iPhone Applications

The Apple App Store is an unparalleled success with 1.5 billion downloads in the last year. There are 100,000 developers currently participating in Apple's iPhone developer program. Only one problem: sifting through over 65,000 applications to find something useful.

Unfortunately, the current layout of the app store means that most users will never see even a fraction of the 65,000 that are available free and for purchase. Sure there's a lot of junk, however there are also many great apps that get lost in the crowd.

The TomTom iPhone GPS hardware and software combination may have been featured by Apple at this year's WWDC, however Navigon has already hit the marketplace. Navigon is a full-featured turn-by-turn GPS navigation system for iPhone.

Navigon's MobileNavigator North America is available now on the Apple App Store. Although the price sounds steep at $69.99 (increasing to $99.99 on August 16th), this is a one-time cost with no ongoing subscription fees. In contrast, AT&T Navigator is a free download, but incurs a monthly fee of $9.95.

Apple is celebrating the one year anniversary of the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. Along with all of the fanfare and featured apps came a lot of impressive statistics. Apple has left the competition in the dust, with 65,000 mobile applications released to date.

Over 1.5 billion copies of these apps have been downloaded since the inception of the App Store one year ago. Apple CEO Steve Jobs remarked, "The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality."

Finally, the iPhone 3GS digital compass is getting a workout. Software developer acrossair has submitted the first augmented reality application to the Apple AppStore for approval. The app is called Nearest Tube, and will help Londoners plan routes and find the closest underground station. What's unique about this process is how the app delivers information.

Instead of a static map, Nearest Tube displays subway information in real-time, overlaid in 3D on top of live video of the user's surroundings. Holding the iPhone 3GS horizontal will show arrows pointing to different train stops, and tilting the device upwards will overlay signs in the direction of different stops. These signs look like a heads-up-display, and give more information about how far away the station is and what lines connect there.

Apple has not been known for consistency in the AppStore approval process. Some thought that with the introduction of a rating system for parental controls the floodgates to adult content would be opened.

So far, this has not happened. An iPhone App showing photos of topless women was recently pulled, and a book reader was not approved because readers could access the Kamasutra. Apparently if you prefer to pleasure yourself without visual content then Apple approves.

Sometimes an iPhone app will become unresponsive, and no matter what buttons you press or where you touch on the screen nothing happens. In this event, sometimes it helps to force quit the application.

Apple has made some changes with the iPhone OS 3.0 firmware and the iPhone 3GS release. Those with older iPhones will remember that to force quit an application you could just hold down the home button until the app exited.

Apple engineers just keep coming up with cool ideas. It's too bad they are light years ahead of mobile carriers. Another patent has been discovered that would allow iPhone users to share media during an ongoing phone call.

Imagine talking to a friend and playing a pop hit for this person without leaving the phone call. Not only will you both hear the music, you can discuss how bad it is in real time.

Screenshots of the long-awaited Sirius XM iPhone app have surfaced in a shareholder meeting presentation. The title of the slide is "Launching Apple iPhone/iPod Touch and Smart Phone Applications," indicating that a release is on its way for multiple platforms.

The application follows Apple's rejection over two months ago of the uSirius StarPlayr. The same streaming Sirius XM radio stations available to subscribers on the web will be available on the iPhone.

Amazon's free iPhone Kindle application has received an update with several improvements to make the app more user-friendly. Many of the features were expected by users in the first release, as they are typical to many iPhone apps.

Here are the changes:

Users can read in portrait or landscape mode.
Gesture (pinch) to zoom images in books.
Select alternate background and text colors to improve reading comfort in low light conditions.
Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages.

The clever people at onOne Software have brought the cable release into the 21st century. For users of Canon EOS digital SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras, there are already a few options for remote control.

Using DSLR Remote on the iPhone or iPod Touch may require more hardware, but the feature set is impressive for the price. Settings such as shutter speed, white balance and aperture can be controlled, along with the camera shutter.