Official Google Voice application for iPhone lands in App Store

Yesterday, an official — Google made — Google Voice application landed in Apple’s iOS App Store. The new program, which requires and iPhone and iOS 3.0 or higher, offers push notifications of text messages and voicemails and allows users to access GV’s settings and dialer directly from their device. If you’re a Google Voice and iPhone user, make sure to pick this up!

Energizer’s sleek new iPhone 4 case will double your battery life

They've just announced the new
AP1201 case for the iPhone 4, an attractive option for those looking to protect their iPhones whilst simultaneously charging them wirelessly. The case itself is sleek and without bulk, and contains a small external battery that will add
to your iPhone 4s battery life. It comes with two charging options: one is a high speed charging mode which charges the phone first, then the case, while the other option provides simultaneous pass-through charging. Overall, Energizer says that the case will double the battery life of your iPhone.

The Apple iPhone won’t get 4G in 2011

Bad news for iPhone users hoping to get a connection faster than 3G in the next year. The iPhone won 't be getting a 4G-equipped version at any point in the next 14 months.

Yahoo Messenger 2.0 for iPhone hits App store, brings video calling over 3F

While a new update to the Yahoo Messenger app on the iPhone would be eventful in and of itself, the latest version brings a very special gift — video calling over 3G, and not just phone to phone, but phone to computer or vice versa. Unfortunately thr video calling seems to be buggy. In addition to video calls, the newly updated Yahoo Messenger brings free voice calls to other Yahoo Messenger
friends, supports background multitasking, and more. Let us know if you're feeling the new update, though we'll be waiting for real FaceTime calling over 3G.

Google Goggles released for Apple's iPhone

Today, Google announced that its Goggles image search feature is immediately available in the App Store for Apple's iPhone smartphone. The new feature,
which will be bundled into the Google Mobile App, will support iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 devices running iOS 4 or higher.

"Computer vision is a hard problem and Google Goggles is still a Labs product. It works well for things such as landmarks, logos and the covers of books, DVDs and
games. However, it doesn't yet work for some things you might want to try like animals, plants or food," explains Google.

Slap on those Goggles and get
Googling.

iPhone 4G sells out in China

US high-tech giant Apple has sold out of the iPhone 4 in China less than a week after launching the trendy smartphone on the
mainland US high-tech giant Apple has sold out of the iPhone 4 in China less than a week after
launching the trendy smartphone on the mainland, creating a flourishing market for scalpers, state media reported.

More than 200,000 iPhone 4s were snapped up within days of going on sale while waiting lists stretch to the end of October, the China Daily
newspaper reported Wednesday, citing Apple's mobile operator partner China Unicom. Apple was forced to temporarily close one of
its stores in Beijing on the same day after arguments reportedly broke out between scalpers and Apple store customers frustrated
at missing out on the handsets.

Earlier in the week, scalpers were scooping up several iPhone 4s at a time, suggesting Apple's restrictions of two smartphones per person were not being enforced, the China Economic Daily reported on its website Thursday.

Scalpers outside Apple's two stores in the capital were then offering the iPhone 4s to desperate customers for 300-600 yuan (45-90
dollars) more than the official price, the report said. One scalper, who had bought six iPhone 4s, told
the newspaper he was selling the 16-gigabyte version, which has wireless Internet capability, for 5,600 yuan compared with the official price of 4,999 yuan.

The 32-gigabyte smartphone sells for 5,999 yuan, Apple has said.
The phone made its debut in China on September 25, just a week after Apple officially launched the iPad in the country, with some customers queuing for several days to get their hands on the tablet computer. Both products have been available for several months on China's grey market, which has been booming thanks to great demand for Apple
goods.

The earlier version of the iPhone only officially went on sale in China in October -- more than two years after its US launch. China has at least 420 million web users and is
also the world's largest mobile market with more than 800 million subscribers as of the end of June, according to official data.

Ask.com has an iPhone app that lets you ask and get local answers

Don't worry, this isn't another search app you'll never use actually, Ask.com isn't a search
engine per se. Originally conceived as the place to ask complex questions and get relevant answers, Ask.com returned to these roots earlier this year after its owner IAC realized there 's no point in battling search behemoths like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft on their own turf. Their upcoming iOS program aptly named Ask iPhone specializes in getting the right
answers for your typed in or spoken questions in a way traditional search cannot handle
efficiently.

The app draws its power from Ask.com's database of half a billion matching answers from high-quality sources like Q&A sites, FAQ
pages, and other relevant sites. Like on the web, you can tap crowd knowledge by hitting the "Ask the Community" button or ask your
friends on social networks to help you out. Version 2.0 of this question-answering engine
will deliver geo-targeted answers based on your location. According to reports, you 'll be able to route complex questions to the knowledgeable people who opted-in to the beta program, crowd-source answers relevant to your locations, see questions asked nearby, and so forth. Those features will be available under the
" Nearby Answers" tab of Ask iPhone version 2.0. What's best, you'll be able to set the asking
radius from less than a mile to fifty miles and thus narrow down your question to the right people or places. Here 's how it's supposed to
work. The app will present you with a list of places around you. You simply pick a nearby restaurant and ask if they serve pasta. Or,
choose a movie theater and ask if the line for the latest Twilight movie is too long. If all of this sounds familiar, then you may have
already tried intelligent search assistant Siri, acquired by Apple earlier this year. That said,
Ask.com does much more than parse complex search queries to perform keyword searches –
it delivers answers to your questions. It'll be all seamless and magical – that's crowd-sourced,
decision-based searching for you.

Ask iPhone will be submitted to Apple soon and hopefully approved without a hiccup.

The HTC Hero is a real threat to the iPhone

There's a lot to be said for an instrument that reflects the word 'Hero' back at you when you turn it on. It's a great motivator to go out there and be the best you can be. Clearly, the developers at HTC had this word imprinted on their brains when they designed this handset.
The Hero is truly a remarkable piece of technology, and a serious threat to the universal dominance of the iPhone. HTC has spent an enormous amount of time and money on this phone, and their dedication has paid off, both in design and performance.

When it comes to design, the phone is a natural progression of all that has come before, improving incrementally while not straying too far from the elements that really are working. The phone feels solid in the hand, a weighty 135g with battery, and 8 of its 11 centimetres in length are taken up by the touch-screen.

Like most HTC phones, it also features a couple of key controls on the base of the phone. In this instance, Home, Menu, Send and End keys on the one level, plus a dedicated Search key, Back button and scrolling Trackball directly
beneath. It 's a functional, and aesthetically pleasing layout.

The most distinctive feature of the phone is the prominent 'chin' that juts out at the bottom of the phone. Opinions vary on how it looks, but personally I like the look of it and enjoy how it cradles your cheek when you 're speaking on the phone.

But the real fireworks are saved for what lies beneath, and it is here that the most work has been done. I found myself confused and frustrated by the HTC Tattoo, which promised so much but left it all lying slightly out of reach.

The Operating System (OS) in the Hero has undergone a major overhaul, and two key features stand out. The first is the seamless
aggregation of all your contacts ' channels of communication into one place. HTC are calling the user interface 'The Sense Experience', and it allows you to combine all the channels that your friends use to communicate and puts them in one place. It really is nifty and a delight to see your Facebook friends ' profile pictures and
information come to life on your phone. This is not a brand-new feature of the Hero, but it is the first phone to really deliver an integrated package that works seamlessly.

The other standout feature of the software is the Android Market app. Research coming out of the United States indicates that phones
carrying Android have outsold the iPhone for the first time, which must be immensely pleasing to Google, who developed the Android platform and app store. There are thousands of applications available for download to the Hero, and they have been neatly divided according to function and popularity. The apps also feature comments from users, which enables you to judge for yourself whether you really need this app as
part of your phone.

Of course the Hero is not perfect. Battery life is an issue with the phone, particularly when it is operating at full capacity. Furthermore, while the five megapixel camera takes great
quality pictures and allows you to share them easily, the irritating lag in shutter speed means that you often miss the moments that you
really would want to share. Neither of these are deal-breakers though, and are easily forgotten when you consider the sound and image quality, the ease and flexibility of the operating system, the dashing
good looks, and the scope of the Android app store.

This phone is a thrilling, engaging tool to own, and a conversation starter that ranks right up there with the ubiquitous iPhone.