iPhone Applications

The FeedLine 1.3 update is the first iPhone application to hit the App Store that supports Google Buzz public feeds. The app is primarily an RSS reader and goes for $0.99.

FeedLine does not require a Google Reader account, and supports RSS, Atom, and Google Buzz formats. Real-time news alerts can also be configured for specific terms and delivered using FeedLine.

Google Buzz was recently announced and allows Google users to share photos, videos, and conversations in a social networking application similar to Twitter or Facebook.

After the controversial removal of over 5,000 apps from the App Store, Apple looks like it's going to change course on the issue again. Initially, the company sought to purge any overtly sexual applications due to customer complaints and its own decency standards.

Apple has come under fire for hypocrisy as several apps such as Playboy, Victoria's Secret, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010, FHM, and Maxim remain in the App Store while some developers' businesses evaporated overnight. In the meantime, Cult of Mac reports that a new category labeled "Explicit" has appeared to developers interested in submitting apps for approval.

Reports have surfaced that Skype and Verizon Wireless have cemented a 2-3 year exclusive deal to develop and run Skype applications on Verizon smartphones. iPhone owners have been waiting for a 3G-enabled version of the Skype app for some time.

Now that AT&T and Apple have lifted the Wi-Fi only restrictions on applications like SlingPlayer, Skype users naturally expected they would be the next to benefit from this change. In fact, Skype already has a 3G-ready app but the company has delayed its release due to concerns over AT&T's network.

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.

Now that there are almost 142,000 approved iPhone applications, finding useful software has become difficult if not impossible. The App Store is projected to keep growing at breakneck speed. Now developer Hello, Chair has released a thesaurus for apps dubbed Appsaurus.

Appsaurus goes beyond the capabilities of Apple's Genius to bring you iPhone apps most similar to those you already find useful and enjoy. Appsaurus can be trained to learn what kind of apps you prefer, and makes it possible to search the App Store with specific filters.