Ever since I saw the demo of Spore on the iPhone on the web a few months ago, I've been looking forward to its release. TUAW reports that it's due out later this week from a conversation with Will Wright, the creator of Spore. It doesn't sound like it will have the same type of gameplay as the full PC version, unfortunately.
Apple seems to be taking a harder look at the Apps it approves for the App store these days. Over at MacRumors, a rejection email a developer received from Apple for his "Pull My Finger" app is posted , where his app is described as having "limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod Touch user community." My guess is that this is a direct result of the issues with the infamous "I Am Rich" app that was available for a short time on the App Store with a $999 price tag that had no real use other than providing bragging rights. If Apple is indeed vetting apps against some utility standards, they have a lot of work ahead of them to go back through the App Store to review apps that they approved prior to the implementation of these standards.
iLounge claims to have the dimensions of the second-generation iPod Touch. We don't know if these drawings are the real deal, but if so, the next iPod Touch will bear more resemblance to the iPhone 3G with tapered edges and a thicker middle. The supposed 4th generation iPod Nano dimensions show a taller and thinner form factor similar to that of the 2nd generation Nano. Of course, new iPod product announcements are expected at Apple's September 9 event, so we'll all know soon enough!
Pangea Software is offering a limited time back to school offer on the best-selling iPhone game Enigmo . Enigmo was voted "Best iPhone Game" at Apple's WWDC 08' and has also drawn rave reviews from our readers. Enigmo is billed as a 3D puzzle game where you direct animated streams of flowing liquid so that the droplets get to their destination.
If you owned a smartphone before the iPhone, you probably used it for tethering to get online with your computer in a place where wifi was not available or too expensive. With the iPhone, tethering hasn't been possible unless you've jailbroken your iPhone or were lucky enough to buy NullRiver's NetShare app while it was briefly available in the App Store. In the U.S., you'll notice that other smartphones offered by AT&T can make use of data plans that allow tethering, and the iPhone is one of the few smartphones, if not the only one, that they offer that cannot make use of one of these plans, nor is there currently a native app or Settings option on the iPhone that enables this.
Well, today there's a rumor that indicates that AT&T and Apple are looking into this! The rumor revolves around an email supposedly sent by Steve Jobs in response to someone who complained about AT&T's lack of tethering options for the iPhone. The purported reply from Steve says "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT [sic]".
Every year, there is always at least one rumor supported by an alleged email from Steve Jobs, and we've already had one or two of these this year, but this could prove to be one of the more exciting ones so far for iPhone users who really want to be able to use their iPhone 3G's high-speed network connection to be able to do even more on the go without worrying about doing something unauthorized on AT&T's network and/or voiding the warranty on their iPhone to enable this capability.
So, as always, we'll wait and see if this turns out to be true. My trusty Magic 8 ball says the possibility of this rumor coming true is "Most Likely" and it's never lied to me yet.
Finding the perfect house can be quite a chore, but there are a host of sites that can make finding that house a little easier. Trulia is one of those sites and now they've released an application for the iPhone. Trulia offers 80% of the listings you'd find on MLS (Multiple Listing Service), making it the biggest listing site with an iPhone application.
There are hundreds of free applications in the iPhone App Store. They range in capabilities from one trick ponies to in-depth apps that one would expect to find in the paid category. So what are the best free apps? What are members of EIC finding the most useful or simply entertaining at the price of free? In this new iPhone App economy, many free apps turn paid, so we'd advise our readers to download these free iPhone apps before they become paid. In no particular order, below are a few of our recommendations for free apps that you should add to your iPhone.
Tris : Tetris is a great game and even better when it's free. Tris is the free alternative to the paid Tetris app. The latter will set you back $9.99.
AIM : IM on the iPhone, that's all you need to know. Mobile AIM offers a host of features, supports .mac addresses and allows you to chat on your iPhone.
Simplify Media : Stream your music directly to your iPhone. If you cannot fit your entire music collection on your iPhone, this app fixes all of that. It's free for now, but the company has said this app will eventually find it's way to the paid category. Get it fast, while it's free!
Remote : This app is made by Apple and allows you to use your iPhone as a remote control for your iTunes. Next time you have a party, no need to rush to the computer to change the track when iTunes selects Milli Vanilli from your music collection. Remote allows full control of your iTune, works great and it's free.
SportsTap : The perfect companion for any sports fan. SportsTap is rated highly among our readers and on iTunes. You can access scores and stats from a host of leagues including the MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, Nascar and more. Faster than ESPN via Safari, take a look at SportsTap if you are a sports fan.
There are plenty of other great free apps, so explore the iPhone App Store, see what our members are saying in our iPhone App Store forum or check out the latest reviews . Think there is an app worthy of a future "Best of the Free Apps" list? Let us know in the comments.
iHologram is a new application coming to the iPhone that simulates the look of true 3D object that appears on the face of the iPhone. The process is the use of anamorphosis, which uses a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image.
The app was created by David Reilly and it's a visual trick that has to be seen to be believed. We're not sure when this will hit the App Store, but it's sure to be a hit at parties. Who knows, maybe it'll knock that best seller Koi Pod from the top of paid app list. Yes, out of the thousands of apps, you've made Koi Pond the best selling paid app.
If you're one of the iPhone users who has been waiting for copy and paste (like me!) your wait for this key feature might be getting shorter. A software developer has put together a framework that all iPhone app developers can use to allow copy and paste to work between different applications.
The trouble in implementing copy and paste on the iPhone to date has been the restrictions put in place by Apple: apps are not allowed to write data to other apps. So if you do copy information in one app, it is not allowed to put this data anywhere outside of its own framework. Also, since apps cannot run in the background, anything copied in an app closes down along with the app when you leave it.
Enter OpenClip, a not-for-profit open-source project that is building a framework that will allow apps by participating developers to copy and paste information between them. Zac White is the developer who created the framework to make this happen. In this framework, apps will use space in the iPhone's system that is open and available to all apps to store copied information. Other apps built using this framework can then access this "community" space and pull out the copied information for pasting or further manipulation.
OpenClip states that this framework does not violate Apple's SDK in any way. And the more apps that participate and use the framework, the ability to copy and paste on the iPhone will become a true feature. It's unknown what Apple will do with this framework and if it will be implemented in the core iPhone apps like Safari, Contacts, Notes, and others. But we can hope that this framework will be a way for Apple to implement copy and paste in the apps where it's most needed!
Finding the perfect house can be quite a chore, but there are a host of sites that can make finding that house a little easier. Trulia is one of those sites and now they've released an application for the iPhone. Trulia offers 80% of the listings you'd find on MLS (Multiple Listing Service), making it the biggest listing site with an iPhone application. 
