iPhone News, Current Events, Announcements, and Opinions

The App Store has received quite a lot of criticism recently, first with Facebook developer Joe Hewitt's decision to stop development for the iPhone, and then Rogue Amoeba announcing the same thing a day later. To defend Apple's position, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing, sat down with BusinessWeek for an interview on the matter.

In the interview, Schiller defends the review process by stating that they've created a store that people can trust:

A series of comments expressed by Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall on Friday have garnered a fair amount of attention over the weekend. Key among these is Marshall's claim that AT&T's exclusive agreement to distribute the iPhone in the U.S. will expire in June 2010, opening the door for other carriers to begin offering the device. Marshall's comments specifically point to Verizon as a carrier with which Apple would likely look to partner, with rumors of revised iPhone hardware capable of running on Verizon's network suggesting that a late 2010 launch could be possible.

A new iPhone worm has found its way onto jailbroken iPhones with SSH enabled. The worm, which emerged from the Netherlands according to security software company F-Secure, puts up an ING Direct login page that lets the hacker gather login credentials and, presumably, move funds to wherever they please. This version also changes the 'alpine' password to block users from getting to the phone via SSH.

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."

A new patent from Apple (#20090284476) describes a method in which a device might push it's user interface to a smart remote. The patent doesn't talk much about the device, describing it loosely as a small "accessory" with a touchscreen that changes it's UI to match that of the device it's controlling to control playback of audio or video remotely.

Navigon AG announced that the company has launched a a Thanksgiving promotion for its iPhone navigation app, MobileNavigator [App Store, $69.99], as well as insights into holiday travel. During this time, the company is offering a special Thanksgiving promotion for its iPhone navigation app. For 10 days only, (November 20-30) MobileNavigator will be on sale for $69.99 instead of $89.99. In addition, NAVIGON’s Traffic Live feature is also on sale for $14.99 instead of $24.99.

In spite of a slow sales start, China Unicom continues to hold high hopes for the iPhone with an unnamed senior executive citing that the handset will carry 10% of China's 3G users within two to three years. In addition, China Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing publicly said this week that he expects the iPhone to be the best-selling smartphone in all of China.

After I began learning guitar last year, I grabbed a copy of Agile Partners' guitar companion app, GuitarToolkit [App Store, $9.99] to help me learn chords and keep my guitar in tune. But after a while, I wanted a way to store tabs and music to look at while I was away from my computer. TabToolkit [App Store, $9.99], which was released in late September, is exactly what I needed. It allows you to store tablature and music notation in various forms and play them back in landscape or portrait mode. It even comes with a synthesizer that'll play the parts back to you and a metronome to keep you on time.

The bottom of the screen can display a fretboard (guitar or bass) or keyboard for finger positions while the top shows musical notation and chords. If you play guitar or piano, you should definitely check this app out!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and that means cooking a turkey. But how long do you cook your turkey? I honestly don't know, but now there's an app for that too. TurkeyTimer [App Store, $2.99] was designed to help you figure out just how long to cook your turkey based on your turkey's weight, whether its stuffed, and by its desired internal temperature. As time passes, TurkeyTimer will show you how brown your turkey should be and even when it's time to baste!

We haven't tried this app ourselves, but it looks solid based on the reviews and the app's description. Thanks to reader freshjive for the tip!

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!

Closely following the announcement that Magellan's car kit and iPhone nav app, RoadMate 2010 North America [App Store, $79.99] TomTom has announced that they plan to release a second car kit geared directly to the iPod touch.

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.

Google announced earlier today that they have launched a mobile-formatted version of Google News for viewing on smartphones, geared directly toward iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users.The new version offers similar features to the desktop homepage, displaying more stories than the other versions, while still keeping with their distinctive style.

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.

Virgin Mobile's Canadian division will soon carry the iPhone, according to an announcement delivered today. The company has currently revealed few details, except that it will sell both the 3G and 3GS models and that a launch should happen sometime "in the coming months." The device will also be the carrier's first HSPA-based phone, possible through an upgraded Bell cellular network.

Since AT&T's request to have Verizon's ads temporarily pulled from the air has been denied, AT&T has begun airing their own commercials to respond to Verizon. The ad features a quizzical Luke Wilson pointing out which company has the fastest 3G network, the ability talk and surf at the same time, access to over 100,000 apps, and more.

Honestly, I'm not too sure if AT&T should start throwing some of these claims around; they may have a counter-lawsuit coming their way. Maybe Luke should have just asked "which network has the iPhone?" Ad follows below!

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!

A federal judge has denied AT&T's request to temporarily block Verizon Wireless from airing advertisements comparing coverage maps for Verizon's and AT&T's 3G data networks. AT&T argued that the ads were "misleading," as some would misinterpret AT&T's comparatively sparse 3G coverage map as a map of their actual network, making it appear that there was no service available in those areas not covered on the map.