With the Arab Spring turning everyday citizens with cell phones into witnesses — sometimes the only witnesses — on tumultuous events, the time for the citizen journalism app has definitely arrived.
There are currently dozens of apps in iTunes available for people to submit news tips; some simply offer a way for people to send in local story ideas, others target specific networks and users can send pics and video directly to newsrooms.
Most are free — which speaks to how badly news organizations want no-cost, on-the-ground global coverage.
The guys over at Alphonso Labs have put a lot of hard work into their iPad app Pulse. Despite the plethora of reader apps out there, Pulse really stands out with its sleek interface that allows users to read vast amounts of content without feeling overwhelmed by the myriad of sources.
As fans of the app, we’re stoked that the Pulse team has decided to include Cult of Mac under their main “Featured” section. If you’re looking for another way to get your Apple and Cult of Mac fix on your iPad or iPhone, then Pulse is definitely an app that you need to check out. And make sure you add our feed while you’re at it.
It looks like some Italian devs are playing a little game with Apple. They get WPA finder apps approved, then when the Cupertino company realizes what they are, they yank them for violating store guidelines.
Right now, one that lets you guess the default password of common routers so that you can log on to a stranger’s network is available in iTunes for $0.99.
SAN FRANCISCO — We’ve just had a hands-on taste of what might be the future of car audio at an intimate press event in downtown San Francisco — and we think they’re on to something big.
If you’ve ever wanted to download torrents on your iOS device, then iTransmission is the way to go. While Apple (currently) wouldn’t let something like this into the App Store, you can download it for free from the InsanelyI Cydia repo (repo.insanelyi.com). iTransmission is currently in alpha, so there may be some bugs. It’s very easy to use, works very well, and works for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad. For you developers out there, iTransmission is open-source.
Sounds like Sci-Fi malarkey: an app that measures the amount of calories burned throughout the day just by sitting in your pocket and using the iPhone’s accelerometers to measure motion. But nope, it’s real, and it’s at the App Store for $3.
Rumors have been circulating for the last week or so about changes to Apple’s online and retail stores. Now a new one has cropped up about the Apple Store iOS app.
There are a lot of perks that come with jailbreaking your iPhone 4, and this latest tweak is one of the coolest things we’ve seen in a while. RecognizeMe is a jailbreak tweak that allows user of the iPhone 4 to unlock their devices via a facial scan.
Here’s a simple app that’s unlike anything we’ve seen so far. CountCon, soon to be available in the iTunes App Store for $0.99, will allow you to set a countdown (seconds, minutes, hours, days). The countdown will then appear on your home screen as a badge that automatically updates when needed. It’s currently being reviewed. And finally, it’s a universal application. Check out the demo video after the break!
Wow. Is developer GhostBird really shoe-horning this much functionality into the second iteration of their legendary photo-editing app, PhotoForge? Looks like they’ve crammed practically every post-processing tool and feature on the planet into what will probably amount to an under-$5 app: curves, real layer support (including masking), ability to edit raw files (and images up to 20MB), editing timeline and a big pile of sharing options.
Add to that a smorgasbord of filters that simulate papers, processes, cameras and you’ve got the makings of what looks like the killer photo app. GhostBird also claims fast processing times — how they’re able to pull this one off, and just how fast it’ll clock on the slower processors of the 3G/s is the big question, though; we’ll know in a couple of weeks, the timeframe the developer has suggested for the app’s release.
Touting it as the first app-as-schoolwork project in the U.S., the kids at North Heights Alternative School in Amarillo, Texas are at work on an app called Amarillo 365.
Priced at $2.99 (with $1 going to a scholarship funds for the students), the app will provide visitors and locals alike with information on local attractions and events.
“We go out and we do all the research we meet with the business leaders, community leaders the kids basically are writing on their entries, they’re doing four to five entries of about 150 words,” said Mark Williams, North Heights English Teacher and project supervisor. “They’re having to do some intense research.”
Who wants to sift through all this text crap when you could just watch a video? If your answer to that question sounds something along the lines of “not me,” you should probably download Showyou onto your iDevice during your next coffee break — just don’t blame us if your boss fires you because you spend the next five hours watching clips on it.
The app elegantly aggregates all the videos that your contacts on Facebook or Twitter have posted, and also from its own Showyou network that can be joined via the app. Sharing clips looks just as elegant and effortless.
Showyou looks good on the iPhone, but gets drool-worthy on an iPad with videos from feeds laid out in a seamlessly swipeable checkerboard. Bonus: It plays nice with an Apple TV.
A sex offender was recently put behind bars for 20 years after engaging in sexually explicit chats and exchanging photos with two young teens. The 35-year-old man used a social media app called Whoshere on his iPhone to instant message the girls who used it via iPod Touch.
Social networking-cum-hook-up opps like Grindr have occasionally been in the news in sex assault cases involving minors. An iPod Touch was recently taken as evidence by police in a sex blackmailing case involving an 11-year old girl said to be chatting via an app with a person she thought was a 12-year-old boy.
Cult of Mac talked to Stephen S. Smith, co-founder myRete, the makers of Whoshere about the case involving his app and why perps and pervs should think twice when they use it.
Summer is upon us friends, and if you haven’t started losing that winter gut to get ready for the beach and other summer festivities now is as good a time as ever to get started. A lot of the guys here at Cult of Mac are fans of cycling and our favorite iPhone app for cycling workouts is the recently updated Cyclemeter ($4.99) by Abivo. One of the nicest things about the app is that it can be used not only for cycling but also running, swimming, or hiking. To celebrate the coming of summer, Abivo sent us 10 promo codes to give out today. We’ll be giving them out to 10 of our faithful Twitter followers on Saturday, May 7th at 10am PST.
Here’s how to enter the giveaway:
1: Follow Cult of Mac on Twitter (this contest is open to current followers and new followers).
2: Tweet the following line: “I need the new Cyclemeter app from @cultofmac because [insert your personal reason]”
3: 10 winners will be selected on Saturday morning at 10AM PST. I’ll DM the winners their promo codes.
Note: 5 Instant Winners will be chosen for the first 5 people who tweet us a picture of them riding a kids bike in Walmart.
Former Vice President Al Gore’s new book, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,” is a $4.99 iOS app designed by Push Pop Press, a startup launched by two former Apple engineers. “This app,” according to Gore, “is a new kind of book that combines text and images, as well as video, interactive info-graphics and my own audio commentary.”
Mowing the lawn is the outdoor equivalent to vacuuming your carpet: it has to be done regularly, and most people put it off. But now you don’t need a riding mower with dual-cupholders to impress the neighbors while being slovenly. Husqvarna has just introduced an iPhone app for remote deployment of their Automower robotic lawnmowers with GPS Communication Units.
The Automower works by following a thin wire laid on or under the grass. Using SMS Text Messaging, you can display the location of your mower on Google Maps, tell your machine when to start and stop, return for a charge, or check current operating status. There’s also a GPS Theft Tracking feature in case your mower ventures too far away under somebody else’s control. Would that be called Find My Lawnmower?
Doing yardwork from the couch gets my vote! Or it would, if I had a lawn…
BMW’s Connected Drive program has been all about increasing communication in your car, now you can control your iPod Touch or iPhone and some of its applications using the same Apple interface on the car’s console screen.
Watching the video above where the driver uses Pandora is like a jaunty little requiem for commercial radio. Once your device is in the cradle, you can access your music library or the apps and control the volume using either the radio, the steering wheel or the iDrive Controller.
Other apps you can control from the car include what one reviewer called a “minimalist” integration of Twitter and Facebook. It may not look great, but it sounds like it may come in handy while on the road, since the app can pull your location and destination from the navigation system then post an update telling all and sundry you’ll be there in 15 minutes.
They’ve been talking about it for at least a year, the BMW Apps are available on cars made from March 2011 on and SUVs rolling off factory lines from April 2011.
What’s next? BMW say they are in talks with other app makers, so you’ll be able to do stuff like make restaurant reservations and buy movie tickets from your car.
RockMelt is pretty handy for those of us who like to post news and blog posts straight to our Facebook and Twitter feeds from the web on our iPhones. It also functions as a basic newsreader, and It’ll sync with the browser’s Mac version so you can access bookmarks and posts that have been tagged with its “View Later” feature. Best of all, it’s free.
San Francisco is launching a pay-by-iPhone scheme for parking.
Called SFpark, the pilot program starts in early May. The SFPark app, free to download, helps you find parking and pricing information from your iPhone. Users pay $0.45 for every transaction and the system charges different rates depending on demand in the area with prices ranging from $2.00 to over $4.00 an hour.
Beginning in early May, parking prices will be incrementally raised or lowered in SFpark pilot areas based on demand. Rates change no more than once a month and only in small increments.
The pilot includes 6,000 of San Francisco’s 25,000 metered spaces and 12,250 spaces in 15 of 20 city- owned parking garages. It will cover eight neighborhoods including Civic Center, Hayes Valley, the Financial District, SoMa, the Mission, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Fillmore and the Marina.
Are you willing to pay extra for the ease of paying by iPhone?
Perhaps you caught our recent review for the killer iOS photo app, FX Photo Studio. If you didn’t rush out and buy it right away based on the stunning (cough, cough) examples in the accompanying gallery, or – heaven forfend – on the basis of its five stars, then here’s your chance to get it on your device for FREE.
Just go to Cult of Mac’s Facebook page and like us before midnight Friday PST (that’s about 36 hours from the time of this post) and you’ll be entered into a drawing for one of six free download codes for FX Photo Studio for iPhone and iPad.
That’s it. If you already like us on Facebook (yay!) you’re already entered, so don’t feel the need to “unlike” and then “Like” again to get in on this awesome opportunity.
Winners will be notified of their bounty and good fortune during the day on Friday.
The next time sharp-eyed citizens in Philadelphia see waste, fraud or abuse in their local government, they can report it directly to the city controller with an app.
Called Philly Watchdog, the app offered gratis for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad in iTunes has been available since April 12 but officially launched yesterday.
“When it comes to reporting fraud and waste in Philadelphia, I’m proud to say that ‘we now have an app for that,'” said City Controller Alan Butkovitz, at a press conference. “Like any investigative unit of government, we often rely on the public to help us identify waste and fraud in city government. It is critically important for government to be on the same technological page as our citizens.”
The iPhone may now rank third for smart phone market share, but it is still number one for banking applications.
Market researchers TowerGroup found that Android currently has 31.2 percent of the market share; 30.4 percent is owned by RIM; Apple has 24.7 percent. Trailing them by large amounts are Microsoft Window 7 phones with a paltry 8 percent and Palm devices are just at 3.2 percent.
But banks are writing applications for mobile services such as account access and online bill pay for the iPhone because that’s the phone for which most other industry developers are creating applications.
“But support for the Android is surging,” said Andy Schmidt, TowerGroup’s research director for commercial banking and payments, speaking at the company’s annual financial services conference in Boston.
Other banking-related findings: about 60 percent of phone purchases this year will be completed on smartphones and 56 percent of the 200 banks attending the conference offered neither mobile bill pay or mobile gift cards.
Side question: how much banking do you currently do on your mobile phone?
I downloaded my bank’s app, but the only time I actually used it was while on vacation to check credit card charges.
It’s always sexy time in Philadelphia, apparently.
Public health officials there are the latest in the U.S. to arm horny inhabitants with info on where to find condom dispensers via mobile phones in the hopes of helping bring down STD rates in young people.
iCondom Philly, offered free in iTunes, is launching as part of a health campaign that includes a sex ed site called Take Control Philly. The city is in the top 10 U.S. cities for sexually transmitted diseases with a disproportionate number of adolescents affected.
If you don’t live in Philadelphia, you may still be in luck. iCondom Philly piggybacks off an app called iCondom, which provides the same info for New York City and Washington D.C.
Gratis to download but ad supported, thanks to hordes of helpful randy regular joes (and josephines) who have added condom dispenser info, it can also help you locate the goods in Brazil, Spain, Australia, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Ireland.
“When we designed iCondom, we had in mind that the application could be easily developed to meet the needs of each city’s publicly-run condom programs that exist worldwide. Philadelphia immediately understood how useful the application could be in targeting youth 11 to 19 years old,” said Morgane Danielou, Founder of iCondom.
What’s better than a free app? Yeah, two of them — so today’s Daily Freebie is actually a twofer. Both are from MacPhun, developer of the PhotoStudio app we reviewed yesterday.
The first is a free version of PerfectPhoto, macPhun’s iPhone photo editor. It may lack the fancy filters of the paid version, but it comes with all the darkroom tools you’ll need to edit photos on the iPhone: adjust exposure, contrast, color temp, shadows, crop images and even a posterize and vintage effect. Frankly, you’re going to be using PhotoStudio for the effects anyway.
The second app, Cartoonatic, (that’s a screencap from its App Store page, above) is where the real fireworks are, though — it’ll let you transform a video clip with nine different, wild-looking effects, with live previews while recording, the ability to play around with the clip’s speed, add a soundtrack from your music library and all kinds of other neat stuff. That’s a lot of wow for free.
