The Apple App Store has over 500,000 apps now. I wonder how many of those are crap?

Steve Jobs is to be honored in Budapest with a bronze statue. The statue will be erected in Graphisoft Park to honor Jobs’ leadership and tech contributions.

Apple approved a subscription game service a couple days ago for Big Fish Games. Apple has now turned around and taken the game service down.

A cool Steve Jobs exhibit has opened at the US Patent Office Museum. The display looks at some of the patents Jobs field over the years.

Belkin is getting a new device ready for iPhone users called the LiveAction Camera Remote. It will let you take photos and video with your iPhone remote and uses Bluetooth for connectivity.

Some lost Steve Jobs interviews from 1995 have surfaced that will be shown in select Landmark theaters around the country. The interviews are from a PBS special that looked at the computer industry and Silicon Valley that were never aired.

The big question now among Apple’s business partners, investors and fans: Will Mr. Jobs make his reappearance at Apple’s annual software developers’ conference next week in San Francisco, possibly to unveil a new iPhone?

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

The Wall Street Journal reports Jobs, 54 was specifically involved in the user interface for the latest version of the iPhone operating system. From home, he continues to review products,and will be working on future projects. This however, while making no public appearances. Jobs was treated five years ago for pancreatic cancer. More recent problems saw loose weight (said to be caused by a hormone imbalance). But soon after, he said that the condition was more complicated than he’d thought and that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence.

Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller said “We’re just trying to do what we do every day,” when asked about the affect not having Jobs around has had on the Company. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is running day-to-day operations until Jobs’ planned return at the end of June.

[via Wall Street Journal]

For starters, Spore Origins came out for the iPhone and it offers two modes of gameplay that fully utilize the iPhone’s unique functions. Plus, we learned that PhoneSaber would be returning to the App Store as Lightsaber Unleashed to more fully integrate with the release of the upcoming Lucas Arts game, The Force Unleashed.

Apple’s Let’s Rock event was on Tuesday and SlashGear was there with live blogging. iTunes 8.0 was released as were the new iPod nano and a revised iPod touch. iPhone firmware 2.1 was also announced and it made its debut on Friday promising improved battery life and several bug fixes. Steve Jobs even talked to CNBC.com following the keynote to give a little insider info on the latest iPod line.

We also learned this week that a hacker would be having a live webcast to show how easily the iPhone could be cracked. What we found out was that the iPhone actually takes screenshots of all you do in order to perform transitions. However, these screenshots are not overwritten, meaning they could be accessed by a hacker.

Not too much gear talk this week, but we did get a look at the iBikeConsole, which lets you control your iPod and keep both hands on the handle bars at the same time.

Right after Jobs left the stage, he had this one-on-one interview with Jim Goldman and it was really rather interesting. He talked about the product line up and even joked about the rumors about his declining health. Jobs still looks thin, but definitely seems more energetic than in his June appearance.

What’s funny is that even though the “Let’s Rock” event was so clearly to be about music, people were still expecting more. Perhaps the rumored October 14th event will bring a few surprises?

Watch the video… 

[via The iPhone Blog]

Supposedly, Steve Jobs replied and said:

We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.

Steve

Interesting. AT&T actually does offer a tethering option for their other smartphones for, you guessed it, $30 a month. But the iPhone has been excluded from this. For those who don’t know, tethering is a feature that allows a user to connect to the Internet through their cell phone. In effect, turning their phone into an Internet connection for a laptop. As you may remember, Nullriver’s Netshare was pulled from the App Store recently because it offered this very feature.

[via MacRumors]

Shortly thereafter, the iPhone 2.0.2 update was released with hopes to provide numerous bug fixes and clear up some of those reception problems. We also posted a side-by-side comparison video of the iPhone 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 software, of which it would seem the update really produced a speed boost. Jobs also admitted to the numerous third-party app crashes users are experiencing and promised a fix for those as well.

On the business side of things, Apple seems to be geared up to produce 40 million iPhones next year. Plus, the iPhone is set to release in Turkey from Turkcell and in Russia in October. It was also determined that if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can “kill” the kill switch fairly easily.

We had several fun things of note this week as well, including two reviews of free apps like PapiJump and Tris. We got a look at the Nike+ app, however it seems the screenshots may have been fakes.

A video demo showed up online of Real Racing, which is a networked multiplayer game for the iPhone. An app that simulates a hologram is also supposedly in the works. You can get your hands on a Mobile Phone Telescope for your iPhone as well, though it seems to be intended for paparazzi looking to get off a couple of quick photos.

The email reads as follows:

“This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September.”

In his typical brief form, Jobs is giving us a time to expect this bug fix. Specifically, many users are reporting the iPhone 2.0′s firmware sudden failure to load third-party apps. The apps will often load briefly then crash back to the home screen.

And while it’s good to know a fix is on the way, many users are still not satisfied with the 3G situation. Are these merely temporary fixes until the real thing comes along? I guess we’ll have to wait until September to find out.

[via AppleInsider]

The video also of course shows Steve announcing the new 3G iPhone. The device was expected to be unveiled at WWDC yesterday, and true to form Steve announced it at the last minutes of the WWDC keynote. The device will be made available on July 11th, and will be subject to different levels of subsidies. Visit Apple’s website to view the keynote in its entirety.

It makes perfect sense – how else is the 3G iPhone going to keep up with the Jones ala LG Vu if Mobile TV was left out? The large display of the iPhone combined with AT&T’s fast 3G network makes it a perfect device for watching TV on the go.

Apple issued a press release earlier today stating that Jobs will kick off WWDC 2008 as expected. The slogan “A landmark event. In more ways than one.” Lets see, Apple already announced and showed off iPhone OS X along with Mac OS X leopard. So it is unlikely he’ll say or do much there. That leaves me to wonder if Jobs will briefly introduce the 3G iPhone and then quickly jump to introducing a new iTablet running OSX Leopard. Make sure to join iPhone Buzz if you want to know the second Jobs make the announcements on Monday June 8!

The conference, which runs for five days in total, will feature in-depth sessions and hands-on labs for developers working with the OS X iPhone 2.0 software. It will also cover the technicalities of the iPhone SDK and the App Store. Apple’s own engineers will be on hand to jeer at the less capable show coders where they’ve gone wrong.

Meanwhile OS X Leopard developers will have their own coding sessions and technology labs. In fact they’re welcome to bring in their own code for advice, including interface design and implementation, application frameworks, security, localization and networking. Registration is open now.

The iPhone may be selling great, but there is quite a bit more exciting news for Apple than the iPhone. The amount of Macs sold is up 51%, and the amount of profit from them is 54%, over last year. This is of course in line with the exploding popularity of Macs lately. Apple is not longer a US only affair, as 44% of Apple’s revenue came from international sales.

iPod sales are still high, but seem to be pretty flat. No real growth there. 1% growth in sales, and 8% growth in revenue. Any growth is good though, so it is not like the iPod division is not performing well or anything. The iPod still carries 73% of the MP3 player market.

[Via Apple]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ6JEs5swKg[/youtube]