News

One of the readers of TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) recently sent in what is believed to be the first set of screenshots of the new iPhone App Store. The App Store is an iPhone application showase/marketplace built into the new (currently development beta) iPhone firmware.

Users who previously tried to load the iPhone App Store on their iPhones were met with a "cannot connect" message. Sometime recently, this changed is allowing access to the App Store which now includes a few applications.

Below are a couple of the screenshots which were leaked. One of the screenshots shows a native Facebook application for the iPhone.

After denying countless developer applications for entrace into the iPhone Developers Program last week, Apple has begun accepting applications and allow developers to begin using iPhones to test software developed with the beta iPhone SDK. However, the good news isn't all good news. According to a new article on iPhoneAtlas, Apple has added what is, in short, a self-destruct mode to developer iPhones should a developer fail to comply with terms of the SDK.

As part of the agreement developers make when using an iPhone for development purposes, once a phone is used for iPhone development - it must always be used for iPhone development, at least until

We always enjoy keeping our readers up-to-date on the latest in third party applications available for the iPhone, especially when they are this darn good. Yesterday, a new application named GeoPedia was released. GeoPedia takes advantage of geographic positioning functionality, like those introduced in iPhone firmware 1.1.3, and provides iPhone owners with a Wikipedia feed customized to their current location.

Once installed, one need only launch GeoPedia on their iPhone to receive a iPhone stylized interface featuring a list of Wikipedia articles relevant to the phone's location. Check out the sample screen shot below for an example of GeoPedia's interface.

There was a smattering of unconfirmed reports last week that indicated AT&T was selling off refurbished iPhones at a significantly discounted price at seemingly random retail outlets throughout the country. The reported price of $249 is considerably lower than the price at which Apple sells their refurbs ($349). According to Engadget, these reports have all but been confirmed and AT&T is now selling these to the masses via their online store.

Though reports from last week indicated that you could possibly purchase the refurbished phones in person without

Google Group Manager for Mobile Platforms, Rich Miner, jabbed at the Apple iPhone during promotion of Google's highly touted Linux-based Mobile OS, Android, at the Emerging Communications Conference in Silicon Valley this week. Despite the strong partnership between Apple and Google in the mobile arena, Miner evidently felt it necessary criticize the iPhone and the iPhone SDK in an attempt to highlight the strengths of the Android platform.

Miner offered up the following as an example of the inherent strength of the Android business model versus that of the iPhone, stating