MacRumors iPhone and iPad Blog: Apps, News, and Rumors

A Softbank official believes that the iPhone represents a turning point in Japanese mobile phones and that competing Japanese phones will have to revamp their handsets to allow for more sophisticated software to keep up. Faced with increased competition, Japanese handset providers will have to provide more software-oriented machines like the touch-screen iPhone, said Tetsuzo Matsumoto, a senior...

For those still looking for a free Instant Messaging alternative to AOL's AIM [Free, App Store] and Twenty08's MobileChat [$2.99, App Store] should take a look at Palringo [Free, App Store]. The application has just been updated to version 1.1 and offers compatibility with multiple service providers including: - AIM - Google Talk - Yahoo! Messenger - Gadu Gadu - ICQ - Jabber -...

Twenty08's MobileChat [$2.99, App Store] is now available in the iTunes App Store. The $2.99 application promises to offer a full instant messaging application for the iPhone and iPod Touch with support for multiple instant messaging protocols: - AIM/ICQ/.Mac/MobileME - Windows Live/MSN - Yahoo -...

Update: The developer has changed the price to free since this story was originally published and has been changed to reflect that. Jugaari has released a free "lite" version of their remote desktop application called Teleport Lite [Free, App Store]. The regular version of Teleport [$24.99, App Store...

iPhone and iPod Touch developers have received their first full month of iPhone sales reports from Apple. Prior to this Apple had started providing developers with daily stats, but only since approximately July 31st. Stats for the lucrative first two weeks had remained a mystery to most small developers. With the release of the monthly stats, developers now have access to all their sales for ...

Google has released an iPhone version of Google Translate. Google Translate is a web service that translates text between languages using computer algorithms and while its accuracy has room for improvement, it is generally accurate enough to get simple points across when no other resources are available. Google Translate for iPhone is optimized for speed, supports all of the existing Google...

Illusion Labs, the makers of the popular free application Labyrinth Lite [App Store], was profiled in BusinessWeek. Illusion Labs started off as a developer for jailbroken iPhones and has since made the transition to the App Store. Their free version of Labyrinth recently hit the number one spot in the...

MotionX has released a free app called MotionX Dice [App Store]. The free dice application provides you with five dice that can be rolled by simply shaking your iPhone. The physics and visualizations serve as the basis for their $4.99 game MotionX Poker [App Store]. The $4.99 Poker game uses the same...

Frommer's announced today that they have released version of their popular travel guides to the iTunes App Store. The initial release includes 2008 editions of Frommer's New York [App Store], San Francisco [App Store], London [App Store] and Paris [App Store]. Each are available for $9.99. The fresh and innovative digital editions of the trusted print books will be locally stored on iPhones...

One analyst believes that Apple has hit the 3 million mark in iPhones sold in the first month since its debut. "They are seeing unprecedented demand," says Cote, adding that there appears to be no signs of a let up yet. Cote, a former T-Mobile executive, has been extremely accurate with wireless predictions in the past.Apple had previously announced they had sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs in the first...

Podophile notes that RunKeeper [App Store], a $9.99 training assistant, has been posted to the App Store. RunKeeper allows you to track your running or biking by keeping GPS track of: - Run duration - Distance - Pace - SpeedDue to the GPS requirement, the app will only work on the 3G iPhone. A video demo is available from the developers. ...

NYTimes provides some followup details on Armin Heinrich's I Am Rich application that sold for $999.99 and simply displayed a red gem on the iPhone's screen. An earlier report from the developer had indicated that 8 people had bought the app. NYTimes reports that Heinrich has been notified by Apple that two of the eight sales had been reversed since they had been purchased by mistake....

Another racing game has found its way to the iPhone in the form of Astraware's GTS World Racing [$7.99, App Store]. The racing title promises to bring a more traditional arcade-style racing title to the iPhone, complete with 16 locations, 64 different track layouts and 3 different car types to chose from. The tilt-controlled racer also offers four different play modes and four difficulty...

Apple has released Beta 3 of the iPhone 2.1 firmware. The new update consists of more bug fixes. iPhone 2.1 firmware offers some developers an early look at the next iPhone firmware with early support for background notificatoins. Apple last seeded the second beta on July...

Instant Cocoa has released pTerm [$4.99, App Store] an SSH, Telnet and raw TCP client for your iPhone or iPod Touch. The application is based on the popular desktop client PuTTY. Features include - SSH, Telnet, and Raw Socket (TCP) support - xterm terminal emulation - 80x24 standard unix terminal window - Pinch to zoom in the terminal - Landscape and Portrait modes - Support for...

Far Out Labs has released their ProRemote Light [$39.99, App Store] and ProRemote [$149.99, App Store] applications to the iTunes App Store. ProRemote is a product that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch that uses your existing wireless network to control professional audio products such as Digidesigns ProTools and Apples Logic Music production systems. The full version of ProRemote also...

LA Times reports that eight individuals bought the $999.99 I am Rich application from the App Store before it was pulled off the store. The developer states he does not know why Apple removed the application: Heinrich, a German software developer, has yet to hear back from Apple concerning the removal. "I have no ...

One DaringFireball.net reader speculates that the reason that Apple is maintaining the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for the iPhone SDK is due to patent reasons. We know Apples been building up a patent strategy around multi-touch; maybe their lawyers believe there are patentable inventions described in the iPhone SDK and they are telling Apple to keep everything under NDA until they know...