App Store Now Live, iPhone Firmware 2.0 Available

by Eric March on July 10, 2008 at 6:45 pm

The future starts now. Check your watches…

It is time. The iPhone 3G launch is tomorrow, but the App Store launch is today, and as a special treat for those of you looking to go legit, Firmware 2.0 has been released through iTunes 7.7, so you can take advantage of the app store right now.

There are some 500 or so apps currently available on the App Store, and as much as 25% of them are free. All of the expected apps are there: Super Monkey Ball, Facebook, AIM, eBay, and so on. Hewson’s Bomberman: The Legend of Mystic Tomb also made it in time, as well as some unknown apps, such as the location-aware social networking app Where, games such as MotionX Poker, Chimps Ahoy, Bejeweled 2, and more.

Some titles jailbreakers are probably familiar with have also turned up: MooCowMusic’s Band, Sketches, Caissa Chess, CubicMan (in a commercial deluxe version), and others will provide some familiar entertainment — though not always for free; many of them have gone pay.

For those who want to take the plunge but don’t want to dole out any cash, you needn’t go searching the categories for your apps. The App Store provides a handy filter link that will list only the free applications that are currently available, in addition to being able to filter for the iPod Touch or iPhone individually. Some of the handier free apps include Evernote, Epocrates Rx (for you medical types), eReader, Facebook, Funambol, MixMeister Scratch, molecules (great for you science types), NearPics, NetNewsWire, Pangea VR (very cool interactive panorama app), PocketPedia (great cataloging app), PayPal (eBay is not available in Canada yet, dammit!), Twitterrific, and WeatherBug. There are a lot of crap titles in the free section, too, or ones that are really simplistic apps of the sort you’d expect from first-time toolchain devs, but your mileage, as always, may vary.

A few words of caution about updating to Firmware 2.0, however:

1. You need iTunes 7.7, so make sure it’s installed.
2. You must shift-click (Windows) or option-click (Mac) the “Check for Update” button to get the new firmware; it won’t update the normal way.
3. There are reports that this may not actually be a final version of Firmware 2.0; reports of lag, bugginess and spontaneous resets are coming in, so upgrade at your own risk or wait for the official announcement.

And before you ask, no, there is no jailbreak for it yet.

So?  What are you waiting for?  Get moving!  And check the article image for a screenshot.

(via Engadget, Macrumors)

Related Stories:

• June 11, 2008 -- WWDC08 Survey: 70% of Apps May Be Free (0)
• July 11, 2008 -- Happy 3G Day! Are You Buying? (3)
• June 11, 2008 -- The Double-Edged Sword of Mass Market Appeal (0)

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Posted in app store, iPhone 2.0, iPhone 3G