Some apps try to stand out by adding gimmicks like games or even bikini models, but you’d probably be surprised if we told you that we found an essential NFL app that doesn’t contain a single score or stat. Believe us, we were just as surprised, and even more so to find out how incredibly entertaining this new app actually is. In fact, it has become one of our very favorite sports apps after only a couple days of using it. We are totally hooked, and we’re sure you will be, too.

Realtime Pro Football ‘09 doesn’t mess with scores or stats because a hundred other iPhone apps already do that. What this app does do is give you commentary from hundreds of players, coaches, sports writers and bloggers, and all in realtime. That’s right, almost as soon as the content is created, it appears right on your iPhone or iPod touch. This gives you real football insight from the people closest to it. Realtime Pro Football ‘09 makes a great companion app your sports app arsenal and one you don’t want to pass up. Read on to find out why this app has quickly become one of our favorite sports apps of all time.
 

Realtime Pro Football ‘09 slurps content from Twitter that is generated by people in and around the league. The app taps the Twitter API thousands of times per hour to give you a realtime feed of comments generated by these people. What comes out in the app is a constantly updated stream of commentary that is a lot like any Twitter feed, often interesting, sometimes mundane, but always addictive. The best part about this app is that it doesn’t require you to have a Twitter account or even know anything about Twitter. It takes all the NFL relevant Tweets from Twitter and categorizes them for you.

The app offers four main categories of content to view: All, Teams, Blogs, and Press. The Teams section is where you want to be to follow only the Tweets from a particular team. The Blogs section aggregates content from Fansided.com, a collection of premium content from unofficial team blogs. The Press section contains a feed of Tweets from real sports commentators and journalists who give their professional take on what’s happening in the NFL. Any one of these features could stand on its own, but when you combine them together you get an unparalleled view of the NFL that cannot be found anywhere else. Not ESPN. Not Sport Center. Not any official NFL app. Only Realtime Pro Football ‘09 can give you this crazy cool insight.

It would be nearly impossible to set up your own Twitter account to get this kind of view. You’d have to find all the players, coaches, assistants, media personalities and other NFL personnel who Tweet, then follow them. And forget about grouping them by team in Twitter, that’s almost impossible. Realtime Pro Football ‘09 does all the dirty work for you. Trust us, this is a fantastic NFL app and well worth the $1.99 price in the App Store.

Earlier this week the NFL officially banned Twittering by any player, coach, assistant, or media person (and their extended support groups) during a game. This includes 90 minutes prior to the game and until the post-game media conferences are complete. Last year, you might follow the Tweets from a bored place kicker right on the sideline, but not this year. The interesting aspect about this new rule is that it covers media people as well. Does that include bloggers? What about Twitterers? The NFL cannot stop fans in the stadium from posting Tweets during a game, but it seems they would prefer it that way. The realtime web cannot be stopped, and certainly not by the NFL.

In any case, this new anti-Twitter rule means that you won’t get updates from players during the actual games, but you will hear plenty from them otherwise. Take this morning, for instance, in Realtime Pro Football ‘09 we saw that the Indianapolis Colts had arrived in Cincinnati by bus for tonight’s preseason game against the Bengals. Colt’s defensive end, Raheem Brock, posted the following updates which I read less than a minute after he posted them.

I GOT OFF THE BUS YESTER DAY AND THIS BENGALS FAN SAYS”YOU KOWN YOUR IN THE JUNGLE RIGHT?”LOL.HOW BOUT WE WISH WE PLAYED YALL TWICE A YR LOL

Pretty entertaining stuff (unless you’re a Bengals fan), but then he followed a minute later with this post (apparently after learning how to turn off ALL CAPS):

I live in Cincy, Im a huge Colts fan, Bengals fans are hilarious. Playing them twice a year would be like have 3 bye weeks!

Following all the player smack-talk is a blast. Using this app is like having the players miked up when they’re not playing, giving fans completely new perspective from inside their heads. It’s really terrific for fans of the game, but for the Buffalo Bills, it might not be so good. Terrell Owens has never been one to keep his mouth shut, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can obey the NFL’s new anti-Twitter rule. Our prediction? He’s the first player to get fined for violating this rule.

Whether it’s T.O. or some other player getting slapped by the NFL for spouting off at the wrong time, one thing’s for sure, it’s gonna be fun as heck watching it all play out in realtime with Realtime Pro Football ‘09, one of the best darn football apps for iPhone and iPod touch.

• Realtime Pro Football ‘09 – $1.99 [app store]

1. 
   

   777 Poker

   Games

   View in iTunes

2. 
   

   Stupidness 3

   Games

   View in iTunes

3. 
   

   Cross Fingers

   Games

   View in iTunes

4. 
   

   Mouse Maze Free Game

   Games

   View in iTunes

5. 
   

   Card Ace: Casino

   Games

   View in iTunes

View all Free Apps

I am an App Store and iTunes junkie.  I actually look forward to every Tuesday. This is the day that new media is released (books, CDs, DVDs and as it turns out, Apps).

iPhone real estate is at a premium and you want your most used apps on the main screen or just a few swipes away. Having purchased and/or downloaded hundreds of apps, it is interesting to see which ones get used, which ones stay and which ones get deleted to never to return.

In my opinion, the very best kept secret in the App Store is for an app made by Apple called Remote. I use this app literally every day.

What does Remote do?

Where do I begin?

Well, for starters, Remote allows you to control your iTunes library from your iPhone without the files being on your iPhone. So, for example, if you listen to music on your computer, if you are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, you can control the music from anywhere in your house, adjust the volume, create Playlists, use iTunes DJ, search through artists, albums, collections, music videos, Genius suggestions, Genius playlists, you name it.

But, let’s face it, you may not always want to listen to music on your computer or on the stereo in the living room. Sometimes, you want to sit outside or have music play in all of the rooms in the house. Conventional whole house audio systems aren’t cheap and once installed, they don’t offer a great deal of flexibility. After all, who wants to adjust everything on the wall in each room or have to roam the whole house trying to find the remote? Not me.

That’s why when the Sonos Mesh Network Whole House Audio Player came out, I began scheming to get one. (and, oh, by the way, in case you weren’t aware, the Sonos Player…….there’s an app for that). The Sonos Player connects to your Wi-Fi network and through a proprietary mesh network enables you to place speakers anywhere in your home and control them via a cool iPod Touch like remote control. Very cool. Not cheap and it has singular functionality (streaming music).

You can enable the same type system easily and inexpensively with a very little known feature that is enabled using the Remote app and an Apple AirPort Express Wireless Router.

Here’s how it works:

On my network, I use an Apple Airport Extreme Wireless Router.

I also have an Apple AirPort Express Wireless Router.

Through the Apple AirPort Utility Software, I can connect the two or extend the range of my wireless network. For my setup, they are connected.

The AirPort Express has the ability to stream AirTunes which is iTunes wirelessly over the air.

There is a port on the AirPort Express that enables you to connect it to a powered speaker like the ill fated Apple Hi-Fi (which I love despite its bad reviews and discontinuance) or the Bose SoundDock with one simple cord.

Once connected, using the Remote app, you can now stream music wirelessly to the speaker(s) and control it with a visual interface. This replicates the abilities of the Sonos system for a fraction of the cost. With this setup, you can have AirPort Expresses in any location within range of your wireless network with speakers connected to it. Through the Remote app, you can select which speakers are active and have sound.

It is fast, affordable and fun. I’ve used this setup for years at home and on vacation. It enables me to place speakers anywhere in range of an electrical wall outlet and stream music to them all controlled by my trusty iPhone running the Remote app.

Want a whole house audio system?

Simply buy additional AirPort Expresses and speakers and place them where you want them. You can control all of them with your iPhone and the Remote app.

Incoming search terms:

• best kept secret apps
• best kept iphone secrets
• secret apps for iphone free
• ipod touch best kept secret
• iphone best kept secret
• iphone apps that hide or keep secrets
• i phone apps best kept secrets
• best secrets about iphone 4
• best mystery apps
• best kept secrets of the iphone
• sounddock 1 bose airport express

Thanks to Cydia, an unauthorized app store open to jailbroken iPhones, consumers can still access some software that Apple won’t allow. Think free text-messaging and cheap international calls thanks to a Google Voice app that Apple banned. Or features that we can’t have yet, such as multimedia messaging and tethering. Here, we round up a list of the most compelling reasons to jailbreak your iPhone.

1. Google Voice

Apple recently rejected and banned Google Voice apps from its App Store. The apps would have augmented the search giant’s new voice service, which enables users to rely on a single phone number to ring all their phones, while also delivering the gift of free text messages, voicemail service and cheap international calls. The move stirred so much controversy that even the Federal Communications Commission is inquiring about the prohibition.

Thankfully in the Cydia store there’s GV Mobile, an unofficial Google Voice app. In light of Apple’s blanket ban of Google Voice apps, GV Mobile is the no. 1 reason to jailbreak your iPhone (if you weren’t one of the lucky few to grab a copy before Apple banned it). Overall the app is really sweet, despite having room to improve in terms of performance (connecting to Google’s server each time you launch the app can be a drag). Your contacts list is nicely integrated into the phone dialer and SMS sender; the overall UI is slick and cool. After a few minutes you’ll be sending free text messages, and maybe even dialing your relatives in Taiwan for once with cheap international VOIP calls. The best part? The app’s free.

2. Unrestricted 3G Privileges

AT&T iPhone owners pay $30 per month for “unlimited” 3G data access. But your access isn’t truly unlimited, thanks to restrictions that Apple imposed on some apps. SlingPlayer, an app that streams television from a Slingbox device, was crippled to work only on a Wi-Fi connection at the request of Apple and AT&T. And the Skype VOIP app only works on Wi-Fi, too, rendering it impractical.

This is where 3G Unrestrictor comes in handy. The $2 app enables jailbroken iPhone users to select any app that they wish to use over 3G, including Skype and SlingPlayer. Also, by default the App Store won’t let you download files larger than 10MB on the 3G network, and 3G Unrestrictor will remove that regulation, too. Free your apps and download away!

3. Tethering

Apple promised the new iPhone 3.0 OS would deliver tethering, but AT&T customers have yet to see that promise fulfilled. AT&T promised tethering would arrive “late summer.” Well, we’re waiting, and it’s not here yet. Some iPhone 3.0 users have figured out a roundabout way to turn on tethering without hacking, but that solution is only temporary.

Guess what? There’s a tethering app in Cydia, too. It’s a $5 app called Tether. The steps on setting up tethering aren’t as simple as Apple’s, but hey, you don’t even have to pay a monthly fee to use the service. The app even includes a feature to set a data cap in case you’re worried about extra charges incurred on your account if AT&T catches you tethering. It’s a little rough around the edges thanks to the network setup taking a few minutes, but we still love it.

4. Overseas Travel

Need to travel? Your iPhone can only go so far thanks to its carrier-tied SIM card, unless you wish to receive bills up the nostril thanks to international roaming costs. Jailbreaking will actually enable you to follow a process to unlock your iPhone to work with other carriers’ SIM cards overseas.

5. Pissing off Apple

Whether you’re a developer who has a beef with Apple, or if you’re a consumer who’s pissed at Apple, or if you’re a kid whose puppy was run over by an employee of Apple, then you may want to exact revenge by jailbreaking your iPhone. That’s because Apple clearly doesn’t like it when users jailbreak their iPhones. The company claims the process is illegal, and goes as far as to say jailbreaking will crash cellphone towers. So far these are empty threats, although buyer beware: Future court decisions, laws or FCC regulations may put teeth into Apple’s claims.

6. Pissing off AT&T

Frustrated with AT&T’s brainless customer service, spotty network reception and passive-aggressive totalitarian rule over the App Store? Jailbreaking for any of the reasons above will piss off AT&T, mostly by enabling your applications to use its 3G network without restriction. Or, if you like, you can take your protest a step further and unlock your jailbroken phone, enabling it to work with with T-Mobile or any other GSM-based carrier. It’s not a tea party, it’s an AT&T party!

Source

Incoming search terms:

• jailbreak iphone
• jailbroken iphone
• reason to jailbreak iphone 4