iPhone AppStore

Following a crackdown on "overtly sexual" content, Apple has had its censors remove 5,000 applications from the iPhone AppStore. The app purge began on Friday, with over 4,000 apps removed due to their "sexually arousing" or implied sexual language and images.

To date, the Apple cleansing is said to have removed almost three percent of the total number of iPhone applications previously available. In a strange twist, apps representing large media companies but still promoting sexual content remain on the AppStore.

For a limited time TomTom has released a US-only version of its GPS navigation iPhone application for $49.99. Normally the application includes US and Canadian maps for double the price ($99.99).

The separate car kit accessory dock is available for $119.95 and includes an external speaker and built-in GPS. The car kit also charges the iPhone when docked using the car 12 VDC cigarette lighter adaptor.

IMDb has made it to iPhone! The IMDb application is available now for free on the App Store. Look up every piece of information you could possibly want to know about your favorite movies.

The application provides free access to the entire contents of IMDb (Internet Movie Database). No more poking around with Safari to get information.

Forget the iPhone virtual keyboard. Thanks to the Dragon Dictation iPhone application from Nuance you have a personal assistant to transcribe your emails and texts. The app records your voice and sends the information to Nuance's servers.

What comes back is text that can be pasted directly into an email, SMS or sent to the clipboard for use in other applications. According to the developers, transcription is five times faster than typing. The app uses a single button to start recording.

The exclusive US carrier for Apple's iPhone has released an application devoted to reporting problems with their network. AT&T will even send a free SMS to confirm receipt of your feedback.

The exact latitude and longitude of the occurrence along with specifics of the problem are sent directly from the application. The main menu offers options including Dropped Call, Failed Call, No Coverage, Data Failure and Poor Voice Quality.

Right now 93,395 iPhone applications are currently available on Apple's App Store, but there are almost 9,000 more that have already been approved. This means that any day now the App Store will surpass a magic number of 100,000 apps for sale.

Too bad only 0.176% of those can be installed on the iPhone at once. Just one month ago Apple announced that there were 85,000 applications available via iTunes. One year ago there were 10,000 apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

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."

Apple has confessed to pulling the first soft core porn iPhone application off the AppStore just one day after it was approved. The app, titled Hottest Girls, sold for $1.99 and swamped the developer's servers due to its popularity.

Some were speculating that a door for more adult centered apps had been opened now that Apple has developed a parental control system for iPhone content. One of the categories that limit content on a parentally-controlled iPhone designates applications appropriate for ages 17 and over.

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.

Anticipating one billion iPhone app downloads, Apple has announced the best selling iPhone applications of all time. Two lists show the top 20 paid and top 20 free apps downloaded since the AppStore opened in July 2008.

According to Apple, over 953 million apps have already been downloaded. The company is holding a Billion App Countdown Promotion, offering the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro to those downloading apps before the total hits one billion.