Apps

Things have been pretty slow this week in terms of noteworthy apps to bring to your attention. Nevertheless , we did find you two gems on sale in a sea of apps. To learn more about these discounted apps, read on after the break!

Following hot on the heels of last Tuesday's monster iPhone OS 3.0 announcement, Apple wants developers to know that there's never been a better time to develop for the iPhone:

With a rich set of over 1,000 new APIs, iPhone SDK for iPhone OS 3.0 beta provides you with an amazing range of technologies to enhance the functionality of your iPhone and iPod touch applications. New APIs also provide support for applications to communicate with hardware accessories attached to iPhone or iPod touch.

BeeJive makes one of the best instant messenger clients on the iPhone -- or any platform, see our review -- and with version 2.1, it now includes:

• Support for Facebook IM, including the ability to login from multiple locations, update your buddy picture and Facebook status updates
• Wallpaper selection inside the application, giving you the ability to select your own wallpaper
• Performance enhancements

But wait, there's more. It also includes a very creative -- and comedic! -- way of dealing with iPhone App pirates. Sort of a carrot and stick (or baseball bat and axe kick) approach:

We've spoken quite a bit before about the potential that Apple might one day "split the platform" with either an iPhone nano (very unlikely) or an iPhone HD (which we've been discussing quite a bit lately).

Right now, all existing iPhones and iPod touches sport 320x480 screens at 163dpi. The iPod nano, by contrast, was already at 202dpi during the previous, "fatty" generation. The BlackBerry Bold is at something around 217dpi. HTC is making 480x800 displays now like they're going out of style.