App News
My favorite Twitter app on iPhone was Tweetie 2. Then Twitter acquired Tweetie 2 and it became their official Twitter App for iPhone and iPod touch. This was great because Tweetie 2 was a paid App and now Twitter is FREE. However, the one thing that I was waiting for was a native App for the iPad. Of course there are other native iPad Apps for Twitter users. The thing is, I've tried a couple of them and although I had settled in on Twitterrific for iPad. I always looked at Twitterrfic as being a good App, but I really wanted the Twitter app that I was used to on the iPhone. So for me Twitterrific was a temporary solution. Now my wait is over and I gotta say that it was worth the wait. The New Twitter App is a universal binary for all iOS devices and not only does it take advantage of the iPad's larger display size, it does so in a beautiful way. Of course you can use the App in portrait or landscape orientation. What's cool is the concept of sliding panels. When you tap on a tweet, a panel slides over to expose more about that person and the tweet itself including the ability to preview any compatible content (such as web pages and images) contained in the tweet. Being the "official" Twitter App also means that it supports all of the features of Twitter right in the App. That's one of the things that bugs me about the official Facebook App in that it doesn't support all of the features of Facebook. The Twitter App also does a great job of supporting multiple accounts, retweets, lists, mentions, messages, Searching, trending news and more. Best of all, it's FREE!
Although this App is great, there is one small request I would have for an update. Whenever I launch the App it takes me to my Timeline by default. I would like it to take me to where I left off like a list or mentions. Otherwise I'm completely happy!
You can get the Twitter here from the 
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter here.
One day after I list my Top 10 Favorite iPad and iPhone Universal Apps, one of my favorite iPad Apps goes Universal. That's right! Desktop Connect is no longer just for iPads. This VNC/Remote Desktop App now brings its power and great UI (user interface) to the iPhone and iPod touch as well for the same price. That's the great thing about a Universal App is that you buy it once and install it on all your iOS devices. As soon as I got the update I was able to sync it to my iPhone 4 and start remote controlling my Mac from the palm of my hand and I can do this wirelessly from local network or anywhere in the world over the internet.
You can see my original Desktop Connect review here.
You can get Desktop Connect here from the
ReaddleDocs is my favorite PDF viewer on the iPad (review here) and with each update it just keeps getting better. Including great new PDF highlighting abilities. However, the company also makes other great iOS Apps too. They are celebrating their 3rd birthday with a 48 hour sale and an iPad giveaway. That's right for the next 48 hours you can get any of their Apps for only $0.99.
Check out all of their Apps ON SALE Here on 
My favorite Grocery list App, Grocery IQ is currently available on the App Store as a FREE download. This is a universal App for all iOS Devices and takes advantage of the iPad. See my initial review here. In my opinion it's the BEST Grocery List App out there.
Grab it while it's FREE here from the
Whenever there's fierce competition the consumer usually wins! Whenever there's competition and a price war, the consumer really wins! These Apps have just been updated for iOS 4 compatibility and support multitasking. Both Navigon and TomTom have begun a Summer Price War! Navigon kicked it off by lowering the price of the Navigon MobileNavigator App for North America and their popular My Region series. TomTom followed up by lowering the price of their USA & Canada App as well as their USA only App:
Now you can get the Navigon MobileNavigator North America App for only $49.99 (regular price $79.99) here from the
or the MyRegion Apps for only $17.99 (regular price $24.99):
MyRegion US East – covering: (AL, CT, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, MA, ME, MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, Ri, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV) Here for $17.99
MyRegion US Central – covering: (AL, AR, CO, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI, WY) Here for $17.99
MyRegion US West – covering: (AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY) Here for $17.99
See the rest of Navigon's Apps here on
TomTom is offering their USA and Canada App for $59.99 (regular price $69.99) here from the
and they are offering their USA Only App for $49.99 (regular price $59.99) here from the
There has been no indication of how long this sale will last, so I wouldn't hesitate if I were you. They are both great Apps, however I give the nod to Navigon for the most features.
My setup above is:
- The iPhone 4
- The Magellan Premium Car Kit
- A GPS beanbag friction dashboard mount
FAQ: Yes, all of the Maps are built-in to the App. No, you don't need a data connection while you're using it (except for the weather, parking and Google POI search). No it does't require your data plan (except for the 3 things I just mentioned). No it doesn't require a Car Kit unless you're using an iPod touch, which doesn't have a GPS (the car kit does). No, there are no monthly fees. You buy the App and you're done.
Scott Kelby has just released his NEW App: Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes: Your Guide to Today's Most Popular Lighting Techniques. Scott Kelby is the number one best selling computer book author in the world (several years in a row). With his new App you can take Scott on the go with you and watch very high quality videos (offline) on how to do various lighting setups.
The categories include:
- Window Light Portrait
- Couples Portrait
- 3-Light Setup
- Clamshell Lighting Parts 1 & 2
- Shooting Food
- Shooting Flowers
- Location Shooting
- One Light Overhead
- Hard Lighting
- Ring Flash Adapter
- Pano Shots
- Portrait Lighting
- Dramatic Portrait Look
- Product Shots
At first I was hesitant when I saw this App weigh in at 1.3 GBs! Whoa! However, the minute I watched the first video on my iPad, I knew why it was so large. The video quality is stunning and plays back flawlessly. No bandwidth concerns, no need for WiFi (beyond the initial download), just watch it whenever you like wherever you like as often as you like.
I already learned 3 new tips in my first few minutes with the App. Scott is a great teacher and in this App he jumps right in and shows you what to do. No muss, no fuss. You can mark clips as Favorites to jump straight to them whenever you need to. Also there is a scrubber bar above the video to move along past a spot you've already seen to get to exactly what you want to see again. Although the App is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, it really shines on the iPad. Considering what some one day seminars cost on this subject, this App is actually a bargain because you get to keep the content and view it as often as you need to.
My only wish for the next update (you knew there would be one right? 
) is that I'd like to see the finished photo up front for each category. For example, I was really interested to watch the Dramatic Portrait section, but I had no idea up front what Scott meant by "dramatic portrait". Luckily it was exactly what i wanted to see. However, it would have been nice to see the visual before watching the video. Otherwise this App rocks!
Since Scott is a friend of mine I'm not going to rate this App as I'm a little biased when it comes to my buddy. 
Even if I weren't biased though this App would receive a very high rating from me. It delivers useful content in a high quality manner.
You can get Scott Kelby's New App here for $9.99 from the
If you're really into this particular subject, you can also check out the book/DVD here.
Camera+ has just been updated to become fully iOS 4 compatible. New in the 1.1 update is of course high-res graphics that is optimized for the new iPhone 4 retina display, support for multitasking on iOS 4, various fixes for both iOS 4 and the iPhone 4, some more bug fixes as well as enhancements.
The updated version is available on iTunes so if you have the app already, just check it for updates. Otherwise, you can check it out here.
With the imminent release of iOS 4 today, Navigon isn't wasting any time working on their next update. In the video above they show off what the navigation experience will be like on the iPhone running iOS 4.
Navigon Moblle Navigator Apps start at $29.99 and include built-in maps so that a cell signal is not required to navigate. Nor does it hit your data plan while in use.
You can get the Navigon Mobile Navigator Here for the US and Canada for $79.99 
or
MyRegion US East -- covering: (AL, CT, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, MA, ME, MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, Ri, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV) Here for $24.99
MyRegion US Central -- covering: (AL, AR, CO, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI, WY) Here for $24.99
MyRegion US West -- covering: (AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY) Here for $24.99
A while ago I reviewed MoneyBook, an application to manage your finances on the go. This week, they released an update that fixes some of my gripes that I had with the app, mainly that you couldn't add custom categories. Well, now in 2.0 you can! You can also deactivate the pre-added categories to get a list the way you want it to appear.
They have also added myMoneyBook, an online backup and access service for your data. You upload it to the service (which by the way is free) from the app by tapping a little arrow button. When you get back to your computer, you can watch statistics and your transactions from the browser.
An update to FlightTrack Pro, bringing it to version 3.5 was released on Tuesday. The new version has some bigger additions, such as displaying seat numbers for TripIt, sharing flights via Facebook and iOS 4 compatibility with in-app SMS and syncing with the iPhone calendar.
More features added, are welcome updates such as improved UI responsiveness, display of short layovers in red color, time zones on detail screens and metric unit support (plus a lot more).
As with any update there is a number of bug fixes included as well.
