Skype - Coming To An iPhone Near You

It's official! A true Skype app for the iPhone will be released to the app store. The rumor is sometime tomorrow. Being a true Skype addict, I am very happy about this.

The interface is very much iPhone.

With this application, you can do both text and voice chats. There are a few limitations however. As with the desktop application, you can make free calls to someone on their computer, or make low cost calls to a landline on a pay per minute Skype plan. Although, with the iPhone you can only make calls over wifi. (Not surprising. They are not going to interfere with AT&T cell service. IM's however, will work over 3G) Another minor gripe of mine: The iPhone is capable of taking part in conference calls, however... the iPhone user can not initiate a conference, instead... they must wait to be invited.

Those minor details aside, I cannot wait for this application. 

LG Dare Review

Key features:

· 3 inch touch screen with tactile feedback

· 3.2 megapixel camera/camcorder

· V Cast music

· sync music from computer

· 3.5mm headphone jack (YESSS!)

· microSD port (up to 8GB)

· Bluetooth capabilities

· text/picture/video messaging

· mobile IM

· voice mail

· full HTML browsing with touch navigation

· media (download) center (games, ringtones, apps)

· AND MUCH MORE

Touch Screen

I have owned the Dare for about two months now and have had no problems with the touch screen. This was my first touch screen phone and was extremely easy to get used to. I’ll say, I’ve used iPhones and iPod Touches, and the apple touch screen is superior to pretty much any other device. However, LG definitely means business with the Dare. At first start-up the phone needs to be calibrated, but this is a one-time thing (that can be redone if you feel the need). After the initial calibration the touch screen works like a charm. There have been a few times when I have pressed and nothing has happened, but after locking and unlocking the phone it works fine. The scrolling isn’t as much of a natural “flick” as with the iPhone, but it works with some practice. I have found that although it takes some used to, the virtual QWERTY keyboard works fairly good too. Overall, the touch function, which is obviously the most prominent and important feature, is wonderful to work with.

Camera

Another remarkable feature of the LG Dare is the 3.2 megapixel camera. My, what LG does with 3.2 megapixels! I have used phones with 5.0 megapixel cameras and I am not exaggerating when I say that the Dare totally murders them. The Dare takes beautiful pictures and fairly good quality video. While no phone’s camera is as good as a stand-alone digital camera (yet), the LG Dare has in my opinion, one of the best cell phone cameras.

Music

I have never been one to use the music player on my cell phone. I have always been attached to my iPod. My iPod is however, in its final days. It’s pretty old, and I was considering getting a new one, but they do cost a lot. When I purchased the LG Dare I knew it had a music player but thought it would be crap. In short, I was wrong. While it in no way comes close to the iPod Touch or even iPod for that matter, it is a great little player itself. It has a similar view to that of Coverflow. Although it is pretty clearly a copy, it is a nice feature. One downside though is that this Coverflow-like view can only be accessed when a song is playing (or paused) and not just when browsing through your library. To make up for the lack of originality and functionality with the music player, you can easily have music playing in the background when doing simple tasks such as texting or editing contacts. But of course there are flaws with that too; when you use the camera or an app such as Mobile IM the music pauses. No product is made without flaws, but I do wish they would’ve fixed those problems.

Overview

Overall, I would say the LG Dare is a great phone. If you have Verizon and want a phone that compares to the iPhone, while it’s not a clone, the Dare is a great substitute. With a full touch screen, an amazing camera/camcorder, full HTML web browsing, a music player and even downloadable apps, LG has done it. I would definitely recommend checking out the LG Dare at your local Verizon Wireless dealer!

My Top 5 App Store Picks

In front of me, now, is my iPod Touch. On it, the Top Five applications, paid and free, that I am about to recommend to you people!

1. - Backgrounds [FREE] - Backgrounds is a great app in which to get free images and backgrounds for your iPhone or iPod Touch. It has a great user interface including multiple options to browse with as well as sorting options. This makes finding great backgrounds fast, easy and fun.

2. - Arcade Hoops [$1.99] - Arcade Hoops is a fun and addictive game that challenges you to make as many shots as possible. It has two modes: Classic and Progressive. The only difference: the shooting length "progresses" during gameplay making it a fun and challenging way to see how amny shots you can make. PLUS you can share your scores online around the world and compete against millions of other online players to get to number in the rankings.

3. - Pocket God [$1.99] - Pocket God is a great app that has come SUCH a long way. After a numerous amount of updates, it became one of the top selling apps in the entire store. In Pocket God, you are the "God" of an island filled with little villagers. You can torture them in any way imaginable or just play around! See what you can do with Pocket God in the app store.

4. - Trace [FREE] - Not all the best apps cost money. Trace is an amazing strategy game that has a simple objective: get the little stick man to the other side of the screen. However, you must draw your way through this exciting adventure. With hundreds of levels, this game will keep you playing for a long time without getting bored a single bit.

5. - Yo Mama - [FREE] - Yo Mama is one of my personal favorites because I'm not the best at making my own jokes. For those of you like me, you know that we all just steal other peoples jokes! Yo Mama is the best app for tons of hilarious Yo Mama jokes for you to use. Who's the funny guy now?

Other good apps:

BeeJive IM - [$15.99]

Enigmo - [$1.99]

Super Monkey Ball - [$9.99]

Grand Lite - [Free]

Urban Spoon - [Free]

Band - [$9.99]

Arcade Bowling - [$1.99]

Why Choose The iPhone?

There are so many pros and cons with apple's iPhone but here are four reasons you should consider buying:

The Touch Screen
The beautiful touch screen is probably the main reason I chose the iPhone over so many other smart phones on the market. It's display is not only smooth to the touch, but incredibly responsive. Other devices feature touch computability, but lack a glass touch display which makes the device much less responsive. The iPhone's touch screen is also heat sensitive which I noticed was a small, but great feature when I compared the iPhone to the Voyager and Dare. Why you might ask? Because the Voyager AND Dare can automatically unlock themselves in your pocket from loose change or pens touching the screen or lock button. The phone then calls people, goes on thewebor downloads something without the user's permission.

The App Store
While other phones like the Storm (by BlackBerry) and other smart phones running Windows Mobile do have a store for purchasing and downloading applications for the device remotely, Apple obviously tops their stores by far. The App store not only reaches a wide variety ofusers, from teens to adults, but offers applications that take complete advantage of the phones other hardware and software.

The iTunes Store
Purchasing music on the go is something that has been offered with mobile phones for quite some time now. However, none of them offered purchasing from the #1 music provider world-wide until now. With the iPhone, you can purchase any some from the iTunes store with just a tap of your finger. Even though it has a different layout, it still has all the functionality of buying from yourdesktop. I mainly found the store useful when my friends and were hanging out possibly at dinner or watching football and there was music playing. With the iTunes Store app, and after asking someone what the song was, I could buy the song straight from my device and not worry about writing it down or forgetting it later.

The Price
Finally, the pricing. I will admit, just for all those haters of the iPhone out there that the original price of $600 was outrageous. However, now that its merely $199, the pricing is no different between say the iPhone and a BlackBerry Storm. The plan is expensive just like any other smart phone's plan would be. However, unlike other phones, the iPhone has built-in WifiNetworking. So, whenever you're in a Wifi zone, you can save a little money on your phone bill while other smart phones can't.


Just a few reasons why YOU should choose iPhone.

iPhone 3.0 Software On The Way

Apple has just announced  that they will be holding a special event for the release of iPhone software update 3.0 on Tuesday, March 17th. Not much is known about the event, but Apple is calling it an "advanced preview". So, I don't think we will be upgrading our iPhones just yet.

There is no word on who will be heading the event