I’ve quickly become a big fan of TextLater and, based on some emails I’ve received, so have a number of our readers.

We have copies of TextLater to give away tonight at 10pm est.

For a chance to win one leave a comment here and tell us what iPhone app has seen the most use in the first 4 days of 2009.

When the iPhone was first released many were pleasantly surprised to find that with pokey Edge service with which it was saddled was a bit less pokey than expected. Yes, while the Edge network was still a far cry from 3G it had been pushed up to better speeds than before.

Well apparently those halcion days are over.

An increasing number of us get our news on the go via rss feeds, news websites etc. With each improvement, the AP Mobile News Network app makes the iPhone and iPod Touch ever-better tools for getting news on-the-go.

The AP app was available from the launch of the App Store. It provides personalize your news chosen from such areas as entertainment, sports, election coverage and finance.

It has received numerous updates since launch. Today’s update to version 1.5 is a significant upgrade that lets you…

Back in the middle of July, when third party applications were first available for download to the iPhone, I wrote a piece praising Alex Kac of WebIS  for being upfront about why a planned iPhone version of his well-known Pocket Informant was not yet available for the iPhone. In a post on the WebIS blog, Alex made it clear, that he would rather take the time to do the job properly then rush an application to market. I immediately expressed my respect for in his decision. In light of the fact that firmware 2.0 should never have been released due to its high degree of bugginess and my numerous experiences with applications which didn’t get their act together until after a number of updates, my opinion that Alex was correct in his decision was reinforced more than once.

More than six months later I still have deep respect for Alex’s choice. But I will say… it has already been six months and that is an eternity in the fast-moving world of iPhone applications! 

Out just a few weeks, Iconic Notes, which takes an unusual and useful approach to iPhone note organization, has received yet another update.

This time it includes–
-the ability to add lines or squares to the notepaper’s background
-improved color pickers
-the ability to access note settings while in landscape
-increased control when settings images as icons.

A huge update? No. Then again, Iconic Notes has only been out a few weeks and it is already up to version 1.3.

Now that is impressive.

There is no question that we most innovative RSS reader currently available in the act store is newsstand. It’s a full featured RSS reader whose interface is different than any other currently available. While you can use it as a standard linear newsreader, when you turn it to landscape it actually transforms itself into a newsstand which you can then flick through as if looking through a shelf of newspapers or magazines.

Newsstand takes the experience of quickly accessing your feeds and reading them from utilitarian to enjoyable. More than anything else it stands out because it actually makes use of the iPhone’s innovative interface. It has a terrific set of standard features such as — automatic feed discovery, integration with Google blog search, the ability to organize your feeds into folders, and integrated browser for reading full items within the app itself and the ability to share articles via e-mail or delicious.com. And the interface adds so much to the experience of using it.

While this is all well and good, though, the app was removed from iPhone after my initial review for one specific reason —

I love the Google Mobile App now that it is juiced with voice search. Quite frankly, it never ceases to amaze me that I can bring my iPhone to my ear, say what it is I am looking to find, and the app finds it. I can’t even do that on my Mac!

Google just revealed that they hid a few Easter eggs in the settings menu. While MacWorld is the suggested venue for something/s to b revealed they went ad shared one today.

Go to the settings menu, use one finger to "pull up" the screen a bit and use another to rub the space below "About". After a bit a previously hidden ‘Bells and Whistles’ selection appears. While it isn’t a huge deal, adding new theme colors, new sounds (monkeys and chickens and Google Oh my!), a live waveform when you speak, and the option to open links in the app itself rather than Safari, it is kinda neat to discover something new in an already familiar app.

I can’t wait to see what MacWorld reveals!

If I had to choose just one productivity app it would, of course, be Evernote. While not without it’s flaws, (for example, only specific types of text can be edited, the method they use for local storage is cumbersome, and they are the only company who have, consistently not responsed to my emails), Evernote is still the most powerful productivity tool around. The fact that it is

–flexible; you can use the iPhone app to take text, picture, voice notes and more. You can use the geolocation power of the iPhone to tag pictures.
–"cross-platform"; it works with mac, windows, windows mobile and more
— employs the "hybrid-web": data is stored on the web and locally and the two are kept in sync.
–ever evolvong; it adds powerful new functionality, such as the recent update brought "universal file sync" and expanded the type of files it can handle to a remarkable extent.

all combine to make Evernote a highly effective app that uses cutting edge technology AND really worlks.

I recently received an email from Evernote, the subtext of which suggests that the focus of Evernote’s evolution over the next year will be in areas other than the iPhone app. Because Evernote is an overall system, however, changes anywhere in the Evernote environment may potentially improve it’s use and functionality everywhere. Among the coming advances–

As 2008 comes to a close, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your readership and support during whatsoniphone’s first six months.

Dimitri, Ron, and I, first conceived of this website sometime before the opening of the App Store. We assumed that if Apple were to create an easy to use system for the distribution of iPhone and iPod Touch applications there would be a flood of creativity in the development world resulting in a wave of applications the scope of which has never before been seen.

From the countless hours initially designing the site, to the weeklong marathon to populate the site with the initial 500 applications, whatsoniphone has been a labor of love.

In the first six months, we have posted over 500 blog posts, ranging from news and tips to application updates and sales.  We reviewed hundreds of applications (which we hope have been helpful in deciding which were worth buying.) and we’ve had a great time doing it.

The site, however, is nothing without you, our readers and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you.

Among the initial goals when first starting What’s On iPhone this past June was the hope that the site would quickly become a helpful resource for everyone. To that end, we wanted to let you know about some of the new things you be seeing on the site.