iPhone Tips | iPod Touch Tips

There certainly is no shortage of online travel sites and wikis, but there really hasn’t been an iPhone version worth talking about, until now. Schmap is a destination site all about destinations, as in travel destinations, and its new iPhone service is something to write home about. The site offers over 100 city guides for top destinations all across the globe. It also offers local search to help you find something more specific in a geographic location where Schmap may not have a travel guide available. Each city guide includes reviews and photos, historical information, tours, activities, attractions, hotels, restaurants, bars, and much more. Read on to find out why Schmap’s iPhone interface is so slick on the iPhone or iPod touch.
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Google has updated its iPhone optimized version of Google Reader making it the absolute best way to read news feeds on the iPhone. You can expect a bevy of native RSS apps to flood the App Store in June, but we think they’ll have a tough time trumping Google’s web-based reader for the iPhone. This week’s update enables mobile users to star items for later reading, and browse large lists of items. These changes bring Google Reader for the iPhone much closer to its sibling app for the desktop web. One really nice new feature is the expanding list that shows you the entire news item within the context of the list so you don’t have to go back and forth between article content and the list view. The new features are still in beta which means users navigating to Google Reader will still see the old version unless you point to the URL to the beta below.

Google Reader for iPhone and iPod touch (beta)

www.google.com/reader/i/

Street magic amazes people because they are totally caught off guard. Unaware and with no expectations, the street audience is the ripest kind of prey for the close up illusionist. We’re all familiar with the magic antics of Criss Angel and David Blaine (well, when David Blaine used to do magic instead of pretending he’s a goldfish or trying to catch pneumonia in a block of ice). Since most of us won’t be walking around with cards or other magic props, but will usually have our iPhone or iPod touch, these clever magic tricks from TouchTricks.com are ideal for the magician in all of us. The Touch Tricks Series are created by professional magicians to be performed specifically on the iPhone or iPod touch.

When you think about it, these mobile devices are the best way to perform a trick because you really don’t have to work very hard to get someone’s attention. You know how it is when you pull out your iPhone in a public area and curious people begin to crane their heads over to get a peek at your magical Apple device? This is the perfect time to seize an opportunity to amaze an unsuspecting voyeur with an incredible magic trick. Touch Tricks Volume 1 is a set of four professional grade magic tricks for your iPhone or iPod touch, designed so that the non-professional magician can make jaws drop. We’ve had these babies on our iPhones for two weeks and have had a great time with them. Trust us, these are wonderful tricks that you will have fun with over and over again as you astound your friends, family, colleagues, and yes, even strangers. These tricks work on a normal iPhone or iPod touch (no hack or jailbreak is required). Read on to learn more about each trick and how you can get them for your very own iPhone or iPod touch.
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The media’s fickle love affair with social networking has spurned MySpace in favor of Facebook, and now Twitter, with a little LinkedIn on the side. Each of these social networks has enjoyed some level of success either by focusing on one market, or by doing at least one thing very well. Also, each of these started as a desktop web application before offering mobile access and only a handful deliver a true iPhone interface. There is one problem with these iPhone versions in that they feel more like an afterthought, created for the sole purpose of riding the iPhone media frenzy to get some press. Take the iPhone versions of Facebook and LinkedIn, for example. They are feature-crippled compared to their desktop siblings which makes the overall social networking experience for mobile less than satisfying. Yet quietly, deftly, iRovr has been building up an iPhone-only social network that leaves all the others sitting in the dust. Simply put, iRovr is fantastic and laden with features for blogging, life streaming, sharing photos and videos, social bookmarks, and polls. iRovr has everything we need in a social network, and more. Read on to learn more about iRovr for iPhone and iPod touch users.
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Create a web clip for PopURLs and you will have one-tap access to the most popular news items being shared on the best social news and bookmarking services. PopURLs is ideal for people that don’t use RSS news feeds on the iPhone or iPod touch but still want a single entry point to news items from various social media sites. This all-in-one interface gives you a quick way to get the pulse of what news items are currently being shared on the web. PopURLs lists the top ten links from various social media sources such as Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Newsvine, Metafilter, Truemors, Google, Yahoo, Wired, TailRank, BoingBoing, Slashdot, Fark, and many others. PopURLs also consolidates the most timely links into two categories right at the top of the list so you can see what’s popular right now, or all day today. PopURLs wraps this all in a nice iPhone interface available at the link below.

PopURLs
i.popurls.mobi

Mobile computing is destined to transform online dating and it’s obvious that the iPhone and iPod touch will be leading the charge. You would think that the online dating giants like Match.com and eHarmony would be all over this like the papparazi on Paris Hilton, but we suspect the little players in this space will be the ones to revolutionize it. Imagine how iPhone 2.0 features will be coupled with native apps to bring online dating into the mobile age. Real-time video conferencing and location-based services will help singles hook up faster than Lindsy Lohan at a frat party. And forget about STDs, the real danger will be iPhone viruses getting passed around town like canker sores. We smell an opportunity for iPhone condoms in the form of security apps to protect our mobile devices. But we digress. Dating DNA is looking to give the big online dating services a run for their money by betting on iPhone and iPod touch. Read on to find out how Dating DNA’s free service has already changed mobile dating with social networking, and get a glimpse into what they have in store for iPhones in the near future.
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One of our favorite online shopping sites, Woot, is featuring a refurbished 8 GB iPod touch for only $219.99. This is Woot’s offer in partnership with Yahoo and is only good for today until they run out of stock. They don’t tell you how many they have in stock so if you want one, we suggest you go buy it now. At this price it’s almost 70 dollars less than Amazon offers it. It comes with a limited 60-day warranty from a third-party (not Apple) because it’s a refurbished item. Take a little risk and save a lot of money today at Woot.

Refurbished 8GB iPod touch at Woot

Tax day has finally come to pass and Friday is now upon us. That means we deliver another batch of glorious iPhone tips submitted by you, the totally awesome readers of Touchtip. This week we have some fantastic tips you won’t want to miss. Got an iPod touch you want to turn into and iPhone? We got that (no, seriously). Are you a couch potato looking for a good TV guide that you can read on your iPhone without getting off the Lazyboy? We got that, too. We also have a few clever ways to use your iPhone camera, a creative method to sync notes from your device to your Mac, and how to access iPhone-only web sites from your desktop. And finally, coverflow enthusiasts learn how to find missing album art for your music collection. So don’t wait, read on and impart some iPhone wisdom upon yourselves. Or, if you have a handy tip you think we’d like, please share it with Touchtip. Now, on to the tips.
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