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Mint for iPhone Brings 3.0 Features to the Personal Finance App [Downloads]

Posted on September 21, 2009
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iPhone/iPod touch only: Popular personal finance webapp Mint released their iPhone app last year, but today they’ve unveiled a new and improved version, introducing support for push notifications for important alerts and editable transactions.

While the push notifications are a nice touch (you can define push-worthy events via the web interface), the more substantial feature is probably the addition of editing capabilities. The new Mint for iPhone lets you examine and edit transactions to add notes or tags, change the spending category, date, or even description. Mint may now be the property of Intuit/Quicken, but it’s good to see they’re still charging ahead with innovative features.

Mint is freeware, iPhone and iPod touch only.

Mint.com Personal Finance [iTunes App Store via CNET]






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iPhone and iPod touch OS 3.1 Available for Download [Downloads]

Posted on September 9, 2009
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iPhone/iPod touch only: Apple today announced an update to iPhone OS 3.1, introducing a new “Genius” recommendation feature for the App Store, bug fixes and performance boosters, and several other small but worthwhile updates.

It's also added a Ringtone section to the App Store on your device (for a whopping $1.29 a pop—which is why we recommend making them yourself [Windows guide; Mac guide]). Other than that, Apple’s not promising a lot from this update other than support for the newly released iTunes 9, its new features (e.g., Genius Mixes), and a few other nice tweaks. Below is a quick look at some of the other most notable updates from the release notes:

  • Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll (We’ll believe the MMS saving when we finally see MMS)
  • Option to “Save as new clip” when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
  • Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
  • Paste phone numbers into the Keypad
  • Anti-phishing features in Safari
  • Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling

Hit up iTunes, plug in your device, and click the Check for Updates button to get started on the 240+MB download.






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Spotify Comes to the iPhone Everywhere but U.S. [Downloads]

Posted on September 8, 2009
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We’re very excited about Spotify, a desktop music player that gives you access to an enormous catalog of music in the cloud, even though it's still not available in the U.S. As of today, the Spotify iPhone application—which one would assume poses a significant threat to iTunes—makes its debut for premium users on the iPhone. It's just not available in the U.S.

That means we can’t actually give it a try and let you know what we think of it, but judging by the preview, it’s a solid offering. Wired points out a few failings, but overall they’re enthusiastic. If you’re a premium Spotify user outside the U.S., let’s hear what you think of it in the comments.

Spotify for iPhone [iTunes App Store via Wired]






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GPush Brings Push Notification to Gmail Users on the iPhone [Downloads]

Posted on August 17, 2009
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iPhone only: Last month we showed your how to set up push Gmail on your iPhone in OS X or Windows, but if you didn’t like running your PC all the time to get your notifications, GPush can help.

GPush is a newly approved iPhone application that, very simply, adds Gmail push notifications to your iPhone. (If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of push notifications, GPush notifies you the instant you receive a new email rather than after your Mail application checks for new email [or pulls].) To use it, just fire up the app and give it your Gmail username and password (your login credentials are encrypted with SSL and sent securely to Google). After that, you’ll get push notification (complete with the From and Subject fields) any time you get a new message in Gmail. GPush allows you to toggle sounds, alerts, and badge notifications, so you can determine what level of alert you want.

The catch: GPush will set you back $1 at the App Store (for now, at least—it goes up to $2 eventually). Still, a one-time price of $1 isn't bad for the potential time- and battery-saving advantages of push Gmail on your phone.

Update: Readers are having mixed results with the app, and the makers of the application are aware of the problem and working on a solution. It’s still working fine for us, but your mileage may vary.

GPush [iTunes App Store]





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CourseSmart Puts Textbooks on Your iPhone [Downloads]

Posted on August 14, 2009
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iPhone/iPod touch: You may be doing your best to get your textbooks for free, but for those times you’re thinking about buying, consider CourseSmart, a new iPhone application that puts textbooks in your pocket.

CourseSmart the-mobile-app is the baby of CourseSmart the-web-site, which sells digital versions of over 7,000 textbooks from most of the leading textbook publishers. When you buy a book from CourseSmart, you also get access to it (for free) on the CourseSmart iPhone app.

And while your iPhone screen certainly isn’t the best place to pore over hundreds of pages of your bio textbook, it’s probably not a bad tool for a little last-minute cramming or studying on-the-go. CourseSmart is freeware, iPhone and iPod touch only.

CourseSmart [iTunes App Store via PC World]





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Bank Lets Customers Deposit Checks by Taking Pics with an iPhone [Downloads]

Posted on August 10, 2009
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iPhone only: As irrelevant as online banking and ATMs makes the physical bank for a lot of your banking needs, most of us still need to head to our local bank whenever it’s time to cash a check. The New York Times reports that a bank called USAA doesn’t think that should be necessary, and is introducing a new feature to their iPhone application sometime this week that will allow customers to deposit checks by simply snapping a picture of both sides of the check.

After that, you just submit the photos and void the check in your hand. The deposit to your account is instant. Talk about a dream come true. The only reason this editor ever ends up in a bank is to deposit the occasional check; if this sort of functionality were to spread to more banks, it could save all kinds of time for folks.





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GV Mobile Available for Free on Cydia [Downloads]

Posted on July 28, 2009
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iPhone/iPod touch: Yesterday tech site TechCrunch reported that Apple blocked an official Google Voice app from the App Store; meanwhile, they also kicked unofficial versions (like previously mentioned GV Mobile) out the door. But you can still get GV Mobile for free.

The catch: You’ve got to be willing to jailbreak your iPhone. Why? Because Apple is demonstrating that they're perfectly happy locking out any application or tool that will improve your iPhone experience in ways that don't gel with their corporate synergy. (Yeah, we said corporate synergy—nice work, Apple.)

The developer of the recently kicked-out-of-the-App-Store GV Mobile has decided to go ahead and release GV Mobile for free rather than let his work go to waste (it should show up in Cydia sometime today or tomorrow). It's a small consolation that you can now get this unofficial app via Cydia on a jailbroken iPhone—especially since we'd really kill to see what the official Google Voice app from Apple would have looked like—but it's better than nothing. Guess that's one more reason for us to keep on jailbreaking our iPhones.

Wow [Sean Kovacs]





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AIM for iPhone Updates with Push Notifications [Downloads]

Posted on June 23, 2009
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iPhone only: When we toured iPhone 3.0′s best features, we mentioned we hadn’t yet seen many applications that supported push notifications. Now one of the big ones—AIM—does, delivering instant background messages even when it's not running.

As a refresher, Apple doesn’t allow the iPhone to run background applications. As a workaround, the new iPhone 3.0 supports push notifications that send SMS-like alerts straight to your phone even when an application isn’t running. That means that you get the benefits of background apps with none of the battery drain.

I tested out the new AIM (free version) over the course of the day, and overall the push notifications seem to be working really well. I wasn’t receiving notifications when I was still actively logged into AIM through my desktop client, but once I signed off at my desktop, the push notifications started making their way to my iPhone.

As with all apps supporting push notifications, you have the option to toggle the in-your-face level of the notifications, selectively enabling sounds, alerts, and badges. If you’ve been playing with AIM or other push notification-supporting apps since the 3.0 update, let’s hear how it’s been working for you in the comments.

Note Unfortunately the AIM client only supports, well, AIM. If you’re looking for multi-protocol support and push notifications, the $10 Beejive looks like a great (though expensive) solution.

AIM (Free Edition) [iTunes App Store]





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