While it’s easy to think the iPhone 3GS is everywhere now, TiPb still gets email asking when it will be in India, and on the largest carrier in the largest market in the world, China Mobile.

Well Macworld tells us Airtel has finally announced they’ll be bringing the iPhone 3GS to India:

New Delhi, March 19, 2010 : Bharti Airtel and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3GS, the fastest most powerful iPhone yet, to India in the coming months. For information please visit www.airtel.in/iphone3gs. For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone .

Meanwhile, Financial Times [registration required] reports that China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is still interested as well, providing Apple addresses their special radio needs:

“including TD-SCDMA is not that hard to do – RIM is doing it”. But he added that Apple had not yet responded to his proposal.

MacRumors points out that while China Mobile is a monster, their 3G customer base remains small, but should grow from 3.4 to 10 million this year.

Either way, these represent two holes in Apple’s iPhone coverage and it’s nice to see at least one of them getting filled.

Airtel Bringing iPhone 3GS to India, China Mobile Wants in on iPhone and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

An email has been sent out to developers telling them Apple is now accepting application submissions for the iPad App Store — a special category of the existing iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. 9to5Mac has the text:

iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today. Submit your iPad app now for an initial review by the App Review Team and receive feedback on its readiness for the grand opening. Submit Your App by March 27.

• Build and test your iPad app using iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 available on the iPhone Dev Center. Only iPad apps built with iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 will be accepted for this initial review.

• Upload your distribution signed app through iTunes Connect by Saturday, March 27, 5pm PDT.

• The App Review Team will review your app on iPad and email you details about the readiness of your app.

• You will also receive additional information about submitting your app for final review before iPad ships.

• Only apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.

As TUAW points out, however, there’s some risk involved:

the simulator uses many Macintosh frameworks and libraries, offering features that are not actually present on the iPhone. Applications that appear to be completely operational and fully debugged on the simulator may flake out or crash on the device itself. You simply cannot fully debug any program solely by using the simulator and be assured that the software will run bug-free on the iPhone. Here at TUAW central, we’re assuming (or at least hoping) that Apple will be testing device builds on real devices.

+1 to that. It would no doubt annoy users not to have iPad-specific apps available on April 3. I would annoy them more if those apps crash due to never being tested on, you know, the actual iPad hardware they’re supposed to run on…

Apple iTunes App Store: Now Accepting iPad Apps! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Square-Enix has been quite busy developing for the iPhone/iPod touch with the recent release of both Final Fantasy 1 and 2, and now Chaos Rings.

Make no mistake, this is no Final Fantasy but if you love turn-based battles it does look very promising. No official release date or price has been mentioned but we will be sure to fill you in on the details as they are released.

Check out the full trailer after the break and let us know what you think!

Square-Enix Shows Off New iPhone RPG – Chaos Rings is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

It’s no secret that Apple loves secrecy, so it comes as little surprise when Business Week reveals the hoops those lucky developers with early access to iPad hardware have to jump through:

Would-be testers of the tablet-style computer, due to be released Apr. 3, must promise to keep it isolated in a room with blacked-out windows, according to four people familiar with the more than 10-page pact that bars partners from disclosing information about the iPad.

To ensure that it can’t be removed, the iPad must also remain tethered to a fixed object, said the people, who asked not to be named because their plans for the iPad have not been made public. Apple (AAPL) won’t send out an iPad until potential partners send photographic evidence that they’ve complied.

This, of course, after Apple has already unveiled the device in a Steve Jobs keynote event, released 5 beta versions of the iPad SDK, and put the device up for pre-order via apple.com. What exactly are they still hiding? And who are these few, these privileged, these no doubt monitored with a near Sauron-esque eye? Outside of “top developers” who Apple really wants to bring to the iPhone platform, no one is saying.

We know Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal have one under lock and key. Who else could there be? We’re hoping for Hulu, of course! Which other major players would Apple — and would you — like to see on the iPad?

iPad Early-Access Developers Sworn to Secrecy is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

In Stock: Jabra STONE Bluetooth Headset for iPhone

The Jabra Stone [$109.95 (15% off) - TiPb Store link] is a headset featuring a completely new, ground-breaking shape – a sleek and elegant design that, even when placed in the charger, easily fits into the palm of your hand.

The Stone features advanced noise cancellation without the boom arm on your face, allowing it to be discreet without compromising on audio quality, and comes with its own portable charging unit – making it possible to charge when and wherever you want – no strings attached.

Combining stunning aesthetics with unrivaled technology, the Jabra STONE mobilizes the next generation of noise canceling, Noise Blackout Extreme, which uses dual microphones to reduce background noise while carrying your voice true and clear. Plus, Jabra STONE's soft rubber padding makes it so comfortable you don't even realize you're wearing it.

Learn more about the Jabra STONE at the TiPb iPhone accessory store…

In Stock: Jabra STONE Bluetooth Headset for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Live from GDC 2010, Rene talks to Bob Koon of Binary Hammer about the Creature24 project that tried to make a complete, polished iPhone game in 24 hours.

The goal of Creature24 was to create a real, polished iPhone game in 24 hrs, transparently on the internet. They didn’t make their deadline, but were valiant in the attempt. They’re going to complete the game, and perhaps do an iPad version of the challenge (with a slightly expanded time limit) next year.

Watch along after the break!

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 5.5: Creature24 (GDC 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The Wall Street Journal reports that, with the iPad arriving in stores and on doorsteps in just a few weeks, Apple is still “scrambling” to secure content deals for their magical and revolutionary new device. Why?

Apple hasn’t yet reached a deal with many major TV producers on the price cut, these people said. Some are concerned a price cut could hurt their existing businesses, these people said, including jeopardizing the tens of billions of dollars in subscription fees they are paid by cable and satellite companies for their traditional TV networks.

At the same time, some magazine and newspaper publishers said they are hamstrung by several factors that could delay the apps they are developing for the iPad from being ready by the time of the device’s release.

iBooks is the exception, but is it because book publishers are smarter, more desperate for the digital age, or just softened by existing devices like the Kindle? 9to5Mac provides our favorite answer to why TV and other companies aren’t racing to embrace the iPad: they’re self-destructively crazy (via the Viacom vs. Youtube lawsuit):

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Dear Hollywood, hire some young, new-media savvy executives, sign deals with Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. Give us your content, your TV shows, movies, magazines, newspapers, comic books, and everything else at a fair price and under fair terms, and we’ll give you our money with ridiculous abandon. Everyone will be happy. B’okay?

iPad is coming, but where are the content deals? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

According to Patently Apple, Apple is laying the foundations for a potential iGroups app that would allow like-minded iPhone (or iPod touch and iPad users, presumably) to set up MobileMe-powered social networks at events like WWDC (Apple’s yearly World Wide Developers Conference).

The idea is to allow groups of friends or colleagues attending such events as a concert, a tradeshow, business meeting, wedding or rally to stay in communication with each other as a group to share information or reactions to live events as they’re occurring. The technology behind the new iGroup social networking applications works with a very sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy of your communications. Interestingly, the patent states that if one of the devices in your group happens to be without true positioning technology, it appears that Apple’s MobileMe service will provide some sort of “virtual GPS” capability to that user so that they could be aware of the locations of others in the group. Apple’s patent provides us with example scenarios of both a concert and WWDC event to clarify the service. This marks Apple’s fourth social networking application made public since the start of 2010 – which clearly indicates that Apple now has this hot new sector in its crosshairs.

As with anything Apple patent-related, whether or not it ever makes its way in front of consumers is anyone’s guess. Still, this looks interesting and given how other companies and devices are embracing the social experience, it’s something Apple has to be paying attention to.

You want?

Apple Developing iGroups Social Networking App for iPhone? — Patent Watch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog