All Articles in App Store Apps

Joost, from the P2P masters who brought us Skype and Kasaa, went from hyper-anticipated start-up to barely whispered almost-forgotten in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

Well, according to Gizmodo, they’re back baby, and with free WiFi streaming movies and media to sweeten the deal — if only slightly:

It’s kind of crashy, could use a better navigation UI and takes too long for movie streams to get going (and then when they do it’s kind of finicky) but we definitely appreciate being to stream The Fifth Element over Wi-Fi in decent quality, when it actually gets going. More than anything though, it just makes us soak our pillow with even more drool dreaming of a Hulu app.

So, is the free-ness worth the — what might just be growing — pain? Think Joost has something here? If you try it out, let us know!

(Thanks Matthew for the tip!)

What to get for that annoying iPhone owner who knows has everything? For that new iPhone user who’s just getting started? For that last minute drop in you never expected but suddenly have to render iSpeechless?

TiPb’s got you covered! Here’s our 2008 Gift Guide, jammed packed with iPhone goodness just in time for the holidays, after the jump!

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Well, not strictly speaking, as some Apps are being discounted for more than just the day, and others have even gone up in price, but if you check out sites like AppShopper’s Price Tracker, you can see that some bargains are to be had!

Some deals are sure sweeter than what Apple Retail is offering off the iPhone (nothing!) and iPod Touch (a tiny bit!).

I might just pick up BeeJive for $9. If you find any sweet App deals, or any great deals on iPhone/iPod Touch outside Apple, please let us know in the comments!

Meanwhile, here’s what MacRumors has singled out:

• Ambrosia (Now $0.99): Mr. Sudoku, Mondo Solitaire, Aki Mahjong.
• Igloo Games (Now $0.99): Dizzy Bee
• Gameloft ($2 off): Diamond Twister, Brain Challenge, Backgammon Classics, Block Breaker Deluxe 2, Midnight Bowling,
• EA ($2 off): SCRABBLE, Spore Origins, TETRIS
• Pangea (Now $0.99): Cro-Mag Rally, Bugdom 2, Enigmo.
• Free for Limited Time: 2079, 300 Bowl HTG, TapToDo, Pathways.
• Others: Classics ($0.99), CameraBag ($0.99), BeehiveIM ($15.99->$9.99)

I know Dieter hearts 1Password and it’s probably the first thing I load up any time I install — or re-install — a Mac. They’ve got a great FREE iPhone app, but you really need the big desktop brother to get the full functionality, which includes Keychain password filling integrated right into any Mac browser, as well as wallet storage, and a personal favorite — super-strong pseudo-random password generation.

They had a great special on Halloween, but Thanksgiving? Frankly, they’re blowing us away. Anyone who currently has a 1Password license can GIVE away up to 3 FREE licenses to their friends! Those who haven’t got 1Password, or friends with 1Password to give them this awesome gift, can buy a license for 15% off, and still get in on the FREE give away!

Offer’s good until Sunday, November 30th, so if you want it, go grab it.

Lie Detector Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

The Lie Detector App claims that it can detect when a person is lying, 100% of the time I was unsuccessful in getting the app to work. When you open the app it tells you to input a few things about the person that is being questioned. And in the last blank, you enter the question you want to see if the person is lying about.

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First up, with the previous rejection of Gmail client MailWrangler, Engadget says another app which also dares to “duplicate features” found in a Dock App (Apple’s own MobileMail) has actually been accepted into the App Store. Did BdEmailer slip through the cracks? Or is this a sign of inconsistency on Apple’s part? Hot on the heels of the controversy surrounding Google’s Advance Voice Search using non-public API’s, developer confidence in the approval process might drop even further…

…Though Ars’ own Erica Sadun reveals the story of one developer who, after initially having their App rejected by Apple, tried and tried again, and without making a single change to the app, had it approved the second time around. Embarrassing for Apple, if the policies really are that inconsistent.

Speaking of embarrassing, Wired reveals that one developer actually got Amazon’s mechanical turk involved in paying for reviews. Users who get $4 — $2 to “buy” the app, and $2 in bonus for leaving a 5-star review.

Lastly, Erica Sadun is back to remind us that, with the release of iPhone OS 2.2, the NDA is now lifted regarding that firmware, and the public dumping can begin! Any guesses as to what goodies will be found?

Aurora Feint Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

[Ed- Aurora Feint 1: The Beginning, is FREE in the iTunes store. Aurora Feint 2: The Arena is now available for $7.99 and if you head on over to the forum, and ask Chris and Matt, we might just get a review up for that soon too! Meanwhile, here's Chris' review of the original to whet everyone's appetite!]

This is an extremely interesting game that tries to combine elements of a puzzle game with elements of an RPG game.

You start with a map screen. From there, you can go to the mine (the puzzle game), the store (to use your tiles for skills or tools), the smith (to actually obtain the tools), and the tower (to actually learn the skills). You need to start with the puzzle game, and once you start to gain levels and tile,s you can move to the other areas.

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Remember that rumor from MacWorld Sweden about iPhone MMS? That Telia was going to launch their own App for the iPhone? Turns out there is an MMS App launching and Telia will offer it, though it actually originates with Mobispine.

Mobispine AB (MOBS) the market leader in delivering mobile solutions to operators announced the availability of the world’s first true Multimedia Messaging (MMS) for iPhone. Mobispine is now offering a “white label” MMS service for iPhone to global operators. This new and innovative service will increase revenue per user (ARPU) and generate profits for operators.

So will there be an AT&T branded MMS App in the US? Rogers in Canada? O2 in the UK? Etc.? Will some carriers opt not to get involved? If so, do we then hate on them rather than Apple? Or should things like MMS not depend on carriers or 3rd parties, but be baked right into the OS? (Or should MMS just be left to die so Email can inherit the mobile future as well?)

(Thanks to Tobbe for the tip!)

I love me some crossword puzzles. You can keep your silly Sudoku, I played enough logic games getting my philosophy major from a department that didn’t go for them crazy postmodern language games (seriously, the folks at St. Thomas love them some logic). I love having crosswords on my smartphone because it’s the perfect ‘quick game’ app: you can spend two minutes or twenty on them, there’s many new and free ones available every day, and they fend off cognitive decline in old age (Seriously, speaking of Catholics, look into the “nun study“).

Anyway, point is I want my crossword puzzle app to be awesome. So this week’s App vs. App is crosswords. Today’s contestants: 2 Across (1.2.2) by Eliza Block and Crosswords (1.13) by Stand Alone, Inc. Which one will better serve your word-puzzle fetish? Read on!

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To all of the Nintendo Zelda fans out there, this one is just for you. Smule has the number one paid app in all of the App Store currently with Ocarina. [iTunes Link] For $.99 you can really impress the ladies while playing songs from your iPhone/Ocarina!

Ocarina users are able to hear and see the origin of live performances and share their melodies with others around the world. In less than two weeks since the Ocarina launch, Ocarina users have listened to more than three million melodies, have generated over two hundred musical scores and have shared their creations here: Ocarina forums.

So there you have it folks, if you are a Zelda fan be sure to check this one out along with some performances in the below YouTube links.

Video 1

Video 2

And if any of our loyal readers can crank out song like this please let us know. We’d love to check it out!