Awesome Free Ipod Apps

I havent done an app post in awhile but since Iphone's and Ipod touchs are growing in popularity, I thought it would be a good time to do another post. Especially since the app store is a complete mess with over 25,000 items to download. This is by no means a complete list but here are some of my favorite must have free apps.

Music Apps

1. Aol Radio- dozens(maybe over a 100) different streaming radio stations to listen to. My favorite music is metal so there are choices of power metal, metacore, death metal, hair metal, all metallica and more!

2. Last Fm- I give this one a slight nod over Pandora just because I like the music selection a little better. Basically how this works is you pick a band that you like and it matches up other similar artists. Ive discovered a lot of cool bands doing this.

3. Pandora- Very similar to Last Fm.

Movies

1. Now Playing- good for managing Netflix Queue, watching trailers or getting movie times. My favorite one overall

2. PhoneFlix- ditto

3. Flixster-ditto

4. Pocketpedia- Great way to keep track of your dvd library

Miscellaneous

Ap Mobile News- great way to keep up with national and local news

Sportacular- awesome sports app with updates in real time on scores.

White Noise- awesome chill out noise app to relax or go to sleep to. Sounds such as fireplace, thunder, beach, water, fan, car rain, rain storms, washer, cat purring, ocean, airplane and much more.

Easy Relax- another relaxing sound app.

Truveo and Vsnax- these are good for watching media video clips

INXES- great way to keep up with your xbox 360 friends.

Drinks Free- great tool to find recipes for mixed drinks.

Urbanspoon- app that helps you find restaurants in your area.

Props to Apple
About a week ago my Ipod Touch wifi just went completely out. I knew I didnt buy any special Apple Care package and Ive had it about 6 months now so I thought I was screwed. The music, video, and app games still worked, I just couldnt surf through the safari browser or watch YouTube clips. I didnt realize how much I used the internet features till I no longer had it to use. Frustrated I took It took the Apple store in the mall hoping they could send it off to fix the ipod. Lo and behold within 5 minutes I was walking out of the store with a brand new device and shit eating grin on my face. Apparently they have a limited one year warranty on all ipod devices and you dont have to have proof of purchase because they can pull the manufacture date by serial number. Once again props to Apple for such excellent service.

I thought I was going to be forced to do this!

Itunes Applications

I love my ipod touch. I dont know what I would do without it. I use it as my mp3 player, watch movies and dvd's ive converted, internet browser at home when my wife is using the laptop or if Im just laying in bed. Now with the new Apple app store on Itunes, my ipod touch is also a game player, internet radio player, a bible, sport and news updates on the fly, a level, stream music from my computer and lots more. The cool thing about all of this is that all apps that Ive got so far are totally free. There are some cool pay apps to download but I havent tried any of those yet. Heres my list of cool apps.

Category 1 Must Have

* Aol Radio- probably a hundred stations ranging from metal, to techno, country, jazz, blues, soundtracks, and many many more. I personally love the different metal stations such as power metal, death metal, metalcore, thrash and they even have an all Metallica and Slayer station that plays any and every song they have released. The blues and their many dance/techno/house stations also are cool. The only negative is that you cant skip songs but thats not that big of a deal cuz you can just switch it to a different station. Ive discovered a lot of new bands that I like.

* Pandora- another internet music player that plays based on what bands you like. All you do is type in your favorite band make a new station and then it will find songs by them and other similar artists. I have a Tourniquet, Testament, Believer, Mortification, Hammerfall and many other stations that I have saved. Its cool cuz they let you skip 6 songs per hour.

* Simplify- another app program that allows you to stream music from your home computer to your ipod. Awesome.

Category 2 More awesome apps

* Truveo and Vsnax- two different apps that have current news, celebrity gossip and other cool videos to watch. I check them out every few days to find something cool to watch.

* Myspace- a cool little compact version of myspace thats still very functional.

* Mobile News- Associated press news that has all the newest major headlines and you can even set it to pull up local news.

* Pocketpedia- A music and dvd organizer that you can store your home collection and it pulls artwork and information straight from Amazon.com

* Holy Bible- pretty self explanatory

* Dashbuster- app that connects to your Netflix or Blockbuster queue.

* 1337pwn- app that you can add your xbox live friends to and see what they are playing at any time.

* Urbanspoon- shake the device and it will pull up different restaurants in your are to try out. Can also locate by types of food.

* Box Office- Search movie times and purchase tickets through Fandango.

* Ebay- just a compact easy accessible version of it.

Best Free Games

There are two different types of games available. Full versions and Lite versions which is still a full game just not as many stages as the paid version. Some of the lite ones are cool so maybe down the line Ill purchase the full version. I have noticed that some games start off being free and then within a few days they start to charge people to download them.

*PapiJump- friggin simple awesome game thats just a ball that bounces and you have to tilt the ipod to keep it jumping up the stairs without falling off the sides.

* Cube Runner- another awesome tilt game where you move your ship side to side to avoid brick walls.

* Marble Mash Lite- awesome tilt game where you navigate a steel ball through a maze to see how fast you can complete it whiling earning points and avoiding holes in the floor.

*Labyrinth LE- another maze ball game

* Jirbo Arcade- features two games a match game where you see how fast you can match all the cards and the other game is like simon says but keeps on getting bigger and bigger.

* Tris- its basically tetris

* Cubes Lite- awesome game where you flip the cube around and break the blocks by color

* Cubicman Lite- Friggin awesome puzzle game. Hard to explain but frustrating and addicting!

* Chimps Lite- Kinda like pong but you play both sides and break bricks.

Soundcrank Plug-in
I just found one of the coolest plug in's ever. Its the Soundcrank Itunes lyrics plug in. All you do is download the plug in, play a song in Itunes and it finds the lyrics and artwork for the song and album and it attaches it to the song. Next time you sync your ipod then the song lyrics appear when the song plays, if you are using an Ipod touch/Iphone or one of the video ipods. It also works if you play the song from your ipod in Itunes. Click here or go to http://soundcrank.com/ to get it and enjoy. Even if you dont have an ipod its cool to use just to read the lyrics while using Itunes.

Memorex Printable Wraps for iPod
I just purchased this at the store for 8 bucks and thought id try it out. I still have an ipod mini which i prefer over nano due to the sturdiness of the product. Ive had my nephew and his friends break their nano's skateboarding and other foolishness. Currently i had the Napoleon dynamite premade wraps which i like but i wanted to be able to design my own skin. Alas Memorex came along with this product. Its available for iPod mini, Shuffle, Nano, iPod 4th generation and iPod with Video. It comes with 10 printable sheets made from scratch and scuff resistant premium gloss paper. Also it includes the exPressit label design studio program so you can make your own designs. I actually like the wraps cuz besides being cool looking they actually protect from scratching but they dont help out with any impact of course.
The software is very intuitive and it actually has over 1500 premade background, images, and clip art to use. I found some very cool ones i might use. I finally designed my own Friday the 13th Jason skin and Battle Royale, which they both came out really cool. After i printed it out and peeled the backing i then wrapped the skin on the iPod. Usually this is hard because they are made to be exactly the correct size so theres no room for error. These wraps actually are a little smaller than the iPod so you can be off just a little on top or bottom and it wont be uneven or overlap. The only thing i didnt like was that it didnt fully wrap around and connect at the back. There is about an 1/16th of an inch gap between the backs which is basically a line down the middle where you can see the back of the ipod. No big deal but it would have been cool if they did connect. Overall another great iPod product and recommend picking up if you are into this type of thing.

Product Review: Griffin Ifill
Griffin Ifill is a simple intuitive internet radio recording device. I tried out the trial product of this a few months back and i forgot how good of a product it was. I was able to pick it up at Target on clearance for $7.50. If you go to the website you can download a trial to see how you like it. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/ifill/
One of the negative things i heard about it was the inability to schedule a time to record. I didnt think it was that big of a deal. Lets say you get up and have 30 minutes before you have to leave but you need several hours of music for your trip. Simply find 5 or 6 stations you like, record them and in 30 minutes of time you got 30 min x 6 stations = 3 hrs of music!!! You can also allot how much disc space that you want to use to record and once it reaches that limit then it will not record over any of your current music that you have stored on your ipod. There are several hundred shoutcast stations commercial free that you can choose from.
As far as the negative things i did have with the product was the inability to add your own stations you find to record. The program will let you do it but i was unable to find even one station that let me successfully add and record. Maybe there is some database or other shortcut that will allow it but i couldnt find any. Also currently ipods are the only mp3 players this will work for.
If you are currently tired of your own downloaded music and podcasts then i definitely do suggest trying this product out. With so many variety of stations to record from there is a high possibility that you will also discover a few bands that you never knew about but end up satisfying your noggin with musical delight.

Greatest iPod Accessory Ever
OhMiBod
Yes that is what you think it is. Perhaps the perfect gift for your ipod loving wife or girlfriend? Just when you think that you've seen it all. This gives new meaning to the term "feel the music". This ipod accessory pulses and vibrates to the beat of your music. Its designed and aesthetically made to go perfect with an ipod but can be used for any music source made with a headphone jack. According to the website its made to be fully insertable and retails for around 70 bucks. Aww it even comes with a cute little pink case.
Its encouraged to make your own playlists to help take advantage of the beats of the music. I have a feeling techno, bass heavy music or perhaps some speed metal might be on the top of the playlist? Im interested to hear if this product actally works or if artists would actually come out and support it. I can just see it now John Digweed's OhMiBod ultra sunshine groovy remix being a #1 hit. Try it out ladies (dudes dont be curious) and drop a line on what you think of it.

Recommended podcasts.
I know i was pretty far behind in the whole mp3 craze. i didnt get my ipod until a few months ago. Since i had the ipod i had to learn itunes. Thats gotta be the worst instructed major computer application on the face of the earth. Once you learn it is simple to operate but trying to figure it out on your own is a nightmare. I almost smashed my monitor and keyboard a few times before i got it. Anyways one of the cool features is the podcast directory. For those who dont know podcasts are basically audio radio shows you can download and put on your mp3 player. Most are weekly shows from normal people like you and me on any subject you can think of. Ive heard probably about 50 of them and have narrowed it down to this list of recommended shows to seek out. If you dont have itunes you can still go to their websites and download or listen from there for most of them.

MOVIES
Mondo Movie - By far my favorite movie related podcast. Those Brits know their cult movies.
The Horror Podcast- Some more brits who review low budget horror movies.
F That Movie- Two American dudes who review movies just released at the theater and some dvd's
Reel Horror Podcast- These two guys are somewhat popular and they get news on all things horror related and get good interviews with directors, producers, etc.

VIDEO GAMES
Major Nelson- The Microsoft insider that knows everything xbox related.
IGN Games Podcast- A little bit of news and opinions of all gaming consoles and pc
1UP Yours- General gaming news also.

SPORTS
PTI - Its the show in audio version. Great to listen to if you dont get to see the show air.

MISCELLANEOUS
Big Brother on the House- 2 guys recap the show and give updates on the live feeds. Get great inside information on how the show works and what you dont get to see.

Thats what i can think of off the top of my head.. If you know of any others just drop in a comment.