The nominations are in, and we are proud to present to you a pair of iPhone apps to get ready for the Oscars. Additional Fresh iPhone Apps from this week include This American Life, Assassin’s Creed II, and the latest Winter Olympics-themed title from Sega’s Sonic series. We also look at iDroid Mini Browser, which was developed exclusively for the iPhone’s touch screen.
1. Vanity Fair Hollywood
Not on the guest list for the annual Oscars bash thrown by Vanity Fair magazine? Neither were we. Thankfully, the new free Vanity Fair Hollywood iPhone app is the next best thing to going elbow-to-elbow with all the stars. Use the app to create and share your Oscars pool picks, and read exclusive content from VF.com. Sponsor L’Oreal Paris also throws in a few goodies in this app’s Gift Bag. Make sure to keep it with you on Oscars night, for live scoring of your pool picks. What, no drinking game?
2. This American Life
The most popular podcast in the world is now available as a $2.99 iPhone application. The NPR staple This American Life offers more than 17 days of episodes streamed for free on this application (individual episodes can also be downloaded from the app for 99 cents each). Other cool features include episodes of the television show with ran on Showtime, behind-the-scenes footage, and the ability to browse by individual contributors.
3. Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery
Despite its delay in reaching us, there is no killing off this newest installment of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. This $9.99 iPhone game is based around Ezio, and his fight against the Templars which brings him to Italy and Spain. This is a violent and entertaining platform game, which awards bonus points for extra kills.
4. tunesBag
Store a copy of “Get off of my cloud” in the clouds with this $5.99 iPhone app. tunesBag lets you sync your iTunes library with its web-based service, allowing you to access your music from a browser, your iPhone, HDTV or console.
5. iDroid Mini Browser
Looking to replace the Safari browser on your iPhone with an alternative designed exclusively with the iPhone touch screen in mind? Try giving the iDroid Mini Browser a whirl. The iPhone app, currently available for $1.99, borrows from the Safari, Android and Opera user interface playbooks. Loading time can still be a bit so, but this imperfect app is a step in the right direction.
6. Sonic at the Winter Games
Just in time for the 2010 Olympiad comes this new edition in the fabled Sonic the Hedgehog series from Sega. This $4.99 iPhone app features snowboarding, figure skating, curling and other seasonal events. Try out all ten characters.
7. Fluency Tracker
Designed for individuals who stutter as well as parents of children with this speech impediment, Fluency Tracker records the number of times in a day a user stutters, as well as where and with whom the stuttering took place. Meant to work alongside traditional speech therapy, this $19.99 iPhone app also displays graphs that track improvements over time.
8. L.A. Times’ “The Envelope”
How good are you at predicting who or which movie will take home an Oscars award? Confident enough to test your picks on a virtual stock market? That’s the challenge of L.A. Times’ “The Envelope”. The free iPhone app lets you compete against users like you as well as L.A. Times’ critics Kenneth Turan and Betsy Sharkey.
9. Two iPhone apps for the upcoming South by Southwest Conferences
Every year, the South by Southwest Conference in Austin expands its influence as the most culturally relevant festival in North America. With five weeks and counting before all the fun, two new iPhone apps are available to prepare for and document all the music, films and demos taking place. For scheduling and event information, download the free my.SXSW app. For deeper information about the musicians, filmmakers, and visionaries who that rock the city limits of Austin each year download SXSW Play – Music, Film, Interactive (also free).
10. StealthType SMS
It’s not uncommon for many of us to want to send a discreet text message with our iPhones without being seen looking at the screen. This new 99-cent iPhone app helps us type more accurate touch screen SMS messages without looking at what we type by providing audible cues to what characters we are inputting and where are fingers are placed on the device. Not recommended for driving!
