Gizmodo has an interesting article about Apple’s AppStore and how, and why, certain applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch (right) are rejected — or not.

Apple is claiming that it hasn’t actually rejected the Google Voice application. It’s still “studying” it, the company claims. Does anyone else actually believe this? There’s no reason for Apple to “study” a proposed application for months — either it meets the criteria or not. Certainly, Google Voice meets all relevant criteria. It’s obvious that Apple just doesn’t want competition for potential voice applications from partner AT&T on this.

Shame on you, Apple and AT&T. Do the right thing and approve Google Voice. Let the market determine the success or failure of an application — and make the iPhone, the greatest gadget of all time, even more useful for consumers. Stop denying your user base access to this technology. Now.

If you’re going to the ocean or other beach later this summer, you will of course be bringing a camera, right? Well, you can bring a camera that’s not only waterproof, but made to be under the water. How cool is that?

It’s the SeaLife DC800 Underwater Digital Camera, and has a lot for a price I thought would be higher. To start with, it’s been tested down to 200 feet. That won’t get you to the bottom of the ocean, but will work great for snorkeling, lakes and so on. It has a rubberized exterior to protect against water and other hazards.

The camera itself is 8 megapixels, which should produce sharp images. It also has color correction for underwater shooting, and a fast shutter to capture photos of Nemo and Dory. If you feel the urge, the DC800 can also shoot video with sound. One sort of hidden advantage of a camera like this is that it should be very durable. It’s meant to go underwater, so rain or snow won’t damage it, and the rubber housing should make it durable.

Just make sure you wear sunscreen on the beach!

If you like to shoot lots of video and love the look of high-definition, but don’t like transferring video to your computer constantly, Sony may have made the perfect camcorder for you: the Handycam HDR-XR520V.

The first thing you notice about the 520V is the size of the hard drive: 240GB. That means that at the highest resolution — 1920 X 1080 — you could shoot more than 29 hours of video. That’s staggering for a camera of this size. Most camcorders in this class are lucky to have half that size drive (and, in fact, its little brother, the 500V, has exactly that). And you can add even more than that with a memory stick.

The camcorder features other very nice specs, including 12x optical zoom (which is much better, and clearer, than electronic zooms) and optical image stabilization (again, superior to electronic image stabilization.) That’s a big zoom range, and allows you to get in very close.

It even has a built-in GPS to track your location and electronically tag where you shot your videos. Frankly, I’m not sure about the value of a feature like this in a camcorder, but it’s there if you want it. It just doesn’t seem, to me, to be a needed feature.

The downside of all this is the price. It’s more than $1,000, and the 500V isn’t that much less. If you’re a weekend warrior-type shooter, and want to take vacation and birthday videos, you can get very nice camcorders for considerably less. If you shoot a lot, however, and value HD a lot, this is worth a look.

We pretty much all love our iPhones, right? And now that I’ve had mine for about a year now (no, I didn’t sing Happy Birthday to my phone, in case you’re wondering), I thought it might be a good time to go over my favorite apps. If you’re like me, you have a lot of apps, but there are some you keep returning to again and again. Here’s my list.

Google for iPhone is at the top of my list. I use the voice search functionality often, and it’s a serious time (and typing) saver. I also have a gmail account (free Google e-mail). In addition, there is a calendar, Google Docs, an RSS reader, and more. My iPhone’s Swiss Army Knife.

AP Mobile is up next. I check the news often, and the AP is my primary source. This app has improved over time, allowing a lot of customization, local news, a technology category (you can imagine I spend some time there) and more.

Clock. This built-in app is one I bet many people overlook, but I’ve come to rely on the alarm clock functionality. I use it a lot since I’ve discovered it — one of the things I like best is that you can set different alarm sounds, the same way you can set ring tones. Instead of the hated buzzing of most alarm clocks, I have it set to graceful bells. It’s a nicer way to wake up.

Recorder. This is a voice-recording app that’s come in handy numerous times. In my day job as a magazine editor, I’ve used it time and again to record phone interviews. The digital clarity is quite good compared to my old, trusty (and revered) Radio Shack microcassette recorder, and since I have a 16GB iPhone, hard drive space to record conversations has never been an issue.

Fieldrunners. I have a number of games on my iPhone, but this is by far the one that has wasted the most of my time. It’s absolutely addicting. Fieldrunners is a tower defense game; you need to stop the baddies from getting through to your base by blocking their way through a series of towers. The towers can be filled with machine guns, missiles, electricity-generating machines, and more. I’m actually not much of a video/computer game guy, but this one keeps me coming back.

Well, there’s five iPhone faves. What are some of yours? Comment below.

For you pet lovers who can’t stand not knowing how Snowball’s doing without you, or wondering if your babysitter does nothing but eat your food and text her girlfriends, Panasonic has a gadget just for you: the BL-C131A PetCam Network Camera.

The PetCam is called a “Network Camera” because it connects directly to the Internet. That means you don’t have to hook it to a computer to use it. Access to a Web browser at the mall or on your smartphone will get you access to the video from this camera.

The PetCam can pan (move left and right) and tilt (up and down), and re-focus on any part of the picture. It has the ability, via a Privacy mode, to be controlled only by you (should a hacker, for instance, gain control through the Internet). It can also be set to record at a certain time of day.

One of its coolest features, for my money, is the built-in heat sensor. Through this technology, the PetCam can sense when a person or animal enters the room in which it’s located, and start taking pictures. Perfect for making sure Tommy’s doing his Geometry homework, or letting you observe in full color as Scruffy, the 210-pound Mastiff, devours the leftovers off the kitchen table that Tommy forgot to put away — again.

Works for me.

The rumors are flying fast and furious that the popular iPod Touch — essentially, the phoneless version of the iPhone — may be getting a camera upgrade.

According to the Website TechCrunch, Apple has placed a massive order in Asia for camera modules of the type that would fit the Touch.

Other circumstantial evidence is starting to crop up, too, such as new Touch cases that have a camera lens-sized hole in the back, and other rumors. Keep in mind that this is all speculation, and based on non-direct evidence. The amount of information coming out, however, lends weight to such speculation.

The Touch coming with a camera would be great news, and bring it even closer to the functionality of the iPhone. We’ll update you when we have more.

You know, it’s not a requirement to have a smartphone to play movies and music — I just thought I’d mention that, since there’s such a mad rush to buy those phones nowadays. But cheaper options do exist, and they can be much cheaper and offer quality that’s as good as, or better than, their smartphone counterparts.

Case in point: the Archos 605 media player. While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of an iPhone or Palm Pre for example, it does what it does very well, and with no monthly service contract. It’s not trying to be a phone: it knows what it is, and is comfortable with that. I like gadgets without an inferiority complex.

The Archos can be had for as little as $120.  For that you get a 4.3-inch TFT LCD screen with a resolution of 800×480. Compare that to the iPhone’s resolution of 480×320, and you can see that the Archos provides a better experience for viewing movies and videos.

The MP3 player plays all the standard music formats, and the Archos has a built-in external speaker. That helps if you don’t have headphones handy (although you probably don’t want to spend a lot of time listening to music or movies on that tiny speaker).

The Archos also includes wi-fi capability, and you can buy an Opera Web browser plug-in for the unit. That allows you to surf through the Archos portal for entertainment to download. One nice touch offered by the gadget is a fold-out kickstand, which allows you to sit the player upright for watching video. That’s a thoughtful addition, and something more media player manufacturers should do.

The Archos has been out for several years now, meaning it lacks that “Wow” factor that some folks just have to have. If you can live without that, and just need a good, basic media player, this may be your thing.

A week ago, I wrote about an issue related to the brand-new Palm Pre smartphone. A reviewer said the Pre had a dangerous bottom lip that was quite sharp and could end up cutting users. Of course, I had to find this out for myself. So I headed down to my local Sprint store and had an extensive demo, playing with the Pre for quite awhile. Here’s my own take on the phone, and how it compares to my beloved iPhone.

First, I’ll address the issue that raised my eyebrows at first: that bottom piece of the phone. You can’t feel the dangerous lip when the phone is closed; it’s only when you slide down the keyboard that you notice that sharp edge. It’s at the bottom of the keyboard when opened.

Is it dangerous? Yes, I believe it will end up possibly cutting you occasionally. But I have to say that I don’t think it’s as big a deal as the reviewer said. Although the reviewer used the edge to cut cheese, the phone does have to held at an unusual angle to expose that edge, one that I don’t think will happen that often. That said, yes, it is very sharp indeed. I wouldn’t let me younger children play with it, for example, the way they can play with my iPhone, with its completely rounded edges.

The Pre has a nice feel in the hand — it’s slightly smaller than the iPhone, and curved to fit a palm nicely. The screen is bright, although smaller than the iPhone. It also has several items that the current iPhone lacks (although the iPhone 3GS will fix some of these shortcomings): namely, a physical keyboard and video capability.

I’m afraid the Pre’s keyboard disappointed me. It’s tiny; I mean really, really tiny. For me (and I have pretty small fingers for a guy my size), typing on it was a miserable experience; I much prefer my iPhone’s onscreen keys. There is a tactile feel, but it would take me a long time to get used to the cramped confines of the keyboard on this phone. Still, if you must have a  physical keyboard, this has one.

I didn’t try the video camera, but I’m told it works well (that’s another feature coming to the new iPhone). Swiping and moving around on the screen was much like using my iPhone; I did like the fact that you can have multiple applications open at one time on the Pre, something else you can’t do with the current iPhone. One worry is that the Pre application store doesn’t have many apps available yet; I’m sure that as the phone’s popularity grows, so will the store.

Overall, I like the Pre, but the drawbacks of the sharp edge and miniscule keyboard will keep from being an owner. For a first-generation phone, however, Palm has done a great job. It’s good to have more competition in the smartphone race.

This is disturbing, to say the least: the Palm Pre smartphone debuting Saturday, which has gotten so much good press (including on this blog), has a significant drawback which I urge you to consider if you’re looking at buying one — one of the edges is sharp, maybe even dangerously so.

While cruising the gadget site Gizmodo, I came across a very thorough review of the Pre. Although largely positive, the reviewer mentioned the very sharp bottom edge of the phone. Says the reviewer:

“If you’re pushing up screen from the bottom of the phone, as you’d instinctively want to do, prepare to get sliced. It’s just that irresponsibly sharp.”

“Prepare to get sliced”? Are you kidding me? And to demonstrate the sharpness, he does a video demonstration by cutting a block of cheese with the phone. Amazing.

This is beyond stupid; if true, this is negligent, and will likely result in lawsuits. Yes, I said it and meant it. Palm, you’re in big trouble if this is as dangerous as the reviewer claims. People, including children, could get hurt with this edge. This one terrible flaw could also kill sales outright.

In my mind, it doesn’t matter a whit if it’s the best phone on the market in every other way; if this is a real issue, I would recommend in the strongest terms to stay away from the Pre. If you test it out, make sure you’re careful, and pay extra attention to the allegedly sharp bottom edge.

I’m going to try and get hold of one myself on Saturday; I’ll report more on it then.

You know about the iPhone and App Store. But the iPhone, despite my proclaiming it the best gadget of all time, still does have some shortcomings (I said it was the best gadget, not the perfect gadget!)

For those looking for a few different capabilities from the iPhone, but still want third-party (i.e. not made by the vendor) application availability, consider an Android phone, like the T-Mobile G1. Android refers to the operating system that runs the phone, which was developed by Google.

Like the iPhone, the Android phone has a touch screen. Unlike the iPhone, the G1 has a pull-out physical keyboard. That’s something that may appeal to those who don’t like the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard.

Also like the iPhone, the G1 has 3G (high-speed) and wi-fi access. The most iPhone-like capability is the Android Market, which is similar to the App Store, with a wide range of applications of all kinds available — some free, some for a fee, just like the iPhone. Be aware, however, that the range of apps available is much smaller than the iPhone’s ginormous offerings.

The other major differences between the G1 and iPhone are that the G1 has a higher resolution camera (meaning sharper pictures), and less storage space. The G1 comes with a 1GB MicroSD-card slot, and the ability to get storage cards up to 8GB. The iPhone starts at 8GB, with a 16GB model available. So the iPhone has much more built-in storage, while the G1 can add more — but only if you’re willing to swap cards in and out; not a savory option for most.

The G1 also has a music player, although without the iPod’s elegance and functionality. The G1 is slightly less expensive than the iPhone, too — it’s $179 with a two-year plan, while the 8GB iPhone is $199 and the 16GB $299 with an equivalent plan.

In all, the G1 is a worthy phone, giving much of the functionality of the iPhone and a few things not offered on Apple’s gadget, especially if you like physical keyboards. It’s worth your time to consider both when phone shopping.