Apprupt is a performance analytics shop focusing specifically on iPhone apps. They track the click-thrus and conversion rates for online and mobile links to iPhone applications, and they claim to help developers find the sweet spot where highly focused user targeting meets pure monetization. But how does the end-of-the-rainbow promise hold up?

Clicks, downloads, rates, and revenue are all available from the Apprupt dashboard:

Developers can create links for separate campaigns. Each campaign is tracked individually, and the resulting data can be used - much like the feedback from other typical direct response campaigns - to ditch unsuccessful efforts, adjust budgets to support successful campaigns, and conduct testing on which methods will yield the best results.

Apprupt analytics apply to such media buys as online or mobile media, be they links or banners, as well as social media promotion on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or blogs. Interestingly enough, app optimization data is offered from Apprupt absolutely free, although premium features may be introduced in the future.

For the time being, Apprupt supports iPhone and iPod Touch apps only, but support for other mobile operating systems is in the works.

While programs like Apps for America and Apps for Democracy work to crowd source programmer-driven applications, CitySourced can be utilized by a non-technical user. In addition to the decision-making data being generated from this service, cities also offer users an active outlet for their frustrations. Instead of sending out arbitrary rants and suggestions to their Twitter accounts, users still get a chance to complain while receiving a direct line to their municipal reps. If cities have the courage to make these complaints public, the site could become as entertaining as Craigslist's Best Of page while still maintaining its usefulness.

In case a flight is indeed canceled, WorldMate offers a built-in hotel search courtesy of Hotels.com. In addition, the app also offers users the ability to find alternative flights, as well as weather forecasts, a tip calculator, and a currency converter. All of these are available in the free and paid versions of the app.

What makes the app stand out, though, is that you just have to email your travel confirmations from airlines and hotels to WorldMate and the service will automatically translate these documents into an itinerary and display the info in the iPhone app. On iTunes, a number of users complain that WorldMate wasn't able to understand their email confirmations. For me, this worked perfectly, though your mileage may vary.

In this respect, the app is quite similar to TripIt, which also converts confirmation emails into itineraries and displays them on the phone. TripIt's iPhone app, however, does not send out push notifications.

Overall, the app is definitely aimed at the frequent traveler, though it can still be extremely helpful if you are just going away for a short trip. I tested it during a recent weekend trip and it worked like a charm. When my flight was delayed, I promptly received an update and the app also notified me of a gate change long before the gate agent even made the announcement.

If you frequently find yourself wandering down airport concourses, WorldMate is the perfect app to have around. You don't have to constantly update the airline's website or check FlightStats to see if your flight is on time. Instead, WorldMate will just automatically let you know if something is wrong.

WorldMate is also available for the BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Palm OS.

Get WorldMate Pro for Free

WorldMate offered us 15 free pro versions for our readers. Just send an email to rww AT worldmate.com and WorldMate will contact you with more details on how to claim your WorldMate Gold invite.

But the bigger news from this company is the release of an API that will allow anyone to build their own Read It Later applications - and not just for mobile, but for any platform.

The Read It Later application on the iPhone, available in both a free and paid version, lets you mark articles you're reading in Safari using a customized bookmarklet. Originally, the installation of this bookmarklet was a bit of a challenge as you first have to save a link then edit it, but thanks to iPhone OS 3.0's introduction of copy-and-paste, the process is much simpler.

With the update to Read It Later version 1.3, iPhone users will have access to a number of new features. Although each one is a minor tweak or upgrade, when combined, the overall experience of using the application is greatly improved.

1) Better Access to Articles: The first of the many changes includes support for multi-page articles. These articles will be detected by the application and combined into offline web and text modes. Also supported are articles that sit behind a paywall or are password-protected in some way - such as those on the Wall Street Journal's site, for example. Now Read It Later can store that content by caching your login credentials so you don't have to enter them again when the app needs to download that content. And while you're reading these saved articles, a new scroll bar makes it easier to navigate.

2) Reading List Improvements: To keep track of your reading list, the new app introduces a "Currently Reading" section where your list of "to-read" articles are tracked. It even remembers your position in every article you're reading! When you finish an article, it's moved to the newly created archive (the "Recently Read" section).

3) More Sharing, Rotation Lock (Pro Users Only): For users of the Pro (paid) version, you'll now be able to share articles to other iPhone Twitter applications like Twitterlator, TwitterFon, and Tweetie. Also added is Evernote, which complements the current list of sharing methods that already included Facebook, Delicious, and email.

Another new feature for Pro users is the ability to lock the rotation of the phone so that it stays put in the viewing mode you want (portrait or landscape) - a feature we wish the iPhone itself would include, to be honest!

The Read It Later API

As developer Nate Weiner explains on his blog, "as a solo developer, it's just not possible for me to develop for every mobile device and browser." That's why he decided to open up his API so others could build apps that do everything his does including tagging, syncing, account management, and more.

Hopefully, this new openness will encourage other developers to step in and help build applications for Palm, Android, Blackberry, and Chrome or implement the good features he hears suggested to him on a regular basis.

There's a good chance that developers will jump on this opportunity - and not just because Read It Later already has a user base of 1 million that grows by 5000 new users per day - that's just one incentive. The other is that API is open for both free and commercial applications, meaning the first (or best) apps developed for new platforms can actually earn money for their creators, just as Read It Later has done for Nate on the iPhone.

To access the API, sign up for an API key here.

For the new iPhone applications, you can download Read It Later Free here or Pro here ($2.99).

After the app undergoes a series of tests and reviews which analyze the app's potential for revenue as well as its "originality, functionality, simplicity, and fun," the app will be built by the company's in-house development team. When complete, MEDL Mobile will promote and market the application for you. All you had to do was have the original idea.

Since the company is doing all the hard work of app building and promotion, it makes sense that they plan on taking a cut. However, 25 percent of the app's revenues is shared with the app's "creator" (you). Considering how little effort there was put forth on your part, that actually seems rather generous. Still, if you want to keep more than 25 percent, you can just hire the company to build the app for you instead.

The AppIncubator is available for download in the iTunes Store here.

Today, Smule announced the latest and most ambitious of their iPhone/iPod Touch-based instrument apps, Leaf Trombone: World Stage. Leaf Trombone improves upon the shortcomings of Ocarina in a number of areas (like adding tutorials), and throws in a very ambitious online judgment area called World Stage.

The way Leaf Trombone is controlled is quite different from Ocarina. Instead of a recorder-like set of holes to cover, you are presented with a slider (a leaf) on the right and an octave controller on the left. Tick-marks along the leaf indicate major notes. Playing is as simple as tapping or sliding along the leaf to produce a sound. Holding one of the two triangles will, of course, shift the notes up or down an octave. There is also a setting to turn on breath control, in case you want to emulate a real trombone a little more closely.

The instrument encourages you to produce a real melody. To that end there is a tutorial mode you can engage to watch a rendition of any of the songs from the game library or new compositions from other Leaf Trombone contributors. Both while watching or playing a song, a Dance Dance Revolution-style scrolling display of leaves indicates the notes to be played for the upcoming 10 seconds or so. By dutifully following the leaves as they touch the tick marks, songs can quickly be mastered.

World Stage

After some practice, you may want to conduct a performance on the World Stage. This is a special mode where the software connects to the Smule game server and lets you play for a panel of 3 judges. Before you can do that, though, you first have to judge a performance or two. After registration, you indicate your willingness to judge and the server assigns you plus two other judges to a performance. During the performance, you can choose an animated emoticon to indicate how you think the solo is going. You can also type in a short message either during or after the performance. Once it is finished, you assign a numerical rating and you will get leaves which allow you to then perform.

Once you have some leaves, you can choose a song and play a song to be judged. Your performance will be rated, and then stored under the World Stage ID that you created, and assigned a star rating. As more people find and rate your solo, the number of stars that you get may go up or down. Also, as you perform more songs that are rated highly, your overall ranking on the global ladder will rise.

Finally, there are a number of unlockable achievements you can work toward both for performing and judging that should keep you challenged for many hours to get them all.

Minor Quibbles

There are a couple of minor points we can't help but touch on. First, we unfortunately have to agree with Techcrunch and wonder why the trombone is the only instrument sound that's offered. It would be nice to be able to choose a different instrument sound perhaps, to make our recitals unique. Second, we think the slider could support more advanced polyphony, perhaps limited to two or three notes maximum, in order for people who have already mastered the single-note songs to still find a challenge on the World Stage.

Overall, Leaf Trombone: World Stage (iTunes link) hits all the right notes in terms of an instrument application that is fun, easy to pick up and with incentives to keep playing with the challenging World Stage. The graphics are unique without being distracting, and the World Stage area has a great 3D globe that indicates where other judges and performers are in the world. Listening to other performances and judging went very smoothly. Especially for the introductory price of a single dollar, we can easily recommend this fun application.

Following weather apps, there comes Facebook. The app earned second place with 25% of users reporting they accessed the Facebook iPhone app regularly. It's possible that it won't be too long before Facebook beats out weather for first place, though. The application is growing in popularity, adding nearly 1 million active users per month, and is at 30 million actives worldwide. It was also recently recognized by Apple as the #1 All Time Free App in the iPhone app store.

Next, after Facebook, comes the games. 20% of iPhone users reported games as the apps they used the most often. 10% reported music-related apps, and then the apps that followed dropped down to single-digit percentages.

What may be most interesting about this study, though, is that it found people are seeking out apps for download by themselves instead of relying on recommendations from family and friends. According to the report, 60% of both iPhone and other smartphone users said they found the apps they wanted to download on their own. "It's surprising to see people actually spending time to self-discover," said Danielle Nohe, director of telecom and media-related research for Compete. That just goes to show these modern-day smartphones are really personal computers after all, aren't they?

Because the iPhone doesn't allow users to easily copy and paste a code snippet into a bookmark (yet), installing the bookmarklet is a bit complicated, but the company provides a good set of instructions, and installing the bookmarklet shouldn't take more than a minute.

Once you have installed the bookmarklet, you just have to open up your bookmarks folder, click the Read It Later bookmark, and the page will be saved for you. Because your data is saved on the company's server, you can easily sync bookmarks from multiple devices.

In the app itself, you can then read your bookmarked stories in the built-in browser at your leisure. You can also sort your reading list by date, title, or site.

Read It Later's most important feature, however, is that it caches the content of your saved Web pages and lets you read it offline. Thanks to this, you can catch up on some of your reading while on a plane, for example.

Pro Version

The paid version, which costs $2.99 (iTunes link), adds a number of great features to the app, including a 'Tap To Save' bookmarklet that allows you to save any link on a given page (see this video for how it works), a full-screen reader that hides the Read It Later bookmarks, the ability to share links on various social bookmarking services, and an unread count on the apps icon on the iPhone's home screen.

Verdict

Read It Later's closest competitor is probably Instapaper, which also offers a free and pro version (at $9.99). Both apps are very similar, and Instapaper has a dedicated following that swears by the product. We like both apps, and would recommend that you try the free version of both Read it Later and Instapaper to see which one works best for you. For us, Read It Later's 'Tap to Save' bookmarklet is a killer feature in the pro version, but not everybody will really need this.

Visually, Yahoo Messenger is very clean and easy to use. The standard virtual keyboard input area is customized to optimize screen space and allow incoming IMs to be separated from text you are still typing in. The app makes a sound when a new IM appears, or a buzz if the screen is locked but the app is running. If you exit out of the application without logging yourself out first, you will appear 'idle' to your friends so that they can still send you a message if necessary.

For the person that relies primarily on Yahoo! Messenger for their IM needs, this app should be all they require to get the most out of the service. We'd like to see a landscape keyboard supported simply because it is easier to type with. Take note that, (as CNet News also covered), the sound effects and vibration can't be turned on or off in the settings.

If you want support for more IM networks at the same time, there are a number of 3rd-party applications like Palringo (free) and IM+ (paid) that already support Yahoo Messenger among one of many other services, as well as maintaining your online status even when the app is not running.

Building on that OneConnect core, the big announcement today, is availability of viewing all that OneConnect goodness (and more) on virtually any web-enabled cell phone at this URL: mobile.yahoo.com (if that isn't active, try this link).

We'll talk about the iPhone app a little later, but let's cover the OneConnect technology in a little more detail. From what we can gather, it combines a lifestream aggregator (like FriendFeed), RSS aggregator (like Google Reader), web app widgetizer (like the My Yahoo! or iGoogle start pages) and pushes them through an abstraction engine, which basically makes all that data available for any front-end they care to build on top of it. And that's exactly what they did.

The new Yahoo Mobile page is that front-end for over 300 different web-enabled smartphones out there. It isn't just Twitter updates and Flickr photos, but email from a number of services, like Gmail and AOL, and support for a whole mess of other sites like Facebook, Last.fm and YouTube. Since the content is already abstracted, the presentation of that data can be optimized for whatever phone you use it on. In my case personally, I'm using and iPhone and it looks amazing.

iPhone and More

Ultimately, every service you synchronize with OneConnect is stored in the Y! cloud somewhere. So when you do switch to the OneConnect preview app for the iPhone or the official Yahoo! iPhone application (which has OneConnect built-in, more on that in a second), you don't have to re-enter all the info. Just log in using your Yahoo! credentials and all the latest info is displayed. So why does Yahoo have two iPhone apps that support OneConnect? It turns out OneConnect for the iPhone is a native interface tapping in to the OneConnect back-end directly, while the official Yahoo! iPhone application adds news, events, weather and other useful items together with a tab that loads a slightly more robust version of the OneConnect mobile web site.

This may all sound fairly confusing, but the bottom line is, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and a Yahoo! login, all you need to begin is the Yahoo! Mobile app released today. If you don't want to install a new app or you are on any other kind of smartphone, just hit up the Yahoo! Mobile web page and get started adding all your favorite services.

Final Note

We do have just one tiny complaint before we close. Only one instant messaging service is supported: Yahoo! We would surely love to see some more on that list, especially since other competing services like email are represented. Who knows, it seems reasonable to think that Yahoo! is trying to drive up adoption of their messaging service over the others, and offering everything else in one place is a clever way of doing it.

Other enhancements in the 2.0 version of the Evernote iPhone client are:

The big improvement in our book is the landscape mode. iPhone applications from the start have had a rocky relationship with the on-screen keyboard, many apps chose to emulate the built-in iPhone functionality and offer a keyboard only in portrait mode, sacrificing typing comfort for screen real-estate. But more often now (and especially with the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS update) apps are offering the superior landscape mode and making due with the minuscule amount of screen that is available above the keyboard. That means that note-taking in Evernote on the iPhone just got a lot more finger-friendly.

If you haven't used Evernote before, it's one of those apps that you might need convincing to start using, and then wonder how you ever lived without it. I like to think of it as a personal Moleskine notebook that can expand to allow scrap-booking anything you might find online, from a scanned photo, to text clippings, bookmarks or entire web pages, even audio notes to yourself. The strength Evernote brings to the 'digital scrapbook' concept is universal access - you can literally add to or access your account online, via a desktop app (which works great with scanner software by the way), a browser bookmarklet or toolbar, the aforementioned iPhone app and other mobile phones, and even email. We have previous coverage on it as well.

The Evernote service starts out free and you can purchase additional online storage and a digitally encrypted connection to your account for $5/month or $45/year. The iPhone app is also free, so what are you waiting for, download it and give it a try!

AdMob will allocate ad impressions based on the quantity and quality of the inventory that each member contributes.

Given that developers have relatively few outlets to promote their applications outside of Apple's App Store, this looks like a good way for developers to get the word about their applications out to users. Given that the ads appear in other apps, the targeted users are obviously already interested in downloading iPhone apps.

First, let's talk about the interface. In short, it's about as close to the PC/Mac client in style and utility as it can possibly get. Contacts, instant messenger, dialing pad, call history and profile can all be accessed at any time via the navigation bar at the bottom. Here's some more of the primary features:

• Contacts can be listed alphabetically or by who is online.
• You can see all ongoing chats or just new chat messages.
• When calling out, there is a button that links to the iPhone address book.
• Call history can be switched from everything to missed calls.
• The info page lets you update your status (even with a photo!), access your profile, change your status, buy more credit and check your voicemail.

Rest assured the interface is slick and the app works as promised. But, I think the real reason why we are all so excited about this release over other Skype-enabled iPhone apps like Fring or Truphone is simply how much it works like its desktop-bound big brother that we know and love. Instant messaging chats just work. Group chats just work. Getting at-a-glance status on your Skype friends just works. The bottom line is, other apps may get the job done, but due to bad interface design, a critical missing feature, or trying to do too much, are not a pleasure to use. This client actually is a pleasure.

With all that said, it's still not perfect. It's better than everything else Skype-related on the iPhone, yes, but optimally it could support Skype SMS (though the carriers would probably never allow it), notification of new IMs when the app isn't in use (hopefully coming shortly after the iPhone 3.0 firmware hits), and.. well, support for video. Why not? People were recording MMS videos with their cellphones in 2004. The Japanese have had dual-camera phones with live video streaming for quite a while now.

And yes, I do realize the camera is on the back of the iPhone, making it hard to use the screen and the cam at the same time. I don't care. It's time Apple realized people are willing to trade some battery life for the ability to record a short video and start allowing apps that support it. But, until that day comes, Skype for the iPhone is highly recommended. I have already put it up on the first page next to Tweetie and DVR Remote. You can find the link to Skype in the iTunes app store here.

We wrote a similar post last November ("30 Days Later: 22 Apps We're Still Using 1 Month After Finding Them") and can happily report that we're still loving almost all the services we wrote about then. If a service can make it past the 30-day mark, it has a good chance of sticking around for a while. 22 or 23 in a month is a pretty impressive number really, so go web innovators go!

Here's this month's list. It's split into 3 categories: search-related services, iPhone apps and productivity tools.

Search-related.

1. Twitter Real-time Search in Google

25 days ago we reviewed a simple Greasemonkey add-on that displays Twitter search results for your search query at the top of Google search results pages. The entire team is still using it and Frederic in particular calls it "the best thing since bread came sliced." Sarah Perez says "that twitter google script is the invention of the year, can't image life without it...not kidding."

2. Add Flickr, Wikipedia, YouTube and more to Google Search Results

We question whether Phil Glockner really saw this one a month ago, since we wrote about it two weeks ago, but it's a keeper!

3. Google Preview

Phil added this one to the list as well; it adds thumbnails to Google search results.

What does a Google search results page look like with all of the above turned on? Here's a screenshot.

4. Google Voice

Frederic reviewed Google Voice earlier this month and he says he's still using it happily!

5. GCal PopUp

The GCal Popup plug-in was a month old for me in our last 30-day round up, but now Phil is a recent convert. This Firefox plug-in gives you super-easy access with a click to your Google Calendar and has increased our use of GCal many-fold. I've tried poking the code to create multiple buttons like it for other sites, Basecamp in particular, but the developer says just that is on the way soon. I hope so.

6. Drag and Drop Zones

I use lots of search engines throughout the day and the Drag and Drop Zones Firefox plug-in has made it super-easy to do. I love it.

iPhone apps.

7. Flickit

Rick reviewed the Flickit Flickr uploader for the iPhone here last month and I've been using it ever since. It goes a long way towards solving the lack of MMS on the phone.

8. NYTimes iPhone App

We reviewed the latest version of the NYTimes iPhone app at the top of this month and both Sarah and I have been using it regularly. I've been flying a lot lately and the off-line reading is great.

9. Instapaper

The only thing better than offline reading of the NYTimes on an iPhone is offline reading of anything. Instapaper recently helped me find the time to read Alex Iskold's last 10 blog posts while flying from Indianapolis to Portland. I landed feeling much smarter. Thanks Instapaper!

10. Yelp

I used to use Google 411 a lot. Now I use Yelp on the iPhone and I love it. I've even discovered restaurants close to my house that I didn't know existed.

11. Tweetie

Apparently Sarah and I both just discovered the best iPhone app for Twitter. I love seeing people innovate on top of Twitter, so hopefully other even cooler apps will come out soon.

12. Kindle on the iPhone

Frederic reviewed the Kindle on the iPhone and liked it so much he's kept it. Steve Jobs may think no one reads anymore, but he's forgetting the people who study the foundational mythology of 11th -13th century British monasteries. That's what Frederic does when he's not writing for RWW and he loves the Kindle on the iPhone!

13. QuickVoice

QuickVoice is a fully featured audio recorder for the iPhone. I'd never heard of it but Sarah Perez likes it and, after looking, I'm about ready to buy it too. It looks awesome!

14. SnapDat

SnapDat is an iPhone digital business card exchanging system. Sarah reviewed it while at DEMO and called it serviceable but not great. Apparently it's good enough because she's still using it.

15. PixelPipe

Frederic and Sarah are big fans of PixelPipe on the iPhone. It lets you post to multiple sites and is similar to Flickit above.

Productivity

16. Morning Coffee

The Morning Coffee plug-in for Firefox lets you set up a list of tabs to open with a single click. It has helped me continue to use websites I might have forgotten about. I'm very thankful for it. Now that I think about it, I should add Basecamp there. Maybe then I could remember to use the darned thing.

17. Doomi

Doomi is a handly little Adobe AIR to-do list. It's simple. I tried it and I like it.

18. DestroyTwitter

DestroyTwitter is an AIR Twitter client that Phil started using more than a month ago and is still using today. When I questioned his choice of clients he said: "Have you used Destroyflickr? It's really amazing.. and DestroyTwitter is the same way.. something about the smooth transitions, the intuitive interface, and its unobtrusiveness appeals to me more than other products."

19. FriendFeed Notifier

Frederic and Sarah are loyal users of this service and I just started using it today. We reviewed it 2 weeks ago but it looks like a keeper. (See picture on the right.) If you're insane and want constant stimulus, which we all are and do here at RWW, give it a try.

20. ClikBall

Phil is still using ClikBall to find and share links. I wrote a very positive review of ClikBall here but found that I didn't know very many people who were using it. It didn't pass my test but it did pass Phil's.

21. PostBox

PostBox is a desktop email manager built by a team that includes the creator of Firefox's Thunderbird. TechCrunch has the best review of the service.

22. Alltop OPML and Search

Looking for the best blogs on a wide variety of topics? Alltop is a good place to start. This Greasemonkey script adds buttons to grab all the blogs in a section of the site as an OPML file and to search inside that section. It's Phil Glockner-approved.

23. Enjoysthin.gs

Enjoysthin.gs is a very visual social sharing service. The user experience is fantastic. We called it a dazzling new way to share multimedia and I've been visiting it every day since then, thanks to the Morning Coffee plug-in described above. It's great for research and inspiration!

That's Our List - What's On Yours?

We'd love to hear which apps, plug-ins, scripts, etc. our readers have tried for a little while and found to have some sticking power.

Without having made a game ourselves yet, we can only guess that it will still be fairly challenging to make a fun and addictive game, as we have seen plenty of games made the 'old fashioned way' that aren't all that great. But with the rapid development time and greater accessibility that GameSalad offers, we can see it becoming popular for making more niche games, say for example a custom game for a friend's birthday, or a game that celebrates an event, like a company anniversary.