So you just got your unemployment check and have a bit of free time? Let's go to the movies then. What do you want to see? Beats me, too. Let's check what's out.

No, of course I don't have today's paper. Don't make me laugh. I've got my iPhone, though. I've got a couple of movie apps on it. Just downloaded Fandango the other day, as a matter of fact. I used Fandango all the time when my wife and I would go to the movies almost every Friday night. Of course, that was before we had kids. Good Web site, decent service.

The Fandango app for the iPhone and iPod touch is pretty solid, too. It's functional and convenient. I wish it had a few more features, but the app carries out its raison d'être with aplomb.

A movie ticket app really only needs to do two things seamlessly and well: It must let you search for movies near your location; more important, the app must let you buy the tickets with minimum effort. Most movie apps do a good job with the former by taking advantage of the handheld's GPS locator function, but trip over the latter. Fandango does both very well.

When you launch the Fandango app, you'll see a list of movies currently playing in theaters. When you find a movie that interests you, tap the listing and a window will pop up with information about stars, running time, and where the film is playing near you. Most movies will have a trailer that you can watch by tapping the movie's poster.

You can also tap the Theaters button at the bottom of the screen to browse all the features playing at your nearby multiplex. You can save your favorite theaters, which is a nice addition for creatures of habit. The app will show that day's movie times, but you can also look up times days in advance.

The difference between Fandango and, say, Flixster's Movies app ( Macworld rated 3 out of 5 mice ) is that you can enter and save your credit card information in the app itself. Once you've done that, buying tickets is a mere matter of a few taps.

I was generally kind to Flixster's Movies when I reviewed it in October, but I detested the way the app walked you through buying tickets. You ended up in Safari at Movietickets.com, trying to navigate several fields. It's an enormous pain. Fandango's solution is much simpler and more convenient.

There are a couple of clear trade-offs with Fandango's approach, however. First, if you save your credit card information in the app and you happen to lose your phone, somebody could enjoy a night at the movies at your expense. (But that's all--the full credit card number does not display.) Second, Fandango will only let you buy tickets from Regal Entertainment Group theaters and that's about all. Fandango will show you movie times for other chains, but you won't be able to purchase tickets. That might be a deal-breaker for some moviegoers.

Fandango doesn't have the frills and features of some other movie apps. The app doesn't link to news and reviews, show fan ratings or list this week's box office take. (Fandango's Web site does.) You can watch trailers for some current and future releases, but the app only lists attractions coming to theaters in the next week or two. Flixster's app, on the other hand, has trailers for movies months in advance and has a robust DVD section, too.

The bottom line: Lacking the news features of Fandango.com and putting limits on the theaters from which you can buy tickets hampers Fandango's convenience and ease of use. Here's hoping any sequel to this iPhone app turns out to be better.

Fandango is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.2 software update.

Originally posted at: Pcworld.com

Why use iTunes when there is an easier option?

If you like tinkering with your iPhone or iPod touch but get frustrated at the interface on the iTunes App Store, you now have another option. AppleBeacon has been created to take advantage of Apple's affiliate programme that shares five per cent of the revenue from certain iTunes sales with referring parties.

The interface is fast and certainly better than iTunes, but the fact remains that purchases and installing the software on an iPhone still require iTunes at some point.

Users who don't want to browse in iTunes or who have Linux computers, for which the Apple software is unavailable, can now browse the software through AppBeacon's site instead.

Still, it hs to be good to miss all the ads and you can bookmark applications and permanently ignore others. That has to be a bonus.

Originally posted By J Mark Lytle - Techradar.com

PheedYou, Inc is offering CraigSearch for free along with updates in the iTunes App Store.

CraigSearch is compatible with the free iPhone and free iPod Touch devices. It enables users to search for anything on Craigslist through an easy to use interface.

The app also allows users to browse the results and refine searches until they find exactly what you're looking for.

PheedYou is working on additional features such as saving searches, alert notifications, ImageFlow for pictures attached to posts, and adding countries and locations.

"We are really excited to have released CraigSearch, and the best stuff is truly yet to come. The goal of releasing now is that we wanted users to help direct where we go from here. Please keep the suggestions flowing," said Chad Marcus.

Originally posted at:  Wirelessandmobilenews.com

All this week, Macworld editors have picked their favoriteiPhone apps of the past year. And while these apps cover a diverse array of categories--entertainment, creativity, productivity, and so on--they share one common trait: All of them can be downloaded from Apple's App Store.

Alex Sokirynsky's Podcaster was barred from the App Store, but you can still install it on your jailbroken iPhone. Well, before the App Store arrived, bringing Apple-approved applications along with it, there was jailbreaking-the process of busting open the iPhone and iPod touch to allow them to run third-party applications that were definitely not approved by Apple.

While the App Store has enjoyed a great deal of popularity since its July debut, the jailbreaking community lives on and offers some very useful applications that you likely will never see from the App Store. Here are some of our favorites:

Cydia: Jay Freeman's installer application, Cydia, is included when you jailbreak your phone with QuickPwn or the PwnageTool. It's with Cydia that you download third-party applications to your iPhone or first-generationiPod touch. (Included are applications for regular folks as well as developers.

Cycorder: A free application authored by Freeman, Cycorder lets you shoot videos with your free iPhone's camera at frame rates from 6 to 15 frames per second. The resulting movies are encoded with MJPEG compression and are playable on your Mac.

Winterboard: Another Freeman creation, integrated into Cydia, the free Winterboard lets you skin the iPhone and iPod touch's interface with themes also available via Cydia.

Podcaster: This app by Alex Sokirynsky lets you stream and download podcasts directly to your iPhone or iPod touch-no iTunes required. Apple barred the controversial Podcaster from the App Store for allegedly "duplicating" functionality of the iPhone. Not to be denied, Sokirynsky began distributing it through Cydia and asking $5 per copy for his trouble. It's a polished and extremely useful application.

Snapture: If you've ever wished that your iPhone's camera behaved more like a real digital camera and let you shoot in black-and-white and featured digital zoom, timer functions, and burst mode, Snaptured.com's free Snapture is the answer to that wish.

Netatalk: Netatalk is the free iPhone/iPod touch version of the open-source implementation of the AppleTalk networking protocol. With it installed on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can gain access to the device's file system from your computer, just as you can with any other networked device. Having this kind of access is extremely helpful for moving files on and off the iPhone or iPod touch.

OpenSSH: The free OpenSSH, integrated into Cydia, provides another way into your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch. With it installed, you can use the Secure File Transfer Protocol to get into the guts of your device.

Many of the applications that were available for jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches have disappeared and moved to the App Store now that it's open. But Cydia's catalog grows by the day-customization options, games, media readers, and utilities can be found.

Although jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod touch won't hurt it (you can always restore it to its original condition with iTunes), doing so will void your warranty. In addition, while jailbreaking won't hurt your device now, there's no guarantee that changes made to the iPhone and iPod touch's software in the future won't cause problems with a jailbroken device.

Originally posted at: PC World

Freeview has announced it is offering iPhone and iPod touch owners a new app to help them plan their TV viewing whilst on the go with instant access to the Freeview programme guide, including HD channels and over 50 Freeview channels.

Features including a "now and next" view, "Top 10" channel list if you care, along with the ability to reorder channels so favourites appear first and can be customised to a viewer's local region.

The app also offers the ability to filter listings by category, search by text entry, and recommendations automatically provided for all programmes said to be in order "to help introduce users to related programmes based on their selections".

BBC HD channel listings are available now on the app while ITV1 HD listings will be available shortly and Channel 4 HD listings will be added when the channel becomes available on Freeview HD.

The Freeview app is free and available for all iPhone and iPod touch users to download from the iTunes App Store now. It goes head-to-head with the Radio Times iPhone app that's offered for £1.79.

Originally posted at: Pocket Lint

Mozilla CEO John Lilly confirms that there will be no Firefox iPhone/iPod touch. D’oh!

Wired: Are you going to develop a version of Firefox for the iPhone?

Lilly: No. Apple makes it too hard. They say it’s because of technical issues — they don’t want outsiders to disrupt the user experience. That’s a business argument masquerading as a technological argument. We’re focusing on more important stuff. The iPhone has been influential, but there’s not that many of them. We’re part of the LiMo Foundation — Linux on Mobile. The Razr V2 is a LiMo phone, and you’ll see more in the next year or so.

D’oh!

I had been hoping that Firefox would make it to the iPhone/iPod touch, but kinda assumed that it wouldn’t because Apple has unrealistic aspirations for Safari. Shame.

Free iPhone Topsite.

Originally Posted at: Zdnet.com

Facebook this week issued two updates for its native iPhone App Store application. Version 3.1, released Wednesday, added push notifications for seven different categories, and included address book syncing. Thursday, a small update was issued in version 3.1.1, which includes bug fixes in address book syncing.

Push notifications can now be received for new messages, wall posts, friend requests, friend confirmations, photo tags, events and comments.

Version 3.0 of the popular Facebook application was released in August. It allows users to see upcoming events and friends' birthdays, post updates and photos, write notes and read friends' notes, upload videos from an iPhone 3GS, change their profile picture, zoom into photos, access the same news feed as the Web site, and more.

Originally posted at Appleinsider

Rockstar Games' critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars was released Monday for the iPhone and iPod touch. The game, originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2009, has a number of improvements, including multi-touch controls, adjusted difficulty levels, and enhanced presentation with 480x320 pixel resolution graphics. Users can also access Independence Radio, a new station that allows use of custom iTunes playlists.

Chinatown Wars costs $9.99 (iTunes link) and is available for gamers ages 17 and up. The title is a 188MB download.



Rockstar first announced the port of the mobile game last August. The title was originally expected to arrive that fall. It is the latest in the long-running successful GTA series.

Chinatown Wars was one of the best-reviewed games for Nintendo's mobile device. After lackluster sales following the title's debut, Rockstar also announced its intentions to port the title to the Sony PlayStation Portable.

Originally posted at Appleinsider