All eyes are on Apple as the company prepares to unveil its Tablet device next week. But the dominant force in the e-reader market – Amazon – is about to shake things up in a major way by announcing what amounts to an app store for Kindle.

According to The New York Times, a formal announcement from Amazon will come on Thursday. The company expects developers to build a wide range of applications, from new ways to experience e-books to games and utility apps.

And just like iPhone, there’s going to be lots of money to be made: developers will keep 70 percent of the revenue from app sales. Content publishers also stand to make more money — the NYT reports that the app store model may represent a shift in Kindle’s relationship with newspapers and magazines, as those companies currently receive just a 30 percent cut of sales.

This is a huge development that completely changes the dynamics of the impending Tablet wars. Developers will suddenly have two huge new markets to target, content publishers will have some leverage in negotiating deals with Amazon and Apple, and consumers will have a lot more to think about when it comes to choosing which device sits in between their mobile phone and their desktop computer.

Tags: amazon, apple, Apple Tablet, gadgets, Kindle, software

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A completely legit Sega Genesis emulator for the iPhone and iPod touch will hit the Apple App Store this February, according to Gizmodo.

It will be free with one game (Space Harrier II), but you’ll be able to buy more games within the app for $5.99 and under. Sonic the Hedgehog, Shining Force, Golden Axe and Ecco the Dolphin will be among the first games available.

Sonic the Hedgehog and other Sega games have been available as independent downloads in the App Store for months. The idea here is to bring it all together into one app, making things easier to manage. The app will also give Sega the chance to tempt you into buying more games every time you load up Space Harrier II.

Game emulators allow you to use software intended for another device on your phone. They’ve been popular on personal computers for a very long time, but the questionable legality of the unofficial copies of the games has given Apple pause about allowing these things into the App Store in the past. This Genesis emulator (called Ultimate Genesis) was built by Sega itself, and it will play only games Sega makes available in its store. Sorry, but you won’t be able to import those 1,000 Genesis ROMs you downloaded on your PC or Mac.

Unofficial emulators that can play those ROMs are still out there, but you’ll have to jailbreak your phone to use them because they’re not available through the App Store.

Ultimate Genesis isn’t the first game emulator for the iPhone; a Commodore 64 app hit the virtual shelves last year.

Tags: apple, apple app store, emulator, iphone, sega, sega genesis, sega ultimate genesis, video games

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The White House just released its own iPhone app [iTunes link] on the Apple App Store. It serves up news, videos, photos and blog posts, but most notably it will stream live video events, including the President’s upcoming State of the Union address.

The app is free, and we’re impressed by how elegant and simple the design is. There’s nothing at all revolutionary here, but organizations both public and private often release poorly designed iPhone apps. If you’re a U.S. citizen, you probably won’t feel that your tax dollars were wasted developing this thing, assuming you think an iPhone app is worth the effort and investment to begin with.

If the intention is to keep citizens engaged, the app will do as good a job as you can expect. It mostly features content from the already impressive whitehouse.gov: all the blog posts, newsroom items, photos and videos of everything from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’s press briefings to Obama’s appearances and government PSAs.

The live video feature isn’t just reserved for major events. At present, the listed current and upcoming streams include President Obama’s January 22nd town hall meeting in Ohio, his National Mentoring Month speech, a meeting between the First Lady and White House tour visitors, a Gibbs press briefing, an education Q&A with Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes, and, of course, the State of the Union address on the 27th.

You could previously watch some events on sites like Ustream. You still can, we’re sure, but this administration has put some effort into engaging users of social media and technology. Obama just posted his first tweet, actually.

The White House blog says that a mobile version of the whitehouse.gov website will soon launch at m.whitehouse.gov for devices other than iPhones. There’s no word yet on native Android or BlackBerry apps.

Tags: apple app store, iphone, live video, obama, Political, White House

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Last week, we wrote about how the Mac and iPhone communities came together to raise money for Haiti. The project, called Indie+Relief is pretty awesome: A bunch of independent Mac and iPhone developers pledged to donate the sales from their apps on January 20 to Haitian aid organizations. Today is the 20th, so if you purchase any of the apps listed at IndieRelief.com, the proceeds go to charity.

Consumers get to donate to Haiti and get a great iPhone or Mac app in return, developers get to lend a hand and get some exposure, and Haitian aid organizations get money that they desperately need so that efforts on the ground can be funded and coordinated.

More than 50 different developers agreed to take part in Indie+Relief, and the selection of apps is stellar. On the iPhone side, you can get Twitter clients like Tweetie, Birdfeed and Twittelator Pro, plus favorites like Ego, Delivery Status Touch and Instapaper Pro.

On the Mac side, some of the best software from developers like Marketcircle, Flying Meat, The Iconfactory, Red Sweater Software, Second Gear and Cultured Code are all participating.

If you’ve had your eye on a Mac or iPhone app, check out Indie+Relief and consider making your purchase today. You’ll get the app plus the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that the proceeds are going to help Haiti.

Update: The MacBundleBox is back for 2010 and they will be donating 10% of bundle proceeds to Haitian relief efforts. Additionally, 100% of the sales made today will go to help Haiti. If you want whet your Mac-software appetite, check it out!

Tags: haiti, indie relief, indierelief, mac software, software

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"Simply include ‘itunes.apple.com/’ or ‘market.android.com/’ followed by the app name in the ad’s visible URL, and it will automatically display as ‘Download iPhone App’ or ‘Download Android App,’" says Katrina Kurnit of Google’s Inside AdWords crew.

Advertisers also have the option to select specific devices or carriers for their ads in general.

"If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers," says Kurnit. "This feature makes it easier for you to reach the right users if you have a carrier- or device-specific message. This includes landing pages that have been optimized for a specific device, billing relationships with certain carriers, or mobile apps developed for a specific platform. For example, if you sell iPhone cases, you can use device targeting to ensure that users with Android phones won’t see your ads."

Mobile Internet usage is expected to continue to increase rapidly. That means a lot of people using a lot of different mobile devices through multiple carriers. Google’s new targeting options could become increasingly important in getting your ads seen by the right people, depending on what you are advertising.

Related Articles:

> Apple Acquiring AdMob Competitor Quattro Wireless

> Google Provides an Update on the AdMob Acquisition

> Google Buys Mobile Ad Firm For $750 Million In Stock

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Content that is accessible includes live video streaming of events such as the President’s upcoming State of the Union address scheduled for next Wednesday. Also accessible via the app are the White House blog and briefing room site.

"Mobile internet access is an important way Americans are staying informed. Mobile web usage grew over 100% in the last year in the United States and higher worldwide," writes Dave Cole on the WhiteHouse.gov blog. "As part of President Obama’s commitment to an open and transparent government, the White House App makes getting all the latest news and media from the White House easier than ever. And of course, we’ll continue to look for new and emerging technologies to engage the American people and make information about the President and his administration easily available."

It seems like the White House’s move toward mobile is a bit late, considering the website was changed nearly a year ago, but mobile accessibility is of growing importance to websites in general as more and more people spend less of their Internet time on their PCs and more on their phones.

There is no word from the White House on if they intend to release apps for Android, BlackBerry or other devices.

Related Articles:

> White House Sides With Google In China Standoff

> White House Still Cool with YouTube

> The President Dips Into the Google Pool

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Using Boxer is super easy:

• Open DOS programs (.exe, .com and .bat files) by double-clicking or dropping them onto Boxer.
• If you’re comfortable with DOS you can also drop folders, CD-ROMs and CD images onto Boxer to browse them from the DOS prompt.
• Best of all, wrap your games into elegant game packages that you just double-click to play. Boxer comes with four sample game packages for you to try.

When Boxer launches, it takes you to the DOS games folder. Boxer makes this to easily store all your games.
It really couldn’t be more simple. Try it out for your self! Boxer comes with four ready-to-play games: Commander Keen 4 and demos of Epic Pinball, Ultima Underworld and X-COM: UFO Defense.

The free iPhone app allows users to input all of their books for the semester and compare prices among several sellers. It’s basically a pocket version of the Bigwords.com Web site, which had its origins in 1998 as a textbook retailer.

“We rode the roller coaster of the tech boom,” said CEO Jeff Sherwood. “We almost went public and then went bankrupt instead.” Mr. Sherwood, a programmer, went to the bankruptcy auction, purchased the domain name and started running the company as a textbook-comparison site in 2001.

On the app, users can search by title, author or ISBN number and can also include options such as e-books and book rentals in their search. Book quality, shipping time and other variables can be set as well. Once a student has put all the books into a “backpack,” the app calculates the best places to buy the books. It accounts for shipping and promotional discounts — even those that are triggered only when the purchase reaches a certain level, like $50 or $100. With other price comparisons, Mr. Sherwood said, “you look at one book at a time. With Bigwords, you put all of your books in the bag at once,” allowing for discounts you wouldn’t otherwise see. Mr. Sherwood says the site offers savings of 35% to 45% on average, compared with purchases made at regular online discount textbook stores.

Users can either purchase their books from a variety of sellers, or they can buy from the store with the best overall price. Bigwords receives a percentage fee whenever a book is sold through its app or Web site.

The app has a three-star rating in the app store. Several reviewers there said they appreciated being able to bring the app with them to their student bookstore, so they could compare prices on the spot.

Since late November, the app also has included a buyback feature, which allows students to find the highest purchase price as they try to sell their used textbooks. The company also plans a feature that lets users set the price they want to pay for a book and then alerts them when that price is available.

As for what’s next, Mr. Sherwood says: “I’ve received a ton of emails asking when we’re going to have an Android app.” He said the company hopes to release one in the fall.

Previously on App Watch

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Simplenote itself is nothing too fancy, but it does get the job done. You create notes, write them in Helvetica as opposed to the default Notes app’s marker-style font, and can type in portrait or landscape modes. The app saves as you go along, and you can search out text in your notes right from the home screen.

When you start up Simplenote, you’ll be asked to create an online account to sync to, and you obviously should. The web interface is clean, offers in-note search, and you can edit your notes from there and sync them back again to your devices.

In its current free form, Simplenote puts fairly unobtrusive ads at the top of your main menu and note writing screens. They’re not the worst ads you’ve seen, mainly tacked to software and other apps, and it seems like you won’t get hit up with One Weird Old Tip to Weight Loss. If you pay $4.99 per year for Premium services, or previously paid the $3 or $2 price, the ads go away, and you get a lot of other nice features, like an RSS feed of notes, per-version backup, and adding notes by email.

Simplenote is a free download for iPhones and iPod touch models running at least the 3.0 software. If you’ve got another solution you prefer for synchronized, easy note taking on the iPhone—besides maybe Evernote, which is its own, much larger-scale solution—tell us about it in the comments.

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There’s an Phone app that will help you pass the bar exam and become a legit lawyer, but it will set you back $999.99. It’s called BarMax [iTunes link], and it hit the app store just a couple of days ago.

The version that’s up there now has content for the California bar, but the fact that it’s called the “California Edition” seems to imply that other versions will come.

The app was put together by “top iPhone developers” (the iTunes description doesn’t say who exactly) and Harvard law lawyers, and it includes 1,371 real MBE practice questions, practice essays, audio lectures, more than 1,000 flash cards, and e-mail support with Harvard lawyers (they’re really hitting the “Harvard” thing home here). It looks like a complete package — something you’d expect from a desktop app, not an iPhone app. And as steep as $1,000 sounds, the BarMax website claims that it’s one-fourth the cost of a prep course covering the same material.

It seems like this would do at least as well on the BlackBerry platform as it would on the iPhone platform, but the developers haven’t said anything about plans for other platforms.

Tags: apple app store, barmax, iphone

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Buy Now

Click here to Purchase Retro Style Graphics on iTunes.

Screenshots

Below are some screenshots of the Retro Style Graphics iPhone App in action:

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Yelp is drawing inspiration (in a manner of speaking) from Foursquare and Gowalla by adding check-in features to its iPhone app. Since there are over a million Yelp iPhone app users, Yelp’s check-in service will be in more hands and pockets than Foursquare and Gowalla combined. Well, if they all upgrade, anyway.

And why wouldn’t they? Check-ins aren’t the only thing that have been added. User profiles are finally viewable, and Monocle — that’s Yelp’s augmented reality function — is in the update as well. You can actually see friends’ check-ins inside the Monocle view. Check-ins feature prominently in the app over all. We mean that literally; the “Check-ins” button is located in the middle of the new, Facebook for iPhone-esque navigation screen.

The check-in functionality looks very similar to what you already get with Foursquare and Gowalla. For example, push notifications let you know when friends check in somewhere, and you can track them within the app, too. You’ll be rewarded with at least one badge for becoming a “Regular” at a location. It’s pretty generous though; you only have to check in twice in a two-month period. The purpose (initially) is to make it clear to readers of your reviews that you really have spent some time at the place you’re reviewing. More badges could debut after the update launches.

Yelp is planning to bring this to Android and other mobile operating systems, too, but the iPhone came first. We’ve downloaded the app and we’re playing with it right now; we’ll let you know our thoughts soon.

Will the ubiquity of Yelp users and reviews draw you away from Foursquare, Gowalla, or whatever other location service you’re using, or do you want that pure and focused location game experience that Yelp isn’t quite ready to roll out?

Tags: foursquare, gowalla, iphone, Web 2.0 startups, yelp

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The opening of Twitter’s API transformed the service from an interesting web site into the communications plumbing that serves homepages, newsrooms, and smartphones all over the world.

With the release of its own API, Foursquare is banking that it can do the same. Developers are now able to tap into the location-based service’s rich data supply and build their own applications.

Location-based apps are hot right now. More developers building on Foursquare’s platform only fortifies it in the location-based battle with Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, and others.

Several Foursquare apps that were announced alongside the API release are now officially available for use. Here’s a look at the first wave.

1. Foursquare for Palm Pre/Pixi

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A couple of developers (with some help from Palm) whipped up a WebOS version of Foursquare just in time for the new year. Hopefully the Foursquare team can now return to developing features for the service and let eager programmers build apps themselves. If you’re on a Pre or Pixi, you can get Foursquare here.

2. Foursquare for Android

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This one has a similar story to the above, only Android-style. Built by Joe LaPenna, Chris Brummel, Brad Root, Darrel Herbst & Micah Craig, it’s not only slick and lightweight, but it’s also open-source. If you’re reading this on your Android phone, you can grab the app right here. If not, you can grab it from the Market or get the source code here.

3. SocialGreat

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While not an app you download, SocialGreat grabs checkin data from Foursquare, couples it with Twitter & BrightKite geodata, and shows you what places in your neighborhood are hot spots. It’s cool and well-designed, but right now all it shows is that the most popular spots are, unsurprisingly, airports and train terminals –- places where people congregate, but not necessarily for social reasons. However, it’s certain to start filtering out stuff like that, and whereas Foursquare’s app itself now has trending places nearby, SocialGreat could be a good way to find out about that last-minute party or tech meetup.

4. MobZombies

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Mobzombies: The First Wave from wcrtr on Vimeo.

If you’re into mindless gaming (literally), you’ll love MobZombies for the iPhone. Basically it turns real human checkin activity on Foursquare into zombie hordes you have to avoid or defeat by either using your touchscreen, or, as the app puts it, “moving your body as a joystick” to trigger your phone’s movement controls. It costs $2.99 in the app store, and will probably encourage you to exercise more than any other app in your collection, assuming you like cartoon gore and 1980s video game graphics.

5. Yipit

Why not find out about specials at your favorite places? This handy application imports your usual haunts from Foursquare and then keeps tabs on deals at those venues for you. Unfortunately it’s only available in New York right now, but it definitely works — after I signed up, it told me about a great deal at the sushi bar below my apartment. Guess where I’m going tonight.

6. Foursquare WordPress Widget

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Right now it’s pretty simple, but nothing’s stopping you from customizing the look and feel on your own blog. Check out the plugin homepage here and start publishing a feed of your checkins on your blog.

7. ul.timate.info Firefox Add-on

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While only useful if you’re on the move with your computer or on someone else’s desktop, this add-on lets you check in and enjoy all the features of Foursquare without needing a smartphone.

8. Last Night’s Checkins

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This is an interesting idea. Basically, this app helps you keep a Foursquare diary. Every day it e-mails you a list of your previous night’s checkins, and then you fill in information about each experience. Perfect for those of you with fascinating exploits that you feel you must share with the rest of us (or for those of you that have trouble remembering what you did last night).

9. BlackBook

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For anyone that already reads BlackBook Magazine’s nightlife guides, this app will sync your BlackBook and Foursquare accounts in perfect harmony, delivering you deals and juicy information based on your location.

10. Where Do You Go

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Built by NYU student Steven Lehrburger, Where Do You Go generates a snazzy heat map of your Foursquare activity around your city. Try it yourself.

BONUS: Peek Maps

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For all six of you who own a Twitter Peek, Peek Maps can show off your Foursquare activity alongside your tweet locations in an embeddable widget.

Coming Soon

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Layar Reality Browser: This one is actually in a work-in-progress beta right now, and you can open it on your mobile phone here. It adds a Foursquare layer to the augmented reality browser functionality in the existing Layar app. Basically, you point your camera at a building, and it tells you who’s there, who’s the mayor, and what tips were left behind. Keep an eye out for the official release –- this one should be pretty cool.

FourTap allows you to check into Foursquare using a London subway Oystercard. It’s not done yet, but when it is, it could make Foursquare significantly easier to use. Check out the video.

More Foursquare resources from Mashable:

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- 6 Foursquare Apps We’d Love to See
– 6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Foursquare
– Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Location-Based Throwdown
– The Twitter of 2010: Foursquare as Next Year’s Breakout Hit
– Location, Location, Location: 5 Big Predictions for 2010

Tags: android, Firefox, foursquare, foursquare api, foursquare apps, iphone, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, palm, trending, twitter

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From the Twitter Stream

Followers

@WordCampToronto

@UsabilityDesign

@skrug

@bigspaceship

@SkinnyShips

@freeloadthis

Web Finds

mockingbird – a really simple wireframe app

project bubble – a very fun simple project management app

WordCamp Toronto – Who’s going?

Setup Your Personalized Google Apps Suite – I recently did this, and it was really really simple

Digital Podge – Measurable Fun

verb – Another nice simple Project app

Headway Themes – Is this the future of WordPress?

Web Articles

24 UX Articles to Start 2010 – UX Booth

The Philosophy of Design – Tripping Words

More on Hiring People To Write For You – Is it time to get more people on board with Inspiredology?

Getting Inspiration from Admiration – Build Internet

How to Kill Your Business: 30 Day Payment Terms - John O’Nolan

Tutorials

Contactable – A jQuery Plugin

The Right Way To Build WordPress As A Community – I really want to add a community news section to Inspiredology, can anyone help me with this? Let’s talk @chadmueller

Bulletproof Post Thumbnails in WordPress 2.9 – Matt Brett

Create Custom Options Panels with WordPress 2.9 – Build Internet

Inspiredology

I am working hard on the new Inspiredology redesign… I am adding some new features that I have been wanting for a very long time. I need some help, if anyone knows how to add a Community News feature using TDO Mini Forms, if you can help please let me know @chadmueller or muellerchad[at]gmail.com.

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Originally posted at The Download Blog

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You have a MobileMe subscription and an iPhone, do you? Then you can now download a free, Apple-made app called MobileMe Gallery [iTunes link] that will let you easily browse your MobileMe photos and upload more from anywhere.

You can flip through your existing photos in typical iPhone finger-gesture fashion or take new ones with your phone and upload them to the MobileMe cloud. There’s an option to send photos both new and old to friends and colleagues via e-mail, and the app views videos, too.

You can also use MobileMe Gallery to browse friends’ photos; any friend you’re following will have a blue dot next to his or her name when he or she has uploaded new photos. Chances are you’re sharing your photos on Facebook, Flickr or TwitPic directly because not all your friends have Macs or iPhones, but the Gallery app could be helpful for keeping up with friends if you do hang with a bunch of other Mac enthusiasts.

As is the case with many other Apple products, design is prominent; there’s a sliding ticker of recent photos at the top of the app to give it some extra style. If you want to see how it works firsthand before downloading it, there’s a quick tour video over at Apple’s MobileMe product page. We can’t embed the video, sadly.

Tags: app store, apple, iphone, Mobile 2.0

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We’ve seen a host of deals recently in the Twitter app space, but here’s one that we now know didn’t happen: TwitPic selling out for north of $10 million.

Although he doesn’t say who the prospective buyer was, TwitPic creator Noah Everett has revealed in an interview with Andrew Warner of Mixergy that he turned down an offer of “much higher than $10 million” at some point last year.

Beyond that, Everett says that Twitter’s most popular photo sharing site brought in $1.5 million of revenue during 2009, 70 percent of which went to the bottom line. Not bad for what started as one man’s side project without outside funding.

Check out the full interview below for some more details about one of Twitter’s biggest success stories to-date:

Tags: twitpic, twitter

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There’s a 99-cent iPhone app in the App Store that will let you know when an old friend, coworker, ex or family member decides they’ve had enough of you on Facebook.

Defriended [iTunes link] keeps track of who your Facebook friends are and lets you know when you lose someone. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding — they clicked “unfriend” by accident. Or maybe it’s war. Either way, thanks Defriended!

The app — created by Dennis Harrison — uses Facebook Connect to import all your friends when you first run it. It checks for changes each time you load it up after that. New friends are placed in the “New friends” column, lost friends go to the “Defriended” column.

When Mashable’s Brenna Ehrlich unfriended me (just the latest turn in an ongoing, passive-aggressive workplace feud), I loaded the app and immediately saw that she’d been placed under “Defriended.”

I experienced some choppy performance when flipping through a long list of friends on an iPhone 3G, but other than that the app seemed to work well. Its entry into the marketplace is well timed. “Unfriend” was the Oxford dictionary’s word of the year in 2009.

Alternative: Facebook Friends Checker for Firefox

This isn’t the first tool we’ve seen for catching people unfriending you. A few months back we wrote about the Facebook Friends Checker script for users of the Firefox web browser. It’s not quite as easy to get going — you have to install Greasemonkey then import the script — but the functionality is similar. It doesn’t list new friends and old friends, but it will put up a very hard-to-miss notification panel when someone unfriends you.

UPDATE: Our readers report that the app is giving them the error “Invalid API key specified: The application you are trying to access does not exist or has been disabled.” We aren’t getting the error but the app won’t work for us, either.

It’s probable that Facebook has disabled the Connect functionality for the app. The Facebook Platform developer agreement states “You must not notify a user that someone has removed the user as a friend” because that would “circumvent our intended limitations on core Facebook features.”

The app is still in the app store though, so there are bound to be a lot of wasted dollars until Apple pulls it.

UPDATE 2: Facebook has confirmed in an e-mail to us that the app was blocked for violating the developer agreement. “While we cannot remove an application running on another website or platform, we will ensure that applications that access Facebook user data adhere to Facebook Platform policies,” they said. It looks like Apple has pulled the app from the App Store, too, though. Sorry, folks. The show’s over. Maybe you’ll just have to count your friends by hand — though if you don’t notice they’re gone without an app, you’re probably fine without them!

Tags: defriended, facebook, facebook connect, iphone, iphone app, social networking, unfriend

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Originally posted at The Download Blog

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Previous versions of Ubuntu Tweak have included a means of installing non-standard applications, but this 0.5.0 release consolidates the tools to do so and makes it a lot easier to navigate. Simply check off the apps you want to grab—and there are a lot of great ones here—or do so from the online app library, and sync it to your Ubuntu Tweak software. Elsewhere in the software, you’ll find tools to customize your Ubuntu system’s menus, icons, desktop, login window, and other features.

There is, of course, nothing in Ubuntu Tweak that you can’t do within the configuration tools and files of Linux itself. That said, for beginning users looking to avoid the hassle of repositories, authentication keys, and config file editing, Ubuntu Tweak is a nice alternative. It’s a free download, and this version only works with Ubuntu 9.10.

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A recent report coming from mobile app analysts from Flurry (sounds more like a wild guesstimate), has revealed that in its first week the new Google Nexus One has only managed to sell 20,000 units. It might surprise some, but our impression is that Google never wanted a create a big buzz around their phone — although they definitely have the power and the means to do it — hence why the Nexus One can’t even compare to the likes of Motorola Droid that sold some 250,000 units or the iPhone 3GS that had 1.6 million buyers in the first seven days.

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Ales, stouts, porters, pilsners… so many beers, too little time. To help you navigate this vast and varied world of beer, you can always turn to your iPhone. There are plenty of beer apps available on iTunes — everything from beer games to reference guides — even apps that attempt to measure your levels of drunkenness.

iPhone wielding beer enthusiasts can rejoice over the following apps to satisfy your malty, hoppy and lager-induced desires.  After all, there’s nothing like cracking open a frosty brew at the end of a long day –- or simulating it.

1. iBeer

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iBeer is one of those fun apps that doesn’t really do anything but entertain. It simulates a pint of beer that you can jostle and drink. With five different beers to choose from, the visual of tipping the glass (iPhone) back and seeing the liquid disappear is strikingly real. The loud burp at the end is an added bonus. No beer-related apps list would be complete without this popular one.

Cost: $0.99

2. Gallagher’s Beer Guide

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This app is a fantastic resource for a beer novice or one who wants to learn more about different brews. Divided into 12 categories, including brown ales, stouts and porters, and IPAs, Gallagher’s Beer Guide provides you with information on taste characteristics, popular choices within each category, and related styles.

Cost: $0.99

3. Guinness Pub Finder

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There’s something unmistakably refreshing about a nice, cold Guinness. The dark, chocolaty and rich beer has its devout following, enough to spawn an iPhone app dedicated to finding exactly where this draught is served. Another fun feature of this app is its “Six Steps to Creating the Perfect Pint” lesson.

Note: Unfortunately, residents in AK, AZ, GA, HI, IN, KT, MO, OH, PA, TX and WV will find that this app does not work due to specific state laws related to alcohol advertising.

Cost: $1.99

4. iBeers Pro

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With more than 2,700 varieties listed in this app, iBeers Pro is like a who’s who of beer. Each beer lists the country of origin, brewer, type of beer and bottle size, as well as user ratings and an ability to add it to your favorites list. This is a good app to have for adventurous beer drinkers who like to go beyond the brews they’re familiar with. This app also comes in a Lite version for $1.99 and the regular iBeers version for $2.99. 

Cost: $3.99 

5. BeerCloud

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If $3.99 is a little too steep and you’d rather get the information for free, BeerCloud is a good alternative. Although not as comprehensive as iBeers Pro, BeerCloud does offer the ability to search for beers, as well as determine where, via GPS tracking, a particular beer of choice is available near you.   

Cost: FREE 

6. Beer Match: Beer, Food & Cheese Pairings

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Do you know what kind of beer goes best with Cajun food? How about lamb chops? If not, Beer Match can help you. By pairing 31 styles of beer with more than 500 different kinds of foods (including cheeses), you can instantly find out if the pale ale or the stout is the better choice when planning your menu. 

Cost: $0.99 

7. Drink Fit

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They don’t call it a beer belly for nothing. As tasty as it is, you can quickly pack on the pounds if beer is consumed in excess. Drink Fit is a great app that provides users with full nutritional information for more than 1,600 drinks (including beer, cocktails, wine) and also offers a “My Night” feature where users can tally their caloric consumption for one evening of drinking. It’s a great app for anyone who is conscious about their dietary intake. 

Cost: $1.99 

8. Find Craft Beer

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If big name beers don’t do it for you and you seek more of an off-the-beaten path microbrew, then this is a perfect app. Find Craft Beer uses GPS tracking to locate brew pubs, breweries, beer bars, beer stores and homebrew stores near you. The settings function enables you to select from any or all of these types of locations to identify the nearest locale to get a tasty microbrew. 

Cost: $0.99 

9. iBrewMaster

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For more ambitious beer drinkers who like to make their own brews, iBrewMaster is a comprehensive app that takes home brewers through the whole process. The app comes with 50 recipes and also enables users to keep thorough track of multiple batches that are being brewed at the same time. 

Cost: $4.99 

10. Happy Houred

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Who doesn’t like a good Happy Hour? This app scours local bars in your area to find any happy hour specials near you. Happy Houred currently offers search functionality in approximately 700 cities in the U.S. but is predominantly user-generated, so new bars and happy hour specials are constantly being added.

Cost: FREE

More iPhone resources from Mashable:

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- 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers
– 10 Essential iPhone Apps to Avoid Dating Disasters
– 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work Disasters
– 20 Fantastic Free iPhone Apps for Parents
– 9 Essential iPhone Apps for Cat Lovers
– 10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, rjp85

Tags: Beer, Food, Guinness, iphone, iphone apps, List, Lists

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As the mobile application space becomes larger and larger, cracked software and piracy — problems that have plagued the desktop software market for years — become more prevalent and a larger concern for app developers.

The website 24/7 Wall St. is estimating that the iPhone App Store has lost $450 million to piracy and cracked downloads. Although we’re not denying that App Store piracy is a very real concern, we do take issue with the methodology and estimated numbers in this report.

Mobile App Piracy: A Quick Primer

As iPhone detractors are always keen to point out, mobile applications, and, in turn, mobile application piracy, is not a new issue. The Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms have been battling the problem for the better part of a decade, and the Palm Classic- and JDK-compatible platforms even longer than that.

However, with the big push to acquire newer smartphone platforms like the iPhone and Android, plus the industry shift to platform-specific app stores, mobile application piracy has started to take on a new face.

In February of last year, one-click cracking tools and an over-the-air cracked app store were developed for the iPhone and iPod touch. While only available on jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch devices, this type of software showcased the trivialities of cracking and distributing paid mobile applications.

Lest you think this phenomenon is just limited to the iPhone, Android app developers have been complaining about the effect the Android Market return policy has had on app piracy for months.

The bottom line is that this is a real issue and it does impact developers, which in turn impacts the development ecosystem as a whole, including users. But how big is the problem?

The Report

24/7 Wall St. is claiming $450 million has been lost to piracy in the iTunes App Store alone, but we have some very real problems with the way that figure was determined.

The biggest red flag is that 24/7 Wall St. assumes that paid iPhone applications have a piracy rate of 75 percent. How did they come to this conclusion? Using some past piracy usage examples from apps from Fishlabs and other developers, they came to the conclusion that for every app purchased, three more were downloaded from cracked sources.

Now, this might be true for games like iCombat and others from Fishlabs — but this certainly isn’t going to be the case across the board. It might be more fair to say that the piracy rate for games in the App Store is 75 percent, but even then you would need a much larger sample size and various tracking methods if you wanted to be accurate.

Additionally, 24/7 Wall St. is estimating that 17 percent of the 3 billion apps downloaded from the App Store were paid apps — or 510 million. They then multiply that by three (using the previous ratio) and assume that 1.53 billion apps have been pirated. Then, the report multiples that figure by $3 (the average price of a paid app) and gets $4.59 billion. Assuming that 10 percent of app pirates would have actually purchased the app in question, that’s how you get $459 million in lost revenue.

I’m not a statistician, but even I can see that that’s really, really reaching.

Over-inflating Figures Doesn’t Help

Here’s the biggest problem I have with throwing around figures like “$450 million lost in piracy” — it doesn’t help the situation at all. Most people take piracy statistics with a grain of salt, anyway, and when they dissect the nature in which those figures were calculated, are more likely to write-off the entire issue. That certainly doesn’t help the game developer who sees that X percent of her usage statistics are coming form people who didn’t even pay for the app.

Instead of inflating figures, why not talk about what could be done to help curb (not solve, you can’t solve piracy in the digital age) the problem?

Both Google and Apple have policies in place that make it difficult for developers to fight against app piracy. Google’s return policy for the Android Market is a particularly wide loophole; there has to be a middle ground between letting users return an app within 24 hours and just using the system as a “buy/request refund/restore from backup” scheme.

Because Apple so tightly controls its developer ecosystem, developers are in a sense beholden to Apple to make sure that the encryption linking apps to specific devices is stronger. Because only jailbroken phones can use cracked apps, an obvious solution would be making the devices harder to jailbreak. That’s easier said than done, of course, but the fact remains that the onus really shouldn’t be on developers who have no control over how to sell their apps and have limited options in securing them.

What do you think about this report and mobile app piracy in general?

Tags: android, app store, iphone, money, piracy

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Originally posted at The Download Blog

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Yesterday I was writing about a porn-related application, forChan, that got approved and therefore was available to download from the official App Store. In the same article I was telling you that I expect the app to be banned very soon and that has already happened.
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Ten One Design have announced Inklet, an app that turns the trackpad on your MacBook into a genuine tablet input device.  Inklet will give your MacBook’s trackpad a range of stylus capabilities for a fraction of the cost of a pricier hardware stylus tablets.

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If you have an idea for a web app and you don’t believe that it will be successful or you don’t think you have the time to build it, think again. It’s possible!

We invited Stu Green of Haloweb and Great Web Apps to share with us how he built a web app to meet a particular need and launch it successfully in just three months.

The Story of My Web App

I always found project management something very scary. Agencies that I worked for used Basecamp, MS Project and other very complicated (and pricey) systems. I tried them myself but I really needed something a lot simpler and ‘less serious’. Because I had some spare time, and because I was already learning a ‘rapid application development framework’ I knew it wouldn’t take me that long to build, so I decided to do it.

I designed everything the way I thought it should work. Because I wasn’t a project manager and had no experience in that area there were no plans in my designs for Gantt charts or complicated reporting systems. Everything was very simple and fun to use. After three months of building the app I decided to share it with the world in November and since then it has rapidly grown to a user-base of two thousand. Apparently I was not alone in believing that there was a need for a project management web app that handled projects and invoices in a simple fashion.

The web app is called Project Bubble. I continue to develop and support it every day and I love seeing other users really enjoying using it. I particularly enjoy seeing people suggesting new ideas and us all gathering together as a community and discussing whether or not to implement these ideas. Because I believe in keeping things simple, a lot of the time these features don’t make it but it’s fun to be a part of something so agile and fluid in it’s development. I also believe that customer service is critical to the success of the web app (as I’ll explain later) and proving that your web app is alive with activity and social buzz will also keep user retention and satisfaction.

What About Your Web App Idea?

Some people, particularly entrepreneurs, go to bed at night and can’t sleep because they have so many ideas for websites. It might be some new community website that is focused on a particular passion of yours, or a unique web application that integrates with Twitter, or perhaps you have ideas for how you can rebuild your current site and utilize all the latest web technologies. This is your inspiration and your dream, but how do you make it a reality when you have a day job and twenty other websites that you look after?

With this inspiration you have taken your first step. The next step is making that dream a reality and building your web app, even though there are many factors that could stop you such as time and money. Here are some tips that will help you down that road of inspiration to reality. Start believing that you can make this happen, because you can.

1. Stay Motivated

These days it is very possible to build those web applications that you previously only dreamed about. A few years ago you would need to build everything from scratch, today you can benefit from the vast array of open-source code libraries and freeware design resources that are out there.

So much of the hard work has been done already so time shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Also a lot of the resources out there are free so money cannot be an excuse either. You have to stay motivated and believe that you can take your new project on. Commit yourself to at least getting a public beta launched so people can give you their feedback, and just block out some spare time when you can work on your web app.

2. Don’t Be Afraid of Competition

I learnt this lesson when I built Project Bubble. The reason why I wasn’t afraid of competition was because I didn’t think I was going to be competing with anyone! I built Project Bubble firstly for my own business, months before I ever thought I would release it publicly. Now it has become very successful. If I think about competition today part of me still wonders how on earth it could possibly succeed when you compare it with the greats. So don’t worry about competition. Your app will be unique, because you made it.

3. Plan Everything

Set deadlines and plan everything from the early development through to the Beta launch. You could even make wire-frames using online tools such as Mockingbird to help you with the design phase. Whatever you do make sure you’ve thought it all out on paper (or stickies!) before you ever get to the design or build stage.

4. Use a Rapid Application Development Framework

Development frameworks such as Ruby-on-Rails, CodeIgniter and Kohana have done all the hard work for you and are really easy to learn. I use CodeIgniter and I love it. On their website they will show you how you can build a blog engine in just twenty minutes! A lot of cool web apps that you see these days are built on Ruby-on-Rails including Basecamp and the beauty of using something like Ruby is that not only do you have that massive library of time-saving functions but you also have a huge community of other developers who will help you if you get stuck.

5. Get Feedback

Once you have your public beta live, use widgets like Get Satisfaction and User Voice to get feedback from your users. They will be happy because you are listening to them, and you will be happy because you will know straight away if something is wrong and also you will get ideas that you probably would never have otherwise thought of. Don’t be afraid of saying “No” to people if they suggest something that you don’t think is appropriate and always welcome peoples suggestions and ideas no matter how crazy they might seem.

6. Use Social Media

Once you are happy with your app, use social media to create a buzz for your app. Submit it to all the web app reviews you can possibly think of such as:

- Feedmyapp
- Killer Startups
- Great Web Apps

Make sure you are on Twitter and you have a clear link on your website so people can follow you. Get involved with your community, respond to them, and show that your web app is new, exciting, buzzing and active. Your users will be excited to be a part of something fresh and evolving.

7. Keep Trying

If it doesn’t work out, don’t worry just try again. I built a web app recently for car owners and it wasn’t successful at all. It wasn’t because the idea wasn’t original and it wasn’t the design, in fact I still don’t know why it hasn’t worked out but the point is it really doesn’t matter. Just pick yourself up and try again with another idea because one day you will just ‘hit the nail on the head’ and get it right. Practice always makes perfect.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and I hope that now you are now inspired and motived. If you have a new web app that you want to tell us about why not comment and let us know?

Stu works for his own web company developing web apps and has experience in PHP, jQuery and user-centered design. Be sure to connect with him on Twitter.

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You are welcome to share more useful iPhone clients that will be helpful for our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well.

Google Mobile App

You can download Google Mobile App to your smartphone to search fast. It will allow you to quickly navigate to other Google services, such as Maps and Gmail etc.

eBuddy

With eBuddy you can have one single buddy list with all your friends from multiple IM and social accounts. eBudd also made it easy for you to manage your buddy list, add new buddies, organize them in groups, sort by account, or search your list.

Photoshop

It’s easy to use the Photoshop.com Mobile App on your iPhone. Simply drag your finger to crop, adjust color, apply effects. You can crop, rotate, change color with just a touch, give an extra glow with Soft Focus, apply one-touch effects like Warm Vintage and Vignette etc.

Skype

You can download the iPhone App and then sign into Skype from any WiFi zone and reach friends and family free with Skype-to-Skype calls.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is your mobile browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now on Twitter from your iPhone or iPod Touch. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date no matter where you are.

Yahoo Messenger

Take the Yahoo Messenger anywhere on your iPhone. This will help you to share photos, emoticons and links, right from your iPhone and it will alerts you when a new IM arrives, even if you’re not in the app.

Facebook for iPhone

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. Facebook for iPhone will help those people to stay connected when they are away from their computers but would not like to away from facebook.

Waze For iPhone

Waze is a free social mobile app that enables drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation for an optimal commute. 100% powered by users the more you drive the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today.

Gmail

You may have Gmail via mobile anywhere with you.

Evernote

Evernote for iPhone lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time from your iPhone, computer, or the web.

Dropbox

Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. You can access your Dropbox on the go and download files for offline viewing. There is an option to sync photos and videos to your Dropbox and to share links to files in your Dropbox.

AIM

Connect with friends and family and keep track of status and presence updates in real time. Just sign in using your existing AIM, AOL, .mac or MobileMe name, or register for a free screen name right to your device.

Hootsuite

HootSuite for iPhone is the only Twitter app that lets you view statistics. It’s also the only one that lets you schedule your tweets in advance. With HootSuite for iPhone, you can send tweets to multiple accounts simultaneously, from the palm of your hand. But that’s not all.

Google Earth

With Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch, you can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. You can explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world’s population and a third of the world’s land mass.

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Yes, forChan is kind of a porn application and yes, it’s available in the App Store. Yes, it’s not the first porn application ever to have been created for the iPhone but it seems that this one got away. In fact it looks like Apple approved it in less than 12 hours as forChan managed to meet all the Apple requirements in order to make it to the App Store.
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Foursquare is one of the crucial new social networks to keep tabs on, and for entrepreneur types, the recent release of its open API is big news. It may be time for developers to start shifting away from Twitter and start tinkering with something a bit more Square.

Here are 6 Foursquare apps we’d like to see developed. What other location-based apps would you like to see take advantage of the Foursquare API? Let us know in the comments.

1. MenuSquare

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When you check in at a restaurant on Foursquare, you can see what feedback your friends and others have left. Usually it’s recommendations –- “Try the lobster ravioli!” –- or warnings –- “The green curry is wicked hot!” But wouldn’t it be great to be able to see the actual menu from your phone? We’d love to see an app that allows the crowd (or zealous programmers) to add a list of every menu item, perhaps even with prices, to every popular venue. Want to plan your meal while waiting for a table or a slow waiter? Maybe you’re just trying to decide where to eat? Just fire up “MenuSquare.”

2. OrderSquare (a la SeamlessWeb)

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Building on the aforementioned menu idea, how about being able to order food from your smartphone, using Foursquare as the backdrop? The API makes it easy to grab all the nearby restaurants’ info, which will give this app a leg up in a lot of areas. The app could also be used to broadcast to your Foursquare friends what you actually ordered, leaving a record for everyone’s sake and encouraging reviews on individual dishes.

3. TextSquare

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Not all our friends are on Foursquare, and many of yours probably aren’t either. Could be they’re just not hip, but it’s also likely they just don’t have the right smartphones. How about an application that allows you to send selected check-ins as text messages or e-mails to non-Foursquarers that you’d like to meet up with. Invite those technoramuses to the party, too.

4. SquareDeck

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We don’t generally sit around tapping refresh on our phone to see where everyone’s at on Foursquare. We’d like to see a desktop application or widget that shows a feed of friends’ announced Foursquare coordinates and shouts. This way, we could see what we’re missing out on while we’re at work, or what gig we should get to. Integrate this app with Twitter and the rest of our social networks, and we’d never be lonely again.

5. EventSquare

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Teens and party-going twenty-somethings have plenty of disposable income to make this app worthwhile. Build them an application that shows where the nearest parties, concerts, or events are going on at any moment, based on their location. Great for those bored Friday nights, this app could really help you find something to do any time you want.

6. GroupSquare

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Sometimes you may check in and only want certain friends to know — you can’t always invite everyone. That’s why we’re proposing an app (or a built-in feature) that lets users categorize their Foursquare friends and then choose which ones to alert upon check in. It shouldn’t be so hard to implement (says the writer to the programmers), and it would definitely enhance the experience.

Conclusion

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Foursquare’s API makes it easy to tap into location data for virtually every venue in most big cities, and now that Foursquare has opened up globally, this information will start flooding in from smaller locales as well. Developers: Now’s the time to get in on the app-building action early. With the right foresight and a bit of ingenuity, the possibilities are endless.

More Foursquare resources from Mashable:

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- 6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Foursquare
– Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Location-Based Throwdown
– The Twitter of 2010: Foursquare as Next Year’s Breakout Hit
– Location, Location, Location: 5 Big Predictions for 2010

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, photoposter, dwphotos, macroworld

Tags: android, api, APIs, apps, blackberry, foursquare, geo-location, geolocation, iphone, List, Lists, mobile applications

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One of the most-loved toy brands in the world is embracing social media in a big way. Today, LEGO is launching its Lego Click community.

Lego Click is a collaborative environment designed for inventors, artists and creative enthusiasts to share their vision about new products and toys. LEGO has also released a free iPhone app, LEGO Photo (iTunes link) that can Lego-fy your pictures.

LEGO created this excellent short film to show off the new community:

The iPhone app is pretty cool in its own right — its effectiveness will depend on what type of shot you are using (more contrast is better), but it’s neat to see your own images as LEGO blocks.

The Lego Click community itself will be closely tied with Facebook and Twitter. Selected posts with the #legoclick hashtag will appear on the website and users can offer feedback or submit their ideas using those links.

The idea is to get creatives talking and innovating online, and that strikes us as pretty cool.

Tags: Lego, lego click

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Fox celebrated the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons last night, capping off its year-long “Best. 20 Years. Ever.” campaign, which has included a slew of social media tie-ins and special events.

Last night, in addition to showing the newest episode of the longest-running primetime television series of all time, Fox aired a documentary by Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me), which took a look at Simpsons fans from all over the world and featured interviews with creator Matt Groening, a slew of writers and the voices behind America’s favorite family.

U.S. users can watch it here, courtesy of Hulu.

Fox has been running an elongated campaign to celebrate the series milestone, both online and off. For example, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the very first half-hour Simpsons episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (titled “The Simpsons Christmas Special” in its original airing), Fox released a 20th Anniversary Collection on iTunes back in December.

Yesterday, a few hours before the 20th Anniversary special, Fox took to the social media realm by releasing an Adobe Air app called The Simpsons Unleashed, which you can get from Facebook. The app, which utilizes Facebook Connect, includes the option of letting Homer sit on your desktop and features episode news and previews. The app also lets you play pranks on your Facebook friends. It’s the sort of novelty tool that is kind of fun to play around with once or twice, but doesn’t really offer much aside from that.

Still, long-time Simpsons fanatics won’t be disappointed by the kitschy quality of the app (am I right NHC gang?); it’s just part of the Simpsonian experience.

And speaking of Simpsonian experience, the staff at Hulu selected 20 of their favorite Simpsons clips of all time and put them together in this collection. It’s a pretty great trip down memory lane, especially if you’ve been watching these yellow-skinned bug-eyed characters since you were pupil in Miss Dickinson’s first grade class.

Happy Anniversary Simpsons!

Tags: Fox, hulu, Simpsons, television, the simpsons

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The basic weather checking interface itself is pretty neat eye candy, with clever weather depicitions of what’s happening right now, and forecasts and additional data you can get to by swiping vertically and horizontally. The push alerts, however, are what really sets Outside apart.

You set alert levels for the UV index, what you consider T-shirt weather, and rain, and Outside will ping you at a pre-determined time—like, say, right when you wake up—to let you know what you should dress for that day.

Outside is $2.99 cents, and that price buys you 30 days of push notifications; every additional 90 days is $1 more. There are certainly free weather apps in the App Store, but outside is a very helpful service, without annoying mobile ads, for the price.

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A Mashable reader tells us that a Facebook app called “Who Has Chatted with Me The Most?” is generating tens of thousands of spam comments on his wall, plus thousands of Facebook “likes”.

The screenshots below show the extent of the issue: posts with 19,000+ comments and 3,000+ likes being posted to a Facebook wall by people the user claims aren’t even friends.

Our guess: the app maker has realized that getting lots of likes and comments is a good way to push an app toward more success on Facebook, and figured out a way to get all the app’s users leaving comments and likes without their explicit permission.

Have you had trouble with the “Who Has Chatted with Me The Most?” app? Are we right or off base here? Let us know in the comments.

Tags: chat, facebook

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TetherBerry, an application for BlackBerry smartphones that lets you access your phone’s Internet connection on a connected laptop computer, has been renamed Tether.

The name was changed because the app is headed to handsets other than BlackBerries, including Android devices.

The app is available in the BlackBerry App World right now, but Tether’s announcement says that an Android version is in beta testing right now, meaning an official release isn’t too far away. Even more interestingly, the release also names Apple’s iPhone as a future platform.

That’s interesting because AT&T hasn’t enabled tethering on the iPhone yet. While you can jailbreak your phone to force it, iPhones with normal software just won’t do it. Apple said when it announced iPhone OS 3.0 that tethering would eventually come, but nobody’s heard anything from AT&T about when or under what conditions. With that in mind, it’s hard to say what the Tether team has planned for the iPhone. Do they know something we don’t about AT&T’s plans or are they just speculating?

Tags: android, App, blackberry, blackberry app world, cell phones, iphone, Mobile 2.0, tether, tetherberry, Tethering

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Earlier this week the much-anticipated Foursquare everywhere release came to fruition, making the location-based mobile game available to all regardless of their physical location. Details behind the everywhere launch and how it affected the overall game experience, however, were sparse. Until now.

Foursquare everywhere changes the check-in game as we know it. So take what you know and throw it out the window. This just got more interesting.

The City Shake Up

The whole Foursquare experience used to be centered around your city, so badges and check-ins were city-specific, and anytime you’d find yourself in another city you’d essentially need to start over from scratch. Foursquare everywhere turns that model upside down, so now you can place yourself anywhere in the world (instead of Foursquare locking you down in the nearest city).

You’ll also notice that adding new venues is now address-optional. Instead, Foursquare finally got smart: If you opt to skip the physical address entry step when you check in at a new venue, they’ll automatically attach your GPS location — as pinpointed by your mobile device — to define the venue’s location. Given how tedious it is to manually enter the address of a new place, especially with the knowledge that your GPS-enabled phone knows where you are, we find this to be the most welcome development of all.

Badges of Honor

Duplicate badges are donzo, which means gone are the days when you could earn the Newbie badge for each new city you traveled to. When it comes to badges, think of them as no longer constrained to a particular city, but worldwide badges of honor you carry with you. In fact, you can earn badges anywhere in the world and take them with you as travel. So, if you’ve unlocked the School Night badge in San Diego, there’s no need to try to stay out all night in New York (on a week night) to repeat your previous coup.

For those of you who love a challenge, Foursquare everywhere now includes a whole new set of badges for you to try to unlock. There are a total of 10 new ones (three pictured above), but we also know that even more are on the way. Since there is such an allure around unlocking mystery badges, we won’t spoil the fun, but we know that some of you at CES have managed to unlock a few of these new treasures.

Who’s on Top?

I personally play the Foursquare check-in game for the mayorships, badges and tips from friends, but some of you take rising to the top of your city’s leaderboard very seriously. If that’s you, pay close attention, because the rules have changed slightly.

With the city-lockdown lifted, Foursquare now organizes local leaderboards by your proximity to other Foursquare users. Now you’ll be ranked against everyone who has accrued points within 25 miles (40 km) of your current location. You probably won’t notice the change too much, but we think it’s a smart play and opens up the competition elements to Foursquare users on the fringe of larger playing fields.

Coming Soon

With money in the bank, Foursquare is pushing out improvements at lightning speed. In the coming weeks you can expect a spiffy new version of the iPhone app — version 1.5 — to be released in the App Store. While there won’t be tons of cosmetic changes to this update, you can expect 1.5 to be more sophisticated when it comes to locating and serving up more accurate places nearby. Eventually the iPhone app will also support more “Trending Nearby” functionality to call out hot places. We also know that the team is working on drastic UX improvements to the iPhone app, so you can expect a major redesign in the coming months.

When it comes to other mobile devices, the beta BlackBerry app is being tested by 5,000 users and Foursquare plans to push this to the public in about a week. And of course, Palm Pre users can already get their hands on that app now.

[img credit: MariShelbley]

Tags: foursquare, Mobile 2.0, social media, trending

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Remember the old way you acquired applications? You read or heard about an app somewhere, and then you’d go looking for the web site of the software company that creates it. You installed them from DVDs that came with paper magazines. If you build new computers often, you probably have a list with links for the most important apps, or (like me), you keep a must-have freeware collection on your USB drive all the time.

Thanks to Apple and its iPhone App Store model, all of this might very soon become unnecessary, as companies are announcing similar app store that cater to owners of devices other than mobile phones. First it was Samsung with its HDTV app store, and now Intel has unveiled AppUp, an app store for netbooks.

The store itself is a desktop app for Windows-based netbooks; you download it, and install apps from there. Some of the apps currently on offer are Newsy, Boxee and Yoono. On the developer side, you can download the SDK for creating apps for the store and build your own; Intel claims that the SDK has already been downloaded 2,500 times.

Intel also offers a white label solution for different netbook manufacturers, who can create their own, branded versions of the store. We can probably expect these to come pre-installed on netbooks in the future. Intel, however, plans to expand the store beyond netbooks onto other devices, such as handhelds, smart TV devices, and even PCs. And why not? The app store is not as necessary on a PC or a netbook as it is on a mobile phone, but once you get used to the concept, it can be a neat, tidy, well organized place to find and discover software.

Tags: app store, intel, netbook

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The experience of watching television is getting revolutionized at CES this year. Samsung has just added to this trend by announcing that it will launch an app store for HDTVs in July 2010.

With products like the Boxee Box and the Popbox, as well as services such as DivX TV and Yahoo Connected TV coming on the scene, it’s clear that interactive TV is where it’s at this year.

Come this July, Samsung fans will be able to purchase and download applications in the realms of video, information, lifestyle, games and sports for use on 2010 Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray Players and Home Theater systems. Content partners will include: Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY and Vudu.

Samsung already has a mobile app store, which has now been launched in England, France, Italy and Korea (the company plans to expand to 50 countries this year), and the addition of a store for HDTVs will only increase the company’s reach. The question becomes, however: In a market that is becoming more and more saturated with interactive TV technology, how will all the players seek to differentiate themselves from the pack?

[via Web Pro News]

Tags: App, CES, CES 2010, Gadget, samsung, television

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Originally posted at 2010 CES

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Up until now, the Facebook iPhone app [iTunes link] had everything but push notifications. The launch of version 3.1, however, remedies that ill. The other 3.1 biggie is the ability to sync your Facebook friends with your phone’s address book contacts — photos and all.

Push Notifications

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When 3.0 came out this summer, there were some vocal complaints that the Facebook iPhone app didn’t do push notifications; it seems like basic functionality for any post-iPhone OS 3.0 application. Now when you start the app up after updating, you’ll be prompted asking if it’s okay to do notifications. Once you’ve said yes, it follows the standard iPhone notifications rules. You can customize what you’ll receive in settings.

Address Book Syncing

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Right after you allow or deny notifications at the beginning, you’ll be asked if you want to sync with your address book. It will sync personal data, and change your contacts’ listed homepages to their Facebook profile URLs if they didn’t list anything themselves. You can choose whether or not to sync profile pictures, but that’s the only customization option you have. Still, it’s a very welcome feature.

A Minor Quibble

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You’ll probably want to customize your push notification settings right away, because we quickly discovered that all notifications options are on by default: messages, wall posts, friend requests, friend confirmations, photo tags, events and comments. It can get a little spammy, and if you already have e-mail notifications set up (and push e-mail on your phone) you’ll end up getting double notifications for some things. It’s a small hassle, but easily sorted out.

Tags: apple, facebook, facebook for iphone, facebook for iphone 3.1, iphone app store, push notifications, social networking, trending

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You have plenty of options when it comes to using Twitter on your iPhone. But Echofon just made a big move for your attention by releasing version 3.0.

The naan studio blog details the changes, and they are many. There’s a dedicated tab for Twitter Lists now; you can follow and unfollow Lists, and check which Lists follow you. The new retweet functionality is now fully supported in addition to the old method, which lets you include commentary on what you’re retweeting. You can also geotag your tweets now, and look at maps for your friends’ geotagged tweets.

Echofon 3 also overhauls the app’s search tab. You can search for users by first name, last name, username or company. Trends are easier to sort through, and searches you’ve saved at Twitter.com are accessible in the app. There are a bunch of other smaller changes, too.

The new version of Echofon Pro is already available in the Apple App Store [iTunes link] for $4.99. The free version will be available soon pending Apple approval, and it will have more features than the previous free Echofon. The biggest difference between free and Pro now (apart from the inclusion of ads in the free version) is Pro’s capability to send push notifications of updates from non-Echofon users.

Tags: echofon, echofon 3, iphone, iphone app, iphone app store, naan studio, twitter

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Originally posted at The Web Services Report

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As I have mentioned a few times we are working on an iPhone app for Abduzeedo. We had some small issues that delayed the release but now we are on the right track for the launch. First, however, we want to test it more and with more people.

The first version of the iPhone app will be about inspiration and it will show all images from the Daily Inspiration series. We have already planned the expansion to all the inspiration content on Abduzeedo.

Sneak Peek

Here is a short video showing the basic functionality of the app. Our goal is to provide an easy to use interface for inspiring images, so you can save it on your iPhone or iPod Touch; share it with your friends via Twitter or visit the site for more information.

Looking for some beta testers

We want to release the app as soon as possible, but we want to make sure that it will be running smoothly, that is why we need to test it a little longer. Therefore we are looking for some iPhone/iPod Touch users that would be willing to test it for us.

If you are interested leave a comment and we will be contacting you to get the iPhone Device ID.

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This was our selection of 20, so if you think that there are any others that deserve to be part of the list, why not let us know by dropping in a comment. Enjoy the list.

iPhone App Websites…

Outpost

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Tea Round

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Dig Deep Fitness

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Outside App

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Tapbots

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Cellar App

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Broadersheet

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Tap Tapas

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The Typography Manual

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Paraply

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Barista

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The Fun Tip Calculator

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June Cloud

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Wheel of Tea

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Tic A Tac Poker

* * * * *

Ego App

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Happy Dangy Diggy

* * * * *

TweetDeck

* * * * *

WordPress For iPhone

* * * * *

Tweetie

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Build It With Me is a great application to brings all the designers, developers and entrepreneurs under one roof. Getting funding for your app idea is hard and often unrealistic; it will help you bootstrap your ideas into actual apps.

Have you ever had an idea for a website or application that you just couldn’t develop yourself? How many times have you just let that idea fall to the back of your mind to possibly get lost forever – just because you couldn’t get the right funding or couldn’t find the right people to work on it? By using the Build It With Me powerful tools that simply enable users to improve how they work and share ideas together.

More from Build It With Me:

“Build It With Me is a tool that connects design and development entrepreneurs. It exists to make creating apps easier by connecting you with like-minded designers and developers with the same goal: create cool and useful apps.”

“Getting funding for your app idea is hard and often unrealistic. Most of the time you may just need to connect with a partner who has a skill set you lack to finish off your app. This is where Build It With Me is comes in, connecting you to those people. Skip the funding. Build It With Me will help you bootstrap your ideas into actual apps.”

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Nodconcept has released a super simple iPhone app — Emoti for Facebook [iTunes link] — that increases the cute factor of Facebook status updates exponentially with emoticons for all moods and occasions.

Emoti is a $1.99 single-purpose app that just does one thing: Creates emoticons for Facebook status updates. Given the widespread appeal of emoticons, the vast selection of adorable and hilarious ones to choose from, and the sheer size of Facebook, we expect this app to be a hit.

Using Emoti is as simple as launching the app, selecting an emoticon from the pages of available silly and fun options, adding your message and clicking share. The first time around you’ll need to sign into Facebook using Facebook Connect, but thereafter you can easily send a status update to your wall or any of your Facebook lists.

Should you wish to get your hands on these emoticons for free, we’ve got 25 gift codes available for Mashable readers. The first 25 people to retweet this post and follow Nodconcept on Twitter [@nodconcept] will receive a gift code from the developers redeemable for a complimentary version of the app via direct message. Good luck and happy emoticon sharing on Facebook.

Emoti Photos

Tags: emoti, emoticons, iphone, iphone app, Mobile 2.0

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Major media and news organizations have been leveraging their brand-power through mobile apps for a while now, mostly on the iPhone, and logically so — Apple currently has 4% of the mobile market share in the U.S.

But with the recent release of the Motorola Droid, and the emergence of Google’s own Nexus One hardware, the Android user base is growing, and so is the demand for polished apps from trusted news sources.

So far, three major outlets have heeded Android’s call. Here’s how these top news apps stack up.

USA Today

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The first thing you’ll notice about USA Today’s Android App is that it’s dead simple. On first launch, the clean blue home screen comes up quickly with top stories and your metro-area weather (even with GPS location disabled).

Scroll easily through the stories and choose from the news categories above them: Sports, Life, Tech, Travel, etc.

Above the headlines, you’re one click away from all the recent sports scores, a feature that readers of the paper are known to look for. Scroll down for the scores, scroll across for each league (NFL, MLB, NBA, etc.)

The same ease applies for weather and a sharp looking photo gallery, with news pics by category and fast-loading slide shows. Flick left or right to advance, tap for a photo caption.

A unique feature of the USA Today app is the Snapshots button, which takes you to a series of polls. Vote on popular news topics or trends, then see the results instantly, broken down by location and other qualifiers. This is a nice feature that really engages the app’s audience with USA Today’s famous polls.

The one downside of this app is that there is absolutely no customization or settings. You can’t alter the feeds, create a home page, or change the color scheme. But after a bit of use, there’s really no need. The app works so fluidly and intuitively that customization might only complicate things.

Bottom line: For a quick news fix and the latest sports scores, the USA Today app is perfect for that just-woke-up-in-a-hotel-room feeling.

NPR News

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This app is a public radio junkie’s dream come true. Its big, clean, list interface is easy on the eyes. Click a category like “Top Stories” and scroll through the list.

Where this app really shines is the audio player that peeks from the bottom. Click any story with the red audio symbol next to it, and instantly stream it to the player.

You can also queue up multiple stories of interest with the “Add to Playlist” feature, then kick back and listen to a customized NPR news broadcast. You can continue to browse and read other text stories while the audio is playing.

Beyond browsing the news by category, you can also scope the recent podcasts of your favorite NPR shows like All Things Considered and Fresh Air, and stream them right into the audio player. Also, if you’re a fan of a particular local station, you can enter the call letters (or your zip code) and snag those podcasts as well.

There are two major shortcomings I see with this app. First, you cannot stream the live broadcast of your local station as you can on the web. This seems like a logical (and hopefully forthcoming) feature, especially since it can be done with certain 3rd-party apps like StreamFurious, though the station list is haphazard.

Secondly, you cannot multi-task while listening to an audio stream. Jumping to the home screen or checking an e-mail notification breaks the audio. This is a real disappointment, since most Android apps (including the built-in music player) allow you to listen to audio while you work in other applications.

Bottom line: Shortcomings aside, the easy access to hoardes of NPR audio makes this app a keeper.

AP Mobile

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The Android app from the Associated Press is laid out similarly to USA Today’s offering, referenced above. The interface is clean and fluid. An initial input of your zip code keys you in to local weather (accesible from the menu) and local stories in your news feed. A dedicated photos tab brings you a collage and slide show of gorgeous AP photography, including captions.

This app differs from the others in this round up in that it is highly customizable. From the settings menu, you can control what stories you see and in what order. If you want the app to open and display entertainment or tech stories first, simply drag those category to the top of the list.

The app also has useful social integration with Twitter and Facebook, allowing you to share a story you’re reading directly from the app. And one feature AP Mobile has over the other two is video content. A dedicated tab cues up a list of the AP’s recent videos and streams them right in the app, similar to the way Android streams YouTube videos.

In fact, the app might even have too many options. It takes a bit of tinkering before all of the settings for your news feed are in place.

Bottom line: It may be a little heavy for those who are just looking for a quick update, but can be a versatile information resource for those who take the time to fine tune it.

Full Disclosure: An immediate family member of Matt Silverman is employed by the Associated Press.

Conclusion

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Despite some minor flaws, each of the apps above are robust and reliable go-to sources for news on an Android device. The bar has been set for other organizations who seek to compete for Android’s growing mobile market share.

Do these apps fulfill your mobile news needs? What other Android apps do you use to read and share news? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

More Android resources from Mashable:

- The Best Free Twitter Apps for Android
- 30 Android Apps to Watch
- 8 Android Apps Worth Paying For (And Some That Aren’t)
- Mobile Advertising: 5 Things You Need to Know to Succeed in 2010
- Put on Your Google Goggles and Visually Search the World

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

Tags: android, Android apps, apps, Google, News

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When Apple filed a patent for tech that would let you control your home computer with your iPhone or iPod touch, that was neat and all, but the functionality already existed in third-party apps. Now a product from a company called L5 will help iPhones seize control of the home theater instead of the desktop.

It’s called L5 Remote, and it has two components: a free app and a not-free hardware accessory. The accessory attaches to the iPhone’s USB port, then sends IR signals like most other universal remotes. It captures the signals sent out by your existing remotes so you can map them to buttons on the app. The cool part? The app lets you customize the interface by adding, deleting and moving around buttons to match your personal uses.

The app will serve as a free trial. You’ll be able to download it and see all the cool things you can do, but it’ll be useless without the IR hardware, which will set you back $49.95. If you already have an iPhone or iPod touch, that’s probably cheaper than buying one of those dedicated touchscreen remotes.

Here’s hoping that it actually works, though. The “Reviews” tab on the product’s website is not working yet, and the release date is a mystery. What do you think? Is this going to be practical or just pie-in-the-sky?

[via TheAppleBlog]

Tags: apple, iphone, iphone accessory, iphone app, iphone remote control, iPod Touch, l5, remote control, tv

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