On the ball with new apps - soccer, maths, TomTom and more

All Whites iPhone app.

It's excitement time! The Football World Cup! That's 'soccer'.

I don't go for all this, 'It's football, not soccer' stuff, actually. Apart from the term being taken over in New Zealand (as an utter misnomer, I might add) by that much lesser game with the leathery lozenge in which men slam into each other, the word 'soccer' apparently comes, via some twisty logic, from the word 'association', as in 'Association Football'. So I'm cool with 'soccer'.

It's a fairly popular game. In the App store there are (under 'Power Search' and searching only apps and 180 per page), a total of 11 pages of soccer apps. That adds up to nearly 2000 apps. Many of these are individual club apps. And quite what 'Sexy Soccer' was I declined to find out.

Speaking of individual club apps, there's one called All Whites ($2.59). Its iTunes web-links went nowhere but if you're feeling patriotic, it has useful bios of the team members, news, a tournament section and schedule.

There are also 59 iPad soccer apps. And that's not even counting soccer apps that appear from typing in 'football', but that word counts so many codes, including those bizarre Irish, American and Australian variants of running around carrying something, constrained only by brawn, grass and goalposts.

I'd like to say I'm getting all fizzy about this particular World Cup because New Zealand's in it, but it's simply not true. I hardly follow any sport, but every four years I turn into a ravening soccer beast. And I don't support any one team or country, I love it all. Then go another four years without.

That said - good luck to the All Whites. The team uses Macs after all. They've worked very hard to get there. They've surprised many along the way and might add in a couple more surprises - here's hoping that playing 'long-ball' forty years after its vogue works out for them against fast, passing teams.

Bewildered for World Cup app choice, I finally settled on a free one called 'South Africa 2010 Tracker' by mubaloo.

It has a countdown to the kick off, lets you filter by draw, follow one team - and it's supposed to add all the results in as they get recorded. But if you know of another good one, please let us know. And if you don't have an iDevice but 'just' a computer, there's a brilliant online app for you here.

Speaking of rugby, there were 197 apps in the App Store with rugby in the title, but these included rugby league etc, of course. No doubt there will be more by next year, and no doubt there are New Zealand developers building some good ones too. One hopes.

In other iPhone app news, a couple of cool ones I've found recently include the free Thermometer, which rather oddly also has a paid version which appears to be the same ($1.29).

It uses your GPS position to get your outdoor temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius and seems accurate to within a degree of the one outside my house, which is good enough for me.

A really cool maths one is Soulver by Acqualia, which is basically designed two young Australians who met at school (but they're not at school any more). Soulver mirrors a Mac app of the same name that costs $24.29. The iPhone and touch version is $4.19. The iPad version is $8.19.

Soulver uses a much more intuitive format than a typical calculator interface. It's quicker to use than a spreadsheet, lets you use words alongside numbers to make more sense to you (i.e. '2 pizzas at $25 each with 12 per cent discount =), and it's perfect for quick calculations and solving day-to-day problems.

LANE GUIDANCE
Meanwhile, TomTom has just introduced Advance Lane Guidance to New Zealand for its devices, but not iPhone. This feature improves driving safety and also makes navigating difficult junctions easier. It's on the TomTom Winter 2010 Map of New Zealand.

The TomTom Winter 2010 Map of New Zealand is available for purchase through the TomTom map shop (). Which all looks a little like Apple's so-called 'closed ecosystem' - once you have a TomTom device, you need to keep your maps updated, especially if you drive for a living. You can pay $49.95 a year for four updates annually, or $99.95 for a one-off.

I actually use TomTom a lot, it's really useful. I waste a lot less time finding people and places in Auckland's traffic chaos. The estimated time to destination aspect is usually a pretty good indication, accidents en route notwithstanding. And I'm not one of those men who won't have a woman - even on a device - telling them where to go. My voice is the Kiwi one called Katrina - or you can have Kiwi Paul, or Australian Ken. Or US or UK or choose from heaps of other languages.

But TomTom also announced the next version of the TomTom app for iPhone will support multitasking, as well as have the new and updated map of New Zealand (Winter 2010). This map will be free to every current and new TomTom app user. Yay.

If you do have an iPhone, which as you know has built-in GPS which the TomTom app uses ($99.95 on the NZ App Store), you can get boosted TomTom reception from the TomTom car kit for iPhone, which also holds and displays your iPhone while charging it. Which is a lot easier than the iPhone sliding around when you corner.

You stick the kit on the windscreen (it's held by some clever stuff that was not possible to shake off in my tests) so it's out of the way but really visible, and pair it using Bluetooth for hands-free phone calls. You also plug it into your car's power socket.

Stick a stereo minipin cable from the kit to your stereo for music play while you're driving. The 1.3 version of the TomTom iPhone app supports music fading when the direction voice intones. The bracket actually has its own GPS built in to enhance iPhone positioning, plus a speaker to make sure you can hear directions.

And hey, check out this site: www.appomator.com.

Oh, and don't forget - iOS 4, the new operating system from Apple for iPod touch, iPad and iPhone, will be available free from June 21st. Yep, free.

As always, if you're doing iPhone/iPad stuff in New Zealand, please let me know. I'm all ears.

Mark Webster - Mac NZ