iPhone Sheep

Nuance, the makers of speech recognition software for the Mac and PC, have announced that their application, Dragon Naturally Speaking, will soon be available in the App Store for the iPhone. The application lets you dictate short 20-30 second clips, which it then converts to text with astonishing accuracy, giving you the ability to edit, copy to clipboard, or send to Mail or SMS. Watch the magic in action after the break.

Anonymous sources within the industry accused Apple late Sunday of "bullying" NAND flash producers with "questionable" purchasing practices. They claim that Apple is artificially suppressing NAND flash prices by placing orders for more than they need and then only buying the amount they need, creating a surplus and driving down prices.

In case you haven't noticed, there's been an explosion of camera apps on the App Store lately and, for the most part, we've totally avoided them. However, when I saw Tripod Camera [App Store, $1.99] I had to stop and check it out. The idea is simple; use the iPhone's accelerometer to determine whether the picture you're taking is straight and compensate if it's not. It works incredibly well and even includes an anti-shake feature which only takes a picture when you're still.

If you're into taking nice photos with your iPhone, Tripod Camera is totally worth checking out. Video of it in action follows below!

idox Hard Case & Stand
Reviewed by: Bill Henderson
iPhone Case | iPhone 3Gs Hard Case & Stand
Price: $34.95

I’m not quite sure what category the idox stand/case fits into. While technically, it’s a case, it’s not really a practical case if you plan on using your iPhone as a phone without removing it first (unless you have a headset plugged in). But as a stand for watching video or using the iPhone’s alarm function while traveling, it works like a charm.

A cool thing about the idox is that it folds flat leaving it not much wider than the iPhone itself. The aluminum-looking hard plastic shell protects the iPhone very well, especially when its thrown into a travel bag or backpack. The top and bottom of the iPhone is left open for easy connections. Unfold the case and it converts into a horizontal stand.

The interior of the case has a stiff, rubber ‘frame’ for inserting the iPhone without scratching. As protective as that is, the iPhone cannot be inside a case as the fit is very snug. Since I always have a case, there’s the issue of something extra to deal with while using the idox. To be fair, there is hardly any case or stand that will accept an iPhone unless it’s ‘naked’.

That’s pretty much it, really. This is a simple, no-brainer product that does what it’s advertised to do. No more and no less. What would make the idox a killer product is if you could fold the lid completely flat while open, allowing you to talk while using it.

If you need a solid case for your iPhone and need to talk while it’s in the case, look elsewhere, but if you spend a lot of time in hotel rooms or tend to use your iPhone as an alarm clock propped up on something, you can’t go wrong with the idox.

Score:
7/10

©2009 iPhone World. All Rights Reserved.

Mobile Mechatronics Blur Tripod
Reviewed by: Bill Henderson
Blur Tripod
Price: $14.99

Talk about your contradictions. You buy a tripod for your iPhone so you can take sharper photos and what does the company’s name it? Blur.

Someone has a sense of humor.

The Blur Tripod is what it is… a tripod. Well, a mini-tripod. It only unfolds to appx. 9 inches high. However, if you have a full-size tripod, you can unscrew the adapter and attach it to that tripod.

The iPhone just slips into the tight U-shaped holder which works quite well. The only problem here is that you have to take your iPhone out of its case if you use one. If the holder had a width adjuster to compensate for a case, I would feel much less paranoid about dropping my expensive iPhone while inserting it into the holder. Caution is encouraged here.

The tripod itself is infinitely adjustable, whether you want to shoot horizontally or vertically. Build quality is pretty good, considering the price. The aluminum construction weighs next to nothing.

The best reason for having the tripod is to use a timer and to fight the ‘shakes’. The newer iPhone 3GS is better at taking steady photos, but not perfect. Mobile Mechatronics has also released an app (called Blur Tripod… of course) to make it easier when using their tripod. It comes with a timer, and a multi-shot setting among other things. This is information only since I did not use the app.

The photos I took using the Blur tripod were sharper in low light. However, in sunlight, it made no difference, shake-wise. And the tripod will not make your photos any better. That’s your job. But for self-portraits and timed photos, the Mobile Mechatronics Blur Tripod a handy thing to have around.

6/10

©2009 iPhone World. All Rights Reserved.

In the past year or so we've seen hundreds (probably more) of iPhone app sites, and we've gotten really good at spotting classy developers. The general feeling we've picked up is that if the developer hasn't put much work into their app's site, they probably haven't put enough work into the app either. So the key here is to have a spiffy site that entices customers to give your app a chance. To help those who may not be aesthetically inclined, Web Designer Wall has posted a great list of tips and examples for creating top-notch app sites.

If you're a developer, or even a designer looking for some inspiration, it's a great piece to check out.

Yesterday I did my daily scan of Twitter and noticed an interesting question sent to at me. The person, TehMillhouse, asked if I could support the BTstack project.

Don’t know what the hell a BTstack project is? It basically implements a whole lot more of the Bluetooth stack than previously allowed by Apple. This is no easy task, so I was surprised to see a video of the author of BTstack already showing it off on YouTube by controlling an application wirelessly…with a WiiMote!

The author of BTstack and I spoke and I ran out to buy a WiiMote today. Moments later I had success! I was playing mame4iphone on my iPhone 3gs with a WiiMote. No wires! Here’s what it looked like:

So needless to say, I really want to get a PS3 controller next and implement that.
While I could use accelerometer data from the WiiMote, I chose to use button input. It fits emulators a lot better, and that is where the PS3 controller wins out. But using the WiiMote’s tiny dpad and oddly placed buttons is still much nicer than overlay touch controls. This should at least hold you over until the upcoming iControlPad release.

Once I refine this code a bit more, I will make some public releases of my work with WiiMote support included.

Thanks!
ZodTTD

Navigon AG today announced that they have submitted version 1.4 of their popular turn-by-turn GPS application to the App Store. MobileNavigator [App Store, $89.99] 1.4 will include several new features, although the most significant will likely be the option to use Google Local Search to find points of interest from within the application. This differs from Navigon's current method of using a traditional POI database stored within the app, although v1.4 will still include it. The addition of Google will allow users to enter simple search terms such as "steak Chicago" to find listings for steak in Chicago.

Yesterday Atebits posted an update to Tweetie 2 [App Store, $2.99], which adds a boat load of new features, including support for the new retweet system, lists, and geotagging. It's also gotten quite a few little additions, such as information on trends from What The Trend and detection of "gaps" in the timeline.

Version 2.1 is available as a free update to owners of Tweetie 2. Those with the original Tweetie will need to buy the new version [Tweetie 2 review].

Last week Lextech Labs released a new app to help app developers create mockups of iPhone applications right from an iPhone or iPod touch. Mockup [App Store, $4.99] allows you to create sample application mockups by placing individual UI elements on the screen and arranging them however you see fit.

The app shows a lot of promise for anyone who wants to quickly mock up an app, although it lacks a lot of polish. But hey, it's the only app we've seen that does this, so that counts, right? Video below!