiful themes, Twitbird offers the advanced Twitter functionality beyond our users expect. And with its logical and intuitive interface, our users love being able to use all of Twitbird’s capabilities.”

(Free Version Available)
iPhone Only Price (TwitBird Premium): $1.99
Price: $4.99 (One Universal app)

TwitBird

Tweeterena 2

“Tweeterena 2 for iPad is a brand new fully featured Twitter client designed specifically for the iPad’s large beautiful display.”

Price: $9.99

Tweeterena 2

Tools for Twitter

Retweet

“Retweet is a simple, easy-to-use Twitter tool for the iPhone and iPod Touch that displays the most popular retweets on Twitter.”

Price: FREE

Retweet

Tweet Mapper

“Use your iPad as a window into the live world of Twitter. With Tweet Mapper, you can watch live as tweets are broadcast from 10 cities around the world.”

Price: FREE

Tweet Mapper

Twixtr

“Twitxr is the best way to share your photos with your friends using your iPhone or iPod Touch. With Twitxr you can take a photo and instantly upload it and share it with your friends on Twitxr, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.”

Price: FREE

Twixtr

tweetTV

“tweetTV is a Twitter tweet reader that looks like TV. Quickly set up channels (searches, lists, or standard twitter streams) and enjoy the world of Twitter through the lens you design.”

Price: $0.99

tweetTV

Twit-Notify

“Twit-Notify is a fast and easy to use Twitter notifier – now you can easily see if there is anything urgent waiting for you on your Timeline, or in the Direct Messages inbox, or among @Replies.

You can now define groups of people you follow and be notified about their tweets separately from your Timeline. You can define as many groups as you wish – and the Twit-Notify will track each group separately.”

Price: $0.99

Twit-Notify

TwitterSlang

“Ever used Twitter and never got hold of the words, phrases and shorted words? Use TwitterSlang as your very own Twitter dictionary!”

Price: $0.99

TwitterSlang

iTweetReply

“iTweetReply is a simple, easy to use push notification solution for Twitter replies, direct messages, users timelines and Twitter search.”

Price: $1.99

iTweetReply

Birdbrain Twitter Statistics

“Birdbrain monitors your Twitter account for changes to your friends and followers. Now also tracks mentions and retweets!

When you start Birdbrain it takes a snapshot of your Twitter account and shows you the changes since it last updated. While Birdbrain is running it will automatically update every 20 minutes.”

Price: $2.99

Birdbrain Twitter Statistics

What’s Your Favorite Way to Tweet?

Now that you’ve seen our selection of Twitter iOS apps, leave a comment below and let us know your favorites.

Be sure to include any cool Twitter tools you’ve come across in addition to the standard apps!

I’m incredibly excited to let you know that the first ever AppStorm book (in conjunction with Rockable Press) is now available to buy for just $19. iPhone Entrepreneur brings together insight and ideas from experienced iPhone developers and users to help you understand how to approach the development of your own app.

Whether you’re an experienced developer or just starting to think about creating an iPhone app, this book will help you make your next release a real success. Read on to find out more, read a few testimonials, and grab a discount!

What to Expect

In iPhone App Entrepreneur, AppStorm manager David Appleyard sheds light on what it takes to get you to iPhone app success!

Drawing from the insights and experiences of 16 top-notch app developers, and survey responses from over 1000 iPhone users, David Appleyard equips you with everything you need to successfully become an iPhone app entrepreneur!

Book Contents

Here’s what you can expect from the book.

• Learn how to perfect a killer idea, brainstorm, and spot opportunities
• Find out about how the App Store works, and how to get your app approved
• Different development options and choices
• The importance of simple, sexy interface design
• How you can start simple and iterate
• Learn about how to price your app for the right audience
• Discover new promotion opportunities for your app
• Hundredsof useful development resources and links
• A survey of 80+ iPhone developers – see how they achieved success!
• A survey of over 1,000 iPhone users – find out what they look for when buying and using iPhone apps

If you’re undecided, you can download the sample pages of the book to get a feel for the layout and style!

Buy Now!

If you’ve heard enough and would like to pick up your own copy, you can buy iPhone Entrepreneur either as a PDF eBook, or in paperback form:

Grab a $4 Discount! (7 Days Only!)

If you’re an Envato Marketplace user, the book is available to buy with your marketplace credit. For the first week only, you’ll receive a $4 discount by purchasing it through the Tuts+ Marketplace!

Find Out More

If you’d like to read more about iPhone Entrepreneur (and check out a few extra quotes/testimonials), we’ve put together a launch page that should tell you everything you need to know:

Still not satisfied? Just drop me an email to ask me a question about the book – I’ll be happy to help!

Thanks for reading AppStorm and, if you do choose to pick up a copy of iPhone App Entrepreneur, I really hope you enjoy it!

The iPod touch is like that really hot cheerleader you already wanted to talk with, but were a little too afraid to approach. It shines on its own by simply existing. It’s the iPhone without the phone, a competent gaming platform, has the capacity its iPhone sibling dreams of, and it’s extremely popular.

But, now the iPod touch has come into its own. During September’s media event, Steve Jobs revealed that the touch is Apple’s top-selling iPod. But, as Fortune magazine points out, the company has never shared the number of iPod touch units sold with investors.

Will this change with Monday’s quarterly earnings? It’s hard to say, but Fortune polled a number of analysts who gave it their best guesstimate of the number of iPods units (classic, shuffle and nano included) sold. The numbers range from a little over 8 million to slightly above 11 million for the third quarter of 2010. Other bloggers estimate that roughly 38 percent of iPods sold are iPod touches. The iPod touch hasn’t ever had the glitz or glamor of its older iPhone and iPad brothers, but it’s a solid player in Apple’s lineup for sure.

It’s the iPod touch’s time to shine originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iControlPad project seems to have fizzled out, so another group is trying to bring the dream of a hardware iPhone button-based controller to life. Controller or Bust is a new project trying to move through the long list of steps required to get a hardware controller into production. The blog is the work of Benjamin Morisse, who is looking for all kinds of help from the community to get an actual controller off the ground. “This is ridiculous,” he writes. “The iPhone was introduced over three years ago and there still isn’t a game controller peripheral available to the masses. I’ve seen several prototypes that have kicked around the internet for some time now, but nobody has stepped up to the plate and actually delivered.” All true, and Morisse hopes to change that himself.

One big issue is getting approved by Apple — in order to run a peripheral that actually connects to the iPhone hardware, the project will have to be approved in the “Made for iPhone/iPad” program, and that’s been the biggest obstacle for developers so far. But Morisse is working on that already, along with iterating on product designs, so hopefully he’ll accomplish that goal quickly.

In the meantime, we’ll wait and see. There’s certainly a demand for such a device at a reasonable price — Steve Jobs may not like buttons, but most gamers do, so the first actual production device to go on sale in this market will probably find plenty of buyers.

A controller for the iPhone … or bust originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This weekend Apple will open up its 305th retail store in the St. Louis Galleria mall, right there at Brentwood and 40-64 (which I heard finally finished construction recently). Saturday is day one, and the store should be open at 9am, so if you want to be around for the festivities (including the t-shirts and the hoopla), make plans for this Saturday morning.

I’m kind of surprised the Galleria didn’t have an Apple Store yet — the only other one in St. Louis is down at the West County Mall, but I’d have expected to see one in Chesterfield, or maybe out in St. Charles somewhere. The Galleria is a good choice, though — upscale and central, exactly where Apple wants to be. As always, if you head out to the opening and take pictures, be sure to send them along to us, we’d love to see them.

Update: Oh, well that shows how long it’s been since I’ve visited St. Louis. There is a store in the Galleria already, but according to our commenters, it’s a mini-store, and this opening on Saturday will be a full retail opening in another location in the mall. So there you go — still an opening, but not completely new. That explains my confusion — I thought the Galleria would have had a store by now, and it did.

New Apple Store opening in the St. Louis Galleria this weekend originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honestly, I haven’t been super impressed with anything I’ve seen coming out of all of the Windows Phone 7 hoopla this week. Sure, the phones look pretty and all, and yes, it’s a huge upgrade for Windows Mobile users, but it still seems to me like Microsoft is just trying to match the iPhone rather than actually overcome it. I don’t see anything in the offerings that would make me abandon my much-loved iPhone 4. That said, Mac users who have to use Windows Phone 7 (perhaps because it’s what you get from work) will enjoy hearing that the system will indeed sync up with Mac computers, a first for Microsoft gadgets. Zune fans can rejoice, too — the new client will let the Zune sync as well.

Of course, Mac users in Windows Phone 7-land will still be second class citizens, as the client will be a beta release later on this year, and reportedly will only offer syncing for “select content.” No idea what that means — we’ll have to wait and find out later this year.

Windows Phone 7 will sync ‘select content’ with Macs originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adding to the already bloated CDMA iPhone rumor mill, The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Apple is in talks with Reliance Communications Ltd and Tata Teliservices Ltd to bring the much-talked-about CDMA equipped iPhone to India. Apparently, talks with Tata Teleservices Ltd have been going on for some 4 to 5 months now.

Similarly, this same CDMA iPhone is the one that has been repeatedly rumored to appear on – surprise, surprise – Verizon’s network early next year, also according to the Journal. So, Verizon folks, things are looking more and more in your favor, once again — at least until they don’t, once again.

If Apple were to introduce a code division multiple access (CDMA) iPhone, it would open Apple’s iPhone up to roughly 550 million new customers worldwide, according the latest official figures from the CDMA Development Group. This certainly would expand Apple’s iPhone market!

In India, one of the world’s fastest growing wireless markets, Apple has the potential to get its iPhone into 134 million current CDMA handset users’ hands, though Apple Insider suggests that nearly half the country may struggle to afford the phone, with individuals earning an estimated US$1.25 or less a day.

If the rumors are to be believed, a CDMA iPhone release early next year is looking more and more likely. As always, nothing is certain until we see it in the cold, hard, light of day.

[Via AppleInsider]

Rumor: Apple talking with CDMA carriers in India originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s time for TUAW TV Live, so grab some popcorn and a beverage, sign into the chat room, and get ready for some fun.

Today my special guest is John Martellaro from The Mac Observer. As I mentioned earlier today, John is the Senior Editor at TMO and has been around the Apple universe for many years. He’s one of the many Mac bloggers who call the Denver area home, so we meet up on occasion in the real world to talk computers and other topics.

How do you join on the fun? From your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the read more link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to join in on the fun by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.

iPad users haven’t been forgotten, either, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won’t have access to our chat tool. And one final note — if the show has started and you’re seeing a previously recorded show instead of the livestream, you can always pop on over to ustream.tv/tuaw to join the show in progress.

Continue reading TUAW TV Live: TUAW and TMO tag team

TUAW TV Live: TUAW and TMO tag team originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stuart Dredge of MobileEntertainment did some digging into the paperwork behind the Ngmoco sale, and came back with some interesting figures about the company’s financials. Turns out that rumored $403 million purchase price is true — kind of. The deal includes a $100 million bonus, if Ngmoco keeps its numbers up to certain standards. The actual payment now is $303 million, which consists of $146 million in common stocks, $27 million in DeNA investments, and $128 million cash. That cash payment, Dredge reports, is about a third of DeNA’s total cash balance, so this is a significant deal for both companies.

Meanwhile, the documents state that Ngmoco has seen 50 million downloads on the App Store as of last month, and has 12 million users on the Plus+ network across 119 games (as a comparison, OpenFeint announced 25 million users this year, although of course that service is spread across many more titles).

And perhaps most interesting, Ngmoco is growing, but has spent a lot of money for that growth. In 2008, its revenues were only $484,000, and it lost $2.46 million. 2009 went better on the revenue side, jumping up to $3.16 million, but the company’s losses came out to a whopping $10.89 million. Pretty amazing that financials like that led to a sale of $403 million — both Ngmoco and DeNA must expect a lot from this partnership in the future.

Deal documents show Ngmoco’s 50 million downloads, $10m losses in 2009 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever the kid-friendly outfit, Apple filed a patent in 2008 that aims to make text messaging safer for the children. TechCrunch reports that today, the US Patent and Trademark office awarded Apple a patent which puts a ban on sending obscene text messages sometimes called “sexting.”

The technology will prevent an “administered device” — such as an iPhone, maybe? — from sending or receiving objectionable messages. The overall strictness of the filter is determined by the administrator of the device and would include settings by age or grade level.

In addition to offensive language filtering, the technology includes a method for requiring users to communicate in a specific language. For example, a specified number of foreign-language words could be required for each outbound message. This is an interesting tool for anyone, including children, trying to learn another language.

Even though this patent was filed in 2008, its promises have yet to be fulfilled. It is not uncommon for Apple to file patents for technology (hardware or software) on which they are currently working. Sometimes these patents result in cool new products or features and sometimes not.

Whether this technology ends up in iOS 5, or some other Apple product, remains unclear. What is certain, is that if it is implemented, it won’t take long for people to start hunting for ways to communicate that the device won’t be able to filter.

[via CNN]

Apple patents content filter for outbound text messages originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With about two weeks to go until Office 2011 ships, Microsoft is making sure that Office 2008 is safe and sound with a security and stability update. The 12.2.7 update can be downloaded and installed by running Check for Updates from the Help menu in any of the Office 2008 apps, or letting Microsoft AutoUpdate do its job.

What’s in the update? For Microsoft Excel, it’s a bug fix. According to Microsoft, the update “fixes issues that cause Excel to crash or close unexpectedly sometimes when you try to start an Excel application.” And for those of you who use Entourage (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), it’s about reliability. The update details there say that it fixes issues with Kerberos authentication with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 as well as an issue where Entourage would create duplicate items in the Exchange 2007 mailbox.

You can read all of the details here. The installed update takes up 503.4 MB of your precious hard disk space.

Office 2008 users: 12.2.7 update is available originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve read our reviews of the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 or their iPad and iPhone remotes, you may have said, “I’d like to get a Sonos system but I can’t afford the price.” Well, today may be your lucky day as we’re giving away a Sonos ZonePlayer S5 and a Sonos ZoneBridge to one fortunate winner!

The ZonePlayer S5 allows you to play music through a plug-and-play 5-speaker device, whereas the ZoneBridge hooks into your router and creates a wireless zone for the S5. Now all you have to do is plug the S5 into an outlet anywhere in your house and easily stream your music using free control apps (and yes, there’s a Mac app). Sonos allows you to stream not only your iTunes library, but also music from services like Pandora, Napster, Rhapsody, SIRIUS and Wolfgang’s Vault plus Internet radio.

To enter, leave a comment on this post telling us the last song you played (on any device, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod or AM transistor radio). To learn more about the S5 and ZoneBridge, check out this Sonos page here. Full rules for the giveaway are here, plus the short version of the rules are listed below.

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us the last song you played.
• The comment must be left before Monday, October 18, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: One Sonos ZonePlayer S5 and one Sonos ZoneBridge (Value: US$500)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Win a Sonos ZoneBridge and ZonePlayer S5 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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