All Articles in Quick Apps

Macworld formulates word of HP’s foray into iPhone application development, and it’s both nostalgic for calculator enthusiasts, and interesting from a premium price point:

When run in landscape mode, each app uses the original ROM code and provides an exact visual replica of the actual horizontal-format calculator, making it familiar to users of the originals. The $15 HP 12c and $20 HP 12c Platinum provide the same business-focused functions and formulas as the hardware models, and the $30 HP 15c includes all of the original’s scientific algorithms and calculation sequences, including matrix, root, and complex-number functions. All three apps are also, like their hardware counterparts, programmable.

Here’s the rundown again:

• HP 12C Financial Calculator [$14.99 - iTunes link]
• HP 12C Platinum Calculator [$19.99 - pending]
• HP 15C Scientific Calculator [$29.99 - iTunes link]

Anyone compelled to pick up one of those heavy crunchers, and if so, which one, what makes it compelling, and does it feel enough like the hardware version for you?

IM+ 3.1 [$5.99 - iTunes link] has hit the app store with support for push notifications. We wrote about the new version a few days ago, and for those longing for IM style push Twitter support (yep, Twitter can work via IM, and IM+ can push notify you of DMs, @mentions, etc) it’s worth checking out.

Our only question — Is this beginning of push twitter tennis?

(To head off questions, Antonioj was using fancy Jailbreak themes and Growl for iPhone notification displays, I rocked it old school)

If you try it out, let us know what you think. And if you suddenly have a big old 99 new messages on your app badge, let us know how that works for you too!

[Thanks to Icebike for the heads up!]

Went into the App Store and what did I see, why an updated Remote app for iTunes and Apple TV! One of the first apps in the App Store at launch, the latest update for Remote [free - iTunes link] turbo charges the cool factor with support for gesture-based Apple TV control. Very slick:

• Hold down “Menu” to bring up main menu. Swipe to move around.
• Tap to play or pause music or video.
• Drag left or right and hold to rewind or fast-forward music.
• Flick left or right for previous or next music track.
• Flick left or right or drag and hold to rewind or fast-forward video.
• Flick down to show chapter markers, then flick left or right to skip through video.
• Drag two fingers left for 10 second reply.
• Tap “Exit” or “Options” for those actions.

If you hit exit, you get similar functions, art display, etc. to the previous version of the Remote app. Hitting Options brings up a new overlay menu on the Apple TV. Speaking of which…

The new Apple Remote app’s gesture features require iPhone 3.0 and the latest Apple TV software update, also released today (which seems to have gotten a UI over haul as well). Get that, or you won’t get the nifty new interface.

I’m trying it. I’m liking it. How about you?

More screen shots after the break!

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Still waiting for its turn to get into the slow-moving App Store, IM+ is ready with version 3.1 which adds support for iPhone 3.0 Push Notifications. Text alerts, badges, and sounds are all supported, and can be individually enabled or disabled both through Apple’s Notifications Settings panel.

IM+ supports a ton of services, including Skype, AOL, MSN, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber, ICQ, and MySpace. Testing it with AOL proved to be a quick, clean experience, with IM+ launching and re-connecting to their server in a brisk and snappy manner on an iPhone 3GS. Copy and Paste also worked well, albeit it only in the text input box (I couldn’t find a way to select or copy text from previous chat bubbles).

Hopefully Apple will approve IM+ 3.1 with Push for the App Store soon. In the meantime, you can take advantage of sale pricing on the previous version, 3.0 (which pushed via re-direct to email). $5.99 via iTunes.

More screenshots after the break!

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Pinger fulfills the longstanding demand for SMS-style alerts with iPhone 3.0-style support for Push Notifications in the aptly named Textfree 3.0 ($5.99 – iTunes link).

What does that buy you? One year of free text messages for the iPhone (and iPod touch!). With support for every U.S. mobile carrier, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, and others, if the idea of paying Big Telco big money for incredibly small amounts of text doesn’t appeal to you, check out Textfree 3.0 and let us know what you think!

Screenshots after the break!

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BeeJive is my IM solution of choice. I don’t use a lot of the more advanced features, but the reason I keep going back to it is just this: speed. It gets me in, working, and back out fast. And BeeJive IM 3.0 with support for iPhone 3.0’s new Push Notification service is no exception. In fact, it rules.

One of the problems with Push Notification is that while the actual alerts are speedy, acting on them is not. Take IM for example. If you enable Text Alerts, an SMS-style popup window presents, tells you the IM app has a new message, and lets you Dismiss or View. If you View, the iPhone then has to 1) close the alert, 2) launch the app, 3) re-establish the app’s server connection (Push Notification uses a different, Apple-powered server), 4) download the IM to the app, and potentially 5) issue the app’s own internal alert if that’s enabled as well.

That can be some overhead. Sure, maybe iPhone 3G S (for speed, remember) will quicken the pace, but BeeJiveIM on an iPhone 3G was impressively responsive already.

Testing it over the last couple days, alerts presented, I tapped them, and everything listed about was handled smoothly and quickly. So, again, I was able to get in, work, and get back out fast. It’s everything that was great about BeeJiveIM 2.0, plus the convenience of Push.

BeeJiveIM 3.0 for iPhone and iPod should be hitting the iTunes App Store any time now. We’ll update with the link as soon as it’s live.

Screenshots after the break!

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again), 1Password is the first app I launch when I (re-)install a Mac, and the first iPhone (and iPod touch) app I go to any time I even think about logging in to a secure website or using credit card data. It’s one of my all-time favorites, and it’s just gone Pro.

The video above shows off the new iPhone 3.0 support in 1Password Pro 2.1, and the ability to extend secure logins out of the embedded browser and into Mobile Safari is very welcome. Better yet, the fine folks at Agile Web Solutions promise even more features are coming soon.

Available now via the iTunes App Store at a special introductory price of $5.99, and because Agile is awesome, they’ve given us ten (10) promo codes to give away to you.

Want one? Get over to the forums and tell us the lamest, most insecure, and useless password you can imagine. And ten of you will get free copies of the strong, secure, incredibly useful 1Password Pro in return.

TiPb had the opportunity to test drive Gokivo Navigator ($0.99 + In-App Purchases – iTunes link) over the last couple of days. This is one of the first iPhone 3.0 specific apps in the App Store, so first off it was great to see turn-by-turn navigation working (even in Canada!), and second it was interesting to see how Apple handles in-app purchases.

Getting this going is a little bit of work. You start the app and type in a destination. I found Apple Canada in my contacts so hit that. Similar to the built in Maps app, Gokivo will show you your location on a map. Instead of Street View, however, you have a green GO button. Hit that and you’re on your way to turn-by-turn.

If you don’t already have a subscription, Gokivo activates the aforementioned in-app-purchase engine, and once you login with your iTunes ID and buy a month of service ($9.99 in the version we tested) the GO gets going.

It takes time to acquire a good GPS signal, and will advise you if there isn’t one to be had. Once it locks on, however, you’re in for a pretty smooth turn-by-turn experience. Arrows point your way and a synthesized female voice tells you when and where to turn and, and preps you for upcoming turns. We repeatedly went the wrong way, and were impressed with how quickly and accurately Gokivo recalculated and tried to get us back on track.

Note, Gokivo isn’t free just for the app because Apple doesn’t let developers do in-app purchases for free apps. Hence, $0.99 will likely be the foundation for what TiPb considers iPhone “scaleware”. Whether the $9.99 monthly fee — or other in-app-purchasing options — suit your needs and budget you’ll have to tell us.

Gallery after the break! Read the rest of this entry »

Chad’s excited. Why? TweekDeck for iPhone has just hit the App Store (iTunes link). Doesn’t look to be iPhone 3.0 Push Notification enabled just yet, but the hallmark feature of Twitter Groups and multiple, columnar dashboards (looks similar to tabs in Mobile Safari) are all in place. And you can “shake to refresh”.

Best of all? It’s free!

If you try it out, let us know how it works for you, and how it compares to your current favorite Twitter client.

TUAW brings word that Wolfram|Alpha, the revolutionary computational engine from the creator of Mathmatica, now has an iPhone (and iPod touch) optimized version available via http://www.wolframalpha.com/iphone.

Confession: aside from typing in “are you Skynet” and “do my taxes” I’m not quite sure how to use this new beastie, but if you’re smart enough to query up an answer to “what’s the second coolest smartphone, BlackBerry or Palm Pre?”, let us know your results!