Yes, my son is now officially kicking his dad’s butt on the iPhone side of the business.  Ben had NetSketch ready at the launch of the app store, and even as an impartial observer (as much as I can be, anyway), it’s an impressive piece of software.

NetSketch brings collaborative drawing to the iPhone and iPod Touch.  You can draw on the iPhone’s screen in full color and share your work with others over WiFi - pretty cool!  If you collaborate with your friends, everyone’s changes are shown in the drawing in real-time.  And NetSketch is vector-based and offers infinite pan and zoom - so it’s easy to add detail to your work and you never run out of room.

Here are some drawings made with NetSketch:

I have to say it’s darn nice for $5.99, and the networking capabilities really set it apart. I can see this taking over in classrooms and meeting rooms this fall

Take a look at http://www.netsketchapp.com/

Congrats to Michael Mistretta, who’s going to be getting a brand new iPod Touch for his winning entry in the iPhone Application Idea contest! I apologize for taking so long to judge the entries - as I said in an earlier comment, I got sidetracked a lot as I explored the feasibility of some of the entries and discovered details about the workings of the iPhone OS.

While I’m not going to talk up Michael’s idea until its development is a bit further along, I’ll share some of the other entries we liked:

• Location logging that can be used to tag photos after you upload them to iPhoto
• Consultant’s client billing / project timer / mileage / expense tracker
• Podcast downloader that updates over WiFi so you don’t need iTunes
• Enable the iPhone as a touch sensitive input device to replace or augment the mouse
• A visual bookmark viewer that uses CoverFlow
• A diet / health blogging app to feed something like Body Lapse

There were a ton of other great entries, many of which I’d love to implement if it weren’t for technical or distribution issues. There are a couple in particular that deserve special mention:

• A Mojo client
• A “spaces” capability where apps are activated by turning the iPhone to particular orientations (how sweet would that be?)
• Download song lyrics for the currently playing song (obvious, but still not there)

Thanks to everyone who submitted ideas! Oh, and if you submitted one that didn’t win but we end up using it later on to build a successful product, you’ll definitely get a “thank you” iPod or some other present

So the iPhone SDK (or maybe the beta of the SDK) comes out today. We’re as excited as everyone else out there, and really want to get rolling. But not just with “solitaire for the iPhone,” so…

We’re having a contest! We’re giving away a 16 GB iPod Touch to whoever has the best application idea for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Got something you’ve been wishing for on your iPhone? Something that “just makes sense”? Or something that’s so outside the box that it just might be the next revolution? Let us know - if we think it’s great too, we’ll give you an iPod Touch!

To submit your idea go to

The iPod Contest Page