Our second installment in our tour of the Palm Pre App Catalog brings us to another multi-platform app.  This time, it is the incredible free Internet radio program, Pandora.  I have used Pandora on several devices, including the iPod Touch, and I must say that it offers a simply amazing listening experience.

Unlike ordinary radio, which forces you to listen to a mixture of great songs, terrible songs, and gab; Pandora lets you enjoy nothing but the songs you love.  Once you have signed up for a free account, all you need to do is enter the name of the band you wish to listen to.  Piece of cake.

If you do not wish to listen to only a single band, then you can also select Quick Mix.  This will start with the band you selected, and then move on to songs by similar or related bands. 

As you listen, you can rate the songs with a thumbs up or thumbs down.  The more you rate, the better Pandora will get to know you, and will match your musical tastes. 

In addition to simply playing the music, you can also view the album art, or hit information to get a quick bio of the band or brief background of the current song.

I thought the sound quality was great, although there was a brief pause between songs as it downloaded the next song’s information, but that was not a significant concern.  Simply put, Pandora is a fantastic app which turns your Palm Pre into the world’s largest jukebox…and the whole thing is free (unlike most jukeboxes).

Yesterday, Handmark announced an iPhone release of their popular game pack, Casino.

Please check out Doug’s previous review of the Windows Mobile version <link>, where he commented, “I thoroughly enjoyed all eight of the games included in this Casino package”.  It is very exciting indeed that Handmark/Astraware has released an iPhone version of this engaging software package!  The full press release can be found right below the video:

Here is the press release:

Handmark(R) today announced the release of Astraware Casino – a fun, easy-to-use pack of 11 of the most popular casino games from around the world – on the App Store. Astraware Casino is the first new game release from Handmark to use the iTunes Library Integration feature of iPhone OS 3.0. Users with iPhone OS 3.0 compatible devices can select My iPod Music from the game�s Options menu and choose individual songs from their collection to create the perfect casino-themed playlist!

Handmark will be incorporating iTunes Library integration into a range of their existing and forthcoming iPhoneTM and iPod(R) touch games, allowing players to create their own soundtrack for each game. Updates to existing titles with this great new feature will be rolled out over the summer.

“We are excited to be able to use these new APIs to enhance our games offerings,” said Cassidy Lackey, vice president of Handmark Studios. “It’s great to be able to design your own playlist to accompany Astraware Casino – there’s nothing like a bit of relaxing lounge music when you’re enjoying a game of Poker!”

Astraware Casino includes all the usual games you’d expect to find in casinos – Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit and Limit Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and Slots, as well as some more specialist games like Baccarat, 3 Card Poker, Video Derby, and Keno. Astraware Casino gives players $1,000 virtual dollars to begin playing with and also includes a fun trophy system – the Souvenir Suitcase – with awards given for a range of achievements in the game.

Astraware Casino is available at the introductory price of $0.99 for a limited time from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore.
For more information and to view a demo video, visit http://www.astraware.com/iphone/casino.

What do people think when VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is mentioned? Many think of MagicJack, Vonage, and Skype and rightly so. Out of these 3 major companies, only Skype has the popularity of 480 million people and the ability to do video conferencing. Due to a problem with license agreements with Joltid, the company that created the P2P (peer to peer) protocol which Skype uses, Skype may have come to the end of its line. eBay, Skype’s owner doesn’t have time to implement it’s own P2P protocol in which it would be compatible with all versions of Skype. With Joltid accusing eBay of patent infringement, it is unlikely that eBay will be able to reach an agreement for licensing Joltid’s technology until the infringement issue is first resolved. Just be prepared, Skype may just disappear….

Should this happen, what are alternatives out there? AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), and Microsoft Network Messenger (MSN) are alternatives that allow you to do voice, text, and video chat. However it does not have the ability for multiple video chats. For that, you need to consider Oovoo, which can also handle calls to land lines as well. If you don’t care about video or even text chat, then stay tuned for our upcoming guide over VoIP in which you’ll learn how to make free calls to people – as long as the receiver of the call happens to be on a computer.

Technorati Tags: Skype, VoIP, Oovoo, Tjchan, Just Another Mobile Monday, JAMM

Join me as I continue daydreaming.  Thinking about what I’d do with all my free time, what I’d do if I won the lottery and what I’d give you in iPhone OS 4.0 if I were to step in to run Apple tomorrow.  Today, we’re going to look at my third revision to the OS, but first, let’s recap offering number one:  USB based sync support.  The next feature:  dynamic icons.  Keep reading for the third installment, or “giving you what you’ve already got”.

Let me explain:  feature three isn’t anything that I’d actually add.  It’s just that I’d give you access to features that are already present in the OS.  Features that Apple doesn’t want you to have access to.  Why, you may ask, would Apple not want you to have access to certain features?  Who knows?!  I for sure don’t.  Actually, let me rephrase.  I wouldn’t give YOU the features.  I would give the third party developers the features, so they could in turn give them to you.  If you are still with me at this point, you’ve probably guessed where I’m going…

Feature 3:  An Unrestricted iPhone SDK

Apple’s proceeded to hamper the level of success that developers can reach by not allowing them to take full advantage of what the iPhone’s OS can do.  Did you notice that none of the third party PIM applications offered can interface with the built in Calendar data?  Agendus can’t.  Neither can Pocket Informant.

Want multi-tasking?  Open up the SDK!  Want support for Google Voice?  Open up the SDK.  The list goes on, but I suspect you are starting to see the trend here.  Give the developers the tools (and permission) to push the OS to it’s limits.  In turn, the end user benefits.  In turn, Apple benefits.  Happy(er) customers are a winning situation for Apple.

In what other ways would you like to see the features already present in the iPhone OS become more unrestricted?  Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to join us this weekend for the conclusion, when I roll part’s 4 and 5 into one big finale.

Your iPhone chimes.  A new text message has arrived.  You glance down and see only a single square character in the message.  sorry, folks.  It may already be too late for you.  All you can do is immediately shut off your device, put it away, and hope for the best.

Apparently, it seems, there is a security glitch in the iPhone, which leaves it vulnerable to attacks via SMS messages.  According to the report in Forbes Magazine:

That small cipher will likely be your only warning that someone has taken advantage of a bug that [Charlie[] Miller and his fellow cybersecurity researcher Collin Mulliner plan to publicize Thursday at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. Using a flaw they’ve found in the iPhone’s handling of text messages, the researchers say they’ll demonstrate how to send a series of mostly invisible SMS bursts that can give a hacker complete power over any of the smart phone’s functions. That includes dialing the phone, visiting Web sites, turning on the device’s camera and microphone and, most importantly, sending more text messages to further propagate a mass-gadget hijacking.

Wow.  Just wow.  Mass gadget hijacking…coming to the iTunes App Store starting today.  I certainly hope that none of our readers have been affected by this glitch, though I cannot say that Apple shares my sentiment.  They have apparently known about this glitch for over a month, and have made virtually no comment, let alone offered any kind of security patch to cover this problem.  As my good friend, Patrick, said over at Just Another iPhone Blog earlier today:

It’s one thing not to comment on the zillions of device rumors that float around each year in ‘iPhone season’ – it’s quite another to have horrifically bad communication with apps developers and to keep silent on a critical security concern like this one.  Users deserve both a quick patch and some proper answers addressing this subject.

This is like a double whammy for iPhone users.  A disastrous security hole, coupled with a complete lack of response from Apple.  Have any of you been affected by this glitch?  Let us know your experiences in the comments.

UPDATE: It looks like Apple issued a fix for this bug with iPhone OS 3.0.1, which is available for download today from iTunes.  [via Engadget]

[image credit: pocketpicks]