GPS

While there's still no turn-by-turn directions app, a very handy GPS app has managed to make it to the app store. It's called GPSKit and it's made by Garafa for $9.99 in the App Store. The app lets you view and customize real time information like the present time, the duration of your trip, it's estimated accuracy, an Odometer, your current and average speeds, and the direction you're moving in, all in real time.

The iPhone SDK currently prohibits the creation of a turn-by-turn GPS app, but MSNBC recently spoke with several GPS manufacturers and despite not being able to give many details, TomTom has once again stated that they are planning to make a turn-by-turn GPS app for the iPhone. Like before, they make the claim that their app is functional and working just fine on an iPhone 3G of their own.

No more than a week after the first beta of firmware version 2.1 being seeded to developers, Apple has seeded a second beta version. The new version reportedly fixes several bugs in the previous version. It also makes mention of the highly anticipated push notification service.

Even before the iPhone 2.0 software was released to the masses, rumors were circulating that 2.0.1 was already in the works. It looks like they have a little more in store than just a routine update, as they have seeded a beta version of iPhone 2.1 Firmware (Beta 1, Build 5F90) to developers.

It seems that some 3G users have been reporting issues with the accuracy of their GPS. One person on the Apple Discussions reported a similar issue, where the device's A-GPS mistakenly locates them miles away from where they are. Discussions user Zlog wrote: “GPS in particular was a problem i had with my wife’s 8GB, as it located us in texas. We’re in Oregon.” If you've experienced a similar problem, read on.

There's been some buzz going around about how Apple isn't allowing location-based applications to access the new A-GPS technology of the iPhone 3G, which TomTom found out the hard way when it turned out that their software would violate the SDK agreement. However, there does seem to be a method to Apple's madness.

Have you ever been worried about accidentally misplacing your iPhone out in that big world out there, and not having any clue where to find it? Now, thanks to a new app by Navizon, you can get a clue, or several, just by texting your phone from another phone. The app is called Mobifindr, and when you send a special text combination to your iPhone via SMS message, the app finds the location of the device using the AGPS and texts the location back to you. Video after the break.