iPhone Daily News Digest

Each month, the best new iPhone apps—and some older ones—are considered for admission into Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die?

The Month’s Best

Layar: There’s the obvious reason to be excited about this:

Layar, the first camera-based AR app to really blow us (or anyone) away, has quietly slipped into the App Store. As with the Android version, the app overlays all kinds of information onto a live view of the world around you.

And the less obvious, but ultimately more important one: Layar layers, which let you install user-generated overlays of all different kinds of information, like this one, which tracks government bailout spending. Free.

Tweetie 2: From Matt’s review:

It’s the most polished Twitter app yet, oozing slickness with every swipe. Yet, it’s exploding with new features, and still really fast. It manages to cram in every possible feature you could possibly want in a Twitter app-offline reading!-without feeling too complicated or bloated.

It’s three dollars, even if you had the previous version, but totally worth it.

Photoshop: To call this app Photoshop is almost a misnomer—you can't have anything resembling desktop Photoshop on the iPhone, but you can have a decent photo processing app:

The tools are basic-you can crop, adjust exposure, saturation, and tint, among others, with some standard special effects like soft focus, colors and filters like “warm vintage” and pop-but using entirely swipe-based gestures as a virtual slider for how intensely or lightly the effect is applied is natural and easy

This, combined with ties to an online service and the fact that this, unlike almost any other similar app, is free, make it a must-download.

MotionX GPS Drive: At $3 a month without any kind of long-term commitment, this is currently the cheapest decent turn-by-turn app in the App Store. And it works, pretty well! Until Google Navigation for Maps hits the iPhone, this’ll be the cheapest, least-risky turn-by-turn option out there.

NASA: Pure, welcome information overload for space geeks, in an app. NASA's really been killing it with their online strategy lately—lots of news, downloadable media and Twitter action—and this app is a wonderful extension.

Squareball: If Pong grew into a platformer, or Breakout into a sidescroller. You can pick it up quickly, but it gets progressively harder over time without ever getting frustrating. In other words, it’s pretty close to a perfect game. Try the free demo before dropping the two dollars though, since with its retro graphics and soundtrack, dead-simple gameplay concept and fast face, this one can be polarizing.

Rock Band: It's not perfect—controls can be awkward, and the singing mode isn't really a singing mode, but it represents the first major rhythm franchise to hit the iPhone, and it bear gifts: Great graphics, decent, familiar, song selection, and multiple instruments.

NASDAQ: It’s much more intensive that the stock stock (stock stock stock) app, and comes with StockTwits integration, which provides a little crowd-sources insight to go along with your stream of numbers. Best of all, it’s free.

ReelDirector: This is as close as you’re going to get to iMovie on your iPhone. (Which isn’t very close, to be honest!) Video stitching alone, will be worth the ($8) price of entry for many people, but keep in mind that Apple instantly render this app obsolete if they just built decent editing into their OS.

Nikon Learn and Explore: It’s heavily branded and obviously intended to promote the Nikon name, but hey who cares: Nikon’s Learn and Explore app is actually a great, free photography primer no matter what kind of camera you carry.

App Directory Inductees

So, who will join the illustrious ranks of Gizmodo’s Essential iPhone apps? I’ve sifted through user submissions, app updates and new arrivals to find our newest inductees:

• MotionX Drive, for its brilliant value-to-functionality ratio.

• Photoshop, for undercutting almost all of the overcrowded, underinnovating photo app field with something decent and free.

• Layar, for being a free, solid platform for augmented reality on the iPhone, which will be made great by new layers.

• Tweetie 2, for being even better than it was before, and for being the best iPhone Twitter app out there, assuming you’re willing to shell out a few bucks.

• Instapaper, for its tragic exclusion in the last update: the ability to save pages for offline reading is useful for just about anyone, but absolutely essential if you’re a frequent flyer or subway rat.

• Runkeeper, for simultaneously offering the most feature-complete outdoor exercise app I’ve seen in a while and offering a decent free version as well.

• Backgrounder, a jailbreak app, for giving everyone a taste of what a multitasking iPhone is like. (Hint: pretty great)

And Farewell To…

• Twitterfon, not because it's bad—it's still the best free Twitter app, but because it's not called Twitterfon anymore. Hello, Echofon.

• TomTom, because Navigon has done more to innovate in the last few months, and because with great, cheap options nipping at their heels, expensive iPhone apps like this are harder to justify.

• Tweetie, for you have been replaced; cannibalized by your own child.

• CameraBag, for being two whole dollars more than Photoshop. (Sorry!)

What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we’ve missed anything huge, or you’ve got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We’ll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!

[Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps]

Stay alive in the cemetery by shooting down all the undead stuff that’s coming at you – 10 levels, three difficulty settings, and a whole bunch of monsters included.

iTunes Link – Haunted Cemetery

On deck: AR Ghost (Entertainment)

Apple TV 3.0 (or Apple TV 3, or Apple TV Take 3) is the just-released third version of Apple’s and Steve Jobs’ “hobby”. And, for good or for ill, its latest feature-set seems designed to keep iTunes’ living room gateway as niche as ever. That’s not to say it isn’t good, because it is (though [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Beyond iPhone: Apple TV 3.0 First Impressions and Screenshot Gallery

Fire a pumpkin out of a cannon and into a very spooky-looking forest! Screenshots for this game look pretty cool.

iTunes Link – Pumpkin Carnage

On deck: Haunted Cemetery (Games)

The iPhone is an amazing travel companion, every time I take the plane I try to throw a couple of shows or movies on it and it really makes the whole trip a lot smoother. As I was flying to Paris today I remembered a pretty neat trick a German blogger came up with a couple of months ago, the free airplane iPhone stand.

It’s completely free and you can realize it with on board available tools in less than 5 minutes. Here is what you’re gonna need :

- An “Air Sickness bag”, if you don’t have one ask for it, somehow they’re usually pretty quick at giving them out.

- A pen or something sharp, like keys

1. Fold the bag at one third from the bottom, it should look something like this:

2.Then insert your iPhone in the bag all the way to the spot where it’s folded

3. Using your pen go around the edges of the screen through the paper as to make a clear line on the paper, we’re gonna use this to cut the paper later and let you see the screen.If you don’t have a screen protector try to be extremely gentle not to damage your screen.

4. Gently rip off the square out of the bag

5. Using your headphone’s jack try to find the plug on the side and make a little hole so your headphones can go through

You’re all set !

All you need to do now is stuck the paper in front of you at the point where your tablet closes. Using the fold we made earlier behind the bag you’re gonna be able to adapt the viewing angle.

It’s pure hype and eco-friendliness, you should also get ready to have the stewardesses compliment you on your smartness and creativity (I get this every time)…

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GhostWriter puts bloody Halloween text on your photos… in fact, I just reviewed this app a few days ago! It’s not perfect, but it can be fun since today is Halloween.

iTunes Link – GhostWriter

On deck: Pumpkin Carnage (Games)

Mobile advertisement is growing big, especially in the App Store. By turning their paid apps into sponsored versions certain developers can increase their profit and allow consumers to save money, a clear win-win situation. Therefore the in-app ad business is highly competitive and mobile advertisement companies all want a piece of the cake.

To expand its market shares, Mobclix, very confident of the superiority of its offer, is starting a new challenge. The idea is that if you accept to try their ads insert in your app for 14 days and you make less money than with Admob, they’ll offer you $10′000 worth of advertising.

Here is the concept presented by Mobclix :

• Developers will be able to compare the Mobclix ad exchange to AdMob’s network by integrating both SDKs into their apps
• They’ll need to split impressions (50/50) between Mobclix and AdMob for two weeks
• This challenge will take place for 14 days, starting November 16, 2009
• If they don’t make more revenue from Mobclix, they get $10,000 worth of advertising
• Additional details & sign up is here (http://www.mobclix.com/challenge/)

Nice deal right ? I love competition and this kind of move can only make us all better off.

[via Mobclix]

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Geohot, the world famous iPhone unlocking genius just did it again, the 05.11.07 baseband has been cracked and the exploit will be available to the public in only 5 days under the name “Blacksn0w”. So how did we get there ? Well, after releasing his new jailbreak method Blackra1n, Geohot announced that he will not be working on an unlock anytime soon. Fortunately Jody Sanders, a British “entrepreneur”, offered him $10′000 to do it.

Well, who is this guy ? We first heard of Jody Sanders after he became the target of an online manhunt a few month ago when the Dev-Team found out that he had a little business going on where he was selling Dev Team’s software.

This time Geohot found out that Sanders was also selling his jailbreaking solution and threatened him with a lawsuit. In response to that Sanders offered him 10k if he could unlock the latest baseband. Geohot accepted and said he’ll do it in 24 hours, it took a little longer in the end but he still made it. This solution will allow you to unlock the latest versions of the iPhone 3G or 3Gs. Here is the video of the first unlocked 05.11.07 iPhone :

Congrats George Hotz!

[via @geohot]

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