Monthly Archives: May 2009
Free access to 1800 audiobooks for iPhone
Filed under: Freeware, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
Your iPhone/iPod touch listening options just got a lot larger. Audiobooks, [App Store] a free app, gives you a large catalog of public domain classic works from Dickens to Verne for your listening pleasure.
The books come from the LibriVox library, a non-profit project that has volunteers read the books and then releases the free recordings.
Road trip! AAA Discounts for iPhone
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store
After my 1991 VW Vanagon camper ran out of gas late at night in the winter of 1994, and I had to walk four miles in bitterly cold weather to get enough fuel to start it up and drive back to the gas station, I decided to join the American Automobile Association (AAA). Since then, my AAA membership has provided jump-starts when a battery is dead and sent a locksmith when I locked my keys inside a car.
In addition to being a full-time Good Samaritan to members in need, AAA also does a great job of securing discounts on just about everything. Unfortunately, up to this point it’s been almost impossible to figure out who offers discounts without referring to AAA’s website.
Iphone at the center of the universe!
What is it about the iPhone that motivates powerful people to make themselves available – through its interface – to the masses?
We saw the iPhone used effectively by Barack Obama to connect with the electorate during the last election campaign. We also wrote in a recent p[ost about the App that has been developed for the express purpose of promoting “transparency in government“. And the White House has provided us with video and audio podcasts of speeches and remarks by President and First Lady Obama and members of the administration to watch/listen to on our iPhones
The latest development on this front is the appearance of the Pope2You site along with the following free iPhone app – called H2ONews
Cartier kerfuffle bags bogus bangles
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
French jeweler / watchmaker Cartier provided some unexpected humor over the long Memorial Day weekend after the company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Apple regarding two iPhone apps. The lawsuit and the quick response by Apple were covered by the Wall Street Journal in several posts and noted briefly in our weekend news roundup.
A small iPhone development shop, Digitopolis Game Studio, had created two apps — Fake Watch and Fake Watch Gold Edition — that showed the time on a choice of high-end timepieces. Among the “watches” were images of Cartier’s luxury “Tank” watch. Although the free Fake Watch app had first appeared in January of 2009, Cartier apparently didn’t notice until Friday, when lawyers representing the company filed suit against Apple for allowing the apps to be sold in the App Store.
Can you believe it? New Yorker cover done on iPhone app.
Looking at the cover of the June 1 New Yorker Magazine it is pretty hard to believe that it was created with a US$4.99 app on an iPhone.
The app is Brushes [App Store] and it allows painting on the iPhone /iPod touch screen using your fingers and a variety of brush styles. If you have a Mac, you can export your work at resolutions up to 1920×2880. The app also saves a record of your brushstrokes and other actions and can replay them on your Mac. The artist who did the New Yorker cover, Jorge Colombo, obviously has impressive talent. You can see some of his other iPhone work here.
Colombo told the New York Times he loves the app because it “made it easy for me to sketch without having to carry all my pens and brushes and notepads with me, and I like the fact that I am drawing with a set of tools that anybody can have easily in their pocket.”