CNet has a cool video of a new text input method for touchscreen enabled devices. It comes from one of the inventors of T9 . It is a cool looking input method that has a lot of promise. He even claims he can input at 50 words per minute.

The thing that caught my eye was their statement–

"Of course, this isn’t on the iPhone yet, but if the ubiquity of T9 is any guide (installed on 2.5 billion phones) this could end up "everywhere and anywhere."

WritingPad does the exact same and IS on the iPhone. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be on the App Store any longer.

Every day there are dozens of new apps but only one or two REALLY worth looking at. Over 3000 apps already but there is a lot of stuff not worth the space it consumes. These apps, though, go one step better. 

We’ve been through this before…

…how many tip calculators do you need?

…how many Magic8Balls?

But at least that stuff all comes from a wide variety of developers (redundant, repeticious and uncreative as they might be). When the garbage heap is made larger by the same developer over and over and over again… arrrrhg!!!!

Here is one good example (FOUR actually) that are crApps for sure…

I am liking this trend a whole lot…

A new app is released but is initially given away (whether for a few days or a certain number of users) in order to get a group using it and (hopefully) talking about it.

It is a big advantage for those of us watching the App Store each night since we might just get an App Gem for free! (I know, I know, most of the time it will be crApp Apps but once in a while…)

Two new apps are free right now on "Initial Release Special". While we can’t vouch for them yet (we just downloaded them ourselves) there’s nothing to lose since… THEY’RE FREE!!!!!

Read on after the jump for details and direct links…

I love my iPhone.

I really like my iPod Touch too.

No, I don’t really need to have both but the Touch is great to have for trying out new apps. Plus it is so thin that for many things, I actually like using it more than my iPhone.

I’ve been more than a bit interested in the development of the Touch since its introduction last year.

It was introduced as a media-centric device- a touchscreen iPod. It was SO media-centric, in fact, that the Touch didn’t originally ship with some of the basic functionality present in the iPhone. It was an iPod. Period.

It was only later, with a $19 software update, that the Touch gained apps such as —Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes. Since that occurred, though, the Touch has been much more than a touchscreen iPod. It has, on many levels, succeeded where UMPC (Ultra Mobile PCs) and MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) only hoped to go. And with the firmware update this past July… WOW! Now, almost all the apps that tap the potential of the iPhone are able to do the same thing on the Touch. Nope, this was no longer just a touchscreen iPod.

So it struck me as a bit odd that in the walkthrough of the new iPod Touch it is described this way…

Well, now we know why NBC is using an iPhone to advertise their mobile portal…

I’m playing around with iTunes 8.0 and I am really loving the Genius feature. 

I LOVE the fact that it is now on my first gen. iPod Touch!

While the new 2.1 iPhone firmware will be coming this Friday the update is already available for download on iTunes.

It is downloading now (all 239.6 MB of it) and we’ll let you know what, if anything changes in a bit.

To get it yourself plug you Touch into iTunes and click "Check For Update"

UPDATE: It took a few trice and restarting my Touch but the update loaded finally.

UPDATE: Backup is SUPER fast! Seriously… faaaast. Took a few seconds to accomplish what took half an hour previously.

UPDATE: UpdateAll is still missing!