Using Twitter, Find Free iPhone Apps Which Were Paid

Twitter and the iPhone. They’re both pretty love-it-or-hate-it subjects — but put them together in the right way, and they’re wonderful.

Because everyone loves getting stuff for free that they’d normally have to pay for, 148Apps has thrown together a Twitterbot that monitors for premium apps that have dropped down to the gratis zone. Sure, they’re not always the best apps the store has to offer - but they’re free apps you’d otherwise have to pay for, and they’re finding dozens a day. What have you got to lose?

How to Make a free iPhone Ringtone from a Song

If you have a song that you want to turn into a ringtone, there's no need to shell out money for something you've paid for already. Making a free iPhone ringtone from a song just takes a few simple steps to complete.
These steps have been tested with iTunes 8.2.0.23 on an iPhone 3GS. If you are having trouble getting a song to show up on your iPhone after converting it to a ringtone and syncing, it might have DRM. These steps only work on songs not protected by DRM.
How to make a free iPhone ringtone from a song in iTunes

1. Locate the song you want to convert in iTunes.
2. Right click the song and choose Get Info.
3. Click on the Options tab.
4. Right down the Stop Time or copy it to the clipboard and paste it in notepad.
5. You'll have to modify the Start Time and Stop Time to choose only a 30 second (or less) clip for your ringtone. If you just want the first 30 seconds, just type "0:30" in the Stop Time. Make sure both are checked. Click OK when done.
6. Right click the song and choose Create ACC Version. You'll see it create a new song with the same name and a Time of 30 seconds.
7. Now, before you forget about it, right click the original song and reset the Start Time and Stop Time back to what it originally set to.
8. This is where it gets tricky. You will need to browse to your music folder. In Vista, this is as simple as clicking the Computer icon and choosing Music. In Windows XP, it is the My Music folder under My Documents. From here, you'll need to go into iTunes and iTunes Music and then browse to the particular song. These folders are arranged by artist and then album, so it should be easy to find.
9. Once you locate the song file, you'll need to figure out which version is correct. Hover the mouse pointer over the song and you'll see the size of the files. The one that is much smaller is the newly created file. (Remember, 934 KB is smaller than 2.54 MB.)
10. You need to copy this file to your desktop. You can do this by dragging it to the desktop, or by right clicking the file and choosing copy then right clicking the desktop and choosing paste.
11. Once it is on your desktop, go back to iTunes and delete the newly created song.
12. Now we need to set the right extension, so right click the file, choose rename and change the extension from ".m4a" to ".m4r".
13. To get it into iTunes, you should be able to just double click on the file. If that doesn't work, just drag it to where it says "Library" on the right menu in iTunes. If you don't already have a Ringtones section, it will create one at this time.
14. Once you verify it is in iTunes, you can delete the file from your desktop.
15. The last step is to sync your iPhone. Clcik on your iPhone under Devices, choose the Ringtones tab and either sync all ringtones or make sure the new ringtone has a check mark next to it if you sync only selected ringtones. Hit sync, and you are done.

Having trouble getting a song to convert? The most common problem is that the iTunes import settings aren't set to use the ACC Encoder. Got to Edit->Preferences in iTunes and on the first (general) tab click on Import Settings. Make sure it says Import Using ACC Encoder and then click OK.
If you are still having problems, try a different song. As I mentioned above, some songs, especially those with DRM, simply won't convert to a ringtone.

30 Best Free iPhone Photo & Video Applications

Editing, enhancing or having fun with photos in your iPhone is not a dream anymore as the latest 3Gs iPhone is now furnished with an auto-focus mechanism taking 3 megapixel images. A look around the internet will show you rather decent photos taken by iPhone as people quit printing photos – who will when with a few taps, they can share theirs instantly.
Plenty of photography apps are available for that cause, be it subtle enhancements or quirky modifications – It’s time to put your new iPhone on play and show off to your friends! In this article, we put together 20 Free Photography Apps and recommendation of some good paid apps. On top of that, we’ve also included 10 best Free Video Applications. Free apps after jump.

Photography Apps

Free Photo Filters
Free photo filters app provides filters include Lomography Filter, Poloarizing Filter, Black and White Filter, Retro Effect Filter and more.
SP Photo Fix Lite
You can fix your photo (brightness, contrast, sharpness, hue, saturation) before sending it by email directly on your iPhone.

PhotoBox
PhotoBox is the all in one solution for the weekend warrior photographer, giving you a large range of photo filters and effects.

Free iPhone Music - Only if Spotify is Allowed on the AppStore

"If Spotify has its way, iPhone owners will no longer be slaves to iTunes, song-by-song payments or finite disk capacity," Adam Taylor reports for TIME Magazine.

"Last week the Swedish company behind Spotify's streaming music provider announced plans to release a free iPhone application that will let users listen to songs played directly off of its online service, with no need to download," Taylor reports. "That would give iPhone users instant access to any of Spotify's 6 million songs, without taking up precious memory space — way more than the maximum 7,000 tracks that a 32GB iPhone can hold."

Taylor reports, "Songs can also be temporarily stored, or cached, ready to play during those moments when web connection drops, like when you're going through a tunnel or underground. Spotify's new application could change the way iPhone users listen to music. But first, it has to get the okay from Apple."

"Spotify's new application won't be available to everyone, only those who opt for the premium service, which costs $15 a month for unlimited streams... access to pre-releases and better audio quality than the free service, which forces users to listen to ads after every few songs," Taylor reports. "Spotify hopes to have its new application available on the iPhone within the next few weeks. The trick is getting Apple to approve an application that some observers see as a potential challenger to Apple's own iTunes."

Guess Infinite Dreams's Next Game, Win a Free iPhone 3GS

It's a fairly shameless marketing ploy, but we're biting because the developer of the awesome N-Gage game Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep is also giving away an iPhone 3GS, and that's the kind of bait we like to chase.

The developer is gearing up to launch its second iPhone game, but instead of just announcing it Infinite Dreams is asking you to guess what it's going to be.

A series of five YouTube videos are planned that will lay down a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the answer. You're being invited to check out these teaser trailers (a new one will be posted every two days) and tell Infinite Dreams what it's planning in a few short words.

The first clip is below, and is cryptic enough to ensure this one alone is unlikely to furnish us with an accurate guess. Keep checking in on the developer's official YouTube channel and contest page for the others. Don't miss any, or you might miss out on that shiny new 3GS.

iPhone Does Not Make Phone Carriers Any Real Money

The iPhone is one of the most popular smartphones on the market today and the device that most new smartphones look to fight in the market. It seems that almost every new smartphone that hits the market is hailed as an iPhone killer but so far, only the Palm Pre has come close.

InformationWeek reports that the iPhone is a loss leader for every carrier who sells it worldwide. According to new figures from Danish research firm Strand Consult, it was unable to find any carrier who increased profits with the iPhone.

Strand consult wrote in a report, "According to the research we have conducted on the operators, not one of these has increased their market share, revenue, or their earnings as a result of introducing the iPhone. When looking at the numbers we can't see the iPhone effect -- a lot of competitors are actually doing better."

AT&T, the exclusive iPhone provider in America, is a perfect example of what Strand Consult is claiming. According to the research firm, AT&T has spent $720 million in the last quarter to subsidize the iPhone on its network. Over the same quarter, AT&T added 1.4 million wireless subscribers, about two-thirds of which opted for the iPhone.

Providers like AT&T aren’t making huge sums of money on the iPhone, what they are hoping is that the device lures customers away from other carriers and they can make money off lucrative data plans in the future.

Why are iPhone Apps Rejected by the App Store? Here is Why...

After rejections, one Apple executive is trying hard to win customers -- and developers -- back

Apple's app store practices have bordered on schizophrenia, with it frequently accepting applications only to later reject them and rejecting others only to later accept them. Worse yet, frequently rejections seem to follow no consistent pattern, with some apps being rejected for containing some sort of forbidden content, while others with that same content get accepted.

These inconsistencies have led to customers growing dissatisfied with the iPhone -- or in some cases even leaving it. They have also led to a growing discontent among developers, some of whom have also jumped ship. And it has even brought down a government investigation concerning Apple's role in rejecting the Google Voice app.

However, there is one man who hopes to fix the system. Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller is trying to right the iPhone App Store and is personally taking a hand in trying to win back customers, developers, and placate government investigators.

How Many 'Very Satisfied' iPhone 3GS customers? 92%

A new survey reports that the iPhone 3GS has been successful due to the fact that the iPhone continues to be innovative and its customers have stayed loyal to its manufacturing company, Apple.

According to the survey which was conducted by the BC/IQ ChangeWave polling company, over 99% of iPhone customers said that they were ‘satisfied’ with their mobiles and an additional 92% reported they were ‘very satisfied’ with their iPhone 3GS mobiles.

Among the most appreciated features on the iPhone was ease of use for third party applications and its touch screen interface.

The negative reported features of the iPhone include its short battery life, the exclusive contract with AT&T as a network provider, and the lack of support in users’ IT departments for the iPhone.

The survey also found that 41% of the people who purchased the iPhone 3GS previously owned the prior model.

Those who purchased the iPhone 3GS for the first time split down the line with 18% switching from a Motorola device, 11% from a Nokia mobile, 6% from a Palm mobile, and 8% from a Sanyo mobile.

Streaming NBA Games Available For iPhone, Android Phones

Apple iPhone and Google Android phone owners can now watch live NBA games

The National Basketball Association is now offering mobile phone owners the ability to watch entire live games for $40 per year.

Just a few games into the 2009-2010 NBA season, this is the first time entire games are available for streaming -- only game highlights were previously available through an official service.

There are now three methods to watch complete games in the NBA: via TV, PC, or now using a mobile phone. Initial estimates report 59M mobile phone owners have the ability to watch streaming NBA games using their mobile phones.

The coverage is available through AT&T and T-Mobile, with Verizon Wireless beginning service on November 6. Apple iPhone and Google Android phone owners have access to the streaming feature now, but RIM BlackBerry owners are expected to have streaming NBA coverage at some point in the near future.

Mobile subscribers can watch 40 live games each week while accessing game statistics and game replays. In addition, it's possible to record 30-second video clips that can be watched up to 48 hours after the game ends.

Store Hardware on the Hard Disk

 A hard disk drive (HDD), commonly referred to as a hard drive or hard disk, is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Strictly speaking, “drive” refers to a device distinct from its medium, such as a tape drive and its tape, or a floppy disk drive and its floppy disk. Early HDDs had removable media; however, an HDD today is typically a sealed unit with fixed media…