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Song Sift Solves a Problem for Picky Podsters October 29, 2009 
It's been about a decade since the first practical MP3 players started popping up, and 10 years is plenty of time to collect a positively bloated library of digital music. Perhaps you got in at the ground floor with Napster in '99 and loaded up on free tunes before the music industry decided to do something about it. Maybe you remain a proud pirate, Bay or no Bay.
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'Rock Band' for iPhone Knows the Words, but the Tone Is Flat October 22, 2009 
When it comes to games, Apple's App Store isn't just a flea market where independent and small-scale developers can earn a few bucks peddling momentary amusements for 99 cents a pop. Giant game makers like EA, Capcom and Ubisoft sometimes set up shop, and when they do, they're not afraid to charge top dollar, as App Store games go.
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Photoshop for iPhone: Premium Version, Please October 15, 2009 
It's slowly becoming apparent that cellphone photos need not look awful. Some phone are hitting the market with 8 or more megapixels, approaching the sort of resolution you'd get on a low-cost pocket cam. That's still not nearly professional hardware, but it sure will come out better than the muddy, washed-out tile mosaics you used to get from camera phones.
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Charging Station Smackdown: Powermat vs. Duracell October 08, 2009 
It's a pain to keep track of the chargers that go with cellphones, media players and other small electronics. It's even more annoying to stuff multiple power cords and adapters in your bag when you go out of town. What if you could charge things without plugging them in? I've started doing just that.
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Trope: A Softer Shade of Bloom October 08, 2009 
Two weeks ago, when I reviewed an application called "Air," I referred to it as the follow-up to a similar app called "Bloom." One of the developers, Peter Chilvers, wrote in with a point of clarification: Air was not actually intended as the official follow-up to Bloom, an app that Chilvers wrote in collaboration with Brian Eno. The real follow-up, also created by Chilvers and Eno, is called "Trope."
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CNN Mobile: One Small Step for a News App October 01, 2009 
When CNN released its new iPhone application this week, the big news wasn't so much that the app was out there, but that CNN had the audacity to charge money for it. Nearly two whole dollars for news? In this online land of plenty? Bah! The Associated Press has a free news app -- as it didn't fail to point out when it covered the release of the CNN application.
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Air: Breezy Autopilot, Light on Interaction September 24, 2009 
The iPhone has an odd sort of potential as a musical instrument. From the moment the App Store opened, there have been applications that attempt to approximate real instruments, even giving you the ability to make multitrack recordings. I've yet to hear a real magnum opus composed on one, though I'm sure someone somewhere has tried.
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New Nano Rocks, Zune Learns a Few Good Steps September 20, 2009 
Back in 2004, when I got my first MP3 player, I never cared that it lacked a camera, Web browser and crystal-clear video playback -- features that are now common on digital media devices. Apple's latest iPod nano and Microsoft's freshest Zune, both released within the past week, offer these kinds of perks and plenty more.
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MindNode: Free Thinking Isn't Free September 17, 2009 
Brain mapping is essentially the act of recording a brainstorming or planning session in an organized diagram. Start with a general idea relating to what you're trying to accomplish -- your central node -- then just start throwing up related ideas, connecting them to the node that inspired them, and building nodes upon nodes.
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iFrogz Timbre Earbuds a Deft Mix of Sound, Looks and Price September 15, 2009 
There are hundreds of decent sets of headphones and earbuds available for iPods, and there are dozens made specifically for the iPhone, including the now ubiquitous white earbuds that ship with the devices. But what if you'd like something a little different, yet aren't willing to shell out audiophile-level cash?
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Snow Leopard: It's the Little Things That Thrill September 10, 2009 
Apple's previous version of its Mac OS X operating system, Leopard, was already great, so what does Apple's latest upgrade -- Snow Leopard -- bring to the table? More importantly, is it worth bothering with? I've been using Snow Leopard since FedEx brought it to me late last month, and at the upgrade price of just $29, yes, it's worth getting.
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'Geared': Like Tetris for Watchmakers September 03, 2009 
Having played a few games from a lot of different genres on the iPhone, my own prejudices have become more apparent to me. I just don't like playing certain types of games on this platform, even types of games I usually enjoy on a PC or console. First-person shooters are too difficult to control, for example.
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Put Things Off: A Practical, Pragmatic Prioritizer for Procrastinators August 27, 2009 
Once you've set up MobileMe, Google Sync or any other syncing service to wirelessly coordinate a desktop calendar to the Calendar app on the iPhone, it's easy to start entrusting your every waking task short of heartbeat and respiration to a "ding!" and a pop-up notice.
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'Duke Nukem 3D': Too Hot to Handle? August 20, 2009 
When "Duke Nukem 3D" was first released for the PC in 1996, the "3D" in the title was perhaps there to emphasize that this was not the sort of flat-world first-person shooter experience you'd find in a game like "Doom 2." Rather than just pivoting side to side, you could actually use the mouse to look up and down, setting your sights on an object far below you or flying above you.
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Documents To Go: Not a Corner Office but a Decent Cubicle August 13, 2009 
Perhaps it's a little shortsighted of me to review an iPhone app built to let you view, sync and edit Microsoft Office files. After all, a patent judge in Texas this week ordered an injunction against selling MS Word, and without a basic word-processing app, the whole suite goes down the tubes. Surely we'll all be back to slate boards and nails by Halloween. OK, fine, not likely.
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Mailplane Gives Gmail a Landing Pad on the Mac Desktop August 11, 2009 
For a long time, Web-based email programs were poor relatives of their desktop counterparts, but that's not the case anymore. Cloud-based applications like Google's offering, Gmail, boast a rich array of features that give premise-based competitors a run for their money. Nevertheless, two problems persist with Web mail apps.
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