iAppleblog - Apple iPhone Blog

iTunes App Store: 200 Million App Downloads in Last 45 Days

Apple Inc announced yesterday that 200 million apps have been downloaded from the iTunes App Store since December 5, 2008. That’s quite an accomplishment, considering 300 million had been downloaded during the first five months. Third-party apps for the iPhone were introduced to iTunes in mid July 2008.

The 500 million downloads in 6 months comes close to matching the pace of digital music, which saw 1.07 billion downloads in 2008, according to The Nielsen Co. At this rate, it’s possible iTunes apps could become a larger industry, in terms of downloads, than the entire digital music business combined.

The total number of applications in the App store during the same time period grew from 10,000 to 15,000.

News : iPhone OS version 2.2 Problems

Users who have updated to iPhone OS 2.2 are facing some significant issues, including problems with third-party apps, Internet connection issues, problems deleting email and more.

Third-party Applications broken Some third-party applications will no longer function properly under iPhone OS 2.2 due to API changes and other modifications. These include a number of applications that make use of CoreAudio. These applications will generally need to be updated by their developers. However, you can try uninstalling then reinstalling applications for problems that do not involve API or other strict compatibility problems.

“Could not Connect to Internet” Some users are encountering an inability to connect to the Internet over cellular networks after the iPhone OS 2.2 update. In some cases, this issue can be resolved by switching from 3G to EDGE (or, for carriers other than AT&T, the appropriate GPRS network).

“SIM card not inserted” or PIN lock Some users are receiving an error message indicating that the SIM card is not inserted, or that a PIN lock is in place when none should exist.

The SIM recognition issue can sometimes be resolved by removing the iPhone’s SIM card, then connecting it to your computer and restoring. iTunes may then reload the iPhone software successfully, after which you can re-insert the SIM card and attempt synchronization with iTunes.

If you get the PIN lock message, try the suggestions in this tech note.

Kilometers instead of miles in Google Maps It appears that Google Maps for the iPhone now displays kilometers instead of miles for various countries. You can temporarily resolve the issue by selecting ‘USA’ in International settings, though this obviously introduces other problems for users outside the U.S.

Problems deleting email Some users are unable to delete emails from certain accounts, especially AOL accounts after the 2.2 update. This problem can generally be resolved by navigating Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > (Your account name) > Advanced > Deleted Mailbox, then setting for the “On My iPhone” Trash for a POP account, or “On the Server” for an IMAP account.

App Store extremely slow The App Store is extremely slow after the iPhone OS 2.2 update for some users. This may be a server-side problem that Apple will resolved shortly..

[ Source : iPhoneAtlas[dot]Com ]

News : Load Linux on the iPhone

A group of developers, led by someone using the handle “planetbeing,” have produced a method to load Linux 2.6’s kernel to the iPhone. The hack is supported on all generations of the Apple iPhone and the first generation of the iPod Touch. According to the announcement, however “many drivers are still missing, but it’s enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone.”

You can read details regarding this topic at [LinuxOniPhone]

A demonstration video can be seen here: http://www.vimeo.com/2373142

Instructions here: http://www.iphone-dev.org/planetbeing/LINUX-README.txt

Download here: http://91.186.26.18/iphone/files/iphonelinux-demo.tar.gz

PwnageTool 2.0.2 to be Released Today

This is fun. It’s like a game of cat and mouse between Apple firmware and the jailbreaking community, Apple launches an update and the iPhone-dev team works feverishly to jailbreak said update. This time, they are said to be putting the finishing touches on PwnageTool 2.0.2 which will be able to jailbreak the “snappier” 2.0.1.

Excited much? Well, there still won’t be Installer.app because Installer 4 isn’t ready for the primetime yet but a new version of Cydia will be there so you can still get some apps. There still is a lot of catching up to do on developing jailbroken apps and it still won’t unlock the iPhone 3G, but all in due time. We’ll follow up with a link to PwnageTool 2.0.2 when it is released.

[ Source : Engadget.Com ]

More Than 1,000 Apps Available For The iPhone ?

Apple announced that there are more than 1,000 applications available for the iPhone and that there have been 25 million applications downloads. Games are proving to be a popular iPhone app as they are leading the paid app board carrying 53 of the top 100 places. Also 20% of the apps are freebies and 90% are priced under $10.

Apple Applications like PhoneSaber which are targeted to most of the audiences are free. Currently there are 6 apps that cost over $50 and due to this the average price on an app is $6.70, but the overall cost on all apps is $4.96.

Expensive apps have also started to make their way in the App Store. Two MyAccountsToGo apps are running for $449.99, and another iChart EMR is charging $139.99. Of course, these are targeted at professionals who will heavily rely on them.

Many feel that the apps available for the device and its capabilities as a software platform may actually be more important than the device itself, so the growth is good for iPhone owners.

[ Source : http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/appstore.html ]

3G iPhone announced at WWDC 2008!

As predicted, Steve Jobs used the opening keynote at WWDC 2008 to announce the new iPhone 3G.  With a new, slicker casing than the first-gen iPhone, together with HSDPA for high-speed connectivity, the upgraded model will go on sale on July 11th priced from an astonishing $199.

Two versions of the iPhone 3G will be available, one with 8GB priced at $199 and one with 16GB, priced at $299.  Both have solid metal buttons, a flush headphone jack, thinner-edged casing and the same 3.5-inch touchscreen.  Over the next few months it’ll be on sale in 70 countries across the globe.  More details at iPhoneBuzz and SlashGear.

Google Earth iPhone Version Is Being Developed

A startup company called Earthscape is developing a Google Earth style application for the iPhone - that lets you tilt the phone to navigate around to different parts of the globe.

This early demo of the app - which is being developed using the iPhoen SDK and is currently in private beta on Windows only - was originally posted on the Google Earth Blog.

Here’s a little more detail on the Earthscape Mobile program:

The demo is of a mobile application (Earthscape Mobile) in development that puts virtual earth software on the iPhone. When the iPhone is tilted, the earth begins to rotate and you can navigate to another part of the globe. Taylor notes that the app was running locally on the phone, and that ideally you’d would want real geo-spatial information downloaded over WiFi or 3G, which would take a ton of bandwidth and effect performance.

[ via : TechCrunch ]