Some nice documentation on how Apple's iPhone applications use abilities not open to third parties to appear faster. (This also explains why Maps sometimes shows a useful screen when I start it up on the iPod touch without wireless on.)
It might be a good price if BeeJive existed in a vacuum, but it doesn't, and considering the majority of the competition is *free*, then yes, $16 *is* too much. Waaay too much.
"The App Store concept has trade-offs. There are pros and cons to this model versus the wide-open nature of Mac OS X. There are reasonable arguments to be made on both sides. But blatantly anti-competitive exclusion of apps that compete with Apple’s own? There is no trade-off here. No one benefits from such a policy, not even Apple. If this is truly Apple’s policy, it’s a disaster for the platform. And if it’s not Apple’s policy, then Podcaster’s exclusion is proof that the approval process is completely broken." -- I thought the naysayers about code-signing were paranoid to suggest that it could lead to application exclusion on the desktop OS. Oh well...
From cool games like Super Monkey Ball to business productivity applications and seemingly everything in between, App Store has something for most everyone. Honestly though, I'm surprised at what isn't there. Here's a look at the top 5 iPhone applications not in the App Store or built into the iPhone itself...but hopefully coming soon.