iPhone App Rides the River of News

Is it true an iPhone app is released every time a phone rings?

Well maybe not, but it almost seems that way. A friend of mine had way too much fun showing me a level last weekend using the spectrometer inside the phone.

Zumobi has launched yet another new iPhone app. The company, which used to operate under the name ZenZui, develops graphical user interfaces for mobile. It just released Ziibii, a free iPhone app that brings in feeds such as social network updates, news, new Flickr and YouTube media, and Twitter posts. Currently ads are limited to other iPhone apps but in Q1 ads will be sold to other brands.

The application may take the “river of news” metaphor a bit too literally, though. It appears as a pool of water with rafts floating across the screen. Each raft is a Flickr photo, a blog post, a news story, or a tweet. Ad units are also in the form of rafts. You pinch and drag the rafts to expand items just as you do any other app or Web page on the iPhone. And if you start to feel a little seasick, you can change the settings to display the feeds without the serene water.