MacRumors iPhone and iPad Blog: Apps, News, and Rumors

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the Nevada Gaming Control Board has alerted the state's casinos to the existence of card-counting programs for the iPhone and iPod touch. Card counting is a strategy for card games mostly commonly applied to blackjack in which a player tracks the values of cards being played to determine when the cards remaining to be dealt are more likely to be in the...

WhatTheFont is a popular Web-based tool to aid in identifying unknown fonts. Users can upload screenshots of text in an unknown font, and the automated tool, with a bit of input from the user to help verify that its interpretations of the characters are correct, provides a list of fonts that most closely match that shown in the image. MyFonts has now released a free iPhone version of WhatTheFo...

EmotiFun! [App Store], a free application whose sole purpose is to enable the use of Emoji for non-Japanese iPhone users, has appeared in the App Store. Emoji, emoticons and pictorial characters popular in the Japanese instant messaging culture, were introduced to Japanese customers as part of the iPhone 2.2 Firmware update, but have required workarounds to be enabled for non-Japanese users....

Google today announced the release of a beta version of Google Sync for iPhone. Google Sync serves to automatically synchronize Gmail contacts and calendar entries between a user's Google account and their mobile device. Originally released last year for the Blackberry, today's beta release extends the functionality to the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, as well as providing contacts-only...

Cooliris has released version 1.3 [App Store] of their free iPhone application for browsing images and video on the Web. Details on the update are available on Cooliris' blog. Version 1.3's biggest new feature is the addition of the "My Photos" tab, where you can search any public account in Flickr and Picasa, add as many accounts as you would like, then view the albums in Cooliris. There are a ...

For the third time in three days, Apple has posted a new iPhone commercial to their ad gallery. The new ad again focuses on three iPhone applications, this time related by their ability to "check" up on things by accessing various types of information. - SnowReports [App Store]: checking up on ski and snowboard conditions at over 2,000 resorts worldwide - Lose It! [App Store]: checking...

iPhone gaming continues to going strong with a variety of good titles appearing over the past few weeks over at TouchArcade.com. These include: - Blue Attack! - a very fun space shooter that offers plenty of gameplay. - Bobby Carrot Forever - a puzzle game that requires you to navigate obstacles in order to collect all the carrots and reach the exit. Over 15 hours of gameplay. - T...

Apple has posted another new iPhone commercial, entitled 'Fix', to their ad gallery. Similar to 'Read', which was released yesterday, 'Fix' highlights three different applications linked by a common theme. As the title suggests, each application featured in 'Fix' aids in solving a problem of some sort. - Rocket Taxi [App Store]: locating taxi companies in over 10,000 cities using locations ...

Wired reports that the first malicious application for the Google Android Marketplace may have already appeared. There are reports that an application called MemoryUp results in erasing data on the phone and corrupting memory of the phone. Doesnt work at all erased my phone numbers and froze my phone," allegedly wrote a user according to the Geek.com site.The developer of the application,...

Wireless printing from the iPhone and iPod touch has been a frequent feature request from users, and a few apps intended to meet this need have started appearing in the App Store. HP iPrint Photo [App Store] supports printing of 4x6-inch photos directly to supported HP inkjet printers. The free application utilizes Bonjour to automatically locate compatible printers on your network. Print [...

Apple has posted a new iPhone ad, 'Read', to their ad gallery. The commercial highlights the diversity of applications available for the iPhone by showing brief snippets of three different apps linked by the common thread of "reading". - Yelp [App Store]: find restaurants and browse restaurant reviews - OsiriX [App Store]: physician-oriented application for viewing medical images,...

Epocrates [App Store] has released version 2.0 of their free clinical reference application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The update brings several enhancements to their free offerings and adds compatibility with Epocrates Essentials, their subscription-based premium content. Epocrates Rx, the free component to the application, offers a drug and formulary reference that includes...

Ustream Viewing Application [App Store], which enables iPhone and iPod touch users to view live video streaming from Ustream.tv is now available in the App Store. The free app provides access to both live and recorded video, as well as an integrated chat function for supported broadcasts. Streaming video is available only over Wi-Fi and not 3G or EDGE connections. Video links can be easily...

TUAW profiles the upcoming iStat iPhone application from Bjango, part of the team that released the original iStat applications for OS X under the iSlayer name. iStat not only displays basic system and network information for your iPhone or iPod touch, but it can also communicate with desktops and laptops running the free iStat Server application to allow users to monitor system stats remotely. Th...

Just days after the BlackBerry version was released at CES, the iPhone version of Slacker Radio [App Store] has been released in the US App Store. Similar in some respects to Pandora Radio, Slacker Radio provides both pre-programmed and personalized Internet radio stations. - Unlimited free access to millions of songs from thousands of artists - Listen to over 100 stations created by leading...

Burrito restaurant chain Chipotle has launched a new free iPhone application, Chipotle Mobile Ordering [App Store], which builds upon their online ordering system launched in December 2005 and revamped this past October. The application allows iPhone and iPod touch users to customize orders from Chipotle's full menu, pay for their food via credit card, and find directions to their nearest...

Pandora has released Pandora Radio 2.0 [App Store] for iPhone and iPod touch, bringing a number of new features to the free personalized Internet radio service. Pandora's music service automatically generates playlists based on a user's stated artist, song, or composer preferences, and user feedback on Pandora's selections continuously refines its future recommendations. New features include: ...