There’s some debate as to whether or not Apple will keep the MobileMe web apps, like Mail, Contacts, and Calendars around after the transition to iCloud. Some have heard no, that Apple will trash them and go 100% apps. Others have heard yes, that Apple will keep them around.

No one outside Apple seems to know for sure. For our part, TiPb has heard there will indeed be web apps in iCloud. At the very least, you’ll need a way to access Find my iPhone, Find my iPad, and the forthcoming Find my Mac over the web. Apple has also poured significant resources into the SproutCore-powered Mail, Contacts, and Calendars app — including a major update to Calendars recently — and it’s hard to imagine them flushing all that effort.

Whether Photo Stream will take over for Photo Galleries, whether Documents in the Cloud will replace the wishy-washy iWork.com, and whether or not the App Store and iTunes store get Web-to-Device push remains unknown.

Even if the native iOS and Mac apps are used far more often, having the web apps as backup is a pretty important feature. We expect Apple to clarify before iOS 5 launches and iCloud comes out of beta this fall.

Will iCloud keep the MobileMe web apps? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

We go through this every year, so apologies for not posting it sooner, but once again we’d like to remind everyone not to leave bad app reviews based on crashes or other “bugs” under iOS 5. Why?

Because iOS 5 is in beta. You’re not supposed to be using it for anything other than testing your apps. Developers can’t even upload iOS 5-compatible binaries to Apple right now, so there’s nothing they can do about it, nor is there anything they should have to do about it.

So if you went ahead and installed iOS 5, you’ve given up your rights to publicly review apps until the fall. You’re under NDA. You agreed to it. That’s it. That’s all.

Geek up, bear it, and save your snark for the fall — when devs will be able to, and need to, support iOS 5 for all your apps. Then if they don’t, let them have it!

[MBarclay via Daring Fireball]

PSA: Don’t leave bad app reviews based on iOS 5 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Kai Yu from BeeJive.

Note: This interview was conducted a few days before WWDC 2011.

What’s your name? Kai Yu

What’s your company’s name? Beejive, Inc.

Where are you located? South of Market in San Francisco (AT&T death zone)

What’s your website address? www.beejive.com

What’s your Twitter name? @beejiveim. Also beejive on facebook.

What apps do you make? BeejiveIM with Push, BeejiveIM for iPad, Beejive for Facebook, Beejive for GTalk.

What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Garageband for iPad (my kids love this one), FlightTracker Pro, NYTimes (use this all the time, but don’t like the implementation and bugginess, but content wins), MLB.tv, DropBox

How long have you been a developer? Professionally for 17 years.

How long have you been an iOS developer? Since the first SDK came out.

Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Android, BlackBerry OS, dabbled in WinMo and S60 a few years ago.

What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? Mostly on a MBP17 + 27 inch cinema display. Sometimes on just a MBAir, which forces me to be extra careful about dependencies in order to avoid the really long build times.

What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? Verizonn iPhone, iPad 2.

What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? We have a bunch of Android and BlackBerry phones around the office, though these are mostly just for testing. Last one I tried to use extensively was a Droid 2.

What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? Definitely the quality of the Libraries. Wish I had done more work in Cocoa before iOS, it’s really a joy to work with.

What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? XCode leaves a lot to be desired, especially around refactoring, though it’s gotten better. On the business side the app approval process is quite a drag. Apple does what it has to do and the review folks there do the best they can, but at the end of the day the process is opaque. All of our eggs are in one basket.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS SDK? On the UI side, better notifications and better task switching. I’m actually not a huge fan of the Android notification system either, it’s way too busy. The iOS system is perhaps too simplistic, maybe the folks over there can come up with a happy medium. The current double tap home button task switch takes too many touches. This may be as simple as expanding the UI for running apps to more than 4 icons per screen (just an idea).

On the SDK side, I’d like to see Apple expose more of their private APIs, especially on the UI side. They’ve managed to expose more stuff with each revision, so hopefully this will continue at a good pace.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? For the end user, better app discovery mechanisms. The existing cataloging system is way too simple, and App Store genius doesn’t work well yet. Better discovery mechanisms will help developers as well, so we can better target potential end users. I already touched on the review process earlier, always wishing for more transparency and better communication with the reviewers.

If we were to eavesdrop on you while you were coding, what curse word would we hear you use the most? You fkg doofus, usually aimed at whoever wrote the piece of code I’m looking at, sometimes it’s myself.

What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? Playing with my daughters. Following the Red Sox.

What should we look for from you next? In addition to some exciting updates to our existing apps, we’re working on a new iPad app…

What do you think of efforts from companies like Facebook with the new messages, Google with Wave, [and now Apple with iMessage] to conflate IM with SMS, email, etc. into a one-protocol-fits-all solution? Is that the way communications is heading or will there always be a place for standalone IM? I think there is always a place for IM. We have different expectations for the different types communications, and merging them into a one-size-fit-all subtly changes the end user’s expectation, without filling the voids left behind. For example, we generally expect emails to be longer, often richer, and it’s OK to respond to emails within a day or longer. With IM, the messages are shorter and expected response time is much faster, and you expect a conversation. SMS is somewhere in between. If anything the merged interfaces makes everything look more like IM, which I don’t think is correct either. The problem that we’re trying to solve is to better organize our communications with each other, so it’s not so fragmented, but I don’t think putting everything in a single thread is the best solution.

Thanks Kai!

Developer Spotlight: Kai Yu of BeeJive is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

With rumors of iPhone 5 potentially adding a third US carrier, would you rather that carrier be T-Mobile or Sprint?

T-Mobile is GSM like AT&T but would require different, AWS bands for 3G. They also offer “4G” over HSPA+, which iPhone 5 just might support. However, AT&T is trying to buy them, so they might get the iPhone that way sooner or later. Sprint is CDMA like Verizon but would need access to their network. They also offer “4G” over Wimax, which Apple will probably never support because LTE will be a much bigger, more global technology. (See our wireless networking glossary for what all those letters mean.)

If you could have only one for iPhone 5, T-Mobile or Sprint, which would it be?

Poll: If iPhone 5 gets a new US carrier, should it be T-Mobile or Sprint? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Liquid Measure: Liquid Measure is a fun and unique puzzle game, where you deal with liquids. You have to route water to the pots to fill them all. Move the pieces to the right place to control the flow. Dont’t waste a drop of water!

• Cooktorial: Select the ingredients you already have available in your kitchen and Cooktorial will show you recipes you can cook based solely on them. [Free - iTunes link]

• Zzed: match 3 cosmic shooter You, the brave alien ZZed, are on your way to rid space of meteorites, break a transgalactic conspiracy, and win the hand of the beautiful alien Zzuma. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

• Scrublist: Take a picture of your shopping list and cross the items out using your fingers. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• FlipFace An entertainment app that takes a photo of someone’s face and flips the head and chin. Are you ready to go back to the 1960s? [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Monday, June 13 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

9to5Mac reports that the next iPhone — rumored to be released in September — has hit final testing stages, with variations of ‘N93′ and ‘N94′ models suggesting a possible release on Sprint or T-Mobile.

The next generation iPhone has reached the final testing stage (aka "AP" stage [Thanks, Chronic!]) and is now being carried around by high level Apple and carrier executives [...] While snooping around the iOS 5.0 SDK we located references to "N94″ and "N93."

Verizon previously let slip that the next iPhone will be a world phone, supporting GSM+CDMA on a single chip and thus cutting out the requirement of Apple producing separate devices for the two carriers. With N93 and N94 variations in play, this further indicates T-Mobile as a likely candidate for carrying the next iPhone which is rumored to be an iPhone 4 packed with the new A5 chip.

In addition, they were told Apple and Verizon are still in negotiations to bring FaceTime over 3G while the next iPhone will keep the same 5MP camera sensor, most-likely due to production delays with Sony.

If true, is that a deal breaker for anyone? And if Apple adds a US carrier, would you rather it be T-Mobile or Sprint?

[9to5Mac]

Next iPhone in final testing for September release on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint or T-Mobile? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

It sounds like the latest developer preview for Mac OS X Lion will allow you to reboot into a Safari only mode (similar to how a Google ChromeBook is perpetually in Chrome-only mode), as part of the upcoming Find my Mac feature. Should iPad have that option? iPhone and iPod touch?

It would be handy if you wanted to give someone easy access to the web but didn’t want them nosing around in your pictures, iMessages, email, and other personal information. It might also be good for educational, business, or even kiosk settings where web access is enough and apps might be too much.

Even if it isn’t this, would you want some type of “guest mode” for iOS?

[MacRumors]

Mac OS X Lion will boot to Safari-only mode, should 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

Here’s a fun story about how an iPhone 4 was used to catch a pesky doorbell ditcher.

James, a UK iOS developer, was being harassed by a doorbell ditcher every morning for a week and wanted to catch the culprit in the act. When he realized that standing at the door all morning looking out his peephole was impractical, he noticed that his iPhone 4 could do it for him. So James grabbed some blue tac, stuck his iPhone to the door, and waited nearby while enjoying his morning coffee with his girlfriend. When he saw the doorbell ditcher arrive, he snapped a photo. Turns out it was the neighbor kid being a prankster on his way to school every day.

After grabbing the pic and quickly opening the door with a loud “HELLOOO!” and watching the poor rascal’s skeleton leap out of his body in shock, we were able to show his mother the picture and peace was restored.

Such a great story! Anyone else use their iPhone in an unconventional way?

[TUAW]

iPhone 4 used to catch doorbell ditcher [humor] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Jailbreaker iH8tsn0w has announced the availability of sn0wbreeze 2.8b1 which will jailbreak iOS 5 beta 1 for the following devices:

• iPhone 4 (AT&T/GSM)
• iPhone 4 (Verizon)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPod Touch 4
• iPod Touch 3
• iPad 1

iPad 2, of course, is not yet supported. Also important to note, this is a tethered Jailbreak and is for developers only, it will not hacktivate or otherwise circumvent UDID checks. So if you haven’t given Apple your $99, you need not apply.

If you are a developer interested in Jailbreaking to, for example, experiment with making your own widget, and you decide to give sn0wbreeze a try, let us know how it works for you.

[@iH8sn0w, hat tip to iJailbreak]

sn0wbreeze 2.8b1 Jailbreak for iOS 5 now available is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

• Listen to the pilot episode of our new cross-site podcast, Mobile Nations!

Best of Smartphone Experts, 12 June 2011 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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