The Web Services Report

Facebook on Tuesday released version 2.0 of its popular iPhone app (iTunes Store link). This release contains a lot of the functionality that is in the full version of Facebook, making the iPhone version much more attractive. Some key features added include friend requests, notifications, people search, photo tagging/captioning, full News/Mini Feeds, message attachments, and inbox search.

The application, overall, seems to be more snappy and definitely has a better look to it. The inclusion of friend requests and notifications is big here, adding a whole new level of usefulness to the app. People search is also an extremely useful addition to the app, allowing you to find people who aren't already your friends. Additionally, photo tagging is integrated very well and along with captioning, makes the photo uploading part of the app fully functional.

A point of pain and confusion among my friends since Facebook launched their iPhone app has been the lack of message attachments. Messages would not display their attachments, creating miscommunication between those using the iPhone app and those using the browser based version. Thankfully, that issue has been resolved in this update.

This is the version that a lot of people were expecting at launch for Facebook's iPhone app. Many were disappointed by the lack of wall posting (which was quickly added) and other features on day one and this update should do well to satisfy them.

Have you ever been forced away from watching your favorite sports team because of some prior obligation, only to find yourself sneaking away to the nearest TV to check on the score? Well, then ScoreMobile's new iPhone app is for you. Essentially, ScoreMobile has taken its already killer iPhone web app and translated it over to a nice downloadable package. Right now, ScoreMobile offers real-time scores and stats for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAAF, NCAAB, and even CFL for our Canadian readers.

Even though I have dropped a lot of jaws by showing off the instantaneous video highlights that MLB.com's iPhone app provides, it is certainly lacking in the statistics department. ScoreMobile picks up the slack. The application gives live standings, lineups, and a variety of other statistics. Even though it doesn't have video highlights like MLB's app, the statistics provided here are much more robust.

The lack of sports applications that are available for the iPhone is really amazing to me. There is certainly a large market of sports fans out there, waiting to be tapped into. Despite the apparent void of good sports applications, ScoreMobile's app for iPhone is clearly the best available right now. It serves up rich and timely statistics and has a slick UI. The best part is that it's free, so it's worth your click to download it at the very least. You can give it a try here.

One of the most requested features for the iPhone is the ability to tether the phone to feed 3G or EDGE network data to your computer. That feature was briefly a reality Thursday, thanks to Nullriver's NetShare application. MacRumors reports that, priced at $9.99, the application seems to have, somehow, slipped below Apple's radar, but was pulled down after about 20 minutes of availability in the App Store.

The application basically turns your iPhone into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, giving all of your Wi-Fi-enabled devices internet, wherever you have a cell signal. There are similar solutions available for iPhone users who have jailbroken their handsets, but they are significantly more complicated than Nullriver's offering, and since they require a hacked phone, don't hold mainstream appeal.

Wireless carriers have almost always been opposed to tethering smartphones with unlimited data plans. Many telcos even state in your contract that if you tether your phone, you may be responsible for additional fees associated with the data that you use. Of course, for an additional cost, you can tether some phones, such as a Blackberry, but Apple's iPhone doesn't offer legitimate tethering at any cost.

Those of us who were not quick enough to grab the app while it was available on the App Store seem to be out of luck for now. Links to the application now pop up with an error message that reads, "The item you've requested is not currently available in the US store." It's not exactly clear what happened with NetShare, how it slipped through the cracks, or why it was pulled. The app may have accidentally gotten through in the avalanche of new applications that are being added to the store, however it seems unlikely that someone at Apple would have signed off on this app, not knowing what it did. It would appear that either Apple, AT&T, or both had cleared the application, then quickly reconsidered. Apple has not yet responded to a request for a comment on the issue.

Along with over five hundred other applications, Facebook's iPhone app made its debut today. The application gives you easy access to your friend's updates and profiles, along with Facebook Chat and your inbox. Facebook's app also lets you take and upload photos directly to Facebook.

Viewing Facebook photos is really great in this app. They have implemented the same "flick" style of navigation that the iPhone uses and photos flip over to reveal comments. Overall, the UI is pretty intuitive and uses a lot of the same conventions that Apple does. Taking photos and uploading them to Facebook could not be simpler. Just tap the camera icon, take the picture, and tap to upload.

The installed application is a great improvement over the previously released web based version, which does not offer as high a level of functionality or as fluid of an interface. While I was initially skeptical as to the benefits to a standalone Facebook application, as opposed to just using the web based one, features like photo uploading and chat justify its existence.

Facebook has built an extremely slick iPhone application. My first impressions are extremely positive and Facebook has definitely earned a spot on my first page of icons. Its navigation is very fluid and the feature set is complete and easy to use. It was important for Facebook to have an application at launch for the iPhone App Store, with competition coming from a variety of other social networks, MySpace included, so it's good to see them bring such a solid offering to the table.

Baseball fans rejoice. MLB.tv has just debuted a killer iPhone application at WWDC 2008. The application provides live scoreboards, with individual box scores and pitch-by-pitch updates, along with current and constantly updated video highlights, minutes after the play happens.

This application is great for checking in on your team while you're on the go. Instead of being frustrated by not being able to see what your team is up to, MLB.tv's solution puts the whole baseball experience, not just the scores, in your pocket.

This iPhone application looks like it's the best in its class, as far as sports applications go. MLB.tv has been leading the way in streaming sporting events over the Internet. They are continuing their tradition of quality products here.

The development of rich sports applications like this one is nothing but great news for sports fans as others are likely to follow suit. This application is sure to drive more subscribers to MLB.tv's service.

According to the Financial Times, Apple and Fox have reached an agreement to serve up Fox's movies for rental on iTunes. If true, this would mark the first rental deal that Apple has been able to reach with a movie studio. In the past, they have distributed Disney movies online, but only for purchase at a higher price. Rumor has it that Apple has settled on the $2.99 price point for rentals, as opposed to the $9.99 or $14.99 price to own.

The Financial Times further speculates that Apple will make this announcement at Macworld on January 14th. They also report that Apple is also in talks with Sony, Paramount, and Warner Brothers to make their movies available for rental as well.

Apple entering the online movie rental business is big news. I can almost feel Netflix, Amazon Unbox, and Blockbuster shaking from here. Even though their model would be per-movie as opposed to subscription based, you can bet it will still be a success. Apple has effectively crushed the competition in the online music market (which includes several competitors with subscription based models) and they are no doubt looking towards a similar takeover of online movies.

Of course, Apple's giant install base of iPods and iPhones will help their cause here. We may even see a boost in Apple TV sales if their selection of online movie rentals grows. We have yet to see a set top box from Netflix or Blockbuster, but Amazon Unbox struck a deal with TiVo a little while ago to offer up their movie downloads on TiVo DVR's.

Only time will tell how this one is going to turn out, but there are a lot of big players at work here, all with big ideas, so this will be interesting. Is the online video distribution holy grail finally upon us, or does Apple not have what it takes to revolutionize yet another industry?

We have been hearing some grumblings recently from the record labels about iTunes' strong hold on the online music industry. Apparently some of them are complaining about the uniform pricing across all songs and some are unhappy with the use of DRM (Digital Rights Management) on their songs. Well, today we are seeing some of those grumblings take center stage. The New York Times has the scoop that Universal Music Group has decided to not renew their annual contract with Apple to serve up their music on iTunes. Although the article does say that Universal may still offer music on iTunes on a per-artist basis, they won't offer their whole catalog and they can pull out whenever they want since they are no longer under contract.

This is going to be a huge blow to Apple, Universal, and most of all, the consumers. Apple will lose a lot of the business that Universal Music brings in (Universal Music accounts for about a quarter of all music sales). Universal will lose the business that selling their music on iTunes brings. Universal's current estimates are that 15 percent of all of their sales come from online music. Lastly, the consumers will no longer be able to buy Universal's music on iTunes and put it on their iPods. Since the iPod is not compatible with any other online music service, they have nowhere else to turn.

Pulling Universal's entire catalog from iTunes (which I doubt will end up happening) would leave a pretty large void in iTunes' offerings. Universal Music represents artists ranging from Eric Clapton to Nirvana, Hendrix, and Jay-Z. You can check out some of their more notable artists here. This would be really unfortunate for everyone involved. A lot of money would be lost and a lot of music would not be available to those loyal iPod users. Oh and one more thing...one of the bands that launched the iPod and iTunes to new heights with their Vertigo commercial, U2, is also under Universal's label.