However, the on-screen keyboard on the iPhone isn’t ideal for a lot of things – typing a long SMS message or typing in a long web address or even lengthy notes.

So when I am working on my laptop and I need to send some stuff over to iPhone I initially would drop that info in Dropbox and access it from the Dropbox iPhone app.

Then, I came across an interesting app called PasteFire that let me send various forms of data to my iPhone and it intelligently recognized what was being sent and will initiate actions based on it. You can read my PasteFire review here.

myPhoneDesktop is a new tool I just came across that provides an easy and effective way to work with your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch right from your desktop.

myPhoneDesktop consists of 2 components

1. Desktop component – you can install the free myPhoneDesktop desktop cilent on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. Or if you are on a computer where you don’t have desktop client installed, you could use the browser bookmarklet.
2. iPhone/iPad app – myPhoneDesktop is an Universal app that works on both iPhone and iPad and it costs $4.99.

You need to have both the desktop and iPhone app installed for this to work.

Desktop Client

The desktop client opens up in a small window similar to the iPhone screen in size with tabs in the bottom just like a typical iPhone app. The tabs are Phone, URL, Text, Image and Settings. As the names indicate, you can send these 4 types of data to your iPhone.

iPhone App

The iPhone app shares the same interface as the desktop counterpart. It sends push notifications for everything sent to the iPhone from the desktop app. And I have seen it to be almost instantaneous. The app works over 3G and WiFi.

The app is also iOS 4 compatible and fully supports fast app switching. The universal app is nicely priced at $4.99 and it is a bargain to gain such an awesome functionality for both your iPhone and iPad at one low price! (check out the promo code giveaway details at the end of this post)

Phone

You can store your favorite numbers on the desktop app and you can initiate a call/sms that number right from your desktop.

With the phone tab, you can also send phone numbers to your iPhone. The myPhoneDesktop iPhone app then notifies you with a push notification and it opens up. You can choose the right top icon to see different actions you can do on the number you just receieved. You send a SMS message, call the number, add to a new contact, add to an existing contact, etc.

The desktop client tightly integrates with the operating system where it supports keyboard shortcuts for copy paste, etc.

URL

You can also send web addresses such as long Google Maps url or anything that you come across to your iPhone. Let’s say you are leaving work but would like to continue reading an article on your ride home, you can send the URL to your iPhone and even have it open in Instapaper or do any other actions associated with it.

Text

This is the tab I often use the most. Even after using the iPhone for a couple of years I am still not very good at typing on the virtual keyboard. So, I send big blobs of text from the desktop app to my iPhone.

Image

Since my iPhone doubles as an incredible blogging tool, this app helps me send screenshots from my desktop to my iPhone seamlessly by just pasting it. You can choose a file from your computer or at any URL or even from your clipboard to send.

myPhoneDesktop provides a very efficient way to use your computer and iPhone together with ease. If you are a person who uses both extensively in your workflow, you will see a huge benefit in productivity and decrease in mind numbing workaround we used to do for simple tasks like the above.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Availability: App Store

Pricing: $4.99

Reviewed at version: 1.4 (iOS 4)

myPhoneDesktop iPhone App Giveaway

The app developer has kindly provided some promo codes for 5 lucky Top iPhone Resource readers to win in a giveaway.

You can do one of the following or all to enter the giveaway

• Leave a comment  in this post (with a valid email address so I can email you the code)
• Tweet this message on Twitter
  ”Retweet this for a chance to win myPhoneDesktop iPhone app ($4.99) from @TopiPhone http://bit.ly/9AYKjl“
• Become a fan on TiR Facebook page and leave a comment there mentioning you want to win this app.

We’ll announce the winners by the end of the day on July 14.

Winners announced! Congrats to Edbertin, @bones00, @jiushijeff, @smartpig, @urvaksh. Stay tuned for more giveaways like this one.

I have no problem using the Google Reader web interface and in fact a big fan with all the Greasemonkey scripts you can add to customize it.

In my iPhone though, any Google Reader iPhone app I have used before have always left me wanting for more and I kept going back to the iPhone mobile interface. Until now.

Reeder iPhone App

Reeder by Silvio Rizzi is a Google Reader iPhone app that is very sleek and looks and works more like the uber-popular Tweetie iPhone app.

Reeder has been around for a bit but the most recent 2.0 version has supercharged it and has added some nice features like state saving.

I have over 300+ RSS feeds I subscribe to (don’t ask!) and Reeder was very quick to update them all.

Interface

I love the overall subtle color scheme that is very easy and pleasing at the same time to my eyes.

If you look at the bottom pane, the app is organized into 3 areas – unread items, starred items or all items. They are not labeled so it takes a sharp eye to notice the difference in views in the beginning. Plus a reload button to refresh your feeds.

Clicking on a folder, I can sort my feeds by time or by feed with the 2 icons in the bottom right of the pane. Now, listen to this – this is my most favorite feature in this app!

Every feed has (again Tweetie like) action. You swipe right on the feed to mark it as read or pull left to star it. You can also mark all items as read in a folder from the bottom pane.

Now lets move on the individual feed pane. Again, it is a pleasure to read the feed in the color scheme – very easy on the eyes although some folks might want an option to change the color scheme. (feature request?)

The bottom pane gives you some action items – mark unread, star it, arrows to view previous or next feed item and a share button.

The share button is another lovely feature that integrates a whopping number of services you can use to share your feed link. It supports most of the popular ones like Facebook, Twitter, Instapaper, Google Mobilizer, Read It Later, In-app Email, Open in Safari, Copy link, etc. Check out the myriad of options in the Settings –> Reeder menu. Again the Settings menu has a lot more options for you to play with and especially the one which turns on/off image caching on WiFi only to speed things up further.

Also on a single feed view, you can pull up or down on the screen to move to previous or next feed item. Very slick!

Another neat feature is you can minimize or maximize the sync status bar by just tapping on it for more reading room!

Plus, the new version saves your app state which means you can close the app and open it again and be in same place you left off. This is huge especially if you are not jailbroken and have backgrounding enabled.

My $0.02

Overall, Reeder has to be the best Google Reader iPhone app there is in App Store. And I have been looking for one for a long time!

If you haven’t looked at it yet, it is available in App Store for $2.99.

Reeder iPhone app giveaway

Silvio has provided 3 Reeder promo codes to give away to 3 lucky readers here.All you have to do is one of 3 things or all three

• Leave a comment  in this post (with a valid email address so I can email you the code)
• Tweet this message on Twitter
  Retweet for a chance to win @ReederApp iPhone app from @TopiPhone. http://bit.ly/dwL73w
• Become a fan on TiR Facebook page and leave a comment there mentioning you want to win this app.

Make sure you are following us on Twitter – @TopiPhone to receive the promo code by direct message if you are the winner.

We will randomly pick 3 winners by Sunday April 4th 5pm EST and announce it on Twitter & Facebook.

You can retweet as many times as you want but don’t annoy your followers by overdoing it. Also, you may need a US iTunes account to redeem this code.

Screenshots

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Availability: App Store [iTunes link]

Price: $2.99

Thank you everyone for participating in the giveaway. We have chose 5 winners randomly and will be sending the promo codes shortly.

Here are the winners: Bjorn Hegle & Eric from the commentators. And @kev_addict, @vinoneverything and @csull on Twitter.

If you haven’t redeemed a promo code before, here’s how to redeem a promo code?

Again thanks everyone who entered and better luck next time.

ContactsPlus aims at filling just those gaps in the Contacts app by adding more nice to have features.

ContactsPlus for iPhone and iPod Touch lets you easily create, organize and delete groups of contacts in your iPhone address book.

Once you launch ContactsPlus, you are greeted with the default – contacts tab. The immediate difference you will see is that the Contacts listing shows picture of contacts in the front listing helping you browse visually. Optionally, you can even display the age of your contacts.

You can create, edit, delete contacts from here. If you tilt the iPhone to landscape mode, you can browse your contacts in Coverflow mode just like you would browse album covers in iPod.

You can also create, edit and delete groups. This is a nice feature for me as it helps to sort my contacts into certain groups.

Of course, you get the option to favorite some contacts for quick access. You can sort your contacts by date of birth, company, profession, first name, last name, middle name, prefix, suffix, nickname, department, city, state, postal code and country. The sorting filters can also be organized.

If you have the date of birth field filled for your favorite people, you can see upcoming birthday reminders. The app badge also has the number showing the upcoming birthdays for a duration of your choice.

ContactsPlus also provides you a number of ways to customize the app – 11 color themes, 4 contact photo sizes, 8 text colors, 8 text sizes, text styles.

You can also set text displayed in lists, set main phone and email displayed and use coverflow to view contacts.

If you use your iPhone Contacts app as your primary way of organizing and maintaining your contacts, ContactsPlus greatly enhances your experience.

I have been trying this app for a few days and liking it a lot. I use Google to sync my contacts and recently synced by Facebook contacts to my iPhone. Needless to say, my contacts is a mess now and I can use some sort of organization with groups to quickly get to my frequent contacts.

ContactsPlus usually sells for $1.99 and is now on sale for $0.99. I recommend trying this out for heavy iPhone contacts users.

Rating: [starreview tpl=16]

Availability: App Store [iTunes link]

Price: $1.99

Also, the app developer has given Top iPhone Resource 5 promo codes to share with our readers.

How to enter the Giveaway?

You can enter this giveaway by doing one of two or both. You will get 1 entry for each

• Leave a comment here with a valid email. (we only use your email to send you the code should you win)
• Tweet this post on Twitter – something like
  @TopiPhone is giving away 5 promo codes to the contacts management iPhone app – ContactsPlus. http://ow.ly/VMsW RT this to enter.

We will pick 5 random winners tomorrow and send you the promo code. If you tweeting this, make sure you are following us so we can send you the promo code.

2009 Best App Ever Awards are now open for nomination and make sure you make your pick(s).

This awards process has a lot of categories you can choose apps in such as

• Most Innovative app
• Most Useful app
• Best Productivity Enhancer
• Best Productivity Killer
• Best Use of Bluetooth
• Most Create Use of iPhone Hardware
• Best Use of Location Services
• Best Visual Design
• Best Educational App
• Best Just for Fun Kids App
• Best App for Toddlers
• Best App for Pre-schoolers
• Best App for Primary School Kids
• Best App for Middle School Kids
• Best App for High School+ Kids
• Best App for Parents
• Best Feel Like a Local App
• Best GPS Navigation App
• Best Outdoor Use App
• Best Social Networking App
• Best Twitter App
• Best News App
• Best Road Warrior App
• Best Time Management App
• Best Musical Instrument App
• Best Musical Synthesizer App
• Best Photography App
• Best Photo Manipulation App
• Best Artistic Expression App
• Best Casual Game
• Best Game Graphics
• Best Game Controls
• Best Use of Social Gaming Platform
• Best Multiplayer Game
• Best Retro Reborn Game
• Best Action Game
• Best Adventure Game
• Best Arcade Game
• Best Board Game
• Best Card Game
• Best Casino Game
• Best Dice Game
• Best Family Game
• Best MMO Game
• Best Music Game
• Best Puzzle Game
• Best Racing Game
• Best Role Playing Game
• Best Simulation Game
• Best Sports Game
• Best Strategy Game
• Best Trivia Game
• Best Word Game

Whew!

As you can see, finding a good if not the best iPhone in the App Store with over 100,000+ apps is increasingly like finding the needle in the hay stack.

Awards such as this can help an iPhone user to find some of the good apps voted by most people. And iPhone app review sites such as ours also hope to help iPhone users find and identify good apps from the bad ones.

So, make sure you jead over to 2009 Best App Ever Awards and vote for your favorite apps in as many categories as you may like.

May the best apps win!

Here are the winners

• @mdedmon
• @andmatan
• @urvaksh
• @drewdockery
• @klon_26

Also, if you are wondering how to redeem a iPhone promo code, make sure you read the linked post.

Thank you and follow @TopiPhone on Twitter for more promo code giveaways.

As a thank you gesture, we are giving away 5 promo codes to a very cool action puzzle game VernX. Thanks to Vladimir for providing the codes for a TiR giveaway.

VernX usually sells for $2.99 and it is on sale for $0.99 now in App Store.

You could easily win one of 5 promo codes today. Just do one of 2 things or both to increase your odds.

• Leave a comment here with a valid email address (will be used just to send you the promo code)

OR/AND

• Send this Tweet from your Twitter account
  @TopiPhone is giving away Vernx action puzzle game promo code. http://ow.ly/KZin RT this to enter.

The winners will picked at 5Pm EST today and will be contacted shortly thereafter. Just make sure you are following us on Twitter so we can DM you the promo code.

Good luck!

Otterbox makes some cool iPhone & iPod Touch cases. They are celebrating Halloween by giving away a Grand Prize of a Free iPod Touch and an exclusive Orange and black Defender Series case.

Submit your scary, funny or just plain kooky Halloween costume pictures with OtterBox included of course! Don’t have an OtterBox yet? Get creative on how to include “Otter” in your picture!

Email submissions to Halloween@OtterBox.com.

Get more details on the contest here at Otterbox site.

TypeFast is a cool iPhone app that helps a beginner iPhone user to learn to type faster in iPhone keyboard through some practice lessons.

TypeFast –typing tutor is a $0.99 app available in App Store. The app developer Michael Schlauch has provided me with 5 Promo codes to share with Top iPhone Resource readers.

To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment with a valid email address.

You can tell us why you would like to win this one to make this a fun giveaway. We will pick winners by random and announce the winners by Sep 25 5PM EST.

Note: We respect your privacy and your email will not be used for purposes other than to send you the Promo code should you win.

Thanks everyone for entering the giveaway and following us on Twitter.

Here are the winners

@danibright
@beefstirfry
@sailcarib

We have more giveaways coming soon. Follow us on Twitter at @topiphone