TechAddress

11 Great Tools for Making VoIP Calls on the iPhone

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:35:00 +0000

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While social networking applications were all the rage last year, backlash ensued in 2008 as users got inundated with app invites and a seemingly never-ending supply of apps with little utility. To a large extent, Facebook’s re-design was actually an attempt to de-clutter the site from the mess that had been created with the developer platform.

Despite the user pushback, a number of application providers saw tremendous success in the past year. Companies like Slide, RockYou, and Playfish now have user counts in the tens of millions, while Facebook began making investments of its own in promising ideas through its fbFund. We also saw the launch of several new platforms like MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, and hi5 , just to name a few, all of which now support applications from third-party developers.

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Source:Mashable!

No one likes using up their cell phone minutes, and that is where VoIP services come in handy. VoIP offers up an inexpensive alternative to traditional phone calls, making VoIP for the iPhone a great deal.

While the iPhone has not officially supported VoIP service, Apple isn’t saying it’s not allowed either. With all of that in mind, there are two camps of VoIP services popping up for the popular Apple device: official applications and Web based solutions. Each style has their pros and cons, but there is sure to be something in these eleven options to help you meet your needs.

Which service is your favorite?

Applications

Fring - Fring gives you the ability to instant message your contacts on AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Skype, Twitter and Yahoo via EDGE, GSM, 3G and Wi-Fi on both the iPhone and iPod Touch. If you are on an iPhone, you can also use it to connect with Skype, Skype Out and other SIP services. You can read more about it in our review of Fring.

iCall - This app will allow you to switch an already in progress call over to Wi-Fi, or you can answer the call initially in that manner if you are near a connection. iCall has not been officially released yet as an iPhone application, but it certainly looks promising.

Papaya - Papaya is a little bit of everything rolled into one handy application. It’s part social network with chat rooms and games, an instant messenger, backs up your contacts and can act as a VoIP system.

PennyTel - PennyTel allows you to call other users of the service over Wi-Fi for free, or you can add credits to your account and you can call any number you want.

Truphone - Voted the best VoIP application by The Times, the New York Times, and Stuff magazine, Truphone is a free application that gives you £1 or $1 credit to get started with. Works via Wi-Fi wherever you happen to be and supports calls to numerous countries.

WalkieTalkie VoIP - WalkieTalkie VoIP allows people to talk between PCs, Macs and iPhones without using a centralized server. The reviews for this one range from “Great!” to “Horrific!”, so proceed with caution.

Web Based

Jajah - Log into Jajah, dial the person you are calling, and the phone number of a phone you can use, and Jajah will connect both those phones via VoIP.

PhoneGnome - PhoneGnome will allow you to call any of your contacts who also use their service, people using messengers like GTalk and MSN, or other SIP-based services.

Raketu - Raketu allows you to instant message, text and make low cost VoIP calls all from their Web interface.

RingFree - RingFree can work anywhere you get a cell signal and will allow you to make VoIP calls with all of your contacts from Skype, GTalk, Yahoo, AIM, MSN and also integrate with your company’s PBX phone system.

Talkety - Another Web app service that will allow you to enter the number you are calling, the one you can be reached at, and it will connect the two numbers together.

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Photo Hunter Moves From Your Local Bar to the iPhone

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:47:37 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Casual gaming on the Web has grown over the past year or so to become a fairly substantial revenue generator. Of course, 2007 figures pegged the burgeoning online market at $2.25 billion to the Halo and WoW-enriched $20 billion for console and PC titles and the like. So, relatively speaking, online games rank somewhat on the small side. But entirely Web-based creations do appear to be worthwhile pursuits all the same.

Billions of dollars are hard to ignore, after all. The question consistently on the minds of online entertainment developers remains one of how best to grow. NeoEdge, an ad network specializing in the field of casual games, feels in-game overlays may be one lucrative way to proceed.

The company has introduced today what it calls “Brand Overlays.” These in effect deliver floating advertisement spots in a portion of a window during gameplay for up to 10 seconds that, at the choosing of a marketer and game developer, can be situated in any of the four corners of the screen, or, alternatively, within slivers of real estate at the top or bottom of the screen. Call them header or footer banners, if you like.

The purpose for these overlays is to attract more advertisers to the online gaming world who otherwise may sense that spaces around a website are not as engaging as things seen within games. Brand Overlays might be thought of as a halfway point between a literal external marketing drive and so-called product placement within the dimensions of a gaming environment; not so sly as to become part of a 2D or 3D realm, but neither completely disconnected from the interactive process.

For simple aesthetic propriety, I myself would argue that NeoEdge’s option to market items in a corner of the screen is significantly less appealing than the seemingly more common approach taken by a cross-window banner. It’s what Web users know, so to speak. But the objective for each is the same, and the choice of options may prove a better bet for NeoEdge in certain settings. Much depends on the when and where parameters for a particular stage, as well as the general graphical layout of a game. So far, NeoEdge claims “high click-through rates and no decrease in (gamer) satisfaction levels” in preliminary tests.

Source:Mashable!

The World Series gets started this evening, featuring the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies. We’ve put together a list of more than 20 resources for enhancing your World Series experience, including real-time updates, pre-and post-game interviews, video replays, statistics and more.

Let us know which services are your favorites, and also your predictions for who you think will win!

Online Coverage

WorldSeries.com - the official site from MLB.com. You can see video clips from each game, interviews, statistics and even look at past World Series videos.

Tampa Bay Rays - the official MLB team site for the American League Champion.

Philadelphia Phillies - the official MLB team site for the National League Champion.

Yahoo Sports - provides World Series Coverage.

ESPN - has coverage of the Fall Classic.

FoxSports - covers the action online and on TV.

Sporting News - well-known sports magazine that covers the big games

Sports Illustrated - the popular sports magazine will provide a great deal of post-game analysis.

Facebook Apps

Major League Baseball FanBook - the MLB’s official app on Facebook.

Phillies Fans - app for Facebook users that love the Philadelphia Phillies

Phillies Phanatics - another app for Facebook users that support the Phils.

Tampa Bay Rays Fans - app for Facebook users that follow the Rays.

Tampa Bay Rays Faithful - another App for Tampa Bay fans on Facebook.

Twitter

#WorldSeries hashtag - use this to follow every tweet on Twitter about the World Series.

#Phillies - use this to keep track of tweets about the Phillies.

#Rays - use this to keep track of tweets about the Rays.

iPhone Apps

MLB At-Bat - a feature-rich iPhone app from Major League Baseball. Will give you every detail about the series including stats and video replays for .99 cents.

Box Score - a simple and free app that shows the vital stats for every game

Plusmo Pro Baseball Live - a free app that provides a little more information than Box Score

LiveSportz MLB - a free apps that shows updates on a baseball diamond

BlackBerry Apps

MLB Gameday - official Major League Baseball app comparable to their MLB At-Bat iPhone app.

ESPN - this tiny app lets you keep up with not only the World Series, but just about all other sports as well.

Sports Illustrated - another app that’ll keep the scores pumping to your Blackberry device.

Source:Mashable!

So you’re at a bar, and after some greetings and social updates are passed around, you and some friends decide to strike up a game of Photo Hunt. The idea is to find differences between similar looking images. If that’s your idea of a fun outing, you may be glad to know that anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch in hand can now partake in that same contest with a little application called Photo Hunter [iTunes].

Of course, it goes without saying that the best way to get the most bang for that buck is to compete for points among the Photo Hunter player base at large. The cost of entry is relatively small. It’ll take just $0.99 to download Photo Hunter to your mobile Apple-born device.

Yet, according to bric entertainment, the developer of the application, there are better days ahead for Photo Hunter buyers. A future update will grant real-time over-the-air multiplayer access, which will go far in pleasing iPhone-wielding armies everywhere. It’s a bar game without the wait for the proverbial happy hour. The forecast calls for less productivity on the horizon, for sure.

We kid, of course. But Photo Hunter’s emergence this week is something that will certainly interest many people eager for casual gaming that carries a slightly social bent. There have been plenty of mobile downloads that can deliver immersive visual experiences in the way of automobile racing and aerospace emulation. Few propose multiplayer gamesmanship. Fewer still promise wireless multiplayer activity. Photo Hunter just so happens to be one such purchase.

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Last.fm Delivers a Much Improved iPhone Application With Version 2.0

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:30:52 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Just over two months ago, Last.fm launched its first application for iPhone and iPod touch devices. And a whole lot of people enjoyed it then. Forward to the present day, and the company is officially taking the wraps off version 2.0 [iTunes URL].

You may have already been made privy to this update through leaked videos and images, as the company admits. But now the download is out, according to Toby Padilla at Last.HQ. And given my brief experience with the update, I’ll say it is quite an improvement from what came before. That goes as much for its enhanced visual allure as anything under the hood.

As Toby explains, the user interface is vastly improved, and his statement really does have merit. The craftwork of how transitions through the menu system are made and how the frontmost page looks is really appreciable. Your options are clearly delineated. You can start a new station, listen to your library, items recommended by Last.fm, or access recent stations. Or, via a button situated along the bottom of the main screen, you can delve into your user profile and most everything of importance that it contains. Granted, before 2.0 arrived, the Last.fm application for iPhone and iPod touch devices was very intuitive. But it is even more so now. The edits the design and engineering team have done are pretty remarkable.

Insofar as your connection to the Web is concerned, if you find yourself experiencing disruptions to music playback, as may have happened via 3G connections and most certainly would occur via EDGE connections (Wi-Fi of course is best out of three), you’ll have to tolerate such happenings for some time longer. But the company says it is “working on some back-end changes that will make streaming more reliable on slower connections….” For the time being, hotspots remain the best of friends.

Another point of contention, originally made back in July, was the limited number of markets in which people could utilize the application. Unfortunately, the previous list of places - the US, Canada, UK, France, Spain, and Germany - remains the selection.

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Apple-Centric Social Network Net4Mac Releases iPhone App

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:31:26 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Drop.io, the file hosting and sharing service of considerable renown in Web world, particularly among those who espouse the need to keep things simple and easy and cheap without excess baggage, is moving along with another upgrade to its feature set.

We previously noted the company’s release of a browser plugin intended for faster access to one’s drop(s). Now, according to Allen Stern of CenterNetworks, Drop.io has brought geography to its file management equation. So you upload. You tag with a location. Then you let others find it. Talk about putting a literal spin on concept of a digital drop box.

It may be too fantastical to think this can be manipulated into some sort of geo-caching mechanism for the entirely-Web-based set. A bit too easy a treasure hunt that would be, no? Some immensely inventive folks out there in Mashable land might think differently. If so, let us know. Meanwhile, location-based services are gaining considerable momentum as of late, particularly in the mobile arena, and Drop.io seems a fitting instrument to use to involve longitudinal and latitudinal details to better broadcast items to the public or to specific people.

The service taps Loki’s JavaScript API, developed by Skyhook Wireless, to detect one’s position on the map and affix one or more files accordingly. And hey, if photos are going to be geo-sensitive the world over, we might as well put some north-south-east-west on files pushed to the cloud. The non-copyrighted stuff, anyway.

In order to access the location feature, just click the ‘Edit Drop’ link at the top right portion of the drop window, and find the option for ‘Location’ in the Access Control menu on the following page.

Source:Mashable!

Net4Mac released its exclusive social networking service for Mac users about 6 months ago to mixed reviews. It has now released a version for the iPhone, according to Macworld. It is available from the iPhone App Store [iTunes URL] for $4.99.

The fact that Net4Mac is charging for the iPhone App has left some cold. It seems that charging for the iPhone App is repeating the same theory of exclusivity the company created with its Mac-only social network initial release. When I tried Net4Mac back then I was underwhelmed with the need to download an application to my desktop in order to use it. For someone as busy in the social media space as I am, I can’t waste focus on an application that is shut away from the rest of the internet.

Also, Net4Mac requires users to go through an initial “credential” phase. During this phase you are immediately required to list your Apple gadgets, almost as if you had to establish some sort of Apple “cred” within the community.

The application gives users a place to post or join groups and events, complete with a front page time line showing recent user activity and new events and groups posted. It also offers a profile you can edit, a way to make friends and socialize with them, groups, events (it would be nice if these integrated with iCal, but they don’t), classified ads, a way to send and receive messages, a chat interface, and search.

On the one hand, it is nice to have a place to talk nothing but Mac with people who love Macs as much as I do. On the other hand, I don’t like the exclusivity or the cost for the iPhone App. I can see this being useful for some. Still, I think I’ll stick to the tools I already use for social networking on my iPhone: Hahlo, fftgo and others.

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12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:31:22 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Why should you put a dent in your wallet when there are so many great free applications out there for the iPhone and iPod Touch? There are tons of games for the devices, but the vast majority of them cost money, so we’ve sorted through and located 12 totally free ones for you to throw on your gadgets and entertain yourself throughout the day.

Unlike with Firefox or WordPress addons, where we always tell you not to load everything we list, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with loading lots of iPhone or iPod Touch apps. Just make sure you have enough memory for the programs and you can easily load all 12 of these on your device.

Originally this list included Tris, but with yesterday’s news that it would be removed we took it off the list. It’s really too bad as it was a great port of the game.

Blanks - A simple word game that gives you a definition and four choices as to what the word may be. Fun and educational all at once.

Cannon Challenge - Made by the Discovery Channel, Cannon Challenge is based on their show Future Weapons, and firing a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) cannon at targets of varying distance. Equal parts addicting and challenging. As you can tell from the screenshot, the game is played entirely in the horizontal position.

Crash Landing - This game uses the iPhone and iPod Touch accelerometer to control the descent of a starship, aiming to land on the platform on the moon. If you have as much luck as I did, you’ll see the message in the above screenshot a lot.

Cube Runner - You use the accelerometer to pilot a ship through a landscape littered with mysterious polygonal cubes that have appeared. Though the ship lacks any sort of gun, it feels a bit like the classic Starfox game from the Super Nintendo system. New maps can be designed and shared with friends.

Dactyl - A fast-paced game of bomb diffusing that helps you practice your dexterity and frazzles your nerves as bombs explode.

Fire Drop - A puzzle game that tries to test your speed and your willingness to see how far you can push your luck. The more cauldrons you burn at once, the higher the score, but make sure you don’t fill the entire screen!

Fit2Vote - Politics come to iPhone gaming with Fit2Vote. You will be asked to name who said the quote, Obama or McCain, and tilt your phone to the left for the Democrat and to the right for the Republican. Once you have gotten 50 correct, you are deemed “Fit2Vote.”

Frotz - An interface for playing text-based adventure games that harken back to games like Zork, Bard’s Tale and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy from the 1980’s.

Othello - Also known by the name “Reversi” on just about every Windows computer sold for years, it is the familiar game played on an 8 X 8 grid with the object of controlling the majority of the board at the end of the game.

SimStapler - Why risk dangerous stapler injuries by using a real stapler? SimStapler provides you with all the fun and excitement of real stapling in a fun, safe, manner. App has an old school Mac look, and with it being a red Swingline stapler, you can feel free to make Office Space jokes.

Tap Tap Revenge - The perfect free game for all of the Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution fans who need a fix whenever they are away from home. A bit difficult to play on the iPod Touch as it lacks an external speaker, but works fine with headphones.

Warcraft Characters - Not so much a game in and of itself, but a way for you to look up World of Warcraft characters on the go and see their stats, skills and equipment no matter where you are.

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Mobile SocNet Limbo Launches iPhone App

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:03:05 +0000

Source:Mashable!
One of the most basic tenets of Web 2.0 has been this idea that everything can and should be free for everyone on the Web to use because whatever inherent costs incurred by a service can be paid for by advertising; or in some cases it would seem - by VC dollars.
This concept has […]

Source:Mashable!
News of Apple’s soft launch of the App Store for the iPhone/iPod touch has hit the streets, and we’re already seeing reports of backdoor downloads of the iPhone 2.0 software update. Adventurous fans are lapping the stuff up. And while installs of applications from Facebook and MySpace are bound to rank among the biggest successes […]

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Turn Your iPod into Pandora with Instinctiv

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:49:33 +0000

Source:Mashable!
There’s a reason I like my Bose system better than any other I’ve had: I can tell it which songs I don’t like, and my shuffle feature eventually plays only the stuff I want to hear. It sounds a lot like the Pandora process, but with the music you’ve collected. And I’m guessing […]

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20+ Tools For Reading News On Your iPhone

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:04:10 +0000

Source:Mashable!
The world is progressively more interconnected, and you need your news on the go at all times. Actually, you don’t; but if you’re an iPhone-owning geek you know you want to use all of its possibilities and/or pretend you’re actually doing something useful with the damn thing. Whichever it is, we bring you over twenty […]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “20+ Tools For Reading News On Your iPhone”, url: “http://mashable.com/2008/06/04/news-iphone/” });

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