Archive for November, 2009

Each month, the best new iPhone apps—and some older ones—are considered for admission into Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die?

For the full directory of Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps, click here.

The Month's Best

As gathered from our weekly roundups.

If you hate hate hate galleries, click here for a single post.

Essential App Directory Inductees

This month was BOUNTIFUL, as we welcome seven (7!) new apps to the fold. Here are your new inductees:

• I Am T-Pain: This app was fun when it first came out, but now that you can sing over your iPod library, it's priceless.

• Waze: Because it's getting to be good enough to depend on (in a few areas), because it's free, and because their video-gamey plan to make the app better is totally charming.

• Voices: Because when your iPhone isn't acting as a tool, it's a toy. And everyone loves some good voice modulation.

• Snapture: Because full 3GS support, which Snapture recently added, was the only thing holding this app back from replacing the iPhone's camera completely.

• ShopSavvy: Because any iPhone decent a good, free barcode scanning app.

• Chorus: Because finding new apps is hard, y'all.

• Jailbreak: Kirikae: Because without a solid task switcher like Kirikae, fantastic jailbreak app Backgrounder is kind of useless. With it, your iPhone is a full-fledged multitasking smartphone, finally. (Don't get defensive!)

And Farewell To...

Our current directory members are all safe this time around. But next month, expect hell. (Maybe!)

What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!

MobileCrunch (blog)

Cool add-ons to spice up your cell Salt Lake Tribune (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Gadgets on the go » People you know have spent small fortunes on shiny new smart phones such as the iphone 3GS, a blackberry or the ... Magellan iphone Car Kit Costs More than a G ...PC Magazine Review: tomtom Car Kit for iphone and ipod TouchMobileCrunch (blog) ndrive navigation solution for iphoneUberGizmo (blog) tuaw.com (blog) -Know Your Mobile -StarkSilverCreek.com (blog) all 293 news articles »

Erictric

Apple Fieldtesting newest iphone 3,1 Examiner.com With 2010 right around the corner, Apple is already field testing the newest version of the iphone. The newest model, deemed iphone 3,1 is supposed to be a ... Rumors of Qualcomm-Apple iphone deal persistApple Insider iPhone Will Head For T-Mobile -- Not Verizon, Analyst ClaimsErictric Analyst sees iPhone headed for T-Mobile USA nextElectronista (blog) ZDNet (blog) -PMP Today (blog) -Unwired View all 66 news articles »

UberGizmo (blog)

Google News Upgrade for iPhone, WebOS, Android PDAstreet Google's mobile team today unveiled an upgraded version of Google News for the Apple iPhone, Palm's Pre and Pixi and for smartphones ... Android Apps Gain Momentum In iphone App Store BattleChannelWeb Apple Job Listing Hints at New iPhone Map FeaturesThe Mac Observer Porn App Store Lands on Android PhonesPC World Register -Macworld -Geek.com all 145 news articles »

Product Reviews (blog)

iPhone coming to T-Mobile USA instead of Verizon? PMP Today (blog) With talk of the iPhone 4G starting to heat up courtesy of the recently discovered iPhone 3,1, there's also now talk that this particular new iPhone will be ... Analyst sees iPhone headed for T-Mobile USA nextElectronista (blog) Analyst: The iPhone's next carrier is likely T-Mobile, not VerizonZDNet (blog) iPhone to hit T-Mobile USA next?Unwired View TheStreet.com -Fone Arena -TechFlash (blog) all 58 news articles »

iPhone FAQ (blog)

Top grossing iphone games: November 30, 2010 GamePro.com Last week we looked at the top 20 highest grossing iphone games in the itunes App Store. Here's a look at how the top 10 now looks after all ... Five Commuter iPhone Apps You've Gotta TryWired News More financial news apps for iphone Page of 15Macworld Electricpig iphone app: recommended by Time Out!Mirror.co.uk Christian Science Monitor -Apple Insider -CIO all 78 news articles »

Telegraph.co.uk

Xbox Live iPhone App IGN Third-party app allows direct messaging, friend request management, and more all from your iPhone. by Scott Lowe November 30, 2009 - With the most recent ... Xbox LIVE iPhone App Lets You Message on the GoPC World New iphone App Keeps Mobile Gamers In The GameChannelWeb Xbox Live Hits Apple iphone with CoverflowMobile Magazine Examiner.com -Mashable (blog) -ipodnn all 163 news articles »

Coolest Gadget Reviews

App Developer Reports Fourth-Generation iPhone in Use NewsFactor Network Reports that a fourth-generation Apple, Inc. iPhone may be in use sparked a buzz about its features. Other reports say the new iPhone may be ... Next-gen iPhone in field testing, may have revamped MapsArs Technica Rumors of Qualcomm-Apple iPhone deal persistApple Insider New iPhone in the Wild — Perhaps With Revamped Maps?Wired News The Mac Observer -Techtree.com -eWeek all 99 news articles »

So last week the New York Times Magazine published a piece called "Against Camel Case" which argues that intercapped product names like iPhone and TiVo are "medieval," because they harken back to a time in which people mostly read aloud, slowly sounding out each word as they tried to understand them. Proper word spacing, says the Times, "eventually made possible phenomena like irony, pornography and freedom of conscience."

That's sort of a crazy coincidence -- while we're not so sure word spacing and porn have anything to do with each other, we did just re-do our style guide when we launched our jazzy new redesign, and we actually thought long and hard about how to handle intercapped, all-capped, and otherwise non-standard product names. This is something we deal with a hundred times a day, and we simply weren't going to let Motorola tell us to write MILESTONE over and over again, completely contradicting our own sense of style and taste -- as the Times says, "Writers of the world, fight back!" Well, we can't say no to that, so we thought we'd share our four newly-minted rules for writing out non-standard product names:

1. Product and company names that are regular English words shall be treated like proper English nouns, complete with proper capitalization. Example: DROID becomes Droid and nook becomes Nook.
2. Product and company names that are not regular English words shall be capitalized first as proper nouns, and then as the company treats them. Example: RAZR stays RAZR, but chumby would become Chumby.
3. Intercapped product and company names should generally be treated as the company treats them, unless it's egregious and / or looks weird. Example: iPhone stays iPhone, BlackBerry stays BlackBerry and TiVo stays TiVo, but ASUSTeK becomes Asustek. This rule is subject to many exceptions based on usage and history, and also functions as the "this is stupid" loophole.
4. Acronyms should obviously be in all-caps.

We think these rules are flexible to handle most situations, although there are some edge cases and blatant Rule 3 violations out there. Still, it's a start -- unlike the Times, we're pretty sure "iPhone" and "MasterCard" are here to stay, but we feel like our rules are a small step towards making our site clearer and more readable. Either that, or we're just crazy in the head.

Editorial: The Engadget style guide reaches a MILESTONE originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PC World

Big marketing budget drives Moto Droid sales CNET News It is the first device that offers a true challenge to Apple's iPhone, which runs exclusively in the US on AT&T's network. While Verizon has a strong ... Tech Insights: The Droid – 3G and BeyondWireless Week Motorola Droid vs iphone 3GS: ReviewAll about the iPhone (blog) Android Answers: How to Get Multitouch Browsing on DroidPC World Wi-Fi Planet -FOX 8 News WVUE-TV -High Tech Lounge all 132 news articles »