Unofficial iPhone Blog

Handango said it will start selling Google  Android applications when the phones become available next month. The company, which now sells apps for nine different operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Palm ( NSDQ: PALM), Symbian and BlackBerry, appears to be one of the first independent companies to say that they will support applications for the T-Mobile G1 at least on this scale. In addition, it appears that Handango will even offer more capabilities than the official Android Market. Read more… »

Apple’s iPhone is, by all accounts, a success, and Apple may be on track to sell 5 million iPhone 3Gs this quarter. A big part of that success has come from the array of software options available from the App Store, the sole distribution point for third-party iPhone software. Though many developers are selling a lot of software, a significant number are becoming frustrated and angry due to Apple’s recent decisions regarding which apps are fit for distribution; the situation has been made worse by reports that Apple has a policy that makes the rejection letters subject to a NDA.

A major point of contention is the reasons Apple has cited in letters sent to developers whose apps were rejected. One reason is that an app has “limited functionality.” Both Pull My Finger, an app that makes fart noises, and Cool O’ Meter, an app that measures how “cool” you are, were rejected for this reason. A letter sent from Worldwide Developer Relations to Cool O’ Meter’s developers reads, in part:

We’ve reviewed your application Cool O’ Meter. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.

If you choose to provide additional features that utilize iPhone functionality, your application can be reconsidered for the App Store after you resubmit a new binary to iTunes Connect.

This might be a good rationale, especially if it were universally applied. However, a quick search of the App Store reveals numerous apps that flip virtual coins, pop virtual shipping bubbles, or allow you to drink virtual beers. The utility of these apps to “the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community” is certainly questionable.

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Apple iPhone users got a new application to install on their phone earlier this week. Red Delicious is an iPhone app that will allow users to easily use the community service to share links and Web stories, even when they’re not at home.

Red Delicious bills itself as having a “snappy user interface, easy navigation and optimized bookmark fetching from Delcious.com.”

The features users can expect from the app are pretty straight forward to Delicious users who are familiar with the site. When the app is launched, recently added bookmarks will appear. The functionality of browsing bundles and tags is available. And there is easy access to the most popular bookmarks in the community.

Username and personal information is assured by Red Delicious because the iPhone transmits information using SSL.

The service also offers keyword searches and optimized Internet activity to help save battery life.

One of the more appealing features of Red Delicious might be its offline capabilities. The app stores a local copy on each individual iPhone, allowing users to surf through their Delicious bookmarks while offline.

Apple has made a vital change to the App Store, in order to review a app you now have to actually have downloaded it. All I have to say is… it’s about time!

This brilliant idea (that should have been in place since day one!) means we no longer have to read reviews from people who have never tried the app out — or don’t even own a iPhone or iPod Touch! Now all we have to get rid of are the thousands of reviews that simply say “How do I uninstall this?” That is so sad, not only because they give it a rating of 1 star but the person has no clue how to uninstall a app!

Is a 1 star rating simply because you can’t uninstall the app fair to the developer?