iPhone Approll

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

An iPhone is many things, but a massage therapist it is not.

However, if you're in a pinch, the lightweight application Massager may soothe you until your next appointment.

The application takes advantage of the iPhone's vibrating motor to create four patterns based on Swedish, Shiatsu, deep muscle, and relaxation massage. Starting and stopping the massage are easy enough to accomplish by tapping and untapping the corresponding button.

While you can manually increase the intensity of the vibes by putting some muscle behind the iPhone's flat face, it still won't come close to what a pronged handheld massager can do. After a few minutes, my wound-up shoulders remained just as tight.

Yet it might relax tension in you and yours, and at 99 cents, that's not a bad gamble.

SAN FRANCISCO--At the MacWorld ShowStoppers event Monday night, I got a quick look at Newber, an iPhone app from Freedom Voice Systems that lets you redirect calls made to a new number you give out ("newber," get it?) to alternate numbers depending on your location. If you're in the office at your desk, the app can send calls to your work phone. At home? It rings the house phone. Neither? The call will ring on your iPhone. (See also: Grand Central.) The app uses GPS to suggest call routing, but ultimately you make the routing decision. Sounds like a cool idea, but if you want to try it, you can't.

Although Freedom Voice submitted Newber to Apple for approval to sell it in the iTunes store in October, Apple has not approved the app for distribution. It hasn't denied it, either. In fact, Apple will not tell Freedom Voice anything about the disposition of its review except that it's "taking longer than expected" to review the app. Freedom Voice marketing strategist Nick Goudy told me he gets e-mails to that effect about every two weeks. He talks to Apple once a day. He says he uses different phone numbers to prevent them from screening his calls.

When Steve Jobs announced the App Store in October, he said all apps would be approved (or denied) within three weeks.

What's most infuriating, Goudy told me, is that activity logs for the Newber platform indicate that Apple has not yet started or tested the app at all.

iCall, which makes a VoIP app similar in many ways to the approved TruPhone product, is in a similar spot. This app allows users to make VoIP calls from Wi-Fi-equipped iPhones and iPod Touches. CEO Arlo Gilbert told me that his company communicated carefully with Apple regarding not just approved use of the iPhone SDK and communications channels, but also got marketing advice from Apple on how to sell the app. Yet, once the app was submitted for approval (in early October), Apple clammed up, and won't tell the company whether the app is going to be approved or not. E-mail queries are not responded to and phone calls get "ticket numbers" but no resolution.

Gilbert can understand why iPhone network provider AT&T might not like the app, and that's why, he says, he was sure to talk to Apple during development of the product. iCall allows incoming calls to iCall numbers to route around the AT&T cellular network and run over WiFi and VoIP. As Gilbert knows from his experience running a telco, incoming mobile calls are very lucrative for carriers.

Unlike Newber, iCall has been tested by Apple, Gilbert says his logs show. He just wishes he could get an answer--either yea or nay--from Apple.

Newber and iCall want your support.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CBS Interactive)

Both Freedom Voice and iCall say they've invested about $500,000 each in developing their apps, and are wondering what to do next. The companies together have started a petition, titled "Support developers with faster app store response and approval," and the companies are working on alternative versions of their products. Newber is beta testing a Blackberry version and has an Android app in development. iCall has various PC- and Web-based VoIP apps.

Certainly, it would be more fair for Apple to simply say no to Newber and iCall than to leave these products in limbo. I expect the reality is that Apple/AT&&T politics are behind the confusion. Either that, or Apple is developing its own suite of enhanced telephony services, and--as was the case with the over-the-air podcast downloader Podcaster, which offered a service that Apple later released in iTunes--it doesn't want competitive products in its store in advance of the release of its own updates.

Update: 2:35 p.m. PST: I'm waiting to hear back from Apple after a request for a comment.

Click here for more Macworld Expo coverage from CNET News.

Previously:
Apple to Podcaster: No App Store for you
Google admits breaking App Store rules
Apple kills iPhone app, claiming API violation

The Internet telephony company Truphone has turned its client for the iPhone and iPod Touch (download) into an aggregator for a range of popular VoIP and instant-messaging applications.

Truphone announced the new functionality on Tuesday at the Macworld 2009 expo in San Francisco. Starting next Monday, all Truphone subscribers using one of Apple's handhelds will be able to use the free client for Skype, Twitter, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger two-way communications.

Truphone's users have already been able to use Google Talk voice chat functionality, but they will now be able to make calls to their MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype contacts as well. The company's chief executive, Geraldine Wilson, said in a statement that the features would let Truphone's customers "choose which mode of communications they want to use at any moment--all from within the one application."

"This represents another step toward making Truphone the open 'all-in-one conversations hub' for iPhone and iPod Touch users," Wilson said.

Calls between Truphone and Skype will be free over Wi-Fi, and will cost the price of a local call over the handset's cellular connection. As the iPhone is usually sold with an 'unlimited' data plan, instant messages should not cost anything above that flat fee, unless the user is roaming internationally.

Truphone also produces clients for Nokia and BlackBerry smartphones.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Updated at 10:00 AM Pacific.

Six months after announcing its intention to bring SlingPlayer to the iPhone 3G, Sling Media has another announcement to make--just not the one you're wishing for.

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone isn't ready yet, Sling said on Tuesday, but it is on its way.

Like SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, UIQ, and BlackBerry (beta) platforms, this iPhone version will let you access one or more Slingboxes from your mobile device, and watch your TV stations on-the-go. It will also be compatible with the iPod Touch.

You'll also be able to manage your DVR from the iPhone, and can synchronously add and remove favorite channels directly from the phone's interface--a first for the SlingPlayer Mobile line.

In our demo, the client streamed live, high-quality video of stations like MTV and TBS on both Wi-Fi and the iPhone's 3G network. Swiping the screen horizontally advances you through favorite stations, and flicking up and down rotates through all your home channels.

Sling Media says it will submit the file to the iTunes AppStore by the end of the first fiscal quarter. While Sling Media shared no firm price tag, it could mirror the $29.99 lifetime fee of SlingPlayer Mobile on other platforms.

Before getting too excited, just remember that Apple has been known to kill promising apps, ostensibly for the crime of a large data transfers. SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone could suffer the same fate. Assuming it doesn't, the client still faces competition from Orb, whose full version, OrbLive, delivers live TV and media stored on your PC for $10.

Spreadsheet editing is made finger friendly with Quickoffice's Excel editing tool.

(Credit: Quickoffice)

Despite the addition of Microsoft Exchange and the App Store with version 2.0 of the iPhone's firmware, the device is still a long way from competing with Windows Mobile handsets when it comes to the native editing of several popular file formats. Mobile-productivity software company Quickoffice is trying to change that with a new iPhone application that lets users edit their Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets.

Called MobileFiles Pro, this $9.99 application can pull in Excel workbooks from any of your computers (over Wi-Fi) or on the Web through MobileMe's iDisk sharing. It supports editing over multiple pages in a workbook, row and column resizing and insertion, and manages to do it all with a good deal of simplicity.

To edit a cell, you simply tap it with your thumb and type in a new value. There are also options to format what's inside it, run formulas, and add new pages.

The option to edit files joins the functionality to view other file types, including movies, music, images, Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, and iWork documents (akin to Quickoffice's QuickAccess sister product). QuickOffice says it will continue to push out editing for other file formats, such as Microsoft Word, in future releases.

MobileFiles Pro joins a handful of other iPhone applications that let you view and edit Excel spreadsheets, including Spreadsheet, Spreadsheet LX, iSpreadsheet, and the upcoming Mariner Calc app which is due in a few weeks.

Soonr's iPhone app.

Soonr, a Webware 100 winner in 2007, has a fresh new look and a killer iPhone application.

Soonr's free service and accompanying App Store download allows users to store up to 500MB of files, which they can access on the go, from the iPhone or a standard Web browser.

New users create their account on their iPhone and then download a desktop application (available for PC or Mac) which handles the synchronization of files. In the same form of other desktop-syncing applications, the user only has to choose the directories that they want to keep updated, and any changes made will be automatically uploaded. All of these files are easily accessible from the iPhone app.

Not only does Soonr allow you to have very quick access to your documents from the iPhone, but it also allows you to share the documents with other users. These users can view and comment on the file.

Unfortunately, Soonr does not currently enable users to edit these documents. But its application does include a wireless-printing feature, enabling users to send documents to networked printers when on Wi-Fi.

My only real gripe with the iPhone app is the lack of full-screen support within the document viewer. The iPhone's document viewer does a better job of actually displaying documents than Soonr's.

Soonr is a great solution for iPhone users looking to have constantly synchronized documents on the go. Soonr is very easy to use, fully featured and, best of all, free.

Via MG Siegler at VentureBeat.

iTunes Link

The iTunes AppStore cracked open a whole universe of awesome native iPhone apps--and a few that were terrifically inane.

Here are our picks for the most useful, informative, social, and media-friendly of the bunch to get you started with your new iPhone or iPod Touch.

If you're craving more after loading up on these start-up essentials, be sure to check out our collection of the most entertaining iPhone apps of 2008 as well.

I Love Katamari is the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the popular Katamari Damacy game.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)

'I Love Katamari' for the iPhone/iPod Touch

Last Monday, I Love Katamari for the iPhone and iPod Touch was released, and iPhone/iPod Touch owners everywhere rejoiced. OK, only Katamari Damacy fans would rejoice, but c'mon, who isn't a fan of a game where you can roll up pretty much anything and everything into a giant ball?

When I heard the news, I immediately went to the App Store and plunked down $7.99 of my own money for the game. I absolutely loved playing Katamari Damacy as well as its sequel, We Love Katamari on the PlayStation 2, and looked forward to see how the iPhone/iPod Touch version would fare.

As I expected, it's absolutely stunning, and the music is as addictive as ever ("NA-NAAAAAA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA The Katamari Damacy" is stuck in my head at the moment). The story part of Katamari is usually a fun little quirk of the game, and it's no different here. It starts out with the King of All Cosmos losing his memory of Earthly objects, and wants the Prince to roll them up so he can remember them. And as always, you're asked to roll the katamari ball over all sorts of objects of varying sizes, and as you roll up more things, your ball grows in size, making it possible to roll up larger objects--even animals and people.

Mint.com released a new and free iPhone application early Monday. Similar to PageOnce's mobile efforts, Mint's lets you monitor your credit card and bank accounts from your phone. It also throws in things like your monthly budget, incoming cash flow and expenses, along with any investment accounts you have synced up to Mint.com.

For security, Mint seems to have taken a page from PageOnce in letting you enable or disable mobile access from Mint.com. If your phone gets lost or stolen, you can simply cut off its access to your account, keeping any would-be identity thieves from taking a look at past purchases, or getting an idea of your net worth. It doesn't show any of your account numbers, or even let you add new accounts from your mobile device (which PageOnce does), but can be a treasure trove of information in the wrong hands.

Another thing worth noting about security is that if you don't have your iPhone passlock-protected, anyone can fire up the application and see the dollar value of each of your accounts. I'm a little surprised Mint hasn't placed its own special passcode security system for those first using this app, or even provided the option to require a password between sessions. The best you can do is simply log off in between use, but that's not a good long-term solution.

Security issues aside, it's a good first start for Mint, and for regular Mint users this is yet another way to get at things like your budget and accounts without having to rely on your bank offering a site that can be accessed on mobile devices. The alerts are also very handy and can tell you if a credit card bill is close to being due, if you're spending more than usual, or if there have been large deposits or withdrawals into your various accounts. For those things alone, it's worth downloading the app, just be sure to flip on your iPhone's built-in security lock feature.

Mint's iPhone app lets you check out bank accounts, credit cards and monthly budgets.

(Credit: Mint.com)

President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration this January could be quite a chaotic scene, with as many as 4 million people possibly heading to the National Mall to watch, but a new application available on Apple's App Store could help spectators navigate the crowds a bit more smoothly.

The free 2009 Presidential Inauguration Guide landing screen features an inauguration countdown, as well as the distance the user is from the steps of the Capitol building, where the event takes place.

The application also provides information about metro service and parking garage locations, a Zagat guide of local restaurants, a list of free nearby Wi-Fi zones, and information about the afterparties that are sure to keep Washington abuzz all night.

The application's developers, law firm Patton Boggs and public-relations firm Qorvis Communications, call it "THE guide to the inauguration," though the two firms are only the latest to develop an App Store download that caters to the excitement surrounding the inauguration. The Obama Inauguration Countdown and the Obama Inaugration applications also give countdowns to the event.

The Obama for America Campaign, after Obama won the election, updated the iPhone application it introduced during the campaign to include a campaign office database.