Web

MacRumors reported this week that Apple, in a major policy shift,  has approved third-party web browsers and utilities and that the iTunes store has begun making them available.

I've heavily updated my latest Web browser roundup & comparison (which, incidentally, has been frontpaged at WM Power User and MobilitySite in the meantime) with, among other things, a straightforward Verdict section and a lot of more info. 

As much as I like the App Store, it's not always easy to find what you're looking for. So now Apple has introduced a new web site, iPhone Your Life, that helps you identify useful applications to get the most out of your iPhone — whether you're looking for local information, traveling, playing games, trying to organize your life more efficiently, or needing help on the home front.

The new voice feature of Google Mobile is pretty cool, but so far it seems like it's recognizing my queries only about 10 percent of the time. I found that if I make the query very simple -- like one word -- it seems to work better. Yet I got a result when I said "Weather in Fairfield, Iowa." When I saw the blog item by Matt Cutts on tips for using Google Mobile, I got excited, thinking he'd have tips for improving accuracy. But mostly he deals with other things.

The universe of web sites custom-tailored to the small screen of the iPhone continues to grow. Some of these can be found in the Dribbr directory of web apps and iPhone-optimized web sites.

I'm writing this post on an iPhone... not a real phone, but a simulated one that appears on my MacBook screen. it's about 50% larger than actual size, and it's very shiny and realistic looking. But most importantly, it looks and acts just like a real iPhone when it runs Safari.

I'm new to the iPhone and iPod Touch, so please let me know if I'm missing something obvious... but I just found that one of Apple's Web sites -- a site targeted to iPhone/iPod users -- crashes the mobile browser.  (I have already reported this problem to Apple.)