Ever since Ben and Mena Trott created Movable Type together so that Mena could blog and build a community, Six Apart has been about helping to get more people blogging. In order to do this we must produce optimized user experiences that take cutting edge technology and make it more accessible. We've been fortunate enough be recognized for our efforts in innovation and today we're introducing a free web application, Blog It for iPhone Powered by TypePad. Built specifically for iPhone's Safari browser, Blog It for iPhone enables you to post blog entries or status updates from wherever you are to more than a dozen different online services.

Blog It for iPhone is essentially the mobile version of our Blog It for Facebook application, which we launched in April. We've been thrilled with the response to Blog It for Facebook (see this ReadWriteWeb post for an example!), and love seeing people use it to create content and share it all over the web. And we also love making it better -- in May we added support for MarkDown so you don't need to write HTML by hand; and in June we added support for FriendFeed and Jaiku, to bring the total list of services we support to thirteen. Blog It now supports creating content on Blogger, Facebook, FriendFeed, Jaiku, LiveJournal, Movable Type, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, TypePad Vox, WordPress.com, and any WordPress.org site.

Blog It: Free blogging to any platform, from any iPhone

The Blog It for iPhone web application lets you post to your blog and update your status via one easy-to-use interface. Just like the original version for Facebook, you can choose to automatically share your post with people you know on various social networks. And Blog It for iPhone supports all the same services Blog It for Facebook does. To use Blog It for iPhone simply visit blogit.typepad.com from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

It's so easy that you don't even need to create yet another account; we've integrated OpenID for login to Blog It for iPhone. Our designers worked hard to try to keep it simple so that even if you don't know what OpenID is you'll still be able to just login with your account from Yahoo!. This also means that once you've chosen to link your accounts together, all of your existing settings from Blog It for Facebook will automatically show up on your iPhone and any changes you make will be reflected no matter where you use Blog It.

The Blog It for iPhone web application joins our existing iPhone-optimized TypePad site which we launched last year. TypePad bloggers can visit i.typepad.com from their iPhone to manage comment activity, create and publish simple blog posts and even check on site traffic statistics. To our beloved Movable Type users, we've heard you loud and clear: Blog It is a great way to post to Movable Type from your iPhone, or if you want even more features, you can check out the iMT plugin, which lets you manage your whole Movable Type blog from the device.

To round out blogging support for the iPhone, a native iPhone application for TypePad will be available for free at the launch of the iPhone App Store. TypePad for iPhone enables bloggers to instantly post photos from their iPhone to their blogs and photo albums on TypePad. Michael Sippey, Six Apart's VP of Products, demonstrated this new app during the keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this week in San Francisco. Check out the video of the event; his demo starts at about the 30 minute mark.

We're certainly excited about all of the great new things we can provide to bloggers because of the iPhone's great web browser and powerfully simple SDK for native applications. Below are some screenshots of the new free Blog It for iPhone web application, and you can access it from Safari on your iPhone at blogit.typepad.com.

by David Recordon

Facebook has issued an update to its iPhone application, offering more features and greater stability.

Main features include:

• Ability to write on friends' walls
• View all photo albums (not just the one attached to the profile picture)
• See full profiles
• Viewing of photo tags
• Faster photo uploading
• Ability to upload pictures directly from the iPhone

Available now: Facebook App

Posted by Andy Merrett

PageOnce launched as a web site earlier this year with a single focus, to simplify your online activity by aggregating your accounts into a single, secure view. We gave it test drive and liked it, but they were lacking a mobile interface so we didn’t get to tell you about it here on Touchtp.com. Today, we can gladly tell you that PageOnce has a free, native app waiting for you in the App Store and this is one gem of a download that you won’t want to miss.

The PageOnce app brings account aggregation to the iPhone and iPod touch, and the productivity gains you’ll experience will be like nirvana. PageOnce gives you a single page with all of your online accounts for banking, credit cards, email, MobileMe, social networks, bill payments, movie rentals, airlines, and on, and on, and on. You’ll have access to almost every online account you own with just a single tap. The days of signing into each account separately have come to and end, and that is wonderful news to our weary, tapped-out fingers.

Setting up PageOnce is a snap, but you’ll definitely need to do that from a desktop browser. Go to the PageOnce web site and sign up for a free account, then populate your account with all the online services you need access to. Then go to the App Store and download the PageOnce app for iPhone 2.0. Tap the app icon to run it then sign in with your PageOnce username and password. You can now access any of your online accounts without signing in again!

PageOnce supports so many online services that we cannot list them all here, but they are categorized neatly under Finance, Shopping, Utilities, Social, Travel, and Email. Wanna add your Amazon and Ebay accounts? No problem. How about your bank or brokerage accounts? Gotcha covered. You can add your wireless provider, including Skype and DirecTV, or your social networks like LinkedIn, Flickr, or Twitter, just to name a few. If you travel a lot, you can add your accounts for airlines, rental cars, and hotels. And, of course, you can add any number of web-based email accounts to monitor from your PageOnce view.

The number of internet services that PageOnce supports is very impressive and they are adding more to it all the time. If you don’t see one of your accounts listed in the admin tool, then you can send it in to the PageOnce team suggesting they add it to the growing list of options. Chances are, however, you find will more than a few of your online accounts available which will make managing your digital life that much easier.

PageOnce is committed to security and they even have a web page dedicated to that subject. They claim to provide military-level security, we’re pretty sure that means Kevlar armor instead of wicker. PageOnce has passed strict security audits by Verisign, TrustE, McAfee, and the Better Business Bureau. They knew customers would question security so they attacked that issue head-on and we feel good about it.

We love the single tap account access that PageOnce provides us on our iPhones, but the app does have its drawbacks. For one, the UI could use a little spit polish so that it feels more like an iPhone app. There a few issues with colors, fonts, and spacing. Also, managing your PageOnce preferences must by done on a desktop computer and the web site doesn’t seem to do very well in Safari, so use Firefox or Opera. However, these are minor nits compared to the overall value the app provides. It’s amazing this app is free because we’d gladly pay for it. It’s no wonder PageOnce earned a four-star rating in the App Store from its users.

By TouchTip.com

iRinger is a freeware tool for iPhone that lets you create ringtones free ringtones for your iPhone from virtually any music or video file you own.

After creating ringtones, it will automatically export them to your iTunes so that you can transfer them to your phone. It even supports for converting YouTube videos into ringtones!

Features:

• Three Steps: Import, Preview then Export. Done.
• Convert virtually any audio format into an iPhone ringtone
• Extracts audio out of video
• Choose which section of the audio you want to hear
• Adjust ringtone length, volume, fade in, fade out and loop gap
• Export to iPhone ringtone format and import right into iTunes
• Export to iPhone using SCP/SFTP and skip using iTunes
• Use audio effects: Delay, Flanger, Boost, Reverse, etc.

It creates ringtones in seconds, and the best part is that it’s completely free to use and does not require a broken jailbroken iPhone ;)

Download:

Download iRinger

by Haris

The Apple iPhone 3G was announce in a blaze of glory that eclipsed most of the other smart phones on the market, but it remains to be seen whether Apple has really provided users with exactly what they want. Less than a year after the original iPhone went on sale Apple promises new users of the latest iPhone that they will be given the chance to officially download 3rd party applications through the App store. But how quickly will an unlocked version become available.

The Apple iPhone is an updated smart phone with GPS and a 16 GB memory. The 3G iPhone has a lot to write home about with added support, added GPS, third party applications, and support for a Microsoft Exchange server. Extra 3G support is a massive plus for the iPhone. If the trial speed of data transfer is maintained then users really will be carrying the Internet around in their pocket. At half the price and twice the speed of its forerunners the new 3G versions is sure to be popular.

The new phone is thinner at the edges than the earlier version and slightly thicker in the middle, other measurements remain the same although the 3G is 2grams lighter than its predecessor. It no longer has the recessed headphone jack, which some users found annoying, it is now flush enough for any 3.5mm headphones.

Due to go on sale July the 11th the phone will be on offer in black with 8GB of memory or in black or white with 16GB of memory. Sources suggest that the new iPhone will be available in the UK from Apple, 02 and the Carphone Warehouse.

The 8GB model will be on sale for £99 on a new £30 monthly contract or an existing £35 contract - if you choose the higher tariffs of £45 and £75 a month then you will get the 8GB iPhone free. Prices are quite a bit steeper for the 16GB version with the phone costing £159 on the £30 and £35 tariffs, £59 for the £45 tariff and free on the £75 tariff.

Users will continue to receive unlimited data whatever their tariff although they could find that they will be liable for O2's excessive use policy. On the upside however you will be able to browse over O2's HSDPA network and unlimited access to 9,500 Wi-Fi hotspots through BT Openzone and the Cloud.

Although the addition of 3G and GPS make the iPhone 2.0 attractive it is still without some of the basic features found on much cheaper phones, including multimedia messaging and voice messaging.

The first iPhone was available unlocked soon after its launch but this time it will only be available in store rather than through iTunes. So what of the grey market for iPhones and those that are eager to buy one for the discounted contract price in the hope they can get it unlocked?

Well they might be put off even faster than before. Apple have done their darnest to ensure that their second generation phone is locked right down. With official applications being controlled tightly by Apple, any non-legitimate contract phone will easily be spotted - or more importantly won't benefit from the full features.

By: David Lakins

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Insure and Smile offers competitive mobile phone insurance for all models of mobile phones including the new Apple 3G iPhone. Insure a mobile for as little as £2.99 a month against theft, breakdown and water damage with 48 hour replacement.

The Apple iPhone is an amazing device that invites creativity. You've probably said to yourself: 'I wish I could do that on my iPhone.'

With the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), programmers can make your ideas reality - even if you yourself don't know the difference between a C-pointer and a SQLite database.

More than 200 iPhone application projects have already been posted on Elance.com. Check out these tips in this article to get your project kick-started.

We focus on the development of applications for the Apple iPhone, and we asked Nick Dalton, iPhone SDK specialist, to give Elance buyers a few tips on how to scope and post an iPhone Application project. Here’s what he had to say:

The iPhone is an amazing device that invites creativity. If you’re an iPhone owner I’m sure you’ve said to yourself: ‘I wish I could do that on my iPhone, or I have a great idea for an iPhone application’.

With the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), programmers can make your ideas reality – even if you yourself don’t know the difference between a C-pointer and a SQLite database. But before you go ahead and post your application idea to the buzzing iPhone project area on www.Elance,com. here are some pointers to get your project kick-started:


Study the Masters
Apple has already spent a lot of time thinking about how to present information and build interactive applications on the iPhone. The applications that come with the iPhone are the results of this research. Study them in great detail and try to apply as many of the user interface metaphors as possible to your application.

Not only will Apple be flattered if you imitate the user interface in their applications, but they actually mandate it to a great level of detail as described in their Human Interface Guidelines.


Dream in Color Screens
Most applications for the iPhone will be very visual. Therefore it makes sense to provide your requirements as screen images or sketches. You don’t have to be a graphics artist to do this effectively. An iPhone programmer is looking for the following information:

- The type of layout each screen should have

- The buttons on the screens

- The actions associated with each button

The exact shape and format of your screen sketches is secondary. As long as they are readable, it’s a great way to communicate your application design to a programmer.


Be Realistic About Your Budget
Look at other iPhone projects posted on Elance to get a sense for the bid amounts on these projects. Read the descriptions of these projects to see if they seem to be larger or smaller projects than what you have in mind. If you set your budget to under $500 for something that is realistically going to take a programmer two months to implement, you are not likely to attract many bidders.

From a programming perspective, some things are easy to do on the iPhone, while other seemingly simple things are very time consuming. For example the beautiful cover-flow animation used in the music application on the iPhone should be simple to use in other applications. Unfortunately you can’t. If you want this animation within your application it will have to be written from scratch, probably costing a one month of work.

If you talk to an approved iPhone developer early in your application design process you can learn how to get most out of your budget by avoiding the things that are really difficult to do on the iPhone.

Don’t Be Too Original
iPhone users already know how to do certain tasks on their phones by convention. For example, if you tap an item in a list that has a > icon next to it, you expect to be taken to another screen with more information about that item. If your application needs similar functionality, don’t be creative and come up with a new way to solve the same problem. Use the conventions already established by Apple.

New conventions are difficult to establish especially with the touch interface because there is no way to discover how your application works on the iPhone. Unlike a website where you can hover with the mouse pointer over areas that look like you can interact with them and a tool tip or the status bar will reveal some clues to you.

Know Your Limitations
The current version of the iPhone SDK, which is used to write applications for the iPhone, has many restrictions and limitations. Some of them are common sense, e.g. you can’t send text messages from an application. Imagine an application that sends out thousands of text messages without your knowledge, who is going to pay the phone bill for that?

Other restrictions are maddening: applications cannot access the log of phone calls, or interact in any way with the calendar or the music stored on the iPhone.

To Apple’s credit, the iPhone SDK is an amazing piece of software especially given that it was publicly released as a Beta just three months ago. Some of the shortcomings listed above will likely be addressed in future releases of the SDK.

As a buyer with an idea for an iPhone application, you should educate yourself about these limitations before you spend too much time designing an application that is impossible to implement. Talk to a developer or company that specializes in iPhone development (and there are many available on Elance) and they can help you get on the right track from the start.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/create-design-launch-your-iphone-application-447269.html

About
Nick Dalton (username: 360mind) is an experienced iPhone SDK specialist and Elance.com service provider. He has 15+ years of background in programming, and currently focuses his business, 360mind, 100% on the development of iPhone applications. For more information on Nick, check out his book, 101 iPhone Tips and Tricks.