AP Stylebook: Anyone who has to crank out copy on a regular basis is probably familiar with the AP stylebook, but an iPhone app seems like an odd incarnation. It’s more portable and convenient that the hard copy, sure, but there’s an online version too, which makes more sense for most folks, since you don’t do a whole lot of actual writing on an iPhone, and flicking an alt+tab to your browser is faster than thumbing through an iPhone search query. Still great for the occasional spot-check, though. $35, which you should probably try to expense.
Talk Assist: This super-simple, free text-to-speech app was designed to help people who have trouble talking. However, it will almost exclusively be used by people who can speak, for laffs.
Squareball: A minimalist, but amazingly polished game that’s sort of like if Pong had levels, or if Breakout was a side-scroller. It’s really, really hard — give the free version a try before taking the $2.49 dive.
cAR Locator: One old gimmick—GPS as a way to find your car—combined with a new one—an augmented reality overlay, cAR Locator is more of a tech demo or party trick than anything else, but it’s a pretty cool one. $2.49, 3GS only.
Scarab: The first iPhone literary magazine, Scarab still has a few kinks to work out. Most of all, you’ve got to purchase each issue in-app, but due to a quirk in Store policy, the app itself isn’t free. If you feel like supporting an experiment like this, feel free; there’s some neat stuff here, like the ability to listen to poems read aloud by their writers. $1.19.
This Week’s App News on Giz:
• iPhone Gets Better Image stabilisation from Pro-Camera App
• Cyclopedia Augmented Reality iPhone App Drenches Your World In Wikipedia
• Apple Buys Their Very Own Maps Company (See Ya, Google Maps?)
• iFukkin iPhone App Maybe Is Not What It Seems
• iPhone App Developer Jacks Your Phone Number to Pitch You More Apps
• CNN’s iPhone App Makes Other News Apps Look Lazy
• iPhone Accessories Can Now Trigger App Download Prompt
• Daniel Johnston’s iPhone Game Is Predictably Bizarre, Bizarrely Fun
• Tweetie 2 for iPhone: Full Offline Powers, Filters and Push Notifications
• Ping is Like a Free SMS Client For iPhone and iPod Touch Users
• Tweet Reel iPhone App Sends 640 x 480 Video to Twitter
• Ramp Champ Mixes Skeeball With Flicking
• Data Shows What Everyone Knows: Gimmicky Apps Aren’t Used Frequently
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. Have a great weekend, everybody!