Smule

Most everyone has probably heard about the controversy over the location-tracking behavior on iOS devices since last June. Recently, when a developer made a program to show users' location data on a map, people were understandably concerned that their whereabouts could be tracked through their location logs without their knowledge. Apple promised in an open letter that it would resolve the issue, though the company claims it was not using the information for anything.

On Wednesday, Josh Lowensohn reported that Apple made good on its promise with the release of iOS 4.3.3, reducing the size of the "crowdsourced" location cache, and the device no longer backs up the cache to iTunes.

Even though I downloaded the software and checked out the map to see that my iPhone did indeed track my location, I was never terribly worried about it and took Apple at its word that the location data wasn't being used for anything nefarious. Still, I'm glad to see the company has listened to user concerns. Hopefully this will lay this latest Apple controversy to rest.

What do you think? Were you nervous that your information was being used without your consent or do you even care? Let me know in the comments.

This week's apps are a piano app that lets you play hit songs and a flying disc game that's both graphically beautiful and challenging.… Read more

With the release of "2012," the iPhone app tied to the forthcoming Sony Pictures film of the same name, a group of developers may have kicked off the future of games on the hit smartphone.

While the game itself is fairly simple and lasts just minutes, it incorporates features that may never have been tried before, and as such, could be among the small number of titles that are showcasing what will soon be considered par for the course.

In the minds of many industry observers, thanks to its integration of a functional operating system, an accelerometer, GPS … Read more

If you've ever been driving down the highway and looked at the Google Maps application on an iPhone to see what traffic is like ahead, you may have wondered where the data behind the green, yellow, and red lines indicating real-time vehicle flow come from.

In fact, the data are coming from people just like you: users of smartphones with GPS who, by the very act of driving down the highway, are feeding back information about how fast they're going to Google, which in turn is sending it back to users of its mobile map apps.

Which means, … Read more

Smule, the makers of popular musical iPhone application, Ocarina, has just released a new music application today that pushes its social music experiment even further. Leaf Trombone (99 cents) lets you "play" your iPhone like a trombone by sliding your finger on the touch screen to create different notes and you can even play with a musicbox-like accompaniment.

After you launch Leaf Trombone, you can practice on your own to the tune of several user-uploaded old standbys like Auld Lang Syne, Yesterday, and even Happy Birthday. To help you follow the notes, leaves gently blow across the screen … Read more

The folks at Smule, Pandora, Nokia, and BlueRun Ventures may not agree on everything, but during a Thursday night panel discussion on the business of mobile applications, their attention centered on a single device time and time again: the iPhone.

From the ease of the iPhone's paint-by-numbers SDK to its extremely accessible on-phone App Store and unified hardware and software package, the conversation on all sides of the table both challenged and defended claims of the iPhone's hegemony.

Pandora's Chief Technical Officer, Tom Conrad, credited iPhone's App Store with the success of Pandora's free music discovery … Read more

Marketing agency Rosetta released a study Thursday that found Bill Me Later and PayPal are the most popular alternative payment options on the Web, capturing 26 percent and 25 percent market share, respectively. Google Checkout increased its share by just 1 percent in 2008 commanding just 11 percent of the market.

Rosetta also found that 37 percent of the top 100 major retailers on the Web employ alternative payment options like those offered from PayPal and Bill Me Later, but just 7 percent of those retailers offer all three services.

iPhone developer Smule announced Thursday that it has secured $3.… Read more

Smule has quickly become my favorite iPhone app developer.

It's not that their apps have been particularly useful, but they're the ones I get the most excited about. From Sonic Lighter to Sonic Boom and Sonic Vox, these guys are IMO currently the masters of fun, cool, quirky iPhone apps.

Now they're going completely bohemian with their latest release, Ocarina. According to Smule, this is the first true musical instrument for the iPhone with no precompiled riffs.

By simply blowing into your iPhone's mic you'll create sound, and by holding the "holes" on … Read more

I have to admit, I didn't see the point of Sonic Lighter. I mean, it was cool to see real-time mapping of people using it, but there was no real point. With the latest version, however, that's changed.

Smule has released Sonic Lighter 1.2.1 Special Campaign 2008 Edition for the iPhone. Instead of just lighting a normal orange flame, with the new version you now get to express yourself politically (somewhat), by choosing either the red (McCain) or blue (Obama) flame.

The coolest thing about this is the ability to see, in real-time, which flame is … Read more

In this episode, we pack a lot of content into a relatively small amount of time.

First off, Eric has his nerd cred questioned because of a Warcraft comment made in a previous episode, and Dong discusses making love, not Warcraft.

Serious business then as Dong presents another PSA: how to be on the lookout for fake antivirus software.

Then, can being left-handed be equated with being gay? Not usually, but Dong finds a way to connect them. Then, getting drunk. Dong tells a "scary" Halloween story about puking in a bucket.

Thanks to a resourceful reader, we … Read more