During my brief “road trip” last week I discovered how incredibly useful the GPS/location feature on the iPhone 3G can be. Thanks to its simple interface and an increasing number of apps that leverage the location-feature the iPhone 3G
 
Unsure about the accuracy of the iPhone’s GPS, I grabbed my wife’s GPS from her car before leaving. I didn’t need it.

Sure, unlike the stand-alone GPS, the iPhone doesn’t have turn-by-turn directions (At least not the kind that I consider Turn-by-Turn– you know… "Turn left in 500 meters"). I missed this feature, but quickly discovered that the iPhone works just fine without it. I was able to enter my start and end points and within seconds had accurate directions.

Our stand-alone GPS unit is a small basic unit. At the time (a couple of years ago) it cost well more than the iPhone 3G does. It is no more accurate, and is far more complex when trying to input waypoints, than the iPhone. The iPhone, with its much simpler user interface and superb accuracy (in my experience) is far far better!

UPDATE: Apparently it is no longer free. Sorry. There is, however, a free version that can be found HERE.

I’ve already missed out on a few apps that were temporarily free becasue I waited too long so… having just played a "round" of Fuzzle I want to suggest you stop reading this, jump to the end of the post and click "HERE" to be taken to the App Store where you can download Fuzzle and (right now) save two bucks.

Seriously- this game looks, sounds and is FUN.

It is the kind of game you want to download and leave on your iPhone because you’ll be coming back to it here and there when you have a few minutes to kill.
 
The developer explains Fuzzle this way–

It’s Baack… (sorry, wrong movie)

PhoneSaber, the absolutely useless app that puts the image of a Star Wars lightsaber (and the requisite “swooshing” sound) is back after initially being pulled due to trademark issues.

And it’s “better” than ever!!!

It now not only carries a new name and a completely new interface but it includes…

Ahh trademarks!

Once again an app had to change its name due to potential infringement.

Mailgram, a neat little, time-saving app for quickly sending pre-formatted email messages just got a new name and an update.

Now known as Maildash, this update not only changes the name from Mailgram but also…

Wikipanion, one of the multiple Wikipedia apps currently avalable for the iPhone/iPod Touch was updated yesterday.

As we prep the next round in our Wiki-Off, it is nice to see this new version.

This update…

ScribBall, Howling Moon Software’s arcade game for iPhone and iPod Touch is now available.

ScribBall is…

…an arcade/puzzle game with all of the addictive fun of the Mac version. The simple touch controls and realistic physics make for an easy-to-learn and intuitive game. Furthermore, ScribBall makes full use of the tilt feature, so as you move your iPhone or iPod from side to side, the balls will tumble and roll just like you’d expect.

As promised, WriteRoom, received an update today.

While other apps add features and, in the process, increase complexity, WriteRoom remains committed to simplicity.

As the developer notes,

WriteRoom is not a rich text editor.

As a result, it is my favorite "notes" replacement,

The update…

iBlogger appeared in the App Store yesterday. At $9.99 it is a bit pricey but if it works well it just might be worth the price.

The app works with a lot of blog engines including WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type and Drupal.

It looks like a powerful little blogging app but we’ll know more after using it a bit. And what better way to test it than to post about it using… iBlogger.

It even used the iPhone’s location feature to identify the location from which the post was made.
 

Mobile Blogging from here.

Jim is a HUGE fan of X-Plane 9.

The app just received an update tonight. The quick summary, in the words of the developer is that

…this version is faster, smoother, more flexible, and a bit easier to use… have at it! You really should get this update to further tune your flying experience!

Included in the update are…

It has more than a bit of irony to it-

On the day when the first Android phone and the Android Market (for the open distribution of apps) were revealed in all their glory, Apple took more steps to lock down, shut out and shut up many of the rumblings coming from developers who are unhappy with their approach.

On a micro-level…

TUAW posted today that Alex Sokirynsky, the developer behind Podcaster, has been shut down. Apparently Apple “rescinded his authority to provision new ad-hoc licenses for his software”. That means he can no longer sell his AMAZINGLY AWESOME FANTASTIC over-the-air podcasting program (to people like me) via the ad-hoc system. While it isn’t a surprise, it is a bit sad that an app as good as Podcaster is kept out of people’s hands. (Fortunately, according to the TUAW post, at least 1299 other iPhone-users got their hands on it too.)

Moving from the micro to the macro-level…

Alex’s blog post about Apple’s latest move was pulled shortly after it was posted.

HMMMMM, could this have anything to do with the fact that…