The iPhone 3G commands the ranking with 24.6%, while the iPhone 3GS tops at 21.5 for number two. Dropping from 28.8% to 14.6% is the Sharp Advanced W-ZERO3. According to Impress survey, the reason of this huge advance in only one year is the app store and the iPhone's ease of use. I always thought that Japanese cellphones user interfaces were designed by the devil himself, so I'm not surprised. [Impress]

After Dragon Dictation, this is the second app that Nuance has released gratis for a limited time this month. The only thing stopping Dragon Search from being a must-have is that voice search with your Google app will bring up largely the same top results, so for casual surfing it's a bit redundant. If you're looking for a deeper dive, though, the scrolling Search Carousel UI is actually a useful tool. Dragon Search also acts as a nice cheat to use voice search for the iTunes store, which might save your thumbs some damage in the long run. [iTunes]

Maybe I'm just so enamored with this commercial because my home smells of freshly baking cookies or maybe it's a general adoration for alternate versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," but I just think it's a lovely Christmas greeting from Apple. Even if the voiceover guy doesn't really sing. [TUAW]

My personal favorite is probably still Bart's Nightmare on the Super Nintendo — because it was the only game that I could beat that my big brother couldn't. His claim to fame is still the old NES game, Bart vs. The Space Mutants. But both of us will always remember The Simpsons Arcade game from Konami as the ultimate Simpsons video game. It was the only one we could get our parents to play with us, and they only one we never ever beat because we always ran out of quarters in the dream world.

What Is It?
The Simpsons Arcade for the iPhone is a beat 'em up, much like the Simpsons Arcade of yore — but other than that, it's a totally different game. Featuring six levels with a boss and mini-boss each, the game stars Homer Simpson at the center of a plot involving Mr. Burns' sinister plan to suck Springfield's resources dry. The control scheme uses a virtual joystick and two virtual buttons that give the appearance of playing the game in an arcade cabinet.

What We Saw
I played the Krustyland level and saw sections demoed at the beginning of the game, at the end of the game and at Channel 6 News where you fight Bumblebee Man as a mini-boss.

How Far Along Is It?
Near final. EA declined to give a specific release date, but all the levels and sounds were in place and everything looked pretty finished.

What Needs Improvement?
A Little Slow On The Combos: Homer can perform punch-kick combos as well as an area-affect shoulder-check or belly flop that you can follow up with a second attack. It's great when it works, but it takes some work to master the timing needed on the virtual buttons. Worse, since you're not getting that physical feedback of pressing a real button, you're not always sure if you messed up the combo because you were late on a button press or because the touch screen didn't pick up on it.

Can't Store Family Members: Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Marge show up in gameplay whenever Homer finds a pickup with a family member's face on it. This triggers a Family Frenzy attack where said family member will show up on screen for a short time and help Homer attack enemies. For tight spot situations, it's not a bad system — but I wonder if it would be more fun to hang on to those family icon pickups until you assemble the whole Simpsons clan for some kind of super attack. It'd definitely reinforce that family feeling I remember having while playing the old arcade game with my parents and brother.

What Should Stay The Same?
Authenticity: EA got a lot of the main cast of the Simpsons (Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer) and a Simpsons writer (Michael Price) to work on the game. The result is a product that not only looks, feels and sounds authentic — but one that can take as many risks as it wants with the story and dialogue. For example, when you're playing through the Channel 6 level, you can hear Kent Brockman making snide news reports on the loud speakers and every menu selection results in Homer yelling "D'oh!" or "Whoo-hoo!" That would get old if these were knock-off voices or the writing was a hollow imitation of a real Simpsons writer — but because it's the real deal, it's actually quite pleasing.

Homages Galore: There are a couple of mini-games in Simpsons Arcade iPhone — and one of them is a direct throwback to the inflatable heads bonus level in the old arcade game. Dedicated Simpsons fans will have a lot of fun picking out all the homages to other Simpsons exploits throughout the game. Also, Binky the Rabbit of Matt Groening's classic Life in Hell comic series appears on all the loading screen. Awesome!

A Complete Gaming Experience: It's nice to have a portable game that's actually paced for portable play. I can easily imagine picking up and putting down this game while waiting in line at the movies or during a long commute. I just might have to resort to using headphones because all the "D'oh!"s are sure to piss off other commuters who easily recognize the Simpsons but can't join in on my fun.

Final Thoughts
Sorry guys, Comic Book Guy isn't in the game. You'll find plenty of other character cameos, but EA felt that Comic Book Guy was way overused.

While I'm ranting, let me ask you something, Randall. At the risk of sounding like Glenn Beck Jr. - what the fuck has gone wrong with our country? Used to be, we were innovators. We were leaders. We were builders. We were engineers. We were the best and brightest. We were the kind of guys who, if they were running the biggest mobile network in the U.S., would say it's not enough to be the biggest, we also want to be the best, and once they got to be the best, they'd say, How can we get even better? What can we do to be the best in the whole fucking world? What can we do that would blow people's fucking minds? They wouldn't have sat around wondering about ways to fuck over people who loved their product. But then something happened. Guys like you took over the phone company and all you cared about was milking profit and paying off assholes in Congress to fuck over anyone who came along with a better idea, because even though it might be great for consumers it would mean you and your lazy pals would have to get off your asses and start working again in order to keep up.

Yes, this is in the arrogant, blustery Fake Steve voice, but make no mistake: there's nothing sarcastic about the message or the content here. [Fake Steve Jobs]

The Vectoring and Separation advanced learning game is designed to simulate New York City's Islip airspace, giving air traffic controllers an opportunity to test the waters of one of the busiest flight zones in the planet. It was developed as part of their contract with the FAA to develop their Air Traffic Control Optimum Training Solution over the course of ten years, which is why you and I would never get the opportunity to play it.

If you like your links hyper, here is that AP story, AT&T's financial sheet [PDF], and the post in which Fake Steve Jobs originally pointed out this disparity. Namaste.

Dear Steve Jobs,

We at SVT (the Swedish public service broadcaster) would like to ask you a favor. Below is a description of our SVT Play application. And to the right you can see all the Swedes who are eagerly awaiting its approval. So please Steve, hurry up and approve our app.

We have tried to simplify the approval process as much as possible for you. Just press the green button below and record a video of yourself saying "JA" (that's "yes" in Swedish, pronounced "yah").

Come on, Steve, Sweden is waiting. Say JA!

Sincerely,
SVT, Sweden

Apparently, it is not a joke. They want their video application—check out the video demo in the gallery—to be approved, and they figured out that this would be the fastest way to do it.

They are broadcasting live now. Yes, the Swedes are nuts, which is why I love them. [Dear Steve Jobs]

As App Store reviews are often short, uninformative and seemingly populated by idiots, this social networking site could prove to be a much-needed platform for discussing which apps are worth downloading, and which to avoid. There's also an area called the App Farm, which lets users sound off their app ideas in case any uncreative developers are lurking. If it gets made, iWikiphone will award you with $500, which is a double-win for sure. [iWikiphone]

UPDATE: iWikiphone has exploded with traffic today, so the site's running a little slow until the servers can be tinkered with. Hold tight, it's worth waiting for.

This chart from Fierce Developer shows that while Apple and RIM have been booming, and Symbian and Android have shown decent growth for smaller players, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile have been largely stagnant. Microsoft even managed to lose market share between May and July. At the rate this is going, the two carriers will need some drastic changes to stay in the game. For Palm, the answer could be as simple as an expanded or refreshed product line. For Microsoft, though, it looks like a fix won't be coming any time soon. [Comscore via Fierce Developer via Electronista]

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]

Essentially, the iPhone establishes a connection with the computer, then it can control the OS in a similar manner to a TV remote. Using a virtual d-pad, users navigate through apps, open them remotely and even print. But what's possibly more promising that buttoning around an OS is that voice commands could be deployed to skip many of these navigational hassles.

Apple's Remote app, which allows the control of iTunes over a local network, is still one of my favorite apps on the iPhone. If Apple were to evolve that app into what we see in this patent, it'd only become more handy. [Patently Apple via 9to5Mac]

The app features some of the hallmarks of Bing, like the endless image search, image of the day and voice control. Some key features:

* Daily image from Bing.com
* Easy to access voice search
* Tips and tricks on the home page
* "Locate Me" functionality
* Ability to add pushpins and save locations
* Show multiple locations on a single map

This app joins similar apps already available for WinMo, BlackBerry and Sidekick (though not Android: Wonder why!) and is available now, for free, here (link opens iTunes). [Bing]

This is what an AT&T spokesperson contacted by Cult of Mac said about the plot:

We understand that fakesteve.net is primarily a satirical forum, but there is nothing amusing about advocating that customers attempt to deliberately degrade service on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers. We know that the vast majority of customers will see this action for what it is: an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog.

I sincerely doubt that this statement will affect Operation Chokehold's attempt to make the AT&T network pee its panties as it runs crying to mama, but I suppose we'll see what happens this Friday. What are your guesses though? Will iPhone data start crawling at an even slower pace than usual? [Cult of Mac]

[Infinitecontinues via Etsi via Kotaku]

Pastebot's core functionality is to act as a basic clipboard, collecting your various copied snippets and photos into a browsable archive. It can handle anything that the iPhone can natively, meaning text, photos and HTML content copy fine, while videos, audio, or browser plugin content don't. Once the data is collected, Pastebot can process it—photos can be run through filters, HTML can be parsed, text can be converted to uppercase or lowercase, etc. To put a clipping back onto the iPhone's main clipboard, you just select the item, and it's ready for pasting.

Pastebot's real victory is its free sync app, available for Mac. When this is running on a computer in the same wireless network as the iPhone, which is also running Pastebot, anything copied on the computer is immediately synced to the iPhone, and anything copied on the iPhone can be synced to the desktop, where it replaces whatever is currently in the OS X clipboard. Watching whatever you copy pour onto your iPhone is a joy, not least because the interface on this thing is beautiful.

My one gripe: Since apps can't run in the background, in order for Pastebot to collect what you've copy, it needs to be started. That's each time you copy something—if you couple more than one thing in a row and then open Pastebot, only the latest will show up. Still though, this is some tremendous utility for $2. [Pastebot]