First, if you don’t know what a proxy is, check out this article on Wikipedia. Basically it’s a way to get to websites that are blocked by your work or school. Some businesses block things like eBay, Facebook or MySpace to keep you more productive. You just visit the proxy website and then enter the web address you’d like to visit. Some businesses and schools catch on the the proxy sites and block them too so this application helps you find the best proxies and also share yours.

Now, either mine is broke or there is a serious problem. All I can do is scroll through the list and move the proxies into the “Best” or “Lame” group. It seems it would be common sense to make the link tappable and launch in Safari. I might be missing something here so let me know. Maybe Apple wouldn’t let them…

This app would definitely be worth it if you’re school or work is trying to keep up with blocking your proxies. It’s available in the App Store for $1.99 from Bottle Rocket.

Facebook has release an update to their application for the iPhone. Don’t be confused, this is not their web app, which a lot of people thought was more functional than the app from the App Store. With the recent update, there’s no competition. There are a ton of new features. One of my favorites is the sub-menu under the News Feed that allows you to scroll it from right to left. One feature I have had troubles with is the chat tab. Sometimes when selecting a friend, the application crashes. Here’s the complete list of features from the upgrade page:

– Notifications (don’t confuse this with the future feature from Apple. This is just access to the notifications section in Facebook
– The full News Feed
– News Feed story comments
– People search
– Friend requests
– Photo tagging
– Photo captioning
– Photo posts to your friends’ Walls
– The full Mini-Feed, now combined with The Wall
– Your entire inbox, plus the sent folder and updates tab
– Inbox search
– Message attachments

Here are a bunch of screenshots showing some of the new features:

Hello iPhone People…that is supposed to be read like they say, “Hello Miami” like at concerts and what not. Ok, maybe that only happens in the movies anyway, moving on! It seems that SwirlyMMS, an app that allows multimedia text messaging, has finally made it’s way to the 2.0+ firmware…YAY!. This is very exciting for those of you who can use it! I’m still trying to find a way to get it to work with AT&T but, it does have a new icon!

When you open SwirlyMMS, it will default to the Inbox screen but will then take you to the info screen. On the info screen you will see the options Get Demo and and Arrow. In order to use the application, you will need to request a demo. All you have to do it tap the Demo button and it will automatically “fetch” you a demo license. The first time I tried it…it failed but I just hit the Get Demo option again and it worked fine.

Once you have a demo, you can use SwirlyMMS for 14 days. It then costs $8.00 USD to purchase the application. Once you have your demo you can then select the arrow button and it will bring you to the Inbox screen where you can see your Inbox, Outbox, Sent and Trash. On the lower menu bar there are three options. The “i” will bring you back to the Info screen, the Tools icon will bring you to the Settings page (which is almost exactly the same as it was in the previous version) and the New SMS icon will allow you to create a new SMS. The interface is really nice. You are easily able to add Pictures from your Camera Roll, take a picture, add text to the message and send a file from your iPhone. You can even see all the multimedia files you are sending by selecting the Media Parts option.

As lovely as the interface seems to look and feel, I can’t tell you for sure how well it works! You guys will have to let me know in the comments if the new version is working well. I hope that it is!! SwirlyMMS is available though the Ste Packaging source in Cydia.

Note: I received an email from the developer of SwirlyMMS (which I did not read before writing this post, my bad!) and I guess the biggest news for the new version of SwirlyMMS is that you can now, “send and receive MMSs using an iPhone3G.” So, not only can people with first generations iPhone on the 2.0+ firmware use SwirlyMMS but also people with 3G iPhones. I personally had assumed that would be the case (which I probably shouldn’t have done) but, it is good to know!

It seems the PhoneZap, a photo sharing/networking application, has made it’s way into Cydia for firmware 2.0. PhoneZap is also going to be available via Installer and the AppStore in the coming days. It application itself functions much the same as the previous version however, it does not have the Ringtones option (though they say this will be added in the next week or so). The Post and Preferences options are basically the same as in the previous version. The Messages option has changed a little and is now divided into Messages and Comments…which makes it a lot neater. I also noticed that you can now view images based on Countries, which was not an option the last time I did a reivew of this application. Other than that, the app is very similar to the 1.1.4 and below version of the application. The only issue I am having with the application is that is seems to be crashing quite a bit! Screenshots are below!

A quick preview of Twinkle 1.2 reveals new tapable @ replies, blocking, and prettier image attachment UI. Twinkle is a Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Here’s a screenshot:

Click here to download Twinkle via the App Store.

The update to biteSMS now allows you to the app as your default SMS app…very cool. Another cool new feature of the update is when you have a missed/unread text and you open biteSMS, it will open directly to the conversation with the missed text. Below is the full change log and screenshots.

biteSMS 2.0-1 Change Log:
    • Ability to make biteSMS the default SMS application (configured via biteSMS settings page, defaults to OFF).This controls the following characteristics:
        – If ON, when clicking to Reply to an incoming SMS alert, you’ll be taken into biteSMS instead of the Apple SMS application.
        – If ON, the badge that denotes how many SMS’s are unread will be shown against the biteSMS icon instead of the Apple SMS icon.
        – ON or OFF, incoming SMS messages containing biteSMS credits are handled in a more user friendly fashion.
    • Fixed the issue, whereby if an error was displayed during the sending of an SMS, then it would exit back to the Home screen.

    • Improved matching of incoming SMS numbers against Contacts.
    • For an unread SMS, upon starting biteSMS you will be taken directly to this SMS conversation (just like the Apple SMS app).

There’s lots of drama lately about applications being pulled from the App Store. There’s all kinds of ideas why some were pulled. Some were pulled, brought back, pulled, brought back, and pulled. Unlike PhoneSaber, which is rumored to come back with Star Wars official branding, NetShare will likely never come back unless AT&T changes some things. NetShare allows your iPhone to share it’s cellular data connection over WiFi. I decided to see what I could do about getting a refund. Here’s what I did:

1. Opened the App Store in iTunes.
2. Over on the top right under quick links I clicked “Account”
3. In the middle I clicked “Purchase History”
4. I found the NetShare app in the list and clicked the arrow on the left of that item.
5. I clicked “Report A Problem” on the right hand side of the item
6. I send this email: this application was removed, I would like a refund please

I received this email in response:

Dear Douglas,

I’m sorry to hear that the application you recently purchased has been removed. I can understand how this would be disappointing for you. My name is (name removed), and I will gladly offer assistance.

You will see a store credit of $9.99 in three to five business days. You may need to sign out of the iTunes Store and then sign back in before you see the credit in your account.

Thank you for choosing the iTunes Store, Douglas. Your satisfaction is a priority for us.

Sincerely,

(name removed)
iTunes Store Customer Support

Please Note: I work M-F 1:00-9:30 PM EST

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.

I received this yesterday and I already see a refund today in my iTunes of $9.99

It seems that biteSMS has been ported to firmware 2.0. The app has most of the features that the previous version had. However, below is a list of a few features that are still being worked on.

- The “Default App” functionality is not yet implemented (it’s being coded as we speak)
- Adding a contact from the address book does not slide away the keyboard (it should, it’s a bug and is being fixed)

Other than that, the app looks and functions the same as normal. Also, if you upgraded iPhones and you still have credits from your previous iPhone, you should be able to get those no problem. If you are looking for a way to send cheap text messages…this just might be the app for you. You can get the app via Cydia, through the BigBoss source.

So I was really bummed out when I heard that NetShare got booted from the App Store. So I was going to write all about it and I decided on a whim to check the App Store and it was there! I bought it right away just in case something happens again. (good thing I did, they pulled it again) For those who don’t know, NetShare shares your 3G or EDGE with your laptop through WiFi.

The app comes with a guide on how to connect your iPhone with your Mac but no guide for Windows. There’s also a really good Mac guide over at appleinsider.com. I’m using Windows (unfortunately) so I went looking for a guide. I found lots of info over at macrumors.com like how to get Firefox to work, how to route all network traffic through your iPhone, and what I was really looking for… a Windows XP guide which even has a video walkthrough which is posted below. I even found a video guide for Mac and Vista.

I did test this out and I even downloaded the program to let my entire computer run off the proxy. It’s called Proxifier and you can download it at proxifier.com. It’s available for Mac and Windows for $39.95 and a 31 day trial. I downloaded the mobile version so I can use in on any windows computer. If you find a better solution, let us know.

I’m actually writing part of this article using this connection. It’s a touch slow but I am on EDGE (3G not available where I live yet). I did do a speed test on speakeasy.net. The highest I got on the NetShare was about 130KB/sec down and 35KB/sec and speakeasy showed 370kbps down and 31kpbs up. A downfall is you have to have the app open all the time so you can’t use any other apps and it will drain your battery pretty fast using WiFi and EDGE and have the screen on and it gets pretty warm. We’ll probably use this is the car the most so we have car chargers. We also have two 1st Gen iPhones that don’t have service anymore and I tried to get them connected too but it didn’t work. Overall it’s worth the 1 time fees to have tethering for my iPhone.

Click here to download NetShare via the App Store.

NetShare Mac Video Guide

Watch “NetShare Mac Video Guide” from your iPhone or iPod Touch

NetShare Windows XP Guide

Watch “NetShare Windows XP Guide” from your iPhone or iPod Touch

NetShare Windows Vista Guide

Watch “NetShare Windows Vista Guide” from your iPhone or iPod Touch

This instant messanger application connects you to many services including AOL’s AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Gadu Gadu, ICQ, Jabber, Apple’s iChat and Windows Live Messenger. Not only does it support text based chat, it also supports sending images and voice messages. It puts all of your online contacts together with their service’s icon next to their name. It’s pretty simple to use although I type pretty fast and the keyboard lagged just a bit and caused some spelling errors.

The sound for a new message is sweet. It kinda sounds like the ringer on the phones at CTU on the TV show 24. It’s much shorter though and not annoying. You can switch through chat sessions via the little mailbox in the bottom left. You can change your away status in the bottom right. There is also the feature to create a chat group. I think it only works among other Palringo users. You can also get Palringo for your Mac or Windows PC. Visit palringo.com for more info.

Over all it’s a pretty sweet app and I can’t wait for the background push service to work with this. There wouldn’t really be a need for AOL IM if you have this. That way you can chat with all clients at once. I was only able to run, AOL, Yahoo, MSN and GTalk. I don’t have the other accounts so let me know in the comments if you got logged in ok!

Click here to download Palringo via the App Store.