Hands-On Mobile has recently released Karnival [App Store, $5.99], a carnival-themed Tycoon game, and it looks really good. The game puts you in the shoes of a boy with the arm of a goat who's decided to view his curse as a gift and start his own Karnival. The goal of the game is to create a successful Karnival by offering entertainment from other "freaks," rides, and other similar attractions. Gameplay looks to be very similar to games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, so if you're a fan of such titles, this one may be right up your alley.

We haven't had a chance to check out Karnival yet, but our friends over at Touch Arcade had lots of good things to say. Video below!

Glenn Corpes today released a new racing game called Ground Effect [App Store, $3.99]. It puts you in the seat of a hovercraft that reminds me a lot of Star Fox 64. Races take place on a series of deserted islands with tons of obstacles, mountains, rocks, and checkpoints to fly through. Each level requires you to make it through the course as well as place 3rd or greater to move on to the next level. There are a total of 14 levels and 10 "ground effect" crafts to choose from.

I've already gotten my hands on this game and so far it's been very entertaining. Graphics are great and the tilt controls are nice and smooth. If you're a racing game fan, I definitely recommend checking out Ground Effect. Gameplay video below!

Rumors of an iPhone on Verizon's network have once again begun to circulate, this time from a report by OTR Global. In the report, they claim that Apple is considering making a new iPhone that would hybrid Verizon's CDMA2000 technology with AT&T's UMTS 3G network. The ability to easily put both in one device recently came about with Qualcomm's new hybrid CDMA/WCDMA chip.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we've just added the ability to subscribe to iPhone Alley updates via email! The service is provided by Google/FeedBurner so you can be sure that your address is safe. The updates will come in daily between 5PM and 7PM and are grouped together as a single email.

To subscribe, hit the "Subscribe via Email" link in the sidebar or just subscribe here.

Enjoy!

Radioshack has officially announced that they will begin selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS in select company stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City metropolitan areas, starting some time later this month. They also added that they hope to have them available in stores nationwide by some time around 2010.

In a lawsuit that can only be described as bizarre, Apple, Steve Jobs, and Sarah Jessica Parker are being accused of stealing the idea for the iPod and iPhone back in 1989. The plaintiff is Franz A. Wakefield, who says that after winning first place at the 17th Congressional District Arts Competition, he was asked by Congressman William Lehman to disclose trade secrets to the FBI, which he claims included concepts for the iPod, iTunes (including $0.99 song prices), and the iPhone.

UK iPhone owners subscribed to O2 will be allowed to unlock for other carriers, according to the CEO of O2's parent company, Telefonica Europe. "Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks," says Matthew Key, "we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator -- though naturally we hope they won't want to!"

Software developer Apimac announced the release of English-Italian, English-German and English-Spanish dictionaries for the iPhone and iPod touch on Friday. The applications promise a comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary with grammatical notes; a huge phrase book containing thousands of English phrases with their translation, an exhaustive business dictionary for helping users to compose commercial letters, send emails and make phone calls in the language of the user's choice.

Sonos has recently started shipping the Sonos ZonePlayer S5, a wireless speaker dock specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod touch. The unit allows you to stream music from any computer in your house, controlled by the free Sonos app which we reviewed a little while ago. The beauty of this unit is that it doesn't require you to dock your iPhone to play music, although it doesn't actually play the music you have loaded on your iPhone. However, this means that you're free to take a call or use other apps on your phone while music is playing. When you want to change the music, just pop open the app. In addition to playing music from your iTunes library, the S5 can access music from web services such as Last.fm and Pandora.

At $399, it seems a bit pricey for a speaker dock so this may not be for everybody. Sonos promises that they'll send us one to evaluate so you should see a review from us sometime this month. For an in-depth demo, check out the video below!