Apple reportedly has a new policy for its iPhone app store in which any application with "overtly sexual content" will be removed from the App Store, according to an e-mail obtained by TechCrunch. But just like countless previous times, this latest tweak to Apple's app rejection policy will have app developers scratching their heads trying to figure out what's going on. Wobbly Policy
One app that has been removed from iTunes, called Wobble iBoobs, lets you take a selected image of a bikini model, add "wobble zones" to the photo, and then make those parts of the image move when you shake your iPhone. This app's function was apparently a little too hot for Apple, so the app's developer, Jon Atherton, received a removal notice from Apple, according to TechCrunch.Referring to the Wobble iBoobs application, Apple reportedly wrote, " We have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content and have changed our guidelines appropriately. We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application."

Sometimes, Apple's decisions about content in the App Store can be petty and anti-competitive -- like asking developers to remove any mention of Android. But sometimes, they make a call that seems to put users first. This time, it's a request that developers use your location to provide useful information, rather than just serving you location-based ads. Here's the text of the warning to developers, posted in Apple's developer forum:
If you build your application with features based on a user's location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.'
Developers might balk at the removal of a possible cheap and easy revenue stream, but I think Apple is doing the right thing, here. Apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow business to advertise specials, should be unaffected, because they also your location for checking in, finding your friends, and other important game elements.

Berlin-based Tagcrumbs wants to be the YouTube for places, although a much more apt comparison might be Delicious. The location-based service, which on the surface competes with usual suspects Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla and Germany’s own Dailyplaces, enables users to bookmark, tag and share places.

This week Tagcrumbs debuted its iPhone app (iTunes link), which takes advantage of the phone’s GPS capability, making it a snap to begin using the service. Users aren’t even required to sign-up to start discovering new places.

Unlike Foursquare and similar services, however, there’s no attempt to build in any kind of gaming element, users don’t ‘check-in’ and there’s no associated badge of honor. Instead, the model seems more akin to social bookmarking in which the motivation to use the service is selfish as well as social. Places can be bookmarked purely for a user’s own convenience (and even made private) or shared with followers and therefore the wider Tagcrumb community.

Remember the first ever Apple iPhone 2G that had many features that excited us at first, but then all of a sudden Apple came out with the 3G that was very good, then there is the present 3GS with many more features that really did get us on the edge of our seat, well there is a new accessory for the first-gen iPhone 2G.

This new product is called the “G-Fi”, a simple chunky box that adds Wireless GPS to the iPhone, it is pretty similar to that of Mi-Fi that will create a Wi-Fi hotspot, and the only difference is that the G-Fi does not actually pipe in the internet.

This new product is $100 and will support up-to 200 devices that have Wi-Fi, you do need an app that is specific to this device and the iPhone 2G, this app is called Navmii and will set you back $33.

So if you prefer the iPhone 2G because it is simple and do not wish to spend loads on the iPhone 3GS version would you consider buying the G-Fi?

First week apparently very disappointing.Google's first phone, the Nexus One, has apparently sold only 20,000 units in its first week on sale.

The data comes from Flurry, the app analytics firm, which states that this number compares with 250,000 of the Motorola Droid (Milestone over in the UK) and 1.6 million iPhone 3GS in their respective first weeks on sale.

However, it's worth noting that a caveat is added due to Google's new method of distribution, selling direct to the consumer and no in-store contracts being offered by the network providers.

New model

This means there's been a lot less in the way of advertising and hype the way other top level phones are promoted prior to going on sale, as well as less chance of customers becoming aware of the phone as they walk into a shop.

"As a product, the Nexus One boasts the most dvanced Android OS to date as well as unique features, such as Google Voice and Google Maps," said Flurry according to Mobile-Entz.biz.

"However, potentially due to the heightened "promise" created by early buzz, the handset has ultimately fallen short on sales expectations."

UK's first official paid-for news application has been downloaded almost 70,000 times in its first month.Are people willing to pay for a news app on their iPhone? In the UK, news organisations have been sceptical, and offered their applications for free, among them Sky News, whose app launched in May and has just passed 1m downloads.

iPhone apps from the Financial Times, the Telegraph and the Independent are all free, with the Indy saying its application has been downloaded 59,000 times since its launch last August.

However, figures released today prove that iPhone users are willing to pay for the Guardian app: it has been downloaded almost 70,000 times in its first month, and is currently at number 26 in Apple's UK App Store chart.

Although it costs £2.39, it has been downloaded exactly 68,979 times since its launch on 14 December. It was originally only available in the UK, Ireland and the US, but now launched in most European countries, as well as Australia, Canada and the US.

3 is to sell its MiFi Wi-Fi mobile hotspot gizmo bundled with an iPod touch, to let you Skype your mates wherever you are. Is this the cheapest “iPhone” ever?

A bunch of new iPhone vendors have popped out into the open recently, including Orange, Vodafone, and even Tesco, so Three’s obviously keen to get in on the action. It’s not selling the iPhone, but the next best thing: an iPod touch bundled with MiFi mobile Wi-Fi so you can get online with it wherever there’s 3G and dial your friends over Skype.

Naturally there are some downsides to this mashup: the MiFi needs to be charged, you get no GPS, and it’s only the 8GB iPod touch, not the 64GB. But hey, if you’re planning on getting MiFi anyway (and you should be), think of it as a free iPod touch instead.

Tesco have been confirmed as the next company in Apple’s move to open up its UK distribution channel by giving them the right to sell the Apple iPhone, and have it ready in the Tesco Mobile shops, which are in association with O2, before the Christmas rush in December.

This will shock Vodafone and Orange, who have also secured a deal with Apple at prices similar to O2’s, and possibly start a ‘price war’ between the two companies with the Christmas retail race already under way.

With Tesco now worming its way into the UK mobile phone market, we could potentially see a number of different tariffs available for the iPhone, having to choose from none other than 4 different deals from 4 different companies. That is all depending on if they all choose 1 tariff per phone, which is doubtful.

Tesco is also hoping to double the number of Tesco Mobile outlets by the end of 2010 to 200 stores, which is another indiction of the share of the market that Tesco want to dominate.