Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s take a second to reflect upon how far we’ve come, from phone owners without the near-decade-old service that people don’t really use that much, to people with it. That far! In other, slightly more scheduled iPhone news: some apps!

12Mail: MMS has only been working on the iPhone for what, four hours? So, uh, here’s an alternative! 12Mail sends short—12 second, to be exact—video messages to your Twitter or Facebook account instantly, and for free. And if you designate a recipient who also has 12Mail, they get a push notification for you message. In other words, it can behave exactly like an MMS, except without using any of your monthly allotment.

Cinq: You can access your entire Mac photo library with your iPhone over the air, sort of like with Simplify’s nearly identical photo sharing app. A couple things: Cinq’s take on the concept seems to work slightly more smoothly, and it costs one third as much, at a dollar.

Proloquo2go: It’s a little outside our normal app beat, but hey! Covering this feels good, OK? Proloquo2go is a step beyond a text-to-speech app, with a massive library of symbols and photos to allow people who have trouble speaking to communicate more easily. Three reasons this matters: It has the potential to truly help people; it’s getting rave reviews from folks who are familiar with similar tech; and even at $190, it costs less than similar dedicated devices, which can reach into the thousands. Neat stuff, to be sure. [via Technabob]

Pocket Sherpa: A wonderful concept that could do with some (read: a lot) of refinement, Pocket Sherpa combines all kinds of—mostly crowdsourced—travel data for virtually any destination in the world. It’s an accompaniment to the Localyte site, which has accumulated thousands of local volunteers, many of whom will answer individual questions sent through the app, for free.

PilotFAR: As you probably know, and Wilson made abundantly clear, the FAA’s rules about how you can use gadgets on planes are labyrinthine and frustrating. The $7 PilotFAR app might be overkill if all you want to do is harass an overzealous flight attendant with some FAA rule disputes, but then again, after reading everyone’s comments on the matter, maybe not. Oh, and all you aviators out there: This clever little app covers way, way more than onboard gadgetry—it’s a full reg book.

Dear Best Camera,
You have a stupid name, and the self-promoting captions you put on uploaded photos are annoying. But! Your filters are genuinely good, and the ability to properly layer effects turns out some fantastic imagery.

I wish you weren’t three dollars.

Love Sincerely,
John xoxo

Hava Player: Sling act-alike Hava is matching their main competitor on another point—they’ve just released an iPhone client, which controls and streams from your DVR, through a Hava box, over Wi-Fi. Feature for feature it matches up well against Sling’s offering, and it totally wins on price: It’s $10 to Sling’s $30.

This Week’s App News on Giz:

• TomTom iPhone Car Kit Priced at $120, Available October

• Bravo Gustavo iPhone App: Conductor’s Baton Hero?

• iPhone Navigation App Battlemodo, Part II: The Best Cheap GPS App

• FoodScanner iPhone App Knows Exactly How Disgusting Your Diet Is

• Pizza Hut Rewards Laziness by Giving 20% Off to iPhone App Orders

• TI Turns $30 Calculator Into $15 iPhone App, Swears People Still Pay for Real Deal

• Griffin’s iTrip FM Transmitter: Hardware Controlled Through an iPhone App

• McSweeney’s iPhone App Delivers Exclusive Content Weekly

• At Gizmodo Gallery ’09: Ghostly Discovery Listening Station

• Apple Approved Almost 1400 iPhone Apps Last Friday…Fourteen Freaking Hundred

• Apple Finally Makes an Honest App Out of Snapture

• Trope, the New Brian Eno iPhone App, Is the True Followup to Bloom

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!