App News

Rogue Amoeba has announced in a post on their blog that Apple has reversed their policy on using pictures of Apple products like Macs, iPods and iPhones in iPhone apps, and has allowed a new version of Airfoil Speakers Touch [App Store, Free] to be released with the original images intact. The policy change comes not long after Rogue Amoeba quit the iPhone app business due to Apple's over-agressive defense of product images that resulted in a minor update being delayed three months.

Today iPhone game giant Gameloft announced that they've decided to scale back development for Google's Android OS. What's the reason? According to Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort, it's because they've been able to sell significantly more games on the iPhone than on Android devices. "We are selling 400 times more games on iPhone than on Android," Rochefort said at an investor conference.

Of course you might think that the number of Android devices out there might be to blame, but Rochefort believes that the Android marketplace is the real issue. "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone," he explained. "Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue."

Massie Design Studio has just released an application that'll wake you up ahead of time if there's bad weather on your commute. Normally The Smart Alarm [App Store, $1.99] acts as a standard alarm clock, waking you up when you specify. But if it detects bad weather in your area, it wakes you up early enough to beat it.

This looks perfect for you snowy mountain folks!

Today Twitter announced that it has enabled geotagging support for third-party Twitter clients, just two weeks after they began rolling out the new retweet feature. Following the announcement from Twitter, Stone Design announced that Twittelator Pro [App Store, $4.99] is the first Twitter client for iPhone to fully support both features. We've also heard from a little birdy that beta versions of Tweetie 2 [App Store, $2.99] already support both features. We're not sure when that update will drop, but we're guessing that it'll be soon.

A new iPhone application from Dynamic Controls would turn an iPhone into a sophisticated remote control for the company's electric wheelchairs. The application would connect to the chair over Bluetooth, and allow the rider to control several aspects of the chair in an intuitive and cool looking interface.

Last year, Sega's Super Monkey Ball [App Store, $3.99] served as an ideal launch title for the App Store, introducing players to accelerometer-driven games. Recently, Sega indicated that Super Monkey Ball 2 will emerge for the iPhone 18 months after the original was released for the App Store.

It took a bit, but Trillian [App Store, $4.99] is finally available in the App Store.Cerulean Studios, the company that created Trillian, said that Trillian for iPhone sports several features users will already find on the company's desktop software. The app displays contacts, grouped and sorted by their respective categories. Users can also view multiple chat windows in a tabbed display.

Kieffer Bros. has just released a beautiful new game for the iPhone and iPod touch called Orba [App Store]. Orba is a screen-clearing game which uses colored orbs as playing pieces. To clear pieces, simply tap orb groups containing three or more same-colored orbs. The larger the group, the higher the points. When you're out of moves, more orbs fall in. As you progress, the game introduces more colors which increases difficulty.

It sounds simple, but it's incredibly addicting! Orba is free right now for a limited time, so grab it while you can. Gameplay video follows below!

There are a lot of apps for doing a lot of different things, but a new app just released recently makes your iPhone actually blow air. It's called Blower, and it makes your iPhone blow air out of itss speakers by making the diaphragm vibrate back and forth really far. It's even strong enough to blow out a lit candle. Video after the break.

A new application turns a regular iPhone into an electronic stethoscope with the assistance of the $30 iStetho adapter that connects a modified (read: cut up with a pair of scissors) stethoscope to the iPhone's microphone. Once it's connected, the iStethoscope Pro app [App Store, $0.99] "amplifies the signal and eliminates audio outside of what is important for diagnosis." Naturally, it wouldn't probably work as a normal stethoscope, and certainly won't replace them.