Spicy iPhone

Atlanta-based start-up believes that users will be willing to watch a short video advertisement in exchange for a free MP3 download.

Filed under: Humor, Software, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends

We’ve mentioned Throwboy here on the site before — they make handmade pillows, usually in the shape of Mac-related icons. And they just recently sent word about a brand new line of pillows: just in time for Halloween, they’ve branded the Finder and related icons with a little October 31st flavor. Sure, they’re silly and pretty useless (really — who buys a pillow for a one day-a-year holiday?), but just look at them! The FrankenFinder especially is pretty darn charming.

As usual, they’re $29 each, or $100 for the whole set of four, which includes the Finderstein, Count Macula, Mac-o-lantern, and the great-looking Spooker. Shipping takes around 3-6 weeks, though if you order ASAP, they can probably make sure and get it to you before Halloween this year (and they’re only available until 10/31 anyway, so pick yours up soon). Each pillow is 9″ by 11″ and made of comfy fleece, plus seriously, they’re scarily cute.

TUAWThrowboy releases Halloween Finder pillows originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google made two significant enhancements to Google.com on mobile phones on Wednesday.

The first, history sync, now makes it possible to carry over a record of your search queries when you switch between mobile and desktop versions of Google.com. Dubbed “Personalized Suggest,” Google will now remember your searches and will add them into the list of search suggestions you see as you type into the search bar. The new feature saves you from browsing through your history to repeat a query.

Of course, you do have to be logged into Google for this to work, and you’ve got to have Web History switched on. Enable it on a phone by selecting “save searches” in the Settings menu on Google.com. At launch, the feature is only available in the US on Android, iPhone, and Palm WebOS phones.

Google Local on mobile.

(Credit: Google)

The second addition today similarly gets the mobile and desktop versions of Google.com talking to one another. Google has redesigned local search to make finding places of interest while on the mobile Google site much more finger-friendly. Click or tap “Local” on the mobile browser and you’ll see a start screen with categories you can browse to find restaurants and other businesses nearby, similar to what you can do on Google Maps. You’ll need to have the My Location feature enabled.

There’s also a category for viewing the points of interest that you starred as favorites on a Google Map. Starring essentially bookmarks the location’s Google Place page. Bookmarking isn’t anything new, but the browsable layout is relatively new to Google, which generally favors bare links to graphical enhancements. This treatment has the mobile Google site looking like a mobile hotspot-finding app you might find in an on-phone app store. We have to say, it’s a nice change.

The rejiggered Local Search kicks off in the US and China, with support for more regions in the works.

Originally posted at Webware

Filed under: Internet Tools, iWork, Software Update

iWork.com, Apple’s service for sharing documents from iWork ‘09 to the Internet, which our own Dave Caolo posted about it’s shortcomings just last week, received an update a few days ago along with iWork ‘09. It added a few new features and improvments to the service, which is still in beta.

They include:

• Automatic email notification. Now the iWork.com beta lets you stay up to date whenever viewers add new comments or notes to your posted documents. You can choose to be notified immediately, hourly, or daily.

• Enhanced security. Automatic 128-bit SSL encryption now safeguards communication between you and your viewers via iWork.com. You can also password-protect documents you share on iWork.com-so even if someone has a link to your document, they won’t be able to view it without the password you supply.

• Refined user interface. The redesigned Shared Documents page includes thumbnail previews so you can more easily identify your shared iWork files. You can also organize your shared documents by date, name, size, or comments received. And you can now access all your shared documents by signing in at www.iwork.com.

You should be able to use these new improvements once you’ve updated to the latest version of iWork ‘09, if you haven’t already done so.

Also, Apple has set up a new iWork.com news page, where you can get updates on iWork and the iWork.com service.

Hopefully, these improvements will further advance the iWork.com service.

TUAWiWork.com receives an update originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenntek and iLounge are giving away 10 (ten) Sonix3 Earphones (retail value $99). Please visit Sonix-3.com for more information on features, specifications and photos. Enter now by filling out the form below. Good Luck! {exp:freeform:form form_name=”sonix3_form” form_id=”freeform” return=”contest/success” required=”name|street1|city|state|postalcode|phone1|email” notify=”giveaway@ilounge.com” template=”contest_admin” require_ip=”yes”}…

One hapless Big Apple iPhone user went to the Apple Store Genius Bar to see if something was wrong with his phone after experiencing a lot of dropped calls — AT&T said everything was good on their end — only to be told more than one-in-five of his calls were being dropped. Imagine [...]

One hapless Big Apple iPhone user went to the Apple Store Genius Bar to see if something was wrong with his phone after experiencing a lot of dropped calls — AT&T said everything was good on their end — only to be told more than one-in-five of his calls were being dropped. Imagine [...]

Available In: App Store

Price: Free

Stickam has recently released an iPhone app that allows you to view streaming video channels live to your iPhone. It doesn’t have a ton of features but it doesn’t really seem to need them. You can sign in or create a new account. You can chat live in both horizontal and vertical mode and you can search. The channels are sorted by Featured, Friends, Shows & Social. I think I would only use it for watching twit.tv live but it would work well as a security camera for your self too. You can set up an account at Stickam.com and stream your webcam to a channel. Then load it up on your iPhone and your good to go.

ScreenShots

Available In: App Store

Price: Free

Stickam has recently released an iPhone app that allows you to view streaming video channels live to your iPhone. It doesn’t have a ton of features but it doesn’t really seem to need them. You can sign in or create a new account. You can chat live in both horizontal and vertical mode and you can search. The channels are sorted by Featured, Friends, Shows & Social. I think I would only use it for watching twit.tv live but it would work well as a security camera for your self too. You can set up an account at Stickam.com and stream your webcam to a channel. Then load it up on your iPhone and your good to go.

ScreenShots

Available In: App Store

Price: $4.99

IM+ Push, a highly extensive Instant Messenger application, is currently on sale for $4.99. The app normally retails for $9.99. If you have been holding off, you might want to check it out now.

“Twitter, Skype Chat, Facebook, Google Talk and Yahoo and MSN and AOL and ICQ and MySpace and Jabber and Geo-location and send Photo, Voice and Location and and and – the full list is endless, pls see below. ”

ScreenShots

App Store Description:

Wow! Really all-in-one!
No cost per message! Send photo, voice and text for free and save on MMS and SMS!

Twitter, Skype Chat, Facebook, Google Talk and Yahoo and MSN and AOL and ICQ and MySpace and Jabber and Geo-location and send Photo, Voice and Location and and and – the full list is endless, pls see below.

Version 3.4 is in Apple Review with new features:
- Speech recognition as an in-app purchase feature.
- Animated Emoticons. You’ll LOVE them for sure like we do.
- Copy text from chat bubbles.

Well, there are some knock-offs in the app store, but:
• IM+ is the only original multi-IM, being bestseller for all smartphones since 2002!

• IM+ has the most services including Twitter and Skype chat and Push notifications for all the services.

• IM+ enables multi-tasking with a built-in browser. IM+ Browser uses the same filtering as Safari on your phone.

• Send photo, voice and IM for free, save on MMS and SMS! No cost per message! IM+ uses your existing data plan or Wi-Fi connection.

• You can use Geo-location as a dynamic status message to let your friends easily find you on a map.

With IM+ you can be sure that new and revolutionary features will arrive every month.

FEATURES:
- The widest support of IM networks including Twitter and Skype chat
- Apple Push notifications for all supported networks. Stay online even when IM+ is closed
- Twitter: View friends’ timeline, favorites, direct messages and replies
- Send voice messages as MP3 files – yes, playable back on any Mac, PC or mobile
- Send photos
- Send video on iPhone 3G S
- Send Geo-location
- Use custom status messages including Geo-status
- Use cool wallpapers from your Photo library or from IM+ in your chat windows
- Full emoticons support
- Avatar support
- Embedded browser
- Multi-lingual support. Chat in any language supported by your iPhone/iPod Touch
- Landscape mode convenient typing

With IM+ you get premium support and great server infrastructure.

Buy the original!

Follow IM+ (@implus) on Twitter to get our latest news and updates!
Visit www.shapeservices.com for more details.

TRADEMARKS:
IM+® is a registered trademark of SHAPE Services GmbH.
AIM®, ICQ® are registered trademarks owned by AOL LLC.
Yahoo!® is a registered trademark of Yahoo Inc.
MSN®, Windows Live™ are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Jabber® is a registered trademark of Jabber Inc.
Google™ Talk is a trademark of Google Inc.
MySpace.com™ is a trademark of MySpace Inc.
Facebook® is a trademark of Facebook, Inc.
Skype™ is a trademark of Skype Technologies S.A.

See also IM+ for Skype, RDM+ Remote Desktop, Mobiscope, VR+ Voice for Facebook and Twitter, GPSed

What’s new

- New Inbox view, now with message preview
- New bubbles in chat dialogs
- Sending video on iPhone 3G S
- Twitter: On/Off Push for Friends Timeline
- Twitter: link shrinking
- Twitter: Retweet
- Yahoo Japan support