Google Blogs (via Gizmodo) has announced that the long-rumored Geo-Location based services in Mobile Safari are indeed included in iPhone 3.0 and being put to use in “My Location” searches by Google.com on the iPhone.

As of today, when you visit www.google.com from Safari on your iPhone 3.0, you can choose to turn on My Location by tapping on the link on the homepage. When you tap on the “update” link, your location will be updated and displayed right there on the homepage. Whenever you want to refresh your location, just tap the “update” link. Testing this in New York, my search for “jazz clubs” returned a handful of places within walking distance. I picked one, tapped the phone number, made a reservation, and we were set for the night.

As to privacy concerns, Google stresses the service is opt-in and can be turned off via the Preferences link at the bottom of the page. Also, it currently only works in English in the US and UK, though other languages and regions are said to be coming soon.

Good news for those looking for a local burger joint, bad news for those hoping Latitude wouldn’t be stuck in the browser…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.0: Location Aware Google Search via Safari

Kudos to Palm for getting a webOS SDK out to Pre developers so quickly, and for the sheer genius of making web 2.0 standards like CSS, HTML, and Javascript, ubiquitous all, the major toolset.

There’s a long road ahead to catch up with the iPhone’s 56,000 apps, 100,000 registered developers, and 1.5 billion downloads, but that road would have been infinitely has Palm gone with more complicated development model.

Sure, hardcore gamers may have to wait for native access to write their racers to the metal, but anyone familiar with the 80/20 rule knows that for this market, at this time, webOS and web standards development was smart play.

Bring on the fart apps — I have dibs on flashlight!

background: #fff

There. Done!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Competition: Palm Releases webOS Mojo SDK to Pre Developers

iPhone 3G Made Simple comes by way of Martin Trautschold and Gary Mazo of Made Simple book and e-book fame — likely familiar names to any of our CrackBerry.com friends — have put their training talents to work on the iPhone 3G and the result? 376 pages chock full of photos and easy to understand guides.

It’s available now in e-book (PDF) for $20 and is coming in August in good old printed form (soft cover). For TiPb readers, however, Martin and Gary are giving away 5 free copies of the e-book!

Just head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and let us know you want a copy!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Give Away: iPhone 3G Made Simple Book

Either Microsoft thinks it’s still April 1, or they really are going to open Microsoft Stores right next door to Apple Stores. Gizmodo provides the quote:

And stay tuned, because we’re going to have some retail stores opened up that are opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall. Stay tuned, just stay tuned.

Tuned to what, Comedy Central? We’ve made fun of this before — and rightly so — but it seems Microsoft is again entering a business just because Apple or Google are in it. And is that really sound strategy in anything outside a Hollywood parody? (Starring Will Farrel, ‘natch).

Sony Style Stores haven’t hit the mark yet, and Microsoft Stores selling shrink-wrap Windows 7 with free Songsmith classes…? Sigh. Apple needs competition. Good, focused competition that builds successful core business on top of successful core business.

We don’t see Google Stores opening up next door, do we? Microsoft, if you’re going to clone something, clone the focus. Please.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Microsoft Stores to Open Up “Right Next Door to Apple”?

In the past 24 hours we have seen major updates to not one but two software unlocks for the iPhone 3GS. Who says competition isn’t a good thing and who doesn’t love a good old fashion hacker fight? Let’s get it on:

In the red corner we have George Hotz along with his fresh version of purplesn0w RC2.

• 3G(the network speed) issues fixed
• Now only patches one file, CommCenter
• Leaves no traces on your baseband after it runs.
• Much more clean and reliable.

In the blue corner we have the iPhone Dev Team. And since Hotz released his source code, his competition used it to create their latest version of ultrasn0w .09.

• Works on both 3G and 3GS
• Doesn't patch any mach-o binary whatsoever. (Doesn't require a separate patch as each new firmware comes out).
• Has no race conditions, no popups about "Missing SIM", no network issues
• Is almost 7000 times smaller than its nearest competition

So there you have it - two software unlocks for your iPhone 3GS and one update for your iPhone 3G unlock. You have to credit George Hotz for stepping his game up when the Dev Team has been dragging their feet. It really seems to have sparked up a good rivalry that we can all benefit from.

There is one major question though, how do you score the match?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Ultimate iPhone Hacker Championship: Purplesn0w vs Ultrasn0w

Speaking of iPhone 3GS accessibility features, it looks like Apple is improving them in iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 by adding a new “triple click” option to the home button to toggle VoiceOver, Toggle White on Black, and Ask (which then will pop up a menu offering Turn VoiceOver On, Turn Zoom On, Turn White on Black On).

Kudos to Apple for not only doing a great job implementing the various accessibility features in iPhone 3GS, but for continuing to improve them via forthcoming firmware.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.1 Beta 2: Triple Click Home for Voice Over, White on Black, or Ask Menu

According to David Pogue in the New York Times, the accessibility features like VoiceOver introduced with the iPhone 3GS make it one of the easiest smartphones for the blind and visually impaired:

First, you tap something to hear it. You can tap icons, words, even the tiny status icons at the top of the screen. As you go, the voice tells you what you're tapping. "Messages." "Calendar." "Mail — 14 new items." "45 percent battery power."

Once enabled in the settings, Pogue details how new gestures like double-tap to launch, two-finger upward flick to read, three finger flick to scroll or go to next/previous screen, and three finger triple tap to turn the screen off and save power.

You can also use “the rotor”, a two finger circle, to change the way other gestures work — proofreading text character by character rather than word by word, for example.

Supported languages included Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (US), English (UK), English (Australian), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

For more on VoiceOver, see Apple’s overview.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3GS with VoiceOver Easiest Smartphone for Blind People?

Twitbit [$4.99 - iTunes link] is a Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod touch that provides built-in push notification for @mentions and direct messages (DMs).

For those of you still reading — those didn’t immediately jump over to grab it — what this means is you get all the functionality you’ve come to expect — reading, posting, multiple accounts, start and stop following, searching, trends, user profiles, reply chains, etc. etc. and you get any @mentions and DMs pushed straight to you without the need for an extra enabler app (which most other Twitter clients currently require).

The folks at High Order Bit were gracious enough to give us a sneak peak to try out, and I’ve been using it pretty much non-stop since. And… I’ve found all the functionality I need and then some. The push works wonderfully as well. So far, so fast.

One thing I particularly liked (but others may not) is that, when you get multiple @mentions or DMs, rather than having the latest obliterate the previous text alert (fix that by implementing a genius stacking system, will you Apple?), Twitbit collates them up. You don’t get to see the contents of the latest message, but you do get to see “X new @mentions and X new DMs” (see screenshot below). At least you have some idea of volume.

Of course, iPhone notifications being interruptive as they are, there’s still a chance something will pop up while you’re watching a movie or playing a game…

Given that limitation, more granularity as to who and what Twitbit pushes would be grand — and it’s likely forthcoming in an update — but wow are these young upstart devs and apps giving the entrenched Twitter clients a race for their functionality.

If you want an amply functioning Twitter client with built-in push notifications, take a serious look at Twitbit and let us know what you think.

Tons of screenshots after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Twitbit Push Notification Twitter Client for iPhone

It's that time again — time for us to pick out some of the hot topics on TiPb's forums. In order for you to reply to any of the following threads please be sure to register. It's a painless process that will only take a moment of your time. We promise!

Our first thread today was started by Rene, and he wants your opinion - who’s at fault over the latest iTunes update and it’s halting communication with the Pre - Apple or Palm? Palm had to see this coming no? Let us know what you think!

This next thread was started by Behshad, and he wants to know when AT&T finally gets around to activating MMS - will you even use it? Personally I’ve gotten used to using email to send pictures, especially coming over from Windows Mobile and Sprint 2 years ago. But if it’s there, I’ll use it. How about you?

Every single one of us here at TiPb have come from, or still currently use a Palm device, so this next thread we hold close and dear to our hearts. Scott R wants all the Palm users (or ex-Palm users) to chime in and share his or her dislikes and likes for the iPhone. Help him out and let him know what you think.

Lastly, we’d like to point out a newer forum you can find on our forums - iPhone App Announcements. This is a great place for you to check out to see what new applications developers have to offer and you may even find some free promo codes in there as well! And if you are a developer, feel free to post about your new application and chat with some of our forum members to get some feedback!

See you on the forums!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

From the Forums: iTunes 8.2.1 Update Breaks Palm Sync, AT&T & MMS, Palm Users, New Applications