iPhone 4 Arrives in 17 More Countries

The iPhone 4 was made available in 17 more countries this Friday, July 30. Buyers lined up for hours in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to buy the new iPhone 4. It was made available for purchase through Apple’s retail and online stores and Apple® Authorized Resellers.

iOS 4.0.1 Software Update

Earlier this month Apple released a point release to iOS 4. The iOS 4.0.1 Software Update improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G. The real signal strength remains the same, but the bars on iPhone will indicate it more precisely. This is an issue Apple found dealing with the iPhone 4 antenna issue that some users have reported when holding the iPhone 4 in a certain position. I recommend installing this point release as it's both a stabilization release and a fix to the signal strength indicator. So have you upgraded to the latest iPhone 4.

GolfShot: Golf GPS App

Being an avid golfer, I am always away on golf trips and and playing new courses. Some courses provide a GPS right on your golf cart but many do not. Also most of the time I prefer walking the course so I have no access to a GPS except for the course layout on the back of the scorecard. Many courses are also no longer marking their sprinkler heads or the 150 and 200 yard distances to the middle of the green. So I recently purchased the GolfShot GPS App ($29.99), by Shotzoom Software, for my iPhone and was pleasantly surprised at the features as well as its accuracy. You have to ensure your iPhone is fully charged before going on course and you also have downloaded course information when you have access to wireless to avoid costly 3G and roaming charges when you are out of town.

iTunes 9.2.1 Update

Apple released iTunes 9.2.1 today which provides a number of important bug fixes. Don't wait to apply this update as it is a stability update especially with new devices like iPhone 4 and the iPad being recently added. The update includes: disabling older versions of some incompatible third-party plug-ins, addresses minor issues with dragging and dropping items, addresses a performance issue when first syncing to some devices with iTunes 9.2, addresses an issue upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone or iPod touch with encrypted back-ups and addresses other issues that improve stability and performance.

New MobileMe Improvements

If you a MobileMe suscriber, you'll be happy to know that Apple has made a number of improvements, these include: support for MobileMe Mail aliases when composing or replying to messages in the Mail App, finding your device from another iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch in the new Find My iPhone App, opening documents in iDisk in a compatible app on your Mac, support for higher resolution images when viewing individual photos over a Wi-Fi network on iPhone 4, improved syncing of MobileMe Contacts with Microsoft Outlook, a full-screen map view in the Find My iPhone app, a new Calendar Beta, an application switcher when clicking on the cloud icon and access to Help, Account, and Sign Out when clicking your name. So are you a MobileMe subscriber and do you think it's worth the money?

The Open Championship 2010 App

The third golf major of the year, The British Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews, starts thursday this week. You can keep up with all the highlights and scores with the official Open Championship iPhone App which is brought to you by The R&A. The App has been developed and redesigned for 2010 to bring you even closer to the action at St. Andrews, where The Open Championship will celebrate its 150th anniversary. It's a well designed app and a step up from last years app. So are you going to be watching the tournament in the early hours if you don't live in Europe and live on this side of the pond?

MobileMe Calendar Beta

If you already a MobileMe subscriber when you login into the Calendar there is an invitation request in the menu you can send to get access to the MobileMe Calendar Beta. It definitely looks and feels like the iPad Calendar. New features include sharing calendars with family and friends (must be MobileMe members in the beta), publishing calendars for groups or teams and event invitations with RSVPs. So are you a MobileMe subscriber? To find out more about the beta, including system requirements, you can read the FAQ.

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa CBC App

The World Cup Soccer in South Africa is now down to the semi-finals and it's been a fantastic display of soccer skills so far. If you in Canada, the Canadian App Store has a cool World Cup Soccer App created by CBC. The  2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ from CBC has a great user interface and provides you with all the action from South Africa. You can follow every game with live scores, play-by-play updates and expert analysis from CBC Sports. There are two versions a free version without video and a $4.99 version with video. The free version is all you need. Let us know what you think of the app.