Every golfer on the planet is susceptible to buying gadgets that will help them improve their game. Unfortunately, most of them end up in the closet with all of the rest of the scams that do nothing more than make us look like fools out on the course. Well the iPhone has an app that just may do more good than bad in the GolfShot: Golf GPS app.

Golf GPS devices have become pretty popular over the last few years, and this one has few shortcomings as an app. First off, it is less than $30 and that is a far cry from the hundreds of dollars stand alone devices will run from the likes of Golfsmith. It is packed with special features and while there are some flaws, it is pretty respectable for the price.

One of the toughest things for any golfer to figure

out on a new course is the range from tee to green and from their approach shot to the green. This app can not only do that, but will also be able to give target ranges as well. When you need to know how far it is down to the water hazard from where you are standing, just point and the information pops right up on the screen.

Golfshot has long been associated as the best of the best when it comes to having GPS devices for golfers, so it is no surprise that this app is considered to be one of the best available for the iPhone. There are currently well over 22,000 courses that have their information available on the app, so it will be a rare course that can be played where the information will not be in the palm of your hands.

It is not taking long for reviewers to pick apart the Droid and they only have themselves to blame. Starting a campaign by stating that this phone is everything that the iPhone is not sets a pretty high bar.

They set themselves up for failure in that everyone was expecting some super phone and what they are really getting is an iPhone copycat with not as many applications.

As has been stated before, there are features on the Droid that are very good and some of them may even be better than the iPhone, but it is simply not enough to warrant changing providers or doubling your cell phone bill. Most people that already have an iPhone are looking at a monthly service bill of at least $150 a month and some are up around the $200 level. That would be an extra $1,800-$2,400 a year to have both phones and it is simply not worth it.

This is

just one man’s opinion, but before the Droid took on a giant like the iPhone, they should have had a deeper library of apps to stand behind. While the iPhone had a similar amount when it was first launched, it was a one-of-a-kind and was only competing with the Blackberry as a smart phone. This is the one point that is hammered home time and time again by people that are trying out the Droid. Why change phones to a product that only offers 10% of the apps that the Apple iPhone does?

Droid may one day be a true threat to the success of the iPhone, but that time is not now. If anything, they are further convincing Verizon customers to switch over to AT&T to have a phone that can do anything from translate a baby’s crying picking a good spot to put in a wind turbine as an alternative energy source. Right now, the Droid is simply out of its league.

Apple’s discussion board has been jumping a bit about Windows 7, and it isn’t because they’ve all converted from Apple’s OS to Windows suddenly; it’s because many of them have been experiencing weird errors and issues with their PCs freezing out the iPhone when using Windows 7 in conjunction with the Intel P55 USB chipset. Both are brand new, so odds are you’re not affected. But if you’re a “keep up with joneses” type with all new stuff, you might be affected.

The thread is pages long now, and a fair number of users are claiming the same “0xE8000065″ error when trying to sync their data on their iPhone with the hardware setup above. The issue seems more prominent with 64-bit versions of the OS for some reason or another.

Microsoft is reportedly aware of the issue, and is working on a fix that should be released soon. Consider this a public service message for those few who might have had trouble, and wondering if they’d gone mad.

It was only a matter of time before someone else jumped into the ring to face off against the iPhone. Up until now, Blackberry and the iPhone have been getting along fairly well in the battle for phone supremacy. Both cater to different markets and seem to be quite happy with where they are in the cell phone niche. It is almost as though there is an unwritten law between these two not to cross the imaginary line.

That is now changing as Verizon has gone directly after the iPhone with its “Terminator” style advertising. The new Droid phone is set to hit the market later this month and it will be interesting to see if it lives up to the claims that it makes. Nobody ever said the iPhone was perfect, but it is pretty close. There is no other phone that has the amount of applications, nor the flexibility that the iPhone boasts. Now the Droid shows up and lays down a full-fledged challenge.

The funny thing is that both phones are basically sitting with the same engines inside. That being the case, the outside shell may look different, but what makes both of these phones tick inside is very similar. Motorola is launching a battle against a like minded tank and this will probably spell disaster for them. iPhone has already proven how flexible it can be and when they don’t have an application for it, they simply make a new one up to satisfy their customer’s needs.

For use of a better quote, “all we did here was wake up a sleeping lion.” Motorola has managed to pretty much stay out of the fire lanes when it comes to the iPhone and Blackberry battle, but this move will significantly change things. For every new application that they have come up with, you can expect that the iPhone team is already burning the midnight oil in order to get their new applications up and running.

When this happens, Blackberry will get a small break because the new target in iPhone’s sites is going to be Motorola. If you thought the presidential election was bad, you have not even started to see mudslinging. Expect iPhone to go for the throat on this one. While they are in competition with Blackberry, they are in essence two separate markets. Motorola is going after their direct market and that will simply not fly.

A member of MacRumors forum has reported buying and unboxing the TomTom GPS Car Kit for the iPhone, and MacRumors was nice enough to post about the experience. The kit has been delayed a few weeks, but is now being shipped to stores apparently.

More about the insert details here:
—
Also found within the car kit packaging was a paper insert describing a forthcoming free TomTom iPhone application that will allow users to administer some of the technical functions of the car kit without the need for the TomTom navigation iPhone application, which is sold separately. It is possible that this free application will enable the use of third-party GPS applications with the kit, allowing them to take advantage of the kit’s built-in GPS receiver and other features.
—

This isn’t a shock, given we reported on this particular issue a few weeks ago.

No, we aren’t kidding. There are iPhone cases in Japan going for $1,000 a pop. Because that’s exactly where the Japan Texture cases from SoftBank BB are going on sale.

But really, this is ridiculous—these things don’t even have diamonds, crystals or gold on them. So why so high?

The Japan Texture line of cases are all handcrafted and have referential nods to significant moments and concepts in Japanese history and culture. That’s wonderful and all, but $1,000?

The forces/people behind these events would be ashamed at the fleecing of its own people. Othernations have been fleeced in similar ways, so this isn’t strictly a Japanese phenomena.

There are actually fancy covered phones that cost even more, admittedly, but many of those have something precious on them besides paint and historical scenery. To each their own, we suppose; people are free to spend their money how they like.

Here’s the (Japanese; may need Google translation) site’s press announcement: http://www.softbankbb.co.jp/ja/news/press/2009/20090814_01/index.html

Streaming Networks, a leader in on-the-go audio and video solutions, has announced the availability of a software upgrade for their iRecord Pro PMR-200, to record movies and music directly to the iPhone 3GS without the need of a computer.

With iRecord Pro, users can enjoy video and audio on their iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod classic, Nokia N95 and N78, PSP-Slim, PSP, Walkman, USB flash drive and a host of other USB media. Designed for use in professional and consumer applications and high-end environments such as video broadcasting/podcasting and video streaming over the internet, iRecord Pro is a fraction of the cost and exponentially faster and easier to use than many other encoding solutions.

iRecord Pro connects via standard audio/video (AV) connectors to any

TV, set-top-box (STB), digital video recorder (DVR), camcorder, VCR, DVD player, cassette and LP players, or just about any audio and video source. With the press of a button, iRecord Pro records directly to your choice of portable media player, thereby offering an alternative to drag-and drop and iTunes procedures.

iRecord Pro is the only product in the market which can directly record to all members of the iPod family, including those running OS 3.0, in their native resolution and offers DVD quality video for USB storage media including PC/MAC.

An added feature of iRecord Pro is to transcode MPEG-2 video to H.264/AVC format for the portable media players without using PC/MAC resources.

The iRecord Pro firmware upgrade is available now and can be downloaded FREE from www.irecord.com by registered users.

Always forgetting where you put down your iPhone? With Beep My Cell, all you need is a web browser and your ears to find it.

Beep My Cell uses push notifications to make your phone emit a constant beeping sound. To find your phone, just log in to BeepMyCell.com, click “start beeping”, and listen. When you’ve found it, launch the app to make it stop.

On BeepMyCell.com, you can create a bookmark or desktop shortcut to make finding your phone even faster.

Beep My Cell is easy to set up. Launch the app, click “create account”, enter your email address, choose a password, and you’re ready to go.

Many have said that the process Apple uses to approve and disapprove apps for its App Store seems arbitrary. When Apple denies apps developers often get nothing more than a cryptic explanation of why the app was denied.

The latest app to get the denial treatment from Apple was the Google voice app. InformationWeek reports that the FCC sent letters Friday to both Apple and AT&T seeking more information on how apps are approved and disapproved. AT&T says it has no bearing over the approval of apps on the App Store. Apple has said that it disapproves apps that duplicate functionality already available on the device like browsers and music player apps. You would think if Microsoft can’t exclude browsers from its computers that the same would apply to Apple and its smartphones. Perhaps the FCC can get to the bottom of the story.

Any fan of comic books or super heroes like Super Man or Spider Man knows the name Stan Lee. Lee created some of the coolest heroes to ever hit the big screen or TV. I spent many a day as a child watching cartoons of Lee’s creations and live action films.

Stan Lee has announced a new and exclusive comic for the iPhone called Stripperella. The sultry super heroine stars in an exclusive four-volume comic book series written by Lee and with art by Anthony Winn.

The comic is only available on the App Store. The mild mannered identity of Stripperella is Exotica Jones, an exotic dancer who fights crime at night… or does a striper fight crime during the day. I’m not sure, but if you are a fan of Lee’s work this may be the app for you.