The iPhone has been so successful mostly to its brilliant Apple App Store that has already racked up over 1 and a 1/2 billion downloads generating lots and lots of money for developers (the iPhone is also a really nice phone!)

So far I’ve resisted getting one but I’m more and more tempted to get one, now Sports Illustrated may have hit a new mini goldmine in their ‘Worlds Sexiest App‘ they’ve just released at $2.99!

I’m not sure how well the print magazine is doing but there are going to be lots of people around the world downloading this App that is for sure! The App provides photo’s of 20 models in bikinis and body paint plus videos of them. It also has a sports calendar for sports fans to keep track of up to 6 different pro and college teams.

Apparently this is also coming to the Blackberry but only in August, dam us Nokia users! Info via TechCrunch.

So Wired.com broke a story about the possible new specs for the Next-Gen iPhone. Apparently its a source closely connected to Apple’s hardware team… I wonder why this person is getting this information from someone within the hardware team?

Apparently the launch date is the 17th July according to this source who told iPhone fan blog Apple iPhone Apps – this is sounding more and more dodge to me, maybe we all should just stop speculating and wait for Apple to make the announcement. They usually don’t disappoint when they make these announcements.

Anyway, here are the specs according to this source:

* 32GB and 16GB storage (up from the current 16GB and 8GB models)
* $199 and $299 price points to be maintained
* 3.2-megapixel camera (up from the current 2-megapixel camera)
* Video-recording and editing capabilities
* Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
* Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
* OLED screen
* 1.5 times the battery life of the current models
* Double the RAM and processing power
* Built-in FM transmitter
* Apple logo on back will glow
* Rubber-tread backing
* Sleeker design
* Built-in compass
* The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations
* Turn-by-turn directions

According to Wired.com these are small upgrades, not sure what they were expecting – I think the built in FM Transmitter is awesome! Just think you won’t have to plug in that bulky iTrip anymore and all those car manufacturers who were building iPhone connectors will only have to build a recharger into their cars now!

As more and more cellular phones are released/manufactured these days they are generally 3G enabled, this allows the phones to access the internet at pretty decent speeds and has allowed for many innovative application to be made for these phones.

Network operators are loving it because finally people are using the expensive 3G networks they put up a few years ago and their profits are rising BUT there is a thorn in their side and that is to do with VoIP (Voice over internet protocol).

This has been led by Skype which have over 400million users, I use and love it. The problem is coming into factor now whereby cellular manufacturer’s are including Skype services on their latest phones which is great for us users but not so great for the network providers.

What VoIP has been doing to the fixed line networks it now can do to the cellular networks and that is allow people to basically phone each other for free at the only cost of the data transfer. Nokia is leading this with the release of the Nokia N97 but network providers in the UK are threatening not to carry the device… now this isn’t very nice of them!

Skype today released an App for the iPhone, as seen here in the image. Now this app is great and all as it allows you to chat (IM) amongst your friends and even make calls between users, it how ever limits the calls to when the phone is connected to a wireless network.

This pretty much makes it null in void unless you living in a well connected city.

In the UK 3 has released a handset with Skype capabilities and T-Mobile is also coming to the party the networks that are throwing their toys are O2 and Orange.

At the moment these services seem to all be offered only when on the Wi-Fi network, lets hope the day comes quickly when its all done via the cellular network!

You can read more about it here. Or if you are too impatient to wait head along to Fring a website that has made an application that should allow you to make free calls etc by making use of Skype.

I just received a text on my phone with the following text:

I keep you entertained! I keep u informed! Surf! I react to your touch! Join us from 9pm tonight 25 Sept at Vodaworld. I make my appearance @ midnight!

For those of us lucky enough to be in Cape Town we won’t be able to attend… Is Vodacom trying to be like Apple and have some hype and ‘fans’ avidly waiting for it to arrive?

We’ll soon see how succussful their launch of the Apple iPhone is…