TextExpander touch [$1.99 on sale, $4.99 after Sept. 9 - iTunes link], is the iPhone (and iPod touch) version of Mac favorite TextExpander, an app that takes short bursts of text and expands them (get the name?) into longer passages.
TUAW has the details, especially on how the lack of background multitasking for 3rd party apps means the iPhone versions works (and works around) a limitation it doesn’t face on the desktop.
Check it out and let us know what you think. Or let TextExpander embiggen your thoughts. What’evs.
The NFL’s regular season is fast approaching and what a better way to kick the season off then with some Madden 2010 on your iPhone (or iPod touch)?! EA has been promising us some Madden action on iPhone for a while and now they finally will deliver.
The game will contain real NFL rosters and, based upon the screen shots, will include Brett Favre and Michael Vick on both of their new respective teams. While EA is promising a release date of no later than opening day, September 10th, there is no official word on a price point. All of that aside, we think you can expect Madden 2010 to stiff arm it’s way into the App Store at $9.99.
Qik [Free - iTunes link] update… removes Wi-Fi-only restriction?! That’s what Jeremy saw when he checked his updates!
For those unfamiliar with Qik, it lets you stream live video over the internet, and archive it via Qik.com. I’ve been playing with the beta for a while.)
Yesterday Popcap announced that it will be porting its fastest-selling Mac/PC game in the company’s history, Plants vs Zombies, over to iPhone before the year is over.
Not familiar with this game? You should be, it’s highly addicting gameplay not only caters to hardcore tower defense fans but to casual gamers alike.
Play five game modes: Adventure, Mini-Games, Puzzle, Survival, plus the stress-free Zen Garden
Conquer all 50 levels of Adventure mode — through day, night and fog, in a swimming pool and on the rooftop
Battle 26 types of zombies including pole-vaulters, snorkelers and “Zomboni” drivers
Earn 49 powerful perennials and collect coins to buy a pet snail, power-ups and more!
Sadly, no exact release date or pricing has been announced but Zombie lovers rejoice. It will be here soon enough.
Tapped into the App Store and what did I see? Twitterrific 2.1, the latest version of the grand-daddy of all iPhone (and iPod touch) Twitter clients, locked and loaded, just waiting for me!
Updates include:
Load more button to get older tweets
Followers and following lists in author view
Recording, posting, and viewing videos (presumably iPhone 3GS-dependent)
Built-in WebView now goes landscape if you want it
Saves battery via improved location update handling
Tap and hold menus for tweet, links, photos
Reply and re-tweet now have tap shortcuts
In-app email support
Optimized for iPhone 3GS
If you’re a Twitterrific user — or you want to be — and give it a whirl, let us know how the update works for you. I’ll be testing it out for the next couple days via @reneritchie, so feel free to drop me a tweet there and help out!
Bigwords [Free - iTunes link] is the iPhone and iPod touch front-end for the Bigwords.com website and it aims to help students (and their parents!) find the best deals on text books.
How good is it at that task? Um… I don’t know. College and I got mutual restraining orders against each other over a decade ago, so I can’t go within 100 meters of this app without getting a major case of the wiggins. Bigwords tells us “at least 50%”, so if you’re headed back to school and you want to save a few (or a lot) of bucks on your way, give this a try and let us know how it works for you!
Popular live video streaming app, Qik — previously available to Jailbreak users — has finally landed in the iTunes App Store… without its live streaming capability. This version of Qik (Free – iTunes link) records video from an iPhone 3GS which you can later upload via Wi-Fi. (A tragedy given how well the beta for the full version works!).
Boy Genius caught the story, and gets all up in Apple’s face about the continued crippling of applications, though we can’t help but wonder if this again falls into AT&T’s new prohibition against streaming apps, which saw SlingMedia Player relegated to Wi-Fi only status?
Apparently a 3G version has been submitted to Apple, but until and unless the FCC forces some answers, we may not see any movement on that either. Of course, the aforementioned, un-crippled Jailbreak version remains an option.
Looks like YouTube is following parent-company Google’s increasingly awesome mobile optimization initiative, announcing an iPhone-friendly version of the dominant media site. According to their official blog:
Just visit youtube.com from your mobile phone, and you’ll be taken to a new website specially designed for your device. You can log into your account, view your favorites, and discover and share new videos quickly and easily with whoever you choose. It’s part of our mission to create the best possible YouTube experience for you, whether you use the site on your computer, in your living room, or on the go.
Since Google’s own Android, as well as Palm’s Pre, use the same Mobile WebKit foundation as the iPhone, YouTube hits three advanced platforms with one code-base.
PushMail [$4.99 - iTunes link] takes a different approach to working around the lack of push notifications for Gmail, Hotmail, and other email services on the iPhone. When you set up PushMail, you’re prompted to create an account on their servers ([username]@dopushmail.com). You then forward email from Gmail, Hotmail, etc. to that PushMail account (using whatever filters or rules you like), and when PushMail gets the forward, it sends a push notification to your iPhone, alerting you that your Gmail, Hotmail, etc. account has email.
You can also forward more than one account to the Pushmail account.
If you give it a try, let us know how it works for you.
