Everybody likes staying on the top of the news. Some read newspapers while others listen to podcasts and other sources to keep up. But not every piece of news is worth reading. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way you could go through news items fast and identify the ones that are worth a read on the road? That’s what audionews is all about. It gives you stories in 1 minute blurbs, giving you the chance to go through a lot of information and pick the news you want to explore further.

audionews is an innovative way of keeping up with the news. The app lets you skip the news you don’t want to hear about. If you like what you are listening to, you can always go to the source to find out more. Best of all, stories can always be paused for the future.

I like the fact that you can “like” stories and e-mail them to others from this app. audionews supports tags too, so you can define what stories you are interested about hearing in the future. The headline page is pretty handy too (saves you time when going through the news).

audionews may not be the right tool for everyone, but one can’t argue with the fact that the idea behind this app is very interesting. Gives you yet another way to keep up with things.

Crosswords are fun to play with no matter where and how you get your hands on them. They are one of those games that can kill time and make you smarter at the same time. Crosswords for iPhone is a powerful iPhone application for crosswords junkies. It lets users download puzzles, get hints, improve their game, and solve puzzles no matter where they are.

Crosswords for iPhone (which works fine on iPad too) lets you download puzzles on a daily basis. You can go about solving your puzzles by touching the appropriate squares to enter your letters. The good news is you can catch your errors ahead of time by taking advantage of hints that this app offers.

With this application, you never have to worry about running out of puzzles (U.S. and UK cryptic puzzles are available. I love the fact that you can post your times online and compare them against other people tackling the same puzzles.

Crosswords is one of the best apps in its category. It is very well designed and can help you improve your game dramatically. A must have for every puzzle lover.

The gas prices are not as bad as they used to be a while ago, but it never hurts to save a few dollars here and there, especially if you have a tool that can show you which place has the cheapest gas around. Gasbook is such a tool. It displays the latest gas information all around you and shows you how you can save a few bucks in your next trip to a gas station.

Gasbook has a decent database of gas stations in the U.S. Users can search by location, zip, or your current position. Gas stations can be sorted by price or distance (you don’t want to drive 20 miles to save a couple of bucks, do you?). Looking for a specific brand? Gasbook has you covered there as well.

Gasbook can keep track of your favorite and latest gas stations too. That way, you can narrow down your search and always find the right place to get gas for your car for less. I also like the fuel log feature that helps drivers figure out their average cost per day and mile (it’s useful for business professionals too. Your data can always be exported which is a big plus.

If you are running on a tight budget and do not want to spend a dime more than you have to on gas, Gasbook can help you out. There are some minor glitches here or there (when exporting or saving data). Nevertheless, Gasbook has got some potential.

Those of you who have owned your iPhone for a while have probably had a chance to check out some of those iPhone radio docks. Those devices let you listen to your favorite radio station and even wake up to them. You can have the same option with Radio Alarm. It’s a hybrid radio/alarm/sleep-timer app for iPhone that can wake you up and entertain you.

A ton of features have been fit into Radio Alarm. For starters, it’s a very decent alarm clock. It gives you option as far as your alarm sounds are concerned (choose mp3, radio, and more). Multiple alarms are supported. Snooze time interval can be modified too. Radio Alarm is optimized for iPhone 4, which every app hopefully will be in the future.

As the name suggests, Radio Alarm is a radio app too. It supports Shoutcast radio, which is one of the best places to listen to online radio (with thousands of stations). If you like a channel, you can just add it to your favorites for future references. The sleep timer is a plus just in case you want to get your sleep cycles back on track.

To summarize, Radio Alarm is a pretty decent radio & clock hybrid app for iPhone. Shoutcast has a ton of stations that you can listen to when using this app. The alarm clock does what it’s supposed to do. The app did crash on us once, but we have not been able to replicate it since. Pretty solid all around.

Are you an RSS junkie? Whether you want to stay on the top of the news or interested in tracking a specific topic, you are going to need a decent RSS reader. Google Reader is probably all you will need on your computer. You can’t take your computer everywhere. Reeder is a fun RSS reader for iPhone that can keep track of your RSS feeds and sync them all up with Google Reader.

Reeder is pretty easy to use. It lets you organize your feeds and folders. You can star your favorite stories and sync it all up with your Google Reader account. Going through your “read” and “unread” stories is easy too.

The social sharing options available in Reeder are quite useful too. I personally use Delicious to save my favorite stories. Reeder supports that and more. Sending stories to Twitter and Instapaper (or ReadItLater) is possible too. Links do open in Safari (just in case you want to check original stories).

Feeder may not replace Google Reader, but it does make it fun to keep up with your favorite blogs on the road. It has a pretty decent interface and is a very responsive app.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have wanted to send something a large file only to find out your e-mail provider wont handle that load. Those of you who have made a habit of sharing videos and photos are most likely familiar with this issue. SendStuffNow is a life-saver of a service that enables its users to share their files with the world by taking advantage of the power of the cloud.

E-mail providers always put all kinds of restrictions on the types of e-mails and attachments that one can send using their services. SendStuffNow lets you go beyond those restrictions and share your content with your contacts easily. SendStuffNow has premium plans for those of you who are not satisfied with the storage you get with the free plan.

I like the fact that you can share files in a secure way with others. That’s especially useful if you plan on sharing business documents with someone. The fact that you can change the expiration date for a specific invitation you have sent out is a huge plus. Since your files are encrypted, you can use this service with more peace of mind.

To sum things up, SendStuffNow is a very helpful service for those who want to store and share large files with their contacts. It’s secure, easy to use, and does what it promises. You may want to invest in a premium plan to get the best out of this service though.

Calendar apps on iPhone can be great tools for anyone who leads a busy life. Those of you who take your iPhone everywhere with you can use these apps to manage your tasks and make sure things get done when they need to get done (without having to deal with papers). IconCal is a calendar application that takes it a step further. It’s a visual calendar that makes keeping up with things easier.

Using visuals to keep track of tasks can save you time. Pictures can be worth thousands of words at times. They can be especially handy if you have too much on your plate each day and don’t want to spend your whole day going through your plans and notes. IconCal has a straightforward interface. It has over a hundred icons that you can drag and drop to associate with your events. Icons can be re-sized, so it’s possible to have multiple icons per day on your calendar.

IconCal lets you create your own icons too. Just take a picture or choose an existing image from your library. This calendar is pretty colorful and makes tracking those must-do tasks less painful.

IconCal may not work out for everyone. The trouble is some of us respond to visuals better than others. If you have tried traditional calendar apps and want to go with something different, IconCal is worth checking out.

Our languages are changing everyday. A ton of acronyms and text lingo have made it to the English language, and there is no reason to believe people will stop here. While the pros and young kids have no trouble keeping up with these “foreign” words, there are many who just don’t know what all these 3 letter words and weird icons mean. That’s what LRNtheLingo is good for. It lets users find the definition for a specific word and understand those emoticons like a pro.

Let’s face it. You can find the meaning to anything under the sun using Google or Bing. LRNtheLingo is more than just definitions though. It organizes these words so you can find the meaning to a specific word or emoticons easily. You can search by code or English to find what you are looking for. The definitions are more than adequate.The inclusion of examples is a plus.

You may not intend to be the next great texter. Those new “words” may not have any real use for you. But if you have kids or friends who use that type of language, it never hurts to have a tool that can show you what some of those words mean. LRNtheLingo does that and more. LRNtheLingo saves you time and effort. What more can one ask?

Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to take something’s picture but didn’t want to be so obvious about it. Maybe you are just trying to study things at your current location and don’t want everyone to know about it. That’s where SpyPic comes into play. It gives you an alibi while you keep taking photos of your subjects.

SpyPic is proof that one does not have to develop a super complex iPhone app to be successful. The app addresses a need many iPhone owners have had in the past. It lets users take pictures of things while appearing to be using their phones like anyone else. Screen transparency can be modified to give users the chance to see what they are taking a photo of.

SpyPic is optimized for iPhone 4, so it is always a tap away. SpyPic can be very addictive once your get your hands on it. Pictures are saved to users’ album. They can be e-mailed directly from this app too.

To sum things up, you don’t have to be a spy to need this app. SpyPic makes it much easier to take photos of things and people without disturbing anyone or being so obvious about it. It’s one clever app that can be very addictive.

Rating: 9/10

We have all had those crazy days. I am talking about days that you have so much to do, you can’t possibly figure out how to get things done without missing something. Planning ahead for such days can help you get more done without panicking or getting confused. Diacarta is an attractive planning application that keeps track of your daily events and gives you a visual way to keep up with them.

Diacarta is not your average planner application. It has a beautiful interface and has over 50 icons for you to choose from. These icons are developed to create a better mental figure for you (as far as your daily tasks are concerned). Users can easily add events and associate unique icons to each.

If you need to schedule your events, you can just grab an icon and drag it to the right place on your clock. Of course, you can update your events from their details page. It certainly beats using a simple list.

Diacarta is very intuitive and quite dynamic. The icons are attractive and help you get a better sense of what’s ahead of you each day. Scheduling and managing your events couldn’t be any easier. It is a truly unique app for those who lead a hectic life.

Rating: 8.6/10