iOS App Picks 14 Sep 2011

n this episode of the iOS App Picks we demonstrate five applications in 30 seconds each. These apps will keep you entertained, edit and create new videos, and get information on current movie releases. To download these apps directly to your iPhone, just click on the title of the application and the iTunes software will automatically launch to the app in the App Store. If you have the free Google Search app installed on your iPhone just snap a picture of the QR-Code using Google Goggles or any other QR-Code scanner that will launch the App Store on your iPhone.

Movies – A free application



Movies by Flixter is a great app for any movie buff. This app ties in directly with Rotten Tomatoes to give user and critics ratings to help you decide which movies to watch. View theaters and show times in your area.



Spy Mouse – No lite and $0.99 full version



Spy Mouse, created by Electronic Arts, is a fun puzzle game in which you must navigate a small mouse through obstacles while avoiding the cats. Earn extra ribbons by completing the tasks for that particular level.



Geo Walk – A free application



Learn more about the world with Geo Walk. This app has tons of photos with detailed information from all over the Earth. Select which kind of photos you want to view by either turn on or off the categories. Test your knowledge by taking the quiz to see how much you have learned.



Flava – No lite and $0.99 full version



With social networks we can all update our status in simple text form, now with Flava you will be able to add multimedia to your status updates and create your own scrap book. Edit photos with stickers, text, and music to show your friends what you are up to. Share through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, email, and SMS.



ReelDirector – No Lite and $1.99 full version



Edit videos and photos on the go with ReelDirector. This app makes it easy to add media to your video timeline. Cut videos into segments, insert photos and music, and add transitions to your current project. When the project is perfect just click the render button to save it to your iOS device.

Motorola Droid Bionic Having Radio Problems, Getting Alt Recovery

After a long, troubled road to release, Motorola's Droid Bionic is finally upon us. As Verizonsubscribers begin to pick up the smartphone, we're hearing about some users running into problems with the Bionic's radio, and other users who have taken to tinkering with the phone and nearly have an alternate recovery ready to go.

An issue with the Bionic's radio has been noticed by some users, where a situation presents itself in which the handset struggles to maintain a 4G connection, instead vacillating between 4G and 3Goptions, when it can even find a signal at all. All that work to get a lock is a huge strain on thephone's battery, running it down in just a matter of hours. It's not yet clear why this is happening to only some users, nor if it represents a hardware or a firmware issue. The good news, at least, is that it's not particularly common.

Assuming your Bionic is up-and-running without a hitch, you may be ready to get started with some heavy-duty Android customizations. One major step towards being able to do so would be the release of a bootloader app for installing Clockwork Recovery, and we hear that such a thing is nearly ready to go. No kernel mods just yet, thanks to the locked bootloader, but that's not surprising. Look for its release in the next day or so. 

HTC Radar Arriving On October 1?

It looks like Mango could be nearly upon us, with rumors suggesting Microsoft could officially launch the OS any day now. Once that happens, we can expect the floodgates to open and start to see the arrival of all the new Windows Phone hardware we've been hearing about for months and months. One such model will be HTC's Radar, which we've already seen described as "coming soon" to a carrier. Now we may be able to put a date to its release, with one retailer announcing plans to carry the phone beginning October 1.

The UK's Phones 4u made a statement today concerning its sales of the just-announced HTC Sensation XE Android, and its plans to carry the phone in white starting October 1. It then took the opportunity to switch gears to Windows Phone and reveal that the Radar, too, will hit its shelves on the first. The retailer has extensive plans for the Radar, including featuring it in exclusive demo displays.

We were hoping we might see the Radar a little sooner than that, especially if Mango drops before the end of the week, but we suppose a fortnight falls under the heading "soon". 

Sharp to discontinue original Galapagos e-readers, 7-inch species survives

We're raising our glasses to the original Galapagos e-reader this morning, because Sharp has decided to discontinue it. Today, the manufacture announced that it will stop taking orders for its 5.5- and 10.8-inch Android tablets on September 30th, just nine months after they first launched. A company spokeswoman, however, confirmed that Sharp isn't leaving the market altogether, as it plans to continue churning out the 7-inch A01SH that launched last month. The Japan-based firm is confident that "the market for electronic books will continue to expand," but decided to terminate its older slates because they've already "fulfilled the purposes that they were designed for." Sharp declined to disclose sales figures for the doomed devices, though local media outlets are reporting that they may have been squeezed out of the Japanese market by the iPad -- a decidedly Darwinian explanation.

Google Goggles 1.6 Adds Background Processing Mode

Google Goggles puts some deceptively powerful image-recognition tools at your fingertips, identifying landmarks, translating foreign text, and recognizing product logos. Right now, though, using the app may not be as graceful as you'd like, requiring you to start it up, crop your image, and send a pic to Google's servers each time you want Goggles to work its magic. What about a future version of the software that worked in real-time, popping-up information on your surroundings like an augmented reality app? We're still quite a ways off from that experience, but the latest Google Goggles update is a step in the right direction, offering a background analysis mode that generates notifications when Google finds something interesting.

You still have to snap your own pics with this new mode, but are no longer constrained to doing so from within the Goggles app. Now you can have pictures you take with your default camera app automatically processed by Goggles in the background. Snap away at whatever you'd like, then Goggles will get to work on breaking them down and looking for things it recognizes. If Google's servers come back with matches, you'll be let know via an Android notification.

It's not a huge change to how the app works, but it really has us thinking that Google has its long-term sights on some sort of AR framework for its imaging-processing algorithms. For now, you can check out the new Google Goggles 1.6 in the Android Market.