August 25 marks exactly 400 years since Galileo’s telescope invention. (Yes this is Google’s doodle of the day.) Galileo Galilei’s invention allowed for much of the astronomical discoveries made today. Galileo was not only a known astronomer but also a mathematician, physisct, and philospher. (Yes, he was one smart dude!) Since the invention of the telescope, much of space discovery and solar system have been made possible. With the technology to identify much of the stars and universe around us, Galileo’s telescope has been a great help.

Current program in the telescope world: Nasa is currently lacking the funding to build the telescope that may protect us from possible deadly asteroids that will strike the Earth. Galileo’s relatively cheap invention has lead to relatively expensive and highly sophisticated telescopes that could save Earth from the asteroids. What was yesterdays one dollar telescope invented looks like todays cost of 300 million dollars. Just take a look at this article on Wired.com.

Earlier this week Apple rejected the official Google voice app and removed all other previously approved Google Voice Apps from the App Store leaving many developers frustrated. Many developers invested a lot of time and effort in building their apps, and it was a slap in their faces to have their apps removed.

It has not been confirmed whether Apple or AT&T were responsible for the removal of Google Voice apps. Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to contact Apple, AT&T, and Google to find out the whole deal behind this. They want to know why Apple rejected the Google Voice App, which third-party applications were rejected, the contact information for each developer’s app that was rejected, who was responsible for the removal or rejections of the apps, whether AT&T has a role in approval of the apps, a list of iPhone applications or categories of applications that were rejected and for what purposes, and the standards for considering and approving applications.

Tech Crunch has posted the letter that was sent to Apple, AT&T, and Yahoo. It would be interesting to see Apple’s responses to these questions, but unfortunately we won’t ever be seeing them. I do hope this makes Apple or AT&T think twice before rejecting any app next time. A Google spokesperson told Tech Crunch the following:

“Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users, for example by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers. We will supply the information that the Commission has requested.”

I would like to see Google release their Google Voice app to jailbroken iPhones or iPod Touches on Cydia, but that will never happen. We can only dream of this!

[via CNNMoney.com]

In a press release today Apple announced that their App Store has reached more than 1.5 billion iPhone and iPod Touch application downloads in just one year and that there are more than 65,000 apps in the App Store.

Here are some key numbers Apple announced in their press release:

• App Store has more than 65,000 apps and more than 1.5 billion downloads
• App Store is available in more than 77 countries
• Apple has shipped more than 40 million devices that run apps from the App Store

Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs went on to say that it would be hard for any other App Store to catch up with Apple.

“With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.” – Steve Jobs

That 1.5 billion download count Apple announced does not mean much because Apple did not reveal how many of those 1.5 billion downloads were updates, free app downloads, or re-downloads. It is impressive that Apple has more than 65,000 apps in the App Store, but how many of these are quality apps?

With their recent press release, Apple is just trying to scare it’s competitors with numbers. Lets face it, Apple’s App Store has a very strict approval process, and an influx of fart apps in the App Store. Other App Stores do stand a chance against Apple. It will be hard for them to catch up in numbers, but it won’t be hard for them to catch up based on quality of their apps.

[Via Apple]

Can you believe it, it’s been almost a year since the Apple’s App Store was officially released to public! Apple’s iPhone App Store was officially launched on July 11, 2008. Many users got to see it before the launch date due to a leaked copy of the iPhone OS 2.0 firmware.

To celebrate the App Store’s first birthday, Apple has created a page in iTunes listing it’s favorite apps and favorite games. You can see the full list here (iTunes link).

The App Store has received over 1 billion downloads in just 9 months and currently has over 56,000 apps! It’s safe to say that the Apple’s App Store is currently the biggest mobile App Store.

Will App Store competitors such as Palm’s App Catalog,  Blackberry’s App World, or Google’s Android Market ever be able to catch up? I doubt it, but it will be interesting to see how they progress.

TechCrunch was recently told by one of it’s sources in Asia that Apple has “placed an order for a massive number of camera modules of the type they include in the iPhone. These are inexpensive cameras, in the $10 range. And the size of the order, our source says, means they can only be used for one thing – the iPods”.

MacRumors is taking this rumor a step further and posting screenshots of what appears to be an iPod Touch 3G case with a hole for the camera. What’s even more interesting is that MacRumors has also posted a picture of an iPod Nano case that has a hole for a camera as well.

While I don’t think there will be a camera coming to the iPod Nano, it does seem reasonable for Apple to add it to the new iPod Touch. I predict that Apple will not only add a camera, but they will also upgrade the processor and graphics chips, and also double the RAM of the iPod Touch 3G.

Apple usually launches new iPods in the month of September so it won’t be too long until we find out whether or not this rumor is true. I’m hoping this rumor is true, having camera on the iPod Touch would be really useful to a lot of us. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Recently a discolored overheated iPhone 3GS was discovered and blogged about on blogs like Gizmodo, Engadget, and PCWorld. I’m not 100% sure, but I do think that the overheating problem is being caused by the iPhone OS 3.0 software update and it isn’t affecting the iPhone 3GS only, it’s affecting other iPhone and iPod Touch devices as well. After updating my iPod Touch to 3.0 I did notice that it got warmer whenever I plugged it in to charge it or played a game. I just did a quick search on Twitter, and it looks like I’m not the only one who has experienced this. I expect Apple to fix this in their next iPhone 3.0.1 or iPhone 3.1 update (which will hopefully be soon!). How has your iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade experience been so far? Do you have overheating problems because of iPhone OS 3.0? Leave a comment below.

Reports of iPhone 3GS overheating problems have been spreading around the net. It all started at Nowhereelse where an iPhone 3GS owner posted a picture of a White iPhone 3GS 32GB which turned PINK on the back due to overheating.

The iPhone 3GS owner reported that he was using the iPhone 3GS’s GPS and 3G connection which caused the overheating and the discoloring. This story has spread on huge sites like Gizmodo, Engadget, and PCWorld. I’ve been reading through the comments on these sites and haven’t noticed anyone else claiming to have this problem. Do you have an iPhone 3GS? If you have any overheating problems please share them with us in the comments below!

[via Gizmodo]