The makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking have ported their voice-to-text dictation technology to the iPhone.  And the new app, Dragon Dictation, worked remarkably well in our tests, transcribing spoken words without a single mistake in nearly twenty attempts to trip it up.

Since the iPhone doesn’t support multitasking in third-party apps, you can’t use Dragon Dictation the way you use NaturallySpeaking on a PC; you have to copy-and-paste the resulting text into your target app, be it Mail, SMS, Notes, etc.  Still, this can save you a lot of time if you’re not a fast touchscreen typist or if you have a lot to say.

Dragon Dictation [iTunes Link] is free for now.  There’s been no word on the company’s plans – if any – to begin charging for the app or whether a paid version with more features is slated for release.

Dropbox is, without question, our favorite online storage and syncing solution. With Dropbox installed on one or more of your PCs or Macs, files created or changed in one computer’s Dropbox folder are automatically synced with with the Cloud and the other PCs and Macs linked with your account (if you have the software installed on multiple computers). 

It’s a pretty amazing service – fast, automatic and foolproof (if it’s in the Dropbox folder, it’s synced).  And in our months of using Dropbox, we haven’t encountered a single error. 

But now the service is even better for iPhone users: Dropbox has added the iPhone to its list of compatible devices with the release of the Dropbox iPhone app.

Once you have a Dropbox account (a 2GB account is free, but you can also purchase 50GB or 100GB of online storage), just download the free Dropbox iPhone app [iTunes Link].  Link the app with your account and you instantly have access to your Dropbox files from the iPhone.

From within the app you can view compatible files stored in your Dropbox (PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint MS Office documents, JPG, TIFF and GIF image files, Keynote, Pages and Numbers Mac documents, text files, music, movies and more), or upload photos or videos taken with the iPhone to your Dropbox, in effect storing them online and syncing them with your linked PCs and Macs.  Want to share a file in your Dropbox with someone?  You can do that too, right from the app.

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PDF: Dropbox iPhone Introduction

Editor’s Blog: Why I Love (LOVE!) Dropbox File Sync

Layers is a new painting application for the iPhone and iPod touch from Ben Gotow, the developer of NetSketch.

Features include up to five layers, a photo add-in option, eight media brushes, undo, JPG & Photoshop PSD export, two-finger pan and zoom, an eyedropper tool, and an optional Mac OS X viewer.

A few days ago, we told you about Apple’s refusal to include the official Google Voice app in the iTunes App Store.  We were none too pleased by the decision, or the subsequent purging of related third-party apps. It would seem Apple’s move wasn’t as under-the-radar as the company may have hoped; yesterday the FCC sent letters to Apple (full text below) and AT&T requesting further details on the situation, and a third letter to Google seeking insight into the company’s experience during this and previous software submissions to Apple.

Specifically, the Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Apple rejected Google Voice and related, previously-approved apps, whether or not AT&T played a role in the rejections, any contractual or non-contractual agreements between Apple and AT&T that contributed to the decision, and clarification of Apple’s general standards for approving or rejecting applications.

In our free market economy (at least on paper), the Feds should stay out of the way as much as possible.  But the government does have constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce and, by extension, a role in protecting competition, which has proven its benefit to quality, price and service for centuries.  One of the FCC’s goals is to foster competition in the communications market. 

What manner of control the FCC should (or does) have in this matter under current law is up for debate, and it’s unclear whether or not FCC action will have any direct impact.  But indirectly it may compel Apple to think twice before making a move like this in the future. 

If a platform provider (Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.) can begin securing its operating system from competitors’ products, all consumers lose.  

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Control freaks everywhere, take note: you can now run an entire city with your iPhone – SimCity!  Electronic Arts has ported the ever-popular SimCity to the iPhone and iPod touch.

If you’ve never changed SimCity (?!?!), you basically take charge of an entire city, controlling its design, layout, taxes, services and more.  The goal is to keep your citizens safe and happy without taxing them to death. 

SimCity is available in the iTunes Store now for $9.99.

View in iTunes on PC/Mac/iPhone