Whether you're ready for it or not, the holiday season is upon us. One week from today, many of us in the US will be pushing ourselves away from the Thanksgiving dinner table, sated and ready to do some serious shopping on our iPads. To get you ready for the holiday of turkey, football, and giving thanks for what you've got, here are five apps that are sure to get you in the holiday spirit. Part of the Thanksgiving tradition is cooking up an amazing feast for family and friends. iCookbook (on sale for US$4.99) has recently been updated to version 2.0 and it's now the app to have in the kitchen. This universal app has always had thousands of recipes for you to try out, but it's going to be your cooking buddy from now on. The developers at Publications International recently added voice commands to the iPhone version -- Read More

...Today's word is "attitude of gratitude ありがたいと思う心". Do you keep a gratitude journal? I use my iPhone! http://tinyurl.com/24... Read More

If you've got a case of the Mondays you are not alone. Thousands of weekend warriors have nestled into their cubicles and desks only to be greeted by a two day backlog of spam, invoices and tedious emails. It's easy to focus on all the negative things that make it tough to get out of bed in the morning. But complaining aloud is not going to make you feel better and it's not going to get you a lunch date with your cute coworker. To pull you out of your Monday doldrums, below are a few services to help you share your feelings with your fellow netizens. 1. ThankfulFor: A product of Shiny Heart Ventures, Thankfulfor was created by popular lifecaster Frank Gruber and talented photographer Jen Consalvo. The two recently launched this microblogging tool to help friends count their blessings. Thankfulfor asks users to document what they're thankful for in Read More

Developer Carla White had a pretty great start to her iPhone app developing career with her very first app Gratitude Journal.  The app has been enjoyed by many, and was intended to help improve people’s lives by making them aware of the things they are most thankful for.  Carla has also written an ebook to help first time iPhone app developers get the ball rolling.  Apparently inspiration is her thing, because she has now gone on to release her second life improving iPhone app titled Vision Board Delux. Vision Board Delux is your first step to turn your dreams and desires into reality.  The app allows you to create your own vision board, which is basically a visual reminder of things you would like to obtain and achieve in life.  Vision Board Delux allows you to choose images from a gallery to add to your board or you can add your own Read More

Many TUAW readers have probably bought an iPhone app and had the thought "I could do better than this!" go through their minds. Sometimes you're wondering when someone else is going to write an app to do just the thing you want to do with your iPhone or iPod touch. Carla Kay White was one of these people. She had an idea for a "Gratitude Journal", where you keep track of the everyday things you're grateful for. It's a great concept, and it can keep your spirits up when a prescription antidepressant fails you. Carla was writing her gratitude into a paper journal when she realized that her iPhone was just the platform for this tool. One problem, though – Carla didn't have any iPhone programming skills. What she did have was a good idea, a background in project management, and some minor funding to bring her concept to light on Read More

The Gratitude Journal giveaway has come to an end, and we would like to thank everyone who participated.  All of the comments that were posted were so positive and uplifting, it is just amazing to see. The winners were chosen with our trusty random number generator, and these are the two readers who it deemed the most worthy: Congratulations to both of our winners!  If you see your name on the list but haven’t received and email containing your free download code, check your junk mail.  Just as a reminder to these and all of our future winners, the free download codes do eventually expire, so redeem them as soon as possible. To all of those who didn’t win, don’t worry, we have more great stuff to give away later today, so stay tuned. Thanks again to Carla White for supplying the codes for Gratitude Journal. Gratitude Journal is available at Read More

I am not an application developer, I simply write for an iPhone application website, there is a big difference.  Some days I wake to find emails from people asking for tips on how to get their “great application ideas” started, or other emails asking where to find developers who will build an application at a low cost.  It may sound surprising to you, but I truly don’t have all of the answers. My personal lack of knowledge in this area made me take a second look at iPhone application development.  It’s not like I went out to purchase some how-to books, I just started digging around the Internet to see what it is other people have successfully accomplished on their own, just so I could have something to recommend to others. Most of the major success stories include people with coding knowledge or a background in this or that, offering little Read More