When the iPhone 4 front-facing camera was announced, one of the most common snarky comments was that finally we could have a mobile Chatroulette. If you aren’t familiar with Chatroulette, it’s basically random video chat with strangers. You can read more at the Wikipedia Chatroulette entry. I won’t link you directly to the Chatroulette site since, well, ahem, you might see something you don’t want to see.

Grab iChatr now, if you want to try it out. It’s a free app currently. I don’t expect it to last in the App Store for very long. We’ll see what the response from Apple is once the press starts slamming the app. But be cautioned, if iChatr becomes anything like Chatroulette — about 1/3 of what you will see is way less than appropriate — that’s why this app is rated 17+!

In a quick test this afternoon, 3 in 10 random chats were of male genitalia. Yup, Chatroulette mobile is here all right.

FREE!

iChatr - Random Video Chat

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-09 :: Category: Social Networking

Fring, for those not aware, is a free communications hub on the iPhone. In it, you can make and receive free phone calls, send free IM’s, and chat with other social networking groups such as Twitter, AIM, Skype, and Google Talk. Obviously the tech is neat on its own, having everything in one spot, but the “free” part is the kicker.

The latest version of Fring, 3.2.0.5 (couldn’t they just make it 4.0?) adds a few essential touches to make it the communications app for iPhone 4. Now, with the addition of the front facing camera, you can video chat with your buddies for free, as long as they use Fring or Skype, and are on WiFi or 3G. Also, with iOS4 and its multitasking capability, you can leave Fring running in the background so people can actually call you for free, even when you’re not in the app. Instead of using it as a gimmick app, or even just a cheaper way to make calls, you can now completely do away with your extra ATT minutes and just use Fring. Too bad we can’t just drop the call plan altogether…

Last but not least… well maybe it is least… is the new ability to merge all of your social network streams into one. Instead of having to search all over the place, you can check your Twitter, Facebook, call updates, and IM’s in the same spot.

Go now, download the update or pick up Fring for free. Your phone bill will thank you.

FREE!

fring

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2008-09-30 :: Category: Social Networking

Smule, developers of exciting and sometimes unusual music apps for iPhone, has updated the popular I Am T-Pain app for iPhone 4. The 1.5 update is free to all users and takes advantage of the video services available to developers in iOS4 and the new front-facing camera on the iPhone 4.

If you’ve not tried the app before, I Am T-Pain is a novel tool that alters a user’s voice using the popular Auto-Tune effect found in modern pop music. The new version now allows you to capture video on the front-facing camera as you sing into your iPhone to a backing track chosen from a number of T-Pain’s own songs.

Once recorded, songs and video can be shared to the web to sit alongside the over 29 million recordings by I Am T-Pain users so far.

If you fancy sound at least a little bit like the current chart toppers, the app works with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS and is available for a very reasonable $0.99

Check out the big man himself showing off the new app features in the video below

$2.99

I Am T-Pain 2.0

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-09-03 :: Category: Music

Elgato has announced that the 1.1 update to its EyeTV app now provides iPad compatibility for streaming TV wherever you are.

Now, before you get too excited, the EyeTV app does need Elgato’s EyeTV software and tuner as well as a Mac or PC in order to stream TV but. if you fulfill these requirements, today is a good day for you. An Elgato package isn’t that expensive either, with products starting around the $150 mark and taking advantage of the free digital video signals it catches.

Elgato is renowned for its EyeTV software that turns your computer into a digital TV and allows for recording live shows as well as scheduling using a small tuner that connect via USB. The EyeTV app for iPhone and now iPad allows users to view all of their recorded content as well as watch TV live on their device, taking advantage of the in-built TV guide. The app even allows you to set recordings on your home computer remotely.

At $5.99, the EyeTV app is a worthy investment for existing EyeTV users and will more than likely lure many new customers too.

$4.99

EyeTV

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-09-29 :: Category: Entertainment

Having Hulu on the iPhone would be a dream and a half, but without Flash support, the service is a no go. Instead, Fox Mobile is releasing an app called BitBop, which quietly came out as a beta yesterday. It’s only compatible on four Blackberry phones at this point, but will eventually be available for the iPhone and Android operating systems.

Like Hulu, BitBob is coming loaded with content from 25 content partners including NBC, CBS, The Food Network, A&E, and MTV, and will include all of their most popular shows and series. In an earlier interview with mocoNews, Joe Bilman, Fox Mobile’s EVP of Global Products said that the application would be free but access to the entire catalogue would probably cost $10 a month. I think it’s safe to say that the many content partners are quite a bit more excited about BitBop’s monthly access plan than Hulu’s ad based model.

Aside from a few snafus, such as the horrible BitBop name and the monthly subscription pan, the service seems like it will be a big in the mobile market. As much as I love iTunes, the ability to stream content directly to my phone seems a bit more exciting. Hopefully BitBop will follow Hulu in the movie department too, because there’s nothing like having a movie on the go.

[ Source: mocoNews ]

If you’d asked me a while back which company would first release an iPhone app for streaming full-length movies, I’d have probably guessed Netflix. ABC. Blockbuster. Redbox. Hulu. Maybe even Apple.

A much less famous company called mSpot, however, has stolen the crown of “first!”

Not that mSpot is new to the movie streaming business. They’ve already been offering movie streams for PC, Android, Palm, and Blackberry devices; they also have a music cloud-based storage/streaming service. Now, however, their mSpot Mobile Movies app has reached the App Store. The app allows you to browse movies, watch trailers, and rent movies for watching on your iPhone…or, if you decide you want to switch screens, you can hop onto your PC partway through!

The streaming quality looks pretty solid, and works on both 3G and WiFi (how did that get past AT&T?). As for prices, they offer both a “club” option and an a la carte method. The prices aren’t too outrageous, either; movies like Inglourious Basterds and Star Trek are shown as costing just $4.99 to rent, while a small number of old titles like Night of the Living Dead are available for free. mSpot’s library isn’t enormous, but there are enough good titles there that it’s definitely worth a look.

Now, if mSpot can just expand its library, its early advantage could transform it into yet another movie-source contender.

FREE!

Movies by mSpot

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-05-05 :: Category: Entertainment

There are some things that we know the iPhone can do, from play games to make calls, however, until this app came along we doubt anyone thought about adding their face to a poster in a movie. But that’s what ModdedMovie offers, and it does a brilliant job of it.

The process of making your movie is easy, simply pick a background, choose the type of poster or billboard you want and then add a photo of someone’s face from the iPhone’s camera. You then simply position the face using pinching and dragging gestures and adjust the color and exposure of the image to make it look as natural as possible. We found that picking images focused on a face rather than a group shot worked well and, where possible, shooting a photo specifically for the app provided the best results.There are a bunch of initial styles to choose from including Car Advertising, Advertising hoardings and billboard advertising and, within each, there is a selection of advertising types. These include Happy Birthday, a wanted poster, movie poster, fashion poster and an I Love You message.

Once you have picked your theme and added an image, the fun really starts. The image is rendered within a movie that shows a street scene with a poster containing your picture in the background. The video clip looks a little like handheld footage so you could easily use the output as part of a “have you seen this?!” prank to play on friends. You can view finished movies from within the app or send them to your iPhone’s Camera Roll for sharing online or syncing to your computer. The output is pretty impressive however does need an iPad or iPhone 3GS in order for it to work. In our initial inspection we did encounter a couple of crashes when rendering or choosing certain themes but we hope these will be ironed out with an update. This is version 1.0 after all.

You might be asking, what on earth would I use this app for, and we thought the same, however once you get to grips with it, ModdedMovie does offer a whole host of possibilities including personalized birthday greetings to friends and loved ones. You could even add the video to your own website if you have one or to a home movie as a dynamic introduction. Regardless, this is an enjoyable app to use and, while slightly pricey at $2.99, does offer a number of possibilities and will be great for kids.

ModdedMovie iPhone application Intro from dudeStock.com on Vimeo.

$1.99

ModdedMovie

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-04-12 :: Category: Entertainment

FREE!

ModdedMovie Lite

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-04-19 :: Category: Entertainment

After the media circus surrounding Gizmodo and its potentially lost/stolen iPhone 4G prototype last month, it seems there’s another iPhone 4G in the wild. Possibly not a prototype this time.

Mac Rumors has been provided with a link to a Vietnamese forum, Taoviet.vn, where more pictures of the new iPhone have been posted. According to a Mac Rumors’ source, the device was purchased in the USA along with an iPad. The device is shown from a number of new angles and a teardown of the product is also shown.

A video of the device has been posted to YouTube (see below).

Little new information has been provided by these pictures, however the iPhone’s casing shows that it’s a 16GB model, whereas Gizmodo’s featured XXXGB on the back.

The casing appears more polished on this version with no screws found near the dock connector, suggesting that this is a near finished product. However, in the photos and video, the phone appears to be running some kind of diagnostic firmware and doesn’t look like it responds to presses on the home button. In the teardown images, what looks like a processor with Apple branding can also bee seen.

This new information is set against the sad backdrop of yet another suicide at Hon Hai Group in China where Apple’s iPhones are manufactured. This is the sixth death at Hon Hai this year and follows Hon Hai’s suspension of a member of its security team after a worker killed himself when an iPhone prototype was lost.

After Jason Chen, Gizmodo’s editor, had his home raided by police and his computers and other items taken as part of an ongoing investigation, this Vietnamese poster is playing a risky game. It also brings into question whether or not the “found it in a bar” story from Gizmodo (and its mystery iPhone seller) is likely to hold up now that two iPhone 4G models have surfaced.

Either people are being extremely careless with these valuable prototypes and two have been “lost” by Apple employees in the US or a more serious crime has been committed. This might also explain the shock and awe of the raid on Jason Chen’s house should the police have reason to believe that the Gizmodo iPhone was part of a wider theft.

Either way, our advice to the Vietnamese man in the video above – don’t include your face in footage of you holding a potentially stolen product, it never ends well.

[ via Mac Rumors ]

Let’s face it, if you have an iPad it’s going to spend at least 20-30 minutes unused and sitting in the dock every day. Looking for something to show it off when you aren’t using it? Let’s take a quick look at one good option, Magic Window.

Ever wanted a magic time traveling, location traveling, controllable window? Lucky for you, Magic Window is now available. Magic Window allows you to set your iPad in a stand or prop it up, and have your choice of views magically appear like your iPad was a window. Choose your view, mountains, sunsets, ocean, or even a fireplace.

Once you have your view loaded, set back and enjoy. The views aren’t static though, they change as though you were watching through the window in real time. All very realistic, cross-faded time lapse photography. You can also interact with the view by changing how fast they progress through time, and even swipe quickly left or right to travel through time.

There are currently 10 views available in this $4.99 app with more being added soon. There will be both new free window views and others available through in-app purchase.

iPhone Companion – Coming soon, the developers will be delivering an iPhone app that allows you to record your own window views and import them into the app. Visiting the mountains? Well your iPhone probably won’t have any reception – so you might as well prop it in a window and record the sunset on the mountainside. You will then be able to import it into the Magic Window and see it again and again, anytime you want.

This app isn’t something that I would ever have imagined when the iPad was announced – but it’s a very creative use of the hardware and very well done.

Want your own Magic Window? The app is available now for $4.99 in the App Store. And we’ve got 1 copy to give away. If you want to win this iPad app, leave a comment below with what view you’d like to see in your Magic Window. We’ll pick a random winner in a few days.

$1.99

$2.99

Magic Window - Living Pictures

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-04-21 :: Category: Healthcare & Fitness

If you’ve ever wondered why you see a little blue Lego brick rather than a video when using Safari on an iPod, iPhone or iPad, it’s really down to the personal preferences of two very rich and powerful men.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, is never one to mince his words or compromise when it comes to his company or its products and has exhibited these qualities once again with an “open letter” explaining his thought’s on Adobe’s Flash products amid the ongoing hostilities between the two companies.

When the iPhone was first launched, many criticized its inability to play the Flash video used on many websites including YouTube. Websites created using Flash technology were also incompatible with the iPhone.

With the launch of the App Store most of these complaints were calmed and Apple’s own YouTube app solved part of the web video problem, however a number of major sites such as The New York Times still use Flash and therefor cannot be viewed properly in the iPhone’s Safari browser.

Adobe is “lazy”…
At a recent meeting of Apple employees, Jobs was said to refer to Adobe as “lazy” and referred to its buggy versions of Flash for the Mac as reasons not to support it on Apple’s mobile devices. These comments were supposed to be behind closed doors, but Jobs’ “Thoughts on Flash” posted last week on Apple’s website is for the world to see. Apple has also banned the submission of any apps to the App Store that were built using Adobe’s new Flash CS5 tools.

In his notes Jobs explains: “I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads.”

Running through six topics covering everything from Flash’s inability to work with touch devices through security issues and battery life, all the while promoting the new HTML5 standard, Jobs concludes with this stinging sign off “Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind”.

Apple’s “smokescreen”…
Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen has, in some part, responded to Jobs’ harsh words in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in which he refutes a number of Jobs’ statements referring to them as a “smokescreen” as well as finding Jobs’ reference to Flash being a closed standard as “amusing”. The fight back from Adobe appears to be focussing on its belief that all devices are equal and its software allows developers to create apps for a number of devices while Apple wants to control and manipulate its own hardware and software platform.

In some ways, Narayen is right. Everybody wants their sites and apps to be available on these highly popular Apple devices. Security and performance issues aside, by allowing Flash apps and sites into the mix, Apple would be relinquishing some control and would provide Adobe with more power. Without Flash, app developers must stick to using Apple’s own tools to create software for the App Store and web developers must take advantage of the open HTML5 standard to keep their sites compatible. Adobe is left out in the cold until it decides to toe the line.

So what’s the result of all this squabbling?
Adobe will push on and allow developers to create content for all of the other devices out there while being forced to ignore Apple, the market leader. On the flip-side, Apple will feel little effect while continuing to develop its ecosystem and maintain control of its developers and platform.

For these reasons, along with Jobs’ pigheadedness when it comes to quality and control, the blue bricks will remain until the rest of the world catches up to Apple’s view of the future – and that doesn’t include Flash.

image credit: Flickr user Ping ping

While looking through the App Store for iPad apps, one of the applications that caught my eye was a simple looking app called Stream To Me. I’ve been looking for a while for an app that allowed me to stream my video collection that’s tied to my TV in the living room on my iPhone and now iPad. This app allows you to do just that. With it you can stream just about any audio or video file that your Mac can play down to your iPhone or iPad while you are both on the same wireless network. And the good news is that it does so simply, quickly, and at a great price.

For Stream To Me to work, it needs the companion app that runs on a desktop machine called Serve To Me. The server part will be able to transcode the video files to a version that can be displayed on your portable device, if needed. The bad news for many of you is that Serve To Me currently only works on Mac OSX machines. I have mine set up and running on a Mac Mini that I have connected to my TV.

Once you have Serve To Me installed, it’s a quick configuration to get it streaming to your iDevice. Just point it to the directories of files that you want to serve up. All of these folders will be displayed on the device when you connect to the server. If you add folders with lots of subfolders, that will work too. And there are sorting options in the app that allow you to flatten these out a little bit.

One of the amazing things about the app itself is how quickly it starts the video playing. I was able to get a video to play in less that 7 seconds from the time I launched the application to the opening credits starting. And once the video has started playing, you have full seek control, just like if it were residing on the device.

There are multiple sorting modes that you can apply to the folders. Also, there seems to currently be a little bug where these sorting preferences may or may not be saved. I’d love the ability to display a sexy movie list, similar to the iPad version of the ABC app.

This is a great solution for playing video to your handheld devices in the home — I use it to watch movies in bed — works great. But we’d love to see some enhancements. For one, we’d love to be able to stream while outside the home. And I’m sure that this can be done with some complicated VPN setup — but it sure would be nice to be able to have it all work from within the app.

Other things I’d love to see added to the app include the ability to combine folders. I have movies scattered across multiple devices. I’d love the ability to have a single movies folder in the app that combines all of those other folders. Also, the app while very well done, is in need of a little sexy design work. Imagine this app with the looks of the ABC app on the iPad and it would be killer.

Stream to Me is currently available in the App Store for the great price of $2.99. If you have a Mac desktop machine and a lot of videos you’d like to be able to watch anywhere in your house, I strongly recommend this app! While there are a few things we’d love to see enhanced in the app, as it stands now it’s very functional and very fast.

$2.99

StreamToMe

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-08-17 :: Category: Utilities

Lynda.com has been around for a long while now. Their video training series have been helpful to me in the past when I’ve needed to quickly learn a whole new platform, a new app, or just want to find out the right way to do something, not the way I do it.

Well now, Lynda.com have released a new iPhone app that gives you access to all of their video training from the app itself. You can now pick up where you left off on your training if you are on Wifi, 3G, or even Edge. The app features multiple streaming qualities that adapts to your connection speed.

Full access to all 700+ video courses requires a subscription starting at $25/month. If you haven’t ever tried any of the video learning featured from Lynda.com, the app lets you sample thousands of their training videos for free so you can get a taste of their gentle but informed teaching style. Here’s a quick video introduction to the app.

FREE!

lynda.com

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-02-24 :: Category: Education

Ustream has wanted to stream from the iPhone for a long while now. They started out with a jailbroken iPhone version. But that didn’t reach that many people. They also released a viewing application for the iPhone. A good start. Next came the iPhone 3GS app that allowed you to record videos with your iPhone 3GS then upload them to Ustream. Getting closer.

Then, last week, Apple decided to let streaming video application loose on the App Store. And now we have the Ustream Live Broadcaster.

The app allows you to stream video to the Ustream site and to the Ustream viewing application at a 320×240 resolution. Here’s the cool part — it works on Wifi or 3G on both the iPhone 3G and 3GS. You can also record the videos locally and upload them later if you choose.

And as you would expect these days there are options to share the videos on Facebook and Twitter. And you can also include your location information with the videos.

I imagine we will see the sending and the viewing applications combined at some point in the future. But for now, you need both.

Overall a pretty good experience for sharing video to multiple people. Have you tried the Ustream broadcaster? How was it?

FREE!

Ustream Broadcaster

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-12-08 :: Category: Photography

FREE!

Ustream

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-01-19 :: Category: Entertainment

So Apple had a big day yesterday announcing new computers, the new iPhone 3G S, and of course the long awaited software upgrade to 3.0 with Copy & Paste, MMS, and the new Video Recorder (3G S only). As great as these features are though, I think they’ve completely over shadowed some other great additions, many of which, on a daily basis are going to be far more useful than being able to receive that picture message of my parents dog in a pig costume, scary…I know. I’ve gone through all of the information I could find directly from Apple’s website (these aren’t rumors) and pooled together some of the new features that have slipped through the cracks.

iDisk
MobileMe got some major revision with the “Locate My Phone” feature and the “Remote whipe” but there is also a free application coming out called iDisk. Yup, you will now be able to remotely view you iDisk content straight from your phone, sorry MobileDisk and Air Sharing Pro. An added bonus is that through this app you can send a direct link to any file on your iDisk via e-mail so that anyone you like can view it, this is especially useful for content that is just too large to be sent through an e-mail itself.

Contact Syncing
More good news for MobileMe and Exchange users are the new advances in over the air contact and calendar syncing. Right now turning on syncing from a cloud to a phone will erase all information currently on the phone and replace it with the new info. With 3.0 though users will get the choice between erasing, merging all data, or creating separate profiles.

Apple also states that on top of MoibleMe and Exchange the phone will be able to sync contacts and calendars from Yahoo!, Google, iCal, and Microsoft Outlook. At this point it’s unclear if these are going to be new over the air features or more likely ones that need to be synced through iTunes. We do know though that you’ll be able to add subscription based calendars directly from the phone over the air, this is great for some one like me who needs an alert every time the Cubs are going to play a game or Special Holidays are coming up.
Continue reading iPhone 3.0: The Features Falling Through The Cracks »

Last week, I was lucky enough to receive a Slingbox and an ad-hoc copy of the latest build of the Slingbox iPhone app for review purposes. While I won’t be able to release a review of the app until it goes live, I’m thoroughly impressed.

Today, all over the internet there has been “an unconfirmed tip from a source close to Apple’s approval processes” claiming that the app had in fact been denied due to pressure from AT&T. The app is slated to allow use over 3G and WiFi, meaning that it would in fact be a bandwidth burden for AT&T, but considering the app already exists on the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones which AT&T sure carries a few of, there’s no reason to believe this rumor to be true (even BGR agree’s!)

Continue reading Slingbox App Rejection Rumor Debunked »

Joost has released an iPhone client that allows you to stream their content directly to your iPhone.

Continue reading Joost Release iPhone App — And Fails Server Load »