Daniel Brusilovsky

TechCrunch.com
Sunday, October 18, 2009; 6:33 AM

The App Store is crowded with tens of thousands of applications, many which do the exact same thing. Just do a quick search on the App Store for Twitter, and you’ll find over 170 applications related to Twitter. But how do you figure out which Twitter application is best? That’s where App of the Day comes in. App of the Day highlights a different application every day for iPhone or iPod Touch users looking to discover high quality applications in the App Store.

Founded by Jordan Satok, App of the Day features community-nominated applications that get featured on the home page each day. Users are then able to comment on the application, and provide feedback for potential buyers.

You only get one nomination per day, reinforcing the goal of the site to only feature quality applications. Whichever application gets the most nominations, then becomes the App of the Day.

App of the Day also works directly with Gravatar, so users don’t have to upload their own picture ? their avatar is just affiliated with their email address, which they use to sign up with on App of the Day. You can find my user profile here.

The concept is quite simple, and is something the Apple community has been looking for. App of the Day provides quality applications that users want to use. Satok built the site in less then 10 days and it is hosted on the Rackspace Cloud.

By Chris Foresman | Last updated October 15, 2009 9:59 AM CT

A new rumor this week suggests that Apple is developing an FM tuner app for iPhone and iPod touch users. Though not every device has the capability to receive FM signals, building the app is a simple way to add an extra feature to the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and second- and third-gen iPod touches.

An anonymous source for 9to5Mac says work on the app is mostly done at this point, and will likely take cues from the FM tuner interface of the recently introduced fifth-gen iPod nano. However, Apple is reportedly still working on integrating mobile iTunes Store purchasing into the app. This is an obvious extension to iPod nano’s song tagging feature, which allows a user to tag songs they like for possible later purchase via iTunes. Integrating direct purchasing would increase the impulse purchase factor.

The iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and second-gen iPod touch all use a Broadcom BCM4325 radio chip that combines low-power WiFi, Bluetooth, and FM capabilities. The newest iPod touches use the newer Broadcom BCM4329, which also has FM receiving. The original iPhone and iPod touch used chips from Marvell for WiFi, and the iPhone had a separate chip for Bluetooth, so those devices wouldn’t work with an FM tuner app.

While FM tuners have been features of a wide variety of other media players—cough, Zune HD, cough—they have never featured significantly in the iPod line-up. A separate FM tuner accessory Apple introduced in 2006 never sold in significant numbers and was quietly discontinued. However, Broadcom’s Chris Bergey told Ars late last year that FM tuning is particularly popular in other areas of the world, such as India; there phones with FM outnumber those with Bluetooth, for instance.

Since the hardware already has the capability, and the software design is most of the way there with work done on the iPod nano, it would be relatively trivial for Apple to offer up an FM tuner app for the iPhone OS platform. Integrating iTunes purchasing would also be the sort of compelling value add that should give Apple a good reason to make it happen.

The Canon iEPP app lets you select from a wide range of paper sizes and paper types, from card-size (2.2 inches by 3.4 inches) up to letter size. You can choose multiple photos from your iPhone or iPod touch Photo Albums and print up to 20 copies. It will also let you print bordered or borderless photos. When you launch the Canon iEPP, it will automatically find printers on a wireless network. You can start your iPhone camera directly from Canon iEPP, and instantly print captured photos.

Printers compatible with the Canon iEPP currently include the PIXMA MP990, PIXMA MP640, and PIXMA MP560 All-In-Ones. (Canon had hinted that the app was on the way at the launch of those MFPs in August, so we’re glad people who bought them can now take advantage of this functionality.) If you don’t have one of those models, don’t worry; there are other ways of printing from your iPhone or touch.

As Apple gears up for a Wednesday announcement, Apple watchers gear up their speculation.

By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek

Apple is gearing up for a big announcement on Wednesday, and Apple-watchers are ready with their predictions. Apple could be preparing to unveil a new iPod lineup that includes a camera-sporting iPod Touch.

In addition, an upgrade of Apple’s iTunes store is also likely, and at least one analyst believes there’s a chance Apple could introduce a $700 MacBook and a refresh of the Apple TV.
No one outside of Apple and its manufacturing partners know for sure what Apple will unveil at the Wednesday media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. But as usual, Apple’s secrecy has fueled a whole lot of speculation among industry observers and media.

One new product deemed most likely to be introduced is an iPod Touch with an integrated camera, and possibly a microphone. The addition of the mike would take the Wi-Fi-enabled device as close as possible to the iPhone in terms of features.

“It would get pretty close to being an iPhone without the cellular connectivity,” Van Baker, analyst for Gartner said. “That could be an interesting device.”

Baker believes a microphone could boost sales because the iPod Touch would be capable of making phone calls through a Wi-Fi hotspot without a service contract from a wireless provider.

In addition, a refresh of the Touch could lead to a drop in the starting price of the older model from $229 to as low as $149, others say. Apple typically drops prices of older models when refreshing product lines.

Speculation is also swirling around Apple’s plans for the iPod Classic, with many observers expecting the company to drop the product from its line of portable media players. Baker believes the Classic, which has a hard-disk drive, will be replaced with a model that uses a more reliable and durable 64 GB solid-state drive. It’s unlikely Apple would drop the Classic and not replace it with a product at a similar price point.

“If they didn’t replace it, then they would have a hole in the line between the iPod Nano and the Touch,” Baker said.

Ezra Gottheil, analyst for Technology Business Research, believes Apple could have a couple of surprises in store, namely a new version of the Apple TV and a new entry-level MacBook that would sell for about $700.

The new Apple TV would need a Web browser that supports Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash, a technology used to play online video, and a wireless remote control with a touchpad for playing games and other tasks, Gottheil said. Such a device would be a move toward building a “digital hub” that would link the Web, iTunes, the Mac, and the iPhone or iPod Touch to the big-screen, flat-panel TV in the home.

Lots of apps means lots of data.
(Credit: Matt Hickey)

There’s been a lot of talk lately of AT&T customers–especially iPhone users–getting fed up with the quality of service they’re getting with AT&T. Issues include dropped calls, shoddy coverage, and slow data speeds. People are upset that they have a fancy device that loses much of its usefulness when the network drops out. I can feel their pain.

Indeed, I saw the effect myself this last weekend. The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), one of the world’s largest gaming conventions, took place in Seattle, where I live. Thousands of the world’s nerdiest nerds were here, and, as you’d expect, many were using iPhones, meaning many were using AT&T’s 3G service.

PAX, which opened Friday, also had a handy guide on expojunkie.com for convention goers made especially for the iPhone. It featured maps, agendas, and other quick reference information to make PAX a better experience. The side effect was thousands of visitors using Seattle’s 3G coverage at the same time–in addition to the thousands of locals who already use it. Service slowed to a crawl.

By Saturday, the service was back up-to-speed for most of Seattle. AT&T may have hit a switch and turned on more towers. It has a team that monitors areas with major events and tweaks the network when one causes problems. Whatever the company did fixed it.

The blessing and the curse
But here’s the question: what are we to expect from AT&T when Apple sells millions of units of a revolutionary product that depends on its network and then provides millions of apps that put a huge burden on the same network? Do we really expect AT&T to be able to handle that much data?

Out of the frying pan…
You can find many entries in online forums where people cry, “Forget AT&T, I’m going to Verizon!” or something equally angry. But they’re not getting the big picture: by switching you’ll lose your beloved iPhone, but you’ll also be on a network which, if it gets the iPhone soon as rumored, could end up having the exact same problems AT&T is now, perhaps even worse.

AT&T: We’re working around the clock
I don’t think so. Especially considering that iPhone users are sticking around day after day. AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom, the company’s “Blogger Guy,” says the buffet is ordering more prime rib and mashed potatoes–to the tune of $17 billion to $18 billion this year alone.

He also says AT&T expects that 3G network capacity will match the growing user demand for data soon. “Crews are working around the clock to implement more than 1,900 new cell towers nation wide and doubling its fiber backbone to take up the rising customer volume,” he told me over instant message.

Well, folks, tomorrow night is the start of the NFL season, which can only mean one thing: Apple will announce new iPods today so it can show the new toys off in commercials during tomorrow night’s game. Other than the promise seeing the same ad 400 times in the next month, what can we expect from today’s event in San Francisco?

Predicting is always a crap shoot when it comes to Jobs and company, but here’s my guesses: a 64GB iPod touch with a built-in camera, one last go-round (gasp) for the iPod classic, a newly designed nano, and the introduction of new iTunes features and the (sort of) highly anticipated Cocktail. Who doesn’t want a cocktail? It’s morning over in here in San Francisco, but by the end of this day, I’ll probably need one.

Oh, and here’s what I hope Apple introduces: a touch-screen nano. Sound silly? A touch-screen would ensure that all iPods–except the classic, which will be dead in a year, if not by the end of the announcement today–will operate using the same interface in the same manner; it’ll just be smaller. The nano already has an accelerometer, so I’d bet Apple is considering this…

Anyway, we’ll fine out soon enough! Come right back to this post before 10 AM Pacific time, 1 PM Eastern, when I’ll be live-blogging the announcement.

12:43: Lance Ulanoff and I are sending photos and updates already; check out our live coverage after the jump!

12:53: Get excited for new iPods-almost definitely an iPod touch with a camera, probably a nano with a camera, and a new music format that will save the major labels, called Cocktail.
Follow the live blog in its entirety at our Gearlog page.