While I’ve been honing my Jedi skills, the rumor mills have ripened with news of an expected Concierge application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. AppleInsider explains that the Apple-created software will assist with scheduling appointments at the Genius Bar or for Apple’s One on One training services. Normally, most folks would use the phone to call for an appointment, but a few button presses might be quicker and give us more training time in our X-Wings.

My training got a boost this morning, but not in my fighter — my knowledge of what’s really in the iPhone App Store. Sure, we all know that there’s a 100,000 applications, but I read this morning that 1 in 5 apps added to the store last month was actually a book. If that’s the case, does Apple really need to enter the e-book market as some have said? I’m not sure they do because they’re already earning revenue from the phone as well as the e-book applications. What’s to be gained?

ShopSavvy, one of 10 winners in the original Google Challenge contest last year, arrives today on the iPhone. With ShopSavvy, you scan a product barcode with your phone’s camera and the application does a price check, both online and at retail locations. This one was a long time coming and actually isn’t appearing for me on my iPhone’s App Store at the time of this writing. However, the Big In Japan blog offers a direct link to the app in iTunes, and it works just fine. I’ve installed the free application and it looks stellar, although the app is struggling on some bar codes. This may have to do with the iPhone 3GS auto-focus feature, but I’m not sure. The developers say

“Once you know how to scan with ShopSavvy for the iPhone it works great, but until you do it is a little hard.  Our beta testers (thanks for your help) came up with a bunch of ideas that will make it MUCH easier to scan and we should implement those in the next couple of weeks.  Look for an update every two weeks (I know this is annoying, but we promise the updates will be worth it). “

I’ve been running around the house scanning things, which is sort of silly since I already own these items, but what can I say: it’s fun. Well, it’s fun until you look at current prices — $29.99 for Beatles: RockBand? Ugh!

ShopSavvy for iPhone integrates Google Maps for the locations of retail stores nearby that sell the scanned item. You can also add items to a wishlist, create lists, and get price alerts. All in all, it looks just as functional as the Android counterpart and there’s no need to shop around for it — it’s free!

Also getting the update treatment are the data layers like photos, Wikipedia articles and various other points of interest. In the prior version, I had to be very precise when tapping an icon or I had to waste time zooming in farther. Tapping a spot close to multiple data layer icons now opens up a menu of the various data points, making it easier to choose. Google also added support for another 18 languages, bringing the total to 31. Here’s a full rundown of the supported ones:

English (U.S), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, and Croatian.

I’m also finding performance to be a little more snappy in general, but that could just be hopeful observation. It seems to me that panning and zooming is improved, but I’m not a frequent world traveller in Google Earth — just a frequent traveller to WaWa.

I am no professional photographer, and while I’m sure I could have tweaked the settings on each of the phone cameras, I wanted to simulate the way most people use their camera phone. You see something interesting, grab the phone and snap a pic. That’s all I did here, so each of the photos reflects the default settings for each camera. The photos were taken one after the other, and the camera was the same distance from the subject in each.  Here are the three photos taken and some that show the sizes of the three phones:

How many of us have parked our car in a huge parking lot, and then searched for it when we return? It can be especially challenging at sporting events, when all you can see is what seems like miles of cars between you and your car. Car Finder eliminates that frustration by using the iPhone 3GS camera to show you where you left your car. You tell the program where you are when you park the car, and when you return it shows you where the car is, superimposed over those miles of other cars. It’s a useful app with a real-world benefit, and it only costs you 99 cents.

UPDATED: Livestreaming is all the rage today, be it from a handset or a home computer with a webcam. But one of the major challenges to overcome is how to view that live content on a handset without re-encoding it. Vimeo today took the same approach that YouTube did for the iPhone — it went back to certain video content and re-encoded it for mobile handset playback on iPhone and Android devices. While that works, it’s not ideal. Wouldn’t it be nice if a company could provide a method for livestreaming to mobiles without a lengthy re-encoding process?

Lo and behold, enter Livestream and its Procaster beta application for Mac and PC. I just got my hands on the software a short while ago, so I have a “quick and dirty” video — don’t worry, it’s not that kind of dirty — to show you some of the basic capabilities. I was up and running in just a few minutes with Procaster. The application uses any attached webcam and microphone and livestreams from your computer. OK, that sounds like most of the other livestream platforms, right? But here’s the kicker: your live stream from Procaster can be viewed immediately on an iPhone by using the H.264 HTTP streaming built into the handset’s Quicktime application. That’s the bulk of what I show you in my brief video demo because it’s just too cool.

With Livestream Procaster, you can set up your own channel and chatroom to go with your video. I see a multitude of uses for this as I allude to in my short video demo: I’m thinking of trying this out at the Consumer Electronics Show to give you some show floor experience in real time, for example. And this solution could come in handy for tips and tricks because you can easily switch between the webcam view and a screen sharing view. Or you can display both in real time to an iPhone. The possibilities are endless and with the H.264 HTTP streaming, it opens up the floodgates to mobile viewing as well. Livestream’s full press release follows and you can find their beta application right here. Livestream will be using the new Procaster features at our NewTeeVee Live event tomorrow, so you can follow along on your iPhone! It is, after all, NewTeeVee Live, not NewTeeVee Recorded.

Update: After my post went live, I realized that I had an early look, so check out Procaster starting tomorrow.

Livestream Launches Free iPhone Service

Delivers ‘One Click’ Live Streaming to the iPhone

No need for iPhone users to download any application

NEW YORK (Nov. 12, 2009)—Livestream, the leading live Internet video platform, today announced the immediate availability of its free service for streaming live to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Using Livestream Procaster, users can stream live from their webcam, video camera or even broadcast their PC or Mac desktop. Livestream producers can start streaming live to the addressable iPhone and iPod Touch audience over 3G or Wi-Fi connections, with less than five minutes of setup.

Livestream is the first to offer a turn-key streaming service that uses the new H.264 HTTP live streaming functionality included in the native QuickTime player that Apple has pre-installed on the iPhone. This means that Livestream producers do not need to obtain iPhone App Store approval to launch their own iPhone live streaming channel, nor do their viewers need to install any application. Streams are viewed using the iPhone’s Safari browser.

Livestream has also provided a simple Representational State Transfer (REST) API for developers to integrate live streaming into their own iPhone websites or their own iPhone applications. Livestream Procaster includes a free streaming encoder, which means that no third party application or license needs to be purchased in order to stream live to the iPhone using Livestream.

“A key breakthrough is that the service doesn’t require any proprietary player or application to be installed on the iPhone. Producers are free to integrate the iPhone live stream with their own website, iPhone portal or iPhone application using the API provided,” explained Livestream CEO and co-founder Max Haot.

Streaming live to the iPhone requires less than five minutes to install. Producers simply download and install Livestream Procaster for the PC or Mac from www.livestream.com/procaster, connect their video camera or webcam, select iPhone 3G Quality, and press Go Live. User can view the live streams on their iPhone or iPod Touch by pointing their Safari browser to the channel they want to view atiphone.livestream.com.

Livestream will first use this new feature at NewTeeVee Live, the conference for online video influencers being held on Nov. 13 in San Francisco. Viewers can watch it live at iphone.livestream.com.

To get started or for more information visit www.livestream.com/iphone.

-X X X-

About Livestream

Livestream (www.livestream.com – formerly Mogulus) provides everything needed to easily webcast live, build an engaged audience and monetize these efforts. Founded in 2007, the company is based in New York and includes Gannett Co. as a minority shareholder and investor.

Producers can use Livestream to create live, linear and on-demand Internet television to broadcast anywhere on the Web through a single embeddable player widget. The service comes in two flavors: Free (ad-supported) and Premium (ad-free, white-label, higher-quality). Unique features include the ability to mix multiple live cameras, overlay graphics, and desktop streaming with 3D effects.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Sue Huss, for Livestream

sue.huss@comunicano.com

619-379-4396

Speaking of solid products, did you see the Gigaware HD Radio tuner for iPhone? This $80 add-on brings the goodness of HD Radio to your Apple handset and as one would expect, allows for song tagging for later purchases in the iTunes store. Personally, I really like this feature that’s baked into Microsoft’s Zune, but not enough to drop $80 for it on my iPhone 3GS. It doesn’t look all that mobile as it uses a cable to dock to the iPhone. For stationary, docked iPhones it might be appealing. It has to be more appealing than static, which you can’t even listen to on today’s iPhones.

So you can’t listen to terrestrial radio over FM on an iPhone, but you can Tweet until the cows come home. (That’s around 4:30pm in my neighborhood — for realz) Last week, I bought Tweetie2, but I’m already looking at adding the free TweetDeck to my iPhone. There’s a new version out and it incorporates some useful new features like Facebook support, video uploads, landscape composition and more. Have a look and you’ll see why I’m about to “buy” this free app for my iPhone.

PressReader has been completely optimized for both the iPhone and the BlackBerry, allowing for easy navigation and content duplication on the small screen. Every element of the original newspaper is duplicated exactly, from ads and articles, to cartoons. PressReader for iPhone and BlackBerry are available at no charge from the iTunes App Store and the BlackBerry App World respectively.

PressReader for iPhone

PressReader for BlackBerry

What is better than free Wi-Fi for the holidays? Unlocking your iPhone from the O2 network in the UK for free. That’s exactly what O2 in the UK is allowing iPhone customers to do after Nov. 10. Unlockers will still have to honor the remainder of any O2 contract, but can use any SIM in the iPhone at no charge. Pay and Go customers can unlock the iPhone 12 months after paying off the phone for a £14.69 one-time fee.

Here’s all you need to do to unlock your iPhone according to the O2 site:

“Firstly, complete the unlocking form – it will take up to 14 days for the iPhone to be unlocked and we’ll text you to confirm the unlock request. Then place a non-O2 sim into the iPhone and connect to iTunes via a USB cable. iTunes will confirm that the iPhone has been successfully unlocked.”

Thanks to Gavin Miller for sending this in!

While I’d never advocate this hack from a safety perspective, it’s one of the most amazing uses of an iPhone I’ve seen yet. The real magic is in all of the motors and gizmos to make it work, but Make shows that the Do It Yourselfers at Waterloo Labs are actually driving a car using their handset. With a custom application, the gas and brake pedals are activated with slider controls — moving the sliders causes dedicated motors to depress the pedals using crescent wrenches. Steering is handled by another motor, but that one takes advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer. Simply “turning” the iPhone clockwise or counter-clockwise allows the vehicle to steer.

Useful in the real world? Not so much. Fun to watch? You betcha!

The news didn’t end there, as Dropbox also announced the new iPhone app. The app lets you access files in the Dropbox cloud, download files for viewing later, sync iPhone photos and videos to your Dropbox, and share files with friends via links to the Dropbox location. There are free and paid versions of Dropbox, depending on the amount of storage needed.

Shazam has been one of the best free apps for the iPhone since early in the iPhone product life.  That changes with the introduction of Shazam Encore, a pay per view listen version that removes all limits from the free version. Specifically the free version of Shazam now limits you to 5 tags per month, and the Encore version offers unlimited tags. You’ll pay $4.99 at the App Store for that unlimited tagging in Shazam Encore, but you’ll also get these features:

• Improved speed performance: making it even quicker for users to tag tracks and learn more about their music.
• Music recommendations: users can discover other music similar to the track that’s been tagged to enhance their music collection and knowledge.
• Find what’s hot and popular: Shazam music charts generated by millions of other Shazamers can be accessed to help users keep up to date with the new tracks and players in the music scene.
• Search music: easily find music by artist, album or track from over 8 million songs.
• Drive and Tag: Shazam automatically enters into car mode when the iPhone is placed in an in-car dock to make it simple to discover what’s playing on the radio even when driving.

Note that existing Shazam owners still have unlimited tags, only new customers of the free version have the limit. The $4.99 fee for Shazam Encore is a one-time fee.

After looking at his test set, most of the iPhone photos look better to me in most cases. Of course, that’s subjective, so you should peep with your own eyes to see the difference. It looks like the advanced software camera features of the iPhone are helping to take better shots thanks to focus and exposure functions. Of course, the Droid could gain similar functionality through a software update in the future. If video is more your thing, then I’d say the Droid wins by a hair. Based on video output I’ve seen, the 720 x 480 output looks a tad better to my four eyes.

“The nurses have embraced the technology and have given us great feedback,” said P.J. Floyd, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. “The Voalté One makes them better able to respond quickly to patient’s needs.”

The hospital has noted a 78 percent drop in overhead paging as a direct result of implementing the Voalté One program, and the patient wings are quieter as a result. This can play a big role in the healing process, as anyone who has required hospital care can attest.

One killer app is more like a feature that we in the U.S. can’t officially have on our iPhones — Internet tethering. I’m still running iPhone OS 3.0 because the tethering hack won’t work on higher OS versions. Or at least it didn’t. MobileCrunch reports that applying the hack after jailbreaking the current iPhone OS does get tethering back. I’m not too keen on the jailbreaking scene, but I’m seriously tempted — I’d hate to upgrade and then lose my backup 3G connection. And I’m running into more and more apps that require a higher version of the iPhone OS than I have.

Although we tend to focus on iPhones for this weekly update, I wanted to expand the scope slightly. Yup, I’m going there with the Apple Tablet again. I had a guest video spot on the TechVi show this week and we talked about the possibility of Apple offering iTunes TV content for $30 a month. I have no idea if Apple is doing that (or planning a slate tablet), but there’s an interesting opportunity when you combine the two mythical ideas. What would you get when you cross a portable 1280 x 720 slate running the iPhone OS with a monthly iTunes all-you-can-eat plan? I’d call it a reasonably compelling product. Not only would you have access to various television content in high-def, but you’d have your music and 100,000 apps for bite-sized functionality too. Hmmm….