iPhone 3G tomorrow, but today… App Store!
The iPhone 3G will be finally be available Friday morning when the sun shines on New Zealand at 8 o’clock in the morning. Then following the terminator across the globe, Apple Stores will open their doors at 8 am in their respective time zones. New iPhones and iPod touches will be pre-loaded with the App Store. However, if you already have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can get the iPhone 2.0 software update today and start using native apps without jailbreaking your device! This firmware update is free for iPhones, and $9.99 for iPod touch.
The App Store is where you will find native apps to download to your device. The App Store officially launched this morning with over 552 applications available, of which 135 of them are free. The remaining pay for apps range from 99 cents to $69.99. The apps fall into categories like games, business, sports, education, music, productivity, travel, social networking, news, and many more. Apple will be adding apps to the App Store almost daily. Read on to find out how to get access to the App Store and start downloading apps today.
To get apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, you will need the latest version of iTunes (v7.7) so that you can get the firmware 2.0. Go download the latest version of iTunes, or wait until your current version of iTunes does its “check for updates” and finds the new version. Many people are reporting that their current iTunes is not updating yet. If this is you, then you can go to this link to download the latest iTunes directly.
Once you install iTunes 7.7, fire it up and tether your device to your computer. You will need the latest firmware update in order to get the apps from iTunes onto your device. Apple’s official release date for the firmware is July 11th, but they are not saying what time it will be available. Once it is officially released, you will see the update in iTunes, so simply accept that and your good to go.
If you have an iPhone and simply cannot wait until tomorrow, you can get the new firmware early by following these instructions. Note that this will only work for iPhone and not iPod touch.
After you have the new firmware, you can download apps by tapping the App Store icon on your springboard. Or, you can go to the App Store section of your iTunes desktop software that you just downloaded. The App Store link should appear in the left sidebar of iTunes, however, many users are reporting that this does not appear for them. This is probably a bug that will get fixed shortly. If you are one of these people that doesn’t see App Store in your new iTunes, then follow this link to go directly to the App Store.
Add a comment (6 so far)
Have purchesed a solitare game on the new app for iTouch. Cannont for the life on me get it on my touch. Don’t seem to have a app tap in the device menu.?
While it’s connected to your computer, in iTunes select your iPod and go to the “Applications” tab. From there you should see your downloaded apps and you can choose to sync them.
@Diane, make sure you have the 2.0 update on your touch first!
Then, under your ipod touch settings scree in itunes, a new Applications tab will be there where you can check the app you want to sync.
i bought the texas holdem app from the apps store on my ipod touch and it is stuck loading it up……i bought it a day ago and it is still stuck
also, my ipod was jailbroken, and when i got the new 2.0 update, it took all of the jailbreak software off of my ipod
JR I updated my touch to 2.0 and works great!! Thank you so much for the tip