I made a round trip motorcycle trip from Fort Worth TX to Kansas City Mo recently and had a chance to try out the GPS on my iPhone. I used G-Map for the trip and to my knowledge is the only (currently available) turn by turn gps app that does not have a monthly fee. AT&T has an app but there is a $9.95 monthly fee to use it and it requires constant data access in order to work. In other words the maps are not installed locally on your iPhone.

TuneWiki, a once popular jailbroken application is now available in the App Store and perhaps best of all, it is available for free. For those who have never used the app in the past, I will say that if you are a music fan, this should make a nice addition to your iPhone app collection.

Anyway for those unfamiliar with the app, TuneWiki is broken down into four main sections which include Music, Radio, Video and Community. The four sections are basically what you would expect given the names, however they all come together to make a nice and well rounded app.

To begin with, the music in the Music section is based on the music and playlists that you currently have on your iPhone and similarly you can choose to play by artist, album, individual songs, playlists or simply shuffle all.

Of course, you may already be asking why you want another app to do the same thing the iPod app already does? Good question, and the answer comes in the form of the additional perks. In addition to just playing the music, TuneWiki also offers the song lyrics, (which can be translated into over 40 languages) as well as a quick link to search for videos of that song on YouTube.

Moving from the Music section to the Radio section. These radio stations are powered by SHOUTcast and offer the already familiar options of Top Genres, All Genres, Top 500 Stations, Top 50 Songs Today and your Favorite Stations. Additionally, similar to in the Music section you can also easily search for YouTube videos based on what you are currently listening to.

Next up is the Video section and yes this does the obvious — it allows you to search for videos. However unlike the video option in the Music and Radio section, in the Video section you have the option to search by Artist and/or Title instead of performing a quick search based on what you are currently listening to.
Additionally, there is a Community section which allows you to perform a search for Song Lyrics as well as check out the Music Maps and TuneWiki Top 50. The music maps will allow you to search for listeners near you as well as viewing some maps from other cities around the world.

Finally, you also have the option to change from the default grey skin to a much brighter pink as well as share your listening habits over Facebook and Twitter.

A fun game enjoyed by many Facebook users, Bumper Stars combines the likes of pinball, pool, and shuffleboard, complete with colorful graphics and bumping beavers. The release of this game-turned-app, created by PressOK Entertainment and Large Animal Games, was announced today, and will bring an addictive favorite to the app store. Those with Facebook accounts can now access the game from their phone  as well as the web and continue challenging their friends, and those without accounts will be introduced to another fun way to waste/spend/kill time on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

The App Store recently celebrated it’s first birthday and we oogle at the tens of thousands of Apps available. We take a look back at our favorites.

Tweetie This by far has got to be one of the best Twitter clients there is. It makes managing my load of tweets easier and I can track the latest happenings in the tech world as they happen. The only thing lacking is Push Notification which is a universal complaint across all Twitter clients right now but the intuitive interface more than makes up for it.

NetNewsWire A port of the very popular online and Mac based RSS reader, this App helps streamline my daily workflow by allowing me to catch up on the news during my off time. While not the most full featured RSS reader, its ability to sync with a Newsgator account and back to NetNewsWire on my Mac is simply unmatched.

Evernote Responsible for a huge portion of my writing, Evernote simply just works. It acts as a central hub for all all my creative ideas and can sync all of this to an Evernote account online and then to my Mac.

FML My mantra has been “someone is having a worse day than you, that’s some consolation” which is why FML resides happily on my iPhone. Installed for a funny pick me up, it’s quickly become part of my odd daily routine to get some humor in before I start the day.

Over 65,000 Apps reside on the App store. Navigating through such an assortment is tedious let alone finding a discount on your favorite Apps.AppGiveAway is here to help.

Apple has announced that iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded 1.5 billion iPhone Apps from the App Store in the first year, which is a mind blowing number.

Congratulations to Apple and iPhone App developers for the mega success of the App Store.

Apple has rejected updates to two more applications—FastFinder from Bananas Design and Chirp! Bird Songs from Spiny Software—due to what the company considers to be an inappropriate rating based on the apps’ ability to connect to the Internet.

FastFinder allows users to quickly query a variety of search engines and other services such as IMDB, Amazon.com, Facebook, and more, while Chirp! Bird Songs helps users to listen to, identify, and learn about different bird songs. In the former case, Apple argued that FastFinder “allows unfiltered access to the Internet, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed;” it used the same argument to reject the Chirp! update due to its ability to connect to Wikipedia, according to an email from the developer.

In both cases Apple said “[a]pplications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access,” suggesting the company may continue to reject applications offering Internet access until they raise their ratings. Both FastFinder and Chirp! Bird Songs had previously been accepted into the App Store with a 4+ rating, and are available in their current versions for $2 and $3, respectively.

German GPS firm Navigon has begun branching out into North America with its release of MobileNavigator North America Lite, available for free.

Readers should note that the free lite version does NOT offer the active route guidance most users are looking for in a GPS mapping application, although it can display a user’s position on its map and locate nearby points of interest. Full turn-by-turn functionality will be available in a future paid version.

Navigon released the full

version of MobileNavigator Europe at an introductory price of $94.99 in late June, but the application is currently priced at $139.99. Navigon is one of the larger players bringing turn-by-turn GPS solutions to the iPhone, with AT&T opting for the same subscription service used on other platforms and TomTom embracing a forthcoming hardware/software combination solution also competing for users’ attention.

It seems GPS companies love the iPhone suddenly, and plan to embrace the platform in many future software releases.

1. WifiTrak (Find FREE WiFi)

2. Documents To Go® (Microsoft Word editing & Desktop sync)

3. Grocery Gadget Shopping List Sync Groceries

4. Write Now

5. Gas Buddy: Save Money at the Pump

6. Things

7. Todo

8. mSecure

9. Print & Share

10. Toodledo

6. IAmHere
Want your friends to know exactly where you are? (Scorpion Bay, Baja!) IAmHere sends an email with a link to Google Maps. In my tests it was accurate to within a hundred feet. $0.99