On October 31st, Kodak will launch its first new TV brand campaign since 2005 – “It’s Time to Smile” will focus on the moments and relationships that define people’s lives and are captured in photography, via TV and web ads.

Chase Jarvis, a world-renowned commercial photographer, recently launched an iPhone application, book and online photo community to convince everyone that the best camera is the one that’s with you and absolutely anyone can snap a remarkable image.

Bijin-tokei is a Japanese website that photographs girls on the street in real-time and with non-stop updates. Every minute of the hour, cute girls are featured holding up a blackboard with the time written in a white marker.

Yesterday, Rugby debuted its new “Make Your Own” iPhone application at their store Greenwich Village store.

Air Canada recently released a dedicated iPhone app that keeps passengers updated on flight information, makes check-in simple and even allows for an electronic boarding pass displayed on the phone. To update the flight status simply shake the phone and the integrated functionality ensures a smoother departure process. The 2D bar code boarding pass image can be scanned at the airport and other travel information like other flights, renting a car and important travel bulletins are also accessible through the mobile application.
Many airlines have mobile-optimized websites, but this application integrates mobile functionality with a more efficient check-in. [...]

A new iPhone accessory called Square allows users to swipe credit cards through a mini magstripe reader attached to the phone’s headphone jack.  The prototype technology is currently being tested at the Self Edge clothing store in New York and will likely go on sale as more small trendy shops express interest.
The simple application and reader allows employees to enter the amount of the purchase and immediately email the receipt to the customer, complete with geo-tagged information and the signature they managed to scrawl with their finger.  Square takes an unknown percentage of the payment and a fixed fee before [...]

A couple of weeks ago I suggested in a post that the application market could grow to be as large as the web and that we shouldn’t be wondering when the ‘boom’ was going to end. Now, commentators on a panel at the VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference have suggested that the number of apps will grow by 100,000 a year and that in ten years we may see 10 billion mobile applications. The BBC reports:
“Apps will be as big if not bigger than the internet,” according to Ilja Laurs, chief executive of GetJar, a leading independent application store. They will peak [...]

In an effort to streamline some of its governmental bureaucracy, Boston has released the city’s first official iPhone application, allowing citizens to report complaints ranging from broken street lights and potholes to graffiti and downed power lines directly to City Hall. Called Citizen Connect, the mobile application will enable residents to send both pictures and text with a feature that tags the information with location-based GPS. After filing a complaint, users will receive a tracking number so that they can easily follow-up if the problem persists. Though the application has yet to arrive in Apple’s iTune’s store, once it does, [...]

For the 62nd Pecha Kucha Night in Tokyo, game developer Mark Cooke presented the results of a challenge he set for himself: create 10 games in 10 hours. In that time he made games for the iPhone, the web and the Mac. His presentation takes us on a tour of each experiment, revealing exactly what an hour of development time will allow you to design. Fascinating even if you’re not a game designer.

“10 games in 10 hours” Screencast from Mark Cooke on Vimeo.

The total number of downloaded iPhone and iPod Touch applications will pass the 1 billion mark in less than a year. To put that in context – it took Apple over 2 years to to sell 1 billion tunes in a year. Sure, tunes cost and many apps that they approximately 35 million iPhone and iPod Touch users downloaded are free – but it’s still a huge number in a short period of time. Here are the top 10 downloaded paid for and free apps of ‘all time’.
Top Paid Apps:
1. Crash Bandicoot Nitro
2. Koi Pond
3. Enigmo
4. Bejeweled 2
5. iBeer
6. [...]

Probably one of the biggest criticisms that the iPhone gets is that it’s not considered to be the best phone for business. That judgement is based on the comparison on the keyboard and email functionality with the Blackberry. This new iPhone ‘Office’ ad suggests that the App Store might just change our view of the device: while for many of us we find our work days spent sending and receiving missives, Apple reminds us that there’s much more to running a business and the phone “might just have an app” for all those other tasks we should be doing [...]

The massive Coachella festival is coming up next week, featuring an extensive line-up of musicians playing over the course of three days. For attendees daunted by the task of trying to figure out who’s playing where – and when, the Coachella organization has developed an iPhone application that will tell you the exact times and locations of all performances. Interactive maps of the festival will show the best possible routes to pack in as much as possible, and live updates can keep you informed of any delays or changes.  A ridiculously simple idea, but tremendously useful for those looking to [...]