Wide swath of iPhone apps debut at Apple’s conference

SAN FRANCISCO – Taking up a significant chunk of time at Apple Inc.’s WorldWide Developers Conference, Scott Forstall, senior VP of iPhone software, introduced 11 developers and handed over the stage as they demonstrated applications built for the iPhone.

Through the iPhone software development kit and its set of APIs, developers are making use of all of the iPhone’s features to improve their applications.

— Sega of America Inc. re-introduced its Super Monkey Ball game, which it first presented at Apple’s iPhone software roadmap event in February. The developer has built 110 stages for the game, which has a “tremendous amount of content for a handheld game,” Ethan Einhorn said. “The tilt control works beautifully; it’s a fantastic gaming experience.” The game will be available for $10 when the App Store launches.

— eBay Inc.’s Ken Sun demonstrated an application that simplifies the experience for iPhone users. “The iPhone has quickly become the No. 1 device for accessing eBay,” Sun said. The company started working on the application five weeks ago and it will be made available for free when the App Store launches.

— Loopt showcased an application that will also be free when the App Store launches. “We’ve developed for nearly every mobile platform, this one is the best,” Sam Altman said. “We think this is a new era in mobile.”

— TypePad developed a free mobile blogging application that enables users to simply create posts, take photos and upload photos to their blogs. “We’re really excited about the iPhone SDK,” Michael Sippey said.

— Associated Press developed a far-reaching news application it’s calling “the mobile news network,” which enables users to add as many locations or areas of interest they want. Based on the user’s location using GPS, the application will also deliver news pertinent to that user’s current location. It also enables users to send a report directly to AP with a photo if they spot news as it happens. Local news, top news, business, sports and entertainment will all be available on the free application.

— Pangea Software developed a pair of mobile games, Enigmo and CroMag Rally. Enigmo features 40 levels of play and CroMag Rally, a three-dimensional caveman racing game, uses the accelerometer for steering. Both games will sell for $10.

— Cow Music, a solo developer that works full time in the insurance industry, built an application that allows iPhone users to play instruments right from their phone. A piano, funky drummer, 12-bar blues instrument and bass guitar were all showcased to steady, and rising applause.

— MLB.com built an application that includes features it has not made available anywhere else for a mobile platform. MLB.com At Bat shows a complete list of every game and continually updates with information on who’s batting, pitching and more. The application also includes real-time video highlights of games.

— Modality created an application that gives medical students a thorough and detailed guide to the human body that complements their learning experience, Dr. S. Mark Williams said. The application allows students to pinpoint a region of the body and look at hundreds of anatomical images that they can zoom in on and learn more about online. The company plans to make dozens of applications available for the iPhone this year.

–MIMvista built a medical imaging program that allows doctors to show patients targeted radiation treatments and imaging that “removed it from the realm of black art,” Mark Cain said.

— Digital Legends Entertainment spent the last couple weeks developing a fully three-dimensional game that will be available in September. The game took four days to port over while an extra week was spent implementing the iPhone’s various feature sets, Xavier Carrilo Costa said.

— Apple Inc. also introduced a replacement to its .mac service called “mobileme,” which will be available at me.com The service, which isn’t live yet, stores a user’s personal information such as contacts, calendar, e-mail and personal documents “up in the cloud” that automatically synchronizes with a variety of devices. Calling it “Exchange for the rest of us,” Phil Schiller demonstrated how the service pushes information to a PC, Mac and iPhone over the air. The service includes a suite of Web 2.0 applications that mimic a desktop experience with features like drag and drop and more.