Flipboard aggregates the data from your favorite online services and displays them in an elegant display. It pulls feeds from your accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram, Google Reader, LinkedIn and more. The resulting combined output is displayed in a beautiful tiled format that you simply flip through with your fingertips. All of your favorite activity from across the web is organized and simplified into a single app that you can browse with fluid ease and elegance.

I can confidently say that Flipboard has the single best design and stunning fluidity of any mobile app I have ever experienced, hands down. It is nothing short of spectacular. And it’s completely free! If you’re an iOS user, go download this app right now and experience the future in the palm of your hand. You’ll love it!

Apple doesn’t include free navigation on the iPhone. As a result, many users simply choose to use the free built-in Maps app for maps and directions. The Maps app is useful for finding nearby places but is inadequate as a substitute for turn-by-turn driving directions. I want a GPS app with maps in first-person view and turn-by-turn spoken directions. There are several solutions in the App Store and I’m going to focus on the big three. All three apps below utilize multitasking so you can still use another app or talk on the phone and they will continue delivering voice guidance.

MotionX GPS Drive

In the past, MotionX GPS Drive is the app I have used the most, and I even wrote a post about it in July of 2010. It costs 99¢ in the App Store. It is feature-rich and works relatively well. The catch is that in order to get the voice guidance, you have to subscribe via an in-app purchase. 30 days of voice guidance costs $2.99. It isn’t an automatically renewed subscription, but a 30-day pass that you can re-activate whenever you need it. If you rarely need to use GPS navigation, this is a very cheap solution. You also have the option to pay for one full year of voice guidance at $24.99 (reportedly now $19.99), which is far cheaper than buying a standalone GPS unit.

Some downsides to MotionX GPS Drive are that the app interface is a bit cluttered. I think that many of the options and settings could be simplified. For example, if I’m sitting at a stoplight and I want to quickly navigate to one of my saved locations, I have to click through several screens to get to that. I appreciate that the app has the sheer number of settings that it does, but I’d like to have an option for a much more simplified view of my choices, in much larger writing.

MotionX uses OpenStreetMap as its mapping source. The biggest cost in a GPS system is the actual map data. The big boys charge a premium for their well polished maps. OpenStreetMap is a crowdsourced mapping system that was created and is maintained by the community in a way like Wikipedia, meaning regular Internet users are adding and updating the data on these maps. The use of OpenStreetMap is what keeps the cost of MotionX so low compared to some of the others. This can also lead to inaccuracies, but I never noticed any issues when I’ve used it in my area.

Map data is downloaded from the server at the time you plot a route or choose a destination. You must have an Internet connection via Wi-Fi or 3G to get this initial map data. Maps are then cached and are reused until the cache is filled (up to 2 GB of storage). This is a disadvantage if you are in an area without data coverage. However, it is an advantage in that the app itself is small and maps are always fresh, having just come from the source.

Overall, I had a fairly successful experience with MotionX. My biggest complaint is that the app would often tell me to turn when I was right on top the turn, or when I was already passing it. I often didn’t get enough warning of an impending turn and found myself glancing at the screen a lot just to feel certain about what was coming next. Another downside is that the voice navigation doesn’t pronounce street names aloud. It says highway numbers but leaves road names out. I prefer to hear the road names spoken to me. In addition, I prefer to see speed limits within the GPS unit and MotionX does not provide this information. That said, MotionX is constantly being improved and updated. New features are made available all the time.

Garmin StreetPilot

Garmin finally got in the game at the beginning of 2011 with StreetPilot. This iPhone app looks exactly like the Garmin Nuvi GPS unit. The interface is dead simple and easy to use. Maps on the Garmin are downloaded on-the-fly just as MotionX does. Garmin isn’t using OpenStreetMap though, it uses the same map source used in their GPS units, so map data is likely to be more accurate. The app also offers real-time traffic updates.

StreetPilot is a one-time purchase of $34. It is cheaper than TomTom and far cheaper than a standalone unit. I almost purchased StreetPilot, but I’d read many negative reviews of it on the web and in the App Store. Garmin has released several updates since the initial version, but users have still complained about various aspects of it. The number one complaint I’ve seen is that the voice isn’t clear or loud enough. Many users reported trouble understanding the spoken voice guidance. I’m sure it Garmin makes a solid product, but the user reviews turned me off and I looked to TomTom instead.

TomTom USA

From my research, the TomTom app is the gold standard of iOS navigation apps. It has won the praise of many. TomTom bundles all of their map data within the app, so no data connection is required to use it, just like a standalone unit. The maps are updated when they release new versions of the app. The inclusion of the map data makes the app itself very large. The TomTom USA app amounts to a whopping 1.3 GB, easily the largest mobile app I’ve ever downloaded. When TomTom releases an update of any kind, you have to download an entire new 1.3 GB app again. That said, some map updates are pushed to the app automatically, and large app releases are relatively few and far between. TomTom is also quite expensive at $49. I bought it a few weeks ago on sale for $39. That is a lot of money for an iPhone app, but a fraction of the money I would have spent on a TomTom standalone unit, which I was also considering at the time.

I really like the TomTom GPS app. The interface is simple and clean, with large letters and graphics. It warns me with ample time to make a turn or to change lanes. When I approach a complex interchange on the freeway, the app automatically shows a zoomed view of what lane I need to be in to stay on course. That is pretty sweet. TomTom is the only one of these three to offer celebrity voices, including Homer Simpson! Celebrity voices cost extra via an in-app purchase. I have not installed any such voices. They are cute, but rather unnecessary. The included voice is perfect as it is. Street names are all read and pronounced aloud. Traffic information is also available, if desired. TomTom also makes a US and Canada combo app that is slightly more expensive than the US only version. International versions are available as well.

Overall, MotionX provides the cheapest GPS navigation solution, but I find the TomTom app to have a bit more polish, accuracy, and ease of use. I also prefer the one-time purchase over subscription pricing.

The first app you should check out is called Plaintext. It has replaced the Notes app for me on my iPhone. Plaintext is a free and simple barebones text editor. What makes it so useful is that there is no local saving of text files. It automatically saves everything you type into a folder on Dropbox. Plaintext makes note-taking much easier than using the Notes app where you sync files via iTunes. I can now jot down notes on the go and when I get home to my computer, the notes are already there waiting for me. It works in the opposite direction as well. I can write and save files to the Plaintext folder in Dropbox on my computer and I can access and edit them on my phone. There are other apps that do the same type of thing that Plaintext does, but Plaintext is completely free and does works perfectly. I highly recommend it.

Sometimes I don’t feel like typing long notes on my phone and would rather record a voice memo. Say hello to Dropvox. It is a simple voice recorder where the recordings are automatically saved to Dropbox. The Dropvox app is extremely basic, almost to a fault. You can’t go back and listen to what you just recorded, or see a list of files saved. It is a one-way street. Of course, you could use the Dropbox iOS app if you want to browse what is in the folder. Limitations aside, it’s nice to sit at my computer and see the files of my recordings waiting for me. This is easier than using the Voice Memos app included in iOS where you have to sync the phone to iTunes to get the files. Granted, the audio quality is compressed with Dropvox, so you wouldn’t want to use it in situations where you want the best audio quality. I tend to use it when I’m driving and I want to remind myself of something to look up later, or something to add to my hate list, for instance. Dropvox costs 99 cents.

Apple is rumored to make a big cloud push this year, and the release of iOS 5 may bring this type of functionality to the native Notes and Voice Memos apps. We shall see. For now, try the two solutions above. Both Plaintext and Dropvox work on the iPad as well.

Before I get into my list of features I want in the iPhone app, I would like to point out a glaring omission with the Google Voice system as a whole. That omission is that MMS texting is not allowed. If anyone sends me a text message that includes a picture, I receive absolutely nothing. No notification, no bounceback. Absolutely nothing. I don’t know why this isn’t fully supported. It couldn’t be a storage issue since Google owns enormous properties like YouTube. The amount of data to manage MMS messaging would be less than a drop in the bucket of the data management for YouTube videos. At the very least, I wish Google would deliver me the text portion of a MMS message with an “attachment not included” warning. Get on this already!

Back to the iPhone app. For some unknown reason, composing text in landscape mode is not supported. I most always lock my phone in portrait mode, so it’s not a huge deal for me, but not everyone uses it the way I do. Landscape mode for the Google Voice app is surely needed, especially for people used to typing in that fashion.

There are no zero options for notification sounds! The only sound the app makes is the generic iOS default notify ding. I’ve used the TextFree app in the past and it had a dozen or so options for notification sounds. This would be a very welcomed feature for Google Voice. The fact that it doesn’t exist already is outrageous. This is one of my biggest complaints.

The font size for text composition is entirely too small. If I compose a brand new text message, the font size and window for typing is just right. However, when working in the inbox timeline of a text thread, the font is really tiny, and replying is done in an incredibly small window. I would like this to change. I would even like to see some font size options in the app settings. In fact, the entire interface of the app could be a lot more attractive overall. I’m calling for a complete overhaul of the user interface.

I use the Google Voice app a lot during the course of a day and I feel like the app is a battery and resource hog. I have no evidence to back this up, mind you. It’s just a hunch. At times it can feel a bit slow and clunky. I don’t know what could be done about this, if anything, but I can’t get past the feeling that the app is making my phone work harder than it should. This issue is the least important in my wishlist and for all I know, it isn’t really an issue at all, but I had to toss it in at the end.

I’ve never used Google Voice on an Android phone so I can’t comment on that experience. I do love the service as a whole. I just wish the iPhone app would receive the overhaul it desperately needs. Get on it, Google!

I use a traditional alarm clock next to my bed that completely infuriates me every morning when it blares out its trademark wail. It makes me so mad when it goes off. Despite its horrible piercing noise, I can never seem to drag myself out of bed. I always end up slapping the snooze button countless times, pushing the window for me to get up and get ready to the last possible minute. Sure, I could move the clock across the room, but I’ve done that before and it doesn’t work for me. I will still run over to smack it and jump back under the covers.

In addition to the physical alarm, I use my iPhone as a second alarm clock. It makes sense to use my phone, since I have it with me in the bed every night, and it can survive a power outage. It is also a lot more gentle. Unlike my physical alarm clock, which fires up like a bulldozer crashing into the room, my phone sneaks up on me with a pleasant sound. I never beat the crap out of the phone like I do with the real clock. The alarm is my phone’s way of saying, “Hey, peek-a-boo, look at me. Don’t you want to check Facebook and Twitter?” And that I do. Once my phone sounds off, I snatch it to see what’s happening in the world. It gives me a reason stay up and I almost never snooze it. It will often make me stay in the bed for far too long, though.

Neither of my above solutions make me want to get out of the bed. That is the whole problem. This is where my idea for an alarm clock bed comes in. What if the bed itself had an alarm that would not stop alerting you until you got out of bed? It could be pressure-sensitive like car seats or the seat on a riding lawn mower. Perhaps you can set it so that the alarm only activates once you are in the bed, so that if you’re out of town, for instance, it won’t go off. A vibration feature would be nice, but may only encourage you to stay in the bed. The vibration would have to be quite strong to make you want to get out as soon as possible.

This was just a half-brained idea when I thought of it. Clearly, this system would have flaws. First, it would be expensive and unnecessary. I have no idea how you’d set and maintain the time on this bed. If you have a water bed, as I do, then adding electrical components is clearly not a wise idea. Also, if you happen to pass out on the couch, it wouldn’t work. Another pitfall is that you have to be sleeping alone. Obviously, if two people share the bed, or if you have a heavy dog, this concept isn’t going to fly.

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea in the first place. Oh well.

In August, I wrote about the awesome TextFree iPhone app. I’ve used it for a while now and definitely would recommend it to replace the expensive text plans from the mobile carriers. I even paid $5.99 for a year of ad-free use of the app, which I think is well worth it.

However, last week, the free Google Voice app suddenly appeared in the App Store. I immediately downloaded the app. Calls to my Google Voice number will automatically ring my phone, and all text messages are displayed through a push notification. It’s pretty awesome. I don’t intend to replace my voice calls with my Google number, but I do intend to use it exclusively to replace native texting. Make sure you disable the forwarding of texts to your actual mobile number in the preferences to avoid being charged for texts by your carrier.

With Google Voice, all text messages are saved and can be browsed in a web interface that looks and behaves like GMail. That is an impressive feature that TextFree doesn’t offer. I hate to abandon TextFree, but I find Google Voice to be incredibly slick, and the app to be more responsive overall. It will be my exclusive means of mobile texting from now on.

The problem is that to do so, I have to tap Settings, tap General, drill into Bluetooth, then slide it on or off. This doesn’t sound like a lot of trouble, but it gets cumbersome if you do it every other day.

I propose creating a single icon that toggles Bluetooth on or off. I could add such an icon permanently to the dock and tap it once to enable it, then tap it again to disable it. The icon color will indicate the current state (as well as the usual Bluetooth indicator in the menu bar.) I think this is a brilliant proposal and will help everyone extend their battery life.

This is likely possible if you jailbreak your phone. I don’t wish to do that at this time. This is something that should naturally be included in the operating system. Last week, I actually wrote Steve Jobs an email demanding this very feature be added to the next version of iOS. I have serious doubts that my email will ever be read by anyone. I’m including that email, shown below.

Steve, I’d like an easier way to toggle bluetooth on/off in my iPhone. I hate digging through Settings/General/Bluetooth. I want an independent icon for bluetooth that I can tap like an on/off switch. How about adding this addition in the next iOS update? Later.

I already pay $5 per month for a 200-limit text message plan with AT&T. For a few of months, I’d even boosted it to the next level which gave me 1500 texts per month for $15. I think the entire texting industry is absurdly high priced. If I am already paying for 3G Internet data, simple 160-character text-only messages should come and go for free. I’m tired of paying such ridiculously high fees for texting.

It looks like I’ll no longer have to. I’ve found Textfree and it gives me a completely new phone number to use for unlimited texting, all for FREE. No longer will I be taking it in the rear from the phone company. I highly recommend this app to every iOS user, which includes iPad and iPod Touch users. The app is ad-supported in the free version, but you can eliminate all ads if you subscribe as a paying customer for $6 per year. Even as a paying customer, the price is a steal compared to paying for traditional texting via the mobile carrier.

Do yourself a favor. Check this out. Save some money.

It is a fantastic Scrabble clone that you play online with your friends. In fact, the official Scrabble game doesn’t even have the same fun online game play.

I moved the icon for the game to my home screen so I could see the notification badges when it is my turn. I’ve been playing five or more games at the same time. The fact that you’re playing with another real user is really cool. I love when I check my phone and see that Words With Friends notifies me that it’s my move.

If you have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, this game is a must. There is a free ad-supported version and a $3 paid version. Personally, I paid for the app, because I despise ads. Pick either version of the app and play. I’m addicted!

When you use the onscreen keyboard, you are likely to make errors. Apple has obviously spent a lot of time determining the most commonly mistyped words, and automatically correct them. I appreciate that very much, and in a general sense, the feature works quite well. I often take for granted how well it is fixing my typos as I hammer out text.

However, it feels that with iOS4, the auto-correct feature has become overreaching. The results are not always pretty. I’m getting fed up with the changes it makes to my text. There have been countless times that I’ve had to send two text messages instead of one simply because I have to follow a bad auto-correct with an explanation. I’m tired of wasting texts!

I’ll list a few examples of what I mean, but there are many more examples than the few I’m going to mention.

1. When I type the abbreviation “msg” in an email or text message, the iPhone automatically changes it to a capitalized “MSG.” This happens every single time. I can only assume that it thinks I am talking about either Madison Square Garden or monosodium glutamate. Now, why the hell would the average user write about either of these in a text message? Why in the world would this be the default auto-correct? It is truly amazing.
2. Every time I type the word “hell” it is auto-corrected to “he’ll.” Annoying. The same is true for the word “well.” It is made into a contraction, but the vast majority of the time I am simply saying, “Well, blah blah blah.”
3. Just a few days ago I wrote a silly text to my brother, quoting the movie Weekend At Bernies. When I hit SEND, I realized the phone had corrected my joke to “Weekend At Bermuda.” The joke was ruined, and I had to send a second text to explain the screw up. This kind of thing happens to me every day.

I’ve had to turn off the auto-correct feature. I am simply tired of every thing I say being altered into something completely different. I’ve had enough! From now on, I’ll handle my typos on my own.

I’ve now found the perfect solution for my needs. I downloaded the MotionX GPS Drive app, which is currently on sale for $1. I think it usually goes for $7, but I am not exactly sure about the standard price.

I don’t need a GPS unit on a daily basis. I mainly want it for the occasional road trip. This app provides a very cheap solution for those needs. MotionX GPS Drive has turned out to be awesome! You have to pay for the speaking turn-by-turn navigation feature, but you get to use for free for the first month. After that is only $3 for a single month of use, which you can purchase any time. If you want to pay for a full year, it is $25. You could do that year after year and still make out for less than a standalone GPS unit, or the Tom Tom app. I’m sold.

One advantage of using this solution is that the maps are downloaded to the phone and cached. By default, it will use up to 2 GB of storage for the map data. You can clear and reset the maps at any time, and you always have the latest up-to-date maps for your area. The fresh maps are the advantage over using a standalone GPS unit.

I’ve been using MotionX GPS for a few days to try it out. I am very impressed. It has performed well. A bluetooth earpiece is handy if you want to talk on the phone at the same time and still be able to see the maps. My phone does get a little warm to the touch after using the navigation. Also, expect this app to eat away at your battery when you use it. The phone is doing a lot of thinking, so that doesn’t surprise me.

iOS4 now has multitasking, and MotionX supports multitasking. I can easily jump out of the app and do other things on my phone and it will continue to tell me where to go. iOS4 also includes a portrait-locking mode to keep the screen from rotating when you turn it. I love this feature of the new OS, but MotionX GPS Drive is one app that looks better in landscape mode. It still works in portrait mode, but the map and directions feel cramped.

This app has received very positive reviews. Definitely give it a try. It is the probably the cheapest professional voice navigation app on the iPhone, to my knowledge. If you have an Android phone, you’re probably snickering, as Android phones include free navigation software from Google. I am quite aware of this. If you have an Android phone, then congratulations. If you have an iPhone, get MotionX GPS Drive.

There is an awesome YouTube video of a user demonstrating the new features of iOS4.

Countless tech blogs are buzzing with this news today, so I have no need to go into detail about the new features. You can read those details elsewhere. I will say that the iPhone 4 OS (now called iOS) is going to be released for free to all users on June 21st. As a 3GS user, I’ll surely benefit from the new operating system upgrade. That said, I’m not sure if I’m all that crazy about the new name “iOS.”

I’ve provided a few links to a some tech blogs for news about the new iPhone 4. These links will age quickly, as more will be written in time.

• Apple iPhone Page
• ArsTechnia
• Engadget
• Macworld

After June 7, AT&T 3G subscribers will no longer have an unlimited option. A new $15 plan with 200 MB will be available, along with a $25 plan that caps out at 2 GB monthly. The 2 GB plan has a $10 charge for each additional GB that exceeds the plan.

The sudden change appears to be linked to the June 7th Apple WWDC announcement of the upcoming 4th generation iPhone. Some in the tech industry have been up in arms about the sudden change. Others have taken a more measured response. They have been citing how the other wireless carriers are also placing bandwidth caps of their own. I believe that in the end, none of the major carriers will offer an unlimited wireless data plan.

I’ll state my opinion on AT&T’s announcement: I personally do not care.

I don’t use very much 3G data, and I could actually benefit from the cheaper $15 plan that is half the cost of the $30 unlimited plan that I pay for today. In order to be certain, I checked my monthly data usage on AT&T’s website tonight. It turns out that the most wireless data I have used in a single month is 133 MB. That is all!

I’m obviously not a heavy user. I rarely stream video over 3G, or do other data-intensive tasks. AT&T says that 98% of their users use less than 2 GB of data per month. That works for me! I couldn’t consume 2 GB on my phone if I tried.

All of the above said, I concede that iPad 3G owners will certainly be the most likely to feel the pinch of the new bandwidth restrictions. I wrote this article with the iPhone user in mind.

The best thing about the new app is that it is now completely free, unlike the apps of the past. There are a few new bells and whistles in the new app, but overall, I haven’t found it to be all that different than Tweetie2. The app icon is prettier, but that isn’t much to write home about. Retweeting and other actions have been simplified in the new version, but I’ve found most of the changes to be quite subtle.

My only complaint is that users are still stuck with black text on a white background. The original Tweetie had an option to change the background color to black. Personally, I liked reading in that way. That option disappeared in Tweetie2, and at the time I went as far as to write the company and tell them I missed the feature. I received a reply from the company! They had said that a large number of users had written asking for that very feature to make a return. They said that it would be brought back in version 2.2, citing that they had too many important changes to make in 2.1. Now that Tweetie was bought by Twitter, that plan must have been scrapped. There is no option in version 3.0 to change the background color. Umph!

Despite that relatively minor complaint, it is still my belief that Tweetie/Twitter 3.0 is still the best Twitter client for the iPhone. I can only hope that they finally update the aging Mac desktop Twitter client, which is still stuck on version 1.2.6. Hurry up, guys!

I have since gone through periods of love and hate with the screen cover. After some time, when used in conjunction with my Otter Box case, the screen protector began to show air bubbles at the top and bottom edges. This problem has grown more frequent in recent weeks.

A month or two ago, Apple decided to stop carrying such screen protectors in their official Apple store. They apparently don’t want to promote the idea that you need to protect this device at all. Since that time, I’ve read many opposing viewpoints online on this issue, and I’ve never been able to reach a decisive conclusion.

A week ago, I finally grew tired of the reoccurring air bubbles in my screen cover, and ripped it off. Now I’m using it bare. I have to say that it feels much slicker and more responsive without the screen cover on top of the glass. I’m going to continue to use it this way. I put my phone in my pocket, and never put any change or keys in the same pocket. I’m very protective of my phone, and I don’t think I need a screen cover to keep it safe. Plus the screen simply looks more shiny and clear! Ditch your screen covers.

Opera Mini is touting faster speeds and more features over the built-in Safari browser for the iPhone. That said, I don’t see any speed improvement in my experience. As for the extra features (such as tabbed browsing), they all serve to make the Opera interface look too cluttered. There are simply too many buttons, options, bells and whistles. It looks as if they tried to cram all of the features of a desktop application into an iPhone app. For me, that strategy just doesn’t work for a mobile device. The screen real estate for the actual web page is cut in half by all of Opera’s interface clutter.

I applaud Apple for relaxing their tight grip on third-party web browsers. If you’re interested in Opera Mini, then by all means, give it a try. As for me, I’m going to stick with the ease and simplicity of Safari. Any speed increase for Opera is negated by the fact that I hardly ever use a web browser on my iPhone to begin with. On the whole, I honestly don’t see use in Opera taking off for any platform. I doubt Apple does either, which is probably why they accepted the app in the first place.

The highlights of the new version are multitasking and folders. Yes, actual multitasking of up to seven apps at a time, from the reports I have read. Hooray! I cheer that on, but I can’t honestly say I need multitasking on my iPhone. For iPad users, this will be a must-have.

I was hoping to hear an announcement that Verizon will be getting the iPhone later this year, but there is still no word on that, despite years of endless speculation. Maybe someday!

Last month, I bought an iPhone 3GS. I quickly installed the Geocaching app from geocaching.com. It is terrific for locating nearby caches. In addition, I installed MotionX GPS for the iPhone which allows me to determine my exact location in a variety of formats and email the information to myself. MotionX GPS does that and much more. I highly recommend it.

With the added help of the iPhone apps, we created our very first geocache today. I have submitted our cache information to the geocaching.com website for approval. It was a lot of fun to assemble the small cache. I can’t wait until the first person finds it!

I remember mocking the idea of geocaching the first time I heard about it. Since that time, I have come around to love it. It is really a lot of fun, and a nice, free way to get out of the house and exercise outdoors. If you have a hand-held GPS, why not give it a try?

Foursquare is an app for your mobile phone that allows you to check-in to places around town, meet up with friends, and explore your city. Foursquare users collect achievement badges and become the official mayor of places that they visit more often than other users.

I originally heard about Foursquare on the TWiT podcast network. Once I finally got an iPhone a few weeks ago, I was eager to try Foursquare, having heard so much about it. I installed Foursquare on my iPhone, as well as GoWalla, a Foursquare competitor. I’ll go ahead and say that I prefer Foursquare, largely because of the badges and overall fun nature of the app. It also helps that it is much more popular in my area than GoWalla. I’ve never had to add a location into Foursquare in any of my check-ins.

I found GoWalla to be adequate. The user interface is nice. The problem for me was that after many check-ins using both services, GoWalla did not have the place I was visiting in their database even once. I found myself having to add places manually, which eventually wore on my nerves and took some of the fun out of using the app. If it is popular where you live, you may feel otherwise.

Give Foursquare a try. You can install it on iPhone, Android, Palm, and Blackberry devices. I have my check-ins forwarded to my Facebook account so that my friends can see where I am even if they aren’t using Foursquare. Sure, it’s kind of nerdy, but I enjoy it.

The iPhone version of Plants vs. Zombies is absolutely fantastic. It is likely the best iPhone game I have ever played. The desktop version is perfectly recreated on the iPhone. The touch interface fits the game like a glove. I played for hours last night. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, this game is a must-have.

I dabbled with WifiTrak a while ago, but when iPhone OS 3.0 was released, the version of WifiTrak that I had wasn’t compatible. I removed the app and didn’t think about it after that.

WiFiFoFum is my latest choice to sniff out Wi-Fi networks. It is very detailed, showing the channel of each network, security method, signal strength, and more. If you want to gather info about networks in the area, it is the one to use. The app even has a radar which displays on a radar screen the location of each network source. I don’t know how accurate the radar is, but in my simple tests, it did a good job.

One benefit of using an app such as WiFiFoFum is being able to see the channel number of each network within the area. I realized that my own home network was using channel 6, as well was nearly ever other network within reach. I changed my channel to 8 to avoid any potential interference that may exist.

General Apps:

1. TextPlus – Free, simple, easy text messaging via an iPhone app. Send free texts to any of your contacts.
2. Fandango – The best app to find movie reviews, showtimes, trailers, and even buy tickets!
3. AudioBoo – Awesome new service, allowing you to easily record and post audio posts to AudioBoo.fm. Free!
4. Pandora – The best free streaming Internet radio for your iPhone/iPod Touch.
5. Public Radio – Find public radio stations in your area and even stream them live! For free! If you are a fan of NPR, or instance, this app can be very handy.
6. WhiteNoise – A fantastic app that generates great, high-quality white noise for your listening ears. A giant array of choices are available. Examples include a cat purring, a fireplace, hair dryers, dishwashers, fans, rain, the ocean, etc.. Over forty sounds available!
7. iFitness – A terrific fitness app that shows you the best ways to exercise and stay fit. You can even track your progress. Very handy if you frequent the gym (I don’t).
8. WikiHow – This offline app can tell you how to do just about anything, from CPR to how to tie a bowtie. No Internet necessary to scroll the abundant articles. This could come in handy when you least expect it.
9. Carpenter – A well-made, clever app that includes a toolkit including the iHandy Level, which I have found to be very handy indeed.
10. Diggle – The best and (only?) Digg article reader for the iPhone. This app is really cool, but still does not allow you to log in and rate articles yourself. I wish the Digg folks would make their own “real” iPhone app that does it all!

Games:

1. Zombieville – A fun and addictive game of shooting and smashing zombies. Great graphics and sounds.
2. iFighter – A terrific tilt/scroll aircraft fighter game. Great graphics and sounds. Fun to play, but occasionally somewhat difficult.
3. Rope’n'Fly – A truly addictive game. Very simple graphics. You fall from the sky and have to catch and sling yourself via a rope from building to building. This is a side-scrolling game. Kind of Spiderman-esque. I can play this over and over for hours.
4. Parachute Panic – A very creative game. Simple graphics are in the form of a graphing paper/penciled look. Parachuters fall from the sky and you have to safely guide them to land on ships below, whilst avoiding helicopters, UFOs, storms, and sharks.
5. iMobsters – A text-based iPhone game that is basically a clone of Mob Wars and/or Mafia Wars on Facebook. Internet connection required to play.
6. Bejeweled 2 – A fantastic port of the classic Bejeweled game to the iPhone. Terrific graphics and gameplay.
7. Sticky Licky – A cute game. You are a frog which is fixed at the bottom of the screen. You must use your frog tongue to catch the bugs and insects that fly by. Some bugs are poisonous. Flashy graphics and simple fun.
8. Let’s Golf – A very creative golf game for the iPhone. I didn’t know how a golfing game would go over on this device, but the creators of this game got it right. True physics and creative gameplay.
9. StickWars – A fun game where you have to defend your fortress against an onslaught of stick-figure warriors.
10. Drop7 – A fun numbers puzzle game.

The service is simply amazing, and so very easy to use. Simply create an account at their website, then download the iPhone app from the App Store (free). You can then create simple voice recordings using your iPhone or iPod Touch and upload them to AudioBoo. The quality and clarity of the recordings is stunningly good. You can even have AudioBoo automatically post a link to your recordings via Twitter or Facebook.

I just signed up today for AudioBoo, and I’ve made my first recording. You can hear all of my boos on my AudioBoo page.

First off, many of the new features in OS 3.0 are specifically for the iPhone hardware. This includes things like video editing, camera-specific updates, MMS text messaging, GPS navigation, and more. As a mere iTouch user, I can’t access any of those features.

Secondly, my iPod Touch (2nd gen.) cost more out of pocket than an iPhone! iPhone prices are subsidized by the wireless carrier (AT&T in this case). You can now get one for as low as $99, or $199 for the new iPhone 3GS. The iPod Touch costs more than either of those!

Considering that, and more, the new operating system should have been free for Touch users too.

General Apps:

1. Facebook – nicely done!
2. Tweetie – my favorite twitter app.
3. The New York Times – superb news reader.
4. USA Today – great news reader.
5. WeatherBug Elite – all things weather-related, including live animated weather maps.
6. CoolIris – pulls pics from your online photo site (like flickr). browse your photos as if they were on your phone already.
7. Google Mobile – instant access to all things google.
8. Shopper – a very handy grocery shopping tool and list maker.
9. AllRecipes – awesome recipe app. i loved their website already.
10. iConvert – convert any measurement to anything. my favorite conversion app. extremely handy.

Games:

1. FieldRunners – a tower defense game. my favorite game! so addictive.
2. Flight Control – very fun game. in my top 5. you are an air traffic controller.
3. X-Plane – beautiful flight simulator.
4. Chopper – fun horizontal scrolling helicopter game.
5. Flick Fishing – a clever fishing game with nice hand gesture casting. very creative.
6. Blocked – i love the simple notebook paper background and pencil drawing. this is a fun mind/puzzle game.
7. Wolfenstein 3D – wow! it’s the original DOS game on the iphone. not very practical, but i had to see it.
8. Simon Says – the old-school simon color memorization game. just for kicks. it gets old very fast.
9. Peggle – super fun game. a great port of the original pc game.
10. Sudoku – outstandingly well done, in my opinion.

I am using the free ad-based version, in which the ads are barely even noticable. To purchase the program, the author is only asking $14.95. In addition to Tweetie for Mac, a version for the iPhone is also available. This little program is a gem on any platform.

I don’t have an iPhone. I think they are fantastic gadgets, but I don’t want to spend that kind of money on a phone. Nor do I need all of those extra features. I already have a digital camera, a video camera, iPod nano, and Razr v3 cell phone. Personally, I don’t want to use my phone to take crappy pictures, play games, surf the Internet, and listen to music. How much battery life could I possibly have to left talk on the phone after I’ve been using it for everything else?

Read the AppleInsider article.