On Thursday, Belkin announced its new TuneCast Auto Live FM transmitter with an accompanying ClearScan Live app. The device is the first made to support iPhone OS 3.0, which now allows an iPhone or iPod touch to control a connected hardware accessory.

The transmitter gives owners control of which FM station to use through software on the iPhone itself instead of through the accessory alone. It also uses the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to locate free stations based on fellow users' submissions.

The ability for apps to interface with third-party hardware was revealed when the iPhone 3.0 firmware was announced in March. The firmware was promised to be released this summer, and with Apple’s notice to developers requiring all apps to be compatible with 3.0 several weeks ago and the annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference taking place next week, the final release of the firmware is expected soon.

The transmitter will be available in early fall for $80, while the app itself will be free on the App Store once the peripheral is available.

Secrets aren't much good once you've told your friends about them, so when PostSecret - a blog which invited readers to anonymously send in their own secrets - was opened, it was like the secret was reinvented. Secrets take on a whole new form when received from a completely different quarter of the world from complete strangers, so Visuamobile has decided to use the sharing power of the iPhone to dispatch secrets with their new app Earth Secrets (Free, App Store), demonstrated in this jaunty video:



The idea is very simple: users post secrets from their iPhones, which use GPS to mark those secrets on a 3D spinning globe which can be dragged and zoomed around to view as many secrets as one can possible stomach.

There is something a little odd in signing up to post secrets with a birthdate, username, email, then to be marked on a map using GPS - but it doesn't detract from the experience too much - users can either explore the Earth themselves, or simply hit the 'next' button in the corner of the screen to move from secret to secret.

On the secrets themselves: they span from the banal, to the mad, to the morbidly depressing and sometimes touching. Some are so terrible you can only laugh unnervingly. Highly rated secrets are the secrets that have been given the most "Hugs", which can be awarded by users using a button underneath each secret. Secrets are easily posted and marked down on the map with an attractive glowing beam.

The interface is quirky but good looking, with a kind of cutout collage feel. The graphics are good and the interface is responsive. If you like sharing and reading your secrets, this is the one you want.

A while ago developers Gripwire released iHearClear ($0.99, App Store), an application which gives an iPhone or iPod Touch (with external microphone) the ability to function as a hearing aid. Though the target audience was the hard of hearing, the developers found that many of their customers were picking up iHearClear for entertainment. With this in mind, the developers set out to make an app with similar functionality, but with an enhanced and retooled UI, resulting in Amplitude ($0.99, App Store).

Very simply put, Amplitude increases the sensitivity of any microphone in use and boosts the volume to whatever level is set by the user. Obviously this world of enhanced hearing immediately conjures up some exciting prospects, like being able to listen in on people's conversations, but Gripwire suggests other ideas such as listening to your own heartbeat, finding the source of annoying sounds, listening to golf pros discussing their next shot, or listening to a hummingbird's wings.

A video from the developer's website:



Impressively, Amplitude's oscilloscope is just what it looks like - a real, functioning oscilloscope, rather than some faux eye candy. Extra features come in the form of an auto mute when starting up the application, to prevent being scarred by surprisingly powerful noises on start up, as well as microphone volume control.

One of the big successes of the App Store has no doubt been Ocarina, developed by Smule, who last week took part in Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 event to demonstrate their latest musical app, "Leaf Trombone". Ocarina transforms any iPhone into a musical instrument that can be controlled using the touchscreen and by blowing into the microphone.

This being the way that Ocarina worked, it was unusable to iPod Touch users until quite recently - as Ocarina has been updated to 1.3, bringing a new Touch mode that allows iPod Touch users to play Ocarina by using the touch screen and nothing else. Though arguably not as fun as exhaling madly into a telephone, it means Touch users aren't left out at the inevitable Ocarina parties that are popping up across the world (though using an external microphone isn't out of the question).

It's not hard to imagine that you may be living on a budget nowadays, and keeping a good eye on where your money goes can make great improvements to savings. If you haven't already made yourself an exciting spreadsheet for this purpose, OS X has always had the money management app Cha-Ching - of which now there is an App Store counterpart - Cha-Ching Touch ($2.99, App Store).

Simply put, Cha-Ching tries to help you manage your money by having you enter all the transactions you make. When the information from these transactions start to build up - how much was spent, where it was spent, who the money went to - a better picture of what is going on with your finances begins to resolve.

The app can break down transations into a huge number of categories, and allows you to make up to an infinite number of your own. For instance, you can have payments under Loans, Savings, or Credit Cards - and to make things easier, you can schedule all those monthly payments so as to avoid re-entering details over and over.

The Touch version of the App is location aware, using the GPS capabilities of the iPhone to help you fill in details in a quick transaction entry. The app supports multiple accounts, synchronisation with multiple devices (meaning you could synchronise your Cha-Ching library to the iPhone/iPod Touch of a spouse, for instance), and also has a passcode manager to keep your details under lock and key.

Developer Nitako has released Rasta Monkey ($2.99, App Store), a physics platformer featuring a Rastafarian monkey who must navigate across trees, collecting fruit for an older Rastafarian monkey in need of 'fruit-shake.' The developer claims that Rasta Monkey is "by far the best iPhone 2D action platformer out there". Who can resist reviewing a title with such an aggressively confident marketing quote?

On the face of it, Rasta Monkey looks appealing. Crisp, stylized graphics that have become a kind of house-style for oddball platformers are accompanied by Reggae music and quirky patois dialogue from a talking Rastafarian monkey, all of which contribute to a distinct and immersive game world.

Rasta Monkey has a simple premise as an object collection game. The novelty of Rasta Monkey is in how you navigate the levels and the controls scheme that goes with it. Being a monkey, the concept is getting into to the swing of things -- building up momentum on branches, swinging around and then launching your character at just the right moment to reach your intended destination.



This is all achieved by holding down a finger on particular areas of the screen to send the monkey spinning in the right direction. Holding down two fingers at the same time puts the monkey into a stationary spin, preparing him for launch. This is all taught in a fairly simple tutorial along with large instructional graphics which gradually disappear as you get more comfortable with the controls.

Once in the game proper, it's all simple enough getting from one branch to another, if a little awkward, and the bouncy music and graphics are enough to distract you for a while. But as you reach segments of levels which require multiple tries to get past, the frustration sets in; and it's not just two or three repetitions either. We're talking a full, frustrating five minutes of trying-to-reach-the-same-damn-branch levels of difficulty.

Perhaps it is in the snappiness of the branches -- which you will fall past again and again with only a hair's breadth between them and your monkey -- or maybe it is in the physics, which all too often feel weak, launching your monkey into impotent leaps which just send him falling to his death again and again. It could also be the controls, which are fidgety and sometimes unresponsive, making timing the extremely precise leaps required of the game very hard to perform.

In a nutshell, despite its friendly face, Rasta Monkey is a largely frustrating experience, despite there being unlimited lives and no time limit. Dying will bring you right back to your last checkpoint and then spin you around for a bit, which looks nice the first time but becomes a maddening experience after dying many times in a row. There are other examples of this too, such as timed switches which give you a frustratingly short amount of time to launch yourself through an opening in a wall, or frantically circling enemies that require superhuman levels of timing to squeeze past.

There are issues with the level design as well. In one instance, I had missed some fruit needed to finish the level, and was required to go back and get it. Unfortunately this proved impossible as a timed switch door had closed behind me, the lever, and ultimately the fruit, completely out of reach.

The visuals, while nice, aren't that nice, and get stale as the look of the game remains largely the same throughout play. In addition - it may seem hard to imagine - but the two reggae songs in the game, mixed with the screams of a Rastafarian monkey, also begin to grate after a little while.

Therefore, it's hard to swallow the developer's claim of having "by far the best" iPhone platformer. Similarly its hard to take the developer's claim to intuitive and non-twitchy touchscreen controls when Rasta Monkey's controls are a splenetic mixture of oversensitivity and unresponsive mechanics.

It's not a total disaster, though. At the odd moments Rasta Monkey comes together, it comes together well, and shows you what could be if its creator had refined the level design and made the game a little more forgiving. For now, I'd recommend to ignore the hype.

Wordpress (Free, App Store) for iPhone has been updated to 1.2, bringing some new features to the portable blogging app. The popular online publishing system that allows people to start and maintain their own blog, with Wordpress for iPhone allowing users to update their blog while away from a computer.

The new Wordpress update brings a landscape mode to the app, allowing users to type using the extra-wide version of the keyboard (making blog posts on such a small device as the iPhone more bearable), the ability to create pages for static content, and moderation plus viewing of comments for each post.

Other new features include shortcuts for creating links, as well as a built-in photo resizing feature to allow for faster uploading.

Konami's Metal Gear Solid has finally been released onto the App Store as Metal Gear Solid Touch ($7.99, App Store), a touch shooter set in the universe of Metal Gear Solid 4.

Players use the iPhone or iPod Touch's touchscreen to take aim, and then fire by tapping. For smaller or more distant targets, the user can pinch-zoom to use a sniper rifle and take out targets more precisely. Alternatively, players can take cover by leaving the screen alone altogether.

The game features 12 stages, filled with powerups, civilians and explosive barrels, and pre-rendered graphics that give the game a distinctive feel, coupled with its slightly jerky animation. Players can use 'Drebin points' earned from completing stages and exchange them for iPhone wallpapers, of which there are 40 to choose from.

Tucked away in the app's description is the fact that this version of Metal Gear Solid Touch is only the first half of the full title (or as Konami like to put it, a "special advance release edition". When the second half of the game is released, purchasers of this edition of the app will be able to update for free.

ngmoco's Rolando ($4.99, App Store) was updated to version 1.1 this weekend, adding new content, enhancements and options to the game.

This new content comes in the form of improvements made to the physics used in the game, as well as in the system used to render the game's graphics, as well as options relating to text speed in in-game dialogue. The most exciting part of the update however must surely be the addition of five 'secret levels' that have been added to the game, giving a little more challenge to those players who have already finished the game.



Rolando, a physics-based puzzling platformer that has players tilting and turning, has also undergone some major price drops in the past two months, having started at the initial price of $9.99, before going down to $5.99 and then finally settling at $4.99 as of three weeks ago, and an effort no doubt made to push Rolando further into the public's view.

For more on Rolando, see AppleInsider's review of version 1.0.

The popular iPhone book reader Classics ($2.99, App Store has been updated to version 1.2, bringing with it new features and books for those who have long ago left the world of 'paper'.

Feature-wise, this new update brings 'mini-bookmarks', which are bookmarks displayed in the main bookcase view, getting shorter and shorter as you make progress through a book. Book opening has apparently been 'heavily optimised', making getting into a book in Classics that much quicker.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Iliad have also been added to Classics collection of books, giving the app's repertoire of literature a much needed classical touch.

Classics has been featured in Apple's own TV ads extolling the virtues of the app store, and its popularity has also made it the victim of widespread plagiarism, with many book reading apps stealing the interface wholesale.

For more on Classics, see AppleInsider's in-depth first look at version 1.0.