Hidden Gems: 3.0 Apps To Download, Wait For Or Avoid
by Ian
June 24, 2009
The iPhone OS 3.0 apps have been trickling out slowly but surely. I've been trolling the RSS feeds, the App Store, Twitter and the Internet non-stop for the past week to keep our Peer To Peer, Push Notification and Mapping Applists completely up to date.
Some of the new apps and app updates have been impressive. Others, not so much. This week I'm going to take a bit of a departure from the typical hidden gems format and give you a rundown of what's hot, what's not and what's still in the offing for OS 3.0 apps.
Push Notification Apps
For days after iPhone OS 3.0's debut we wondered where the Push Notification chat applications were. Instead of Meebo, AIM, BeejiveIM and IM+, we were treated instead to interesting but unsatisfying offerings like AP Mobile, Tap Tap Revenge, Star Defense and a handful of others.
Sure it's cool that AP Mobile sends you breaking news updates. Even though the updates seem to come between 20 and 40 minutes after the event happened and there only only one or two a day. And it's nice that you can challenge people with Tap Tap Revenge or Star Defense, but that's just a nicety. Nothing Earth shattering there.
There was one standout, however, during the wait for the chat apps.
Textfree Unlimited and it's free sibling Textfree Lite can finally replace your text messaging plans.
I've been on a crusade to kill off text messages for a long time. They cost the networks virtually nothing to send yet they behave like its a valuable and limited resource so they can charge you ridiculous monthly fees for the privilege of sending and receiving them.
Not anymore. When my iPhone 3G S arrives it's goodbye text message fees.
Will you please join me in fighting the good fight? Here's how you do it.
Download either app and sign up for a unique account name (username@textfree.us) and send that out to all your friends. Think of it as changing a phone number. Call up AT&T, cancel your text messaging plan and opt out of the ability to send or receive them.
Then, when you receive a text message to that Textfree it is pushed straight to your phone at no cost to you.
The free account is limited to 15 a day, which, over a month, is nearly double what my minimum AT&T plans allows.
If you didn't buy Textfree Unlimited before the launch of OS 3.0, the paid account is unlimited for only a year. So in a year you'll be asked to pay up again via In App Purchases. Those early adopters got a sweet deal.
If you're concerned about going over the 15 limit some instant messaging apps let you send and receive text messages too. Though I have yet to test out their functionality fully. Right now, Textfree with Push Notifications is the best text message replacement app.
Arrival of the Push-enabled Instant Messaging Apps
I had been hitting "Check for Updates" every few minutes for the better part of a week in hopes that AIM or BeejiveIM would arrive. I don't believe that Desmond from Lost hit could hit that button every 108 minutes for as long as he did. I was scratching my eyes out by the time AIM and BeejiveIM finally dropped on Monday afternoon. We're still waiting for IM+ to arrive, the high end competitor for BeejiveIM. Both apps let you log into all the major chat protocols. We know IM+ has been submitted to the App Store and could receive Apple's approval any minute. We also know Meebo, which was demoed at an Apple press event several months ago using Push Notifications, is also being worked on but might not be out in the near future. BeejiveIM has thus far been plagued by a couple serious glitches. For one, you can't log into Yahoo Instant Messenger on it. For another, the app crashes sometimes when you try to link an address book entry to an instant messaging buddy. Then there's AIM. While BeejiveIM is for the power user who wants to chat with his contacts on ever service, AIM is the service most people use. AIM also hits a more appealing price point - it comes in both paid and free flavors (the primary difference being that the paid version comes with a landscape keyboard). Whichever you choose, I firmly believe the world changes the moment you install a push-capable instant messaging app. When you send a text message you always wonder, in the back of your mind, whether you're costing the other person money by going over their limit. With instant messaging that isn't a problem. Now millions of people around the world are always connected and always on. My first day with BeejiveIM I had a conversation with a friend in Sweden. It was possible only because I was logged into Facebook chat through BeejiveIM. I would've appeared offline if that hadn't been the case and missed out on that conversation.Maps and Turn-By-Turn
First off, try out free apps AroundMe and MapQuest 4 Mobile. Both feature quality mapping functionality that should pull you away from the default Maps app at least some of the time. But let's get to the big news about iPhone OS 3.0. Now there are turn-by-turn apps. And...drumroll please.....my opinion is that you should avoid them if you can. At least for the time being. I would skip Gokivo and AT&T Navigator (and Navigon if you're in Europe) until turn-by-turn becomes more affordable. Gokivo, made by Networks in Motion, launched in the App Store as the first true turn-by-turn app for only 99 cents. Unfortunately, it also launched with absolutely no mention in the description that it was a subscription based model.
The moment you try to access turn-by-turn you are prompted by Apple's new In App Purchases feature to pay $9.99 for a month for turn by turn directions.
NIM updated the App Store description within a couple hours to accurately reflect the subscription model and the company eventually apologized and announced they would "refund" users who felt misled a free iTunes song. But the damage was done. At one time Gokivo had 85 one star reviews out of 110 total. All that said, I'm telling you to avoid Gokivo for a different reason than the massive launch blunder.
$9.99 a month is an absurd price to pay for turn by turn directions on your iPhone. I know this might start a war in the comments, but I think $9.99 a month just won't be a lasting price tag for turn by turn directions.
AT&T Navigator, which launched yesterday, also attempts to get you to buy at this exact same price point. I have a hard time believing most people will pay, more for a turn by turn app than they did for their entire phone over the course of 2 years. I would expect a price of, say, $4.99 a month to be much more successful. Even then I'm not sure.
Remember when the App Store first debuted? Virtually all games were priced around $9.99. Now most games sell for $2.99 - $5.99 and they only sell like hotcakes at 99 cents, with a few notable exceptions.
I fully expect the same evolution to occur with pricing for turn-by-turn apps. It's an intense market out there and developers will come up with clever ways to make turn-by-turn cheaper.
I think we'll see some creative uses of In App Purchases, for example. One idea is to charge by geographical region. So if you want turn by turn directions for southern california it might cost you 99 cents. When you drive to Las Vegas you'll have to cough up another 99 cents. When you go to northern california that's another 99 cents.
Then there's the possibility of ad-supported turn-by-turn. Aggrazel, a commenter on my article about the arrival of AT&T Navigator, described how this would work best: “In 500 feet, turn left to go south on Main St. And on the right you will see a Karen’s Cafe, which serves the best Lattes in town. Stop in now and get $1 off.”
Navigon is already available in Europe at a one time only price of roughly $95. That's mighty expensive but still less than half of AT&T Navigator and Gokivo over a two year time span.
Things will get much more interesting when we've got TomTom, Navigon, AT&T Navigator, Gokivo and many more to choose from. I highly doubt prices will stay that high with stiff competition.
