It’s the weekend, people, so prime your downloading finger and get ready to make good use of it as I guide you through the latest picks from the App Store.

Thanks to the release of OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, there’s been a constant stream of Apple happenings. Before we get to the apps, let’s take a glance at the week’s news.

First up, good news and bad for the iPhone 3GS’s new video functionality. The bad news is that keen eared early adopting customers have discovered a high-pitched whining noise on their iPhone 3GS video footage.

However, the incessant whining (of the 3GS, as opposed to disgruntled amateur video makers) hasn’t stopped video uploads to YouTube, direct from the iPhone. Just six days into the device’s release and YouTube has seen a surge of 400 percent in daily mobile uploads, attributed directly to the iPhone 3GS.

With the official release of OS 3.0 also came an updated jailbreaking tool, enabling upgraded users to install non-Apple certified software on their device. I tested the jailbreak software earlier this week and, although it was surprisingly user-friendly, I couldn’t find a good reason to keep it: My iPhone now has copy/paste, tethering and more, straight out the box.

Speaking of tethering, Bryan Schuetz, one of our new arrivals at TheAppleBlog, posted a link to an excellent guide on how to activate tethering on your iPhone. I managed to test out tethering yesterday and had mixed results; it worked perfectly initially, until an hour in when I lost my data connection entirely. It makes me wonder if some carriers will be on the lookout for illegitimate tethering and throttle bandwidth accordingly.

Our own Sultan of Statistics and Maestro of Economic Mathematics, Darrell Etherington, posted news featuring a rather large and impressive number this week. Indeed, Etherington revealed that an utterly unprecedented 1 million 3GS iPhones were purchased during the first week of the device’s release.

And finally, Apple hasn’t been the only ones launching awesome, new products into the consumer nether. British dev studio UsTwo has updated MouthOff, a sound-reactive mouth toy, for iPhone. The MouthOff Signature series includes a selection of 37 weird mouths, including 12 specially commissioned mouths by artists including Jon Burgerman, Pete Fowler and, my fave, Mikko Walamies, the artist behind Rolando’s gorgeous graphics.

Check out the vid I tweeted of the app in action and, if you decide you want to get a new mouth on with MouthOff, then you can win a free promo code for the app. Simply leave a comment at the end of this post telling me why you should get your MouthOff to be in with a chance of winning.

Moving onto the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Jukebox, App Gmail, Star Defense and Taxiball.

Jukebox (99 cents)
My favorite feature back on those early iPods was the music quiz. With an ever-expanding collection of digital music, I loved to test my muso abilities with the Name That Tune-style game bundled with the iPod, courtesy of Apple. Come the release of the iPod touch and iPhone, the game was curiously absent from the new devices — despite the potential for an even-more muso-centric gaming experience. That is until now, thanks to the iPhone’s new 3.0 update, giving developers access to the music library. Jukebox is a gorgeous implementation of this old game, incorporating album artwork and custom gaming modes.

App Gmail (Free)
Apple’s own Mail for iPhone might do the job, but in the meantime, Google has been squeezing a raft of new features and improvements into its Gmail web app for iPhone. Navigational elements have been tweaked, making it easier to skim and sort messages, but the real head-turning feature is offline Gmail, via the web app. All well and good, but there’s still no dedicated app for Gmail, making accessing the web app via Safari feel a tad sloppy. App Gmail meets us halfway to solve the issue — embedding the Gmail web app within the app itself — ridding us of the Safari interface elements. It’s still not an official, dedicated app, but it’ll do the job for now and it’s free.

Star Defense ($5.99)
It may have come out earlier this month, but Star Defense is only just coming into it’s own, thanks to the iPhone OS 3.0 update. The game itself is traditional tower defense given a graphical overhaul — the game features all the usual staples of the genre — multiple towers, waves of baddies — but the 3D graphics and Mario Galaxy-esque palm-size planets make it a thrilling experience. The 3.0 update integrates ngmoco’s Plus+ network. Think of it like the iPhone’s version of Xbox Live, which means multiplayer mode, challenging your friends and gamer points. What’s more, if a friend issues you a challenge, the game sends you a push notification.

Taxiball ($2.99)
As a student, sharing a house with a bunch of messy guys, we’d settle cleaning disputes with a game of Virtua Tennis on Sega’s Dreamcast. The console, sadly, died a premature death, criminally under-appreciated for what it was and the games it offered. Aside from Virtua Tennis, one of my other favorite Dreamcast games was Crazy Taxi. For those who aren’t familiar, driving your cab against the clock, you had to race across town delivering folk where they needed to go. It was massive, thrilling, looked gorgeous, and played like GTA without the constant death or Good Fellas voiceovers. With that in mind, Taxiball replaces the taxi with a big, yellow ball and brings the game to the iPhone. It’s frantic and moreish, well worth checking out.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

It’s the weekend people, so prime your downloading finger and get ready to make good use of it as I guide you through the latest picks from the App Store.

Thanks to the release of OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, there’s been a constant stream of Apple happenings. Before we get to the apps, let’s take a glance at the week’s news.

First up, good news and bad for the iPhone 3GS’s new video functionality. The bad news is that keen eared early-adopting customers have discovered a high-pitched whining noise on their iPhone 3GS video footage.

However, the incessant whining (of the 3GS, as opposed to disgruntled amateur video-makers) hasn’t stopped video uploads to YouTube, direct from the iPhone. Just six days in to the device’s release and YouTube has seen a surge of 400 percent in daily mobile uploads, attributed directly to the iPhone 3GS.

With the official release of OS 3.0 also came an updated jailbreaking tool, enabling upgraded users to install non-Apple certified software on their device. I tested the jailbreak software earlier this week and, although it was surprisingly user-friendly, I couldn’t find a good reason to keep it: my iPhone now has copy/paste, tethering and more, straight out the box.

Speaking of tethering, Bryan Schuetz, one of our new arrivals at TheAppleBlog, posted a link to an excellent guide on how to activate tethering on your iPhone. I managed to test out tethering yesterday and had mixed results, it worked perfectly initially, until an hour in when I lost my data connection entirely. It makes me wonder if some carriers will be on the look out for illegitimate tethering and throttle bandwidth accordingly.

Our own Sultan of Statistics and Maestro of Economic Mathematics, Darrell Etherington, posted news featuring a rather large and impressive number this week. Indeed, Etherington revealed that an utterly unprecedented 1 million 3GS iPhone’s have been purchased during the first week of the device’s release.

And finally, Apple hasn’t been the only ones launching awesome new products in to the consumer nether. British dev studio UsTwo have updated MouthOff, a sound-reactive mouth toy, for iPhone. The MouthOff Signature series includes a selection of 37 weird mouths, including 12 specially commissioned mouths by artists including Jon Burgerman, Pete Fowler and, my fave, Mikko Walamies, the artist behind Rolando’s gorgeous graphics.

Check out the vid I tweeted of the app in action and, if you’ve decide you want to get a new mouth on with MouthOff, then you can win a free promo code for the app. Simply leave a comment at the end of this post telling me why you should get your MouthOff to be in with a chance of winning.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Jukebox, App Gmail, Star Defense and Taxiball.

Jukebox (99 cents)
My favorite feature back on those early iPods was the music quiz. With an ever-expanding collection of digital music, I loved to test my muso abilities with the Name That Tune-style game bundled with the iPod, courtesy of Apple. Come the release of the iPod touch and iPhone, the game was curiously absent from the new devices — despite the potential for an even-more muso-centric gaming experience. That is until now, thanks the iPhone’s new 3.0 update gives developers access to the music library. Jukebox is a gorgeous implementation of this old game, incorporating album artwork and custom gaming modes.

App Gmail (Free)
Apple’s own Mail for iPhone might do the job, but in the meantime Google has been squeezing a raft of new features and improvements into their Gmail web app for iPhone. Navigational elements have been tweaked, making it easier to skim and sort messages, but the real head-turning feature is offline Gmail, via the web app. All well and good, but there’s still no dedicated app for Gmail, making accessing the web app via Safari feel a tad sloppy. App Gmail meets us halfway to solve the issue — embedding the Gmail web app within the app itself — ridding us of the Safari interface elements. It’s still not an official, dedicated app, but it’ll do the job for now and it’s free.

Star Defense ($5.99)
It may have come out earlier this month, but Star Defense is only just coming in to it’s own thanks to the iPhone OS 3.0 update. The game itself is traditional tower defense given a graphical overhaul — the game features all the usual staples of the genre — multiple towers, waves of baddies — but the 3D graphics and Mario Galaxy-esque palm-size planets make it a thrilling experience. The 3.0 update integrates ngmoco’s Plus+ network. Think of it like the iPhone’s version of Xbox Live, which means multiplayer mode, challenging your friends and gamer points. What’s more, if a friend issues you a challenge, the game sends you a push notification.

Taxiball ($2.99)
As a student, sharing a house with a bunch of messy guys, we’d settle cleaning disputes with a game of Virtua Tennis on Sega’s Dreamcast. The console, sadly, died a premature death, criminally under-appreciated for what it was and the game’s it offered. Aside from Virtua Tennis, one of my other favorite Dreamcast games was Crazy Taxi. For those who aren’t familiar, driving your cab against the clock, you had to race across town delivering folk where they needed to go. It was massive, thrilling, looked gorgeous and played like GTA without the constant death or Good Fellas voiceovers. With that in mind, Taxiball replaces the taxi with a big yellow ball and brings the game to iPhone. It’s frantic and moreish, well worth checking out.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

Something’s rotten in Cupertino, and Apple fans running the 3.0 firmware are beginning to get anxious as a result. I’m talking about push notifications, of course, which have yet to dazzle and amaze most iPhone owners running 3.0. A few apps are trickling in with some push features, but by and large, the headline apps that would provide game-changing push functionality have been left out in the cold.

If you’ve been monitoring “push notifications” on Twitter like I have to try to catch new apps as they come out, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. The majority of talk seems to be vitriol against Apple for not approving the push-enabled version of the popular Beejive instant messenger, which has been under review for at least a week and a half now. Also in high demand is IM+, also currently under review, and AIM. Basically, people really want an IM client with push, and also a Twitter client, though I’ve yet to see any conclusive proof that there is definitely one that is either pending review or in the works.

News now comes from a site that was trying to monitor and aggregate all live apps which include push notification, AppAdvice.com. They received word from an iPhone developer that Apple is to blame for the delays regarding push-capable apps. Dominik Balogh, who worked on the app NotifyMe, which uses push to remind you of to-do list tasks, reportedly received an email from Apple App Store staff claiming that the problems are on Apple’s side of things, and that they haven’t worked through all of the push bugs just yet.

Note that some apps, though, are live and are working fine, such as Tap Tap Revenge 2, among a growing list of others. I’m still running the AIM Developer preview released prior to 3.0’s official launch, and it is working like a charm, with virtually no lag time. That tells me that Apple’s servers are up and running, so the problem is probably more an anticipated one than something that’s already having an effect. Balogh describes a problem in the MacRumors forum having to do with feedback check, which he explains there, but it only happens 4 percent of the time, and probably wouldn’t justify a complete freeze on heavy-use push apps alone.

My bet is that Apple is only now realizing how much it will have to scale its infrastructure to deal with the volume that will come with push support for widely used apps like Beejive, which would presumably be making very frequent calls to the server for each user. The 3.0 release was attached to a pretty fixed timeline, so it isn’t terribly surprising that not everything was ready for launch. Better a little catch-up on the back-end than significant bugs and failures on the user’s side, like with the 2.0 launch. That said, gimme my Beejive push!

Something’s rotten in Cupertino, and Apple fans running the 3.0 firmware are beginning to get anxious as a result. I’m talking about push notifications, of course, which have yet to dazzle and amaze most iPhone owners running 3.0. A few apps are trickling in with some push features, but by and large, the headline apps that would provide game-changing push functionality have been left out in the cold.

If you’ve been monitoring “push notifications” on Twitter like I have to try to catch new apps as they come out, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. The majority of talk seems to be vitriol against Apple for not approving the push-enabled version of the popular Beejive instant messenger, which has been under review for at least a week and a half now. Also in high demand is IM+, also currently under review, and AIM. Basically, people really want an IM client with push, and also a Twitter client, though I’ve yet to see any conclusive proof that there is definitely one that is either pending review or in the works.

News now comes from a site that was trying to monitor and aggregate all live apps which include push notification, AppAdvice.com. They received word from an iPhone developer that Apple is to blame for the delays regarding push-capable apps. Dominik Balogh, who worked on the app NotifyMe, which uses push to remind you of to-do list tasks, reportedly received an email from Apple App Store staff claiming that the problems are on Apple’s side of things, and that they haven’t worked through all of the push bugs just yet.

Note that some apps, though, are live and are working fine, such as Tap Tap Revenge 2, among a growing list of others. I’m still running the AIM Developer preview released prior to 3.0’s official launch, and it is working like a charm, with virtually no lag time. That tells me that Apple’s servers are up and running, so the problem is probably more an anticipated one than something that’s already having an effect. Balogh describes a problem in the MacRumors forum having to do with feedback check, which he explains there, but it only happens 4 percent of the time, and probably wouldn’t justify a complete freeze on heavy-use push apps alone.

My bet is that Apple is only now realizing how much it will have to scale its infrastructure to deal with the volume that will come with push support for widely used apps like Beejive, which would presumably be making very frequent calls to the server for each user. The 3.0 release was attached to a pretty fixed timeline, so it isn’t terribly surprising that not everything was ready for launch. Better a little catch-up on the back-end than significant bugs and failures on the user’s side, like with the 2.0 launch. That said, gimme my Beejive push!

With Father’s Day just around the corner (Sunday, to be exact), we here at TheAppleBlog thought what better gift to get that special father in your life than a thoughtful yet handy iPhone or iPod touch application.

Feeling the cash crunch around this particular time? Not to worry, most of the applications mentioned here are free or just a couple bucks. A nice print-out of your gift tucked or wrapped nicely in a festive Father’s Day envelope will more than likely communicate your genuine appreciation for your dad. So since all dads are obviously not the same, breeze through our list and find our top picks for your kind of dad.

The Stay at Home Dad

iHandy Level (Free)
For the Stay-at-Home Handy Dad — utility belts and their attachments are so passé! Consider surprising your stay-at-home Dad this Father’s Day with gadgets that reside in his iPhone.

iHandy Level is a free application brought to you by iHandySoft Inc. This stunning application exploits the iPhone’s Accelerometer and Proximity sensor to bring your stay-at-home Handy Dad a truly unique handyman experience. From balancing and centering picture frames on the wall, to leveling a floor tile — this is definitely one unique application that no handy dad should be without!

If you’re feeling extra generous this Father’s Day, you may consider the iHandy Carpenter which includes five handyman tools in one for the ridiculous price of $1.99!

iHandy Carpenter Notable Features

• iHandy Level
• Plumb Bob – the easy method of verifying the verticality of walls
• Surface Level – the best tool to level any flat surface
• Steel protractor – OK so it’s not made of steel, but it sure is pretty and measures angles beautifully
• Steel Ruler – again, not real steel – but smarter and more compact than any steel ruler you may have come across and it actually measures a few times longer than the iPhone, too

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (Free)
If your stay-at-home Dad isn’t particularly the handyman type, but perhaps more of the kitchen connoisseur, the Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner app may be more his taste.

He can swipe away at the Spinner sorting by Dish Type, Ingredients, and Prep/Cook time to view recipe matches of his choice — or, if he’s feeling “saucy,” he could simply tap the Spin Categories function for a totally impromptu pick. One thing is for sure, the recipe of choice will definitely be one to delight since all recipes are based on ratings and reviews of millions of home cooks. To top it off, each recipe comes complete with its own Nutritional Information chart to keep a stay-at-home Dad’s family happy and healthy.

Notable Features

• Choose by Dish Type from Appetizers through to Dessert (cocktails included)
• Choose by Ingredient
• Choose by desired Prep/Cook time
• A light shake will present random recipe ideas

The Sports Fan Dad

ESPN ScoreCenter (Free)
Forget about losing your sports fan Dad’s attention to the TV, that’s a worry of the past. A glance is all it will take to get the latest scores, results and stats of his favorite sports team — all from a one-tap access interface. With the recent release of the iPhone and iPod touch 3.0 software update, the new ESPN ScoreCenter will also feature push notifications.

Results are available for:

• Football/Soccer
• Baseball (MLB)
• American Football (NFL)
• Basketball (NBA)
• Ice Hockey (NHL)
• NCAA College Football, Basketball
• NASCAE, Formula 1, Indycar
• Golf
• Tennis
• Cricket & Rugby are both coming soon

Sports Radio (99 cents)
Is your sports fan Dad a multinational sports fan Dad? Place the world of sports radio into the palm of his hand with a single app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Not only can your dad tune in to over 6,400 sports radio stations around the world, but with the newly added Facebook and Twitter integration, he can keep his friends in the know as well.

Notable Features

• Includes users favorite MP3 iTunes stations
• Pick from favorites or recently played stations
• Includes Public Radio streams and over 2,100 MP3 stations from Europe, Australia, and Canada
• Dynamic directory for adding new directories and stations without application updates, 
email links to a station stream to friends using iPhone or iPod touch Mail application,
 Radio for iPhone supports MP3 and AAC stream formats and then some

The Athletic Dad

Yoga STRETCH (99 cents)
Now don’t let the womanly image fool you; these days yoga is a very acceptable, manly athletic activity (and I’m not saying so just because I do it — cough).

Having the mind in tune with the body through yoga has proven to yield many benefits, especially for me. These include lowering blood pressure, weight normalization, and an increase to energy and endurance levels. This progressive app displays traditional yoga poses at individual intervals and comes complete with a personal yoga instructor that walks students through a successful session. Since the application is designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch, your athletic Dad can strike his pose in his office or from the comfort of his own hiding place.

Notable Features

• Consists of traditional yoga poses sequencing with a Vinyasa flow
• Designed to improve strength, balance, posture and flexibility
• A personal yoga instructor walking each through a full session including audio commentary, images and music

iFitness ($1.99)
If your athletic Dad doesn’t happen to be the posing, flexing type, iFitness may just be what he needs for an all-around healthy, accurate and comprehensive workout. Forget about breaking the bank to get your dad a personal trainer for Father’s Day — a single solution has been developed just for the tech- (and financially-) savvy individual and it’s available on none other than the iPhone and iPod touch.

Notable Features

• Over 110 beautifully illustrated exercises with accompanying text
• Favorites option to create your own custom routine
• Preset routines that our experts have made for reaching different goals
• Exercises organized by the muscles they target

The Business Dad

TravelTracker with TripIt ($7.99)
With just one tap you can download all of your trip information into TravelTracker. Not only will it download each of the your critical trip details, such as flights, hotel reservations and car rentals, but it also goes the extra mile to fetch the pertinent details of your trip, such as your meetings, activities, notes and yes — even your restaurant reservations. Yum!

Does your airport lack sufficient mobile coverage and/or is not yet equipped with free Wi-Fi? Never fear! TravelTracker with TripIt works sufficiently offline just as beautifully as it does online. Oh, and if you’re still trying to figure out what exactly TripIt is, check out this amazing free add-on: tripit.com.

TravelTracker is your all-in-one virtual travel assistant and companion. It stores all vital information for your trip and displays it in a convenient optimized itinerary screen that allows you to record all of the key aspects you need before, during and after your trip. This is every business Dad’s winner.

Notable Features

• One-touch flight status
• Customizable packing lists
• Records all details of your travel expenses
• Record-keeping of all of your frequent traveler award programs
• Airplane database with link to seating charts
• Email your itinerary and expenses to contacts
• Download current weather conditions & forecasts for your chosen airport
• Download current exchange rates to determine your trip total in your own currency

Currency (Free)
These days, with business deals flowing like water across oceans, the Internet has skyrocketed business transactions into oblivion and the only way for your business Dad to keep up with the world’s currencies is through a single intuitive application such as Currency. This app provides the latest conversions in every exchange language (18 languages, to be exact) and in every currency (which total 90 currencies for over 100 countries).

Notable Features

• 18 exchange languages
• Up-to-date exchange rate information for over 90 currencies and 100 countries
• Common currencies: Dollar, Pound, Yen, Peso, Dinar, Yuan, Baht, Dirham, Real, Kuna, Riyal, Lira plus many others

The Single Dad

Urban Spoon (Free)
No single Dad will ever be without ideas as to where to take the kids (or a hot date) for the best eats in town! With similar functionality as Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner, the shake of the iPhone or iPod touch will jolt Urban Spoon into emulating the function of a classic slot machine to present a random restaurant pick in the vicinity. Another shake will simply pull up another selection — and just keep on shaking until satisfied. Arm getting tired yet? Just set a lock on any of the three criteria items (Neighborhood, Cuisine, Price) to narrow the selection.

Notable Features

• Use GPS to find a restaurant nearest you
• Filter by Neighborhood, Cuisine and Price
• Search and browse local restaurant and check out their reviews
• See a list of all nearby restaurants
• Compare restaurant picks with your friends

NYTimes App (Free)
For the single Dads (or really any dad) who are always on the go, they’ll never miss a beat (or an important news update) from the newly polished NYTimes App. No longer is this news application painfully sluggish, as its version 1.0 predecessor was. In fact, NYTimes App zips across the wire to download up-to-the-minute news in a flash and even works just as feverishly offline or in airplane mode (just as long as the app has downloaded the articles previously, which is still quite instant).

Notable Features

• Gorgeous and sophisticated interface
• Access to the latest articles and photos of the day
• Customizable toolbar with favorite sections of NYTimes.com
• Read anywhere – After a quick sync, articles and photos are available offline

With Father’s Day just around the corner (Sunday, to be exact), we here at TheAppleBlog thought what better gift to get that special father in your life than a thoughtful yet handy iPhone or iPod touch application.

Feeling the cash crunch around this particular time? Not to worry, most of the applications mentioned here are free or just a couple bucks. A nice print-out of your gift tucked or wrapped nicely in a festive Father’s Day envelope will more than likely communicate your genuine appreciation for your dad. So since all dads are obviously not the same, breeze through our list and find our top picks for your kind of dad.

The Stay at Home Dad

iHandy Level (Free)
For the Stay-at-Home Handy Dad — utility belts and their attachments are so passé! Consider surprising your stay-at-home Dad this Father’s Day with gadgets that reside in his iPhone.

iHandy Level is a free application brought to you by iHandySoft Inc. This stunning application exploits the iPhone’s Accelerometer and Proximity sensor to bring your stay-at-home Handy Dad a truly unique handyman experience. From balancing and centering picture frames on the wall, to leveling a floor tile — this is definitely one unique application that no handy dad should be without!

If you’re feeling extra generous this Father’s Day, you may consider the iHandy Carpenter which includes five handyman tools in one for the ridiculous price of $1.99!

iHandy Carpenter Notable Features

• iHandy Level
• Plumb Bob – the easy method of verifying the verticality of walls
• Surface Level – the best tool to level any flat surface
• Steel protractor – OK so it’s not made of steel, but it sure is pretty and measures angles beautifully
• Steel Ruler – again, not real steel – but smarter and more compact than any steel ruler you may have come across and it actually measures a few times longer than the iPhone, too

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (Free)
If your stay-at-home Dad isn’t particularly the handyman type, but perhaps more of the kitchen connoisseur, the Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner app may be more his taste.

He can swipe away at the Spinner sorting by Dish Type, Ingredients, and Prep/Cook time to view recipe matches of his choice — or, if he’s feeling “saucy,” he could simply tap the Spin Categories function for a totally impromptu pick. One thing is for sure, the recipe of choice will definitely be one to delight since all recipes are based on ratings and reviews of millions of home cooks. To top it off, each recipe comes complete with its own Nutritional Information chart to keep a stay-at-home Dad’s family happy and healthy.

Notable Features

• Choose by Dish Type from Appetizers through to Dessert (cocktails included)
• Choose by Ingredient
• Choose by desired Prep/Cook time
• A light shake will present random recipe ideas

The Sports Fan Dad

ESPN ScoreCenter (Free)
Forget about losing your sports fan Dad’s attention to the TV, that’s a worry of the past. A glance is all it will take to get the latest scores, results and stats of his favorite sports team — all from a one-tap access interface. With the recent release of the iPhone and iPod touch 3.0 software update, the new ESPN ScoreCenter will also feature push notifications.

Results are available for:

• Football/Soccer
• Baseball (MLB)
• American Football (NFL)
• Basketball (NBA)
• Ice Hockey (NHL)
• NCAA College Football, Basketball
• NASCAE, Formula 1, Indycar
• Golf
• Tennis
• Cricket & Rugby are both coming soon

Sports Radio (99 cents)
Is your sports fan Dad a multinational sports fan Dad? Place the world of sports radio into the palm of his hand with a single app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Not only can your dad tune in to over 6,400 sports radio stations around the world, but with the newly added Facebook and Twitter integration, he can keep his friends in the know as well.

Notable Features

• Includes users favorite MP3 iTunes stations
• Pick from favorites or recently played stations
• Includes Public Radio streams and over 2,100 MP3 stations from Europe, Australia, and Canada
• Dynamic directory for adding new directories and stations without application updates, 
email links to a station stream to friends using iPhone or iPod touch Mail application,
 Radio for iPhone supports MP3 and AAC stream formats and then some

The Athletic Dad

Yoga STRETCH (99 cents)
Now don’t let the womanly image fool you; these days yoga is a very acceptable, manly athletic activity (and I’m not saying so just because I do it — cough).

Having the mind in tune with the body through yoga has proven to yield many benefits, especially for me. These include lowering blood pressure, weight normalization, and an increase to energy and endurance levels. This progressive app displays traditional yoga poses at individual intervals and comes complete with a personal yoga instructor that walks students through a successful session. Since the application is designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch, your athletic Dad can strike his pose in his office or from the comfort of his own hiding place.

Notable Features

• Consists of traditional yoga poses sequencing with a Vinyasa flow
• Designed to improve strength, balance, posture and flexibility
• A personal yoga instructor walking each through a full session including audio commentary, images and music

iFitness ($1.99)
If your athletic Dad doesn’t happen to be the posing, flexing type, iFitness may just be what he needs for an all-around healthy, accurate and comprehensive workout. Forget about breaking the bank to get your dad a personal trainer for Father’s Day — a single solution has been developed just for the tech- (and financially-) savvy individual and it’s available on none other than the iPhone and iPod touch.

Notable Features

• Over 110 beautifully illustrated exercises with accompanying text
• Favorites option to create your own custom routine
• Preset routines that our experts have made for reaching different goals
• Exercises organized by the muscles they target

The Business Dad

TravelTracker with TripIt ($7.99)
With just one tap you can download all of your trip information into TravelTracker. Not only will it download each of the your critical trip details, such as flights, hotel reservations and car rentals, but it also goes the extra mile to fetch the pertinent details of your trip, such as your meetings, activities, notes and yes — even your restaurant reservations. Yum!

Does your airport lack sufficient mobile coverage and/or is not yet equipped with free Wi-Fi? Never fear! TravelTracker with TripIt works sufficiently offline just as beautifully as it does online. Oh, and if you’re still trying to figure out what exactly TripIt is, check out this amazing free add-on: tripit.com.

TravelTracker is your all-in-one virtual travel assistant and companion. It stores all vital information for your trip and displays it in a convenient optimized itinerary screen that allows you to record all of the key aspects you need before, during and after your trip. This is every business Dad’s winner.

Notable Features

• One-touch flight status
• Customizable packing lists
• Records all details of your travel expenses
• Record-keeping of all of your frequent traveler award programs
• Airplane database with link to seating charts
• Email your itinerary and expenses to contacts
• Download current weather conditions & forecasts for your chosen airport
• Download current exchange rates to determine your trip total in your own currency

Currency (Free)
These days, with business deals flowing like water across oceans, the Internet has skyrocketed business transactions into oblivion and the only way for your business Dad to keep up with the world’s currencies is through a single intuitive application such as Currency. This app provides the latest conversions in every exchange language (18 languages, to be exact) and in every currency (which total 90 currencies for over 100 countries).

Notable Features

• 18 exchange languages
• Up-to-date exchange rate information for over 90 currencies and 100 countries
• Common currencies: Dollar, Pound, Yen, Peso, Dinar, Yuan, Baht, Dirham, Real, Kuna, Riyal, Lira plus many others

The Single Dad

Urban Spoon (Free)
No single Dad will ever be without ideas as to where to take the kids (or a hot date) for the best eats in town! With similar functionality as Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner, the shake of the iPhone or iPod touch will jolt Urban Spoon into emulating the function of a classic slot machine to present a random restaurant pick in the vicinity. Another shake will simply pull up another selection — and just keep on shaking until satisfied. Arm getting tired yet? Just set a lock on any of the three criteria items (Neighborhood, Cuisine, Price) to narrow the selection.

Notable Features

• Use GPS to find a restaurant nearest you
• Filter by Neighborhood, Cuisine and Price
• Search and browse local restaurant and check out their reviews
• See a list of all nearby restaurants
• Compare restaurant picks with your friends

NYTimes App (Free)
For the single Dads (or really any dad) who are always on the go, they’ll never miss a beat (or an important news update) from the newly polished NYTimes App. No longer is this news application painfully sluggish, as its version 1.0 predecessor was. In fact, NYTimes App zips across the wire to download up-to-the-minute news in a flash and even works just as feverishly offline or in airplane mode (just as long as the app has downloaded the articles previously, which is still quite instant).

Notable Features

• Gorgeous and sophisticated interface
• Access to the latest articles and photos of the day
• Customizable toolbar with favorite sections of NYTimes.com
• Read anywhere – After a quick sync, articles and photos are available offline

The fact that they included parental controls for games in the 3.0 beta sort of hinted at this, but along with the iPhone 3.0 update today came app ratings, which appear rather inconspicuously under the app’s price and buy button on the detailed info screen. It also appears next to an app’s name in the list view of the iTunes store browser.

Interestingly, all apps appear to be getting a rating, as I checked out even one so innocuous as HP’s MediaSmart Server iStream app and found that it was “not yet rated.” It may be that all harmless utilities will receive this nondescript side-stepping of a rating going forward.

Games, though, and apps like Exterminator – Shooter Sounds Massacre! (9+), definitely have been rated using Apple’s own internal standards. The ratings are are as follows, taken directly from iTunes:

4+: Applications in this category contain no objectionable materials.

9+: Applications in this category may contain mild or infrequent occurrences of cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and infrequent or mild mature, suggestive, or horror-themed content which may not be suitable for children under the age of 9.

12+: Applications in this category may also contain infrequent mild language, frequent or intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and mild or infrequent mature or suggestive themes, and simulated gambling which may not be suitable for children under the age of 12.

17+: You must be at least 17 years old to purchase this application. (emphasis in the original)

Applications in this category may also contain frequent and intense offensive language; frequent and intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence; and frequent and intense mature, horror, and suggestive themes; plus sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.

Sounds like we’ve got some exciting 17+ apps coming our way. And, without a doubt, endless debate as to the merit of Apple’s ratings system, and the categories they’ve devised, and which apps receive which ratings and why.

A quick test of the restrictions found that they do indeed prevent me from downloading Exterminator with the settings turned down to 4+ and below only. You can view the app’s info screen in the App Store, but that’s as far as you’ll get. Notice the grayed out “Free” button at the top right of the screen. No novelty gunshot noises for junior.

In addition to a rating, each app also receives a brief description of how it earned that classification, so you know Apple reviewers weren’t just choosing at random because their eyes are bleeding from reviewing thousands of apps. Doubt the ESRB is pleased with the company’s decision to go it alone, but I expect we’ll hear first-hand what they think of the move any moment now.

Your head might be spinning from the torrent of Apple happenings at WWDC this week, but fear not, I’ve got the cure: fresh picks from the App Store.

It’s been an exciting week for TheAppleBlog, with our correspondents posting live from WWDC in San Jose; we’ve been covering the event from all angles. Before we look at this week’s apps, let’s take a moment to summarize the latest Apple news.

We kicked off the week in style with Apple’s official keynote at WWDC. Behind the scenes we had Henry Balanon and David Koff with live reportage from the event. Streamed live to our WWDC coverage page, we hosted over 74,000 readers. If you missed it first time round, replay it here.

In an entirely unexpected turn of events, the 13″ MacBook has now gone professional. Indeed, the new 13″ MacBook Pro includes an SD card slot, up to 8GB of RAM, and a backlit keyboard as standard. Early adaptors of the 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro can join me in irking 13″ MacBook Pro owners by collectively running our greasy fingers down their glossy 13″ screens.

And, as if that wasn’t enough for us early adopters, the 15″ MacBook Pro has also been updated. In a nutshell, the update means more storage and improved battery life. Plus, the pretty much redundant ExpressCard slot has been replaced with a more useful SD card slot. Readers looking for an overview of the updated MacBook Pro line should head on over to Tom Reestman’s article.

Apple has also announced that Snow Leopard, the latest upgrade to their desktop OS, will be released this September. It’s fully 64-bit, features Exchange support, and is basically pretty wonderful, but the best thing about it isn’t the feature set, it’s the price: Current Leopard users will be able to upgrade for just $29. In the meantime, those looking for a quick software update hit should download the official release of Safari 4.

Then there’s the big news, the product announcement that I’ve been waiting months for: the iPhone 3G S. It’s exactly the same form factor except there’s more RAM, greater storage and — this is a big deal for me — a better camera. The iPhone 3G isn’t going anywhere yet, though; it’ll still be available, at least for a limited time, at the new price point of $99.

Just like the MacBook Pro family, it’s not only the iPhone hardware that has been updated, it’s the software, too. Apple is officially releasing iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17. There are tons of new features, more than I can mention here. Rest assured, though, that crowd-pleasers such as cut/copy/paste, MMS and shake to undo have been included in the update.

To celebrate the launch of the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0, the folks at Polar Bear Farm have given us two promo codes for their latest app. The app is called Face Match; for a chance to win, simply leave a comment telling me why you’d like to use this face recognition tool for the iPhone.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Photo Zen, Tumblr Gear, Swiss Maker and Spinal Tap.

PhotoZen (Free)
Until I bag myself a new iPhone 3G S, containing upgraded camera and integrated video-editing, my iPhone photography lineup consists of Quadcamera and Flickit. The idea is that since the camera on the iPhone 3G isn’t so hot, I want to take quick, fun shots and upload them efficiently, without having to sync and manage via iPhoto. PhotoZen captures this quick and fun photo-sharing ethos, allowing you to post your own images to a social bonsai tree, receiving images from strangers in return. Sweet, simple and free.

Tumblr Gear (Free)
I’m particularly interested in Tumblr Gear because it’s an alternative to Tumblr’s official iPhone app. That’s not to say I have a problem with the official app, quite the contrary; it’s great for posting new content whilst on the move. Rather than for creating new posts, Tumblr Gear was devised for browsing your dashboard and seeing what your friends have been posting. It’s optimized for the iPhone and efficient to use. For the avid user, this could be an essential app.

Swiss Maker (Free)
In reaction to the Swiss design style — stark typographic imagery featuring Helvetica — the Boston-based marketing agency Dirk+Weiss started a site: anyonecanswiss.com. Their clever site, now available as an iPhone app, lets you design a Swiss-style poster in seconds — just enter a few words and it does the tough job of changing the font to Helvetica and printing the text on a black background. Creative folk will appreciate the app for sure, those who don’t get the joke should download the app regardless — show it to your friends, they’ll think you’re erudite, topical and witty.

Spinal Tap (Free)
Around the release of their 1982 album, “Smell the Glove,” their music was described by one journalist as such, “This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, ‘What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?’” It doesn’t matter what the critics said though because Spinal Tap is back and they’re ready to rock. Alongside finally releasing “Saucy Jack,” the band has put out its very own iPhone app. The app is a hub of Tap-related information, there are new tracks to listen to, a Fan Wall for chatting with other listeners, brand-new videos, and even tweets. It’s good to have Spinal Tap back, both fans and those unfamiliar with the band should download the app immediately.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

Your head might be spinning from the torrent of Apple happenings at WWDC this week, but fear not, I’ve got the cure: fresh picks from the App Store.

It’s been an exciting week for TheAppleBlog, with our correspondents posting live from WWDC in San Jose; we’ve been covering the event from all angles. Before we look at this week’s apps, let’s take a moment to summarize the latest Apple news.

We kicked off the week in style with Apple’s official keynote at WWDC. Behind the scenes we had Henry Balanon and David Koff with live reportage from the event. Streamed live to our WWDC coverage page, we hosted over 74,000 readers. If you missed it first time round, replay it here.

In an entirely unexpected turn of events, the 13″ MacBook has now gone professional. Indeed, the new 13″ MacBook Pro includes an SD card slot, up to 8GB of RAM, and a backlit keyboard as standard. Early adaptors of the 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro can join me in irking 13″ MacBook Pro owners by collectively running our greasy fingers down their glossy 13″ screens.

And, as if that wasn’t enough for us early adopters, the 15″ MacBook Pro has also been updated. In a nutshell, the update means more storage and improved battery life. Plus, the pretty much redundant ExpressCard slot has been replaced with a more useful SD card slot. Readers looking for an overview of the updated MacBook Pro line should head on over to Tom Reestman’s article.

Apple has also announced that Snow Leopard, the latest upgrade to their desktop OS, will be released this September. It’s fully 64-bit, features Exchange support, and is basically pretty wonderful, but the best thing about it isn’t the feature set, it’s the price: Current Leopard users will be able to upgrade for just $29. In the meantime, those looking for a quick software update hit should download the official release of Safari 4.

Then there’s the big news, the product announcement that I’ve been waiting months for: the iPhone 3G S. It’s exactly the same form factor except there’s more RAM, greater storage and — this is a big deal for me — a better camera. The iPhone 3G isn’t going anywhere yet, though; it’ll still be available, at least for a limited time, at the new price point of $99.

Just like the MacBook Pro family, it’s not only the iPhone hardware that has been updated, it’s the software, too. Apple is officially releasing iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17. There are tons of new features, more than I can mention here. Rest assured, though, that crowd-pleasers such as cut/copy/paste, MMS and shake to undo have been included in the update.

To celebrate the launch of the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0, the folks at Polar Bear Farm have given us two promo codes for their latest app. The app is called Face Match; for a chance to win, simply leave a comment telling me why you’d like to use this face recognition tool for the iPhone.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Photo Zen, Tumblr Gear, Swiss Maker and Spinal Tap.

PhotoZen (Free)
Until I bag myself a new iPhone 3G S, containing upgraded camera and integrated video-editing, my iPhone photography lineup consists of Quadcamera and Flickit. The idea is that since the camera on the iPhone 3G isn’t so hot, I want to take quick, fun shots and upload them efficiently, without having to sync and manage via iPhoto. PhotoZen captures this quick and fun photo-sharing ethos, allowing you to post your own images to a social bonsai tree, receiving images from strangers in return. Sweet, simple and free.

Tumblr Gear (Free)
I’m particularly interested in Tumblr Gear because it’s an alternative to Tumblr’s official iPhone app. That’s not to say I have a problem with the official app, quite the contrary; it’s great for posting new content whilst on the move. Rather than for creating new posts, Tumblr Gear was devised for browsing your dashboard and seeing what your friends have been posting. It’s optimized for the iPhone and efficient to use. For the avid user, this could be an essential app.

Swiss Maker (Free)
In reaction to the Swiss design style — stark typographic imagery featuring Helvetica — the Boston-based marketing agency Dirk+Weiss started a site: anyonecanswiss.com. Their clever site, now available as an iPhone app, lets you design a Swiss-style poster in seconds — just enter a few words and it does the tough job of changing the font to Helvetica and printing the text on a black background. Creative folk will appreciate the app for sure, those who don’t get the joke should download the app regardless — show it to your friends, they’ll think you’re erudite, topical and witty.

Spinal Tap (Free)
Around the release of their 1982 album, “Smell the Glove,” their music was described by one journalist as such, “This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, ‘What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?’” It doesn’t matter what the critics said though because Spinal Tap is back and they’re ready to rock. Alongside finally releasing “Saucy Jack,” the band has put out its very own iPhone app. The app is a hub of Tap-related information, there are new tracks to listen to, a Fan Wall for chatting with other listeners, brand-new videos, and even tweets. It’s good to have Spinal Tap back, both fans and those unfamiliar with the band should download the app immediately.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?