The rumor mill has it that Apple may be coming out with a premium App Store sometime as early as this week. It’s an interesting concept and there are arguments to be made in both directions for and against it.

Among the arguments against it is the fact that the applications that do best in the App Store are those that are exceptionally inexpensive. Unfortunately the App Store has quickly become the bargain basement or "Dollar store" of mobile applications. People, mistakenly in my opinion, tend to gravitate toward the cheapest of the cheap and balk at some applications that are more expensive even if they are far superior.

Case in point, I use the iPhone application LogMeIn all the time and did so as recently as last night when I needed to pull something off my home iMac when I was out and about. The application costs $29.99 but it is worth every penny in my humble opinion.

So, as part of the argument against a premium App Store there is the fact that people’s expectations are already set in the mindset is something like — "cheap, cheap, cheap". Are people willing to spend that much more on premium applications? That would be an open question in any environment let alone during the current financial meltdown.

There are, however, a number of arguments for doing so. First, I suspect that a premium applications store would be targeted toward enterprise more than the individual. The iPhone makes a superb work device. It has far more flexibility than the vast majority of smart phones or handheld devices. The current trend toward simple crappy applications does little to help promote the iPhone as a serious device, though. If Apple wants the iPhone to become "the device" they are going to have to do something to stem this current trend. And the good news here is that enterprise is used to paying serious money for serious applications.

There are other arguments in favor of a premium applications store. In fact, there are hundreds upon hundreds of arguments in favor of a premium App Store. Here are just a few…

It has been quite a while since we highlighted a crApp App. While there have been many this one caught my eye enough to prompt a post. I mean, the idea is bizarre to begin with but then to charge actual money for it…

Here’s the description…

Virtual TV is a TV simulator.
In a dark room it appears as if your TV were on.
Never feel uncomfortable again when you’re alone at home..!
Virtual TV doesn’t simulate a TV exactly because the iPhone’s display brightness is not high enough. However, it does make it feel like there is life in the room.
Set the brightness of your iPhone to the highest setting and choose between small and big LEDs.

In other words, for $1.99 (on sale from $2.99!- what a bargain!) this piece-o-crApp will flash lights that "(don’t) simulate a TV exactly" but kinda, sorta makes it feel like "there is life in the room".

Translation- it flashes to make it seem as if a tv is on. Bizarre.

Suggestion… if you are lonely turn on the tv, get a dog or… maybr a goldfish. This app is crApp.

Bluetooth? Yes, you heard it right, Bluetooth done right on the iPhone. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Jailbroken iPhones. Does this entice you none jailbroken iPhone users to finally take the plunge? Although I personally have not fully gone through this application, I can say one thing, it is packed with features and possibilities that are still yet to come.

Here are a few things that it can allow you to do:

1. Image support is built in, and the file viewer allow you to send ANY file on the device. Key word folks is ANY files. Freeing yourself from the cords is a cool thing!
2. Capability to send Music from the file system. In the near feature, the developer is expecting to give the capability to send Music that is within the music library.
3. A2DP (audio stereo), serial port (bluetooth gps), and DUN & LAP (internet navigation) and more…

Overall, this is wonderful news and we hope to see this go to the next level and adopt things that Apple have restricted for some reason or another. We will have an in-depth review of this soon. For the mean time, feel free to visit https://www.medevil.net for more information.

I’m excited about the upcoming announcement of Version 3.0 of the iPhone firmware but I am also more than a bit nervous. I lived through the iPhone 2.0 upgrade fiasco last summer and I never want to repeat that experience.

When iPhone 2.0 was released I was as excited as anyone else. There was no question in my mind that the new operating system and the opportunity to add 3rd party apps would be transformative for the device itself and for handheld computing in general.

Those first weeks were indeed transformative. They transformed my rock solid, super stable, long- running 1st gen iPhone into a device that, more than once, almost went sailing across the room. It was terrible. The number of times that I had to soft reset my device each day was beyond my ability to count. Moreover, at least every other day I had to wipe the entire device and reinstall everything in order to make… A FRIGGIN’ PHONE CALL!!! Time and again I would lose all of my applications. I would lose my data. I would lose my mind!

In something that is all but unprecedented, there are now four of us over on Gear Diary who have, and love, the new Amazon Kindle2.

In fact, the four of us will be posting a joint review (a very very very long review) over the weekend or early next week.

I liked the Kindle immediately but the release of the Amazon Kindle iPhone application last week took it to an entirely different level for me. In fact, as much as I love the Kindle itself, I find myself using the Kindle application on my iPhone and iPod Touch to read almost as often as I do the Kindle itself.

The Amazon Kindle iPhone application isn’t nearly as full featured as eReader. It doesn’t have as many settings, or auto scroll, or the ability to read and landscape. (At least it doesn’t have those things yet.) It does, however, have one killer feature that makes it stand out and makes it the e-book reader of choice on the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

It would be easy to think that the announcement of next week’s preview of iPhone Version 3 can be attributed to the annual cycle that Apple seems to be on with regard to both the operating system and the hardware for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

I, however, think it can be attributed to something else.

I think the fact that Apple is moving so quickly to preview the next iPhone OS (I suspect it will be previewed next week but not available until June or July) has to do with outside factors and forces. I think it is the result of Apple, for the first time, feeling some real competition and pressure with regards to the iPhone, its operating system, and the applications it offers.

And the pressure is coming from at least two sources.

I used Twitter a lot.

I use Twitter on my iPhone most of the time.

And for me there’s only one Twitter application worth using on my iPhone– Twittelator Pro.

Twittelator Pro takes an emerging communication mode and turns it into something truly powerful.

Twittelator Pro was an early release in the App Store back in July and as good as it was when first released, it has received countless updates since then. In fact, since beginning this website I suspect that I have announced more updates for this application than just about any.

Well, great news, because the 2.0 version of the application just got approved. It is a huge update.

HUGE…. HUGE!!!!!

Among the major new features —

A quick shout out to Andrew & Nick, co-founders of Wundrbar, whose app has already jumoed into the top 20 paid apps in the productivity category! 

It is good to see decent apps getting noticed in the midst of the crApp Apps that abound these days.

While we’re speaking of WundrBar I should also mention they launched a new airfare site, https://www.tripeedo.com, which is powered by wundrbar. While not iPhone related it is still worth a look.

For more information visit Wundrbar.com.