This weeks offerings from the UK iTunes Store - 12/11/2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 8:23AM This weeks free single of the week is Lost Coastlines by Okkervil River, and can be downloaded from here....
....and the 99p film rental of the week is Jumanji, and is available from here....
....and this weeks TV series of the week for under £10, is the fantastic Life on Mars, series two, as well as some other great offers, all available from here.
In addition to the TV series of the week, they are more albums of the week for under £5, here.
Safari updates
Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 8:15AM 
We have just had an update for Safari complete with bug fixes and security updates. These updates don’t come along very often, but are welcome when they do.
What some of you might not know is that you can get the same fixes and updates on a very regular basis. If you head over to webkit.org it is possible to download the latest nightly builds of the Safari software.
The webkit project works on improving the Safari experience by asking users to submit any bugs they find when using the build, plus any incompatible sites. You can even get actively involved if programming is your bag.
When the dmg is downloaded and opened, the familiar Safari compass is shown, but with a golden rim instead of the standard silver one. Drag this to your applications folder, and run this instead. I add it to my dock next to regular Safari.
When running the Webkit version, the homepage becomes webkit.org so that you can stay as up to date as you want. A click on the home icon returns you to your default homepage. Personally, I update it every time I find a site that doesn’t render correctly in Safari.
Webkit is free and a constant beta, these are nightly builds of the software put out for testing. Please remember to submit a bug report if you find any to keep the project evolving and to keep Safari secure, compatible and fast.
Tuck In To Tech episode 18 summary
Friday, November 14, 2008 at 5:32PM 
This week the hosts Alistair James talked about Apple possibly creating a search engine and a new bug affecting the iPhone and iPod touch involving an applications splash screen image file. The iPhone app this week was Crash Karting. The full episode includes other stories realated to the UK tech work. Below is the edited summary that just includes the Mac talk. Please do visit their site to listen to the full version.
Apple hightlights (8:10 - 5.6mb)
Full episode (29:45 - 13.6mb)
Podcasts, tuck in to tech App Review: Ocarina
Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 5:38PM Ocarina is a real music instrument for the iPhone developed by Smule. It takes the form of an ocarina, which I remember from Zelda on the Nintendo 64.
Now the first thing you may think is how do you play it? Aren't you supposed to blow into a mouthpiece?
Well all you have to do is blow into the microphone in a similar way to some games on the Nintendo DS. Then you place 4 fingers on the screen in 4 positions. You can then make beautiful music with you iPhone.
But that is not all. There is an awesome feature that really convinced me to pay for the application. You get a mode where you can view an interactive 3D globe. On the globe are lots of glowing lights. These are the locations of people using Ocarina. But then you get a tunnel of light coming out of location of a Ocarina user and it plays the music they are creating in real-time. Sown on the screen is the users name and the option to send some love if you like the music they are making. It's really amazing for such a simple tool they have made it fantastic. On top of that my dog loves the sound it makes!
Cheesey photo of me using Ocarina
The application is in the App Store for £0.59 and is only available on the iPhone because you need a microphone. [App Store Link]
App Store, iPhone App Reviews This weeks offerings from the UK iTunes Store - 12/11/2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 7:20PM This weeks free single of the week is Good Old War by Coney Island, and can be downloaded from here....
....and the 99p film rental of the week is Uptown Girls, and is available from here.
In addition to the regular weekly offerings, iTunes are now offering a TV series of the week for under £10, starting with the fantastic Life on Mars, series one, as well as some other great offers, all available from here.
In addition to the TV series of the week, they are also offering albums of the week for under £4, starting with some real greats here.
Photo Collage from Tapulous
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 12:33PM 
I am announcing the release of Photo Collage from Tapulous, which was made available on the App Store today, but due to Apples shambollic system, is not easily found unless you are using a dedicated 3rd party feed or website. In actual fact the app currently appears on page 5 of the photography apps!! and this is purely because the app was submitted to Apple for a release date of 9th September 2008, and so that is where Apple have placed it, on the 9th September, despite it taking them an unacceptable 5 weeks to make available!!
I think Apple really need to get the dating of apps sorted, but what do you all think?
Anyway enough of my rants, and here are the app details for anyone interested.
Picture the world. Participate in the world's largest expression of photographic creativity. View beautiful photos caught in the moment, and meet interesting people from your neighborhood and around the world.
Features:
- View photos taken just recently from the world, your friends and nearby
- Upload photos as you take them (while also storing them on the phone)
- Maintain a photo gallery of your shots
- Vote on people's photos
- Follow people's photostream
- Communicate with people you meet on Collage through the Twinkle app
Photo Collage, Tapulous FotoTimer iPhone app review
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 10:20AM 
Recently there have been a few iPhone camera self-timer apps appear in the App Store, so I decided it was time I check one of them out. As they all do the same basic function, I decided to make my choice based on price. I decided that I did not want to pay much for this basic function, so had a choice between the 59p NaughtyNuts Camera Self-Timer Lite and the 59p FotoTimer from Mac About Town, and decided on the latter.
There is not a much that can be written about a self-timer app, as all it does, is delay the time between pressing the shutter to take a photo, and the time the actual photo is take. In the case of FotoTimer you have fixed delay times of 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds and 20 seconds. Also on the apps interface is a camera icon that you touch to initiate the self-timer to take the photo, a retake icon and an icon to save to camera roll. In addition to the interface icons there is a small count-down timer showing how many seconds left before the snap is taken. Overall this app is quite good, doing exactly what it says on the tin, however it has what I consider to be quite a major shortcoming, and that is, it has no audible sound to indicate when the photo is about to be taken (this feature is also lacking from NaughtyNuts Camera Self-Timer Lite, but is present in the more expensive NaughtyNuts Camera Self-Timer), and is the only additional feature I would like to see adding to the next release.
Likes
- Ease of use
- Simple interface
Dislikes
- No audible countdown
Whilst testing this app I came across one big problem (not with the app), and that was how to position the iPhone to be able to take photos using the self-timer, and that is because typically if you are using a self-timer app, it's so that you can also be in the photo. Well for those out there reading this article, I may have found the solution, the NAJA King from thought out. With this unique iPhone stand you can position your iPhone easily in an upright position on any surface, check the composition, touch the camera icon and get in position, ready to be included in the photo.
Overall this is a good app that can be greatly enhanced with the use of a stand like the NAJA King.
O2 steps up security as iPhones are stolen
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 11:30AM One of O2’s Oxford Street outlets had all of its live 3G iPhones taken last week
O2 is introducing tightened security measures in its new concept stores to avoid further thefts of live handsets.
The operator has struggled to resolve the problem in some stores. Last week in one of O2’s Oxford Street outlets, the 3G iPhone demonstration table was left with eight empty docks after all of the stores’ live 3G iPhones were stolen.
Stephen Shurrock, O2’s consumer sales director, told Mobile: ‘People will come in and steal but not usually to that effect [as mentioned above].
We are putting new security measures in our new stores, which should prevent the problem. We want to have live 3G iPhones available in every store.’
Source: Mobile Today