The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

With apologies to our friends across the pond who have their own take on what "football" really is, the first full day of a new season of American football got underway yesterday with a whole host of league games that stretched late into the night. The only thing better than watching a football game is having some really cool football-related apps on your iPhone or iPod touch while you watch. Keep reading to learn more about my favorite five apps.

Pro Football Live - Here's where to go for all the latest updates, scores, and news around the NFL. Customize your own page to the upcoming schedules of your favorite teams and the latest photos from around the league. Individual team page give great breakdowns of team and individual stats on every game -- including preseason. If you're a stats junkie, this is the app for you.

Fantasy Football Cheatsheet '08 - Keep track of everything that's going down with your players and team with this cool app. It's got the rankings of 400 players and their defenses, so you can easily through data while you assemble your draft wish list. Search players by name or team, and choose the My Team tab for instant info on how your players are doing. Sweet.

AP Top25 College Football 2008 - Not strictly related to the NFL, of course, but how else would I keep track of how well West Virginia played (or not) this week, and how those Heisman candidates are looking? Use this app to get weekly AP poll info, view team progress and scores, get rankings, and even view photos of recent games.

Paper Football Lite - Jonesing for a football fix but stuck at the office? Play a few quick rounds of Paper Football instead. It's not the same thing as a fun game of pickup in the backyard, but it'll do in a pinch.

Don't have an iPod touch or iPhone? Not to worry, I've got you covered.

UPDATE: I pulled an app at the last minute and, as an eagled-eyed reader who counts better than I noticed, that knocks the count down to four. For an extra App-By-Default, check out comment #4. :-)

Taking time out of busy day just to meditate for a few minutes is a beautiful thing -- if you can stay focused long enough.The folks at Lingon i Korg Software Creations have come up with a way to help -- Meditation Timer [iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch.

This cool little app does more than just bong an alarm when meditation time is up. Any old app can do that. This timer gives you a choice between two soothing screen color schemes -- purple and white, or green and white -- and two different alarm settings.

Just like the iPhone and touch's native alarm, you set the hours, minutes, and seconds by scrolling through the onscreen dials to the select the length of time you want to meditate (it defaults to 10 minutes). You'll be alerted when time's up by a gentle chime called "Spinning Bowl." You can also set the alarm to vibrate (iPhone only), or turn it off entirely.

If you need a reminder to start winding down to get ready for your next round of meditation, set the Preparation Timer to count down the minutes until your next session.

Meditation Timer is free to the first 5,000 customers. After that, the app will be priced at 99 cents.

Ohhhmmmm....DownloadThisNow......Ohhhhmmmm....

Leopard's Bluetooth feature is one of those things that's easy to forget about until you need it, then you're glad you have it. Let's take a look at some ways to get the most out of this under-utilized tool.

In order to use your Mac with another Bluetooth gadget like a mobile phone or headset, you'll need to pair it with that specific device. Locate the Bluetooth settings under System Preferences and turn the Bluetooth power on. Then also check the box marked "Discoverable." This will allow other devices in range to see your Mac.

Make sure the device you want to pair with the Mac is powered on and also discoverable (check the owner's manual for specifics on how to manage the Bluetooth settings on your mobile phone or headset). Next, click the Bluetooth icon found near your clock on the toolbar at the top of your screen and select "Set Up Bluetooth Device." Follow the Mac's onscreen steps that explain how to add the eight-digit passcode that will allow your two devices to talk to each other.

Once you've established a connection between your Mac and another gadget, your computer stores the info until you delete it -- there's no need to add a new passcode each time. When you're done using a Bluetooth device with your Mac, be sure to uncheck the "Discoverable" option to prevent anyone else from pairing a device with your computer. When you're ready to re-pair a device, just click on the Bluetooth icon, and select the gadget from the dropdown list.

One last thing: If you're not using Bluetooth on your laptop, make sure it's turned off to preserve battery life.

Whether you use Leopard's native screen grab tool, or a specially designed app like Skitch, there's more you can use it for than just snapping a shot of your desktop. Here are three of my favorites:

No more cut and paste - I often have to replicate several pages of a content management system (CMS) that require me to enter tags in a field one at a time. I used to enter them on the first page, then copy the text, open Text Edit or Stickies, paste the text, then move on to the next page and flip back and forth between screens while re-entering tags on each page. Now I just snap a screenshot of the tags I've entered and use it as a reference on the remaining CMS pages.

File those registration receipts - After I've bought an app, I snap a shot of the receipt screen and store it in Evernote. Of course I also keep the copy the vendor emails me, buts it's nice having a backup in case my email client flakes out.

Make audio editing easier - While editing podcasts in Audacity, I often need to note the exact time of a clip. While it's easy enough to make a note with pencil and paper (remember those?), a screen grab lets me see at a glance exactly what other settings I was using at the time.

What are some of your more unconventional uses for the screen grab tool?

You know that sudden motion sensor that's buried in your Mac to protect your hard drive? Want to have a little fun with it? Then check out Liquid Mac, a neat little app that makes your laptop's screen look like it's filled with colored water.

Once you've downloaded the app, select the color and response sensitivity you want, then gently tilt your laptop and watch the fluid splash around the screen. It's oddly soothing, actually, unless you slosh it around too fast and make yourself nauseous.

When you tire of making waves, adjust the settings to represent beads and watch it rain on your screen. To see Liquid Mac in action, check out this cool video.

Adium has a sweet new beta version available this morning. If you don't automatically see 1.3b2 when you check for updates, then make sure you've enabled "Update to beta versions when available" under the General tab in the Preference pane.

Several new features have been added, including:

• Enhanced psychic abilities -- it opens a chat window as soon as a contact begins typing a message

• Filtered search in the Contact list

• Apple Address Book integration (access under Advanced tab in Preferences)

• Integration with Facebook chat (enable in the Accounts tab under Preferences)

• The latest Growl and libpurple updates

• Additional information (such as "Last Seen" and Apple Address Book notes) added to the Contact Inspector

Fixed issues include the linkification of enclosed URLs, a memory inefficiency, and a pesky tendency for closed chats to suddenly reappear. All told, there are more than 150 improvements and enhancements to Adium, one of the hardest working chat apps out there.

My name is Lisa and I'm a widget junkie.

I love having widgets of all kinds on my iMac -- even things like the Ski Report (I live in Florida), ESPN (it's not football season), and Flight Tracker (I rarely fly). I even have similar ones (though Apple calls them webapps) on my iPod Touch. Since I've exhausted all the webapps for the touch that I'm interested in, I was glad to hear Widgetbox announced a gallery of widgets just for iPhone and the iPod touch users. Check it out via any browser, or right from your iPhone.

Now, most widgets are Flash-based, but these aren't and therefore don't use Apple's SDK, but they're cool and work well nevertheless. Among my favorites are the Yahoo! News RSS feeds, Random Quote Generator, and the Flickr slideshow.

While there's not a ton of widgets available just yet, there are around 32,000 developers in the Widgetbox community so I suspect the gallery will be populated pretty quickly. There's even a short video tutorial on how to make the iPhone widgets, in case you're curious -- or motivated.

If you're a space freak, then you'll want to have a look at these three super-cool web apps for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

iSkyGaze tells you where to find various objects in the sky, depending on your location and the time of day. Sure, it'll show you where to look to see the sun and moon, but iSkyGaze also helps you spot things in deep space, like the Orion Nebula. This cool app even tells you how far away the object is, and the best time to see it.

Want to know how the sky looked on any given date from the past 10 years? Starry Night Mobile will tell you. It can also predict what your overhead view will be 10 years into the future. Just enter a zip code, landmark, or address and let the app do the calculating for you.

If checking out satellites or the International Space Station as it passes overhead is more your thing, then you'll love LookUp. Once you enter your location, the app will tell the precise time various orbiting objects will zoom by, complete with exact elevation stats and how much time you'll have to see it before it dips below the horizon.

Oh, and here's a bonus app for all you werewolves.

Looking for a cheezburger to go with your iPhone? You're in luck. The goofballs (and I say that with fondest affection) over at ICanHasCheezburger have created an official iPhone app so you can cart the cats around with you wherever you go. Just bookmark this on your phone's Safari browser and whenever you visit you'll be greeted by the 30 most recent lolcat pictures. It even updates every time there's a new post.

Don't have an iPhone? To dream and drool, check out the demo page the creators put together (it's only viewable on a Mac).

Now this site needs the same treatment.

When Steve Jobs announced five new apps for the iPod Touch yesterday, people were ecstatic -- for about ten seconds. Once he mentioned the upgrade would cost current iPod touch owners $20 (they're included on all new units), most of the comments from participants following the keynote in TUAW's IRC channel were largely unprintable.

Apple's customers aren't usually the sort to take things lying down, however, so now there's an online petition calling on Apple to make the apps free to current customers. As I write this, there are close to 600 signatures and climbing.

It's worth noting that Michael Rose and John Gruber pondered the possibility of iPod touch updates and user costs back in October 2007, as Apple's quarterly earnings report indicated that the iPhone's subscription accounting model was not being used for the touch. At the time it wasn't clear what would happen when functional updates to the iPod touch were released; now we know that they come with a price tag.

[Thanks, Daniel!]