Remember the photograph of that black bezel that was rumored to be a component in the next iPhone? When we saw that the 3GS was going to look the same as the previous model, one of the first things we wondered was what all of those new components were from. Now we know: the black bezel was actually the bezel component for an iPhone clone, the Creative Zii Egg. The device will be similar to the iPod touch, as discovered by Cnet Asia.

Apple has said that they won't allow any pornography applications into the App Store, but their ability to catch it seems to be questionable. One app has been found that slipped past their radar, and it's by far the most explicit app yet. Called theXchange, the app is intended to put people in contact with each other to have sex, and has imagery that is about as explicit as it gets. (Censored images after the break.)

AT&T Navigator is a turn-by-turn GPS app branded by AT&T and developed by TeleNav Inc. It provides a lot of the expected GPS capabilities such as voice directions, dynamic rerouting, and map updates. Although the app itself is free, it does require a $10 monthly subscription (added on top of your monthly AT&T bill) to be used.

The Firefox Web browser is fast approaching its billionth download and appeared likely to hit the milestone some time Friday.

The version 2.0 update to Hog Bay Software's $5 note-taking app, WriteRoom, adds web-based syncing via Google App Engine.

The CEO of a company whose Google Voice-related application was recently yankedfrom the iPhone's App Store blasted Apple, Computerworld reports.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Here are two different insights from Pocket Gamer about how developers can grow the profile of their iPhone apps. The first comes to us from the wisdom of Peggle, that game that I just can't stop playing. Apparently, they've coined the term "Peggling," which means lowering the price of your app, and seeing a huge benefit from it. Whenever a game drops its price down to 99 cents, much as Peggle did soon after release, it sees a significant bump in the charts. I'm sure there are many other factors at play here -- Peggle was a great game, so you can't sell more of a crappy game just by selling it for cheaper, and I saw a lot of Twitter and blog attention when the price dropped, so it pays to have people watching the price in the first place. But under the right circumstances, dropping the price can do a lot for a game that's already selling pretty well.

But an update, apparently, won't. That's what the makers of Zen Bound told Pocket Gamer -- they say that when they released an update with new levels and new features, it didn't make a difference in their sale numbers at all. Games like Pocket God have made a reputation for themselves by providing regular and solid updates, and certainly it seems like those updates have at least spurred sales, if not made them blow up, but the Zen Bound guys say that singular updates on major products probably won't kick sales into gear.

Interesting. We're at least a few generations into App Store sales at this point, and we're started to see trends and consumer behavior in better relief; developers are getting better and better ideas every day about how to price and service their apps and customers.

Updating doesn't help your iPhone app, but price drops do originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Updating doesn't help your iPhone app, but price drops do originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Technologizer is reporting on the developing story on SMS attacks coming out of today’s Black Hat Conference sessions. Seems like while the iPhone is grabbing a lot of attention, almost all GSM phones are said to be vulnerable. Basically, they get around the anti-spoofing security and send data designed to get access and take control of the phone.

On the iPhone specific side, however:

In a final coup for the conference, Lackey and Miras demonstrated an iPhone app they call TAFT which can, at the click of a few buttons, transmit various types of attacks against specific, vulnerable phone models, including iPhones, and phones running the Windows Mobile 5 and pre-”cupcake” Android operating systems.

Vendors, including Apple are working on patching the exploit, though there is still no word which specific models or firmware versions are vulnerable.

More as the story continues to develop.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Black Hat: SMS Attacks Not Just for iPhones

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

iConcertCal is a new app for the iPhone that lets you track where and when all your favorite musicians are performing. Using some of the new features in the APIs of iPhone OS 3.0, it reads all the artists in the iTunes library of your iPhone, uses the built in GPS to find your location and then displays results dependent upon how far you are willing to travel.

A while back we reviewed the non-iPhone version of iConcertCal which, acting as an iTunes visualizer, created an iCal calendar of the artists in your library while creating a separate calendar appearing when the visualizer is launched. This new app takes that technology and brings it to a new level.

After setting a location either through "use my location", or choosing from a number of pre-set cities, and setting how many miles should be searched, finding a concert is a snap and can be done a number of ways.

Choosing "My Shows" displays a day-by-day list of all matches found in your iTunes library. Choosing "All Shows" brings up a list of all concerts in your specified area, and tapping on "Venue" lists all music venues in your area along with how many shows are scheduled. Tapping on a venue, affords you a list of all of those concerts.

When you find something you like, you have the option of buying tickets, which takes you to the authorized ticket seller site, emailing the information, bringing up a map to get you to the hall or getting transferred to the iTunes store to buy some of the artist's music.

This alone is cool enough, but the best trick isn't immediately apparent. What happens if you have many songs on your computer that aren't on your iPhone? Or what happens if your largest iTunes library lives on another computer? They've got you covered.

By going to their site on the computer containing your largest library, and setting up an account, all artists on that computer will be indexed. Next go to the app and use the same settings. Automatically all the artists on the computer will be transferred to the iPhone app whether or not the artists are on the iPhone, and that information will be used by the iConcertCal app.

With over 60 gigs of music on my MacBook Pro and deciding to have my iPhone 3GS sync to my MacBook holding around 10 gigs of music, I authenticated my MacBook Pro and now the iConcertCal app shows me all the artists my the 60 gig library. Sweet!

Take a look at the gallery of screenshots and see if you can figure out which band I'm seeing four times this week from seat DD 6.

The iConcertCal app gets you to the show originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The iConcertCal app gets you to the show originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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