I know who you are. You are one of two people. Person number one has an unjailbroken iPhone and really despises the included Stock and Weather apps. He wishes to jailbreak his sacred device, but cherishes it too much to place the warranty at risk. So, how does he deal with apps that he never uses and cannot hide or remove? Well, he just leaves them on the last page of his iPhone/iPod Touch, thinking that he could forget about them forever. Think again. Person number two, on the other hand, has jailbroken it and is really happy he did so because now with SBSettings installed, he can hide the unwanted Voice Recorder app. After hiding those nasty preinstalled apps, you replaced them with better alternatives. Right? Don’t fret. Regardless of which person you are, the applications you will see in this post will make you wonder why Apple didn’t include these instead when they shipped the iDevice.
Yomiuri Newspaper reckons that in gaming’s kingdom (Japan), hitherto successful gaming companies are losing ground in marketplace to the iPod touch. Both Nintendo and Sony have strong hardware and competitive software libraries, but their hegemony is threatened because of punctual price cuts and yearly hardware upgrades to Apple’s iDevice. The platform’s game library of ~20 000 titles — a number which is nearly 3x the combined total of titles available between the PSP and NDS — is one of the best pieces of evidence of its success. The real killer, however, is that Apple’s software distribution method has had a year of success and looks to only be growing.

Takaki Fukatsu's TiltShift Generator
One of my favourite app developers is Takayuki Fukatsu, the legendary personage behind apps such as ToyCamera, SepiaCamera, and QuadCamera among others. His apps are solid, have real-world results, and are based on important photography and editing principles. TiltShift Generator (say that 5,5x fast) which hit the App Store on or around 27 August looks to be another great hit, and unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, is the #1 hit at Japan’s App Store. It also houses evidence that the iPod touch will indeed feature a camera (information after the gap).
Takaki Fukatsu, TiltShift Generator, 0.99$, 0.3 MB
In a startling discovery in my email inbox barely one hour ago, Steve Jobs personally reached out to LonePlacebo detailing the real truth behind the rumors swarming around the much-anticipated September 9th “Rock and Roll” event in San Francisco. Why he singled out LonePlacebo among hundreds of thousands of other well-known news station is beyond my understanding. Here now is the full and original copy of the message from Steve Jobs himself:
(Letter below the break)
D30, the ‘flubber’ like material which absorbs incredible amounts of undue impact has come to the iPhone and iPod touch in a rather new product called the iBand from Tech21, a company devoted to protecting technology. D30’s claim to fame is its excellent utility as lightweight, mouldable, protection for extreme sports such as motorcross, dirt jumping, and table tennis: which makes it perfect for the extreme life of an iPhone!
In the busy streets of large cities such as New York, Paris, and Shanghai, many people rely on the transportation system to get around. When you miss that bus or subway, or if you’re just in a hurry, one of your other options is to take a taxi. Of course, on busy streets a taxi may not be the most efficient method of travel, but at least it comes to you and hopefully, you won’t have to wait too long.
Firemint is an extremely successful development studio out of Austraila. Recently becoming popular among the iDevice crowd for their title Flight Control, they are definitely not new to the scene and have created games in all genres and across various platforms.
I have admitted it before and I’ll admit it again: my gaming skills are far from admirable. Add that to inept puzzle-solving abilities, and I am a sad and frustrated lump of a gamer who can barely stretch his digital legs. Fortunately, I thrive on frustration and Connect2Media‘s Timeloop has plenty of it. It is a fun game which places you in the role of Nik, the robotic janitor of a mad-scientist who has just invented the time-machine. As they must, things go astray whilst Nik is cleaning. The result? The professor is trapped and Nik is left with the duty of freeing his boss and recapturing a litter of runaway kittens before time runs out.
For puzzle fans, developer nagisa have rustled up a great addition to the Rush Hour puzzle genre which doesn’t mouse around. At 99 cents, Kitten Escape sports hundreds of levels, an online scoring system, leaderboard and a good set of selection tools at its disposal. So, is there any reason to drop the cat? No, grab it. But, if you want to know why, read the review!
If this rumour can be believed, it is another cemented piece of evidence that the new iPod touch will receive a camera. This time, the evidence comes from pictures of what is purported to be new iPod cases from China. The pictures come from several case manufacturers.