httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giBNazD-Lm4

Apple launched a new pair of iPhone 3GS ads to highlight features common to newer and older devices.

Continuing the “there’s an app for that” meme, the rather underwhelming one above about sharing shows how you can exchange photos using Mover and contact info with Bump.  (The other ad focuses on travel apps for jet-setting iPhone owners).

With gazillions of apps available, the ad uses two that do a lot of the same things –  allowing users to share contact info, photos and files.

Both Mover and Bump are offered gratis on iTunes and earned three out of a five possible stars in customer ratings. (I downloaded Bump following the hype when it was the billionth app downloaded in the iTunes store, but haven’t had much occasion to use it.)

Which is better, or do you use both?

If you were building a better app ad, what would you have mentioned instead?

Apple’s board of directors is a bit light these days. In addition to recently resigned/forced out/exiled Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who is the eye of a hurricane about the notorious Google Voice/App Store rejection/AT&T imbroglio, the company has an internal seat it has kept vacant since the resignation/dismissal/ejection of former Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson in the wake of the backdating/did Steve or didn’t he/stock options fiasco.

In other words, Apple could add as many as two board members to its strange leadership team, which currently stands as Jobs, Al Gore, Genentech Chairman Arthur Levinson, Intuit Chairman Bill Campbell and the CEOs of both Avon and J. Crew. The ghost of Andy Warhol, despite rumors, does not actually sit on the board.

So who should join this squad? Fake Steve’s had his say, and it’s high time we had ours as well. As BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl points out, temporary CEO/COO-extraordinaire Tim Cook seems like an obvious addition, especially given his position on Nike’s board, and his value to the company is at this point proven and prominent. He seems like a gimme, particularly if Apple wants him to become the real CEO at some point.

From an external perspective, however, things get much more interesting. At this point, Apple’s board is very light on tech folks. Besides Steve, only Campbell is directly involved in computers, and he’s only on the consumer and small and medium business markets constituted by Quicken and QuickBooks. That said, Apple is running out of friends in technology — virtually everyone is in competition with them in some form or another, which is partially what led to the awkward situation with Schmidt.

Tenuous as their relationship has been in the past (particularly over use of the term iPhone), I would love to see John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, on the board. He’s an incredibly bright guy, a brilliant manager, and he really gets tech and telecommunications without being an Apple competitor in any meaningful sense. Additionally, he has a reputation for remarkable ethics, both personally and across his organization — Cisco was one of the only organizations in Silicon Valley that didn’t have stock backdating issues a few years back. He also gets business customers in a big way.

Chambers is my pick. What say you?

Do you leave coveted goods like iPods in plain sight around the house and forget to lock doors?

Well, if you live in Nottingham, England you just might find a police officer dressed up as “Burglar Bill”  entering your residence to teach you a lesson.

The charade is being staged to teach locals to wise up after some 285 homes were robbed in April and May by thieves entering through unlocked doors or open windows — police there say one-third of all home burglaries are perped this way.

Must-have gadgets like the iPod are a quick nick and hard to trace, they point out.

Detective Chief Superintendent Neil James said in a press release: “It only takes a couple of seconds for a thief to reach in through an open window or walk inside an unlocked door and steal a handbag, car keys, iPod and all sorts of other valuable items.”

You’ll be able to tell the artificial larcenist from the real deal because the police officer will don a get-up inspired by Hamburglar: striped shirt, mask and loot bag.

Once the fright wears off, police hope people will be more likely to use common sense habits to keep intruders out — close windows, lock doors and when at home, don’t leave keys in locks or on view and put keys out of sight to stop anyone who breaks in using your car as the getaway vehicle.
What’s still not clear: do the fake burglars give the iPods back?

Via This is Nottingham

A ringtone company that professes to hate ringtones has introduced three new sets of  ringers for the iPhone that address cellphone etiquette.

Available now for $10 each, the three new collections from San Francisco-based iRingPro are designed to make your ringing iPhone less shrill, annoying and intrusive.

“We hate ringtones,” said founder Joel Hladecek in a statement. “Which must sound odd coming from a company that makes them. But then I think that’s why iRingPro ringers are more sophisticated – why they sound cooler and seem so much more adult than anything else out there.”

iRingPro’s ringtones come in two versions – long and short. While the short tones have a traditional gap between rings, the long version has a longer period of silence, making it more relaxed and allowing you time to check who’s calling before the next ring.

The ringtones also come in “Meeting Grade” or “Active Grade.” Designed for meetings, the Meeting Grade tones are quieter and softer. When you’re out and about, the Active Grade tones are more vigorous, making them audible from a pocket or handbag, or over traffic noise.

Joining iRingPro’s well-received Zen Collection, the three new collections are:

Tek: A collection of sc-fi tones inspired by the futuristic gadgets of Hollywood. “Everybody looks to see what kind of technology you’re holding,” the company says.

Origin: A collection of “hand-made” sounds that invoke the origins of music. “Each time the phone rings, it sounds slightly different,” iRingPro says.

Zen 2: Designed for meetings or quiet settings. Free to registered owners of the original Zen Collection.

Each collection costs $9.95 and available now in iPhone and MP3 formats. You can preview each collection on iRingPro’s website.

Nikon, known for its skills as a camera maker, is now in the pocket projector business. That seems to be the news coming from the introduction of the Nikon s100pj, a 12.1-megapixel digital camera that also includes a VGA projector.

Maybe the most surprising component in this gadget is neither the camera fans nor projector are slighted. Wired describes the camera as a “solid picture-taker” with a 2.7-inch screen, 5x zoom with optical and digital image stabilization. The projector can throw up a 40-inch image at up to 2 meters. A remote and stand are also provided when you want to show the neighborhood some family snaps.

The 5.5-ounce camera/projector is $429.95.

[Via Gadget Lab and Nikon]

Kensington becomes the latest company attempting to expand the boundary of traditional iPhone/iPod docks. To their credit, Kensington offers a mini battery back pack that can be recharged while your phone or digital music player refuels.

We’ve all run into the situation where our favorite gadget is running low on juice and we are either away from a dock or simply don’t want to interrupt things for a recharge. The mini battery pack provides 30 hours of music, six hours of video or three hours of talk.

The Kensington iPhone/iPod dock and mini battery charger will be available in October for $69.99.

[Via 9to5 Mac and Kensington]

Today’s deals include Apple MacBook Pros starting at $1,299, new App Store price drops, a palm-size LED projector and many more.

Details of these and other Daily Deals can be found on the CoM Daily Deals page.

Apple has revoked the iPhone developer’s license of one prolific mobile app developer, according to a report at MobileCrunch, but the company is still taking heat for inconsistencies in its App Store approval policies.

Kahlid Shaikh and his team of 26 engineers working under the name Perfect Acumen had over 900 apps approved and selling in the iTunes App Store until July 24, when Apple terminated Shaikh’s iPhone Developer Program License due to concerns over “numerous third party intellectual property complaints concerning over 100 of [his] Applications.”

The majority of Shaikh’s apps merely aggregated content found on the web and delivered it to iPhone users under titles such as “US Army News”, “Skin Care Updates” and “Economical Crisis Updates”, as well as other questionable content under titles such as “Top Sexy Ladies” and “Top Sexy Men”.

Shaikh admitted he is not concerned about creating particularly valuable apps, according to the MobileCrunch report. Instead, he said, he’s going for “less product value” and “more monetization.” Many of his apps had been sold for $4.99, generating revenue in the range of thousands of dollars per day for Perfect Acumen, according to the report.

Despite having finally grown exasperated with fielding copyright and intellectual property claims against Shaikh, and having acted to remove what some believe was a raft of useless apps from the App Store, Apple is taken to task by the author of the MobileCrunch report for inconsistencies in its App Store review process. The entire brouhaha here is seen as evidence that “Clearly, Apple doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing.”

It appears, in the eyes of some, Apple cannot win for losing, no matter what the company does with the App Store. Either its review process is too open or it’s too restrictive; the store has too many useless apps, bans products users want, or acts to cull sketchy apps — and the end result is “Apple Sucks” no matter what they do.

Apple’s is a difficult position for a company to be in. The company created an entirely new distribution model for an industry that didn’t even exist two years ago. It created opportunity and economic activity that has amounted to one of the few glimmering beacons of hope in what has been roundly described as one of the worst economic downturns in nearly a century. And yet some people seem unable to accept the fact that every single decision made at every step of the way has not resulted in clear skies, smooth sailing and endless joy for one and all.

Make no mistake: Apple is a huge company that can and will act with caprice to get and maintain whatever economic advantage it can in a ruthless marketplace. The FCC appears increasingly interested in the operational nuances among Apple, Google and AT&T, as the formerly moribund antitrust watchdogs of the federal government are starting to prick up their ears under the Obama administration.

However, when Apple acts to shed the likes of Shaikh and his questionable work product from the App Store the company ought to be praised for finally — if belatedly — doing the right thing.

Netflix’s fantastic streaming movie service is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to a report in the trade mag Multichannel News.

Citing “an industry executive familiar with Netflix’s plans,” the trade mag says Netflix’s Watch Instantly service is headed to the iPhone, iPod Touch and the Nintendo Wii. However, because of bandwidth concerns, it will likely be available only over WiFi  and not AT&T’s 3G network, MN says.

Either way, it’s great news.

I’m a subscriber and a big fan of Netflix’s service, which I find to be easier, more convenient and much, much cheaper than Apple’s iTunes. For about $20 a month, we get to stream a wide a wide variety of TV shows and movies from Netflix instead of paying a la carte for rentals or purchases from iTunes.

Indeed, Netflix’s Watch Instantly is the strongest of the online on-demand video services — the gold standard for content on demand.

The selection isn’t comprehensive, but I find it to be pretty good. There’s not the latest releases, but there’s a pretty deep and wide library of great movies, which is more than can be said for iTunes, which I find unbearably popcorn and shallow.

In addition, Netflix movies stream quickly, the quality is great, even on a big 42-inch HDTV, and we’ve never, ever encountered a problem — a rare and astonishing testament to the company’s technology.  (We use the service through a Samsung Blu-Ray player which streams Netflix and Pandora).

The service is already available on a wide range of devices from Windows PCs and Macs, to the Xbox 360, TiVo and several Blu-Ray DVD players with support for streaming downloads.

Via AppleInsider.

Porno director Matt Morningwood, who shot the first adult scene on an iPhone 3GS, made the mistake of shooting in portrait mode, or “tallscreen.”

The vertical video format presented Matt with problems when it came to displaying the video at 16:9, but here’s how he figured out how to use iPhone video with Final Cut Pro.

Fake Steve has a hilarious series of posts about Eric “Squirrel Boy” Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board. Much better than the real news and boring analysis. Starts with Squirrel Down! and continues:

“Eric, let me tell you something. After what you pulled here at Apple, no one will ever trust you again. You’re a dead man. Okay? You are the herpes of the tech industry. You lame-ass spy. You backstabbing, flack-fucking thief. You sat in our meetings and learned all of our secrets. You listened to our product development plans. Then you went off and copied our products and now you’re trying to fuck me in the ear with my own ideas.”

Then he goes on to detail the hilarious phone calls Steve has taken from wannabes looking to fill Schmidt’s empty seat, including Woz, Kara Swisher, Jon Shirley, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Chris Anderson.

Worth reading in order to appreciate how the joke builds (I made the mistake of reading them backwards). Highlights are the Kawasaki and Anderson posts.

Link.

A hip purveyor of denim goods in New York called Self Edge has launched an iPhone payment system.

Code named (ironically?) “Square,” it consists of a small, plastic card reader that fits into headphone jacks of iPhones (or iPod Touches) and transfers swiped credit card info to an app.

According to coolhunting, it works like this: a store employee totals up merchandise,  then the customer adds a signature with their finger via touchscreen. The customer then adds the email address where they want the receipt sent to.
Kiya Babzani, co-owner of Self Edge, told Cult of Mac that Square has plenty of plusses for retailers in a system “expected to expand beyond retail and credit card use.”

“There are no recurring fees for Square, so it costs nothing to sign up. Current fees are 2.5% (+.50 cents) per transaction, extremely low compared to regular credit card rates, they normalize the fees so even if the payer uses an AmEx card, you still pay the same 2.5% which is unheard of in the credit card processing world.”

Another nifty feature: the receipt includes a map showing where the purchase was made, nice if you have to prove those distressed denims were somehow a business expense.

What’s the customer reaction to the iPhone system so far?

Babzani says: “Most people are loving it and are interested in where the product will go once it’s rolled out on a large scale.”

Meanwhile, Apple stores still have those comparatively clunky Windows-based mobile devices, rumored to be replaced by an iPhone-based system in September 2009.

In the meantime, what do you think of iPhone payments?

Images courtesy Coolhunting

Being somewhat old of years and gray of hair, I remember the good ol’ days of gaming, before all this new-fangled 3D nonsense. Entire games would be smaller in size than a thumbnail JPEG, controllers didn’t have 56,000 buttons, and games weren’t always sequels to sequels to sequels to [that’s enough of that—”Ed]

Clearly, I’m not the only one, because retro games are hot properties for all current gaming systems, and Apple handhelds are no exception. The App Store is peppered with clones and ‘tributes’ to ancient games, along with a slew of official remakes from the likes of Atari and Namco. Recently, though, Manomio—developers of Flashback for iPhone—went a stage further, aiming to bring an entire retro system to iPhone: the Commodore 64.

The build of C64 we played with was quite impressive. Although frameskipping was evident (which is no longer the case for C64 emulation on desktop Macs), the small selection of games sent over with the demo were perfectly playable. Surprisingly, the controls also worked nicely, which is quite a feat when you consider that the C64 was a distinctly ‘digital control’ platform, and that virtual joysticks don’t often work well on Apple handhelds.

Sadly, the public at large has yet to experience the app, because Apple unceremoneously rejected it, citing issues regarding its built-in BASIC (App Store apps aren’t allowed to launch executable code), and, presumably, ignoring the fact that Frotz—a Z-Machine interpreter—has been happily living on the App Store for ages, despite there being no practical distinction between it and C64.

Stu from Manomio was kind enough to offer his thoughts on this and other issues surrounding C64, along with talking about why Manomio developed the app in the first place, and why the organization considers it important to fully license content for the App Store (a position that, ironically, puts them at odds with at least several dozen rip-off apps already for sale for Apple handhelds).

You can’t turn around without stubbing your toe on another iPod dock. We’ve seen the solar-powered, the flat-panel and last week a gentle alarm with soothing light and sounds of the forest. But today’s dock is simply a cool-looking slab of technology meant to pump up the volume for your playlist. The Onkyo ND-S1 is for iPod and video home theater fans why a costly tricked-out stereo was to vinyl audiophiles.

The device takes tunes from your iPod, transforms them into a 16-bit analog equivalent and sends them to your stereo. The ND-S1, due out sometime this fall, also connects via USB to your computer and will also massage your iTunes collection.

No price was announced.

[Via Gadget Labs and Akihabara News]

Today’s deals include Apple iPods starting at $39, MacBooks starting at $599, a MacBook Pro with AppleCare and many more.

Details of these and other Daily Deals can be found on the CoM Daily Deals page.

Apple’s tablet, which may be on sale as soon as November, will be the best computer you ever bought. It will be better even than the beloved iPhone.

It will be an entirely new kind of computer that will usher in a new kind of computing.

It will be a horizontal iMac: a touch-screen computer that you use horizontally, in your lap or lying on the couch.

It will be a complete rethink of the computer for play, not work, and it use the original pointing device — your finger.

It will be really easy to use — a pleasure in fact, because it will be magical.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board of directors, Apple announced Monday.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Some believed Schmidt’s presence on Apple’s board gained early favoritism for Google’s voice-search app in the App Store and much speculation in recent months centered around Schmidt’s continued effectiveness on the board — for many of the reasons Jobs referred to in this morning’s announcement.

Some began to question the relationship between the two companies even more seriously with Apple’s recent rejection of Google’s Voice application for the iPhone, but at least now, with ties between the two companies severed at the directors’ level, their status as competitors has a more legitimate public face.

Nick Mangold, a  6’4”, 300-pound offensive lineman for the New York Jets, talked to uberfan Angel Navedo about, among other things, why he loves the iPod Touch but prefers a Blackberry to the iPhone.

The salient bits:

Do you consider yourself tech savvy?

Nick Mangold: I like to. I don’t know where I measure up to everyone else, but I like to believe I’m gadget and tech friendly. I’m a Blackberry guy.

AN: That hurts my feelings.

Nick Mangold: (Spots my iPhone) But I’m an iPod Touch guy! The iPod Touch is awesome. I think it’s a great device for games and messing around. But for dealing with emails and everything, I pick Blackberry—with the actual keyboard and everything—hands down. I can bang out a page-long email while I’m sitting, doing whatever. Touch screens, you know, I got fatter fingers. It’s not my thing.

AN: It definitely took some getting used to for me.

Nick Mangold: I’m just not a touch screen guy at all. I love it for playing games and stuff, but I keep them separate. If that requires me to carry two different things, I live with it.

The interview caught my eye after spending an afternoon thumbing on a number of keyboards in the quest to finally put my beloved first-gen smartphone out to pasture.

Not an Apple customer by kneejerk, the contract nonsense with the iPhone got me testing the Blackberry and a bunch of Nokias.  And leaving empty handed, for the moment.

Any advice?

(Blurry pics taken by Pete himself)

What it is: Nike+iPod-iPod. Basically, an inexpensive watch that doubles as a run tracker with the help of a transmitter in your shoe. Not an Apple thing, per se, although they did design the chip that goes in your shoe.

Why it’s cool: The Nike+ system originally developed for the iPod nano is a pretty remarkable little invention that allows you to keep track of your running statistics and inspire yourself to greater heights.. Unfortunately, it’s only recently been available across Apple’s mobile devices. If you own anything but a nano, a second-gen iPod touch or an iPhone 3GS, you can’t use Nike+ with your iPod. And, bizarrely, the Nike+iPod set-up actually behaves in obnoxious ways if you’re an urban runner. For example, if you get caught at a long stop light and pause your run clock, the iPod stops its music, too, making the wait that much more interminable. The NikePlus Sportband acknowledges the value of run tracking and music without making them interdependent. You can pause your workout and keep listening. And it obviously works with older iPods and iPhones, or even your shuffle.

And the new model, out as of a few weeks ago (available in gray/neon yellow or white/hot pink), is brilliant and fixes some significant flaws with the previous generation. The original black and orange Sportband had poor sealing, which led to a lot of people ending up with unreadable watches as moisture left smears on the inside. Nike recalled the product and now offers one-for-one swaps if you help onto your original Sportband. Besides fixing the moisture problem, the new display goes for a pleasing black numbers on white background instead of the former’s extremely dim white letters on black. It’s very stylish, and the functionality is better than ever. Additionally, because the face clips off and syncs vis USB (see below)

The watch sets itself and can even charge its (already long-lasting) battery, which means it won’t die the way normal watches do. It’s fuss-free, and the nicest $59 watch you’ll ever find, whether or not you’re a runner.

Where to get it: Finer local running specialty shops or the Nike Store. If you’re making a swap, bring it into the original place of purchase, with or without a receipt. At any NikeTown location, they’ll even give you cash, including tax, if they don’t have enough in stock.

If you are accustom to waking with a blaring radio or the blinding light of early morning, the new wake-up light by Philips may be the perfect solution. The gadget, which includes an iPhone/iPod dock, promises a gradual wake-up routine by increasing the light gradually in your bedroom.

“Light falls on your eyes and positively affects your energy hormones, preparing your body to wake up,” according to Philips. For heavy sleepers, the light can reach 300 lux.

Replacing that obnoxious jolting alarm are natural sounds or tunes supplied by your iPod or iPhone. If you go with the built-in sounds, you can choose between “morning birds in the forest, a relaxing beep, the sounds of the African jungle or soft chimes in the wind,” according to the company. If you pick your favorite iPod or iPhone tunes, the sound level will increase over 90 seconds until reaching a preset maximum.

The Philips Wake-Up Light will cost $200 when it is released Aug. 22.

[Via Philips]

Apple on Friday afternoon released a firmware patch for the iPhone to fix a dangerous SMS security hole.

The 3.0.1 firmware update is available now through iTunes. The 300MB update is available for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. It doesn’t appear to contain any other features or bug fixes except for the SMS patch, according to Apple’s security advisory.

As previously reported, noted security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner revealed a major security exploit in the iPhone’s SMS system on Thursday at the 2009 Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas.

The exploit takes advantage of memory hole in the SMS system, allowing hackers root access to the device. Programs could theoretically be sent to any iPhone, through multiple SMS messages if necessary, and take over all functions, including the camera, phone and microphone. The only indication of the hack would be a SMS message containing a single square character.

Miller and Mulliner reportedly chose to reveal the exploit, which is applicable to all mobile platforms including iPhone OS, Android and Windows Mobile, at Black Hat after Apple had been unresponsive in the wake of their showing it to company officials earlier in July.

Looks like Apple woke up fast. The patch was issued in about 24 hours.

UPDATE: Google also patched its Android system on Friday, and Microsoft says it is investigating, according to BusinessWeek. To be fair, Microsoft was just informed of the vulnerability, while Apple was warned weeks ago, which may explain the speed of its patch.

I just visited Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue for the first time — you know, the subterranean one with the glass cube on top that was co-designed by Steve Jobs.

While the architecture is fabulous, the most notable thing was the huge crowd in there at 6.30 PM in the evening on a weeknight. The stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles are often crowded, but the 5th Ave store was heaving. I don’t mean just crowded; it was literally packed, wall to wall.

There were lines for the Genius Bar (OK, expected); there were lines for the checkouts (also expected); there were lines for the iPhone 3GS (not expected); and there were lines for the new MacBooks (set up at a special stand. Also not expected).

There were lines for all the machines in the store. People were hanging about the tables for a chance to use the demo iMacs, MacBooks and iPhones.

It was hard to look at anything on the shelves without asking someone to get out of the way. It was almost impossible to move down some of the aisles because of the crowds.

It more resembled a hip NYC nightclub than a premium consumer electronics manufacturer in the midst of an economic downturn.

Color me genuinely surprised.

BTW: The Fifth Ave locale is one of the five Apple stores to see before you die.

Watch out the for sand and water, but bring your device to the fourth annual international meeting for iPhone and iPod fanatics in Riccione, Italy.

This Sunday, August 2, thousands of Apple fans are expected to stage playlist battles and contend for Apple-related prizes at the event organized by Italian site ipodmania.

How did it get started? Well, according to the press release in somewhat maccheronic inglisc:

“The iPod and the iPhone are a mania, there’s nothing to do, and we are subjugated by that insana disease, so we have decided to celebrate this obsession…”

Never mind that iPod/iPhone festivities at Aquafan, Europe’s biggest water park, will be a minefield for devices (everybody in the pool!), site founder Andrea Di Mambro says past editions drew thousands of fans from all over Italy, plus the UK, Germany, Spain and Russia.

A live concert from lounge virtuosi Montefiori Cocktail is also on, as well as tutorials from website staff on how to get the most out of your device.

If you happen to go, send us a report and pics.

It’s Friday and it’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

APP OF THE WEEK

TonePad: Fantastic grid-based musical toy, somewhat based on a simplified Tenori-On. Includes save/edit options. 5/5 Free https://is.gd/1OKub

Radial 50 Lite: Three-level circular Breakout. Great graphics and sound, but awkward, frustrating controls. 2/5 Free https://is.gd/1NPLb

Xpandaballs: Expanding-ball placement game. Fun & addictive, but annoying ‘automated movement’ aim mechanism. 3/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/1NPQf

Death Ball: Simplistic avoid-the-bombs game, saved by online scores but marred by jerky visuals and awful audio. 2/5 Free https://is.gd/1QrUI

Railroad Madness: Flight Control with trains. Doesn’t really work, due to limited movements & awkward switches. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/1Qsy7

XE Currency: Straightforward, clear and highly usable exchange-rates app. Works offline with recent data. 5/5 Free https://is.gd/1U9Xo

This week proved the old development truth: if someone comes up with a great idea, someone else will copy it—often not terribly well. This is definitely the case with Railroad Madness, which takes Flight Control and tries to apply the ‘direct them home’ mechanic to trains. Thing is, trains aren’t quite as free moving, and so where Firemint’s game is exciting and flexible in how you can move your planes, Railroad Madness is merely frustrating, clunky and maddening with its trains.

Xpandaballs also appears to have a slight case of copycatitis, being very similar to Gravulous. That said, the newcomer looks and mostly plays better than its older rival—both games task you with shooting expanding balls into space, using subsequent collisions to remove them from the board. Xpandaballs would have scored higher if it wasn’t for the aiming mechanism automatically moving back and forth—direct aiming would be a lot more fun.

App of the week this time round isn’t a game, though—it’s a fantastic musical toy. With TonePad, you tap lights on a grid on and off, and a loop of music is played back. It’s simple, but surprisingly engaging, and the ability to flip the grid and save compositions ensures it rises above ‘throwaway’ and becomes welded to your device’s home screen.

Follow iPhoneTiny on Twitter, or visit iPhoneTiny.com.

Apple plans to release a security patch on Saturday to address a security issue for iPhone users that had some worried third party criminals could gain control over their phones remotely, the BBC reported on Friday.

Noted security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner revealed a major security exploit in SMS technology Thursday at the 2009 Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas. The exploit sent shockwaves through the wireless world and caused owners of mobile phones no end of terror over the prospect that bad guys might gain control over their devices by sending a series of simple SMS messages, including one containing a single square character, which would be the only indication of the hack.

Miller and Mulliner reportedly chose to reveal the exploit, which is applicable to all mobile platforms including iPhone OS, Android and Windows Mobile, at Black Hat after Apple had been unresponsive in the wake of their showing it to company officials earlier in July.

It was not immediately clear whether the patch reported by the BBC would be available to all iPhone users or just to those in the UK. Calls to Apple PR were unreturned at press time, but we’ll update the story as more information becomes available.