Media tries to create bluetooth scare

Can your phone be hacked over bluetooth? Probably. Is that going to happen while you're going down the road at 70mph? Probably not. That didn't stop msnbc from putting together this scare piece on bluetooth hacking. Not sure what the fact that smartphones have wifi has to do with bluetooth? We're not sure either. I guess the safety message is, if you're on the highway and someone next to you is wildly trying to enter passcodes, while staying within 20 feet of your headset, well they might be a hacker. The report never quite explains how this whole data stealing scheme works, or even manage to find a victim to interview. Invoking bluetooth fright is enough. Enjoy:

Box Office iPhone App Review

Get your movie tickets right from your phone. Check showtimes, get directions. Crazy times we're livin' in. Crazy times. Here's a look at BoxOffice for the iPhone:

Ads are coming to the iPhone

According to this fine blog, Ad Mob is bringing ads to the iPhone. GREAT:

This week, AdMob, a San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile advertising firm, launched a marketplace for ads on the iPhone 3G that includes such big brands such as Ford, Electronic Arts, Universal Pictures, Land Rover and Jaguar. AdMob's aim: Serve up a new kind of engaging mobile ad that will spur more sales of advertisements targeting mobile phones.

Read the full entry here.

Checkword for iPhone Review

If you're not a Scrabble player, you can ignore this post. But if you are, then Checkword could greatly streamline your search to the age-old debate, can I use this word?

Five quick ways to make the Apple App Store better

Yes, people are still lining up for the iPhone. And yes, the App store holds wonders for them once they get home with those shiny new phones. The App Store isn't perfect though. Here's our look at five seemingly simple/quick changes Apple could make to make the experience even better:

1. Require an actual support contact. While every listed application has a support link, in doing a thorough check of all the apps, quite frequently the support link either points to "coming soon" page, a bad url, or a page that gives you no means of contacting the developers. How about a required support email on the application info page?

2. Disclose if an app requires/is a subscription. The Major League Baseball app has gotten a lot of attention. Less noticed is the fact that the app is good for this year, making it more or less, a subscription service, that needs to be re-purchased each year. Other apps that are free, are tied to subscription services, and there's no uniform way of knowing this before downloading.

3. Ability to gift/try Apps. Our hunch is app gifting will be coming to the store soon. It would be great though to make it easy for developers to give us a 7-day trial of their apps. Just because the average price of the titles is low, is no reason to buy blind.

4.Uniform handling of preferences.Some apps place preferences in the application. Some place new prefs in the system preferences screen. How about a more consistent way of dealing with this. And speaking of preferences, here's a bonus improvement for the 2.0 software: Let me select "Always allow" for the location information for the camera. I don't want to press two buttons each time to take a picture.

5. Developers describe data retention.Some of these apps allow amazing amounts of personal info on the phone. Everything from medical records, to credit card passwords and banking info. What isn't always clear is exactly where this information is stored: Are passwords on the phone, or somewhere in the internet cloud? Does the app have it's own passcode to access the info?

These simple fixes can build on the potential of the App store, and frankly make the experience more Apple-like.