SAN FRANCISCO--Certain apps floating around CTIA Fall 2010 are compelling enough to make it the "download immediately" list. HeyWire is one such app, and of course, the fact that it's free certainly adds to the appeal.

The main purpose of HeyWire is to simplify real-time text communication across multiple messaging platforms and devices. It does this by gathering various modes of texting within a streamlined, user-friendly interface, and then assigning personalized phone numbers to each user. Simply pull up the app on your device, and you can send a quick message to your phone book contacts in addition to any friends available on a variety of instant messaging clients, such as Facebook, AIM, and Yahoo Messenger. As an added bonus, you can also post updates to Twitter from within the app.

However, one of HeyWire's coolest features is that it lets users send--and receive--international texts for free. Since the app operates separately using either WiFi or your data plan, the messages won't hit your cell phone bill individually (you may want to make sure you have a robust data plan, though). In the case of texts that are sent to another HeyWire user, the recipient won't be charged either. (Otherwise, he or she may be charged an incoming message fee by the service provider.)

The HeyWire app is currently available in iTunes for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, with additional apps planned for Android and Blackberry devices going forward. In addition, the service will offer a Web element, which itself has a really neat, streamlined interface. It's currently in invite-only beta, but you can register for a chance to check it out early.

Originally posted at CTIA 2010

There may be no jet packs yet, but we are very much living in the future. Proof enough of that is PayPal's latest addition to its iPhone app, which brings with it the capability to snap a photo of a check and have it be deposited to your PayPal account free of charge.

Sure, this is something that customers of Chase and USAA have been able to do with each company's respective iPhone applications for months now, but this is PayPal. Why is that important? It means if you've connected your PayPal account to another bank that does not offer such a feature, you can use PayPal as the go-between.

Of course PayPal has limits of how much you can transfer from your account each month, but you can have that lifted if you do things like confirm your Social Security number and debit card.

There are some other strings attached, including the fact that you must hang on to that check for 15 days after sending that information to PayPal, just in case it does not clear. PayPal also says that it takes "about six days" for the amount to show up in your PayPal balance, which is considerably slower than if you took it to the bank.

PayPal says the new feature is powered by Las Vegas-based BankServ (formerly NetDeposit). No word yet on if and when PayPal plans to bring this feature to its apps on other platforms like Android and BlackBerry.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

SAN FRANCISCO--PacketVideo, creator of an interconnected multimedia streaming suite dubbed TwonkyMedia, will officially push out its mobile complement at the end CTIA's Fall 2010 conference on Friday, but that didn't stop the company from showing off the app at a swanky cocktail party in a SOMA loft a bit ahead of schedule.

Twonky Mobile is rather aptly described by the diagram at right, which we swiped off the Twonky Web site. In layman's terms, the app turns any Android phone into a really fancy universal remote for just about any networked media device on the market today, including the Apple TV, the Sonos systems, the Logitech Squeezebox, the XBox 360, and many more. All you need is the network password for any given spot and you're good to go.

The Twonky app can access any media on your phone, including the onboard library and any variety of Web favorites, such as YouTube, Flckr, and Last.fm. (Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET Reviews.) You can then stream the content to compatible devices, and control playback with your phone. Switching between different devices (such as your home setup and that of a friend) is a simple task of pulling up a connections menu and selecting the new output from the list.

In addition, Twonky Mobile is multitask compliant, so you can continue to take calls and use other functions of the phone without interrupting the media stream. You can also seamlessly sync content back to your PC, if you have the Twonky Manger software installed.

The app is currently available for Android only, with plans to expand to iOS in the future. You can find a free download by searching the Marketplace.

Originally posted at CTIA 2010

You know the drill: you're recording some video of the kids doing something cute, when suddenly you realize you're about to miss a snapshot-worthy moment.

Alas, Apple's Camera app locks you into one mode or the other--you can't take a photo at the same time you're shooting video.

Camera Duo can. This 99-cent video recorder includes a button that instantly captures a photo while you're recording.

This is pretty cool, though you'll have to live with a few limitations. First, photo resolution is limited to the maximum resolution of the video recorder: 1,280x720 on the iPhone 4, 640x480 on the 3GS. The resulting snapshots are OK for viewing on your phone or a Web page, but definitely not great for print.

Second, Camera Duo offers two photo modes: Real Photos and Extract from Video. The former delivers the better quality of the two and supports the iPhone 4's flash, but produces the camera-shutter sound every time you take a picture--and you hear that sound in your recorded video.

Extract from Video eliminates the shutter effect--at the cost of lower-quality pictures and no flash support.

Obviously, the ideal would be Real Photos minus the unwanted sound effect, but I suspect there's a reason Camera Duo can't do that. (It would also be great if it could manage higher-resolution photos, but I know why it can't do that.)

The app lets you choose between fixed and continuous focus, exposure, and white-balance settings, and has flash/light controls for the iPhone 4.

Although my testing was limited to the iPhone 3GS, Camera Duo performed admirably. Snapshots clicked away instantaneously, with no interruption to the video and no delay in processing everything. The results appeared in the Photos app just as though they'd been taken with the Camera app.

It's not perfect, but for the moment, Camera Duo is the only app that adds snapshot capabilities to your iPhone's video recorder. Well worth 99 cents.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

As has been stated a thousand times over, there's an app for practically any purpose you could dream of. Some in particular suffer from a glut of apps, and shopping is one of those. With such a wide array to choose from, sorting out which ones are truly useful can be a special kind of challenge. This is why we've taken a rather picky stance in our CTIA wanderings, but a neat little app called Aisle411 managed to catch my eye.

Aisle411 is a feature-packed and user-friendly app aimed at helping you navigate large retail locations, such as Home Depot and grocery super stores. The app has many functions, but what stands out are its list and location features. So for example, you can create a list of all the items you need at Home Depot and it will map out exactly where the items are at the particular retail space you intend to visit. (For those who've never been to a Home Depot, I can't begin to describe how useful this is.)

As for the data on where items are located within a particular store, Aisle411 acquires this on the backend from the retailers as well as through users' interactions with the app itself. That is, if you arrive at the spot for "double-sided tape" and it now contains something else, you can tap the Edit Location button on the screen.

Of course, this only scratches the surface of the many features offered by the app. You can also use your phone's GPS to find supported stores near you, the built-in mic to speak lists, and the camera to scan barcodes in order to pull up user reviews on specific products. Aisle411 also integrates discounts and coupons for the items on your shopping list. And as with so many apps these days, there's a social element: you can check- in at and earn badges at stores, as well as easily share coupons and discounts via Facebook and Twitter.

Aisle411 comes out next month for iOS, with a mobile Web element for other devices and plans for an Android app in Q1 of 2011. The initial launch will focus on 1,000 retail locations in 17 metro areas, with more to come early next year. Oh, and did I mention it's completely free?

Originally posted at CTIA 2010

Firefox's direct pipeline to Google search results is Mozilla's dominant revenue source, but the next version of the open-source Web browser will also get Microsoft's Bing as an alternative.

Google will remain the default search option in Firefox, and Yahoo will be second, but Bing will become a third for English-language users when Firefox 4 is released, Mozilla announced Wednesday.

"Bing...offers a user experience that we think users will find valuable, and with its significant rise in popularity over the last year, we will also be including Bing as a general search option for English language users," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's vice president of products, in a blog post.

Microsoft has had a search engine for years, so why only add it now? "Until Bing launched last year, we didn't have many users asking us to include a Microsoft search engine in the search bar," Sullivan told CNET. "Since then, we've heard a lot of positive feedback about Bing, and based on our own analysis, we thought it offered a valuable user experience."

Those who delve into a dialog box already can add Bing and other search options to Firefox, so it's not as if Bing fans have been shut out. But the new option will build it in, a notable change given the fierce rivalry over the last decade between Microsoft and Mozilla when it comes to browsers.

The browser landscape is changing, though. After years of relatively sluggish change, Microsoft is back in the game with IE9, now in beta testing. The software includes support for many Web standards that Mozilla and others have been trying to establish for months or years, making IE now also something of an ally as well as a competitor.

Mozilla garnered $79 million in revenue in 2008, the lion's share from search ads on Google that appear next to search results. When Firefox is used to initiate the search, Google shares the resulting search revenue with Mozilla.

Mozilla's search partnership with Google is set to expire in 2011, but it won't necessarily end. The last search-ad partnership ended in 2008, but the two extended it. The announcement came just days before Google launched its Chrome browser.

Chrome is new competition for Firefox, to be sure, but don't expect Google to freeze out Mozilla just because it's got its own browser to promote now. For one thing, Mozilla remains a significant force in advancing Web standards Google believes in; Mozilla was the most prominent organization to endorse Google's open-source, royalty-free WebM video format, for example. For another, Google's bread and butter remains search advertising, and shutting down sources of search traffic isn't in Google's overall interests.

Chrome has changed how search works in a browser, though, with its "omnibox" that functions as a mechanism to type in both Web addresses and searches. Microsoft has adopted the same strategy with its IE9 beta.

And search is becoming even more prominent in Chrome. The developer version of Chrome on Windows now builds in Google Instant, the new search-as-you-type interface Google introduced in September.

The new Bing option isn't the only change coming to Firefox 4's search.

Mozilla also will scrap two search options present today, Answers.com and Creative Commons. The former is less popular than the Wikipedia option, Mozilla said, and the latter has shifted away from its earlier mission of locating content licensed under the Creative Commons into a general search engine.

So the way the search options will look after the change is as follows: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Amazon, eBay, and Wikipedia.

Firefox 4 is scheduled to ship before the end of 2010 and is in beta testing now. The next beta, the seventh, is set to be the feature-complete version, but Mozilla is wrestling with the best way to get beta 7 into testing while balancing speed and feature requirements.

Updated 9:08 a.m. PDT and 12:27 p.m. PDT with Mozilla's statement and commentary.

Originally posted at Deep Tech