iPhone users get extra Idol footage

If you can't get enough of "American Idol," the producers are giving fans from the rabid to shyly closeted an official app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The release of the $1.99 app, called (verbosely) American Idol Season 8 Exclusive Videos, is opportune, just in time for the season's final 13 contestants to really battle it out as more Idols get axed.

Each week, the app will stream exclusive videos, many of them confessional, that take you deeper into the contestants' worlds -- for instance, what inspires them and what makes them tick. The "Idol" app may center around the 78 videos airing on just the iPhone by the season's end, but it also includes the same daily newsfeed and blog post you can find online, a handy section on the singers' biographies, and links to the iTunes music store, where you can directly buy the tracks performed by your favorite up-and-comers

As an extra perk, the "Idol" app lets you test your powers of prognostication with a setting to rank the contestants' bios in the order you predict they'll finish, time-stamped to keep you from claiming you knew the top dogs all along.