Applications

Showing that its Web application priorities extend to the mobile world, Google on Wednesday demonstrated a version of Gmail for the iPhone that could be used even when the phone had no network connection.

Vic Gundotra, Google's vice president of engineering, showed off at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona what he called a "technical concept" of Gmail even when the iPhone was offline. In January, Google released an offline version of Gmail for desktops and laptops, and like it, the mobile phone incarnation runs in a Web browser, not as a native application.

The software let Gundotra browse and read e-mail even after he switched the phone into airplane mode, which shuts off the wireless network. To watch a demonstration, check the demo video on iPhone Buzz.

Offline applications can't of course retrieve new data from the network, but they do synchronize when network access is restored. Meanwhile, e-mail is stored in a local database on the phone, even when online.

"You'll note that it's very, very fast because it's using that local database," Gundotra said. The application also showed a floating toolbar that was visible even as he scrolled through his in-box. … Read more

The iPhone farting app market is starting to get pretty noisy.

iFart Mobile, maker of an app that simulates farting noises, asked a court on Friday to rule that it can use the term "pull my finger" without risking trademark infringement claims by another iPhone fart app named, you guessed it, Pull My Finger.

InfoMedia, which developed iFart Mobile, filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in Colorado District Court and named rival Air-O-Matic as defendant.

In a blog posting, InfoMedia said it filed the complaint after an attorney for Air-O-Matic asked the company to pay $50,000 to … Read more

By now most people have heard the rags to riches stories of the iPhone app developers who learned a valuable secret: Make a "lite" version. It seems reasonable that while there are a lot of people willing to pay for apps, many want to know what they're getting before spending their hard-earned cash. One of our iPhone apps this week has benefited immensely from creating a lite version and I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have tried it myself if they hadn't. The lite version has now made it to the top of iTunes' … Read more

Google is coming a bit closer to releasing a working version of its Chrome browser for Mac.

Programmers for the company had been building an engine that could render Web pages, but it only ran within a simple framework called the test shell. Now they've begun hooking up the renderer to a full-fledged browser, which among other things can handle multiple tasks at the same time. That's key for a real application, especially one such as Chrome that isolates each browser tab into its own computing process.

The result of the work: a screenshot of Chrome running on Mac OS X … Read more

If you've used phone cards before, you know how annoying it is trying to reach the person on the other side.

First, you have to dial a local number, then in most cases you have to type in a PIN, and then type in the phone number of the person you want to reach. During the whole process, if you mistype a digit, chances are you'll have to repeat the whole thing from the beginning.

That's so much work, but for most of us, the savings are worth it--especially if you want to keep in touch with loved ones in another country.

Well, soon enough, you won't have to fumble through the numbers anymore.

Innodial, a calling card provider, just announced an iPhone application of the same name. The app allows you to dial a long-distance number directly from the iPhone or assign it to a local number for convenient dialing.

I tried the app out on my iPhone 3G and loved it. The app's dialing interface resembles that of the iPhone itself. You can create a new phone book or use the contact list of the iPhone.

When you want to call a long-distance number, you just have to dial the number itself, including the country code. The app then calls a local number by itself, applies the PIN, and connects you to that long-distance number. … Read more

Tools such as Crackulous have allowed iPhone piracy to become a rampant practice. The program, which can be installed on jailbroken phones, can remove DRM protection from virtually any App Store application, allowing it to be installed on unlimited devices (and shared with other users) after an initial purchase. This development, among others, has prompted Apple to deem jailbreaking an illegal practice.

Now, developers are fighting back. Users who have downloaded pirated copies of the game Time Bomb have begun to receive the message "You stole this game! Since this isn't a legal copy of the game, it … Read more

More than two years after the original iPhone's announcement, and the lack of MMS (multimedia messaging) support still constitutes the most lamented feature deart--aside from, perhaps, copy and paste--on the device. An application for full-blown MMS exchange is available for jailbroken phones, and many users have resorted to emailing messages, but most users still pine for a native MMS application that would allow sending and receiving of images to and from other capable phones.

Two fairly new applications in the App Store, offer semi-solutions.

Fetch MMS allows users to send MMS to cell phone numbers, receive replies to MMS … Read more

For Senior Editors Bonnie Cha and Kent German, Future Apps' new language program for the iPhone and iPod Touch may be just the thing to get them around Barcelona next week as they attend the GSMA Mobile World Congress in that famed Spanish city.

iSpeak is a set of translation apps that can convert words and sentences from English to another language, or vice versa. You type your phrase into the app, which quickly translates your text. If you're not sure how to pronounce the phrase, pressing a button triggers the app to speak the words aloud. iSpeak got … Read more

Apple reportedly is gearing up to offer location and multi-touch developer tools in its Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system, according to a report in AppleInsider

The geolocation tools will take a page from the iPhone software development kit (SDK), by way of the CoreLocation framework, according to AppleInsider. The CoreLocation works inconjunction with the Mac's networking hardware, aiming to provide a GPS-like experience.

Apple's next generation OS will also provide developers with programing interfaces that are Cocoa-based, as a means to maximize the use of the multi-touch features within the MacBook and MacBook Pro … Read more