So why has an entire country taken such a shine to this app? Probably because it allows you to chat (read: SMS) with anyone, anywhere in the world as long as they have Kakao on their iPhone, Android, or Blackberry, and it does all that for free. Oh yeah, and Korean society is also sort of a hive mind, like the Borg in Star Trek… but I digress.

So like I was saying, if you and the people you text regularly all start using Kakao, you can probably stop paying your wireless carrier for whatever SMS package they suckered you into buying, and if you have friends or family living overseas then this app becomes a must-have.

Kakao Talk also allows the sending of photos and voice messages, and parts of the app can be customized (like the watery background in my chat above), but what’s important is that this format just rules over traditional SMS in nearly every way.

I’m sure there are other apps that do exactly the same thing and the closest thing I’ve tried is textplus which really started to piss me off with all their internal spam messages. I use Kakao Talk all the time without incident, and it’s totally changed the way I avoid actual conversations with people! It sounds like I’m kidding but I’m not. For real, if you’re looking for this kind of app, give it a try!

Dos Hombres introduces a relatively unique concept to the iPhone with the release of their app named Pen Pals. Like the name suggests, Pen Pals hooks you up with a complete stranger from another part of the world (more than likely you’ll be paired up with someone from the USA) so you can converse awkwardly about life in your part of the world. I say awkwardly because the majority of the messages I recieved were from guys looking to score and underage girls who were incapable of holding an intelligent conversation. A few messages I got read: “a/s/l” and “hi…!!!!!!11!!”.  A massive turn off if you’re the kind of person who wants to meet an interesting person and hold a decent conversation with said interesting person. I don’t blame the app though; just the people who use this app for stupid reasons.

So if you are willing to sift through all the garbage that get’s thrown your way you’ll find a few special people who use Pen Pals the way it was intended to be used. After picking through all the junk, I met a very interesting man from Australia and an equally as interesting woman from China.  Unfortunately, Pen Pals only sends y0u a push notification when you recieve messages from people who replied to your message and not when you get new messages. Consequently,  the first message they sent me sat in my inbox for a couple days until I remembered to check my inbox and found them. Hopefully, they’ll read this review and fix this little problem in their next update.

Other than my small problem with the push notifications, Pen Pals is incredibly well put together. The menu is very pleasing to look at and the developers really hit the nail on the head with this app’s graphic design and layot. You can pick this app up for $1.99 in the app store.

iTunes Link — Pen Pals

Version 1.0

Reviewed on iPhone 3G 3.1.3

Some apps you get, you use for about a week or two and then you delete them.  I call those my ‘one and done’ apps.  Games are a good example.  Other apps you get and use over and over again, week after week.  Social Networking apps for Facebook or Twitter are good examples.  I have about two or three apps for these that I go back and forth between, though I occasionally try out something new.

Every iPhone or iPod Touch owner should have a good Instant Messaging app and while you could simply download Yahoo Messenger, AIM, GoogleTalk, MSN, or Facebook’s individual apps and use those, who really wants to clutter up their homepages with all those app icons and suck up precious memory space?

Not me. Plus, some of those individual apps cost money.  If I’m going to pay for an app, it’s just more convenient to have everything I need in a single one.

Enter eBuddy Pro.  I have to say, this is one robust IM app.  Here are some of its features:

• Push notifications for incoming messages up to 3 days even after exiting the app
• Automatic reconnection if your cell or wifi signal is lost
• Ability to view offline messages
• Ability to select a display image from your iPhone/iPod Touch library or camera
• Chat features including landscape orientation

The current version has 11 different themes, from a Classic white with light blue diagonal stripes to a retro wood paneling design.  It can go into an auto-away mode after a customized time and will even send auto-away messages should someone send an IM to you and you don’t want to can’t respond.

On the plus side: I liked the fact that eBuddy Pro would keep me logged in to my accounts for up to 3 days at a time.  And that auto-away response came in very handy with those who felt the need to send me IMs at 3 in the morning.  On the minus side: I did notice some lag in the push function at times.

The $4.99 price tag seems a little steep, but I guess that’s the standard cost for IM chat clients.  If the price makes you a little nervous or you’re the frugal type, try their free version (eBuddy) first and then upgrade.

iTunes Link – eBuddy Pro

Version 3.0.4

Tested on a Ipod Touch 3.1.3

Quick Status – Facebook + Twitter is on sale for free – normally $.99

Yeah we know… there are a billion apps for posting to Facebook, and another billion for posting to Twitter… but this one combines both and includes GPS and Google Maps URLs! It also lets you post to both sites at once, plus there’s the option to save updates for reposting.

If you’re one of those people who’s always updating, take this app for a spin.

iTunes Link – Quick Status – Facebook + Twitter

TweetGlobe is on sale for free – normally $.99

IAR World Headquarters!

I’m not a big Twitterer… or is it Tweeter? …and that’s why you don’t see many Twitter-related apps on IAR but this one caught my attention. Sure, it allows you to tweet and gives limited access to reading and replying to other people’s tweets (just the 10 most recent), but the hook is that you get to see where the tweets are coming from!

TweetGlobe’s main feature is a big globe that shows each tweet’s location and the tweet itself. There are times when it can’t find the location, probably due to users’ privacy settings or something, but it’s still interesting to see just how global Twitter really is. It also has an in-app browser for following external links.

It would be nice if this app would support multiple Twitter accounts so hopefully UniqueApps will look into adding that in a future upgrade.

This app has been on sale for the past week and today is the last day it’s free, so if you want it you better grab it quick!

iTunes Link – TweetGlobe
Version 1.0

Ok, I lied about iSteam being next… turns out the codes may have gone sour. But here’s TweetVid! It’s for tweeting videos, so you’ll need an iPhone 3GS to use the app.

iTunes Link : TweetVid

On deck: 3D Tunnel Elite (Games)

Talk about stuff and share files on your iPhone with other Apple nerds.

iTunes Link : iForum

On deck: Flying Pigs (Games)

Broadcast every mundane detail of your life on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter all at the same time despite your friends’ protests!

iTunes Link : TweetMyFace

On deck: eTodo (Productivity)

Arrrrrgghh. Pirate Radar can be used as either an ice breaker or just a silly joke. It’s especially funny if you’re on a boat that gets hijacked by actual gun-toting pirates! They may not get it, though…

iTunes Link – Pirate Radar

On deck: Halloween C@rds

Paying for “gifts” on Facebook is duuuuumb!! For the price of one Facebook gift you can give as many as you want through iGift4U. You can also post YouTube videos, and oh yeah it works with Twitter, too.

iTunes Link – Facebook & Twitter iGift4U

On deck: ShowGirl (Entertainment)

A or B is currently on sale for free (normal price $.99)

What do u call a guy who dumps a girl for her friend?
A) Genius
B) FAT JERKY SLIMEBAG

My wife is cheating on me with an old high school love she met on FACEBOOK.
A) Should I just divorce her
B) Should I divorce her AND publish all the chat logs I recorded without them knowing to all her (friends)

These are two actual questions I found in A or B, a two-choice-only polling app that is apparently a great place to anonymously air out your dirty laundry! Not all of the questions are this juicy… in fact, most of them are pretty mild… but it’s a pretty fun time waster.

If you choose to ask a question of your own, you can set the privacy level to include the entire world or just the friends you’ve sent an invite to. Answers can be set in text or photo form, and text is limited so you have to choose your words carefully.

Answering questions is easy (just tap A or B), but I do have a bit of a problem with the way they’re displayed in the big list of available questions. For starters, only 10 questions are displayed and then you have to tap “Load 10 more” to get 10 more. So… let’s say you tap “10 more” five times and finally find a question you want to answer. You answer it, tap on Done in the top corner of the screen and guess what? You’re back at page one of the question list and need to tap through another five pages to get back to where you were.

There are some other minor issues with A or B such as the lack of visual feedback when you tap on a selection and the way the A or B image covers part of the answers (meaning that it covers some text as well), but if the pagination problem could be fixed this app would be way easier to use and I’m willing to bet that a lot more questions would get answered.

I do like this app despite my frustration with the page thing, and since it’s free right now you definitely can’t go wrong if you like asking strangers for their opinion or fancy yourself as a sage adviser. Everything’s anonymous, there’s no commenting or flaming or any of that garbage, and A or B is really off to a great start. Quick, get it while the cost is zero!

iTunes Link – A or B
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1

Last week I put a whole lotta Silly Songz codes out there in the wild and you guys snapped ‘em all up, so Spazzles has sent over another round!

iTunes Link – Silly Songz