Guarduan:

The electronic book passed another milestone this month, with the number of books available on the iTunes App Store passing the number of games for the first time. According to data released earlier this month by the mobile phone advertising company Mobclix, there are more than 27,000 books now available as apps. Games lag behind, with 25,400 published this year, followed by entertainment, education and travel.

I don’t mind reading blog posts and articles on the iPhone, but I don’t ever see myself reading an entire book on the small screen. Reading one on the iPad, however, is a completely different story.

Words With Friends

Do you like crosswords and Scrabble? Enjoy a little friendly competition? I think the ‘Words With Friends” app is just for you.

I bought this application after seeing it on Sean Spertes’s home screen. Out of nowhere I started seeing the Twitter and Facebook posts go up asking people to join them in playing this game. The concept is simple, if you know Scrabble, you know this game. You receive a set of letters, you make words, and then pass the game back to the other player for their turn. Even John Mayer is endorsing this game “The ‘Words With Friends’ app is the new Twitter”...I’d say that’s alright press.

Pros

1. The chat feature - A little friendly “smack talking” never hurt anyone right?
2. Search for a “User Name” - this is for the friends you do know and have provided their User Name.
3. Search for a “Random Opponent” - run out of “real friends” to play? Search for a random person to play.
4. Twitter and Facebook invites - Link up to your accounts and the game provides a generic message to be posted to the social networking sites.

Cons

1. Push notifications - Spotty at best. It may be a day or so before I see that my opponent has made their move.
2. Resigning from a game - If it is your opponents move, the game will not allow you to resign. You have to wait for their move, or for the system to remove them from the game if they do not move in a “reasonable amount of time.” What that time is, I’m still not sure, and have yet to see the game resign a player automatically.
3. Score record keeping - there is none. I think a great feature to add would be records of who you won/lost to and your points in those games. A top scorer list may also be good to add (hint to developers).

Overall, I’d say the $2.99 is well-worth it for this one—although you could get away with the free version, but the ads get a little annoying after awhile.

Leah Culver’s brief update on how developing for the iPhone is going.

Ars Technica:

Perhaps stirred by Apple’s claim of being one of the biggest mobile device companies in the world, Sony is planning a number of new devices and services to compete with Apple’s iTunes Store, iPhone, and iPad.

I remember when the Walkman was the portable music device to have, Playstation was the gaming unit to own, and you’d spot Cyber-shot cameras everywhere… how times have changed.

Jeff LaMarche:

Overall, it’s just a general lack of attention to detail that defines the differences between the iPhone and the Nexus One, and that lack of attention to detail exists on both the hardware and software side. The Nexus One isn’t a bad phone by any stretch of the imagination. Had it come out three years ago, it would have been revolutionary. But you do have to train yourself to Android’s idiosyncrasies much more so than the iPhone. If you’ve never owned or used an iPhone, you’ll probably find the Nexus One to be a very adequate device and will assume that the minor annoyances are just part of owning a smart phone. If you’ve owned an iPhone for any length of time, you’ll likely feel, as I do, that it’s a rather half-baked device with some good ideas but generally weak execution.

(via Marco Arment)

Apple Appraisal:

The iPod touch. It’s that misfit cousin in the Apple family. Apple didn’t know how to market it. Pundits didn’t know why they were selling it. It was derided for being a cheaper, less-capable iPhone. Yet, despite this, Apple has sold a whopping 32 million of these little devices, and stats suggest it may actually outsell the iPhone in 2010! However, the iPod touch has more unexpected magic up it’s sleeves.

Good read and interesting take on the state of the iPod touch.

Shawn Blanc:

There are tons of nerds who were using Twitter way before Ashton was and who have been riding the RSS train for years and years. And since nerds are the pickiest of all when it comes to usability and interface design, they are the ones most in need of a great feed reader app for their iPhone.

Macworld:

As its predecessor did for 2009, the new version of At Bat lets you listen live to every regular season and postseason major league game in 2010, as well as watching streaming video of games (as long as they’re not blacked out in your area). You can also bring up box scores, stats, use the Gameday feature to track every pitch and play, watch video of highlights and condensed games, and even get push notifications so that you can stay up to the minute with your favorite team even while browsing the Web or reading your e-mail.

From their site:

Attic is a slick music controller for all those unplayed albums that are collecting dust sitting in your iTunes library. Listen to, create playlists of, and shuffle through your forgotten albums.

Haven’t tried the app yet, but it sounds like a winner. (via Daring Fireball)

Nice review of remote control apps by First & 20 contributor, Christina Warren.

Times Online:

The app, “coincidentally” called TigerText, enables the sender to set a lifespan for the message. Once this ends, the app erases the text from both the sender’s and recipient’s phones, ensuring the text cannot be forwarded, stored or sold to tabloid newspapers.

Wow… How classy.

Over 300,000 copies sold in just nine days. Won’t be shocked to see this one on some future home screens.

You know, on Facebook... If you’re into that sort of thing.

Neven Mrgan on the removal of “sexy” apps fiasco:

But apps aren’t like this; they’re a whole new Wild West. And so Apple is now in the awkward position of playing Walmart, MPAA, RIAA, and the US government at the same time. They can, of course, decide not to play that game at all, and instead allow all apps on all iPhones. The App Store could be reduced to just the Featured tab. This would make it more like the Downloads section of apple.com.

That sounds great, until you think about when the last time was that you visited Apple Downloads. And I don’t think this has to do with that 30% cut and Apple wanting to ensure that they keep making it on all apps forever. What sounds likelier to me is that they want to ensure the super-convenient experience of installing an app using the App Store; love it or hate it, it has made it so that everyone knows where and how you “get apps.”

If you don’t subscribe to Neven’s feed or visit his site regularly, you’re missing out.