In the news

It is a short week on iPhone J.D. due to Christmas, but there were still several news items over the past few days that are worth mentioning.  All my best to you and your family during this holiday season.

• A picture is worth a thousand words, and the App of the Day website created a neat graphic displaying some statistics for the 300,000+ apps available in the App Store.  Worth a look.
• Camera+ is an app that I reviewed on August 11, 2010.  I liked a lot of the features, but I especially liked that you could hold your iPhone like a camera and press a volume button to take a picture.  Apple disapproved of this unauthorized use of an iPhone button, and promptly removed the app from the App Store the next day.  Since then, the app has spent several months sitting in the corner in time out, but yesterday version 2.0 of the app was released and now it is back on the App Store.  Version 2.0 has some nice new features for taking and modifying pictures and is faster, but unfortunately (and predictably) version 2.0 removes the the ability to use the button.  I contemplated not updating, but then I’ll lose out on the new features and future updates.  For a limited time, the app is half price, just $0.99.  Click here for Camera+ ($1.99): 

  

• The second generation of Apple TV was released in September of 2010, and in October Apple announced that 250,000 had been sold.  Yesterday, Apple announced that it will sell the one millionth unit some time this week.  The Apple TV is a great iPhone and iTunes accessory, although as I recently reported, it has some problems if you have an older TV that doesn’t have an HDMI port.  Still, if you have a new TV, you’re likely to find the new Apple TV worth $99 — and apparently a million other people agree.
• If you use DirecTV like I do, the DirecTV app (which I reviewed over a year ago) is really useful.  The app lets you set your DVR to record a program no matter where you are.  Greg Alsobrook reports, on the useful DBS Talk forum, that the app now contains a QR code scanner to set recordings.  The idea is that you see a QR code — those square, black-and-white graphics that work like a bar code — in a magazine advertising a program, and you just point your iPhone at the QR code to tell the DirecTV app which program to record.  Once we start to see these codes, this could be a useful feature.
• Ed Finkel of the ABA Journal reports that the state of Nebraska created a free state court docket app for the iPhone.  I’d love to hear from anyone in Cornhusker State on how the app works.  [UPDATE:  Omaha, Nebraska attorney Harvey Cooper tells me:  “I have the Nebraska Court Calendar app.  It provides the upcoming docket for county and district courts, except those in Omaha.  (Omaha is not on the statewide Justice system yet so we can’t efile at this time.)  You put in the county, court and caption and it gives you the upcoming hearing schedule.  No access to the docket sheet or pleadings however.  It also gives you upcoming dates entered by the court such as pretrial conference and when pretrial motions are due.”  Sounds useful.  Click here for Nebraska Court Calendar (free): 

  

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• Michelle Higgins of the New York Times identifies useful apps for frequent travelers.
• Speaking of traveling, if you are doing so during the holiday season on Delta, perhaps you’ll notice that Delta has started to install charging stations in 19 U.S. airports, including all seven of Delta’s domestic hubs.  Get more information on Delta’s official blog.
• And finally, the members of the Finish female group Lauluyhtye Viisi usually perform a cappella, but they picked up some iPads (which only became available in Finland a few weeks ago), loaded a few instrument apps, and recorded a cover of the classic Madonna song Material Girl.  Their voices alone are beautiful — check out their website to hear their amazing harmonies, albeit in a language that you probably won’t understand — but the iPads add a nice touch to this recording: