Apple's Free Bumpers: There's An App For that

As most people in the known universe are aware, Apple recently announced plans to give a free case to any iPhone 4 user who requests one (and to refund the purchase price to those who already bought one--a process that is apparently now under way).

What we didn't know until today was how Apple planned to handle the giveaway. Would you have to fight traffic on a special Web page? Bring your iPhone to an Apple Store? Chant "antennagate" 10 times while standing inside a pentagram?

Turns out Apple went the app route: the iPhone 4 Case Program lets you choose and order your freebie right on your iPhone 4. Neat.

All you do is run the app, sign in with your iTunes account, choose from the available Bumpers and cases, then enter your shipping address. Plan on waiting 3-5 weeks for your case to arrive (not so neat).

A couple of important notes: if you bought your iPhone 4 prior to today (July 23), you have until August 22 to claim your freebie. Buy it from today onward and you have 30 days. The program ends September 30.

What do you think? Was Apple smart to take the app approach? Would you have preferred being able to walk into an Apple Store and walk out with your Bumper?

Best Free Music iPhone App Now Also For iPad

A year ago we included the Shazam app in our list of top thirty iPhone apps. At that time Shazam had been reviewed by a massive 100K users and managed an impressive 3.5 star rating. Impressive because it is difficult to keep that many users happy - much more likely that differences in interests will spread the ratings and result in lower scores!

We are in the process of putting together a new list of the current top 10 apps and decided to check out how those in last years list were doing, today. Impressively, Shazam has been rated by a further 200K users since our report 12 months ago and has maintained its 3.5 star rating.

So if you are a new iPhone owner (or have just joined the Apple family as an iPad owner), we recommend you download this free app and try it out.

For the benefit of those that are not familiar with the app, it identifies the song that are playing on the radio or (more often) a video:

Just point your iphone towards the music source to identify track
If you are keen, the app makes it so that you can even then buy the MP3 from iTunes. But we think its just a really useful way to ID that tune! And obviously we are not alone!

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Expected In August?

Good news for all you Plants vs. Zombies fans out there. According to a report by slidetoPlay, PopCap has recently been sending out batches of emails stating that August 2, 2010 is a date worth saving.

We don’t know yet whether this marks a planned statement by PopCap or the actual release date of a possible “Plants vs. Zombies 2″ for iPhone and iPad. Additionally, it could point towards the game’s expected port to XBOX 360 Marketplace, which was announced some time ago.

The email sent by PopCap included a PvZ-style graphic, with a note scrawled in zombie handwriting telling us to:

Save the date
August 2, 2010

You can check out the image attached to the email below:



Personally, I’m really hoping for a new game jam-packed with new features, or at the very least, a supermassive update to the game as we know it. However, as of this moment no additional information is known regarding PopCap’s mysterious date.


Plants vs. Zombies is currently available in both an iPhone version, and a fully HD iPad version. If you haven’t already come across the game, then be sure to check it out! Both versions are fantastically addictive and fun to play.

In the meantime, all current fans of the game can do is wait patiently for August 2 to approach, and hope – no, pray – that this little hint points towards a big sequel. My fingers are crossed.

Borders Officially Launches Its eBook Store; App Updated With Retina And Multitasking Support

Today Borders officially launched its online eBook Store, offering a selection of over 1.5 million downloadable titles, including thousands of free titles, which are available in a variety of formats, including ePub, Mobile, and PDF. In addition, the company has also updated the universal version of its Borders eBooks app, which now features Retina display optimization, multitasking support, and in order not to leave iPad users out of the mix, the ability to change bookshelf backgrounds.

With the official launch of the Borders eBook store, the company now makes it possible to obtain and read ebooks on nearly every platform. eBooks can be downloaded and read on your computer, Borders’ own Kobo eReader, Android-based and BlackBerry smartphones, and of course, your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. eBooks downloaded from any source are available for free across all platforms, so you won’t need to shell out money for every version you download.

In unison with the launch of the eBook Store, the Borders eBooks app now features Retina display optimization, making icons and text clear and crisp for iPhone 4 users. It also features fast app switching for those running iOS 4. And finally, iPad owners are able to choose between one of six new bookshelf backgrounds.

Borders is celebrating the launch of its new eBook store by offering five free top-selling books to those who download the free Borders eBooks app between July 9th – 11th. The free books include Frankenstein by Dean Koontz, One Shot by Lee Child, The Alchemyst by Michael Scott, Julia Child’s Kitchen Wisdom, and Master your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels. That’s in addition to the five free books that already come with the app.

The free doesn’t stop there, however. If you are a frequent Borders brick-and-mortar book store visitor, you can whip out your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and show the barista at the Seattle’s Best Coffee cafe within that you have the app installed and receive a free coffee!

That’s a lot of information to take in, so what I recommend doing first is downloading the app, heading to your local Borders that has a Seattle’s Best inside, and drink your free coffee while reading your free eBooks. The rest will fall into place.

Apple's first iAds hit the iPhone

The first day of July brings the first real-world glimpse of Apple's foray into mobile advertising.

As planned, iAds debuted on iOS 4-based devices on Thursday, with the first examples of Apple's program enabling advertisers to present interactive ads directly within iOS apps. Engadget has Dove's entry, starring Major League Baseball's Albert Pujols and Andy Pettitte.

There's also a YouTube video of Nissan Motor's interactive campaign for the new electric Leaf. It's essentially the same as the Leaf ad Steve Jobs demonstrated at its Worldwide Developers Conference last month. As promised, the ads are embedded into iPhone applications, and when clicked, they appear as a window within the app. iAds do not send users to a Web advertisement.

Dove's first iAd.
(Credit: Engadget)
Apple shelled out for Quattro Wireless earlier this year so that it could own and control the way ads are served on its devices and have a say over how analytic data is reported. Last month, Apple updated its developer agreement to exclude nonindependent ad networks from collecting analytic data from iAds. It was widely interpreted as targeting Google's newly acquired AdMob mobile-ad network.

It's been reported that Apple charged $1 million to the first advertisers participating in the program. Together, companies such as Walt Disney, Nissan, Citigroup, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, General Electric, Liberty Mutual Insurance, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, Geico, Campbell Soup, Sears Holdings, J.C. Penney, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, and Turner Broadcasting System have put up $60 million in promised spending through the end of 2010, according to Apple.

Jobs said Apple started the program, which is native to the iOS software developer kit, to help developers make money on free applications in the App Store.