Why use appsto.re URL’s? According to them:

• They contain the name of your app, making people more likely to click.
• They take people straight to iTunes, increasing the chance people will buy your app.
• They are short! So they are easy to share on twitter or where ever.

However, a TechCrunch reader tells us that iPhone apps already have short URLs, e.g. http://itunes.com/apps/scavenge.

[via TechCrunch]

ZumoDrive also dropped the price of the 25GB plan to $6.99, 50GB for $11.99 and 100GB for $19.99 per month.  If all you need is 1-GB, it’s still free and the 10GB starter plan still cost $2.99 per month.

Finally, ZumoDrive Beta is officially open to the world to test drive and enjoy, so go forth and expand your iPhone or iPhone 3G’s storage beyond the 8 or 16GB of storage!

Thanks David Zhao for sending this over!

Hello,

David from ZumoDrive here. I wanted to tell you about a couple of major announcements that we are making later today. Before I dive into the details, I want to thank you for using ZumoDrive – our success so far has been a direct result of our users. We welcome your feedback, ideas and even criticism at all times.

“Supersize Me” iPhone App – That’s right, our iPhone app is called “Supersize Me” and will be available starting Wednesday February 25th in the Utilities and Music categories of the Apple App Store. Now it really doesn’t matter if your iPhone has just 8 or 16 GB – you’ll never again have to choose which content to put on it. Just like ZumoDrive supersizes your PC or Mac, the Supersize Me iPhone app lets you put ALL your music, photos and documents on your iPhone and delivers a fantastic experience whether you’re connected via WiFi, 3G or EDGE. Browse through your entire music library and play anything as if it were stored on your phone. See your entire updated photo archive as it grows. View all your files including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF at any time.

The regular price of Supersize Me is $4.99, but we’re giving the application away free to early users like you for a limited time – so go grab it now!

Oh yeah, if you like Supersize Me, please don’t forget to rate it on the App Store. For those of you who use other smart phone brands, we’re working to support the major platforms and will make ZumoDrive available on them later in the year.

Lower ZumoDrive Pricing – Yes, we’re dropping our pricing to make ZumoDrive more affordable for you and everyone else. You can still get 1-GB of ZumoDrive storage for free, and our 10-GB starter plan runs $2.99 per month. But as of Wednesday February 25th, you’ll get 25-GB for $6.99, 50-GB for $11.99 and 100-GB for $19.99 per month.

ZumoDrive Beta Now Public – Thanks to the help of our private beta users like you, we’re now ready to offer ZumoDrive to the rest of the world starting Wednesday February 25th. So feel free to invite your friends to try ZumoDrive – they’ll no longer need a beta access code.

Thanks once again for your support. You can view more regular updates on ZumoDrive (along with general musings by our team) by subscribing to our blog. I would also encourage you to follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates from us.

Best,

David Zhao
ZumoDrive Founder and CEO

It will take advantage of the multi-touch controls and provide real-time sound altering. With sound effects galore, this app runs off of Enhanced Subspace Frequency Modulation (ESFM). Plus, it will have 81 preset sounds and an editor in which to modify your own synth sound pieces. 

You can produce all sorts of sounds and according to the Noise.io website, this app is meant for “musicians, DJs, noise addicts [and] gadget lovers.” Sounds like it’s right up most app-users’ alley. 

Noise.io will cost $6.99. 

[via iPhonic]

Since the store’s open, over 25 million apps have been downloaded. This not only is  a good sign for the success of the App Store–it’s also a good sign that this may just be a great means of selling mobile software for consumers and businesses alike. 

Because many apps are currently free and the vast majority–around 90%–are priced under $10, this isn’t a huge market yet. But it certainly has the potential to be so and I would set my watch that it will be so, soon.

[via InfoWorld]

Granted, there are many other apps out there like this–Yelp, Nearby, urbanspoon, just to name a few. But I think iWant is interesting because it’s attempting to give you information on all major business types. Pretty bold, don’t you think? 

The interface is very neat and easy to use. The icons are representative of the categories. You can organize the search results by distance of rating, plus a five-star system (powered by yelp) helps you keep tabs on what’s good and what’s better left avoided. If you have the yelp app, you can read reviews on places you find in iWant through yelp. Pretty cool synchronization, there. 

Plus, when you want to see where something is, you just click on the map icon in the lower right hand corner. 

All in all, I like this app. But it doesn’t offer anything extra. But something has to be said for an app that lives up to what it claims to do. I have to respect that.

The interface is drag and drop and appears very easy to use. You can also view your files right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. It will also work on both Mac and PCs. 

Watch the video below to see DataCase in action. It will be available in the App Store in the coming days, weeks or whenever the developers feel its done for $7.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr66bbIcZyg[/youtube]

[via iPhonews.com]

But there is a quick fix until this bug is addressed. You can use the Google app to access your contacts. If you need to search for a contact, this is especially helpful, as the search function in the Apple Contacts gets rather sluggish after awhile. 

So, once you install the Google app, all you have to do is search for a contact and you’ll get results much faster than searching or scrolling through your standard Contacts list. This isn’t a permanent solution, but it will certainly be helpful in the meantime. 

[via iPhone Atlas]

You can take standard notes, first of all. Just type in the information you want to save. Then, you can add tags to it to help keep your notes organized. You can also change the font color and add contacts to the note. 

This same structure applies to all of the note-taking functions. You can take a picture of something and file it away as a note and you can record an audio clip to save for later. However, when I attempted to record audio nothing happened. I could not hear a thing during playback. 

There’s also a freehand tool that lets you scribble and jot notes with your finger tip. There’s a straight-line tool, a shape tool and an eraser. Think Microsoft Paint but with touch. This is a fun feature but I don’t know how practical it is. Perhaps when you want to demonstrate to friends that you really can draw the Prince symbol? I don’t know. 

Lastly, there’s a feature that lets you bookmark a website and add notes to it for future reference. All in all, this is a pretty good way to keep track of information from many different sources. It’s pretty easy to navigate and you can adjust how the notes are organized (alphabetically, by date or none) for easier access.

I was pretty impressed by this app, I have to say. But the lack of audio on the audio recording feature is no doubt a bug. Plus, the app crashed quite a bit, requiring a phone reboot. Is YouNote perfect? Not hardly. But is it a solid start? You bet.

Proximi has created an app called MagicPad, which will provide iPhone users with the simple ability to copy and paste–within this app only, though. While this is pretty much a glorified version of “Notes” it also allows you to change font, font size, style and color.

So, if you need to do some text editing, try to do it in this app. However, without the ability to copy from other apps or from mail, let’s say and paste into MagicPad, I don’t see what’s so revolutionary. It seems to be more of a demonstration that yes, copy and paste can work on here, than anything else. You can, however, copy and paste between notes within MagicPad.

[via TechCrunch]

If you are a lover of Vegas-style casino slots, then Lucky 7 Slots is the app for you. It’s only $1.99 and helps you satisfy that gambling urge from anywhere right on your iPhone.

But it’s not all flashing lights and coin drops. In fact, it’s lacking these things entirely. And for a paid application, I was expecting a bit more in terms of the glitzy offerings of a Vegas casino. Where was the pull arm or dramatic slow down of the wheels as they near your selections? What about flashing lights when you win? It just seemed very anticlimactic for me.

Even so, Lucky 7 Slots does give you that slot machine feel. You start out with 1000 credits and work your luck from there. The screen doesn’t change except for the spinning wheels and your bets and winnings. There are no other screen options. Actually, most of the screen is cluttered up with all of the options you can make to win and their credit value. Useful, sure but perhaps the entire gaming screen should have been the slot machine itself. 

This app is made by Griffin Technology and can be paired with their 5 Card Touch, as well. I hate to be such a downer, but this one just didn’t do much for me. And I love these kinds of games. It just didn’t offer anything extra to the table. I will say that the graphics and audio were clear and vivid, I just wanted more of each.

I love free apps. They give you the opportunity to try out an application without any risk. I mean, the only thing you lose is a little bit of time, but that’s not even much to complain about when you get right down to it. So when I downloaded Jott, I was excited. Here’s a way to take verbal notes and keep track of memos without a millions post-its. And believe me, anything to cut down my postage usage would be a godsend.

That’s why it pains me to say I’m disappointed with this freebie app. To begin though, it does do a few things well. For instance, after setting up your account—which is as simple as text messaging a verification number—you can start recording memos. It offers a neat reel-to-reel graphic while you record, as well. Once you’re done recording, the audio processes and is sent to the Jott service. You will hear the “mail sent” sound.

Now, you can go into your “Notes” section right away and listen to the memo you just record. All you have to do is select the memo from the list and press the play button in the right hand corner. We’re good up until this point.

But the next part—the part that’s supposed to set Jott apart from the competition–fails miserably. Granted, in my first memo I said stuff like “Cup, plastic, paper, drink, soda, hello,” basically a string of simple words. After all, I figured this app would be used for grocery lists and the like, anyway. So after a few minutes, your recorded message should show up transcribed in the Notes section. But mine looked even more random and nonsensical than my actual message! It read: “I don’t know how where you know some uh plates cups match page. Right.” Do I need to tell you that this was nowhere near correct? I think the only word it got right was “cups.”

My second try was much better, however. I said, “This is a test memo for Jott” and that’s exactly what was transcribed. Perhaps random words confuse it? I don’t know. But what I do know is that if you want to record anything longer than 15 seconds, well, you can’t. This is for quick bursts, only.

All in all, I’m disappointed, but hey, it’s free! And it’s a good alternative to the Recorder, if you don’t feel like shelling out a buck.

While I love add-on features and extras, sometimes all you want and need is a big red record button and that’s precisely what Recorder gives you. Of course, you can also organize your recorded memos, rename them from the standard “Memo” and even e-mail them to yourself. These last two features were included in the application’s recent update, which were completely needed, if you ask me. The program’s not perfect, but if all you need is a quick way to take verbal notes, it’s foolproof. 

Supposedly, you can record hours of notes and though I haven’t tried that, it did go past the limited memo length of 15 seconds that the similar app, Jott offers. 

Okay, verdict time. Is it worth the 99 cents? If you need a voice recorder, then yes. I mean, who hasn’t forgotten something while out and about because you swore you’d “write it down” when you got a chance? I’d shell out the almost dollar and buy it.

It’s simple. Just log into the iTunes library where you want to share the app with your AppleID that you used to buy the app the first time. Go to the AppStore and buy the app again. However, instead of having to pay, you will be prompted with a dialog that says, “You have already purchased this item,” and you’ll be able to download it again for free. Pretty cool, huh?

Then, just log out of your account on this second computer and the app should sync right up with the iPhone connected to that library. This is great if you and your spouse both have iPhones but don’t want to have to buy duplicate apps.  

[via MacRumors]

Updates and new features or Pandora for iPhone 1.1 include:

+ Stereo over WiFi – Pandora stations now play in high bitrate stereo when using Pandora over WiFi. This makes an iPod touch the perfect companion to your living room stereo. Just dock and play.

+ Station Resume – when you’re using Pandora and switch to another application, or take an incoming phone call, the music will resume right where you left off when you start Pandora back up. It’s not as good as background listening (which isn’t currently possible on the iPhone) but at least you won’t miss anything if you need to hop out to another app for a minute.

+ Search Auto-Complete – as you type an artist, song or composer in the station creation screen we will offer suggestions in real time as you go.

+ Station Sorting – view your stations either by the creation date or alphabetically.

+ On Phone Registration – users that are new to Pandora can now complete account registrations on the iPhone and iPod touch.

+ Settings Panel – swap your Pandora login without reinstalling the app.

I’m currently testing out this app–and it looks promising, folks–and will have a full review of it on Monday.

[via Pandora Radio Blog]

And it would seem Apple and developers would be raking in a lot of cash from this app cash cow, but not so, says Apple Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook during the Q3 conference on Monday. Rather, the App Store is intended to help boost iPhone 3G and iPod Touch sales, much like the iTunes Store itself. 

As the App Store continues to grow, we’ll have to see what new gems pop up and what major developers decide to latch onto the platform. 

[via The iPhone Blog]