There are some great features and we are working on getting a hold of the firmware to start testing it out. Here is a list of just some of the many new features:

- Completely new Maps app with turn by turn directions, 3D flyover view, crowd sourcing traffic and designed by Apple
- Siri updates including sports, restaurant & movie info. Siri can now open apps.
- Facebook integration allows you to post photos, web pages and more straight to Facebook. Contacts and birthdays sync to your phone. Like apps and songs to post straight to your wall.
- Share your photo stream with others. Create new streams of specific photos. Comment on photos in shared streams and get notifications when others comment. Share photo streams on the web.
- New app from Apple called Passbook keeps all your tickets, coupons and gift cards in one app.
- FaceTime works over cellular connection.
- Phone app has new features like ability to reply to a phone call with a prefabbed text or remind you to call them back when you leave your current location.
- Do Not Disturb feature stops all notifications and calls except people you choose durring a certain time period.
- Mail app allows you to insert pictures and videos and has new VIP section for push notifications for only those on your list.
- Safari has synchronized browser tabs between devices using the cloud, full screen in landscape mode and ability to upload pictures to sites within the browser.
- New Guided Access feature allows iPad to block certain buttons and screen locations for people with autism or for use as a kiosk.
- Find my iPhone has a “Lost” mode and monitors it’s trail since it was lost.
- Find my Friends adds notifications for when your friend arrives or leaves a location.
- iTunes, iBooks and App Stores have been redesigned.

One of my favorite features of the application is that it immediately opens to a map of all the garage sales surroundings your current location. Sooooo helpful! I also really like that you can search for specific items you would like to find at a garage sale. So, if you are looking for Legos, you can search for Legos and it will display all the garage sales that have that key word in their description. The garage sales are pulled from craigslist which allows the ability to search the garage sale’s listing for keywords. Very cool. iGarageSale is everything I want in a garage sale application… in an easy-to-use interface. Guess it doesn’t get much better than that.

What I like about the app:
    • The ability to view garage sales that are taking place that day or that week
    • You can mark specific sales as “favorites” which then displays them as a different color on the map so you can easily identify them
    • You can hide garage sales from the map once you have been to them… which I LOVE… I always forget which ones I have already been to!
    • You can get direction from your current location to a specific garage sale
    • You can select each garage sale and get specific information about them
    • You can E-mail, facebook or twitter a map of your favorited garage sales

There is a free version of the app but I made the plunge and bought the full version… which I’m glad I did. The full version works on both the iPhone and the iPad.

Available In: App Store

Price: Free or $1.99

App Store Description:

Quickly locate garage sales of interest near you on a map. Current sales are collected from craigslist (more sources to come) and continually kept up to date.

- Garage sales are shown in your choice of map or list format.
- Browse sales near you for a given day or week.
- Directions to garage sales available.
- Search- Quickly locate items near your current location.
- Mark favorites and quickly locate them later.
- Share a map of your favorites by email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Video Demo:

Screenshots:

I’m not super huge on Social Networking (unlike my social networkingaholic husband) but I really like this application. It is so intuitive and there are enough settings to allow me to customize the application how I would like it. It is extremely easy to find my friends who have the application… it searches Contacts, facebook and twitter in a very user friendly interface. It is also easy to stay informed on who is commenting and “liking” your photos through either push notifications or a nice little, non-intrusive pop-up when you open the application. And because it is an photo networking application… it keeps me interested.

The only thing I would like to see is more people using it!

App Store Description:

Instagram is an amazingly fun & simple life-sharing app for your iPhone. Snap photos wherever you go to show the world what’s going on in your life. Follow your friends’ photo updates as they move through the world. Select from photo filters that transform regular ol’ photos into works of art you’ll want to keep around forever.

Features include:
- Apply over a dozen fun & beautiful filters to your photos
- Post as many photos as you want, for free
- Find and follow friends who are using the app
- Attach (optional) location information to any of your posts
- Share your posts to Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous, & Facebook
- Check in to Foursquare when you post a photo with a location
- Let your friends know what you think by liking & commenting on their photos
- View the most popular photos around the world from Instagram users
- Supports first generation, 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 phones
- Full iPhone 4 front & back camera support

Available In: App Store

Price: Free

Screenshots:

1. No images of women in bikinis
2. No images of men in bikinis!
3. No skin
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!!
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content

Ok, so first of all, I can tell you that so far it seems to be true. Last week I just taught a class teaching parents how to use the parental control features of the iPhone and iPod touch to protect their kids against apps in the App Store. I was showing them that even in the top 25 free apps, adult apps would show up even without searching for terms. These apps are no longer there and they were there for quite a while. What’s also strange is that apps like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and the Playboy apps are still in the store.

Apple originally banned these types of apps and then later allowed them. Now they are banning them again. Maybe they started to ban them at the beginning of the App Store days and then started getting sued and decided to allow them. Now, after getting legal things straightened out, they started banning again? Who knows…

Note: I’ve noticed that apps that have textual descriptions about sex positions are still in the store… Maybe it’s just a visual thing.

I’m not sure what I think about this yet but, I do think it could help clean up the App Store a bit. Instead of developers creating a free lite version of their app, they could just make the application free with an in-app purchase to buy the full game thus eliminating the need for free lite versions of applications.

Below is Apple’s memo.

In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions, and digital services.

You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.

Visit the App Store Resource Center for more details about how you can add In App Purchases to your free apps.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

Check out the full press release below.

Press Release

CUPERTINO, California—September 28, 2009—Apple® today announced that more than two billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world. There are now more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone™ and iPod touch® customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

Today, iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. With the recently introduced iTunes® 9, it’s now easier than ever to organize and sync your apps right in iTunes and they will automatically appear on your iPhone or iPod touch with the same layout.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

- Yep sure did! (66.0%, 1,093 Votes)
- No, and I’m not going to. (4.0%, 63 Votes)
- I’m going to, I just haven’t yet. (30.0%, 493 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,649

The poll above was taken right when 3.0 was first released. It would be interesting to take it again now and is if the results are any different. You can still vote on this Poll in our Poll Archive page. You can also vote/view all the past polls on the Poll Archive page as well.

Below is the new poll. I know it can be a little tricky because so many apps cross into a few categories but, it doesn’t have to be exact just a guestimation of the type of apps you tend to install most often.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.