The Week in iPhone Apps: Sniff Wi-Fi and Gas Up Your Gulfstream, But Not at the Same Time

This week in the App Store, we’ve got some great freebie apps. That’s a good thing. Especially when you’re a beleaguered Gulfstream GIV pilot getting hit hard by the soaring price of jet fuel. This week was also great for pilots in several other ways, but there’s some stuff for the rest of us, too. Come along as we see what’s been hitting millions of Springboards over the past seven days.
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Popularity: 11% [?]

Cranky Windows Guy: Apple’s iPhone Bugs Stopped Me From Switching to a Mac

I’ve always been a Windows user, which means I’ve always been subjected to the ridicule of holier-than-thou Apple fans. You know what I’m talking about: blue screen of death jokes, spelling Microsoft with a $ in place of the S, saying “it just works” with a smug, chubby-faced smirk. It’s always been annoying, and it’s always made me want to avoid using Apple products just so I wouldn’t turn into one of those people. But then the iPhone came out, and I wanted it. But I being a Windows dude, I knew to wait a year for what I thought would be a more complete, less buggy version. It was Apple’s opportunity to get me into the fold, to make me a member of the cult. And boy, did they blow it.
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Popularity: 6% [?]

SplashID for iPhone / iPod touch

Another venerable title from the world of Palm OS and Windows Mobile has made it to the iPhone and iPod touch.SplashID for iPhone / iPod touch is now shipping. With over 500,000 copies of SplashID sold, it’s by far the most popular secure personal information manager for handheld devices.

Developer SplashData has provided features that make this application very attractive. For example, there are Mac and Windows desktop apps that sync wirelessly with the iPhone version, so you can do a lot of your editing and data entry from the desktop instead of using the iPhone’s keyboard. Data is protected by 256-bit Blowfish encryption, and there’s a built-in generator for creating unguessable passwords.

SplashID is available now from the App Store (click opens iTunes) for $9.95 and the desktop version is available at the SplashData website for $19.99. There’s also a 30-day free trial available.

Two of SplashData’s other mobile titles, SplashMoney and SplashShopper, are also now available for iPhone and iPod touch. [Read]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Steve Jobs: Apple Aware of iPhone 2.0 App Fails, Will Fix In September

It seems a random app crash bug plaguing the iPhone 2.0 software has concerned El Jobso enough to make him personally reply to a user email. According to AppleInsider one of their readers received an email from jobs that read “this is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September.”

AppleInsider says the app crash bug affects newly downloaded and updated apps, where they instantly quit upon launch. Sometimes reinstalling them helps, sometimes it doesn’t. While the 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 updates have done nothing to remedy the problem, some speculate that the problem revolves around root permissions. Either way, this is the first apple acknowledgment of the problem. [Apple Insider]

Popularity: 6% [?]

First Look: HANDiBIBLE for iPhone

As Apple’s own Robert Palmer noted a few weeks ago, there are over 20 Bible applications available for iPhone. Some require an Internet connection to query an online Bible database, while others store the text on the device.

HANDiBIBLE (formerly Pocket Bible) is one of the latter apps, and is now available in the App Store (iTunes link). The developer, Jerry Beers, made an easily accessible (US$4.99) and usable Bible application and realizes that version 1.0 is just the start — he welcomes feature requests.

At the present time, HANDiBIBLE provides an easy-to-use interface to a King James Version of both the Old and New Testaments. Readers pick which Testament they wish to read and a list of all of the books appears. Pick the book by tapping on it, and a set of scroll wheels appears which are used to set the Chapter and Verse. Tap go, and you’re reading.

Since the developer has asked for feature requests, I’d suggest a word search mechanism and a New King James Version translation for readability. Despite these suggestions, HANDiBIBLE is a well-done and affordable Bible application for iPhone. [Handibible]

Popularity: 5% [?]