**As published in digiday:DAILY**
For those about to rock and take part in mind-altering experiences, Inception – The App is calling you. You could call it augmented reality, inducing dreams or layering parts of your real world with sounds that are designed to virtually create unique experiences.
One of the best parts about this app is that once you open it and select your dream path, you can essentially put it away and let your acoustic surroundings take over. The idea here is to create new dream-like states that are triggered by your activity, location, the weather or time of day. As you “unlock” different dreams, a satellite image of where you are is superimposed over a map. Other than that, the visual takes a back seat. Music and ambient sounds are the stars in this app. Read more
Sometimes the best apps are the ones that give you a new set of tools. 360 Panorama is one of those apps for me. The app is fun, simple and does exactly what it sets out to do: capture full 360-degree photos using your camera.
BlackBerry Traffic might come off as yet another day-late and dollar-short move by BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd., but it can’t be slighted too much in terms of functionality and overall user experience. It may not have voice-guided directions, but for the price you can’t expect such luxuries. As I would expect from RIM, this app highlights just how smooth and well designed a BlackBerry app can be. 
For a while there, I thought I’d never see the day — an official Google Voice app for the iPhone. Google’s official app for the popular service is back after watching so many incredible layers of drama unfold. The politics, competition and seemingly everything else in between that has kept tech geeks intrigued, has also been equally frustrating as it is hilarious.
Like most people I know, I have grown to love text messaging. It’s a form of communication that transcends almost everything and yet, I cannot stand the idea of paying for it. SMS rates might be the most egregious racket U.S. wireless carriers have pulled over their post-paid customers since the very beginning of mobile. They’ve already got many of us on the hook for voice and data, but they’ve managed to condition us to think that SMS is so great and so taxing on their networks that it requires a different pricing scheme. In truth, it’s one of the most network-friendly technologies in the mobile tool belt: each character in a text message essentially requires one byte of data. 
I have a folder full of apps that I use to pull up podcasts from a variety of outlets, but most of them are specific to one site. Content overload is a real problem and it’s exactly why millions like me choose to rely on their Twitter feeds and RSS readers for their news. While everyone has their favorites, it’s easy to see why so many great podcasts never get seen or heard simply because I don’t know about them. After spending some time with this new app, I’m hoping that will change a little bit.
Video calls are fun. As the saying goes, once you start you can’t stop. A recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 7 percent of us have placed a video call on our mobile device and 23 percent have done so their desktop or laptop.
As a frequent traveler for business and fun, I’m always on the hunt for apps that can cut out as much of the chaos and confusion as possible. While I prefer apps like Tripit that can capture all of my upcoming travel plans, it’s great to see airlines staking their own claim to the app arena just as well.
Fantasy sports isn’t all good, but it sure can be fun. The fantasy (read: sedentary) version of football – and other sports for that matter — has become such a parallel to the actual sport that some of the most ardent fans actually blur the lines of loyalty between their teams and their make-believe teams.
I’ve been an avid user and fan of Google Voice ever since I got into the service when it was still available by invite only. I requested access to the service when it was still GrandCentral, before Google acquired the company and its phone management technology.