Mini Reviews: Position App, Taptu Search, Position App

Some applications let you shop, some give you sensitive software data, and others just let you touch your way across the internet.  Here are some free iPhone applications that range from enhancing the mobile internet to giving you the real statistics on the iTunes' App Store.

Shoe Salon

iPhone shopping applications do feel a bit shameless, but
they are a legitimate application type that people do want.  They are usually successful if they can give
an easy to use vessel for a shopping service that people already use and if
they are upfront about their purpose.  The
Shoe Salon from Bergdore Goodman is an interesting spin on the typical shopping
application, mainly in how it simplifies the process.  At the home spot you will get a featured shoe
with a large picture and price.  When you
select the information about it you can get a little bit of exposition about the
product, including the special intricacies of that specific shoe and where it
was made.  The next tab over allows you
to buy the shoe, and you need to create an account so you can just log in and
buy easily.  Essentially the Shoe Salon
allows you to buy a single profiled shoe, but does not give you full store
access.  This brings us back to the basic
notion about what a shopping application really is.  The free iPhone applications from eBay, Amazon,
and Best Buy worked well because they took the entire appeal of those websites
and made them accessible in a mobile format. 
Shoe Salon, on the other hand, acts much more as just an advertisement for
expensive shoes rather than a useful tool for consumers.  It is somewhere in the middle, so you will
have to decide if this is really for you.

Position App

Some iPhone applications have such and interesting and
involving function that you really wish it applied to you more.  Position App is a free iPhone application
that was, as it lists on its App Store page, a tool to let developers and
marketers track the progress of their iPhone applications.  Position App essentially allows you to see
what position iPhone applications are at, how that position has changed, and
what is taking top spots.  It gives
special attention to nations as regions and allows you to view specific iPhone
applications and games to see how their recent progress has been charted in key
countries.  Right from the starting
Dashboard tabs you can see top titles or immediately view the progress of
Favorite Apps.  The Favorite Apps function
is what will make Position App so essential for iPhone application and game
developers who want a quick and easy way to check their products.  You can also use a basic Search function to
find the applications you are looking for, as well as a Browse if you want to
get a general idea of what is moving and what is staying still.  The data in Position App can appear a little
disjointed at first, but what it has is essential.  For some people.  For those in the industry this will be a crucial
free iPhone application, but for casual iPhone owners it may only be mildly amusing. 

Taptu Search

Using the iPhone to browse the internet has always been a
difficult proposition.  Safari is a great
feature on the iPhone, but it really should never be the first choice for going
online with your mobile device.  Instead
the basic pattern of internet use on the iPhone is based around specific
features and applications that can meet those demands.  Along with this there have been several free
iPhone applications that have tried to make general internet browsing a little
more friendly.  Taptu Search is one of
these and its basic premise is to use 'touch' functions for internet browsing.  What you start out with in Taptu Search is a
basic search box as well as pictures of popular sites or categories sliding by
at the bottom.  The basic functionality
of Taptu Search is to just hit the image of anything you want, so you can start
by doing this on the entry screen.  Once you
search for an internet keyword you will be given graphics of the pages that it
comes up with, and you can slide between them just as you do on your iPhone
desktop between pages of applications.  Taptu Search will usually show you popular internet
results, such as Wikipedia pages or famous blogs.  The top choices for the sites it finds is also
based on whether or not they have a mobile page, so then it will be easy to
view on your iPhone.  Some pages are
easier than others to view in Taptu Search, and you will find a couple that
will either refuse to load or force you to view it in Safari.  Taptu Search really stands out when you view
its own popular sections, which work like a regular popular search engine.  The real difference here is in how it is
presented, which lets you scroll topics along an access.  All the features in Taptu Search are really
just to make regular internet searching easier on the iPhone, and it does this
to a degree.  Hopefully in later versions
it will be even more reliable and will include a few more features.