Big week, eh? For most of us, the iPhone OS 3.0 was exciting enough: cut and paste, full search, in-app purchases, voice memos and landscape keyboard support. And don’t forget MMS and tethering… Oh wait, never mind. AT&T sure does know how to kill an iPhone owner’s buzz. Fortunately, Apple knew how to bring the party back to life – 3G S style. But even during the week of OS 3.0 and the 3G S, apps kept flowing into our inbox. Here’s a look at a handful of them:
App #1: Sirius XM made some headlines this week, and it wasn’t all good news. They finally launched their long awaited iPhone app (Sirius XM Premium Online) — without some of their most popular channels. That said, I got a chance to tinker with it a bit and was pretty impressed. Even over the EDGE network, I found the sound quality to be crystal clear and the connection solid. It also has some great features – on-screen while you’re listening is the name of the song (or radio show) that’s playing, and with just two taps you can buy it off iTunes, all without missing a beat. So, if you can live without Stern, NFL and MLB radio, and really love Sirius XM radio (as opposed to the alternatives) then it might be worth the $16/month ($3 extra per month for current Sirius XM subscribers).
App #2: If you use the iPhone for both business and personal purposes, you should definitely check out DataViz‘s DocsToGo with Exchange Attachments and Desktop Sync. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF viewer and editor on the iPhone. The document viewer is not much different than the iPhone Mail application, but the value comes from the editing and sync features. Currently, you can only edit Microsoft Word documents, but support for Excel is soon-to-come. Through your WiFi connection, you can seamlessly sync your docs from your iPhone and specified folders on your desktop. I’m impatient for Excel and PowerPoint support come, but am nonetheless happy that I can edit my Word documents on the go. Perfect for the airport or on public transit to and from work, DocsToGo is easy to use and has a fantastic value proposition. You may want to wait for the Excel editing update, or you could buy it now for $9.99.
App #3: Want one app to keep all of your recipes, to-do items and event plans in order? You’d probably like FileMaker‘s Bento for the iPhone. Bento is a file organizer for the iPhone with a whole lot of features. You can do everything from using it as a basic CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to keep track of your sales calls or as an exercise log to help you shed that last 5 pounds you need to fit into your prom dress. Regardless, it has great functionality and a lot of pre-designed templates. The diversity available in the app is what makes it valuable, as it literally allows you to track or store anything you want. If that sounds like something you need to keep your affairs in order, then download Bento for the iPhone for $4.99.
App #4: California Gold Rush by Digital Chocolate is a great new puzzle game for the iPhone. In it, you are Mandy, a female miner, and your job is to mine the ground looking for gold. Basically, you break rocks in order to go deeper and deeper underground in an effort to find gold and jewels. It sounds simple enough, and it is, but there are enough twists in the game to make it interesting. For one, if you don’t remember to build supports along the way, the tunnel you’ve dug could collapse and ruin your day. At $2.99, this game has 30 levels of enjoyable and innovative gameplay.
App #5: Sick of Tap Tap Revenge and want something that has a different look and feel with the exact same gameplay? Look no further than GameLoft’s DJ Mix Tour. It’s basically the same thing as Tap Tap Revenge, except instead of hitting notes as a musician you’re a DJ trying to hit the beat right. The music selection is solid and you can create your own mix tape. More importantly, there is a decent story mode with multiple locations to play at and many hit tracks (such as “Let’s get it Started” and “Womanizer”). All that said, it’s $4.99. Why would you buy that instead of the $0.99 Tap Tap Revenge with its bajillions of tracks?
Alright, ladies and gentleman. That’s the end of our show for today. See you next week, and don’t forget:
if you have an app worth checking out, shoot us an e-mail at gaganATcrunchgearDOTcom (with the obvious substitutions in place, of course).