I’ve never been one to worry all that much about the wallpaper I use on my iPhone. Every now and then I change it but, overall, I tend to be inclined toward the simplist image possible, if not to an actual solid color.

Others, though, seem to put a great deal of emphasis on it. In fact, I now of at least two people who jailbroke their first generaiton iPhones last year primarily because they wanted to be able to customize not just the wallpaper but also the look of the springboard. For them there is a neat little $2 app called Endless Walls. It doesn’t do springboard customization but the wallpaper selection can’t be beat.

While I recently began using reQall on a regular basis, Jott has been a central part of my workflow for the past two years. The ability to make a call, speak for 15 seconds and either receive a transcription back or send it to someone else has been a key productivity tool for me. Best of all, it was entirely free.

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end. To a large extent, that is what happened with Jott yesterday when it left "Beta".

We reviewed Local Eats the other day and were quite taken with it. If you are going to be eating out in one of the USA’s 50 major cities and you like good food, this is a "must have" on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Not only does it help figure out where to eat, but it makes contacting the restaurant or finding your way there as simple as tapping the iPhone’s screen.

Tonight’s update enhances performance (I didn’t find it all that laggy to begin with ) It also adds what they are referring to as "NEW COMMUNITY FEATURES". Although the actual restaurants are picked by an excellent panel (and they did an awesome job from what I can tell) you will now find user comments and be able to share your own.

I have to hand it to Audi- creating a driving game, making it free and advertising the A4 the entire time. Who needs "product placement" when the entire app IS the placement. Brilliant!

In a manner that is increasingly familiar, the A4 Driving Challenge has you hold the iPhone in landscape and uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to steer the car through a series of 5 unique courses. In this game, however, accelerating and braking are done on-screen using the "gas" and "brake" pedals. Interestingly, as the description notes, "When braking the car’s steering response improves. Use this…"

Yet one more example of the iPhone becoming an increasingly important tool for mobile professionals- LinkedIn for iPhone.

The new LinkedIn app was just released this afternoon. It allows you to

-search your contact information

-learn about people before you meet them

-keep up to date with your network

The app is free and is available now on the App Store.

Yesterday we shared news of a key update coming to reQall in the next week or so. Today we have a sneak peak at an app currently awaiting approval for release on the App Store- The Tag Show from Dove Valley Apps.

By now anyone using an iPhone has likely run a slideshow of pictures taken either on, or transfered to, their iPhone. There are, however a bazillion (that IS the technical way to say "a boatload") images floating around the web these days.

The Tag Show makes it possible to use those images to create your own custom slideshow based upon the tags you choose. For example, if you select "cars" as your tag, the app will begin a slideshow of car images from a variety of web services. Using "Corvette" gives a more specific slideshow of images tagged with Corvette.

This is being widely blogged everywhere but is definitely worth mention here…                     One of the biggest criticisms of the iPhone since it was initially released has been the lack of "Cut and Paste". It is apparently on Apple’s todo list (hmm, do they use OmniFocus or Things) but not high enough that we have any clue when it will be seen.

We got a small taste of how cut and paste COULD work last month with the release of MagicPad. Unfortunately the app was on and the off my iPhone in minutes since it only worked in that program AND the program lacked the iPhone’s intelligent spellcheck (something I rely on heavily).

Seems the new Open Clip project takes MagicPad’s solution and expands it significantly so that any program can use it if the developer so desires. How does it work? Check out Cali Lewis’ demo over on Vimeothe here.

As the post over on 9to5 Mac explains-
Open Clip’s solution is simple, workable and supported: essentially it saves copy you select within an area of the iPhone’s memory which can then be accessed by other apps using the Open Clip framework. And the roll call of developers planning to use and support the solution includes: Dial Zero, Twittelator, Wordpress, Cocktail, Ultralingua and more.

via 9to5 Mac

In my comparison of aSleep and Ambience, I found that aSleep had the edge despite having fewer sounds and features.

No longer. The update adds 50 Hi Quality Stereo Sounds, as well as a volume slider for iPod Touch Users (since the Touch does not have hardware volume controls).

It is a simple app but a nice one if you are trying to relax at the end (or even in the middle) of a long day.
 

This Friday will mark the two month anniversary of our launching WhatsOniPhone: An iPhone Application News And Review Site.

It’s amazing to us that eight weeks have already gone by. During this time we seen the release of the iPhone 3G, the App Store, and the upgraded firmware that turns the iPhone 3G into the best mini-computer ever. Since July 11th there have been two firmware updates and the number of available apps has swelled to over 2000. A lot has happened in just eight weeks and we’re just getting started.

The growth of WhatsOniPhone has been fantastic and we have all of you to thank. We were trying to think of a fun way to express our gratitude when we realized- while WOiP is about finding the very best stuff for the INSIDE of your iPhone or iPod Touch, we had better make sure we protect the OUTSIDE, too.

One of our favorite ways to do that is with a case from SENA Cases. As Dan wrote a few weeks back, between SENA’s WalletSkin case and eWallet he no longer carries a separate wallet. (His full review can be found here.) While the WalletSkin is a great case, SENA also offers a variety of other options so that all tastes and needs are covered. Each is made from the same high quality leather and superb craftsmanship. While we like them all, we especially like the UltraSlim Pouch and the brand new Dockable case. So we’ll be giving away one of each (in black) this Friday.

Read on for how to enter…

As I recently posted, I have become a huge fan of reQall. The service itself, the gorgeous, easy to use, resident iPhone application and the responsiveness of the company (all the way to the very top leadership) combine to make it one of the standout productivity applications currently available. It has quickly become one of the most used applications on my iPhone 3G.

I had the opportunity to speak with Deb Miller, reQall’s VP of Products, earlier today and I am now even more enamoured of the company and excited for what comes next.

In talking to Deb two things particularly stood out–

The first is how responsive the folks at reQall are to customer feedback. I wrote about my fantastic experience when I ran into difficulties last week but it is now clear that that kind of responsiveness is the RULE, not the EXCEPTION. As much as the reQall team has a clear vision of where they want to take the product, they are also quite attentive to feature requests on their forums.

Which leads to the really big news…