Apple has announced that the iTunes App Store has surpasses 2billion downloads. This comes from a selection of over 85,000 applications. These number should come as now shock considering there are over 50million iPhone and iPod Touch owners, and 125,000 registered iPhone developers.
“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”
Apple also mentions that the App Store is available in 77 countries, and over 20 app categories to choose from.
Just a few days before the WWDC the new iPhone rumors are unstoppable.
Apple Insider is reporting that the 3.0 firmware may allow app sharing between iPhones, enabling iPhone users to test a friend app before buying it. Clearly there will be a limitation, the shared apps will only be functional for a few days.
As always we have to wait until the final release to see if this feature becomes true.
Have you been thinking of jailbreaking your iPhone just because you want to try some of those Installer apps? Well now you can get those apps without jailbreaking it! Ripdev has this neat application for Mac (soon coming to windows): InstallerApp.
One of my favorite packages
The price of this piece of software is $7, which is more than fair to me. Here are the 2 features I liked the most (taken from their site):
Support for Both Installing Solutions
Now you don’t have to make a choice between alternative installers, you can get the best of both worlds, Installer and Cydia — InstallerApp supports both! Just add a your favorite repository in the Preferences window and application will automatically recognize its type and will show the packages from that repository, so you’ll be able to download packages to your computer and install them to a USB-connnected iPhone.
Built-in Pusher
InstallerApp comes with free built-in Pusher — software that can install Installer.app on your iPhone without “jailbreaking” it, so you can use App Store and Installer simultaneously without putting your private data at risk. By default Pusher will not install a set of command-line utilities and unlock the system partition as it’s usually is done by some popular jailbreak solutions and may lead to additional instability of the iPhone software, but it will do so if that is what you want.
Anyway, It works with both iPhones, and as soon as a jailbreak comes out for the 3.0 firmware they’ll support it. iPod Touch is not supported, only iPhones
I know how awesome was when you where a little kid watching Disneys Tron and thinking WOW that’s so cool!
Well now you can make that long time fantasy come true, thanks to Pankaku iPhone Applications now you’re able to download one of the hottest games right now at the App Store simulating that your on a Lightbike like the ones on Tron, this game is so easy and simple, the controls are very basic.
It’s on two version the Paid and the Free version and here you have the description and the video demo from the Official Page:
Description
LightBike is a 3D game application for iPhone. You drive the LightBike, which builds walls of light on your track, and beat enemies in cyberspace. Being easy and simple, LightBike excites you all!
How to play
- Tap left side of the screen to turn left
- Tap right side of the screen to turn right
- Tap the center of the screen to speed up
Features of Lightbike free
- 1 player mode (Easy mode only)
Features of Lighebike (fullversion)
- Varied difficulties
- 2 players mode w/ split screen
- Multi players (2-4) mode w/ Wifi(LAN only)
Features on Later Version
- Wifi mode over Internet
Price
$2.99
So if you get bored sometimes and all the games on your iphone don’t entertain you here’s a great option since it has a free version, that lets you play with no limits on the basic mode and is most probably that you’re going to buy the full app.
Here are the links to the iTunes Store for both versions:
Before a concrete answer to the question can be given, let’s take a look on all the general stuff of an iPhone app development.
The requirements to develop an iPhone app are:
- Have an Apple ID.
- Download iPhone SDK.
- Download Apple Developer Tools (pretty much Xcode).
- Know Objective-C programing language.
- Buy Standard ($99) or Enterprise ($299) Program (if you want to publish your apps on the App Store).
You can find the first 3 at the Apple Developer Connection site. Now here comes something interesting about step 4. There is an open source software called XMLVM, which is pretty much a cross-compiler, so if you only know Java, you can compile all your code into Objective-C. So in few words “develop iPhone apps with Java”.
If XMLVM caught your attention and you are currently into Java, I highly recommend checking out their site, they have nice and detailed explanations about how it works and a video on how to develop the apps with Java.
There used to be this web based IDE called Jiggy, which was great for Jailbroken iPhones since it would let you develop apps relatively fast, but when software 2.x came out Jiggy didn’t jump in to the wagon.
So as long as you know Objective-C or Java, the answer is a YES, and obviously if you don’t know any of those 2 the answer would be a NO.
I’ve had my iPhone for a while now and I’d be lost without it. I’ve decided to do a run-down of my top five applications that I have found to be most useful or enjoyable. Although the best applications for the iPhone, for me, are Mail and Safari, this list only consists of apps not already built-in to the iPhone.
1 – Remote
Apple’s Remote application is fantastic. It allows you to connect to iTunes on your PC or Mac through your wifi network and use your iPhone as a remote. You can view your iTunes library and playlists, and even search for your favorite track. Because you’re connected via wifi, you can use your remote anywhere throughout your house, which is great if you stream your music wirelessly to different rooms. You can have your computer running iTunes up in the bedroom and change the track you’re listening to downstairs in the lounge, or even change which speakers in the house you want your music to be played through. Remote is definitely my number one iPhone app.
2 – Facebook
It seems today the world and their Gran has Facebook — everybody has it! What better way to keep on top of your news feed than on your iPhone? I’m not a Facebook fanatic like some, I just check it every so often, and the iPhone app is a great way to do that. With just one click, you can load up Facebook on your iPhone and see instantly if you have any messages or notifications. You can also browse photos in portrait or landscape, chat with friends and even upload pictures instantly using the iPhone’s camera. My favorite bit however has to be the shake-to-refresh function! Little things please little minds…
3 – Real Football 2009
Gameloft’s Real Football is a really impressive game! The 3D graphics are fantastic when you think you’re playing on your phone. You can play in exhibition mode, play for the Cup, the League or even just practice your penalty taking. The controls on the screen are incredibly easy to get used to and this game brings as much joy on the train as playing FIFA or Pro Evolution on your console at home does. Choose from over 198 teams all with real players. You can also join a friend in multiplayer mode over wifi. If you’re a football/soccer game fan, you must purchase Real Football. You won’t be disappointed.
4 – eBay
If you’re addicted to eBay like me, the eBay application is great. It features a nice, clean interface that makes everything so simple. This is a great way to keep on top of the auctions you don’t want to miss! When you search for an item, you can see the full item description plus any pictures. You can then bid on it or add it to your ‘watching’ list. You can view the auctions you’ve won, the ones you’ve been outbid on and the items you’re selling.
5 – Google Earth
The main reason I keep this application on my iPhone is just because it’s so impressive. Not many other phones allow you to see your house from above or zoom in on your favorite football stadium. This application is quick and it looks great and you can even use the location services built-in to the iPhone to allow Google Earth to zoom in on your current location. You can also search for things like ‘pizza in New York’ or ‘Starbucks in London’ and Google Earth will find these locations for you and display information like addresses and telephone numbers. For me, this application serves no real purpose — I really only use it when I’m bored to play around with, but it’s just too good to uninstall.
So that’s my top five iPhone applications. There are many other fantastic iPhone applications out there, a lot of which I am yet to stumble across. If you’ve found an application too good to miss, let us know, or even better, why not let us know your top 5?
Over the past few weeks, since developers got their hands on the new iPhone 2.2 firmware, we have seen many screenshots that have given us an insight in to what we can expect with the new software update. The latest were found on The Boy Genius Report and they show some changed to the App Store.
It seems it will soon be possible to sort the Apps in to ‘Top Paid’, ‘Top Free’, and ‘Release Date’ within the Categories section of the App Store. Also, when searching via Categories, you will also notice that each Category has been given its own little icon.
This will be handy for those times when you’re desperate to download the latest flashlight application.
If the rumors are true, the new firmware will be released next Friday on November 21st. To see more screenshots of the App Store changes, click the ‘Source’ link below and let us know what you think by leaving a comment!
[ Source ]
Many people use more than one social networking site. So what if you could have all of them in one spot? That’s what EventBox, from The Cosmic Machine, is for. Recently released as a beta, EventBox lets you view updates from many different sites. All in one clean window.
EventBox has a very simple interface. On the left you can select the site, or just click recent, and on the right you can view the content. In the recent section everything shows up differently. Status updates show up as chat bubbles and images show up as film reels. It looks great. When you click on some items, like RSS feeds and Twitter updates, a new section slides in from the bottom. This will let you view the RSS feed, reply to the tweet, and even comment on Flickr photos!
Currently, EventBox supports the following sites, but more are coming soon:
- Digg
- Flickr
- Pownce
- RSS
EventBox is a great all in one application to easily view many social websites in one place. The developers at The Cosmic Machine plan to add many features in upcoming releases. Including del.icio.us, last.fm, and Orkut support, RSS syncing, a HUD window, and much more. This is still just a beta, but this first release is very impressive. EventBox is currently available for $20 and you can download a 14 day trial here.
Document Editing on the iPhone is coming.
One of the main features keeping many enterprises away from using the iPhone is the ability to edit documents on the go. When you need to add a slide to that customer presentation or add a paragraph to that research paper due tomorrow there is nothing for you to do that on the iPhone, until Gizmodo reported that Documents to Go announced their new app. Documents to Go has created the document editors for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, etc. and have decided to write an app to let iPhone users edit their docs.
One of the main concerns is the lack of a copy and paste feature in the iPhone. Apple has tip-toed away from the release of copy and paste, even though most users are begging to get the feature. Even without copy and paste in the phone this could be a great application for the business user on the go who doesn’t want to carry around a laptop.
Look for this app in the app store soon, there is no release date or set price for the release. Do you think you would use the features of editing documents while on the run? Hit the link to head to the forums to start discussing your opinions on the app.
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