In the news

I received a lot of good feedback from my article earlier this week about using Google Scholar’s new caselaw feature to search legal opinions.  Thanks, and if you missed the article, you might want to check it out.  Other iPhone-related news from this past week:

• The Webby Awards have named the Ten Most Influential Internet Moments of the Decade and the listed events include the launch of Wikipedia, the 2008 Presidential campaign and, you guessed it, the debut of the iPhone.
• Macworld’s Dan Moren speculates on what might be included in the next version of the iPhone.
• In what almost sounds like a scene out of a heist movie, Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes for Fortune about an iPhone robbery in Belgium.  Over 3,000 iPhones were stolen when a hole was cut in a warehouse roof exactly over the spot where the iPhones were waiting, leading police to suspect an inside job.
• The end of the year must be approaching if we are getting “best of” lists.  Alex Ahlund of the website AppVee writes an article for TechCrunch about what he considers the 35 best apps of 2009.
• There are now over a dozen GPS apps that will give you turn-by-turn directions, the most recent being Magellian RoadMate.  CNET has a review of the new Magellian app, and Art of the iPhone runs through the available apps and concludes that Navigon MobileNavigator is the best although many others are almost as good, and says that MotionX GPS is the best value.  [UPDATE:  TUAW reports today that Navigon is on sale for the next 10 days; save $20 on the app itself and save $10 on the live traffic add-on.]
• If you are traveling by air instead of by car, I’ve written in the past about the possibility of using your iPhone as a boarding pass.  According to this report by Alexander Vaughn of AppAdvice, it isn’t worth the hassle and you might as well just print out your boarding pass.
• If you are going to take a flight, you might want to carry your iPhone with you in case you need to record anything.  The New York Times has an interesting article about Steve Bierfeldt, a man who was interrogated by security scanners at an airport simply because he was carrying almost $5,000 in cash.  Bierfeldt used an iPhone app to record the interrogation, and then used that recording to show that he had been treated unfairly.  (Thanks to New York attorney Jeffrey Dupler for the link.)
• You might want to avoid these travel hassles by just traveling virtually.  If so, Macworld reports that the helpful Google Earth app has been updated to version 2.0.  The big improvement is that the app now syncs any saved maps that you have with your Google account.  I find that this makes the app much more useful.  Click here to get Google Earth (free): 

  

• The DigitalArts website has an interesting interview with iPhone app developer (and former Apple employee) Dave Howell, the man who developed the successful Air Sharing app.
• I’m always excited to hear about new hardware that goes with the iPhone, although these next two items probably won’t show up on my Christmas list.  First, iPhone Alley writes about iBreath, an accessory that attaches to your iPhone and works as a breathalyzer.  Plus, it doubles as an FM radio transmitter because, well, hmm, I’m not exactly sure why, but apparently it does that too.  Second, they write about an app that allows you to connect a stethoscope to your iPhone.
• Sebastien of the iPhone Download Blog notes 10 Tips Every iPhone User Should Know.  Most of them have been reported here before, but it is always nice to see reminders of good tips.
  
• And finally, iPhone developer Qneo—developer of such memorable apps as A Rotary Telephone! and Nuke-O-Meter—has developed an app called Blower that is supposed to produce a sound so loud that it actually causes air to come out of your iPhone speaker so that you can use the iPhone to handle common chores such as blowing out birthday candles.  No word on whether the iPhone also gets to make the wish.  The reviews on the App Store say that the app produces virtually zero airflow, but the developer has produced a YouTube video showing the app in action, so decide who you want to believe.  For all of your iPhone blowing needs, click here to get Blower ($0.99):