Although the iPhone OS 3.1 has been around for quite some time now, it is only now that LinkedIn’s iPhone app is being updated to adapt to the new version of the iPhone OS. But like they said better late than never, right?

So, what does the LinkedIn iPhone app 3.1. has to offer for us loyal LinkedIn members  who continue to maintain our own LinkedIn accounts aside from our Facebook and Twitter account? Pretty much actually. And all these feature enhancements were based on the feedback from users which the LinkedIn team have gathered and took into account of before they updated their iPhone app.

One of the major new feature of the LinkedIn iPhone app 3.1 is that it is now easier to mark a LinkedIn connection as favorite. Once you’ve marked a good number of your LinkedIn connections as favorites you can go through this list anytime you want to send them some updates or other information.  You can also filter updates that are being sent to your based on these list.  Of course you get to do that with a simple swipe of a finger.

You can also now update your status from your profile page. Other new features include:

• Easier to discover, build, and manage your Favorites list
• Easier to understand and use ‘Download All’ functionality based on user feedback
• Set your status directly from your profile
• You can now send messages to multiple people more easily
• Fixed a number of issues reported by our users – thanks everyone!

So, what do you think? Are you still maintaining a LinkedIn account? Will these new features entice you to be more active on LinkedIn?

PHONESCOOP.COM

One of my first stops over the past decade, Phonescoop.com offers one of the better phone finders out there.  Filter by carrier, user rating, O/S, battery life and more.  The “Weighted finder” gives you a sick amount of detail – down to built-in productivity software and headset jack type.  With over 775k people across the world visiting each month, the discussion boards are active and the cell phone video tours are useful in seeing how the phones operate.

My only beef is that it is a little difficult to differentiate paid ads from content.  But they’ve gotta pay the bills, right?

MOBILEDIA

When shopping for a cell phone, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who is not considering more than one phone.  If you’re a stickler for details and total datahead, Mobiledia allows you to compare up to 25 phones at once.  You can also search by feature or even the phone’s release date.

One of the Mobiledia’s most useful features is their sub-site CellRisk.  Here you can sort phones by low/high radiation. No one knows conclusively if cell phones cause brain cancer, but by the time there’s enough research, do you want to be the wrong side of the stats?  Learn all about SAR (specific absorption rate) and which phones to avoid.

The site also offers the latest cell phone news, including this recent story about a self-charging cell phone.

You can also take the Perfect Phone Quiz, a fun approach to finding the gadget that best suits your needs.

BILLSHRINK.COM

If you haven’t been to BillShrink, you obviously like to waste money.  Offering money-saving recommendations and unbiased information, BillShrink has a great cell phone section that give you a better understanding of the “lifetime” cost of a cell phone.

On the first step, you are presented with images of each phone. You then filter by budget, color, need for physical keyboard, carrier, etc.  Then find the plan that’s right for you by inputting your desired price, minute usage, zip code and more.  You can even tell the system if you’re currently under contract and it will help determine which providers the people you call most often are using.

Also see MyRatePlan.com

CNET

If you are concerned about cell phone radiation levels, then CNET is a must visit.  Their comprehensive list is updated regularly.

CNET also has a nifty buying guide that can help you navigate tricky cell phone jargon.  If terms like  CDMA and GSM are Greek to you, you can learn more here.

Thanks to a partnership between CNET and Root Wireless, you can also check a carrier’s service coverage in your area.  Choose between signal, data and network, and find out the download/upload speeds in a given area.  Determine where signal strength is the weakest – the results might surprise you!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Also chock full of resources are sites like WireFly and LetsTalk.  These destinations exist to sell phones.  That’s important to keep in mind when researching.  But they do offer a ton of resources if you’re in the market for a new phone.

Mobile Crunch, Test Freaks, Engadget, PhoneDog and Gizmodo are on top of just about every cell phone development and are worthwhile daily destinations.

CONCLUSION

Cell phones are always replaceable, but since most of us are beholden to contract terms, it is important to research a phone before buying it.  Carriers have varying return policies with one consistent theme: you usually have to jump through hoops.   Get it right the first time by using the resources above and save yourself a cell phone-induced headache.

With so many smartphones available in the market right now, somehow I could understand why there still many users who would stick with the old and trusty Nokia handsets. At least Nokia is exerting all its effort to make their mobile devices, specifically smarthphones to be at par with other brands.

Nokia’s latest effort to spike interest to its smartphone product line is through the integration of Skype. Both Skype and Nokia are announcing the new Skype for Symbian app which is available for download from the Ovi Store or direct from Skype – for free.

With Skype on Nokia phones running Symbian S^1, which is actually the latest version of this Nokia mobile platform, you can do the following:

• make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world
• save money on calls and texts with our low rates
• send and receive instant messages to and from individuals or groups
• share pictures, videos and other files
• receive calls to your online number
• see when Skype contacts are online and available to call or IM
• easily import names and numbers from the phone’s address book

In other words, you can practically use all the features that you would normally enjoy from the desktop Skype software.

And in case you’re interested to know whether you Nokia smartphone supports Skype for Symbian, take a look at this long list of Nokia devices:

Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.

Now, there are two points that make this news interesting. One is the fact that this expands Skype’s userbase if in case all those Nokia users would download and use the app. And the other is the fact that this would somehow  diminsh the usual habit of making cellular calls using the traditional way.

So, are you going to use Skype on your Nokia smartphone? If you do, please share with us your experience as I’m pretty sure the three of us here in Rotorblog (Me, Maris and Andrew) won’t be able to experience this.

At first glance, it’s sleek and sophisticated. At second glance, users will fall in love with the high-res touchscreen, and the not-too-touchy buttons (including a dedicated Bing button – imagine that). That’s about it. It’s refreshingly simple, and doesn’t feel overwhelming like a Blackberry. The graphics are outstanding, and the screens are like butter – scrolling vertically, launching easily, and sliding users around with nary an effort. By comparison, the iPhone seems a little … ahem … clunky.

Social Networking

Microsoft’s truly brilliant idea was to keep users highly connected by integrating their contact list with their favorite social networking sites. Users can instantly see friends’ feeds from a number of social networking sites, view online photo galleries, and more.  Social media is the place to be, and Microsoft is there.

Apps

Rumor has it that apps for the WP7S will cost more than iPhone apps, but the quality will be better. Which is kind of the point. Microsoft’s strategy is to not let just anybody with a spare hour (and a willingness to comply with some bendy regulations) develop an app, and then sell it for a buck. But who knows? They may change their minds once customers begin shouting, “More apps! More apps!”

Gaming

One of the most talked-about features of this new smartphone is its integration with Xbox Live. Details are still kind of sketchy, but initial buzz indicates that gamers will be able to make their avatar and Game ID mobile (as in “take it wherever you go”), and easily drop into Xbox Live casual games from someone else’s lair.

Entertainment

Microsoft really wants to build up Zune. So, of course, they’ve made it the go-to entertainment software within the new Microsoft 7 operating system. The WP7S will be Zune enabled, and the company has its fingers crossed that users will feel the experience is different from that offered by iTunes. Microsoft is banking on easy access to music and video, plus a “social element” that makes users feel extra-engaged.

Productivity

Linux lovers don’t love Microsoft. But the fact is that the majority of companies worldwide use MS Office products, and this new smartphone will make a huge contribution to the 24/7 mobile office. It will allow users to create, edit, and share documents with ease – and without those pesky formatting problems – straight from their mobile device.

Availability

iPhone got pretty persnickety and chose AT&T as its only U.S. carrier. Microsoft sat back and laughed, and then learned from Apple’s faux pas. Every major wireless carrier will offer the WP7S, which could lessen its exclusive feel, but cause Microsoft’s stock to skyrocket.

Bugs

OK, bugs aren’t a feature. But it’s worth mentioning that Apple does have an advantage here. The iPhone has been out for awhile, and the company has worked out some glitches. It is guaranteed that the first run of the WP7S will have its quirky moments, which will get the tech bloggers’ panties all in a bunch. But Microsoft’s advantage is they have the shiny, new smartphone. And that’s usually enough.

So tell us … do you think Microsoft is back in the game with their new smartphone? And – more importantly – do you think the name is going to be one of the biggest marketing blunders of 2010?

Twitta

Twitta is a basic and simple Twitter app that does the job done. It lets you posts tweets, direct messages, @replies, search Twitter and hashtags, follow/unfollow and receive notifications. It uses Bit.ly for URL shortening. It only takes 121kb of your phone’s memory capacity.

Why you should install  it? – It’s simple, lightweight but does the basic functionality of Twitter.com pretty well.

Twoid

Almost double the memory requirement of Twitta, Twoid offers a clean and easy to use Twitter client. It lets you view public tweets, your own tweets, view list of followers and list of friends. It also supports @messages and direct messages as well as viewing of user profiles. Twoid requires 300kb memory space.

Why you should install it? – Same reason why you should install Twita plus some more added features.

Twit2Go

Another simple app which lets you do basic Twitter functions. What’s interesting about Twit2Go is that it lets you select the interval between checks for new tweets and gives you a running count of remaining characters before you reach the 140 character limit of Twitter. It also lets you post pictures directly from your phone’s camera. This app takes 323 kb of your phone’s storage.

Why you should install it? – The running count of remaining characters before you reach the 140 character limit of Twitter, is a pretty much useful feature.

Twidroid

Twidroid was my first Twitter app  for my Nexus One phone. I stopped using only because I liked Seesmic better. If not for Seesmic I will still be using this app. The interface is very similar to Twitter.com  but modified for the small screen of  Android phones. Another best feature of this app is the menu icons which are relatively big. Twidroid requires 605kb memory space.

Why you should install it? – The sleek UI wins it for this app.

Seesmic

Seismic really put a lot of effort to its Twitter client for Android.  It just recently supported multi-account in addition to its many features including video sharing, location sharing, photo sharing, URL shortening, background notifications, saving tweets as drafts, and quick access to Twitter profile . This is by far the best Twitter app for Android.

Why you should install it? One feature it has that Twidroid doesn’t have – multi-account support.

TwitterRide

At 808Kb, TwitterRide is the largest of the twitter clients tested. A number of settings can be chosen on login. They include turning auto-refresh of recent tweets on and off and a daemon that checks for new tweets even when the app isn’t running. New tweet checking can be set between 5 minutes and 120 minutes. You can also select your notification types to include vibration and LED Flash. TwitterRide can be set to only notify you of @replies and direct messages. The TwitterRide UI is clean and very user-friendly. The main interface contains three tabs that let you see all tweets, @tweet, or DMs. When you tap on a tweet, the app will display a contextual menu that allows you to favorite the tweet, view user profile, send a reply or dms and re-tweet messages.  The app also supports uploading of images from your Nexus One or Android devices’ camera. Finally, TwitterRide also supports URL shortener.

Why You Should Install It? – As you might have noticed, TwitterRide got our longest description and review. Suffice to say, this app is feature-rich and a robust Twitter app for your Android or Nexus One phone.

To help you decide which Nexus One apps to install on your brand new unit, here are my top ten Android Apps so far.

Dragon Dictation (iPhone)

This new transcription app has been slobberingly adored by Mashable, The New York Times, and the rest of the web.  It’s free for a limited time only, and does a mighty fine job.  Once you’ve spoken, you can save the text in an email, SMS or onto your clipboard.  The basic design is very user-friendly, and the price is right.

QuickVoice (iPhone)

This one costs $0.99 and doesn’t let you email your notes out of your iPhone, but it does have a handy “pause” feature that allows you to take a little break without having to start a new file.

MyCaption (Blackberry)

This is a useful app for the Blackberry, but don’t let the $1.99 download price fool you.  They have a slate of complicated and expensive plans for emailing the transcriptions out of your device that should make you wary.

Google Voice (any phone – but extra yummy with Android)

Designed to transcribe your voicemail messages, I often find myself leaving myself messages!  The quality of the transcripts vary greatly.  I’ve had results that are 90% accurate and as low as 30% accurate.  According to Google, the automated engine is improving everyday as more people use it and the system learns how to correct itself.  Keep yourself under 3 minutes or prepare to be hung up on.

Voxie Pro Recorder (iPhone)

Just add humans!  A paid transcription service, manned by folks who are living and breathing, will turnaround lengthy transcriptions in mere minutes.  But it will cost you.  After the $1.99 download fee, you can expect to pay  $5 for the first 250 words and 2.5 cents per additional word. There are no length limits.

Dial2Do (anywhere)

Find a Dial2Do number in your area and use it as a repository for all of your transcription needs.  E-mails, text messages, and Tweets can be sent by prompting the system to redirect your message.  You can also organize using extrenal apps such as Evernote and Xpenser. Out of things to say?  Listen to local weather, The New York Times feed or get the headlines from Yahoo News.

Don’t rely too heavily on any of these transcription apps, especially not in crowded, noisy places.  But if you want to take fast notes or record a thought for later, they will do just fine.

I find many of these services VERY useful as a blogger.  Even if accuracy is a questionn mark, I often know the context I said something in and can fill in the blanks rather painlessly.  This is an example of technology that has come a long way over the past few years.  It has also gone from being a “premium” item to free in many cases.

Let us know how you utilize speech-to-text transcription services and which one you prefer.

Did you know that users downloaded an average 3,7 apps each?

Did you know that one quarter of apps users download via AppStore are paid?

Did you know that average iPhone/iPod touch user is spending $10 on apps every month?

Did you know…

via GigaOM

It works great if you tweet from the web or desktop clients, but as may of you use iPhone for tweeting it is nearly impossible to use special symbols there. But I have found a way that will let you, at least, use some of the symbols – follow some simple steps described below to add this feature.

1. Enable Kana keyboard

Go to Settings>General>International>Keyboards>Japanese and enable Kena Keyboard

2. Switch to the Symbols

3. Click for more symbols

4. Choose your symbol

And here you go – it’s far from the complete list of special symbols but at least something you can fund here and use in your tweets and status updates.

There is also this Twitter Symbols ~ Spicy Tweets app for iPhone designed just for twitter and have more special symbols you can use, but it only works with twitter.

found via [MxBlog]

When you first start your updated application you will be asked to allow push notifications, but remember to configure them trough settings later to leave only important updates pop up.

Another great feature is address book syncing. Now you have the option to add Facebook profile picture and homepage to your contacts saved on iPhone. You may leave already assigned pictures and links that are on your device.

To be honest, I noticed that some of the pictures added to my contacts isn’t right – maybe that’s just me naming my contacts awkwardly.

Add yourself as a fan on RotorBlog’s fanpage.

The Android Market has a loooong way to go, but the app offerings are improving every day.  As of today, here are my personal game picks for Android devices.  Head over to the Android Market on your device to purchase/acquire.

Aevum Obscurum

Risk- like game that takes you back to medieval times to fight over the control of Europa. This turb-by-turn game will be great relaxation for all strategy fans out there.

You get 30-50 empires to choose from and start conquer the whole map. The best think is that you can try this game for free and if you want more action you can purchase it for $ 4.99 USD

Radiant

Radiant fills the void that Space Invaders left behind.  It’s a classic old-school gaming experience – Asteroids meets Space Invaders – but features gorgeously bright graphics.

The aliens are coming and you are Max Blaster, last line of defense to save the planet.

Game play is challenging and the storyline is fun.  Upgrade weapons and enhance your ship as you defeat bosses at each level.

The game gives the player many control options.  Use the touchscreen, trackball or 1 and 0 buttons to move your ship.

A great game to kill some time when you’re waiting in line.  The Lite version is free and the paid version will set you back $2.40USD.

Jewellust

Want to travel to ancient Egypt?

If you like Bejeweled, you’ll love Jewellust.  The gem-swapping puzzle game boasts vivid animation and an assortment of dazzling colors.  Your goal is to bring the gems to the lowest row possible by grouping them in rows of three or more and making them disappear.

Replete with bonus gems, the game is every bit addicting as its inspiration.  Unlock unlimited survival mode and boost your score higher than the pyramids.

Jewellust costs $2.95USD.  The lite version lets you play once for free.

Retro Defense

One of the games that represent extremely popular dower defense genre – now on Android powered devices. Game includes 15 levels, 12 upgradeable tower types, 6 types of invader witch means you get lot of fun for $4.99 ( there is also free trial version). Just be careful playing this game – it is highly addictive!

Battleship

You sank my battleship!

The graphics aren’t fancy, but the game play is every bit as enjoyable as it was when we were kids.

Who knew a nave-based game rooted in nothing more than guessing coordinates would have the staying power of more than a century! (There’s even a Battleship movie coming in 2011.)  FREE.

Abduction! World Attack

Based around Android’s accelerometer, this cartoonish game pits you as a cow.  Aliens have abducted your bovine friends and it is your job to get them back. Navigate the planet by tilting your phone, collecting gifts (both good and bad) along the way.  Your cow buddies parachute down and you must catch them…or else!

The free version offers plenty of time-wasting goodness, but for $2.20 USD you can add 10 additional themes, 22 characters and 82 levels.

Beatdown Boxing

Despite a bit of a lag, and a lot of room for improvement, I can’t help but love Beatdown Boxing.  Punching, blocking and dodging are all accomplished by tapping on the screen

There are 15 opponents spread across three circuits: Amateur, Semi-Pro and Pro. The free version keeps you in the amateurs; $2.99USD gets you slugging it out with the pros.

Brain Genius Deluxe

I’m not sure how many Nintendo DS units were sold because of the Brain Age brand of games, but I’m sure it was a lot.  If you’re looking to smartify yourself, Brain Genius Deluxe will challenge your cerebral capacity. There are 24 touch and motion-controlled games and puzzles in all.  And if you get bored, there’s a bonus Sudoku mode.  FREE.

Archipelago

Cool and easy to learn/play game that requires a bit of strategic thinking. In Archipelago you need to capture tropical islands using every piece of force you got. It may look an easy game at first but AI gets smarter with every level. This game will cost $2.99 USD which is woth it.

Air Hockey

Whoever said the best things in life are free was wrong.  Sometimes the best things set you back 99 cents.  Touchscreen air hockey on Android devices is smooth, realistic and completely addictive.  Once you think you’ve mastered the game, the computer steps it up and brings the heat.

Other

There are many cool and interesting games besides these ten covered in this post and developers are working and uploading new every day. I just wanted to mention couple apps here : Nesoid (NES emulator) – run classic NES games on the Android phone; Brain Genius Deluxe - train your brain with 24 exciting games;

What’s your favorite games on Android?

The phone was built by HTC and will run the Android 2.1 operating system.

Several hundred handsets have been out in the wild, as Google employees were given the first crack to live with the devices.

While not fully confirmed, here’s what we know so far…
- Expect to pay over $500 for an unlocked phone

- Expect to pay approximately $200 for the device with a two-year T-mobile contract (potentially invitation-only out of the gate)

- The phone will be “sexier” than the Droid, sans physical keyboard.

- A docking station will charge phone while giving owners the ability to stream media and charge the device simultaneously

- The Nexus One will be sold via Google on the Web

- 512MB RAM and 512MB ROM

- 4GB microSDHC card included with upgrade potential up to 32GB cards

- 5.0 megapixel camera with mechanical autofocus and LED flash

- 3.7-inch WVGA resolution AMOLED display

- Wi-Fi radio with support for location positioning

- Full GPS support

- Bluetooth connectivity

- Accelerometer

I love technology.  But things are moving so fast an dmoney is so tight, that it’s hard to pull the trigger on a device when a better one is right around the corner.

I’m on the sidelines for now.

Full specs @ Engadget

Rumored to be available in January ‘10, the Google Phone will be sold online and will be totally unlocked, therefore not tethering users to a specific wireless carrier.

Developed in collaboration with HTC, (quite possibly the fastest-growing company in the mobile sector), expectations are high for the device.

It is important to remember that the Google Phone comes out of the gate with the advantage of the Google name, but the disadvantage of being over 100,000 apps behind the still popular iPhone.  Also, without a link to a major wireless carrier, the phone might take more time to be as widespread as the iPhone or the Droid.

The phone is supposedly feature-rich, including an advanced mic designed to filter out background noise and speech-to-text transcription functionality.

I’m still leaning towards picking up the Droid on Verizon because the Google phone will NOT have a physical keyboard.  And after struggling with the LG Dare for 1.5 years, the fat thumbs need some help.

In 2010 one thing is clear: if Android/Google devices want to pull away serious market share from Apple, the Android Market needs a serious overhaul.

Check out a Google Phone pic here.

Let’s talk about some of the features and how it could or could not “kill” the iPhone.
The Droid has crowned itself a killer because of its technical features that supersede technical problems the iPhone has such as higher resolution images (taking pics even in low light), a real keyboard (hello!) and the ability to run multiple apps simultaneously.  But is that enough for people that have spent hundreds of dollars on existing (and Droid incompatible) apps to ditch Apple?  Absolutely not, BUT it is grounds for non iPhone users to jump on the anti-iPhone sentiment that is growing in volume.

Droid is more likely positioned to be a BlackBerry killer or a Palm Pre killer than it is an iPhone killer because those purchasing Apple products have an almost religious affinity for anything Apple and wouldn’t consider looking anywhere outside of the sexy looking, techno-music-playing, expensive, hipster Apple stores because of a particular *emotion* invoked as if they’ve made friends with a product and the staff behind that product.

The Motorola Droid has one massive advantage that does resonate in the technology industry- open development.  That means that instead of the roadblocks and closed doors application developers have to go through to become anointed into the Mac App store, and instead of having to deal with the red tape of the Palm company clusterflip, developers are welcomed and encouraged to use the Droid platform openly.  Typically, when the tech sector (led by very vocal app developers) rallies behind a product, the public inevitably follows.

The iPhone has long been hailed as the shiny object du jour, but as developers hop off the bandwagon, there is a chance that an informed public will follow suite, while those that don’t read blogs or care about news but like that their phone is sexy and has an Apple on it will likely stay put.  The Droid isn’t going to kill anything, but it will take away enough market share to be a significant threat.

Verizon has made some interesting moves.  First, on November 6, a second version of the Droid will be dropping.  On top of that, it appears that Droid is not just the name of a device, but the name of an entire line to ‘i-Phone killing’ phones.

The use of the name ‘Droids’ – which are robots seen in Star Wars and several other sci-fi movies is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd..  Off the bat, that gives the whole thing an uber-geeky feel.

And perhaps the biggest negative of them all is the fact that the inaugural Droid is manufactured by Motorola, not exactly the biggest crowd favorite when it comes to phone functionality satisfaction.  Couple that with the fact that Verizon has kept a bigger padlock on their devices than most wireless carriers, and you can understand why this blogger – and many others – are skeptical.

I guess we’ll have our answer in a few days…

Actually, I won’t have my answer in a few a days because I’m stuck with the LG Dare for another year!  Bummer.

Because cell phones have become equipped to do so much more than simply call or text, we’re exploring some of the various ways cell phone users can maximize the potential of their phones.  An often overlooked category is safety because vigilance tends to happen *after* an event, so take a moment and look into these 10 apps and find new ways to use your phone…

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
The Life360 Google Android app was born from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and is an emergency preparedness tool for families that “in less than five minutes, families can have access to a tool that does everything from family GPS tracking, to document warehousing, disaster planning, and emergency messaging.”

Rave Alert calls themselves the “next generation alerting system” for mass emergencies and is employed in places like colleges or apartment communities to alert a large group at one time via text messaging, email, PA system, Facebook and even via Twitter.  It is being adopted most quickly by colleges and high schools in this post-Virginia Tech era.

DRIVING
Cell phone app MotoRiety monitors driver distractions from text messages to phone calls and reports all phone activity, even tweeting about driver behavior while driving.  Aggressive acceleration, miles and idle time is logged and provided in periodic email reports making this tool perfect for parents of teen drivers.

Playsafe is an iPhone app that makes scrolling for music safer and less distracting.  The app turns the iPhone into a large button so users don’t have to scroll through small icons while driving and tapping the screen will play or pause music while swiping to the left or right will change the track.

SAFETY ALERTS
Safety Button is a simple iPhone app that allows users to start the program, push the big red button and it begins tracing the user’s step and reporting to a server.  If the red button is pressed again (in case of distress), the server will send your emergency contact person a panic message containing your position.

Android application SafetyNet is activated when the phone is shaken and can function in panic mode or medical mode even if the app isn’t running which will immediately alert everyone in your “SafetyNet” sending them your position and a distress call.  SafetyNet is ideal for people with medical issues or lone joggers.

FIRST AID
iPhone offers two applications for your iPhone- First Aid for Infants and First Aid for Children, both containing easy to read instructions on topics from protection to blocked airways to CPR and other emergencies.  This app is ideal for parent, babysitters, teachers and more.

MEDICINAL USES
AT&T developed app, MedNet allows heart patients to send data from their heart monitors to Bluetooth enabled phones (on AT&T) and then on to their cardiologist making heart care more interactive.  Heart monitor data interactivity is a great preventative measure.

Although not available on the market yet, we wanted to share a glimpse of the future with you.  U.C. Berkeley is developing and testing a program called Cellscope which is a microscope connected to a cell phone for diagnostics (think doctors in remote areas like a desert, mountaintop or even space).  It can be used “for bright field microscopy, which uses simple white light–such as from a bulb or sunlight–to illuminate samples. The latest development adds to the repertoire fluorescent microscopy, in which a special dye emits a specific fluorescent wavelength to tag a target–such as a parasite, bacteria or cell–in the sample.”  It’s powerful enough to detect malaria, tuberculosis or even sickle cells.  Wow.

Are you currently using any mobile apps that promote safety?  Which of these work with your phone and will you be downloading any of the above?  Let us know in comments!

Compare Everywhere

With the Holiday Season just a few months away, this app could be a valuable tool for your shopping chores. This app helps you to be a smart shopper. It allows you to scan barcode and quickly check whether you are really getting a good sale price. It also provides you with product reviews, shopping lists, wish lists and other shopping related information.

Shazam

Of course we all know that a good music gives you a peace of mind. And with that it boosts your productivity as well. Hence we’ve included Shazam as a productivity app. Shazam is one of the most popular music app for the iPhone and its bringing the same features to the Android devies. With this app you can identify music tracks, store and buy them as well. You can also learn more information about song artists and lets you connect to your MySpace page.

VoiceRecorder

At some point in time we might find ourselves need a voice recorder to record an important information. Thankfully, this app does the job quite well. It lets you do voice recording using your Android device and lets you save it to your phone’s SD card. This app also lets you send a voice recording via an attachment in Gmail.

Astrid

One of the most important mobile productivity app is of course a Task List app. Astrid gives you a powerful application that helps you be more organized with that tasks that you need to accomplish. It facilitates tagging of tasks, helps you create reminders, add tasks to your phone’s calendar, sync with Remember-the-Milk app and more.

NoteEverything

One of the most used app in my iPhone is a a notepad. In fact, I’ve tried almost every note-taking application available on the iPhone app. Thankfully for my Android device, there’s only a few of these apps to choose from. And I’ve chosen NoteEverything. This app lets you create different kinds of notes such as text, image through paint app, voice, checklist and even photo notes. It also lets you organized your notes into various folders. And for easy access to this app, you can create shortcuts of the notes category that would sit on your Android phone’s home screen.

fbabble

How can we not include a Facebook app for the Android phone? Despite the fact that Facebook can be counterproductive, still we should not discount the fact that social networking chores are part of our daily productive activities. Fbabble is a pretty neat Facebook app for the Android phone that lets you chat with your Facebook friends, upload photos, and post status updates on your Facebook profile. An added bonus feature lets you post Tweets to your Twitter account.

Twitroid

If there’s a Facebook app on the Android phone, there should also be a Twitter app. And Twitroid is that app. This full-featured Twitter client app lets you post photos using your Android phone. Other features include location support, auto-completion, and an integrated Twitter notificaiton functionality.

Tag To Do List

Another cool ToDo/Task management app for the Android platform is this app called Tag To Do List. This app lets you manage your tasks easily and even allows you to draw graphical notes relating to the tasks, check out stats and other useful features including keyboard shortcuts.

Translator

Using Google Translate, this app lets you translates words, phrases, sentences and even whole paragraphs of text from one language to another. It also detects your Android’s default language setting and lets you flip between language source and translation phrase. It supports most of the Google Translate languages.

Mobile Banking

If you’ve already embraced the concept of mobile banking through your phone, this app is for you. Mobile Banking lets you check your bank accounts available balances, pay bills and transfer funds. It also helps you find the nearest ATM and banks using the Android’s GPS feature.

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Next, we have Facebook’s Zuckerberg announcing that Facebook has reached  milestone in terms of membership – 200 million active users.  And to celebrate their achievement, Facebook decided to do some good deeds as well as to document this milestone by way of the fan page Facebook for Good. You can do your part by purchasing some of the featured gifts in the Facebook shop.  Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items will go to some charitable institutions. It’s Facebook’s little own way of paying it forward.

A few days after releasing the Yahoo News App for the iPhone, Yahoo released its native Messenger iPhone app. It’s a full-featured YM iPhone app which I would really like to have on my iPhone. But unfortunately, the app is not available to all iPhone users yet. But if you are located in the US, you might want to check it out.

Gmail also joined the noise this week with two new features from the Gmail Labs – Inserting images and Sender time zone. Like I said in my previous post, I like the Sender time zone feature as it makes Gmail an instant time zone converter.

And finally the biggest news to hit the IT scene this week – Twitter is exponentially growing. Facebook may have reached its 200 millionth users, but look who is hot on the trail? Twitter of course. Twitter’s site traffic has reached the 10 millionth mark in March and continuous to grow everyday.  And with two of the major internet players rumored to be looking at possibly acquiring Twitter, we could only say that Twitter is now the hottest commodity today.

That’s it for this week. Who knows what will happen next week? Stay tune for more coverage here at RotorBlog.

Instant message: Send text messages back and forth with your friends, including emoticons and web links.

Photo sharing: Take a photo on your iPhone and send that, or grab one from your photo gallery to share.

Stealth settings: Sign in as invisible, or change your status to invisible once you’re in the app.

Custom status message: Enter a custom status message for your friends to see. You can even include a web link with it.

Recent conversations archive: Under Messages, tap a contact and you’ll see your most recent conversation. You can type in a message from there to start chatting again.

Special idle state: If you have to leave the app for whatever reason, like a call comes in or you click a link in an IM that takes you to Safari, the Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone app will keep you signed in but change your status to idle. That way you can continue to receive messages and provided you return to the app within ten minutes, pick up where you left off.

Additional settings: Tap the Settings icon to change the sort order of your contact list, or to show or hide offline contacts in your list.

In short, the Yahoo iPhone app has all the great features of the web interface and so you won’t really find a problem is using it. The app is not really hard to use, but if you want to see how it works first, you might want to watch this demo video prepared by the YM People.

Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone demo video from Yahoo! Messenger on Vimeo.

Specifically the Skype iPhone app lets you do the following:

• Make free Skype-to-Skype calls from any Wi-Fi zone to other Skype users

• Call landline or mobile phones at low rates from any WiFi zone.
• Send/receive instant messages to/from individuals or groups via 3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS or EDGE (whichever is available)
• Receive calls to a personal online number on Skype
• See when Skype contacts are online/available to IM or talk

The Skype iPhone app also displays your Skype Contacts’ photos when you view your Contacts list. It also allows you to update your own Skype profile picture using your iPhone’s camera to take new photos of yourself, or use an existing photo from your iPhone’s photo album.

I’ve just installed the application on my iPhone and tried calling a friend’s Skype number. Unfortunately I couldn’t hear him speak since he doesn’t have a mic installed on his PC. But he said that he can hear me pretty clearly.

What I noticed though when making Skype-to-Skype calls or perhaps even when calling landline or mobile numbers is that it takes a longer time to connect a call. The application routes the call first before connecting. This might make an impression that the application is not actually working.

But other than that, I would have to say that the Skype iPhone app is pretty much a robust and well developed application. And I could see Skype getting a usage boost from iPhone numbers who have been waiting to have this application on their iPhone.

If you want to test the app, feel free to add my Skype account -> aczafra

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