The App Store may not be open for business until Friday but that doesn’t mean we can’t start getting more than a peak at some of the neat applications that will be available at launch.

Our friends are Stone Design and Big Stone Phone Company have been rather busy prepping for the App Store launch and they have just issued a press release formally announcing the three applications that will be available at launch on July 11th. According to the release…

Big Stone Phone is proud to announce the release of three brand new applications for the iPhone. All three applications make use of the iPhone’s built in camera, but with differing intentions – one app, TalkingPics, has many practical applications, while another, called iGraffiti, is just pure fun. The third application, Twittelator, is a full-featured Twitter client for the iPhone with the ability to send a map of the user’s location with one click and automatically upload snapshots to TwitPics.com.

The entire press release can be seen here.

For details and screen shots of the applications read on…

The App Store launched TODAY and we are really excited!  After upgrading to the new firmware and beginning to download applications one thing is clear– it is better than we could possibly have imagined. The apps are numerous- especially for an initial launch. There are some absolutely excellent ones already. Many great ones are FREE! The App Store and the power of the iPhone will only grow from here.

Since we launched (just a few weeks ago), we have been steadily increasing our readership and have plans to expand the site already.  We’re looking for a few iPhone Addicts to join our cause.

So if you want to write about- Native Applications, Web Based Applications, and any iPhone news thats fit to blog, Contact Us with a sample of your writing at https://www.whatsoniphone.com/contact (or click the Contact button above)

We’re looking forward to hearing from you – and so is the rest of the world!

Dimitri and Dan

Fueled by a desire to support our local farmers (frequenting all of my local co-op markets, of course), I decide that the fabulous, crimson (you can take the student out of art school, but not art school out of the student) point-of-purchase display (brimming with NJ heirloom tomatoes) on the veggie table is too much to resist.  So I hastily (although, not without taking time to savor a fragrant whiff as I put each one in the biodegradable plastic bag) load 2 lbs. of these juicy delights into my basket and head to the “register” (I use this term loosely since it’s really just an overall-clad teenager with a scale and cigar box.)  Great, but now what?  I wasn’t planning to make the usual “basil, fresh mozzarella, and (you know)” or puttanesca sauce tonight.  So, what to make, what to make, what . . .

Over the past few years I have been moving toward being as paperless as possible.

When the New York Times released their TimesReader last year I jumped on it. Reading the Times on my tablet pc was a pleasure. Fortunately just months after I made the move to Mac so did the TimesReader. Most of the time, though, I read the paper on my iPhone using the NYTimes mobile site.

My paper magazines have all but been replaced by Zinio’s electronic versions.

I’ve cycled through a number of dedicated eReaders. I had the original Sony Reader. I used a Kindle for a week before returning it. And I currently have a SonyReader PRS-505.

I love the convenience of having a huge variety of reading material with me all the times and reading on a screen has become completely natural for me.

The holy grail of electronic reading?? Ebooks on the iPhone…

Did you just place a shunt and need to confirm its placement?

Do you need to see that gall bladder ultrasound, that complex fracture x-ray or the CT scan showing a subdural hematoma but you are not at your office, a hospital or at your home computer to view it?

Worry no more my medical friends!!  There is a new iPhone application that will allow us to do just that.

"Life Record" allows remote viewing of a wide range of scans via the iPhone, and it’s just one of the dozens of features included in this EMR (electronic medical record) application.

Their promo piece says it all…

Medical applications were front and center at WWDC and for good reason. With its constant connectivity and wide screen, the iPhone has the potential to be a terrific medical digital assistant. Problem is… I faint at the sight of blood and don’t know much of anything about medical stuff other than "the hip bone’s connected to the…"

That’s why we are please to welcome Rob (aka BrainMan) to WOiP.

Rob is a licensed and certified Physician Assistant with privileges at five hospitals in central New Jersey. New to the iPhone and iPod Touch, Rob has a depth of general medical knowledge and a specialty in neurosurgery. Rob will be reviewing medical apps here and giving us insight into some of the many ways new apps make the iPhone a "must-have" medical device.

The o2 website is now showing the message Please note: iPhone 3G 16GB Black is currently not available.  and the options for the 16gb have been removed.

Have they really sold out of their first batch of 16gb iPhones already?

o2 sent our this email this morning inviting customers to go online and order an iPhone now for delivery by courier on 11th July.

But at the end of the process disaster strikes and the following error is given!  And if you phone the number mentioned, and choose option 1 "Buy an iPhone" it tells you that you can only do this over the web.  Doh!

Engadget is reporting that people are queuing in New York City a week ahead of the iPhone 3G release!   I can’t wait to get my new iPhone, but I’m not sure that I’m willing to sleep rough for a week to get to my hands on one!

One of the open questions with regard to next week’s launch of iPhone Firmware 2.0 and the Apps Store is the impact native apps that do not require jailbreaking will have on the future development of web-based applications.

As I noted in an earlier post here, since I don;t use them, I personally care little if next week means the demise of apps delivered via installer.app. I care very much, however, if it means a slowdown in the future development of web-based application. The problem is, I don’t think people fully understand web apps or their import as partners to native apps rather than replacements. Until we stop viewing them as an “either/or” option we will continue to sell both short. 

Take this comment from TUAW in response to Google releasing a web-based iPhone optimized version of Google Talk. They note–

You won’t have to wait for the App Store to use it, since this is a web app designed for the iPhone‘s browser (remember when Apple wanted us to believe that web apps were just as good as fully native apps? My how times have changed)              (emphasis added)

Statements such as this suggest that Web-based Apps are the poor younger cousin of native apps, the consolation prize, the guy/gal you invite to the prom because the people you REALLY want to go with you say "no". This is the wrong way to view it.