By Chris Scott Barr

Let’s say that you’ve gotten yourself a shiny new electric car, and are taking it for a trip across a few states. Instead of planning the shortest route like you would on most trips, you instead have to plot out locations where you’ll be able to add some juice to your ride. That’s right, the downside to having a car that doesn’t rely on gasoline is finding somewhere to charge it up. Well it would seem that there is an app designed to help solve that problem.

PlugShare is an iPhone app that allows people to specify that they are willing to let people charge up at their location. Since public charging stations are few and far between, this could be a good solution. Anyone can sign up and let people power a car at their house, or even business. If you’re wanting to help out the EV community, feel free to sign up. Who knows, maybe you’ll need to plug in your car at someone’s house in the future, so why not do the same for someone else?

[ PlugShare ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Caitlyn Muncy

There are few alarm apps out there that are worth their salt, but this one seems to hold some interest. Going by the name of A!arm, this iPhone app has a sheep counting game, and an alarm that be shut off by voice command. For those of you out there that love telling the world what you’re doing every moment of the day, you can connect this app to facebook and twitter to tell your friends when you got up.

The animations for this app are absolutely adorable, and the beep for the alarm is almost ear shattering, which is why being able to shout at the phone to turn it off is a plus. Though the sheep counting game is supposed to be for going to sleep, I found it to be a more useful tool for waking me up as it’s two rotating barrels with puzzle-esque figures you have to focus on. The alarm itself has to be kept open, which can drain your phone battery, but most people charge their phones overnight anyway, so that shouldn’t be a huge deal. The beep seemed to be a little sound sensitive, but that is adjustable. You can also set how long you want to snooze. It is available for $.99 in the App Store.

[ A!arm ]

By Evan Ackerman

Generally, a Nokia mobile application isn’t something we’d cover around here. So I think first, I should give you a full disclosure: I got a demo of Nokia’s new Ovi Maps app at a breakfast event yesterday morning that may have included bacon. I am reasonably confident that said bacon didn’t influence my opinion more than a modest amount, but I just thought I’d let you know.

Anyway, let me cut directly to the chase and say that the biggest deal with Ovi Maps, as opposed to something like Google Maps, is that Ovi Maps (which is totally free, btw) does not require a data connection for turn-by-turn voice directions. When you buy a Nokia phone that has GPS and Ovi Maps, it’ll come preloaded with a map of whatever country you’re in. From that point, you don’t need a data plan (or even a SIM card, for that matter) for the phone to provide you with driving directions, walking directions, and points of interest… It’s a great solution if you want a phone, and a GPS, but can’t otherwise justify the staggering expense of a monthly data plan.

The maps are vector based (stored as numbers, not graphics) so 74 countries worth of mapping data takes up less than 5 gigs of space, and whatever country you have loaded onto the phone is of course only a fraction of that. If you want the satellite backgrounds, Ovi Maps does that too, but you’ll have to have a data connection. Also requiring a data connection are integrated features like Lonely Planet and Michelin guides, but to reiterate, if you’re just looking for directions and points of interest, you don’t need to pay for data.

Here are some other tidbits worth pointing out:

-74 countries have turn by turn directions, 180 have road maps… Google Maps only does directions in the US

-New country maps can be downloaded to the phone through a PC free of charge, still without a data connection

-Turn by turn directions include lane assistance, and walking directions include paths through parks and will direct you through the lobby of a building if it’s faster (!), and you can turn on 3D landmarks

Currently, Ovi Maps is available on the following unsexily named Nokia phones: the N97, 5800, E52, E55, E72, 5230, 6710, 6730, and X6. The rest of Nokia’s family of GPS enabled smartphones should get Ovi Maps by March.

[ Ovi Maps ]

Getting in shape isn’t always a chore. Well for me it’s pretty much a chore, but at least we can use some of our gadgets to help get the job done. One of the best gadgets for getting fit is the iPhone; there are tons of apps that you can use for all sorts of health needs.

The latest get fit app for the iPhone comes from Men’s Health. The app is called Men’s Health Workouts and it sells for $1.99 with 18 exclusive workouts included and over 125 different exercises. The exercises are compiled from some of the world’s top strength and fitness coaches, athletes, and fitness experts.

Each workout offered in the app provides step-by-step instructions, photos, and logging functions along with a one of a kind circuit-training interface. The program is also OS 3.0 compatible and offers new groups of workouts that can be purchased directly from within the app itself.

[ Men's Health ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Last year I finally saved up my cash and bought my first DSLR. While I’m still a novice at best, I’d say my money was well spent on my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Sure, I don’t have a lot of fancy accessories aside from my two lenses and and nice tripod, but it still shoots far better than any of my old crappy digital cameras. One thing that I thought would be cool is a remote that would let me snap pictures with just a press of a button. To quote one of those silly Apple commercials “there’s an app for that.”

It hasn’t gone live yet, but soon you’ll be able to download a cool little application that lets you control the aperture, white balance, shutter speed and the shutter with your iPod Touch or iPhone. Granted you’ll need a laptop to act as the middle-man, but still a cool app nonetheless. Hit the jump for a full breakdown on how it works.

Okay, if you’re wondering how it works, here’s a quick run down.
1. You need either an iPhone or an iPod Touch
2. You need a supported Canon EOS DSLR
3. A laptop or desktop computer running the free companion DSLR Remote Server software
4. A USB cable to connect your supported Canon EOS DSLR camera to the computer running the free server software
The DSLR Remote app running on your iPhone (or iPod Touch) communicates to the DSLR Remote Server software via a WIFI connection.
From your iPhone you can control settings such as shutter speed, aperture and white balance. You can of course fire the camera shutter as well. If you have a Canon EOS DSLR camera that supports Live View you can even get a live stream of the camera’s viewfinder on your iPhone.

So just which Canon EOS DSLRs are supported? That’d be the Digital Rebel XT, Rebel XTi, Rebel XS, Rebel XSi, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, 5D, 5D Mark II, 1D Mark II, Mark IIn, Mark III, 1Ds Mark II, Mark III. Oh, and don’t worry, the server software will run on both Windows and Mac OS. I’ll definitely be checking this out when it hits the App Store, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

[ onONE Software ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Shane McGlaun

Mini Golf is one of those games that can be intensely frustrating for many reasons. For me I get frustrated when my ball won’t go around those damned loops and when my son beats me. It’s not fun to see a 7-year-old gloat over a hole in one while I try to fish my ball out of a water trap.

Digital Chocolate has announced a new iPhone game called Mini Golf 99 Holes Theme Park that is available on the App store now for $5.99. The game offers 99 different holes and four different courses to choose from.

Each course has different obstacles to challenge players including spring jumps, teleportation pads, and bumpers. Players can choose from five different characters to play each with their own special powers like ball brake and more. The screens for the game look like graphics are good and I controls will be motion based.

[ Digital Chocolate ]