As the new television programming season (such as it is) gets under way guess who is still missing from the iTunes catalogue?

Yup, the NBC/Apple separation continues.

As a result NBC shows won’t be on iPhone (or any other Apple product)- at least not as official downloads.

Right after the split NBC shot back with their own streaming/download service directly from their site.

That was one thing. This, however, was downright amusing…

What device did they use to advertise their service?????

Maybe it’s my morbid sense of humor but something about the response to one new app amused me to no end this week.

This app definately isn’t going to be an App Store "Top 25". It won’t even be a "Top 2000".

The lack of current and future popularity isn’t because the UI is ugly (which it is) but because it deals in two areas we don’t want to know about- death and the fact that the choices we make may directly impact our longevity.

Let me go back and explain…

It’s Friday and that means it’s time for our weekly crApp App.

Have you have ever wondered what type of app qualifies as a What’s On iPhone "crApp App"?

It’s hard to decribe but you know one when you download one.

This week’s crApp App is right there on the garbage heap with the best of them…   

It isn’t creative. It isn’t useful. It isn’t even funny. It has one purpose and one purpose alone- to put a few dollars into the developer’s pocket. I did… so you don’t have to… What is this week’s crApp App???

The better name for this quick post might be "Now You Hear It, Now You Don’t: Attack of the Gremlins".

Here’s what happened-

I have been at home working on work stuff all day with a little site posting mixed in here and there.

I decided to take a break and went outside. It is a nice day here and I figured I would sit outside, listen to a little music and, perhaps, even take a power nap.

House phone rang.

I paused the Touch.

I came back to it.

It’s locked up.

I forced a shut own by holding down the two hardware buttons.

I started it up again.

I settled back into my chair.

I started the iPod function and… what is going on????

Here’s the setup- back in July I had a total failure of my 500 GB backup harddrive. OUCH!

Fortunately after a total meltdown last fall I had created a redundancy system so very little of my data was  actually lost. I called the company that makes the hard drive and, since it was only a few months old, they told me to send it to them. They promised to attempt to do a full data recovery but, if that did not work, they said they would at least fix or replace the drive.

I shipped it out and went on vacation.

Yesterday I realized I had never gotten the drive back. I called the company but they could not find a record of my having sent it. Fortunately I (or more accurately my super-organize wife) had a copy of the shipping receipt. Since it was insured I knew I could find out where it had landed and then figure out how to have it fixed or replace.

Now I don’t know if you have ever tried to phone a real live person at the US Postal Service but it is close to impossible.

I continue to be amazed by the stream of excellent app updates flowing into the App Store and out to us. Sure there are the requisite bug fixes but most of the time it is for more than that. Most of the time it is developers making their apps even more fully-featured or useful. This is the case with the new update for Tap Tap Revenge.

Tap Tap Revenge is best as “Guitar Hero meets the iPhone”. While music plays "beat bubbles" flow down one of the three strings in time. If you tap the bubbles as they crosses the bottom you get points. If you miss them you get a humiliating "Miss!"
Miss a lot and, as Dimitri said in his review,

"… you feel like throwing the iPhone across the room (well, maybe not)."

Dimitri’s biggest criticism at the time was—

"Unfortunately, the current selection of music, while good in my opinion, is exceptionally limited." Well, no more.

I like Woot!

If you don’t know what that means you should!

Woot! is the ultimate "hit-or-miss internet bargain shopping" experience.

Woot! offers just one item (and only one item) per day.

Sometimes the items are brand new. Sometimes they’re not.

Sometimes the items are fantastic. Sometimes they’re crap.

Sometimes the deals are good. Sometimes the deals are GREAT!

And that is the problem with Woot!

I’ve been a good fan-boy lately and haven’t mentioned eReader in over a week.  This really deserved mention, though.

As I have noted, eReader for iPhone works amazingly well. The original version was fine and the update at the end of July kicked it up to great. The fact that, from the very beginning, you could go to your eReader bookshelf and can not go to your Fictionwise bookshelf, as well, was a terrific convenience. Buying books, however, wasn’t as easy. The eReader site is accessible from the iPhone but the panning and zooming necessary were horrible. Well, that all changed in the last few days.

I love Astraware’s games and played a lot of them back in my Windows Mobile days. I like their racing game GTS World Racing and will be revewing it soon. Some time today, though, they will be releasing Golden Skull. Thanks to Astraware I’ve had the chance to play it this morning and it is a whole lot of fun. Here is their description:

Help Saeed on his journey through Mayan ruins to recover the Golden Skull. Touch groups of sparkling gems to make them disappear and earn the 5 gold coins you’ll need to progress on your search for the Golden Skull. Remove larger groups to earn your coins more quickly but don’t run out of moves or your journey will end.

Golden Skull has some nice features.

I’m not only the newest member of the WhatsOniPhone team but I am also the youngest.

We all love our iPhones but depending on our stage in life our needs are going to be different. As a result, the apps we use most will (likely) be different too.

Dan’s been writing about what’s on his iPhone and focusing on the apps he uses most.

I thought I would do the same…

So, What’s On (My) iPhone?…