There are over 130,000 apps in the App Store. About 100,000 of those expect you to pay cash money for a download. Sometimes it’s worth it! Often, it’s not. Prof. Dealzmodo’s here to help you tell the difference.

Oscar Wilde was right about cynics: they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. On your next trip to the App Store, don’t be cynical. Be smart—even if it means spending a little money.

The App Store Effect Is Real. Use It.

Last fall, John pondered the App Store Effect, which holds that Apple’s model results in price deflation so severe that it’s unsustainable… in the long term. In the short term, though, it’s your ticket to apps that cost far less than their analog (or web-only) counterparts. And sometimes, they’ll include even more functionality.

Examples? Certainly! Here’s a range of apps, from professional to gaming to reference to navigation, that’ll save you anywhere from a few bucks to a few thousand:

It’s probably most helpful to think of these in terms of the broad categories where you’re most likely to find a cheaper app alternative.

Hobbyist: If it’s an activity that at least a few thousand people enjoy, there’s likely an app catering to it. GuitarToolkit‘s a perfect—if extreme—example. For $10, you get a library of over 500,000 chords, a chromatic tuner, and a metronome. Purchasing all those items individually gets expensive and, more importantly, bulky. An app? A fifth (or less) of the cost, all stored in your phone. Frequent traveler? Download HearPlanet‘s collection of over 250,000 audio guides instead of shelling out around $8 for one at each location. If you have a common passion, someone’s developing for it.

Professional: BarMax costs as much as an App Store product is allowed to, but the law exam prep app is still $2,000 less than an in-classroom service like BarBri. In fact, shortly after BarMax was released, BarBri retooled its pricing structure to be more competitive. It wasn’t a coincidence. And other professionals—including pilots and nurses—have a bevy of targeted apps to choose from as well.

Cannibalistic: Companies are so eager to be represented in the App Store that they’ll undercut themselves to be players there. An online subscription to Zagat.com costs $25 per year. The Zagat to Go app costs just $10, and includes location services and an offline mode that the Zagat website doesn’t. You can play Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for $30 on the PSP, but it’s only $10 on your iPhone. And Major League Baseball’s MLB.com at Bat app lets you stream games for $1 a pop, while MLB.TV charges $99 for a yearly subscription. Sure, if you watch a hundred or more baseball games a year on your iPod Touch’s tiny screen you’ll want to go with the latter, but the pay as you go option is ideal for the casual fan with a vested interest in his eyesight.

Remember: with so many developers targeting the App Store, it’s more than likely that there really is an app for that. But wait… what if there are several apps for that? How do you choose the right one?

App Overlap

Because the App Store is such a big ecosystem, it’s inevitable that there are redundant applications. Some categories see more overlap than others, but in general it’s common to find multiple apps that do the same thing. So where does the cost difference come from?

Functionality: The most basic—and most obvious—reason for an app to be more expensive is that it can flat-out do more. A casual Twitter user might be happy using Echofon for free, but if you need support for multiple accounts and the cleanest UI around, you’re going to be happy coughing up three bucks for Tweetie 2. Make sure to read up on the full feature set of what you’re buying. If you’re about to pay for something with more firepower than you need, there’s likely a free (or cheaper) version that’ll suit your purposes. The paid app will still be there if you decide you need more functionality down the road.

Ad Support: Often, and particularly with casual games, the only difference between the free and paid versions of an app is whether you’ll be saddled with advertisements as you use it. It really depends on your threshold: is it worth three dollars to play Words With Friends unfettered, or are you willing to endure the between-turn sales pitches that accompany Words With Friends Free? Each app integrates ads differently, so it’s worth trying out the free version first. Too many banners cluttering your screen? You’re only a click away from an upgrade.

Ripoffs: It might be helpful to think of the App Store as a giant, unruly bazaar, with thousands of vendors peddling their wares. There’s some oversight when things get out of hand, but even the $999 “I Am Rich” app was downloaded eight times before it got shut down. Like in any sales environment, it’s important to remember that what something costs usually has very little to do with what it’s worth. Don’t just go by the star system; read through the reviews to make sure that the app lives up to the developer’s description.

Easier Said Than Done?

There’s no question that a little research should go into whatever app you buy—starting with our Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Beyond that, here are a few common App Store categories with stand-out expensive, cheap, and free apps, along with our recommendations of when it’s worth it to pay up:

Cooking

Expensive: 20 Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver ($8)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Cheaper: Martha’s Everyday Food ($1)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Free: Epicurious
Verdict: Download

Jamie Oliver and Martha Stewart are powerful brands, but that’s pretty much all you’re paying for. Epicurious has thousands of recipes—including from famous chefs featured in Gourmet and Bon Appetit—a shopping list feature, and will suggest meals based on the ingredients you have handy. It’s really the only cooking app you’ll ever need.

File Storage

Expensive: Air Sharing Pro ($10)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Cheaper: Air Sharing ($3)
Verdict: Download


Free: Dropbox
Verdict: It Depends

While Air Sharing Pro includes printing and emailing, the regular version should get the job done for most people: you can transfer your files to your iPhone’s flash memory via Wi-Fi for storage and transport. The trouble with the “free” option, Dropbox, is that it’s not a standalone app. However, when you link it to your Dropbox account you can share and sync up to 2GB of files for free. It’s good if you already have an account, but if you don’t, you probably should skip it.

Messaging

Expensive: BeejiveIM ($10)
Verdict: Download


Cheaper: AIM ($3)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Free: Meebo
Verdict: Download

It might sound crazy to pay ten dollars for a messaging app, and for a lot of people it would be. But if messaging is your primary mode of communication, BeejiveIM‘s multi-account management, intuitive interface, and seamless push implementation are well worth it. For more casual IMers, it’s hard to beat Meebo‘s multiprotocol support and push notifications. They even log your conversations on their servers. Another solid free option is Fring, which includes Skype support. What you don’t want is to pay $3 for a messaging app like AIM, which only supports services on the AIM network and Facebook and is missing some features—like blocking contacts—found on the desktop version.

Navigation

Expensive: Navigon MobileNavigator ($90)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Cheaper: MotionX GPS Drive ($1)
Verdict: Download


Free: Waze
Verdict: Don’t Download

Just to be clear: Navigon makes one of the best navigation apps out there. But MotionX GPS Drive is a very good navigation app at a tiny fraction of the cost. So before you spend $90 on a top-flight turn-by-turn system, spend a few weeks figuring out if MotionX is good enough for your purposes. Chances are it is. And if it’s not? It was worth a dollar to find out. As for Waze, anyone who’s ever dealt with a backseat driver should appreciate just how unreliable—and aggravating—crowdsourced navigation can be.

Personal Finance

Expensive: PocketMoney ($5)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Cheaper: MoneyBook ($3)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Free: Mint.com
Verdict: Download

The first rule of money management: don’t pay for something you can get for free. Apps like PocketMoney and MoneyBook aren’t bad at what they do, they just look a bit hypocritical with Mint.com Personal Finance around. Mint automatically syncs to your online accounts to help you keep track your budget and investments. It’s the best personal finance app out there, and not just because it’s free.

RSS Reader

Expensive: NewsRack ($5)
Verdict: Download


Cheaper: Reeder ($3)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Free: NetNewsWire
Verdict: Download

You can get by with a free RSS reader, and NetNewsWire‘s a great option that syncs with Google Reader. Like the majority of free options, though, it can be a bit sluggish and prone to crashing, especially if you’re loaded up on feeds. Among the paid apps, NewsRack (formerly Newsstand) shines for its reliability and speed. In-between options like Reeder? Well, if the developer’s best troubleshooting suggestion is to limit the number of items you have to sync, you’re not getting what you paid for.

Twitter

Expensive: Twitterrific ($5)
Verdict: Don’t Download


Cheaper: Tweetie 2 ($3)
Verdict: Download


Free: Echofon
Verdict: Download

Tweetie 2 is our favorite Twitter app : it’s fast, intuitive, and loaded with features. I can understand if you’d rather not pay to use Twitter on your phone, and Echofon’s a more than capable free alternative. But only a twit would pay $5 for Twitterrific when the class of the field is just $3.

The Value and the Cost

Remember that the App Effect is working for you, at least for now, and that we’re in an age of unprecedented deals on app content and services. Try not even looking at the price at first. Start with the feature set, see what’s comparable. If it’s free? Great! But even if it’s $10 or $20, it still might be a steal.

We’ve gotten to a point where it feels almost perverse to pay for an app. But think of it in a larger context: you’re buying software. On your desktop, that used to—and often still does—command exorbitant sums. Even on mobile platforms, Windows Mobile and Blackberry apps used to cost 10 or 20 times the average App Store paid download. Comparatively, App store downloads are peanuts.

And remember, too, that by paying for apps that are actually worth the money, you end up supporting the developers that are delivering innovative content and services. That means a better app experience down the road for all of us. Even the cynics.

Prof. Dealzmodo is a regular section dedicated to helping budget-minded consumers learn how to shop smarter and get the best deals on their favorite gadgets. If you have any topics you would like to see covered, send your idea to tips@gizmodo.com, with “Professor Dealzmodo” in the subject line.

With every American now carrying three to five electronic gadgets at all times, inventors have had to find other markets to tap. They’ve settled on our four-legged best buddies.

Witness the Dog-e-Minder, an electronic dog tag and pet minder. Use it to record the last time your pup was walked, fed, and took his or her medication. It could be a real help for busy owners or multi-pet homes. The Dog-e-Minder has a simple three-button interface; when you do one of those three activities, simply hold the appropriate button for three seconds. The casing is durable and waterproof. Pick it up for $19.95, currently with a buy-one-get-one special.

Next up is Mattel’s Puppy Tweets, one of the hits of this year’s Toy Fair. This device also attaches to your dog’s collar, but its purpose is to let your furry friend express him or herself. It monitors your pooch’s movements and turns them into tweets, such as “It’s not the catching of the tail, it’s the chase,” and “Guess what I’m licking right now.” It has a library of over 500 comments so the novelty shouldn’t wear off for a couple days, at least, and will cost $29.99 when released in the fall. Mattel doesn’t have a page on it yet, but here it is on Fast Company.

Updated: An image Carol Mangis took of Mattel’s Puppy Tweets from Toy Fair after the jump.

Last Wednesday I married the love of my life. This is the short story of some of the things I did before I met her, a guide on flirting using Twitter, Facebook, texting, and sexting face-to-face, in the real world.

Since I came to New York, my romantic life has been a rollercoaster. A very fast one, with 9G turns. If there is a city in the world to flirt and date anywhere and anytime, it’s NYC. You don’t need the web to meet people. Every cafe, every bar, every party seems like a huge playground for singles to engage in conversations and start love affairs. However, the web can help while you are meeting people and after, all in real time, and face to face.

If you have enough confidence and you are fearless—remember: you have nothing to lose, since you will always have the “no”—any city in the world should be open for the same games. Here are some tips to use technology while meeting people in the real world.

The basic rules

Technology hasn’t changed real world flirting. Much. At the end of the day, it all depends on you, how charming you can be, and how much the other person likes you (tip: not everyone has to like you). However, web-based social services like Facebook and Twitter open a door that didn’t exist before. They are an opportunity to take the flirting to a new level when you first meet someone in the flesh, all without getting too personal. For some reason, exchanging Twitter or Facebook usernames doesn’t seem to be perceived as threatening or serious as exchanging phone numbers or email addresses. After all, Twitter is open and Facebook’s friend requests can be denied—or accepted and then canceled.

The web-based flirting can happen right at the moment you meet the other person or later. I remember my first party in the city, hosted by Gawker.tv’s Richard Blakeley, a couple of weeks after my arrival. A girl with the most hypnotic cleavage I’ve ever seen approached me and started to talk. Within a few minutes things started to get fun. A few minutes later, we moved into more suggestive terrain. While this was happening, I saw her Blackberry in her hand. She had her Facebook page open. Without her noticing, I looked her name up in my iPhone’s Facebook app as we were talking, and sent her a friend request on the spot. We kept talking and minutes later, when she checked her Facebook again, she found the request, smiled maliciously, and clicked yes saying “I guess we are now friends.”

That night was fun.

But it’s not always that easy. The key in that example is that it happened naturally, and the move matched the rhythm of the conversation. Taking the step to add someone to Facebook in real time is a risky one, so you have to measure yourself and be ready to gamble. That is the basic rule: Never force things, and learn to read the signs that the other person is giving you. If the conversation is playful, wait until you think is appropriate to incorporate something like Facebook into it.

Tweeting your pants off

Asking for a Twitter name during the conversation is a lot easier than making that Facebook move. After all, Twitter is open to everyone, and direct messaging is a perfect way to flirt—at least for me: I find its 140-character limitation challenging and exciting, and I love when people can be concise and clever in just one single phrase.

Once again, the medium is not important except as a way to reach your counterpart, allowing you to snip casually, responding to the other person’s comments. Doing it publicly is a very fine art, which can easily end in disaster, especially if the other person already has a lover. If you have enough wit and you are sensitive to the other person’s needs and circumstances, chances are that he or she will be interested in you, and something may happen down the line, as the play factor increases in your exchanges. Sometimes, this game also happens in real time.

One night I met a very pretty—and delightfully nerdy—girl at Delmano, one of my favorite bars here in Williamsburg. She knew Gizmodo and recognized me, so the conversation quickly got into technology. She confessed that she followed me on Twitter, so I asked what her nickname was to add her later. Minutes later, in fact: When she excused herself to the bathroom I sent her the first direct message. After that, we spent the whole night having two conversations, one actually speaking out loud, and the other taunting each with secret tweets. That night was fun too.

For sure, that’s also an exception, but it’s an example on how Twitter can be a nice way to flirt in real time, as long as you keep it natural and in context, just like you would in a real world conversation.

The next level

Once you have established a Twitter or Facebook beachhead it’s time to move it to the next level. You may decide to keep it in the online world, flirting until you feel comfortable to ask for a date. The alternative is to be a little bit more daring, and use Twitter or Facebook to interact with someone you met before, like you may be doing now using text messages. The difference is that Twitter and Facebook are a lot more useful than text messages, because they give you context. For example, you can learn what the other person is doing without asking for it or without the other person explicitly telling you about it.

I used to do that when I was going through my worse digital exhibitionist phase. A couple of times I tweeted or changed my Facebook status saying where I was, and the girl I was flirting with—the nerdy pretty one—sent me messages saying that she was around, wondering if we could hook up for a drink in the most casual way. Likewise, I did the same thing with other people. Of course, this doesn’t always work. You or the other person may have other plans in mind. Again, the key here is not to force things, and be as playful and natural as you can.

If you pass the initial filters, and your flirting turns into something a bit more serious, you may get an instant messaging nickname or a telephone number. Instant messaging is not very useful for real time flirting situations. Unlike Twitter or texting which allow you to be cute and playful in a parallel line to the actual conversation, instant messaging runs at a faster pace and requires more attention.

It’s only good in two situations. One may be when you are instant messaging with someone else (cue in lots of trips to the bathroom, stress, and a lot of guilt). Two—which is the only one I’ve practiced—having a sexual conversations in public, in a crowded place in which you can talk into the ear of your lover. This may also happen with Twitter or text messages, but instant messaging—using your favorite program for your smartphone—is my favorite way to do it. But then again, I am really fast typist.

The time it happened it was by chance. She and I started to talk dirty, casually while having dinner in a crowded restaurant, the typical romantic place illuminated only by candlelight and which shall remain nameless because I want to go there again. As our conversation started to get naughtier, we noticed that some people were listening to us, but instead of shutting up, I took out my iPhone and sent her an even racier message using BeejiveIM. Her iPhone vibrated thanks to Beejive’s push, she took it out, smiled, and replied back. We kept on talking about other things, with increasing difficulty as the IM conversation got completely explicit and we had a harder time concentrating on actually making sense in our audible conversation. At one point I asked her for something which made her open her eyes wide, giving me that “are you out of your fucking mind?” look of pure disbelief. I grinned and sent her another message. Surprised, she stood up, turned around, and left.

The next time my iPhone buzzed—about a minute later—it didn’t have any text. I clicked on the incoming file and a photo of her bare breasts appeared. A few seconds later, another one of her black lace knickers downloaded completely, as she was returning to the table from the bathroom. It ended being another fun night.

That, sexting, could be considered the top level of all these games, but it’s not usual to find someone who may want to do it outside a relationship, much less in a real time, face-to-face situations. When it happens, like it did as part of a larger context and conversation, it can be really fun,

Keep your mind open

Of course, things don’t always happen in this way. The above is not the norm, but it’s not the exception. The fact is that, if the opportunity arises, Twitter, Facebook, IM, or texting could be used as part of the flirting and sexual game not only in the privacy of your home, looking at your computer screen, but anywhere in the “real” world. And I have to say that it’s a lot more fun that way.

The irony of all this is that, even while I met my amazing wife through the internet, we never used Facebook or Twitter to flirt. We exchanged a couple of emails, she invited me out for coffee, and the most technology-related thing I did after that was to send her a text message, written as I was running to take the subway:

“It was lovely to meet you. I’m sorry I had to run out so earlier, but I really enjoyed talking to you. Would you like to have a proper date next week?”

She asked me to marry her two months later. And we will live happily ever after.

So what exactly is Google Buzz? Used on a PC or mobile, Buzz reminds us of an RSS combined with all of your social networking—all within the existing Gmail and Google.com infrastructure.

Buzz’s five key features include:

• Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
• “Rich fast sharing” combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, and it includes full-sized photo browsing
• Public and private sharing (swap between family and friends)
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates, like Facebook might, Buzz features emails that update dynamically with all Buzz thread content, like the photo viewer we mentioned above)
• “Recommended Buzz” puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, even if you’re not acquainted. Recommendations learn over time with your feedback.

Google Buzz is available today, and it should creep up as a new tab in Gmail any minute.

But What About My Cellphone?

Of course, Buzz also works on mobiles right from Google.com on Android and iPhone browsers, and it locates your position from a one button press. From here, Buzz can tailor your feed to their information on things like businesses and restaurants. More on mobile Buzz here. [Google Buzz]

Hands on

Here’s what Buzz looks like. First, the text box. No obvious word limit, as far as I can see. Don’t go dumping huge articles in here, but you can fit more than Twitter.

Once you click in, you can add links, photos and decide whether or not you want a private or public Buzz.

The Buzz listing looks more like Facebook than it does Twitter, with Likes, dislikes and the ability to respond directly to a posting and have other people see it. When someone makes a new comment in reply to an old Buzz, it bumps that entire Buzz up to the top.

What’s weird, and what Matt and I can’t figure out yet, is how some people are able to find us on Buzz. Is it searching by real name? It’s also interesting that this is tied to your Gmail account. When people do a search for you, it doesn’t seem like it exposes your actual email address, which is a good privacy protection wall.

This article was written on June 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Despite the fact that Twitter was despised (and still is) by many people when it first came out, it has actually managed to become pretty useful. There are countless different Twitter applications and websites available which allow Twitter users to add more functionality to the service.

One such website is called Track This and it allows you to track your packages over Twitter. If you check Twitter pretty regularly, this will be the perfect way to keep track of your packages. The best part is that you initiate the tracking right from Twitter, so everything is done without needing to visit other sites.

Here are the steps you need to take to start following your packages via TrackThis:

1. Go to Twitter and follow “trackthis.“
2. “trackthis” will immediately follow you back.
3. Send a direct message, not a reply, to TrackThis with your FedEx, UPS, USPS, or DHL tracking number in it. You can also include a little note about what the package is for.
   
   

Example: You just bought RAM for your computer and it’s being delivered via UPS. You start following “trackthis” and then “trackthis immediately follows you back. Then you send a direct message to them with the UPS tracking number in it, something like: 1234567890 RAM.

Now any time the location of the package is updated, you’ll receive an update that would look something like this:

This just proves that there is more to Twitter than the social/stalking aspect.

Source: jkOnTheRun

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