Apple this afternoon released an updated SDK along with the beta for iPhone OS 3.1. Early reports are that little very little has changed with regard to developer APIs. This is very likely a bug fix release. We also don’t know yet whether it kills the ability to jailbreak or unlock your iPhone using ultrasn0w. Remember, this release is just mean for developers so users will still have to wait a while before getting their hands on it. We’ll keep our eyes on the release and keep you updated as details emerge. Related Posts Dev-Team Delays iPhone 3GS Jailbreak Dev-Team Says iPhone 3GS Jailbreak Possible Via 24Kpwn Dev-Team Releases Ultrasn0w For iPhone 3G Jailbreak for 3.0 OS Released iPhone OS 3.0 Release Expected At 10AM PT, 1PM ET

I finally did it. No more monthly fees for text messages from AT&T. Thank you, Push Notifications. The way people use texts varies considerably from person to person. Some need unlimited messages while others only send a couple a day. In any case, here are options that should make kicking the costly text message addiction easy for just about everyone, well anyone with an iPhone that is. Savings could range from a couple dollars a month to over $20 a month if you’re on a family plan. Textfree Unlimited (currently $5.99) and Textfree Lite (free) Textfree Lite is limited to only 15 messages a day and that number could change at any time for the better or worse. If you’re subscribing to AT&T’s minimum plan, that’s already a considerable increase in your texts per month. Textfree Unlimited is unlimited for a year. Either of these options may work for you. In fact, both may work for you. You can ease into the elimination of AT&T text messages over time by using Textfree Lite initially. Then upgrade to Textfree Unlimited when you’re ready to go whole hog like I did. When you install one of these apps you are prompted to sign up for a unique username@textfree.us account name. I went with my name (which was luckily still available) so that people can easily identify who the text message is from. Textfree doesn’t use a password because it somehow identifies your unique iPhone. So if you reinstall or delete the app your account is still attached to that iPhone. When you reinstall the app you’re already logged in. I installed Textfree Lite last week on my original iPhone and then needed to transfer the account to my new iPhone 3GS when it arrived. To do that I had to send an e-mail to support@pinger.com and they took care of transferring the account within 48 hours. Textfree supports the following carriers in the United States. From Pinger’s Web site: You can send a text message to just about any carrier in the US. This means AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Alltel, Virgin Mobile, US Cellular, Cellular One/Dobson, Boost Mobile, Metro PCS, Unicel, Sun Com Wireless, Cincinnati Bell, Cellular South, Tracfone, NTELOS, Cricket Wireless, Centennial Wireless, Midwest Wireless, Surewest, Alaska Digitel, Northcoast PCS, YC, ACS Wireless, and Advantage Cellular. I know you can send text messages through AIM or Google Talk, but I found Textfree to be a much more seamless solution. A unique username that’s my actually name really makes all the difference. There’s also an option in Textfree to receive an e-mail copy of every text message you receive. I have them going to my gmail account where I have a filter set up that automatically archives the messages. Now I’ll always have them no matter what happens to my phone. If there’s something I need they’re just one gmail search away. I should also note that MMS messages are not possible with Textfree and the app doesn’t currently have the option to send to multiple people at once. You have to retype (or copy and paste) the message. Cancelling/Downgrading Text Messages I simply called AT&T up and told them I wanted to opt out of being able to send or receive text messages. There’s no way for me to send or receive them now using the built-in messages app. However, I also could have just cancelled my $5/month for 200 messages plan and moved to a per message plan that costs 10 cents each. In fact, I’m going to do that on my fiance’s iPhone. I have a feeling if you’re resistant to getting rid of text messages this may be the tip that actually gets you to do it. My fiance is more concerned than I am about missing text messages from friends who didn’t get the memo about messaging her at her textfree account. So she’ll pay 10 cents per incoming message but she’ll always reply from her textfree account. This way we’ll train our friends and family over time We’re gambling that she won’t receive 50 incoming messages in a month. If that’s true, we’ll still be saving money. After a couple months, when all of her friends have hopefully become accustomed to her new account name, we’ll opt her out of text messages altogether too. Conclusion I’ve been pretty satisfied with Textfree Unlimited thus far. I’ve never sent a lot of text messages, so I expected to go gradually from Textfree Lite and going to a per message cost to Textfree Unlimited and opting out of messages entirely. That plan only lasted a week though and now I’m full on Textfree-only. And it’s the first time I’ve ever had unlimited text messages and now I know what I’ve been missing. It really changes the way you think about communication if you don’t have that ever present limit hanging over your head, Also, I signed up for an AT&T Premier Account (you need a school or a work e-mail address that works to activate it) in order to take advantage of that 35 percent off the iPhone 3GS using the Bing.com promotion . What I didn’t know is that because I signed up for a Premier Account I’ll somehow be charged a couple dollars less per month for the 3G iPhone Data plan. That, combined with $5 less per month for text messages, means I’m paying $3 net more per month for the iPhone 3GS than the original iPhone. How do you like that, AT&T? I’ll never pay you for tethering either. Let us know in the comments whether you’re considering canceling your text messages. 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Are My Sites Up is an easy to use website monitoring service that notifies you when your website is down and when it comes back up.  The service is currently available in multiple tiers, with each account offering a different speed of notification.  A free account will check to see if your site is down about 25 times per day, while the most expensive Pro account checks about every 15 minutes.  Until today, Are My Sites Up only offered an iPhone app for their paid accounts, but now they have a Lite version of the app for their free accounts as well. Are My Sites Up Lite allows you to quickly and easily check to see if your website or websites are up and running the way they should be.  Unlike its premium counterpart, however, the app can’t receive push notifications and it is also ad supported.  Well, actually, the premium Are My Sites Up app still doesn’t support push notifications due to a bug, but it will eventually, and the Lite version won’t. So, if you are currently using the free account from AreMySitesUp.com , you now have a free iPhone app to go along with it. You can also check out the snazzy chart at AreMySitesUp.com to see what each tier has to offer. Related Posts Apple Removed Hottest Girls, Nudity Not Allowed In App Store Hornymeter - The Name Says It All iPhone OS 3.0 App Re-Download Mystery Unraveled New Message Discovered When Re-Downloading Promo Code Apps Low Latency Drum Pad ‘Bare Drums’ Now Available, $500 Contest For Best Jam

We witnessed NimbleBit ’s first gameplay demo video for their new casual game Moon Drop about a week ago, and today they released what looks to be the final gameplay video for the game since it is ready to be submitted to the App Store. The goal of Moon Drop is to get as many lunar landing pods safely onto the surface of the moon as possible.  The catch is that you won’t be controlling each pod directly.  To land the pods you will be touching general areas of the screen to sort of push the pods around.  If your finger is located to the bottom left of a pod, the pod will fly up and to the right.  The gameplay mechanic seems simple enough at first, but as multiple pods enter the screen, it becomes a fairly tricky affair as pods begin to scatter.  Pods must also land at a slow enough speed so they don’t just bury into the surface of the moon. As with most NimbleBit games, Moon Drop will feature some sort of statistical tracking system and the ability to upload your scores to Twitter. Moon Drop doesn’t have an official release date or price yet, but we will do our best to keep you updated. Related Posts Video Preview Of NimbleBit’s Upcoming iPhone Game Moon Drop Win A Free Download Code For Bluebird NimbleBit’s Bluebird Takes To The Sky NimbleBit’s Sky Burger Is Available For Free, Today Only! Id Software Has Lots More In Store For iPhone

AOL’s touchTXT is an app designed specifically for all of you iPod touch users out there.  The app simply allows you to send and receive SMS and IM messages without a lot of fuss, and now it also supports the ability to receive push notifications. touchTXT features a very basic interface.  At the bottom of the screen there are options for messages, contacts, and settings, and that’s it.  You can go straight to writing a message and manually input your recipients AIM screen name or phone number, or you can pull that information from your address book.  You can also choose to leave your account active for up to 24 hours so messages can be sent to you while the application isn’t open, and since the app now supports push, this feature is even more useful.  Along with the addition of push notifications, the app now allows you to view your buddy list and compose a message in landscape mode. touchTXT is powered by the AIM infrastructure, so you will need to have an account on the AIM network, including any AOL, AIM, .mac, or MobileMe account.  Since the application was specifically designed with iPod touch users in mind, it only operates over Wi-Fi and it absolutely will not work over EDGE or 3G. touchTXT with push notifications is now available in the App Store for free. We have also added touchTXT to our Apps That Push You AppList . Related Posts eBuddy - Another Push-Capable Chat App Option Developer Warns Push Apps Not As Useful On iPod Touch Are My Sites Up Lite Now Available In App Store Remember The Milk - First To-Do List App To Feature Push Apple Removed Hottest Girls, Nudity Not Allowed In App Store

Smule, the creators of the popular iPhone musical apps Ocarina and Leaf Trombone , have teamed up with the San Francisco Symphony to offer up some great prizes for their fans and community members via an online sweepstakes.  The prizes will include everything from concert tickets to Smule iPhone apps. The sweepstakes are being held in celebration of the San Francisco Symphony’s Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy performance which will take place on July 18th from 8pm to 10pm. To enter the sweepstakes, simply join the San Francisco Symphony’s Social Network and then join the Smule Group sometime between today and July 15th.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Winners will be chosen at random on or around July 15th as well. The prizes include: First prize: Two tickets to the Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY concert with the San Francisco Symphony July 18, 8pm at Davies Symphony Hall, PLUS an iPod touch (32GB) with the Smule applications Ocarina and Leaf Trombone, and an Altec Lansing external speaker. You also get a free night’s stay at The Westin St. Francis in San Francisco and a $50 Zipcar voucher. Second prize: Two tickets to the Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY concert with the San Francisco Symphony July 18, 8pm plus an iPod touch (8GB) and an Altec Lansing external speaker. After the concert, Smule will be hosting an Ocarina Master Class where contest winners and other concert attendees are invited to to learn Ocarina tips and techniques, and to play along on their iPhones and iPod touches in the first ever Ocarina Orchestra. Below is a video from Smule’s Turner Kirk introducing the sweepstakes: Related Posts Leaf Trombone: Lite & Free Now Available Are My Sites Up Lite Now Available In App Store NimbleBit Drops Another Moon Drop Gameplay Video AOL’s TouchTXT Is Now Push-Capable Id Software Has Lots More In Store For iPhone

Doom Resurrection made its App Store debut only yesterday, and the game is already in the top 30 paid apps even at the relatively high price of $9.99.  The game also sits at a four and a half out of five star rating even though many fans wouldn’t even consider Doom Resurrection a true first-person shooter thanks to the on-rails gameplay.  So what does all of this mean?  Well, it would appear that id Software has a golden touch when it comes to developing iPhone and iPod touch games, and apparently they are no where near finished. TouchArcade has constructed a nice list of what id Software has in store for Apple’s popular platform, which we have included below. - Doom Resurrection - Bluetooth Cooperative Multiplayer coming - Wi-Fi Multiplayer is currently working in Doom Classic (not yet released) - Doom Classic closing in on being ready for initial release - Plans for 3.0 support in Doom Classic with Bluetooth Multiplayer and downloadable content including Doom 2 , Ultimate Doom , Final Doom , Master Levels - Considering competitive internet multiplayer in later update to Doom Classic - Planning Quake , Quake 2 for the iPhone and maybe all the way up to Quake Arena - Plans to do a Rage themed from-scratch iPhone title - Wolfenstein RPG ready to go but being held by EA due to concern about confusion with Wolfenstein Classic - Doom 2 RPG is in works for mobile and that will be ported to iPhone too - Very early talks about a modernized Doom (” Doom ++”) release with new levels and story John Carmack and company have stated that they are hoping to release a new iPhone game every 2-3 months for the next year.  Those are some pretty ambitious plans, but I personally hope that they will be fully realized. Which id game are you most excited to see make it’s way to the iPhone and iPod touch? Related Posts Doom Resurrection Now Available In App Store Doom Resurrection Gameplay Video Doom Resurrection Unveiled For iPhone Doom Classic Screenshots, Still A Work In Progress Rolando Will Stay Put, Topple Makes A Comeback

John Carmack says that not one, but three Quake games are coming to the iPhone: 1, 2, and Arena, though his involvement will mostly be to “make sure certain specific things are done the way I want them to be.” Known as a perfectionist, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. The Quake onslaught is in addition to a

Apple nearly saw a repeat of last year’s sellouts on the weekend with widespread, but brief, iPhone 3GS shortages at many of its US retail stores. Keeping to its now traditional approach of tracking iPhone supplies closely in the immediate wake of a launch, Apple has posted an iPhone 3GS availability tool that lists stock by

Apple is among a list of top handset makers who have agreed to support a European Union-backed initiative on standardizing phone chargers across the continent, which should benefit both consumers and the environment. More specifically, the deal will see companies including Apple, Nokia and Research in Motion, develop handsets that can be charged by a standard