iPhone Applications

The TomTom iPhone GPS hardware and software combination may have been featured by Apple at this year's WWDC, however Navigon has already hit the marketplace. Navigon is a full-featured turn-by-turn GPS navigation system for iPhone.

Navigon's MobileNavigator North America is available now on the Apple App Store. Although the price sounds steep at $69.99 (increasing to $99.99 on August 16th), this is a one-time cost with no ongoing subscription fees. In contrast, AT&T Navigator is a free download, but incurs a monthly fee of $9.95.

Apple is celebrating the one year anniversary of the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. Along with all of the fanfare and featured apps came a lot of impressive statistics. Apple has left the competition in the dust, with 65,000 mobile applications released to date.

Over 1.5 billion copies of these apps have been downloaded since the inception of the App Store one year ago. Apple CEO Steve Jobs remarked, "The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality."

Finally, the iPhone 3GS digital compass is getting a workout. Software developer acrossair has submitted the first augmented reality application to the Apple AppStore for approval. The app is called Nearest Tube, and will help Londoners plan routes and find the closest underground station. What's unique about this process is how the app delivers information.

Instead of a static map, Nearest Tube displays subway information in real-time, overlaid in 3D on top of live video of the user's surroundings. Holding the iPhone 3GS horizontal will show arrows pointing to different train stops, and tilting the device upwards will overlay signs in the direction of different stops. These signs look like a heads-up-display, and give more information about how far away the station is and what lines connect there.

Apple engineers just keep coming up with cool ideas. It's too bad they are light years ahead of mobile carriers. Another patent has been discovered that would allow iPhone users to share media during an ongoing phone call.

Imagine talking to a friend and playing a pop hit for this person without leaving the phone call. Not only will you both hear the music, you can discuss how bad it is in real time.