The iPhone app store is a huge success for Apple (AAPL), with more than 1 billion apps downloaded in nine months. But it’s also turning into a hot acquisition market.

The latest deal: IAC (IACI) has purchased Urbanspoon, a restaurant-finding app that Apple lists as the no. 11 most popular free app of all time. (Helped, no doubt, by an Apple television commercial.) The team will stick together in Seattle, now working for IAC — after an “offer [they] couldn’t refuse.”

Earlier this week, Amazon (AMZN) purchased Lexcycle, which makes Stanza, a free e-book reader app. Presumably, the Stanza team will now build the next generation of Amazon Kindle mobile apps. (In the meantime, it promises no changes to Stanza.)

And they have done a few other deals over the past few months. For example, Amazon rival Barnes & Noble (BKS) purchased an entire e-book platform — Fictionwise — which includes an iPhone e-reader app. Tumblr, the NYC-based blogging service, purchased an app called Tumblrette, which is now the official Tumblr app.

This makes sense. Many of the most successful apps are nimble startups run by a few people with little or no outside funding. That means apps can be acquired — and engineers and designers can be ‘acq-hired’ — for a price that’s fair to the buyer and probably very nice for the seller.

Courtesy: Money.cnn.com

Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 code carried details about Apple’s upcoming products. Two different reports indicate that white-fruit themed toy maker is working on two separate products. According to the recent buzz, Verizon is in talks with Apple for striking the iPhone deal. Now, two folks ‘familiar with the matter’ revealed that Apple would be rolling out two devices with Verizon.

Rumors and Apple go hand in hand and that’s not new to us. BusinessWorld recently reported that the two ‘insider sources’, both Apple and Verizon are in talks to release a new ‘iPhone lite’ and a tablet like device which is due this summer, supposedly with the final release of iPhone 3.0 final version. Very few details are mentioned over the cheaper, smaller ‘iPhone Lite’ which remind us about the rumors that came out in mid-January about the iPhone Nano.

However, the other device dubbed as ‘mediapad’ has quite interesting details. Users would be able to listen to music, watch HD videos, view photos, and even allow VoIP calls over WiFi on the Mediapad. This Mediapad is likely to be the unknown iProd device which will be like Amazon Kindle and have hardware version N18AP as previously discovered from iPhone OS 3.0 code.

Also, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) got tipped about Apple’s possible next major device MacBookMini through Adium Statistics link. Adium client is iChat alternative for the Mac OS X platform and a reader passed on an Adium Stats link that had information about MacBook Mini.

As TUAW notes that earlier, MacBook Air was showed up in Adium Stats on the site.

Nevertheless, the feedback from the developers and respective product cycles do indicate the introduction of new products from Apple. For that matter, all eyes would be eager for the WWDC 2009 that starts on June 8.

Source: Techtree.com

NBA Game Time iphone app has been designed by NBA Digital and is the first app to provide quick updates on the scores and standings of the NBA games. If you are a die-hard NBA fan and want updated scores from time to time, then this is the app for you.The app is free to download from the iTunes App Store.

The app is quick to load. Once loaded you are presented with an NBA logo, with 4 tabs along the bottom. The App keeps track of the in-depth scores, schedule, standings and playoffs brackets.On the landing screen under scores, you can select yesterday’s, today’s, or tomorrow’s scores. A red number icon indicates if any games are currently playing live. When tapped on a day, it gives you a scrolling list of all the games that are being played on your selected day. It also tells you the TV network it will be on, the time of the game and the teams playing. Touching a game gives you a subview containing team boxscores, player stats, and team stats.

From the “Schedule” view you can pick a day from the calendar to view all the games scheduled for that day . The “playoffs” tab let’s you swipe to the left or right to see a complete rundown of the brackets. I shows all the games in the series, the scheduled timings for the games and the network it will be broadcasted on. In ‘Standings’ view, users can see the regular season standings. The top 8 teams from each conference are highlighted to show eligible teams if the playoffs were to start today.

To conclude, NBA Game Time is a real solid sports application providing its users live game information.

“Wheels on the Bus is everything one could look for in a children’s application. With its great artwork, music, sound effects and interactivity, it is sure to be a great addition to any mother’s collection. Definitely pick it up!” — AppVee review: 4.4 stars out of 5.

Wheels on the Bus is an $0.99 application for the iphone and ipod touch. This app in available in five languages and is based on the nursery rhyme. It has instruments and recording support, turning it into a great educational tool for young children.The app was created by duckduckmoosedesign.com, with the aim of providing a great experience to children.

Resembling an interactive storybook the colors are bright and clean, and the illustrations are well thought out. Different sounds have been given to every animation giving life to it. The best thing about the app is the ability to change the music with all the extras offered. You can select different languages(English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German), and so sing along in any of the language you like. Also you are given an option to select just certain types of instruments (Violin, Cello, Piano Trio, Duet, Kazoo and Gibberish) so your child can learn about the sound it creates. You can touch, explore, and discover fun surprises in the captivating, interactive illustrations. The last feature about this app is the the ability to record your own voice.

The only reservation about the app is its music which can be a little annoying for the parents but can be switched off. Also while the music is turned off the sound effects can’t be turned on. Overall the application is a complete source of entertainment for the kids.

Enjoy the serenity of nature wherever you are, and never be late sending flowers again! Whether you have green thumbs or just enjoy the tranquil sights and sounds of the garden, Flower Garden gives you a soothing, creative experience to be enjoyed over time and shared with your friends and loved ones.

Plant different types of seeds, water them, and watch them bloom in front of your eyes. Some flowers will bloom right away, while others will take a few minutes of care a day for over a week. Visit your garden pot by pot to give your seeds and blossoms the attention they need, even touch the flowers and move them around to find the best blooms. Keep a healthy, vibrant garden right on your iPhone or iPod!

Best of all, the flowers you grow in Flower Garden can be shared! Cut your most beautiful flowers to make a bouquet and send it to your loved ones. Flower Garden’s virtual bouquets are delivered with a personalized card and a note letting them know you took the time to grow the flowers just for them, making it all the more special.

Flower Garden is enriching and interactive while giving you something beautiful to share with the most special people in your life.

Features:

• A virtual garden complete with the serene sights and sounds of the outdoors
• Over 20 types of seeds to unlock.
• Create mixed bouquets of your best blossoms to share with loved ones
• Full 3D flowers and bouquets that react to the touch
• Unique flowers with realistic growth behaviors
• A forgiving garden where flowers will wilt but not die while waiting to be tended
• Email bouquets with personalized cards and custom backgrounds for the perfect composition

The first update is already under development and it will feature color variations for each seed, labels for each pot with flower information, cross-pollination to let you create your own flower hybrids, and many more features.

Source : Snappytouch.com

For people who like to keep themselves updated with the latest happenings in news and sports from the LA.Times, then its time for them to download the new iphone apps specially meant for these purposes. It gives you a daily dose of L.A. on iphone and ipod touch.

L.A. Times News Reader - This app provides latest news stories and information for those in and around Los Angeles taken from LATimes website and formatted for mobile reading.The screen is divided into two halfs the upper and the lower half. On the top half of the screen users can scroll through headlines by flicking left or right. The lower half consists of the browse sections. A facility has been given to quickly browse headlines, by switching to a list view using the button on the top right of the app. Apart from this it also gives the ability to view the accompanying photos by flicking to the right of the headline.

L.A. Times Sports Reader - This app provides sports enthusiasts an intuitive, user friendly environment that highlights the top stories in sports with score updates of your favorite teams. Sports news is displayed in the same format as News Reader. To get the detailed breakdown of the sports action, users can select individual game of their choice.

The initial versions of the apps don’t currently offer online viewing for places where WiFi or wireless Internet access may not be available like on the subway or airplane. Both apps can be downloaded through iTunes or directly on the devices for free.

Nine months after Apple began selling apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, 13-year-old Connor Mulcahey of Weston, Connecticut downloaded the billionth application from the iTunes store.

Poetically, it was a free app.

Mulcahey, barely old enough to have qualified for the contest, will win tens of thousands of dollars in Apple hardware and software for his fateful download of Bump, a free app that lets people exchange contact info by holding iPhones and bumping fists.

He’s not the only winner. Bump Technology also stands to gain from having its app mentioned in the first paragraph of an Apple announcement.

The company’s free app (paid version soon) is simple but potentially useful. Enter your phone number, address, e-mail address, and photo, and you’ll be able to beam any or all of that information to another iPhone or iPod Touch user who also has the app installed with a simple fist-bump greeting gesture. Contact information gets swapped over an encrypted internet connection, not Bluetooth or an ad-hoc WiFi connection, but that could change this summer when Apple enables peer-to-peer connections on the devices.

Apple itself makes 30 cents on the dollar from the sale of paid apps — about the same rate it commands from recording artists and record labels. (If developers really are the new rock stars, it makes sense that iTunes pays them what it pays actual rock stars.)

Apple, predictably, is celebrating the latest in its long run of iPhone- and iPod-related successes.

“The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded,” stated Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller. “In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionized the mobile industry and this is only the beginning.”

It’s true that the App Store revolutionized the mobile industry. Apple did this by letting developers hawk wares directly to consumers, rather than forcing them to deal with cellphone carriers, who forced them through lengthy approval processes, horded screen space, and generally formed a blockade between mobile developers and users. Now that Apple has broken that deadlock, other smartphone platforms are developing along similar lines.

And it’s impressive that iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded a billion apps from the store, since (as we confirmed today with Apple) its download tally does not include updates to previously-downloaded apps.

But the road to the billionth download hasn’t been entirely smooth.

In the early days of the App Store, developers seemed generally happy with the process of submitting apps (Pandora chief technology officer Tom Conrad, formerly of Apple, told us before the App Store launched that his team preferred developing for the iPhone to developing for the web).

But a flurry of headlines about youngsters making millions by selling apps ranging from the useful (HopStop, Credit Card Terminal) to the inane (flatulence simulators) has stimulated a gold rush that challenges Apple’s ability to keep up with the torrent of apps being submitted. The company has already approved over 35,000 apps for inclusion in the store, and as Schiller said, “this is only the beginning.”

Source: Blog.wired.com