You can even open apps from inside the virtual iPhone, which is shown just suspended mid-air, over the mobile carrier's logo.

It's in aid of publicizing the launch of the iPhone in Israel, on the Orange network, and is just another example of augmented reality impressing the pants off me. [Ogmento via Recombu]

Now, I'm not a snorer (I hope) but growing up with a Dad who suffers from sleep apnea, which causes heavy snoring due to a lack of oxygen, I had many sleepless nights listening to the rumbles from three rooms away. My poor Mum, having to put up with that. If his sleep apnea had been detected much earlier, something could've been done about it before he drove us all insane with his snoring.

A Finnish company by the name of Remote Analysis Ltd has come up with a very affordable way to analyze breathing patterns when sleeping. It actually records the user's snoring, and stores them each night to compare them in a graph, to see if there are any major changes in the cycles. It also contains examples of what people suffering from sleep apnea sound like when they're sleeping, so you can compare your own against the case studies. With any luck, you'll be fine, but do remember that diagnosis of one problem often leads to weeks of endless hypochondria as you search Wikipedia for the cure. [GizMag]

I'm not sure the rumored BlackBerry and Mac Kindle apps will do much for the Kindle or ereader industry as a whole, either.

It's still just hearsay for now, but Fudzilla's placing a lot of confidence in its sources, who are claiming a Kindle app for Mac computers and BlackBerry devices is on the way, after launching the iPhone app back in March. Reading ebooks on a Mac makes sense, though I'm sure people will quibble over the merits of reading books for a great length of time on an LCD as opposed to e-ink.

The BlackBerry Kindle app, well—where do I start? Ok, I can see it working on a Storm, but on any other BlackBerry model, no way. For starters, the screens are too small, so you'd be pressing that 'next page' button every 10 seconds. And what it'd do to the already pitiful battery life, well—I wouldn't dare. Yes, I'm a BlackBerry user. Still, Fudzilla's claiming it'll be a free download, and as long as the ebooks cost less on the BlackBerry platform than they do on the Kindle (and as proper books), then it might be a good supplement to those occasions where you want to progress in the book you're reading, but can't carry your Kindle around with you.

Really, it's about time the industry takes a leaf out of the Blu-ray Disc Association's book, and explores the idea of providing digital copies with every paperback sold. [Fudzilla via TechRadar]

We've reached out to Zune to see if there's a way to adjust settings to switch it off, but if that's how Microsoft rolls, well, what a b%tch move.

UPDATE: That is how Microsoft rolls, at until they fix it. A spokesperson provided us with the following response:

"The recently released Twitter for Zune HD application has been abbreviating some explicit words in tweets when viewed on the device; however these explicit words do appear in their full text on the Twitter site or on any other Twitter client. We have identified the issue and are taking steps to update the application as soon as possible to ensure Twitter for Zune HD users are able to view tweets in their original state."

So looks like there's no way to view your tweets as written for now, but we'll keep you posted as soon as we hear about a successful update. [Engadget]

This is hypothetical, but if there is a building with known terrorist activities, it could automatically be pushed to the phone when the soldiers get near that area. If there was another platoon that was supposed to arrive, and they were delayed, or ahead of schedule, you could adapt your plan. If one of the units you are counting on is redirected, you know that in real time.

He points out that it can also be used for police, firemen, and emergency services too. The iPhone itself is being retrofitted for battlefield operation by Raytheon, which is adding a ruggedized case that includes a larger battery and a special scrambler that will secure communications with other military units. [NYT]

Ok, so it's not just for the nearsighted, with the Lou Zoom app promising to "bring style and clarity to your contacts." Cutting the rockstar hyperbole, it increases the size of the contact name, displaying it in a stark white-on-black effect. As it's only $2, why don't you go for a walk on the wild side, and download it? Oh, don't be so vicious. [Lou Zoom via Wired]

Ustream has had an official iPhone app available for a while now, but due to Apple's strict policies users could only upload video online after filming was finished—ie, not live at all. Enabling live streaming video from your iPhone to the internet, it works over a 3G connection and can update Twitter/Facebook etc of your live-streaming status.

You've probably seen updates from friends before, using Ustream or Qik on other devices (or jailbroken iPhones), but this week's app launch is big news for anyone who's been following the live-streaming video debacle.

If you're tossing up whether to download Live Knocking Video or Ustream, well, they're both free—but otherwise we'd suggest going for the latter as it has one major advantage over Knocking, the ability to stream video to the internet, rather than purely to another iPhone. Of course, you can't ignore Knocking's developer's gall, emailing Steve Jobs himself to get his app approved. [Ustream via TechCrunch]

Fring—a free chat client for the iPhone that supports most standards—has been updated to support video conferencing on the iPhone, using Wi-Fi. It works on Fring to Fring, and Skype to Fring. Unfortunately, it's not bi-directional. You would be able to see whoever is calling you from a desktop, but you won't be able to transmit your image, even if you have the 3G videoconferencing kit. The reason is a physical one, according to the developer: The iPhone doesn't have a front camera, so you can't do face to face.

Which begs the question once again: When in the name of all that is good and chromed is Apple going to update the iPhone with a front camera and iChat AV? Given their push for videoconferencing on the desktop, the power in the current iPhone, and the efficiency of their iChat AV video codecs, it can't be far away. I hope. [iTunes App Store]

The video has since been pulled from Youtube, but the screen grab above shows how Nokia went out of their way to demonstrate how well SNES emulators run on the N900. The rub here isn't the emulator itself; as Nintendo Life points out, Android features a bunch of emulators in its app catalog. As long as those emulators don't come with ROMs, everything is peachy.

The problem was that Nokia actually showed video of Super Mario World and Super Ghouls and Ghosts running within that emulator. They even acknowledged that "some emulators require separate ROM images to play games," and claimed that "[m]ost publishers allow individual title usage provided that the user is in possession of the original title." Yeah... pretty sure Nintendo doesn't like that idea.

So now Nintendo's got its claws out for Nokia. Pretty bold of you to push emulators now that N-Gage is no longer with us, Nokia, but really, you must have seen this coming. [Edge Online via Nintendo Life, Thanks Nintenboy01.]

Turn down your volume before hitting play, loud techno music awaits. Down? OK, good. Now let's look at what we've got here. It's about what you would expect from a tablet magazine reader. The big screen lets you soak in the magazine layout without zooming, and the graphics are big and interactive. In a nutshell, it looks like a hi-res iPhone app.

According to the source, Condé Nast doesn't want to take any chances, and the app is a precautionary measure to make sure they're ready if/when the device comes out. So don't take this to mean that launch is imminent. Take it as a sign that even if the tablet doesn't exist, it should, because a lot of huge publishing companies are more than willing to throw their weight behind it. [Wired]

I've been running the nightly Chromium builds as our secondary browser to Firefox, and it's been spiffy, if you're particularly impatient. [Cnet]

In a blog post from May, Carmack says he loves that players port Doom to every device imaginable, but he's disappointed that there's rarely any real effort to build a new, functional control scheme on platforms without a keyboard and mouse. In other words, he'd rather that instead of everyone stopping at "Does it run Doom?" they ask "Does it play Doom?"

That's why he personally developed the controls for the iPhone version, and according to early reviews, the iPhone can now play Doom. Users are saying controls as good as you would expect from Carmack. Not to mention the other enhancements like 24-bit lighting.

Sure, you might have put the game on your jailbroken iPhone years ago, but graphical upgrades and tighter controls might make it worth the $6.99 admission price. [Recombu]

The Best

Layar: Mark my words: in the next year or so, augmented reality apps will graduate from halfassed party tricks to something with actual utility. This is a daddy-step in the right direction:

Layar has grown up since we last saw it: now you can overlay all kinds of data, from geotagged Wikipedia entries to Flickr photos to local Tweets.

3GS only, but at least it's free.

SuperGlued: Lots of apps help you find good shows, but SuperGlued doesn't stop there. You can Tweet with other members of the crowd (Are tickets sold out at the door? Does the venue still smell like urine? Where are you? etc.), post live pictures of the show, and keep track of which events your friends are planning on going to. Free. —Full disclosure: The developer, Tom Plunkett, is Gawker Media's grand tech vizier

Proactive Sleep: Is there a such thing as a sleep coach? Let's assume there is! In a nutshell, that's what this app, designed with SCIENCE, aims to be. It's an alarm clock at its core, which wakes you up with music of your choice then challenges you to a game, or offers you a dream diary. It'll also track your sleep patterns and warn you when you've dipped below average. A little steep at five dollars, but it's fairly polished and written by a bon-a-fide sleep researcher.

Canon: Got a Canon PIXMA printer? Then there's no good reason to pass up Canon's iPhone app, which lets you print over Wi-Fi:

The polished interface lets you select paper sizes, find wireless printers, print borderless photos, and select photos from multiple albums stored on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Blastination: The game looks like an instant headache, and it takes a few minutes to get used to the chaos. The idea, though, is a winner: Your goal is to collect shapes with your bouncing avatar, which you pilot by bouncing off of barriers you've drawn in real time. A dollar.

Heart Rate Monitor: More of a conceptual win than a practical one (it's not even out yet), Heart Rate Monitor broadcasts you heart rate over your social network of choice. Its intended purpose is medical, but the tech could easily be used for fun, too. I mean hell, Nintendo thinks we want a heart rate monitor for gaming, so there must be something to the idea.

Bailout War$: Tower defense + populist rage + genuinely OK gameplay = a good timesuck. The graphics could be better, and the satire more subtle, but this is a one-dollar casual game we're talking about here.

CBS News: CBS's new app is an example of a dedicated news app done right. Video content is plentiful and streams over Wi-Fi and 3G, news content is organized well, and Twitter integration is more than just token. And it's free.

Viper: It needs to be mated to an expensive remote ignition system, and it doesn't save you a ton of time, but this one ranks purely for coolness. I mean, you can start your car with your iPhone. This is totally the dream, for people with modest, iPhone-centric dreams.

USA Today Autopilot: Better than most travel apps, because it's not solely meant to sell you stuff—it's a travel planner and itinerary at its core. It's been tied to the TripIt planner service, which keeps track of your flights, hotels, and travel miscellanea online. Free.

Honorable Mentions

Itsy Bitsy Spider: Duck Duck Moose makes spectacularly helpful apps for keeping children entertained, turning your iPhone into something between a spinning mobile, a picture book and a toy. Itsy Bitsy spider is a musical picturebook, basically, and parent reviewers swear by it.

Pang: You know that legendary Japanese arcade classic, Pang? Me neither! But if you do, this thing looks pretty good. 3bux.

Assassin FPS: At the very surface of the augmented reality app strata, you find apps that let you put crosshairs over your friends, and pretend to murder them. There are plenty of these, but Assassin is one of the better ones.

NPR News: Another update to an already priceless app, this brings live NPR streams—they do that sometimes, who knew?—to the app, as well as a few minor functional changes. Still free.

PhotoNotes: Assigns titles and notes to you photos. It's three dollars and doesn't do anything particularly amazing, but I can see this being invaluable to people with very specific picture-notating needs.

This Week's App News on Giz:

• The App Store Effect: Are iPhone Apps Headed for Oblivion?

• Twitter Lists Are Live, Meaning Soon You'll Be Able to Create Groups in Twitter Apps

• Lite iPhone Apps Are Dead: In-App Purchases Come to Free Apps

• Trillian iPhone App's Been Stuck in App Store Limbo for 60 Days

• Pepsi Issues "Apology" For Offensive iPhone Dating App

• Studio Raises Price of iPhone App to $40 to Shut Whiners Up

• Now This is How the iPhone Should Handle Multitasking

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!

HP has had its own simple but effective iPrint app (iTunes Link) for a while now, and from first glance, Canon's app looks to at least be as good, if not a touch more mature.

The polished interface lets you select paper sizes, find wireless printers, print borderless photos, and select photos from multiple albums stored on your iPhone or iPod touch.

The main drawback: support is currently limited to Canon's MP990, MP640, and MP560 MFPs. It would be nice if any Canon printer hooked up to a Wi-Fi network also worked, but we'll have to wait and see. [iTunes Store | Canon]

What that means, as Apple says, is that it eliminates the need to create "Lite" versions of apps, since devs can sell content, subscriptions, services and upgrades from free apps. The change sounds trivial, but it's actually a fundamental alteration of the App Store economy.

It effectively creates free trial apps, which couldn't be done before. Originally, free apps had to be standalone, fully functional apps, with very limited pestering to buy a premium version. At the point, you would go and purchase a separate, paid application. Now, developers can ship a single app with limited functionality that's completely unlocked when you pay the full purchase price. Or slip subscriptions or other services into free apps.The whole free vs. paid app is a completely different kind of calculus now.

We'll see what ultimately happens with this—especially 'cause we won't know what kind of invisible rules Apple will be enforcing—and whether it's a power that gonna be used mostly for good or for evil, but stuff's gonna start looking a lot different in the App Store.

A tipster fed PreCentral a compelling theory about a prospective delay in the App Catalog upgrade and associated WebOS software update, the day before they were set to launch. And lo, launch they did not. Credence, lent!:

webOS 1.2 (and possibly paid apps in the App Catalog) could be delayed (again) until next week. The delay comes from Sprint's need to test the changes made since that first webOS 1.2 leak, including all the changes surrounding the App Catalog. The results will be that webOS 1.2 will be released as webOS 1.2.1. Oh, and though it's not the source of the delay, webOS 1.2.1 should re-enable iTunes sync.

In lieu of an official explanation, this is probably what happened: nothing catastrophic, but unfortunate nonetheless.

Their tipster also provided some insight into Palm's part in the bizarre iTunes compatibility fray. Apparently, cracking iTunes to allow the Pre to sync is extremely easy, and Apple's countermeasures can be circumvented almost instantly—reenabling syncing after the second to last forced compatibility break took developers about five minutes, while the fiddling it took to fix iTunes 9 syncing in the forthcoming 1.2.1 update can be measured in hours, on one hand, on two fingers. Which is disappointing, since I always imagined some kind of Cold-War-style coding race between the two companies, where success is measured in MP3 transfers and human blood. Life is boring. [PreCentral]

Tick Talk Robot: In the mornings of the future, humanoid, quasi-British, deep-voiced robots will lull you with a reading of the day's news, stroke your hair, and breathe fragrant, bacon-scented air across your cheek until you wake. Until then, there's Tick Talk Robot, which does pretty much the same thing, except without all the roboculinary eroticism. Two dollars.

AppButler: This isn't quite as cool as the press materials make it out to be, but it's still not a bad idea, considering how much easier it is to arrange apps with iTunes 9. As it stands now—as a web app—AppButler gives you a bunch of free icons to place on your springboard as dead links, which act as labels (News, Productivity, Music, whatever) for your apps, so you can make interesting homescreen layouts. A native version—whatever that would look like—is mired in the approval process as we speak.

Riddim Ribbon: A new concept rhythm game showed off at Apple's iPod event this week, Riddim Ribbon shoots your avatar/ball/blob/thing down a pathway, on which you have to hit lots and lots of targets. The more you hit, the more the song builds; the fewer, the sparser the instrumentation gets. This one comes out in October, unfortunately.

Fantasy Sports Stats Grabber: Aggregates cross-league stats in a Fantasy-league-friendly way, so you can keep closer track of how much money you've lost to your coworkers in this bizarre ritual of manhood that I'll never, ever understand. A buck.

Flickr: Better late than never, Yahoo. At least the app is good at what it does, which includes uploading and geotagging photos, and managing your account. Warning: It can be sluggish, especially when loading thumbs. That's nothing to get too worked up about though, seeing as this one's a freebie.

Navigon: Navigon was only a killer feature or two away from a clear victory in our iPhone nav app Battlemodo, and with the latest free update, it may have gotten one. Or two! Now it features a full, proper-noun-reading text-to-speech engine for giving you vocal directions, as well as inbuilt music controls, which replace the iPhone's limited default popup panel. Obvious, maybe, but still awesome.

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor: You play a spider with an extremely overactive web gland, and hop around a bunch of levels, trapping bugs and solving mysteries. The demo video at the app's website makes a better case for playing this lovely little game than I can, but I will say this: Spider game, I love you. Three dollars.

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Outbreak: An app that aggregates disease outbreak information into either a list or a map overlay, giving you just enough information to be nervous, but not quite enough to really do anything about it. Most useful for hypochondriacs and/or residents of Sub-Saharan Africa. Free.

Watchmen 2.0: Back around when Watchmen came out in theaters, there was a little iPhone game called Watchmen: Justice is Coming . It was one of the first 3D MMOs for the iPhone, but felt a little underdeveloped. Version 2.0, coinciding with the DVD release, is free if you've already got the first one, and comes with eight new episodes, a pile of new characters, a 360-degree battle mode, and new rooftop settings.

Robocop, Fargo, and Rocky Soundboards: This doesn't even feel like part of an app roundup—it feels more like three beautiful gifts, from me to you. These are official soundboards, from eminently quotable movies, for free.

i.TV: A fantastic TV listings app now works as a TiVo remote, with support for more DVRs to come, and push notifications. Free.

NFL Mobile: Once this one fully activates (Sept 13th) you'll be able to watch Live NFL games on your iPhone. Awesome! Minor catch: you need to be a DirecTV subscriber with an expensive sports package to use it, even just for news updates and scores. App's free though!

This Week's App News on Giz:

• Loopt First iPhone App With Always-On Location, Even When It's Not Running

• Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps: Fall 2009

• I am T-Pain iPhone App Is Auto-Tuning Genius

• Top 10 Back to School iPhone Apps

• Apple Approves Line2, a Google Voice-esque Program For Toktumi

• Push Google Voice SMS and Twitter Messages to iPhone With Prowl, No Growl Required

• µTorrent iPhone App Rejected, Heads Over to Cydia

• Bustedhot iPhone Application Makes Me Lose Faith In America

• Why We Can't Have a Napster iPhone App (Or Android App, Or BlackBerry App...)

• Grand Theft Auto On the iPhone Will Be Wonderfully Old School

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a swell Labor Day, everybody.

People who don't really care about The Victuals, what's wrong with you? don't worry!: I've still trawled the App Store for non-food downloads this week, and there are plenty—just scroll waaay down. Everyone else? Commence feast...NOW.

Eating Out

Yelp: If by some bizarre circumstance or mental tic you can't download more than one restaurant finder/review app, you should probably make it Yelp. User reviews are plentiful and generally helpful, the database is huge, and its new augmented reality tricks are pure bliss. Free.

OpenTable: OpenTable does the review thing pretty well too, but this app is less about finding restaurants than it is finding a table at said restaurants. Granted, it can feel silly making an online reservation on a telephone, but there's a certain antisocial appeal in replacing a maître d' with a piece of software. Free.

UrbanSpoon: This one tries to do everything: It's city-specific, and it'll feed you reviews, menu and location info for all kinds of restaurants, and in some cases let you make a reservation. It's free too, and the food-finding tools (shake the app for a surprise, within your parameters) are kinda fun, I guess.

VegOut: It's hard to be a vegetarian (I hear), not just in terms of diet, but socially. Where do you go with friends? Where do you tale a date? VegOut spits out a list of nearby meat-free establishments, with reviews and contact information for each one. By its nature it's not going to be much help outside of a big city, but in a metropolis? Priceless. Well, ok, three dollars.

Michelin Guides: Available by region, these are premium restaurant guides, thank you very much. I'm a fan of crowd-sourced reviews, but Michelin reviews are historically reliable, and if you really need to find a three-starred meal to blow your month's pay on, now, this is your best bet.

Global Eater Food Dictionary: When you're eating above your weight, figuratively speaking, you'll run into some terms you've never seen before. Global Eater Food Dictionary will tell you exactly what kind of cow glands those sweetbreads are before you order them, and it's faster than Google, which'll minimize your chances of being outed as a food moron. The price of your snob cred: a buck.

Wine Enthusiasts Guide: Same as above, for the inscrutable world of wine. Five dollars, but that comes with the territory.

Eating In

Epicurious: A beautiful, wonderfully curated recipe and shopping list app that's been perfected with time. It will make you a better cook, period. Free.

BigOven: Another take on the recipe app, this time with more of an emphasis on personal recipes and crowd-sourced ideas. Backed by a fairly huge recipe database. Free.

Allrecipes: Another recipe app, closer to BigOven than Epicurious in concept. It's a bit better at spontaneous recipe ideas, with a slick dish discovery interface. Free.

Locavore: For more discerning and/or conscientious and/or guilty shoppers, Locavore figures out where you live, and spits out a list of local foods that are in season, as well as guides as to where to get them. It's tied to Epicurious for recipes, which is brilliant. Four dollars.

Non-Food

Because some other stuff happened this week, too:

TextExpander: A massive timesaver on Mac OS X, TextExpander gives you immediate shortcuts to your commonly-typed phrases, which is great if you write with a lot of complex jargon, code or HTML tags (hey, bloggers!). Since the kind of deep integration it'd need to behave like its desktop counterpart is impossible on the iPhone, it's more of a glorified clipboard in this incarnation. It does let you pull your shortcuts from your Mac, though, which is pretty helpful. 2bux.

US Open App: Hey, tennis nerds: Live streaming US Open radio coverage is pretty great on its own, while a predictable-but-useful set of news and photo tools will keep you as attuned to the goings-on New York as you could ever want to be. Free.

Girlfriend Keeper: Want to make sure you don't lose your significant other because an anniversary slipped your mind, or because you don't text them enough? Would you like to manage these issuew while simultaneously condescending to them with automated text messages and email? You can do that now, thanks to technology!. As far as joke apps go, you've got to give these guys credit for following through. A dollar. [via TheFrisky]

TUAW: Single-source news apps are by nature kind of dumb, but TUAW's new app deserves a special mention because a) their news is obsessively relevant to iPhone users and b) because it's a surprisingly polished app. Free.

Madden NFL 10: This one isn't technically out yet—it's due in a month or so—but we thought we'd give you a peek. There are other football games around, but this is a real Madden title, meaning it'll have team and player names licensed, and an outsize budget, which looks like it's manifested itself in some pretty amazing graphics. The control scheme is the obvious wildcard here, so we'll let you know how it works once we've had some hands-on time.

This Week's App News on Giz:

• Nobody Wants to Be Judged Based on the Apps on Their Phone

• Augmented Reality Yelp Will Murder All Other iPhone Restaurant Apps, My Health

• Apple Actually Approves Awesome Streaming Service Spotify's iPhone App

• Panelfly iPhone Comicbook Reader Is Crying for the Apple Tablet

Your Childhood PC, Perfectly Simulated on the iPhone

• Sirius XM SkyDock Not-So-Magically Converts Your iPhone Into a Satellite Radio

• iHungry?

• How Your Favorite iPhone App Was Designed

• Chipotle iPhone App's Super Convenient Burritos Are Going to Make Us So, So Fat

• Being a Creepy Stalker? There's an App For That

• The Most Racist App Apple's Approved

• The Best iPhone Navigation App: TeleNav vs. Navigon vs. TomTom

• Qik iPhone Video Sharing App Now Allows For Video Uploads Over 3G on iPhone

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a swell weekend everybody.