By: Hillel Fuld

Truth be told, I kinda love putting these posts together, it helps me feel productive by seeing exactly how many posts I have written in the last week or month. The fact that people keep telling me they love them and use them as a resource to catch up on all the technology news they missed, well that is just the icing on the cake.

Anyway, here you go, folks, some of the most exciting tech news of the past ten days as told through the posts I have written on various sites:

Google

Android Dominates the Market… IN MOBILE MALWARE!: Many doubt the reliability of these numbers, but if they are even partially accurate, Google better get their Android act together.

Google Music Launches With the Cloud, Social, and Artists in Mind: Should iTunes be worried? Well, no, because software doesn’t have emotions, but that aside, Google Music looks pretty promising.

Google Updates iOS App and Brings the Mojo Back to iPad Search: Pretty sure this is the nicest Google iPad app out there. What a UI!

Apple

8 Valuable Lessons Steve Jobs Left as Part of His Legacy: This is my first book review ever and I wrote it just as I started reading Steve Jobs’ biography for the second time. Nope, not kidding…

Dominos Launches iPad App/Campaign, Fulfills Every Kid’s Dream: This app will amaze you, watch the video.

Mind-Controlled Siri: Maybe A Hoax, but Kinda Makes You Wonder: Real or Fake?

Seven of Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s Craziest Pranks: Wow, Jobs and Wozniak were quite the trouble makers… I guess you gotta be to change the world they way they did!

Amazon

It Was Inevitable: A Side by Side Video of iPad vs Kindle Fire (and a surprise): The Kindle Fire is spreading like wild fire (pun very much intended) but the question everyone is asking is, how does it compare to the beloved iPad? Watch this video to find out.

You Knew it Was Coming! The Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire Drop Test (VIDEO): Oh, come ON! You know you love to watch drop tests!

Samsung

New Samsung Ad Takes on Apple Fanboys and It’s Hilarious: Great advertising work by Samsung but wasn’t it once illegal to directly attack your competition in ads?

Microsoft

Windows Phone Marketplace Has Experts Modestly Optimistic: While many industry experts are putting their eggs in the Microsoft basket, the world’s largest software company has its work cut out for it if it is going to make an impact on the mobile space the way it did on the PC market.

Rovio

Angry Birds Are Everywhere, Even on The Simpsons: The Angry Birds phenomenon, as I like to call it, has gotten so ridiculous lately, these birds are EVERYWHERE.

 Angry Birds Comes to Life: OK, games, toys, cakes, pizzas, that is all fine. But Angry Birds in real life? Really?

Facebook

HUGE! Facebook and Skype Join Forces (Again) to Make the World Even Smaller: This is pretty big news as far as global communication ad video calls are concerned.

 Random

The Power of Words: A Video Every Human Needs to Watch: One of the most powerful videos ever, highly recommended.

By: Hillel Fuld

Yesterday, just in case you were not online, was Apple’s annual WWDC event. I wrote how Apple’s announcements won’t really change anything for the industry. I was wrong! The enhancements Apple made to iOS, Mac OS, and the entire Apple ecosystem were, yes I am using this word, revolutionary. I tweeted the announcements as they happened, so if you want to get up to date before reading this post, you can read my tweets here. You can also read about iOS 5 on Apple.com here.

There are over 200 new features in iOS 5, 250 in OSX Lion, and the new iCloud service, so suffice to say, despite the lack of a new iPhone, yesterday’s event wowed pretty much everyone. I would love to single out one feature that is the most game-changing for me in iOS 5, but unfortunately, I am unable to, as there are so many that will change the way I use my iOS devices. Notifications is a huge one, but so is the new Mail interface, the new iMessage platform, the enhancements Apple made to the camera and its feature set, as well as the full and deep Twitter integration into iOS 5. The list goes on and on, Apple did a great job with this release.

What is really interesting is that the new iOS, with all its features will essentially lead me and many other users to delete different apps that prior to iOS 5, provided a certain functionality that is now part of the operating system itself. In fact, take a look at this post, 8 Apps That Should Have Been Part of iOS and Apple Should Now Buy, I wrote a few months back, seems like Apple was listening…  Except Apple did not buy these companies/apps, they essentially destroyed them.

Just to clarify, I do not really believe that apps like Dropbox or Instagram, with their millions of users, will really close up shop tomorrow, but I do believe they will suffer from the new integrated features of iOS 5. More people will use iCloud instead of Dropbox as well as the integrated photo sharing/editing capabilities instead of using Instagram. I would have been a lot happier if Apple would have gone on a shopping spree and snatched up all these amazing companies, but as a consumer, I am very excited to try all the new features included in iOS 5.

The following is a list of app categories, represented by one example, that will surely suffer from the new and integrated features in iOS 5, which Steve Jobs announced yesterday:

1: Boxcar (Notification Apps): One of my all time favorite apps, not because it is great, but because it was needed. All my notifications including email, Twitter, Facebook, and many others are pushed to me using Boxcar. The new Notification Center on iOS will in fact kill this app. I see no reason to continue using Boxcar in iOS 5. Sad to say it since it really did the job, but bye bye Boxcar, hello Notification Center.

2: Dropbox (Cloud syncing apps): Dropbox will not die because it is cross-platform and enables you to sync between all mobile platforms, as well as PC or Mac. Having said that, its iPhone app will no longer be needed thanks to iCloud. Again, a much beloved app that I have used and has saved me on many occasions, but it is time to go. I wish it had been an acquisition, but alas, bye bye Dropbox, hello iCloud.

3: WhatsApp/Kik (Free messaging apps): Again, these apps will not really die because they are cross platform, but I do expect iMessage to absolutely slaughter BBM and any and all uses of these apps on iOS, not to mention its affect on SMS. With the deep integration of iMessage, I see no need for any free messaging app on my iPhone, do you? Bye bye WhatsApp, Kik, and all other free messaging apps, hello iMessage.

4: QuickPix (Camera- enhancing apps): This one truly hurts me. I have not touched the Apple Camera app for months. QuickPix is an awesome app by an awesome developer. However, the new camera loads faster than before, and has extra functionality not found in QuickPix, such as a hardware button (the volume button) and photo editing capabilities. As much as I loved you, bye bye QuickPix, hello new Camera.

5: Instapaper (Read later apps): This also falls under the category of “Will not die but will suffer greatly”. Instapaper or any other app that enables you to save articles on the Web for later consumption, is a product no longer needed with iOS 5. You see, the new Safari has a feature that enables you to add the web page you are currently viewing to the “Reader” section. Yep, Apple pretty much added its own Instapaper, although again, why not just buy the company? Bye bye Instapaper, hello new and improved Safari.

6: Twitpic (not an app): Well, this is to be expected. Twitter launched its own photo service, but that was all nice in theory until iOS 5 integrated it deep into the OS. Yes, now you take a photo with an iOS device and tweet it, can you guess which photo service iOS uses to host and share your photos? Nope, it aint Twitpic or any of the others, it is the Twitter photo service. Well, after all the hype about Twitpic owning my photos, I am happy to say, bye bye Twitpic, hello Twitter.

7: Remember the Milk (Reminder apps): I have to say, I tried many reminder apps, and somehow always ended up writing my items down in the Notes app. All the other apps just seemed like overkill to me. Now, Apple added Reminders to iOS, and from what I can tell, it is just what I need. I am sure some of the more advanced users will say Reminders is not enough for them, but I can safely say, I will be using Reminders on a daily basis. Bye bye, task management apps, hello Reminders.

8: Photoshop Express (Photo Editing apps): This was a great app for what it was. It provided basic editing functionality to spice up and modify your iPhone’s photos. Well, guess what Apple just added to the Camera app? Editing abilities. Again, it is not Photoshop, but it does the job better than any other mobile editing app I have seen. So, I can’t say I have really used you too often, but bye bye Photoshop Express, hello enhanced Camera app.

9: Echofon/Tweetdeck (Twitter apps): Over the years, I have done extensive testing of pretty much all Twitter apps for iOS. First of all, I can safely say, there is no great Twitter app for iPad. There are many good ones, like Echofon, Tweetdeck. Osfoora, Tweetings, and others, but none are the ultimate Twitter app. On iPhone, there are many solid options, but for me, Echofon was always the best. I think it is time to say goodbye to all these apps with iOS 5 coming with Twitter deeply integrated. Yes, you shoot a photo and tap Tweet, volla, tweeted. Let’s be honest, is anyone really going to bother opening up a 3rd party app anymore? Bye bye Twitter apps, hello iOS Twitter integration.

10: Instagram (Photo Sharing apps) First, let me just say, I love Instagram, always have from day one. It is not a revolutionary app that will make anyone say “Wow”, but it does the job and it does it well. It is in my opinion the ultimate proof that when it comes to apps, simplicity wins. However, with the new photo sharing capabilities, Instagram will suffer. It will not die, because after all, it is launching on Android soon (right, Kevin?). No, but seriously, it has more functionality than what is included in iOS 5 such as filters and more sharing options than just Twitter. Having said that, something tells me most Instagramers use the app to share to Twitter and that is going to stop with the native Twitter integration in iOS 5. Putting Instagram aside, bye bye to the majority of photo sharing apps, hello iOS Twitter integration.

11: Pulse (Reader apps): I am a huge fan of Pulse, Flyscreen, Flipboard, Flud, and many other reader apps, but they are all in trouble. The new Safari has a Reader section that essentially takes the Web page you are viewing and turns it into a page of a magazine. No mess and no hassle. Why open another app when I can have a reader experience directly in Safari? Now, let’s calm down a bit here. Flipboard is not dead, far from it. The experience is unparalleled and is not the same as the Reader in Safari. Having said that, I am sure these apps, every single one of them, will see a significant decrease in traffic on iOS devices. Some of them, like Flyscreen and Pulse are available on other platforms. Others are not. So, I guess this is not goodbye, but good luck to Pulse, Flipboard, Flyscreen, and the rest of the crowded reader app arena.

12: iChromy (Browsers): I have been using iChromy on iPad since I first discovered it. Why? The tabbed browsing is fantastic. Same is true for many other browsers that offer tabbed browsing similar to the desktop experience. They are all dead! Safari has a lot of new features, but the new tab functionality looks amazing, and will surely return the throne of best mobile browser to Safari, its rightful owner. Bye bye, tabbed iOS browsers, hello Safari 2.0.

13: Wifi Photo (Wifi syncing apps): So many apps have been developed to overcome the challenge of wirelessly syncing the photos you take with your iPhone with your computer. Wifi Photo is my favorite. They can all be eulogized today. With iCloud, your photos are synced automatically to the cloud and available for download from any device. Apple did not only make these wireless syncing apps obsolete, it actually beat them at their own game. iCloud if it works as advertised, will be the ultimate wireless syncing solution for iOS devices. Bye bye photo syncing apps, hello iCloud.

14: Dictionary (Translation apps): OK, iOS has a new dictionary option built in. Nothing else to say here. No more need for translation apps, with WordLens being the only exception I can think of. So, bye bye dictionary apps, hello iOS 5.

15: Gmail (Web app): I hate the Web app on my iPhone, there, I said it. I use Gmail on the Web regularly, whether it is for a better search, better organization of messages, or other features lacking in the Apple native Mail app. No more! The new Mail has better threading, better search, a better design, and a whole list of new features, such as the ability to flag messages and write in rich text formatting. I have not tried it yet, but something tells me I will not be needing Google’s Gmail Web app any more. Bye bye Gmail on the Web, hello new Mail app on iOS 5, happy to have you.

16: Find my iPhone: Well this is a no brainer, Apple added this to the iOS registration process. See TheNextWeb’s first look at iOS 5 and notice the screen to enable Find My iPhone functionality. OK, being as this was an app provided by Apple, I guess this is big deal, although it is yet another app I can now delete off my iPhone thanks to iOS 5. So, bye bye Find my iPhone app, hello new iOS feature.

17: iTunes!! Well I know I said I cannot choose one feature of iOS as the best, but if I had to, if you were really holding a gun to my head, well this would be my choice. For the first time ever, you can now own an iOS device, without a computer. No more need for iTunes and all that wasted syncing time. You can set up the device wirelessly, back up your files wirelessly, and sync your device wirelessly. This is huge. I have two words for you, Apple. Good riddance. And here are some more words I have been waiting to say for a long time. Bye bye iTunes, hello wireless syncing. I don’t know you yet but I think I love you!

That’s all folks, 17 apps I use regularly along with millions of other people, and will no longer have a place on my iOS devices. Some I am sad to see go, others less, but at the end of the day, Apple hit this one out of the park with iOS 5 and iCloud. No mention here of the new Lion features, and they are equally as awesome, but that is a topic for another time.

OK, Fanboys of Android, BlackBerry, and other mobile platforms that feel Apple stole their thunder, the stage is yours. Why did Apple completely fail with iOS 5, how did they copy other OSes, and how is every single point I made above, completely wrong and influenced by my love for Jobs and everything he does? The stage is yours…

By: Hillel Fuld

Developing an app is far from an easy task. As app consumers, we always hear about the success of apps like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and others. However, as someone said last week at an event I attended, “For every Angry Birds, there are a lot of angry developers”. This is not a post about the challenges of app development, but if we were to sum up two of the major issues developers face, it would be discovery and monetization.

To address the second one, monetization, a common misconception in the app ecosystem is that the only way to generate revenue from an app is to charge users per download. However, what most developers don’t realize is that by charging $.99 or $1.99 for your app, you are creating an unnecessary barrier for users that will ultimately be detrimental to your app’s success. What if there was a way to let users download your app for free and generate more revenue from the app than if it had cost users money? Well, the truth is, there is and it is called inneractive (Disclosure: I do marketing there). I am talking about in-app advertising and by now, everyone who is anyone in the developer community has figured out that this method is the way to monetize mobile apps. To sign up and start generating revenue from your apps, click here.

Moving along to app discovery, in this case, the solution is not as simple as with monetization. There are many app discovery services out there, and I recommend trying them all. Having said that, this issue of getting your app discovered needs some “outta the box” thinking, and there is one solutuon that has it. Appboy (Disclosure: I work with the company on its blog and social media. Yes, I work a lot!), a company that was originally a social network for mobile developers has released an SDK (software development kit) to add “checkins” to mobile apps. Think Foursquare meets Angry Birds. When a user opens your app and checks in, they notify all their Facebook friends and Twitter followers that they are using the app. How is that for discovery? Sign up here.

Moving along, when it comes to discovery, nothing beats some good PR. As a blogger, I get the chance to see many new mobile apps before they are released to the App Store. Over the years, I have been a beta tester for some of the most awesome apps out there. In addition, I get tens of emails every day pitching me a new mobile app, and some turn out to be pretty amazing.

The developers of these apps have worked long and hard to create a superior product and have also taken the initiative to reach out to bloggers and do some marketing for their apps. All the developers I am going to mention are independent and do not have large marketing budgets, so I thought I would push their apps a little for them. However, I chose ten of the best apps I have seen and deserve to be pushed. I hope you like them as much as I do.

The following are ten iOS apps you most likely never heard of and are worthy of your download:

1: TalkBox (Free); This app brings texting to the 21st century. Instead of typing your message, you speak it into the phone while pressing the Talk button and the message is immediately sent to the recipient. The app works flawlessly and the UI is beautiful. The developer is Green Tomato Limited and the app is also available on the Android Market.

2: netTalk (Free): There are many VOIP apps out there such as Viber, Skype, Vonage, and more, but netTalk is different. With netTalk, you can dial any phone number in the US or Canada over Wifi or 3G and talk for free. Completely free. Other international locations are also very cheap. I have had and used this app for years. Can you think of any reason not to download it? I can’t! You can read more about the app and the developer here.

3: Mooniz ($0.99) : It has been said that Mooniz is the next Angry Birds. I am not sure I would go so far, but I will say that this game is designed as well as the best games out there, if not better. It is also equally addictive, but I am not sure the developer has the marketing capabilities that Rovio does, otherwise it might very well become the next Angry Birds. The game costs a buck, but it is a buck well spent! Check out the developer’s awesome website here.

4: 360 Panorama ($1.99): If you follow Scoble on Twitter, you might have heard of this app, but otherwise it is pretty unknown. With 360 Panorama, you can take a panorama photo of your location and easily share it online. The app allows you to geo tag your photos, save them to your camera roll, and email them to contacts who can view them with nothing more than a Web browser. Microsoft released a similar app called Photosynth, but this developer, Occipital, deserves all the downloads he can get, despite the $1.99 price tag.

5: ToonPAINT ($1.99): This app definitely makes my favorites list along with apps such as Dropbox, Flipboard, and QuickPix. ToonPAINT is also one of those apps that will amaze people when they first see it. Basically, the app enables you to take a photo or select one from your library and transform it into a high quality and professional cartoon. I have been having a lot of fun with this app and my Twitter followers can attest to that. You can read more about the developer and watch the app in action here.

6: Responsive ($0.99): It has happened to all of us. You are in a meeting and get a call that you want to answer, but can’t. This app enables you to easily and immediately send a text back to the caller and set a reminder for yourself to call back later. The templates are predefined and include things like “I am in a meeting, call you later” and are also able to be edited. It is a pretty simple concept, the app is designed well and works as advertised. The developer is a friend and you can see his Facebook page here.

7: Pah ($0.99): I am sure you have heard of laugh therapy. Well, save yourself the money on a therapist and download this app, I guarantee you, it will make your day better. With Pah,  you are playing a very basic game in which a ship is flying and needs to shoot the obstacles in its way. What’s the big deal? Well, all that is done with your voice, and no, I am not kidding. Watch the video below. The developer is also a friend of mine and definitely deserves the hype for creating the first voice activated iPhone game. Check out their Facebook page here.

8: Maha ($0.99) : If you are on Twitter, you have most likely tested out a whole bunch of iPhone Twitter apps. Maha is not the best one out there, but it is definitely the most interesting. If you have tried out the new Windows Phone 7 OS, Maha brings that UI to iPhone. The app is full of features including integrated lists and much more. It is worth the download if you like well designed apps. I don’t know this developer (found the app via Twitter), but judging by their site, they are independent.

9: Daps’em (Free): When it comes to the Web and specifically the social Web, there is never any knowing what will take off next. Daps’em brings the important value of gratitude or appreciation for a person to social media. It is really quite simple. With this app/service, you can easily give a friend or contact a shoutout for something specific and let others know that you dapped that person. The app is designed beautifully and will surely contribute to your good Karma. You can check out the developer’s site here.

10: Showtime ($1.99): This app provides a much needed functionality in an elegant and well designed interface. With Showtime, you can easily view your iPhone’s photos on a big display. The app is packed with awesome features and works flawlessly. The developer is Aptogo and you can check them out here.

There you have it, folks. Those are some great apps that I hope I helped you discover. The developers of these apps did some fantastic work and deserve to be recognized for that, so check em out, and as always, I appreciate your feedback, which you can leave below in the comments, or on Twitter. Follow me here.

By: Hillel Fuld

It has been a few months now since I replaced my beloved BlackBerry Bold with a shiny new iPhone 4 (Read about the experience here). All in all, despite its shortcomings (yes, Apple is not perfect), I am extremely satisfied with the iPhone and despite what I would have said about the first 3 generations of the Apple device, I now recommend the iPhone 4 to anyone who asks me.

Having said that, and due to the nature of what I do, both here and at inneractive, I come across a lot of new apps on a daily basis. Some developers I work with have done such a fantastic job on creating apps for iOS, that it shows me how much better the actual phone could have been. Whether it is the notification system, the camera, note taking capabilities, or the lack of a task manager, the iPhone is far from perfect.

I have over 200 apps installed on my iPhone, but I can count on one (or two) hands the number of apps I use regularly, which is sometimes weekly and even daily. Some of these apps are well known, others are less, and some were just released on the App Store, so I figured I would give you a heads up.

The following are 8 iOS apps that Apple should have built into the operating system, but since they did not, they should now go out and buy:

• Boxcar (Free): It is no secret that one of the fronts on which Android kicks Apple’s butt is notifications. Here is a mockup of what an ideal solution for iOS notifications would look like, but meanwhile, Boxcar does a pretty good job. Boxcar is an all in one notification solution for your iOS apps. It pushes notifications for services including Facebook, Twitter, email, Google Voice and Buzz, and a whole lot more. I have experienced some bugs in Boxcar where there are days that I do not get any notifications, but 95% of the time, I love it.
• QuickCam ($0.99): This app was made by the same developer as another one of my favorite photography apps for iOS, ClearCam. As of last week when I started testing QuickCam, it has officially replaced my iPhone’s Camera app, which was made by Apple. Why? It is faster and has tons of features Apple did not include, but most importantly, it is a whole lot faster than the iPhone’s built in camera app. Just to name two of my favorite QuickCam features, its burst mode is faster than anything I have ever seen before and the app also enables you to snap a photo while you are in the middle of taking a video. I have not seen that anywhere else.
  
• FX Photo Studio ($1.99): I bet you never heard of this app, but for any person who takes pictures with your iPhone or iPad 2, this is a must have. With two versions, one for iPhone and one for iPad, this app provides extremely advanced photo editing capabilities, the likes of which I have only seen in Photoshop. FX Photo Studio has a whopping 181 photo effects and filters built in, extensive sharing abilities across the Web, and many other awesome possibilities. The thing I love about it most by far, is that as opposed to Photoshop, which requires courses in order to master, this app is intuitive and everything about it is obvious.
• Bump (Free): This is one those apps that makes you say “Wow, how did no one think of this before?” If you have not heard of Bump yet (you have been living under a rock), the company developed a technology that enables file transfer, and most recently the ability to transfer your favorite apps by simply bumping two devices together. No, I am not kidding. Just watch the video below. This, given the iPhone’s limited file transfer abilities, should definitely be integrated into iOS and if Apple does not buy this company, something tells me Google will. Fight!
• Kik (Free): Whether it is Kik, WhatsApp, or any of the other free messaging apps on the iPhone, Apple needs its own BBM-like service. If iPhone users were able to text each other for free the way BlackBerry users can, that would pretty much be the nail in the coffin of RIM. After all, their new devices run Android apps, and almost all smartphone OSes now support push mail, so what would RIM have left?
• Evernote (Free): Another widely accepted flaw of the iOS platform is its note-taking ability or lack thereof. Yes, you can jot down a note with the iPhone Notes app, but that is pretty much all you can do. No voice notes, no accompanying photos, and pretty much no organization options. Evernote is probably the most popular note taking app on iOS, and rightfully so. For one, it is free. Secondly, it pretty much covers all your note-taking needs. It also syncs with a client on Mac. PC, or Web. There are a lot more slick features to Evernote and no reason I can think of that this should not have been built into iOS.
• RedLaser/Quick Input (Free): There are many QR code scanners on the App Store, I found these to be the best and quickest, with the slight advantage going to Quick Input due to its speed. Whatever QR scanning app you prefer, there should have been one built into the OS. Yes, I know NFC is the next big thing (or not), but meanwhile QR codes are relatively big and Apple should have included the functionality in its masterpiece.
• Flipboard (Free): I was seriously considering leaving this part blank since chances are by now, you have heard of Flipboard, you have probably played around with Flipboard, and you most likely loved Flipboard, especially after the latest update. Flipboard is a true work of art, and Mike McCue is the artistic genius behind it. I know this is a little different than the other apps I mentioned since Flipboard does not provide a basic functionality like notifications, free messaging, or note taking, but I still believe it belongs on this list. I can only imagine Steve Jobs in his original keynote introducing the iPhone or iPad giving the crowd one of his famous “One more thing” moments and introducing the world to a flipboard-like magazine built into the OS. The crowd would have gone nuts. Don’t worry Steve, all hope is not lost, but it is time to open up your wallet and acquire the best digital social reading experience the world has ever known. Right now, we all use and love it on iPad, but rumor has it Flipboard is making its way to iPhone soon, so now would be a good time to make it a native part of iOS.

There have been many other apps I used and loved on iOS, but these are some of the best out there, and the ones I believe should be an integral part of the already superior experience that the Apple operating system provides.

Did I miss any? Hit me up in the comments or on Twitter. I am @hilzfuld.

By: Hillel Fuld

It is the same story every time. Another friend of mine goes over to the dark side, gets rid of his/her BlackBerry and buys an iPhone. Then the questions start pouring in. “How do I delete a song from my iPhone? What do you mean I can’t do it from the device?” “How do I create a ringtone?” Then there is the question that every single new iPhone owner asks: “What apps should I download?”

Every time I am asked that question, I start going through old blog posts I have written on the topic with a list of good iPhone apps. That takes me a good twenty minutes every time, and this is a scenario that happens almost daily. For this reason, I decided to compile an organized list of iPhone apps that I use and love. It is important to take into account that this is very much a personal preference and everyone is different. In fact, when I tweeted the question this morning (with a picture of my new twin boys) asking my followers what their favorite iPhone apps were, the answers I got were all very different than the following list.

Having said that, I tried to include apps that anyone would find useful or entertaining and not apps that I use just because they work with my personal daily workflow. When I first got the iPhone, like many other people I started going on an app shopping spree just to see what was out there. Now, after several months, I have gotten rid of the so called “junk” and have left the apps I enjoy using most. I hope you find some gems here that you did not know about.

The following is a list of my personal favorite iPhone apps based on different categories:

Social Apps

1: Echofon Pro: After testing over 50 Twitter apps, this is the best Twitter iPhone app, hands down!

2: Facebook: One of the best iPhone app designs out there, and some might say the app works even better than the site.

3: Meebo: All your IM networks in one and compared to the many other options, this is the best IM app.

4: Viber: Free high quality calls to your friends who have the app installed. A great Skype competitor. My review here.

5: Skype: Still the Voip industry leader and with video calling supported, this is really a killer app. My review here.

6: Vonage: Call any of your Facebook friends who have this app for free.

7: Whatsapp/Kik: Has been called BBM for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry (not Kik). Both very good free messaging apps. My review here.

Utilities

1: iLlumination: Just the best free flashlight app, nothing else to it.

2: Bump: Very futuristic app that enables you to transfer data by bumping phones. My review here and here.

3: LogMeIn: Remotely access your computer from your iPhone. A little pricey, but worth it. My review here.

4: QuickInput: Simply the best and fastest QR Code reader available.

5: VLC: I have been a fan of VLC on PC and Mac for years. Now you can play any video on iPhone with this app. My review here. Update: The app was pulled by Apple. Thanks Ari.

6: Boxcar: Probably my favorite app. Gives you notifications for almost all your services such as email, Facebook, Twitter, and much more. My review here.

7: Dropbox: One of the very few services that I use personally and professionally. Keep all your devices in sync. My review here and here.

Photography

1: Instagram: A nicely designed photo sharing app with the ability to add filters to your pictures. My review here.

2: Camera+: Widely accepted as the most professional photography app on iPhone. I do not disagree.

3: 360: Easily take a 360 degree picture of your location and share it with your friends. A very cool app.

4: Burstn: Another photo sharing app with some major advantages over the competition. My review here.

5: ClearCam: An app that enhances your photos and improves their resolution. My review here.

Games

1: Angry Birds: Widely and accurately regarded as the most addictive game in history.

2: Cut the Rope: The only iPhone game that can even dream of competing with the birds.

3: Rocket Bird: A great flying game with really nice graphics.

4: Paper Toss: Another very addictive game in which you have to throw a piece of paper into a garbage bin. My review here.

5: Talking Tom: If you have kids or are a kid yourself, a must have app. My review here.

6: MultiPong: An engaging game with graphics that you can only find on the iPhone.

7: TinyWings: Had not known about this game till a friend told me about it in a tweet. Seems pretty awesome to me.

Others/General

1: WordLens: This app shows me that the future is here. As my title here states, you gotta see it to believe it.

2: Flyscreen: The app I use daily to read the news. My review here.

3: Pulse News: Another beautifully designed app for reading your content.

4: Ocarina: How could I leave this out? Just watch this video!

5: FlightTrack Pro: The best way to track your flights.

6: BaldBooth: Allows you to take a picture of anyone and make them bald. Just very entertaining.

That’s all folks. Just to emphasize again, I am sure if you use an iPhone, there are apps that you love that do not appear on this list. Apps such as Instapaper (which I use on the Web daily, just less on iPhone), Reeder, Evernote, Waze, and Airplay. All these are great apps that I have used, but did not include in the list because they did not make the cut. I hope this list helped you and of course, feel free to share your favorite iPhone apps in the comments below or on Twitter. You can find me here.

By: @Hilzfuld

While the mobile industry is busy talking about and comparing the Nexus One and the iPhone, there is one phone that really gives a clear perspective of the entire market and sums up the industry in a nutshell. It was not long ago when I first laid hand on the famous Motorola RAZR. “Wow, what a phone”, I thought, but what was it about the RAZR that so impressed people. What did the phone really being to the table that made people by the RAZR by the millions? Let’s be honest, was it the features that the phone offered or was it simply a pure case of style over substance? Did the RAZR revolutionize the mobile phone in that it offered better wireless broadband? Did it offer a better camera? Was its user experience superior to its predecessors?

The answer is a big fat no. The RAZR did nothing in terms of functionality. The only thing it did was push the boundaries of mobile hardware. Motorola managed to build a mobile phone that would amaze anyone that would hold it. We all fell for it. Not only did us “dumb” consumers fall into the trap, but all of Motorola’s competitors did too. All the big corporations that spend billions on market research, spent the next year or two competing who could make the thinnest phone. What about functionality? What about experience? Not many phones before or after the RAZR offered such a poor user experience. So how were we so blind?

Instead of trying to answer “what were we all thinking?”, what we should be trying to answer is “Have we learned from our mistakes?” I believe we have and the HTC HD2 proves my point. The mobile industry has completely evolved in my opinion from a hardware-centric market to a software-obsessed one. Why obsessed? Because, today, many consumers are purchasing their mobile handsets based on the number of apps the market that compliments that phone hosts. I have heard on many occasions (and I will not deny that I have even said this) consumers trashing the Android platform because compared to Apple’s 130,000 apps, the Android Market has only 20,000. Think about that for a second, 20,000 apps to install on your mobile phone. Who needs so many? OK, so you are probably thinking that it is not the number that matters, rather the variety. While the App Store has an app for “pretty much anything”, there are many things not yet available in the Android Market. This is true, but I would dare to say that you can find 99% of apps you will need in the Market.

So, how does the HD2 prove this point? Well, the HD2 is the ultimate phone, or at least it would have been back in the RAZR days. In terms of its hardware, it lacks nothing. Where do I start? The screen is a ridiculous 4.3′ (compared to the miniature 3.5′ on the iPhone), the processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which is 1GHZ compared to the 600MHZ on the iPhone (this means everything works faster on the phone, including how fast you can access the wireless internet, not to be confused with how fast the actual connection is). The camera is 5MP with an LED flash. The entire phone is 11mm thick, which when compared to the RAZR’s 14mm (when closed) is just insane.  When I said it lacks nothing, I was not kidding.

So, why are people busy talking about the iPhone and the Nexus One when there is an HD2? The answer? No one cares about hardware nowadays. The Windows Marketplace, which is the equivalent of the App Store on the iPhone is just non existent. I mean it exists, but with the numbers and the variety of apps it provides, it might as well not exist. Like a friend who recently reviewed the HD2 told me, there is only a limited amount of time you can spend on Youtube.

To be fair,  I will say that the HD2 is not all hardware. HTC did as good of a job as they could at covering up the origins of the phone’s OS. At first glance (that might actually last a long time), you do not even know you are on a Windows Mobile phone. The phone is also the first Windows device to have a capacitive touch screen, as opposed to the resistive touch screen, which can be found on all the older Windows Mobile devices. No need for a stylus with the HD2. However, if you are like me and enjoy getting to know your phone well, you will eventually encounter the old Windows Mobile you once saw in older devices. It is hidden well, but it is very much there.

In addition to the fantastic job HTC did designing the UI, all the various social tools are integrated into the new OS. Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, they are all preinstalled. A nice touch, but not enough. The bottom line is, we seemed to have learned our lesson. The HD2 is the modern RAZR, as I see it. It is beautifully designed, it really is. The experience, if I am being honest, is leaps and bounds ahead of what the RAZR was, and I am not just talking about something that happens over the years. I do not blame HTC for the HD2′s lack of popularity, I blame Microsoft. They need to get with the program, make app development as easy as it is on the competing platforms, and most of all, they need to get their priorities straight.

I don’t know about you, but this whole “Microsoft falling behind Apple technologically”, is Deja Vu of the whole Mac VS. PC saga. All I can say is, this is still a new space relatively speaking, and so it is not too late for Windows Mobile, but if Microsoft does not make a major switch in the way it views its mobile OS and its ecosystem, the Apple commercials mocking the Windows Mobile platform are not far off.

On the flip side, if you want a phone that incorporates all the new technology and pushes the limits of the mobile industry, the HD2 has it all. The internet on the HD2 for example, is less like the mobile Web as we know it (http://www.broadbandexpert.com.au/), and more like the desktop experience we have grown accustomed to. That is what 4.3′ of screen will do for you. Let’s sum it up by saying, take the HD2′s looks and slap on some of Apple or Android’s personality (and by personality, I mean 3rd party apps), and you got yourself a phone that will beat out any and all competition.

By: Aryeh Altshul

I have been meaning to review Xobni (“Inbox” backwards – it took me forever to figure that out) for a while now. The delay can be blamed on the fact that I have been using Xobni so much, I haven’t had the time. This is one of the only pieces of software that I shelled out cash to get the premium version, because it is just that good.

Xobni is an add-on for Microsoft Outlook that is a must for all outlook users. I use Outlook for all my work emails with clients and customers and Xobni has really touched on the key missing features of  Outlook, and offers an easy-to-use plugin to fix all the issues.

The first and most important is the Email Search. Outlook’s search is very primitive and slow, Xobni provides an easy-to-use search that can find anything and everything. It searches all messages, people, attachments, appointments, and links , while providing easy-to-navigate results.

With the search comes a profile for every person that you have in your inbox. Xobni indexes all the mail and harvests the emails and phone numbers of all the people you contact. So there is no more search old emails for email addresses and phone numbers, they are available in the easy to access profile window.

Underneath the profile window you have links to their LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Hoovers, and newly added SalesForce profiles. There is also an email analytics feature so you can see what time of the day you get emails from that person, how many times etc, which will tell you when and how it is best to write to them. Then comes the real beauty! All the emails, links, and attachments you have sent back and forth with the person and all the people who have been CC’ed in your emails are all threaded, so you don’t need to go searching around for the next email message in the conversation.

One of the more useful features, which I found myself fighting with everyday before Xobni, is the AutoSuggest feature. Outlook will AutoSuggest people who you have written to already, while Xobni searches your whole email for all addresses. This has saved me hours of time looking through old emails to find addresses.

For a complete list of all the features, take a look at the Xobni Feature List!

Being that the Microsoft Office suite is very fragile when you add anything to it, the big concern that people have is that it will slow down Outlook.  I, and others in my office, have not experienced any slow downs or crashes. Different people use XP, Vista and Windows 7 with an exchange server. I do know that one of Xobni‘s main focuses is to make the program flawless.

I highly recommend Xobni for all Outlook users.

By: Hillel Fuld

There have been so many developments in the tech world lately, it was literally difficult for me to choose one to write about. However, at the end of the day, all the new mobile phones announced over the last month, or the new Twitter features released to the tweeting community, are not going to change the future of how we use our computers, Google’s announcements will.

I am not referring to one announcement or another, I am talking about what seems to be an increasing Google dominance of our virtual lives, and how we use our computers. While the desktop and mobile worlds are becoming overly obsessed with software and how many apps are available for this platform or the other, Google is doing what they know best, and they are thinking out of the box. They are not occupying themselves with developing more apps for mobile or desktop, what they are doing is trying to figure out a way to create a world in which 3rd party apps are not needed.

They are moving to the cloud. Google is single handedly responsible for a shift in the way users access their information. While the other large corporations such as Microsoft and Apple are busy developing new operating systems and approving and denying apps to their app store, Google is buying and releasing services that are cloud-based and will enable us to do whatever we are doing now, without slowing down our computers with heavy and unnecessary software.

What is amazing is that Google seems to have covered all their bases, and offers a solution to almost any software need you have. The problem is, and this is just my feeling that grows and intensifies with every Google acquisition/announcement, the more we use these Google products, the more information we trust in the hands of Google. Now I don’t know about you, and maybe I have seen one too many movies, but it seems Google is collecting a little too much information on my every move, and it is starting to make me uncomfortable.

Let’s just take a quick look at what needs Google now fills in our lives. Of course, there is the obvious Web search. Google knows exactly what words you and the rest of the world are searching for. No biggy. What are your interests? Yup, they know that too with Google Reader. Who and what are you emailing? That’s easy, they have Gmail. What do you do with your time? Google Calendar. Remember, why use Outlook and store your information privately, when you can use Google Calendar and store it in the cloud, over which Google has full control?

Moving along, and the list is quite extensive, who are you chatting with? Gmail Chat (assuming you store your chats in Gmail). What movies are you watching? YouTube. Then there is of course the professional side of things with Google Docs. No more “need” to save your documents on your hard drive, why bother? Give them to Google to store.  Pictures? “Store it with us in Picasa”.

The list really does go on and on with services such as Blogger, Feedburner, Google Maps, Chrome, Analytics, and many more. However, two of Google’s big announcements this month are really the cause of this post. Google’s dramatic entrance into the world of consumer GPS turn by turn navigation, as well as the announcement of Chrome OS, changes everything.

As if the information available to Google was not enough, they go ahead and enter a totally new industry, the turn by turn navigation for mobile phones, and now they take the expression “knowing your every move” to a whole new level, a literal one. As opposed to many other consumer GPS products, which do not even need to be connected to the internet since the maps are stored locally, Google’s GPS, is updated in “real time” using your phone’s data connection. It would be a totally different story if users would be the ones deciding what to share and what not to share, sort of like a social GPS.

However, what is happening here is that the information about your location is gathered in the cloud automatically, and the turn by turn instructions are then pushed to you from Google. Is it just me or is that kinda creepy? Now I know Google is not the first company to collect information about your location via satellites, in fact, that is what makes GPS technology so amazing. However, somehow when Google is watching you, it just seems different to me, and I don’t mean in a good way.

So, now Google knows where you are at every moment. OK, I know I am being overly dramatic, since this is only true if you are using an Android 2.0 device, but according to experts, it wont be long before Android devices begin to dominate the market. If last year, there were 3 or 4 Android devices from which to choose, we already have more than 20 including the very popular Droid device, as well as Google’s rumored phone, which we should be introduced to soon.

Well, at least there are still companies who provide an alternative. I can always choose to use Outlook for email, Photoshop for pictures, and Microsoft Word for my documents, right? Well, yes and no. Those products are not going anywhere soon, but the new “cool” kid on the block is Google Chrome OS. No more “need” to store anything on your hard drive. Forget everything you know about the way we use our computers, use Chrome OS and you wont even need a hard drive. That is what we are being sold, and a lot of people are buying it. Now, do not get me wrong, the thought of a computer that starts up in 7 seconds is extremely appealing to me, and I would be lying if I said I did not intend to try it out and possibly use Chrome OS. However, I would also be lying if I said that did not worry me.

Once again, maybe I have seen one too many movies, but you know the guys in the streets with the cardboard signs claiming the end is near? You know how they all talk about the corporations ruling and controlling our lives? Well, I do not want to seem crazy, but does not seem so far fetched anymore, does it? Google claims they collect this information for us, so they can provide better services for us based on our needs. To me it seems that what they are doing is less “crowd sourcing” and more acting like a “big brother“, not in the good sense of the word. I am not talking about a big brother who teaches you how to ride a bicycle, I am referring to the popular reality show in which every single move you make is recorded by hundreds of surrounding cameras ( and is borrowed from the George Orwell book, 1984, as a friend pointed out to me).

In conclusion, let me say that, I like Google products, they generally work well. I will even go as far as to say that I do prefer most of them over their desktop based competition. However, we all need to do some serious thinking about where the Web and the software world is heading, and decide if we are comfortable with this new trend. Until last week, the words “cloud computing” was very much a thrown around buzz word. With the release of Chrome OS, it has become a reality, and quite a frightening one.

For a full list of all the information Google knows about you, you can take a look at your Google Dashboard, yup, they are not even trying to hide it! So, is this new shift in the way we use our computers scary to you or I am just being paranoid? What do you think? Would love to hear your insights in the comments!

I have to say, I am really torn on this issue. I change my mind every day. Basically, I love the Bold and it pretty much gives me anything and everything I need from a phone. I use Twitter and Facebook regularly with both apps running in the background and fully integrated into my Bold’s messaging system. That means I am notified about every new reply or DM immediately as well as any Facebook event I choose to know about. The GPS on the Bold is blazing fast and picks up the satellite within seconds. The email system is unprecedented in its convenience, in fact, it is leaves you so connected at all times that I actually turn it off sometimes, to disconnect, something I never thought I would want to do.

The keyboard is absolutely amazing, I find myself sitting in front of my computer and typing out emails on the BlackBerry. The Bold’s screen never ceases to amaze me and is by far the most impressive part of the device.  I love the way you can fully configure exactly how you are notified about any and every event on the BlackBerry. You can configure the phone to vibrate once with a certain ringtone when you receive an email to your personal account, and vibrate twice with a different ringtone for your work account.

The bottom line is, I can go on for a lot longer with reasons why I love my Bold, but here is where I tell you the reasons I hate it. There are many problems that I am willing to overlook since they are overshadowed by the advantages. These include the size of the Bold, which RIM apparently knows about, since the new Bold 9700 is significantly smaller, as well as others. There are, however, some things I have discovered over my few month period with the Bold that might just be deal breakers for me. Now, here is the thing, the only phone I would consider replacing it with is the iPhone, but the iPhone too has some major disadvantages. There is the whole non replaceable battery issue, which combined with the iPhone’s mediocre battery, is a serious problem for heavy users like myself.

9700 vs. 9000

The iPhone also does not support background apps, which is the reason I did not get one till now, but with almost all apps that matter to me supporting push notifications, this might not matter as much anymore. Another issue I have with Apple and the iPhone is their jail-like philosophy. Everything about the iPhone smells like I am in prison. Every app needs to be approved by Apple, the iPhone can only work with iTunes, the OS is completely closed with no real customization options available, and the iPhone gives users zero access to its core infrastructure. Now, it is true that most of these issues are overcome by at least one of the 100,000 apps available for the iPhone, but I still want my iPhone to feel like a mobile device not a prison.

OK, enough babbling, here are the reasons I am now strongly considering replacing my BlackBerry with an iPhone:

• Gmail (or lack thereof): This is by far my biggest issue. I love my Gmail and would not replace it with any other Web mail service. When I originally went BlackBerry, it was clear to me that this device, which is apparently the world’s most advanced email machine, will work seamlessly with the world’s most advanced and popular email service. Boy was I wrong. For starters, the BlackBerry, by default, sets up your Gmail account as PoP and not IMAP. After you managed to hack the settings and get IMAP enabled, it is only half IMAP. What I mean is that to my utter surprise and disappointment, Gmail and BlackBerry do not sync in both directions. So, when I am at my computer and archive or delete a message from my inbox, the message is not deleted on the BlackBerry. The IMAP only works in one direction and what is deleted on the phone automatically disappears on the Web inbox within seconds.  This is a HUGE (I do not capitalize words for emphasis very often, so you know I must mean it ) disappointment, and through a simple Google search I found that it is also one that is driving other BlackBerry users nuts as well.

• No Folders! Really?: This is of course directly related to the lack of IMAP support, but even if RIM cannot support IMAP for whatever reason, they need to support email folders. I know that with BES, this is no issue and everything syncs perfectly, but with BIS, folders are completely not supported. Now, let me just say, I am learning new things every day about the BlackBerry, so it could be that I indeed missed this, but as far as I can tell, there is no way to view your sent items, your received items, or your archived items separately. Now I know that the Gmail Advanced Plugin was recently released but that does not help me with this issue. The folders are still absent and the added archive feature is only available if you use the email account icon and not the messages one. Like I have said on many occasions, I do not need a BlackBerry if my email experience is similar to that of an old non smartphone. For this exact reason, I refuse to use the Gmail app. The app, while solving the IMAP and folders issue, works on every old device and does not give you the email experience RIM is famous for, and for which I bought the Bold in the first place. I also have to add that the iPhone did not offer real push mail until recently, so now that it has full Gmail push, it just became a more practical option for me.

• Apps, Apps, Apps: If you have not picked up on this trend yet, let me give you a little awakening, no one cares about hardware anymore. Thin is not cool anymore. In fact, I love my Bold, and as much as I love the way it looks, its size and its very plastic feel would not make it in the era of the RAZR and other cool looking phones. Today’s mobile arena is dominated by software. How many apps are available for the device, how easy are they to install, and of course, how good are the actual apps in terms of user experience? Do I even need to go on? I think it is pretty safe to say that the biggest winner of the app competition is Apple with its 2 Billion downloads and 100,000 apps. If Apple is the biggest winner, I am pretty sure RIM is the biggest loser. Symbian still dominates the globe in terms of users and there are also tens of thousands of apps available to download. I do not know the exact numbers, but the Android market is also growing nicely both in terms of quantity and quality. RIM on the other hand, does not even offer its App World globally, so anyone outside of the few select countries cannot access it. There are some useful sites to find BlackBerry apps, but the vast majority of them are very expensive and can and should never be compared to iPhone apps in terms of usability. The truth is I have any app I need on my Bold, a great Twitter app, Facebook, IM, and some other cool toys, but being the geek that I am, I want more options, and there are none.

• Application Memory: I guess this is a direct result of the last bullet. Maybe RIM figured that since there are no good apps available anyway,  no point in building the device with a lot of memory to install apps. Whatever the case, the Bold comes with a total memory of 128 MB, from which the OS takes a good 60, leaving you with a total capacity to install apps of less than 70 MB. Does that sound like a flagship device of one of the world’s leading smartphone companies? On an average day, I have less than 30 MB of free application memory, something that slows down the device significantly. Now I am no mobile developer, but I cannot imagine it is so difficult to enable users to install apps on the phone’s 1 GB of storage or even better, on the SD card. I know memory is not the same as storage, but still. If this is not possible, then where did RIM come up with the 128 number? Why not a gig? I could be missing something here, but in any case, the Bold does not come with nearly enough memory for anyone who wants to install a nice amount of apps. This is of course in total contrast to the iPhone, which is an extreme app machine, not to mention that the iPhone might have actually passed in the era when hardware mattered.

• No Touch: OK before you yell at me, let me explain. I am not saying that touch screens are always better than regular screens. What I am saying is that if I had a dime for every person that played with my BlackBerry, and began by running their finger across the screen, I would be a whole lot richer today. The Bold’s screen is just that good, it begs for your touch. Now, I know that the BlackBerry’s huge advantage over other phones including the iPhone is its keyboard, I love my Bold’s keyboard. Having said that, there is something just intuitive and natural about touching the screen when you are talking about a display like the Bold’s. I am pretty sure RIM will not agree and we will never see a Bold-like device with a similar keyboard and a touch screen, but a man can dream, right? I know there is the Storm, but I am not even going there…. Read the reviews, then come back and talk to me. The Storm 2 is coming out soon and the initial reviews are amazing, so there is always that option, but if I am going touch and giving up on the keyboard, I am looking at the people who revolutionized touch, and not the ones who jumped on the bandwagon a year later.

These are 5 things that are pushing me in the direction of Apple, but with the Bold’s many advantages over the iPhone, if the rumors of IMAP coming to BlackBerry soon are true, you can be sure I am sticking with my Bold. If however, RIM continues with their stubbornness and refuses to take their customers’ Gmail and user experience into account, I am most definitely going to look to the company that is synonymous with top notch user experience, and hope Apple comes through for me.

-Hillel