101 Most Essential iPhone Apps of 2008

It seems like only yesterday a young Steve Jobs sheepishly took the stage and announced that the iPhone and iPod touch would have native third-party applications. Now it's December, and the App Store boasts over 10,000 apps and Apple reports over 300 million downloads. Here is a list of the 101 most essential iPhone Apps.

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2nd Android Smartphone to Launch Unlocked on Jan 29 for $225

Australia will be the place of birth for of the second Android-powered smartphone. Sold under Kogan brand, the Agora and Agora Pro devices will sell unlocked for $225 and $295 respectively, without the need to sign a service contract. Customers might be able to get the phone online and simply swap in their existing SIM module.

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LG tests world's first LTE cellphone chip: 60Mbps downloads are go

As mobile service providers ramp-up for the WiMAX vs. LTE battle, LG just announced a significant milestone: the world's first 3GPP LTE chip for cellphones and data cards. While theoretically capable of 100Mbps/50Mbps download/upload speeds, LG's 13 x 13-mm chip was able to demonstrate 60Mbps down and 20Mbps up, under what we can only assume to be controlled (read: optimum) conditions -- easily besting existing 7.6Mbps HSDPA networks. Great, too bad this isn't the year 2010 else we'd have a national LTE infrastructure (right!) and we'd all be driving plug-in hybrids (sure).

P.S. We don't know what those thin handsets are flanking the chips, but we doubt those are functional LTE devices. LG said that it used a "test terminal running Windows Mobile" to demonstrate its new chips. Could be data cards but we think we're seeing a volume rocker along the side. Check another pic after the break.

Leaked pictures of new Nokia touchscreen interface

Where would we be without leaked pictures?! This time, we have some leaked pics from none other than Nokia themselves, seemingly showing a new touchscreen user interface for an as yet unnamed mobile phone. The pictures come from a slide presented at Nokia's Capital Markets Day 2008, so as it comes from the company itself, the pic itself is genuine. Quite whether the phone it depicts is real or just a Photoshop teaser is another matter, though.

If nothing else, though, it shows the direction Nokia are working towards. Full touchscreen phone, context and presence, integrated services, multiple homescreens. Seems that direction has "iPhone" written on it in super-huge letters!

[Source: Engadget]

Google Introduces Mobile Ads For Android And The iPhone

Google is now formatting AdWords text and image ads for Android and iPhone mobile browsers. The ads can include mobile-only calls to action, and can be created from standard Google ads run on the Web. The ads will also work on other phones with full HTML browsers in the future as they become available.

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