iPhone Software

Need some help finding the best deals in town? Visa has launched its free Visa Mobile Application for the iPhone to highlight local offers for Visa cardholders. The app consolidates all of the deals in your area by checking your location using the iPhone's built-in GPS.

Over 50 retail partners are represented, including Visa offers from 24-Hour Fitness, Buca di Beppo, Cold Water Creek, Crowne Plaza, Hard Rock Cafe, Holiday Inn, Jos A Banks, Meineke, New York & Company, Papa John's, Pearle Vision, Planet Hollywood, Tourneau and Zales. Visa Signature cardholders can also take advantage of exclusive Signature offers in addition to the rest.

The wait is over. For those who are interested in sharing their location with friends on an ongoing basis, Google Latitude version 2.0.0.346 has launched for the iPhone. There are nine million active users of Google Latitude, making the service almost twice as popular than social networking competitor Foursquare.

Latitude takes advantage of iOS 4 multitasking to passively track your location in real time. With no checking in required, you can know where your friends are around you at all times. Google launched a beta version of its Latitude service in 2008.

Need to send some cards to friends and family this holiday season? No reason to wait in line, buy stamps and make it to the mailbox if you've got an iPhone. The free app SnapShot Holiday does all the work for you, with physical postcards mailed directly to the addresses of your choice.

You can choose a photo from your Camera roll, add a border and send it along as a card, or choose from other pre-designed holiday art. Credits for mailing can be purchased from within the app using a credit card or PayPal. Sending a card to a US address costs one credit and international addresses cost two credits.

iPhone Dev-Team has released new information on the free carrier unlock software package known as ultrasn0w. Now iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS devices running baseband versions 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, 05.13.04, and 06.15.00 are unlockable after jailbreaking. iPhone Dev-Team includes detailed ultrasn0w information in their recent Ultra-recycle blog post.

Running iOS 4.2.1 on your iPhone 3G/3GS? Updating your iPhone baseband to 06.15.00 using iPad 3.2.2 firmware actually makes the device unlockable for use on carriers other than AT&T Mobility. Dev-Team has developed a PwnageTool 4.1.3 Unlock Edition that will update the 3G/3GS baseband, and the group is working on a new version of redsn0w that will add this functionality for Windows users.

As another holiday descends upon America, the App Store is brimming with iPhone apps to celebrate the occasion. Our simple search for "Thanksgiving" along with some shopping and Black Friday apps brought the total to almost 200. Not as excessive as the Halloween app count but daunting nonetheless.

You're going to have that iPhone with you anyway, so why not use it to help navigate through and enjoy this coming week? Here are ten Thanksgiving and Black Friday apps to try. All of these applications are available through the App Store for $2.99 or less.