Killer applications coming to iPhone

In the near future, you won't have to jailbreak your phone to enjoy third-party applications. Apple on Monday announced its upcoming App Store, which will be available in 62 countries, making it easier for developers to sell their applications to iPhone and iPod Touch users everywhere.

Developers will be able to set the prices on their creations, but will have to share 30 percent of each sale with Apple. Apple said their Software Development Kit has been downloaded more than 250,000 times since March, and companies such as AOL, Electronic Arts, Cisco, eBay, Saleforce and Fox Interactive Media have already created "impressive native applications." Expect a lot of fun stuff for your iPhone come July.

Here are a few applications that seem to be noteworthy:

TomTom Navigation: Reuters says the Dutch navigation device maker already has a version of its software running on the iPhone. This means those who don't get the 3G iPhone with GPS will still be able to run GPS software on their first-generation iPhone. There's still no mention of when the software will be released, but we're hoping it's sometime soon.

AP Mobile News Network:The Associated Press released it's Mobile News Network last month, but the iPhone version will let users submit news and photos to the AP directly from their iPhone. The service uses Core Location to deliver local news wherever you are. You can also download headlines and read them even when you're offline.

Typepad: Typepad Bloggers will be able to run a native blogging application on the iPhone or iPod Touch that lets them blog and use the iPhone's photo gallery to post pictures taken with the device. It will be available as a free download.

Super Monkey Ball: Game that uses the iPhone's accelerometer to guide the Monkey Ball through a maze. It has 110 stages and includes all four of the classic monkeys from previous versions. It will retail for $10.

Major League Baseball: Built for sports enthusiasts, this application will be dedicated to baseball coverage that includes stats, news and video.

eBay: An eBay application that lets you check your auction status on the road.

Loopt: A buddy tracker for the iPhone. Now you can see where all your friends are in real-time on this location-based social networking service. Scary, but cool.

You can see a list of applications demoed at WWDC here.

For more about the iPhone 3G see:
How the half-price iPhone 3G actually costs you more
What's there, and what's missing
Is it worth upgrading?
iPhone 3G questions and answers