Newsreaders have caught up to the iPhone/iPod Touch.  I am a news junkie and I prefer tapping a single button and going straight to the news rather than going through the clunky process of launching Safari and typing in a URL.

With that in mind, I have installed applications on my iPod Touch that accomplish just this.  They are all available for free in the App Store, so it’s just a question of your tastes as to which one you prefer. 

Keep in mind that all these applications are fundamentally RSS feed clients and require a Wi-Fi or data connection in order to get newsfeeds.

As part of our Rivet TREK Clip Giveaway we asked-

What application have you paid more than $4.99 for and feel was worth every single penny?

There were a lot of excellent answers. Among them…(note some apps may be less than $4.99 now but the question was “What apps did YOU pay…”

eWallet  (reminder- we have copies to give away as part of our Developer’s Corner opening)
Beatmaker
Asphalt 4: Elite Racing
Enigmo
Fieldrunner
Things
Pocket Money
Beejive
TRIP CUBBY

The four reader who told us THE (singular) app that falls into this category and win a Rivet TREK clip system are…

I receive all but one of my magazine subscriptions through Zinio. They have a good selection of magazines, offer reasonable subscription rates, and I love both the convenience and the ecology of being paperless.

The company also offers an "experimental" iPhone optimized website for browsing and reading content. (They even had the edition of iPhone Life that includes a couple of my articles.)

Unfortunately, while the optimized site works great for browsing content it doesn’t work nearly as well when it comes to leading content. Large magazine images and text that aren’t we formatted specifically for the iPhone just don’t work well.

Now word comes

Woot is a fun way to shop. Every day they offer one item and one item only.

Sometimes it’s something awesome like a well-priced hidef tv.

At other times the offer is… Errr… slightly less stellar.

Sometimes they have a lot of stock and you have time to decide whether or not to buy.

At other times they have less stock and if you don’t act fast you might miss out.

The thing is… you’ll never know. That’s part of the fun.

WootOn! Is a great, free way to check the day’s offerings fast.

A recent update added… -the ability to see multiple product images -the ability to zoom in on product images -stability And more…

— Post From My iPhone

Platypus is a fun game inspired by classic Commodore 64 games.

Thanks to the good folks at Astraware Handmark we had three promo codes to share.

I/we hope the three readers who just received promo codes enjoy it. If they look right below their name in the site login they’ll see the code waiting in our brand new WOiP messaging system!

And the codes go to readers…

I’ve loved Koi Ponds since it was first released… and I/we hope the three readers who just received promo codes do too. 

Thanks to the good folks at TheBlimpPilots we had three promo codes to share. And they go to…

Wow, it is just January 16 and the pilot of the year (or is it the decade?) has already been determined. No question the pilot and crew, as well as the various individuals piloting the many boats who, within seconds, were at the downed USAir jet rescuing passengers, are all heroes. Nice to see a bit of entirely positive news for once!

No doubt the Hudson River was the scene of something truly miraculous today.

What is interesting, from an iPhone perspective, it the coverage of how the iPhone and Twitter played a role in capturing those first moments after the place was down. the headline read-

Twitter and iPhone on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash

(Credit: Janis Krums)

It did not read-

“Twitter and Blackberry on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash”

or
“Twitter and Treo on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash”

or even

“Twitter and Nokia (with amazing 5MP camera) on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash”

No, it read Twitter and iPhone on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash

Plenty of people carry phones that have cameras and can connect Twitter- in fact many have MUCH better cameras- but it was the iPhone that, once again, made the news.

I’m not surprised. The iPhone has, in ways both explainable and not, found its way into the lives of those who own and use one to a far greater degree than any other device. And it got me thinking—

How HAS the iPhone integrated itself into my life and even changed my behavior?

A few things quickly come to mind.

The powerful note application Take A Note just received a significant update.

Already a powerful alternaive to the anemic notes app provided by Apple, Take A Note now…

–offers password protected notes

–full search of notes content

–changeable fonts

–audio notes for the 2nd gen iPod Touch

–last date a note was modified

–improved WebDav support.

Take A Note is definitely one of the more powerful note apps available. You can get it HERE in the App Store

My favorite iPhone Twitter app- Twittelator Pro–  just received yet another update. v1.6.1 brings-

 • An Auto-refresh option added with sound alert on new tweets

 • A stocks (eg $AAPL) link to Google finance quote page for that stock

 • The otion for even more tweets per screen

 • Subgroups implemented through search api so you can have more friends in subgroups

 • The ability to add friends to Subgroups by typing as well as Picker

 • Reply Tweets and Direct Message Tweets are clearly indicated: great for threaded replies!

 • Direct messages can be full 140 since ‘d USERNAME’ not included in tweet

 • Loads all your friends and caches them (only reloading if you add more)

 • Preference to turn off GPS access completely

 • Preference to use Latitude/Longitude instead of placename

You can get Twittelator Pro HERE in the App Store.

GTS World Racing has some fans… and three just got promo codes for it.

Thanks to the folks at Astraware we had three promo codes to share. And they go to…

adrnt

akame

mikec

Reminder to all promo code recipients-

We’re giving out promo codes to some great apps to mark the start of the Developer’s Corner.
PLEASE be sure to leave feedback here and on iTunes.