Internal Wal-Mart correspondence has confirmed that the iPhone will be sold in Wal-Mart and Sams Club stores starting December 28th.

The Boy Genius Report has received the following information about the Wal-Mart launch:
Wal-Mart will indeed begin selling the iPhone 3G on December 28th in select locations only. When all is said and done, about 2,500 locations will offer the iPhone 3G. Some stores will also be getting live demo units to display just like Best Buy Mobile. What’s more, we’re also now getting word that 69 Sam’s Club locations (locations that use the Wal-Mart ordering system, not the Radio Shack ordering system) will offer the handset as well - also beginning on the 28th.

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We are pleased to announce that Wal-Mart has reached agreement with Apple to offer iPhone 3G in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart-managed Sam’s Club* Connection Centers nationwide beginning December 28, 2008. AT&T will support Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club with the activation process for iPhone 3G, and we need all National Retail employees engaged to ensure a successful launch.

*NOTE: This product launch DOES NOT apply to SC Kiosks within Sam’s Club managed by Radio Shack.

Wal-Mart has communicated the following launch plans and execution timeline to their employees:
- iPhone 3G will be available in-store only beginning 12/28/08
- New and existing customers in good standing can purchase iPhone 3G with a 2 year contract
- iPhone 3G transactions only will be processed through POS.com, not the kiosk

Execution Timeline:
- 12/2 – 12/5: AT&T / Wal-Mart MEM Classroom Training for Store Leads
- 12/3 – 12/19: AT&T In-Store Training
- 12/26 – 12/27: AT&T In-Store Refresher Training
- 12/28: Nationwide Launch
- 12/28 – 12/30: Wal-Mart and AT&T War Room Support

(via iClarified.com & AppleInsider.com)

Wuonm has released a new speed dialer application for the iPhone called FaceCall, which is now available from the iTunes App Store for $2.99.

FaceCall is creates icons that can be used for speed dialing your contacts right from the iPhone’s application launch (home) screen. Simply tapping these icons, as you would launch any application, calls one of your contact favorites.

Launching the FaceCall application itself prompts you to select a contact, then select the phone number you want associated with the icon that will be created. The app then uses Apple’s Web Clips technology to create the icon that becomes your new one-touch speed dial. The picture you choose for the icon comes from either from the iPhone’s camera or photo library.

One disadvantage to the icon creation is that, once the icon is made, you cannot tell which phone number from a contact with multiple numbers the icon represents. So, if a contact has a home, office, mobile or fax, for example you cannot tell which number is being dialed. It might help if the developers added letters to one corner of the icon, e.g. an “M” for mobile. As it stands now, you’ll have a hard time creating multiple icons for a contact with multiple numbers.

The other disadvantage is that the use of Mobile Safari to create the icon isn’t without issues. The 1.2 release states: “No more calls started by mistake from Safari” wasn’t true in our tests. We found that when entering Safari later we often accidently speed dialed someone unintentionally. The app also requires access to Wuonm’s server infrastructure while using Mobile Safari, potentially exposing your personal information albeit briefly in order to complete the process.

Finally the app is a victim of the iPhone OS’ limited ability to manage home screen icons (no categorization, folders, etc.). You can create as many icons as you wish with FaceCall, but if you have a lot of apps on your, adding them to the mix makes things somewhat tedious.

Overall, FaceCall is one of the more useful speed dialers we’ve seen.

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Image via Wikipedia

Adobe and ARM have jointly announced that they are collaborating to optimize and enable Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR for ARM Powered devices.

The collaboration is expected to accelerate mobile graphics and video
capabilities on ARM platforms to bring rich Internet applications and
Web services to mobile devices and consumer electronics worldwide.

This optimization is targeted at the existing ARM11 family (used in the iPhone)
and will be available in the second half of 2009. Details are rather
sparse, though the implication appears to be that this “optimization”
will deliver Adobe Flash to existing mobile devices that are based on
the latest ARM platforms.

[via MacRumors]

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However, its Sunday and there is still no sign of the new version. The ever so resourceful and reliable Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has just provided an update based on what they have heard from a source with knowledge of the situation that the new version of Google’s app will likely be available on the App Store on Monday.

Arrington goes on to add:

“Google was under the impression that the application would be live on the App Store on Friday (obviously, since they pushed all significant press attention to it). Sometime Friday they found out Apple wouldn’t be pushing it, despite the fact that Google submitted it for review earlier in the week and got a thumbs up for Friday. One source says they’ve had little direct contact with Apple during the review, instead getting their updates via the standard iPhone developer tool, which has said “in review” for the last few days.”

The positive thing to take away from all this is that Apple seems to be treating Google like any other iPhone Developer even though Google CEO’s Eric Schmidt is on Apple’s board.

But it also highlights the pitfalls of Apple’s approval process. It is quite embarrassing for a company of Google’s stature to get press attention only to find out that the application is not getting released.

iPhone Developers big or small should ideally get a 24 to 48 hours notice informing them about the expected release date of their iPhone app so they can plan accordingly.

Arrington believes:

“If the application is half as good as the demo video shows, Google has done something pretty amazing with voice recognition and mobile platforms. This application will, quite simply, sell iPhones. Lots of them.”

We agree that it would be amazing if the application works half as good as the demo video but don’t think it will be a feature that will sell iPhones, it would definitely be one of the features in iPhone’s rich feature list, but we should soon see the app for other mobile platforms so it will not be a differentiating factor for long.

As we have mentioned before, though we are excited to hear about the voice search feature; we are not too sure if it is going to be more convenient than typing out the search query. It will probably depend on the accuracy of the voice recognition technology.

It is definitely promising as iPhone Hacks readers Justin and cabbit who have used GOOG-411 mobile service (which voice search is based on) have found it to be very accurate for them, but it will be interesting to see how it works in the international markets as the GOOG-411 mobile service is available only in the US and Canada.

(via iPhoneHacks.com)

Fake Caller by Hot Potato does what it says it’ll do, but the current version has one major flaw. You can set it to ring at a specific time or after a delay of (x) minutes which is great, but the big problem is that the “incoming call” looks nothing like the iPhone’s call screen! Apparently this will be corrected with a pending update, but still… come on! Shoulda been done right the first time around.

Chances are the poor sap you’re fleeing from won’t notice the difference in the call screen, but I’d advise against taking a chance on getting busted. You also have to choose the name of the phantom caller from your Contacts list which limits the goof-potential.

Fake Caller also has a “premium” version for $.99 which gives you the luxury of remembering your fake call settings.

Ok, this one isn’t free but it was when I installed it a few weeks ago.

For some reason Magic Tap makes you go into your iPhone’s Settings menu to set up your fake calls which can be kind of a hassle. When your phone rings it’s totally believable, but my feeling is that setup should have been built into the app itself.

Call timing is currently limited to an interval ranging from 0 seconds up to 10 minutes, and the App Store description lists “get missing calls” and “proximity sensor” as features, but I have absolutely no frakkin’ idea what they’re talking about. One thing Fake Calls does right is it’ll repeat the fake call if you hit “decline”.

Magic Tap says they’re donating “10% of the earnings” to a charity called Mi Sangre Foundation. If you really want to help out, my suggestion would be to give them the full dollar and get a free fake caller!

This one is my personal favorite. It’s ad-supported, but Excelltech, Inc. did a nice job on their free Fake-A-Call. It lets you set a specific time for the fake call to ring, or you can shut the timer off and activate the fake call with a quick double-tap anywhere on the screen. Whether you “answer” the call or decline it, it reverts to a black screen so you can double-tap again if you’re really hamming it up.

The background image has to be chosen from a preset list, not your camera roll, but that doesn’t seem like a big deal to me since the incoming call looks as legit as any. Still, it would be nice if this could be fixed in a future update.

(Click App Store Screenshots for app link)

(via iPhoneAppReviews.net)

We’ve made some decent progress with the iPhone 3G, nothing worthy of a party as yet but we are moving along nicely, we’ll keep you updated on this.

Now for something a bit more serious, we’ve explained about Apple’s updates in the past and we’ve warned against the immediate installation of these updates without knowing what they do to your device.

This is indeed true of the iPhone 3G’s upcoming 2.2 release. Installing ‘2.2’ on the iPhone 3G could affect your chances of any software unlock in the near future (should one be found and released), so when you see an update in iTunes await our instructions first!

Please don’t blindly install the update and then complain about it later

(via iPhone Dev Team Blog)

SBSettings is a replacement for BossPrefs. It moves your important toggles directly into Springboard where they are always available instantly even while other apps are running.

Changes in v1.0:
1) Brightness toggle / slider added

2) Themes added. We now have 8 addon themes. I have selected 2 of these (HUD and Tech Shadows) to be distributed with the core. The rest we can release as theme addons along with the v1.0 release.

3) Dock added. You can add your settings apps to a dock. Then there is a dock button to show the dock and launch your apps. This allows you to clear them off your springboard (like Bossprefs dock).

4) Fully preventing the app from loading while on lock screen. Too many complaints about app being accidentally opened and draining battery or toggling things off.

5) Home button now closes main window in addition to little X that was hard to press. (yes very!)

(via iClarified.com & TheBigBoss.org)

There’s a reason Shazam has 4.5 stars after 1,880 reviews… it kicks ass! We’ve all been in the situation that Shazam is designed to remedy: you’re in a bar or a store or maybe you’re just driving along in your car and you hear a song. You love this song but you have no idea what it’s called or who sings it, and neither do any of the knuckleheads you’re with.

Back in the Stone Age (a couple months ago) you would have spent the next few days humming the song for your friends while they look at you like you’re an idiot, but now all you have to do is whip out your iPhone in mid-song, launch Shazam, tap on “Tag Now”, and wait for it to tell you the artist, song title, album, genre, and it also displays the album cover. It might even find you the music video on YouTube! And of course you can buy the song from iTunes.

Shazam is one of the few apps that belongs on every single iPhone on the planet. It may not recognize 100% of the music you throw at it, but my unscientific estimate is that it’ll tell you what you want to know about 80-90% of the time if what you’re listening to has ever been released on a semi-major record label. It’s even pretty good at sniffing out more obscure titles, but the more obscure the more hit-or-miss your experience will be.

If you listen to music and don’t have this app yet, go get it right now. Seriously, go. Now!

P.S. A little tip: There’s no way to mass-delete tags, so if you want to delete them quickly without opening every single one, just swipe your thumb left-to-right under the time in My Tags. This will bring up a red delete button, but be careful because it doesn’t ask you “are you sure” before deleting.

(via iPhoneAppReviews.net)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I saw an application in Cydia today called Transformer. It is an app that allows you to make your iPod Touch look more like an iPhone. According to the more info, you can add iPhone Prefs, Signal Bars and iPhone Apps (Phone, SMS, Camera) to your iPod Touch. Transformer is available via the ModMyi source.

(via AppleiPhoneSchool.com)