Features:

Simple to create contact groups to make it easier to search and find contacts via their customizable designated group.

Easy to make calls, send a text or email or locate them on a map with the touch of a button.

You have the option to view the contacts in card mode by scrolling through the full business card images or view them in a simple list mode very similar to the standard iPhone contacts list.

Create favourite contacts and view a list of recent calls

Updates:

The WorldCard Contacts app has also been recently updated and version 2.3.0 includes a number of added features and improvements:

Data Exchange Function -
“Open in” to transfer data between WorldCard Mobile and Contacts, including images.

File sharing between PC/iPhone. This allows simple data exchange so you can transfer data efficiently, although you do need the WorldCard desktop solution to enable this feature.

Image Distortion and Enhance Function – allows you to re-edit, sharpen and enlarge the image captured.

Chinese Stroke Index integration – allowing capture of data from business cards with Chinese characters.

Conclusion:

The WorldCard Contacts app proves to be very useful and goes hand in hand with the WorldCard Mobile app as they work together almost seamlessly. If you already have the WorldCard Mobile app then I would certainly recommend the Contacts app to go with it. You can buy the app via the iTunes store for a very reasonable £2.39.

WorldCard Contacts App on iTunes
Official WorldCard Contacts App Page

As you would expect the new version contains a number of Christmas themed levels to navigate through. There are 25 new levels in total which depending on your skill level may last you a few hours or a few weeks.

The game plays as the original does where you have to use the various ropes, air blowers and balloons to guide the sweet into the waiting monsters mouth. There are a few new things to keep you entertained apart from the festive backgrounds and Jingly background music, one of which is the inclusion of teleporting Christmas stockings in which the sweet enters into one and comes out the other. The app comes as a standalone so you don’t need to own the original Cut the Rope to play this one (although if you don’t own it then you really need to get it!). The best thing about the game though is the fact that it’s completely free to download!

Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift

Main Features:

Superior recognition ability & faster recognition speeds
Data export to any contact group you choose
Rotates the image automatically if needed
Adds the contact data from the card into the correct fields automatically
Available in various languages including English, German, Spanish, French and Italian.

WorldCard Mobile allows you to easily transfer all information from your business cards onto your iPhone with minimum effort. You simply use the camera function (you can either use saved photos already on your camera roll or use the camera option from within the WorldCard Mobile app) to take a picture of the business card and it then extracts all relevant data and adds the person into your contacts. You can of course edit the details as you see fit before adding to your contacts.

The App has recently been updated and the new version adds a number of useful features to an already very useful app.

Email Signature Capture – You can now also take the information from any email signature and automatically add it to your contacts.

Cardholder Feature – This allows you to easily group a selection of contacts to make it easier to navigate. (Colleagues, Clients etc)

Automatic Camera Shake Reduction & Improvement of Recognition Accuracy – The auto camera shake reduction along with the Improvement of Recognition Accuracy makes it a lot quicker and easier to capture the picture and info required correctly the first time around.

WorldCard Mobile App on iTunes

Official WorldCard Mobile App Page

I’ve long been a fan of thetrainline’s iPhone app, not least because it’s free (yes National Rail – I’m looking at you) and we all like free, right?

So what’s new with this latest update? Well as you’d expect you can still search for train times quickly and easily, but in addition to this you can now also buy tickets using your iPhone, and then collect them from any train station. Nice, huh?

Since the launch of the original app last October, more than 800,000 people have downloaded the app; and it has consistently ranked as a top 5 travel app in the iTunes App Store, Plus, in the first week of launch nearly half of all existing users upgraded, and apparently ticket sales via the app are already way ahead of their expectations. Frequent travellers may also decide to sync the iPhone app with their account on thetrainline so they can access journey details for all of their recent bookings via their iPhone.

Richard Rowson, product development director for thetrainline.com, said:
“The personalised nature of a phone and the ability to tap into features such as location awareness means that this is now one of the easiest possible ways to buy a train ticket. The app lets you configure your home station, manage favourite journeys, and store your credit/debit card details in your account meaning that you need do little more than tap on “next train home” to buy a train ticket home.”

Plus, there are big plans for the future too – soon thetrainline will be enabling the ability for the ticket to be delivered directly to the phone as a secure barcode, replacing the need for a ticket altogether on some routes.

Additionally, with customers requesting a range of different functions to make rail travel easier, such as an app to wake you up just in time to get off at your stop (42%) – (that totally gets my vote), or an automatic notification so your partner, family or friends know that you are nearly home (30%) – thetrainline.com is planning a range of new innovations for future versions of the app that should make your life even easier!*

Click here to download thetrainline iPhone app or visit the Apple Store. Users of the existing iPhone app from thetrainline will of course be automatically notified of the free upgrade.

*thetrainline.com questioned 838 customers in May 2010.

Once I got my hands on the package the first impressions were good. It comes very well packaged along with the exact contents and simple instructions on the back. Included in the bundle is the iPhone 3G / 3GS receiver case, Powermat (specifically for the iPhone 3G / 3GS), mini USB cable and power supply unit along with a US to UK adapter as the power supply is US (an issue I will cover further on). This is a good solution for me at the moment as I’m only using one device with the Powermat, however if you have 2 or more devices that you intend to use then you would be better of buying separate received cases and getting one of the larger mats such as the Home & Office mat, which allows you to charge up to 3 devices at once.

The receiver case comes in 2 parts, which you slide over the bottom and top of the iPhone and has a square receiver on the back which receives the power from the mat. The case is very solid and has a nice soft rubber feel to it which makes it easy to grip. The case is similar in size to many of the other Power skins available such as the MiLi. The case also has convenient gaps for all the function buttons. One issue is that the case inserts into the charging slot on the iPhone so you can’t use a dock with your phone while the case is on. Obviously how often you use a dock will determine how much of an issue this is. Thankfully the case has a micro USB slot so you can use the cable supplied with the bundle to sync to your PC. It’s worth noting that the case does not protect the iPhone screen so you will need to get a screen protector to do the job. Overall I’m really impressed with the case. I find the iPhone is actually easier to use and grip with the case on, and it also seems very durable – I dropped it on to a solid concrete floor from about 6ft and it’s still in one piece with no sign of damage to case or iPhone (Do not try this at home! If you do I take no responsibility for any damage caused).

Onto the actual Powermat, it is a simple square shape with a slight indent where you place your iPhone on to begin charging. You simply plug it in, place the mat on a flat surface and away you go. When the iPhone is placed onto the mat it lights up and makes a sound to indicate that it is functioning correctly. That’s really all there is to it. The only thing that I wasn’t so happy about was the US – UK adapter that was supplied, of course this isn’t technically part of the actual product, but if they are selling it to the UK then it really needs to come with a quality adapter that does the job. The adapter supplied was for a 2 prong US plug and also as a shaver adapter and the Power Supply just didn’t fit securely into the adapter, resulting in the mat constantly losing power. However a quick visit to ebay for a quality (specific for the job) adapter and all was good. I’m now using the Powermat as my sole charging device and overall I’m very pleased with it. I keep the mat on my desk next to my PC and stick my iPhone on it when I get home in the evenings and can use it freely when needed and then just pop it back on the mat without messing around taking the cable in and out. I also find it charges just as quick if not quicker than my USB cable did. So if you are looking for a simple effective wireless charging solution or even just a quality case with wireless charging as an added bonus then I would happily recommend the Powermat iPhone Bundle. You can get the iPhone 3G/3GS bundle at the official Powermat site for a reasonable $49.99 (around £30.00).

You can view the full winners list here – T3 Gadget Awards 2010

The first travel app is called TripIt and is free. This nifty little app can organise and store your holiday and trip information so that you can access all that you need. It stores your TripIt itineraries so that you can access them on the road, on the aeroplane, online or offline. This makes it one of the best iPhone travel apps out there as not only is it free, but you can use it wherever you are – and it can be quite the lifesaver when you’re in the middle of nowhere and you forget where your hotel is.

Wikipanion is another great travel app that can help you out when you need it. It’s an iPhone app used for browsing Wikipedia – however because you don’t have to deal with slow 3rd party servers, it makes browsing a lot quicker and easier. This means that you have instant access to limitless knowledge from the biggest source of information on the Internet – perfect for travelling.

The last iPhone app – but still however one of the best – is called ZAGAT. Finding restaurants to your taste could not be easier with this app, and you can do it in style as well as that because it locates restaurants according to your location. Perhaps not the most vital application, but it’s worth getting if you have a bit of money to spare and you’re someone who likes to do things with a bit of style.

TripIt, Wikipanion and ZAGAT are just three travel apps, however they are three of the best iPhone travel apps and will certainly help you on your travels, wherever you get to.

When you sleep you enter different phases of light sleep, deep sleep – and REM-sleep, which is a dream phase. Waking up from a deep sleep can leave you exhausted all day and reluctant to get out of bed, whereas waking from a light phase feels like waking up naturally, and without any real trouble. This is where the Sleep cycle app comes in – it acts as a bio clock, to wake you up in your light phase – and therefore giving you a stress-free and easy wake up every morning. Rather than going off regardless of how you’re feeling – as a normal alarm does – the sleep cycle iPhone app uses the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movements and decide when to wake you up, in accordance with the 30 minute time slot you give it.

Bio-alarm clocks have been available on the market for a while now – but with a £200 price tag attached to them. This nifty app however, doing the same job but on an item you already own, is just £0.59. At such a low price, with such high benefits, it’s easy to see why it’s taken off and hit the market hard, with more and more people realising that having a rough night’s sleep is now a decision and not something that you should get used to.

See your day, and your nights improve with the new Sleep Cycle iPhone app – the iPhone’s cure for fatigue.

This of course is not for everyone and is fairly extreme. There are plenty of cool iPhone skins available for a reasonable price that are just as unique – however it is worth bearing in mind that whilst a diamond studded case is excessive, the cheapest skins are also not a good idea; they can wear down easily and may last only a short time.

A popular style of iPhone skin is a crystal coloured case – it looks sleek and classy, and scratches don’t show up as easily as on other skins. If you want something less neutral then there are lots of more vibrant colours available to make yours stand out from everyone else’s.

To find the best iPhone skin protection wise you want to pay attention to the material used, the colour is not the most important thing. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) tends to be the leading material for iPhone skins. It’s wearable, it doesn’t break when you twist it and it’s hard to rip. This means that you can shell out a bit more on a more expensive skin which will last rather than buying endless cheap ones. It’s worth buying an iPhone screen protector to protect the actual screen as well, as even the best iPhone skins tend to avoid the screen completely. There are all sorts of iPhone skins available, ranging from those which are more expensive than the phone itself, to cheaper but equally eye-catching, unique skins. Remember to check that your skin fits the model you own.

WINTERBOARD
Winterboard is by far the most visually differentiating app for the jailbroken iPhone. It allows users to change the entire look and feel of their phone’s display, allowing the user to apply skins that radically transform the iPhone’s visuals. The modular ability of the app allows you to mix different sounds and visual components from a variety of themes, making Winterboard extremely customizable. A word of warning, however: since Winterboard runs constantly in the background, it can reportedly affect the overall speed and performance of your iPhone. If you can live with this, it’s one of the best jailbreak apps available.

SBSETTINGS
SBSettings is by far the best jailbreak app when it comes to controlling your iPhone on the fly. With a simple swipe of the finger, one is able to switch on and off wi-fi, 3g, SMS and more. Even though the program runs in the background, it doesn’t seem to ever affect performance, and many people find that once they get used to SBSettings they simply can’t live without it. If you’re looking for the best jailbreak app for controlling the iPhone, this is it.

IREALSMS
For those who are not happy with the iPhone’s SMS system, one of the best jailbreak apps you can download is iRealSMS. Many users feel that this is by far the best SMS app for the iPhone, allowing for smooth and fast sending and receiving of messages. What people prize the most about this application is the ability to send and receive texts while using any application. In terms of functionality and overall versatility, iRealSMS is one of the best jailbreak iPhone apps available.