Since the release of the iPhone 3G thousands of applications have been created for the ever increasing market of iPhone and iPod Touch users. There are plenty of great applications, but also plenty of applications that are a waste of time or serve no real purpose.

We’ve found that some of the most impressive iPhone/iPod Touch applications are those that make the devices better iPods. Below are 5 must have Music applications for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

1. Apple’s Remote - One of the first applications available when the iTunes store first started offering iPhone applications. Apple’s Remote turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote control for both iTunes and your AppleTV. Sync up the device, select music, change the volume, and create Genius playlists.

   This application shows how dynamic your iPhone can be and how utilizing network devices. I personally had plenty of fun changing iTunes selections while my friends and family tried to figure out what my computer was doing.

2. Last.FM, Pandora, AOL Radio - No matter what your internet radio choice is, the iPhone got a whole lot better with custom applications from Last.Fm, Pandora, and AOL Radio. Each application allows you to listen to streaming music from stations of your choice. One of the weaknesses of the iPod was its lack of local radio access. While the problem still exists, the addition of Internet Radio streams is a solid alternative.

   I personally, prefer Last.fm as my personal music station plays more and more music that I prefer based on the music I listen to in iTunes as well as on my iPod.

3. Simplify Media - Combined with its desktop application, Simplify Media lets you access your entire music collection from your iPhone.

   No need to buy that 16gb model if you’re worried about not having most your music collection when you’re out and about. Unless you’re going to be processing a lot of data, your Streaming collection through Simplify Media should work great.

   Additionally, Simplify Media lets you connect to the music library of 30 of your friends. Now your social connections can help you find new music you may want to add to your personal collection.

4. Tap Tap Revenge - This game is as close as we currently have to a Guitar Hero or Rock Band for the iPhone (I imagine both of those games will eventually make their way to the mobile device).

   Test our your music rhythm and tapping skills by following the beats that are played through this highly popular iPhone Game.

5. Top 40 Chart - Find out what’s new and hot on the Top 40 Chart applications. View the current tracks and click through to purchase them in iTunes.

   The Top 40 Chart lets you stay up to date on the hottest music and add the pieces to your collection that fit your musical preference.

The iPhone/iPod Touch became a much better iPod with the addition of applications for the devices. It allows for the capabilities to dynamically update based on the ideas and trends of the time. Music is more enjoyable and interactive than ever before because of these applications.

Which Music applications (Free or Fee) do you enjoy most?

As more and more media becomes digitally available more and more people become interested in Media Centers. Both Apple and Microsoft have their own media center strategies that include AppleTV, Xbox360, and the software that lets you connect your digital content to these devices to make them easily available.

In addition to the major players, new start ups are continually attempting to provide new and unique digital media center offerings for users. Boxee, is a new Media Center application that includes Social networking features. While currently still in alpha development, Boxee utilizes the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) open source project behind much its code and is currently available for Mac OS X and Linux.

Media Center Made Social

One thing that sets Boxee apart from other XBMC projects is its Social integration. Boxee lets you see what your friends are watching, listening to, and viewing.

With the success of Social Networking websites, Boxee’s Social connection may set the media center apart from competitors.

Boxee explains that they made their Media Center software social because:

a truly connected experience means not just connecting people with content, but also connecting people with people. so by making boxee social we believe our users will discover new content, rediscover forgotten favorites, and share experiences with friends, family and the world.

Internet Video Content

In addition to allowing users to connect with friends and find old and new favorites, Boxee has Internet Video content accessibility built in. Watch favorites from Youtube and view weekly updates to your favorite Revision 3 shows.

Internet Radio

While you may be more interested in music than video, Boxee is connected to Internet Radio options like Last.fm. In addition to linking your Last.fm account to Boxee, you can select Last.FM stations by finding music on your computer, and playing Last.FM music that is similar. This is a great feature to quickly find new and different music that is similar to the music you already love.

Your Content

Like AppleTV and Xbox 360 Media Center features, you can also play all of your local content in Boxee. The interface for navigating through your music, video, and photo collection is clean and enjoyable and provides an interesting way to experience your Media Library.

Conclusion

Overall, the initial Alpha version of Boxee is impressive. It has taken the strong qualities of other Media Center applications and applied new Social features that should expand its use and improve user experience. Combing Boxee features with the AppleTV Take 3 Recipe and you’ll be enjoying media like no one else.

Boxee Alpha version is still in “Invite Only” mode, but be sure to register for an invitation at their website.

After Google announced that they were entering the Browser Wars we discussed the lack of capability to run their new Chrome Browser in OS X despite the fact that Chrome was build on Webkit, the same engine used in Apple’s Safari.

A few days later we found that Google was allowing individuals the capability to try and compile the latest Mac and Linux builds of Chrome. Unfortunately it was a more difficult process and few people were successful in actually getting the build to launch.

Now, Codeweavers is giving all Mac users the ability to play with Google’s new Chrome browser through their Wine technologies. Crossover Chromium takes the Google Chrome browser for windows and combines it with wine libraries to give Mac users the ability to launch and browse the web with Google Chrome.

The most interesting aspect of this is that Crossover does not need to be previously installed on oyur Mac to run the browser. Download Crossover Chromium from the Codeweavers website and launch the installer. It will take some time on the initial setup configuring the wine libraries for Google Chrome but will launch the browser to give Mac users the Google Chrome experience.

Although it won’t display as Google’s Chrome in the menu bar, the Crossover Chromium will look, act, and perform in OS X almost identically the way that the browser does on windows systems.

While the visual effects mimic that of Windows, we expect the official Google Chrome release to look more like Safari.

Having used the new version of iTunes 8.0 for a couple of hours, here are some of my initial thoughts. The thing I like best about the latest version of iTunes isn’t Genius, but rather the new visualizer. I found myself searching for songs that I wanted to see on the visualizer as some of the new modes are highly responsive to the audio. Ironically, I found the visualizer responded better to classical/instrumental music than to songs with heavy beats. Your mileage may vary. But you can check out some classic Chopin below.

On the other hand, Genius playlists are good. I haven’t used them enough to say they are great. But as long as you don’t mind sharing your song information with Apple, you won’t be disappointed. But that brings us to the Genius Sidebar which is probably my least favorite aspect. The Genius Sidebar  “recommends” (i.e. sells) related albums and songs based on what is playing. Apple claims that the Genius Sidebar won’t recommend songs you don’t own, but my sidebar recommended a song for me to buy that was already in my library. I own “Shadows Part 2″ but the sidebar notes it is one of the top songs I am missing.

Genius Sidebar recommending an existing song

To me, that’s not a big deal. What is a big deal is the whole notion of “Top Songs You’re Missing.” Perhaps the greatest strength of iTunes and specifically the iTunes Music Store was that you could buy exactly what you wanted. Two tracks here, another track there, and you had your awesome music collection for way less than the CD’s. The Genius Sidebar betrays some of that coolness of iTMS by ignoring that those missing tracks may be intentional. But the main focus of the Genius Sidebar is to get you to buy more music so from that perspective it makes sense. So far, the Sidebar hasn’t recommended anything I’m remotely interested in. Perhaps despair.com was right, none of us is as dumb as all of us. Time will tell.

Couple of other things to note. NBC is back with HD shows, not to mention a freebie episode of The Office. 1.33Gb download for 41 minutes of HD fun. Those Apple TV’s are going to fill up even faster assuming HD shows are a hit with Apple TV owners.

You can still roll your own ringtones with songs you’ve imported from CD’s. You can find the details on how to do it here.

Also, time will tell if the synchronization between the App Store regarding updates has been resolved.

Overall, iTunes 8.0 is a decent update.

PS. You can download the screen cast of the visualizer here

Now that the initial iPhone 3g craze has passed and you no longer have to wait in long lines to pick up your own iPhone it may be the perfect time to be the newest iPhone owner. But before you make that purchase you may want to compare the iPhone 3g to the iPod Touch one more time.

The chart below shows that while the iPhone 3g does have all the features of the iPod Touch but with some additions and more flexibility, but the total 2 year costs is over $1500 more than the slightly less featured iPod Touch.

It may be an easy and clear decision for you that the iPhone is the way to go as you’d be paying similar prices if you combined your iPod Touch price with your Cell Phone subscription for 2 years but don’t over look the value of the iPod Touch. It can do almost everything an iPhone can do when you’re in WiFi locations such as your home or work, and I imagine for many of us those are the two places we spend most of our time.

While I can see value added with the flexibility of the iPhone I do understand that those extra features may not be enough for everyone. So, if you haven’t already made a decision, review the feature sets, costs, and how you feel you’ll use the devise to see if the iPhone 3g or the iPod Touch is perfect for you.