As you might have heard, TomTom’s GPS application hit the App Store late yesterday. The question still remained regarding the much anticipated TomTom car kit and if it would be compatible with the iPod Touch or other GPS applications. Macrumors is now reporting that TomTom public relations manager Yann Lafargue says yes, you will be able to use other GPS applications along with Apple’s iPod Touch with the car kit.

“It will work with the iPod touch and will also work with third-party GPS applications.”

There still is no word on pricing or availability except it will arrive “later this summer”, but keep an eye on the official TomTom Twitter page for the latest “official” information.

How much would you be willing to spend on this accessory?

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TomTom Car Kit Compatible With iPod Touch and Other GPS Apps

With the news of TomTom hitting Apple’s App Store it’s time to start looking out for great deals you will start to see from the other GPS apps that are currently available. Today we were notified that one of the most feature filled GPS apps, Sygic Mobile Maps for the US is on sale for a limited time and it’s priced to sell - $39.99. [iTunes Link]

We’ve used Sygic Mobile Maps and it is well worth $39.99 if you are within the United States. The sale ends at the end of this month so be sure to act fast! It contains some very nice features with some of the highlights as followed:

• Voice guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation
• Rotation sensor for automatic switching between landscape/portrait operation in real-time
• Automatic return to the app and the route after a phone call
• All important safety features, including lane assistance, speed limit indication, safety cameras, information about railway crossings and dangerous areas
• Thousands of POIs; among others also a list of parking options nearby for you to select and be guided to selection between car and bicycle modes for optimum route calculation
• All the maps will be stored on the device, there will be no need to download data on the go, which otherwise costs unnecessary waiting time and money

Screen shots after the break!

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Apps for Less: Sygic Mobile Maps US - Turn-By-Turn Voice Guided GPS Navigation

i.TV just let TiPb know they’ve submitted version 2.0 of their popular iPhone and iPod touch app to the iTunes App Store. What’s in store for us this time out?

• Push Notification for TV shows
• Tap to download from iTunes
• TiVo Remote via the introduction of “Remote Control Framework”:

i.TV now combines the TV guide and the remote control on an iPhone or iPod touch. Remote controls are powered by the i.TV Remote Control Framework, which allows third parties to develop remote controls for use on the i.TV platform.

How’s all of that sound to ya?

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i.TV 2.0 Intros Push Notification, iTunes Download, and “Remote Control Framework” for iPhone

A lady in the UK had her gear bag stolen, including her iPhone, laptop, and Nintendo DS, and to rub salt on her wounds, the thief decided to mock her on her own Facebook page:

“I have the laptop, phones ok but a bit scratched itll do, tv was rubbish so I left it , ds was a bonus, now to the porn shop, thankyou toshiba is my favourite make”.

While we hope the thief gets every ounce of karma (and justice) returned to him/her, we also echo Gizmodo’s hope that everyone reading this takes a moment to enable the passcode lock (and Remote Wipe if you’re an Exchange or MobileMe user) on the iPhone, and BIOS/Login passwords on the laptop. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of curses later…

[Telegraph via TechRadar]

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Lady Loses iPhone, Laptop, Gets Mocked on Own Facebook Page

The iPhone Dev-Team take a break from the Jailbreak to throw some light on the issue of 3rd party iPhone apps tracking users’ location. Joey Hess and our friends over at PreCentral.net kicked up a bit of a ruckus last week detailing how the Palm Pre reports users’ location data back to Palm HQ. Well, says the Dev-Team:

Although we have yet to find an application by Apple that tracks your location, there are certainly a number of "free" applications in the official AppStore that are designed to do just that. Case in point: there's this rather cute/gimicky app that lets you determine the tip for your waiter or waitress by tilting your phone as you pass it around the restaurant table. But if you dig a little deeper (like bushing did) you'll find it uses a library by Pinch Media that is specifically designed to track your geographical location through time, then upload that data to Pinch Media. (Oh and it also show you an ad, as an extra bonus).

They point out that the iPhone will ask before any app is allowed to use location data, but also that it will keep asking to the extent that users might just agree to prevent being constantly annoyed with popups.

The Dev-Team goes so far as to describe these types of apps using the dreaded “s” word. That’s right — SPYWARE. However, in a web increasingly dominated by companies seeking to aggregate (hopefully anonymized?!) user data as a way to monetize (providing free or cheap apps in exchange for the shared data and tolerance for advertising), how broadly can that term now be applied? Many, especially tech-savvy, users are happy to let Google’s Gmail scan their email and serve ads in exchange for the service (and don’t even get us started on Chrome parsing all URLs a user enters through Google, or their purchase of DoubleClick…)

Should we be concerned more about small, 3rd party companies? About Apple, Palm, and Google-type companies? Or is it just the way of the world now?

How about this — Perhaps Apple could give us app-specific Location settings, much as we now have app-specific Notification settings? That way, there’d be a list of apps that use location, and we could individually turn off those with which we don’t want to share our location. How about it, Apple?

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

Dev-Team: Palm Pre May Track User Location, but 3rd Party iPhone Apps Do Too!

That rumored deal whereby China Unicom was purchasing 5 million Wi-Fi-less iPhones for a huge introduction to the world’s biggest cellular market? Turns out not so much with the 5 million according to a China Unicom spokesperson.

“Talks between us and Apple have been going on for some time, but no agreement has been reached yet,” said Unicom spokesman Yi Difei. “There are all kinds of possibilities. There is no particular timetable for the talks.”

We get it, big deal, big complications. Still, the iPhone has to hit China sometime, right? (Other than, you know, massive amounts of gray market imports…)

[Cellular News via Engadget Mobile]

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No 5 Million iPhone Deal for China Unicom?

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Best of Smartphone Experts, 16 August 2009

UPDATED: Here’re the US deets: TomTom US & Canada [$99.99 - iTunes link], TomTom Australia [$79.99 - iTunes link], TomTom New Zealand [$94.99 - iTunes link], TomTom Western Europe [$139.99 - iTunes link]

ORIGINAL: TomTom [iTunes publisher link], the long-anticipated turn-by-turn navigation app for the iPhone is beginning to appear in international App Stores, starting with New Zealand and according to our tipsters, rolling across Australia and the UK.

Cost wise, the different versions (US & Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand) range in price from NZ$105 (US$70) to NZ$179 (US$120).

Hopefully it will hit all the stores, including the US (and Canada!) sooner rather than later. If you find it in your local App Store, drop us a note in the comments. (Still no word, however, on the accompanying dock that was announced at WWDC 2009…)

[Thanks to Tyler from App Advice, David, Niall everyone who sent this in!]

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UPDATED: TomTom Turn-by-Turn Navigation for iPhone Beginning to Appear in International App Stores