Does anyone else find it hard to believe that October is basically over? This year has certainly gone by fast. But back to the topic at hand, it's Friday, so here is some of the interesting iPhone-related news from this past week.
- Yesterday I talked about Google potentially bringing improvements to the Maps app on the iPhone. Yesterday was also the day that Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times wrote an excellent comparison of the current options for turn-by-turn GPS navigation on the iPhone. His favorite was actually one of the cheapest: MotionX-GPS Drive, which costs only $2.99 and includes a month of Live Voice Guidance. After the first month, the voice service costs another $2.99 a month, but apparently you can cancel at any time. That can add up over a year, but is far less than the $99 you would pay for the TomTom app. Ihnatko's review has inspired me to check out MotionX-GPS, and I'll let you know what I think. If you want to try it out too, click here to get MotionX-GPS Drive ($2.99):
- Traveling to a foreign country? There are lots of apps that allow you to type something in one language and have it translated into another language, but if you don't want to type, Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews a $2 app called Bableshot. Take a picture of some text with your iPhone and the app will scan the picture to find all of the text, and then translate that text into English. I haven't tried it yet, but this sounds very useful.
- If you prefer to talk instead of taking a picture, your iPhone can still translate for you. Friedman reviews another app for Macworld called Jibbigo. With this $25 app, just say something in English to your iPhone, and it translates it into Spanish and then says it over the iPhone speaker. It's like having a translator inside of your iPhone.
- Everyone can recall Apple's memorable "There's an app for that" and "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" ads, and it probably comes as no surprise that Apple spent around $500 million on advertising in 2009. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes that it is surprising that Apple spent less than other companies like Microsoft and Dell, even though their ads are less memorable.
- Speaking of ads, Advertising Age writes that when Volkswagen launched one of its cars, the GTI, in 2006 it spent $60 million on television ads. But to launch the 2010 model, it is spending just $500,000 and putting all of that money into one thing: an iPhone app. Volkswagen teamed up with the makers of the $6.99 Real Racing app, an iPhone game that has received good reviews, and produced an app called Real Racing GTI that anyone can download for free. You get to race around a track in a virtual version of the GTI. It will be interesting to see if this advertising strategy works for Volkswagen. The game itself has very nice graphics and is worth checking out since it is free, although given the number of times I have crashed in this game I don't think I could afford the insurance premiums were I to get a GTI and race it around town at top speed. Click here to get Real Racing GTI (free):
- Good news: you can get an iPhone for only $20. Bad news: it's just a movie prop. MobileCrunch has all the details.
- I don't take taxis very often, but if you do, you'll want to check out Terry White's review of an app called Taxi Magic that lets you call a taxi and even have it charged to your credit card. Thanks to Ernie Svenson for the link.
- Mashable and AppAdvice report that LawFirms.com came up with an "ad" for a fake iPhone app called iCoyote that purported to help you smuggle illegal aliens across the border but was actually an advertisement for immigration lawyers. The ad didn't stay up long as public backlash forced its removal, replaced by this page, but if you click on the Mashble and AppAdvice links you can see the original ad.
- And finally, Jerry Brito's wife must really love him to have agreed to this iPhone wedding cake. Click here for a slideshow with several pictures on Brito's website, and here are a few samples. (via AppAdvice.)