It's Friday, so you know what that means. TGIF! Well, yes, but also, here is my weekly round up of iPhone-related stories that I think you might want to check out.
- Andy Ihnatko provides humorous but true answers to the question of whether should you pay $100 a year for Apple's MobileMe service. Ihnatko concludes, and I agree, that it is worth it, in part because of the iPhone features. If you decide to sign up, click here
to get it from Amazon for only $66.
- Looking for a case to protect your iPhone but don't want to spend a lot of money? Case-Mate sells the iPhone 3G / 3GS Recession Case for only $0.99, or $0.79 if you buy in bulk. It is made of cardboard, so you have infinite options for decorating the case. (Pens and markers for doing so not included.) Thanks to Ernie Svenson for the link, who saw it on CraziestGadgets.com. I've since seen it posted just about everywhere else, including Engadget, so I might as well post it here too.
- Gizmodo posted this neat video of an iPhone as seen by an X-Ray camera.
- With the new $20 Seat Buddy, you can attach your iPod to the back of the chair in front of you on an airplane, a treadmill, and other surfaces.
- Ross Rubin wrote an interesting piece for Engadget late last week about the omission of a camera from the new iPod touch. He points out that when it comes to video and still cameras, you get both on the iPhone 3GS, still on the 3G, video on the nano, and neither on the touch, and he ends with the amusing observation: "iPod touch users may be condemned to carry a separate digital camera and endure burdens such as optical zoom, image stabilization, and vastly better image quality." If you missed the article last week it is a short but good read.
- Beth Snyder Bulik wrote an interesting article for Advertising Age about companies coming out with iPhone apps for marketing purposes. Her favorites include Kraft's iFood, Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Run and Benjamin Moore Ben Color capture.
- First & 20 is a fun website that shows the first iPhone screen, and the 20 apps on that screen, of some folks of note in the tech community.
- Uquery, a website launched earlier this month, allows you to search for iPhone apps. It seems to work very well.
- You may not know this, but the iPhone includes some really sophisticated accessibility features for people with disabilities. This post on the Mac-cessibiilty website includes a list of all of the new features added in last week's iPhone Software 3.1. Even more impressive is this video on Apple's website. Because the iPhone has almost no buttons and relies on a touch interface, I would have thought that the visually impaired could not possibly use an iPhone. Boy was I wrong.
- Defenders of the Second Amendment will be pleased to see that the Gun Rights iPhone App has been updated to version 3.0. The app includes firearms related news, videos and information on gun shows. However, what really caught my eye is that this app is an innovative legal marketing tool. The app is the brainchild of Jason Davis, a California attorney who specializes in firearms law. The app includes updates from Davis's Twitter feed and "attorney resources" so that you can contact, and presumably hire, Davis to handle your firearms-related legal needs. Very creative.
- In the late 1980s and early 1990s, LucasArts became well-known for its point-and-click graphics adventure games. One of its most successful games was The Secret of Monkey Island, released in 1990. LucasArts recently re-released the classic game for the iPhone for $7.99, and to celebrate tomorrow being International Talk Like a Pirate Day (I hope you didn't forget to mark your calendar this year), you can purchase the game today and this weekend for only $3.99. By the way, if you ever need help talking like a pirate, former Simpson Thatcher attorney George Choundas wrote the definitive book on the subject: The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers & Rogues. George and I went to college together, and he is very funny, as you can see from this interview. Arrgh! Anyway, click here to get The Secret of Monkey Island ($3.99 for a limited time):
- Here is yet another story of a lawyer demanding that jurors be instructed not to use iPhones in court. I previously discussed this issue in this post.
- And finally, I think you will enjoy watching this "incredible, amazing, awesome" version of the most recent Apple keynote:
