An email has been sent out to developers telling them Apple is now accepting application submissions for the iPad App Store — a special category of the existing iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. 9to5Mac has the text:

iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today. Submit your iPad app now for an initial review by the App Review Team and receive feedback on its readiness for the grand opening. Submit Your App by March 27.

• Build and test your iPad app using iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 available on the iPhone Dev Center. Only iPad apps built with iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 will be accepted for this initial review.

• Upload your distribution signed app through iTunes Connect by Saturday, March 27, 5pm PDT.

• The App Review Team will review your app on iPad and email you details about the readiness of your app.

• You will also receive additional information about submitting your app for final review before iPad ships.

• Only apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.

As TUAW points out, however, there’s some risk involved:

the simulator uses many Macintosh frameworks and libraries, offering features that are not actually present on the iPhone. Applications that appear to be completely operational and fully debugged on the simulator may flake out or crash on the device itself. You simply cannot fully debug any program solely by using the simulator and be assured that the software will run bug-free on the iPhone. Here at TUAW central, we’re assuming (or at least hoping) that Apple will be testing device builds on real devices.

+1 to that. It would no doubt annoy users not to have iPad-specific apps available on April 3. I would annoy them more if those apps crash due to never being tested on, you know, the actual iPad hardware they’re supposed to run on…

Apple iTunes App Store: Now Accepting iPad Apps! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Square-Enix has been quite busy developing for the iPhone/iPod touch with the recent release of both Final Fantasy 1 and 2, and now Chaos Rings.

Make no mistake, this is no Final Fantasy but if you love turn-based battles it does look very promising. No official release date or price has been mentioned but we will be sure to fill you in on the details as they are released.

Check out the full trailer after the break and let us know what you think!

Square-Enix Shows Off New iPhone RPG – Chaos Rings is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Live from GDC 2010, Rene talks to Bob Koon of Binary Hammer about the Creature24 project that tried to make a complete, polished iPhone game in 24 hours.

The goal of Creature24 was to create a real, polished iPhone game in 24 hrs, transparently on the internet. They didn’t make their deadline, but were valiant in the attempt. They’re going to complete the game, and perhaps do an iPad version of the challenge (with a slightly expanded time limit) next year.

Watch along after the break!

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 5.5: Creature24 (GDC 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

According to Patently Apple, Apple is laying the foundations for a potential iGroups app that would allow like-minded iPhone (or iPod touch and iPad users, presumably) to set up MobileMe-powered social networks at events like WWDC (Apple’s yearly World Wide Developers Conference).

The idea is to allow groups of friends or colleagues attending such events as a concert, a tradeshow, business meeting, wedding or rally to stay in communication with each other as a group to share information or reactions to live events as they’re occurring. The technology behind the new iGroup social networking applications works with a very sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy of your communications. Interestingly, the patent states that if one of the devices in your group happens to be without true positioning technology, it appears that Apple’s MobileMe service will provide some sort of “virtual GPS” capability to that user so that they could be aware of the locations of others in the group. Apple’s patent provides us with example scenarios of both a concert and WWDC event to clarify the service. This marks Apple’s fourth social networking application made public since the start of 2010 – which clearly indicates that Apple now has this hot new sector in its crosshairs.

As with anything Apple patent-related, whether or not it ever makes its way in front of consumers is anyone’s guess. Still, this looks interesting and given how other companies and devices are embracing the social experience, it’s something Apple has to be paying attention to.

You want?

Apple Developing iGroups Social Networking App for iPhone? — Patent Watch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

NAVIGON’s new MyRegion is a customizable version of their turn-by-turn MobileNavigator app for iPhone that basically lets you buy just the navigation you need, when you need it, and expand via in-app purchase later.

Three “regions” are available in the US — Western [iTunes link], Central [iTunes link], and Eastern [iTunes link]. Each region is currently on sale for $24.99 until April 12, at which point they’ll be regularly priced at $29.99. Getting an additional region via in-app purchase will cost $12.99 on sale ($14.99 regularly).

What’s included?

NAVIGON MyRegion includes all the features and capabilities as MobileNavigator 1.4 plus NAVIGON MyRoutes. This new feature will be added to MobileNavigator North America via an upcoming update to 1.5.0 due this spring. NAVIGON MyRoutes is an industry first feature that learns from the users driving style to provide customized and better route recommendations. The feature also offers up to two alternative routes clearly displayed on a map including ETA, distance and driving time. This lets user choose the route that best serves their individual situation.

If you don’t already have MobileNavigator and on-board maps are a must-have but not necessarily a have-all, give MyRegion a shot and let us know what you think!

NAVIGON Brings MyRegion Turn-by-Turn Navigation to iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Rene talks to Marc Edwards of Bjango about iStat [$0.99 on sale - iTunes link] for iPhone, iPod touch, and… iPad!

iStat lets you monitor the resources on your iPhone, including voice and data usage, RAM, storage, networking, up time, processes, and more, and remotely monitor resources for your Mac, Linux, or Solaris server. Additional tools include ping and traceroute. If you want to sit on the sofa and watch your octocore’s CPU’s to see when that big transcode or render is done, or if you want to try and narrow down a problem on your server floor from the coffee shop, give iStat a shot and let us know what you think.

Note: If you’re a fan of iStat Menus on the Mac, they’re running a poll [Google Spreadsheet link] on future versions so head on over and let them know what you think about price points and features.

Watch along after the break!

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 5.4: iStat for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has released iPhone 3.2 SDK Beta 5 for iPad and developers can commence their downloads via developer.apple.com.

As always, it will take the deep code divers some time to figure out exactly what’s different in beta 5, and let us know about any hidden goodies that might be inside.

Apple Releases iPhone 3.2 SDK Beta 5 for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Once you downloaded and opened an issue, you are presented with a table of contents. Tap the section you want to read. Depending on the section there are links to pictures, video and font size. Rotate your device to landscape and you are given a virtual representation of the print issue. You can use the slider on the bottom to navigate. I really like this feature, you get the best of both worlds; portrait for an optimized iPhone view and rotate for magazine view.

I am impressed with this effort on the iPhone and I am looking forward to an iPad version. Check after the break for more pics!

Quick App: GQ Magazine is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

MacRumors reports on an email being sent to users of Apple’s iWork.com document sharing site that outlines a few updates to the service, including one for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad:

Refined user interface. A redesigned Sign In and Shared Documents page for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch makes it easy to access your documents while on the go. The new interface and improved scrolling help you find your shared documents faster. Visit www.iwork.com from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to view your shared documents.

iWork.com has been in beta since it was introduced at Macworld 2009 and it’s still unclear exactly how much effort Apple is putting into it compared to say iWork touch recently unveiled for the iPad, and whether or not Apple will ever release full-on Web App versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to compete with Google Docs and Microsoft’s new Office 2010 Online.

If you use iWork.com, let us know what you think of the changes.

Apple Updates iWork.com with Better Interface for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Live from GDC 2010, Rene talks to Baudoin Corman and Sanette Chao from Gameloft about Nova [$4.99 - iTunes link], Rayman 2 [$6.99 - iTunes link], GT Racing [$4.99 - iTunes link], Avatar [$6.99 - iTunes link] and many more [iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch… and soon for iPad!

Gameloft really wants to offer highly polished games and the highest quality gaming experience in every genre and to every type of gamer. for 2010 they’re, already showing off Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, Fisher Kings, Zombie Infection, and no doubt much more — including iPad specific versions of some of their titles that better make use of the bigger screen. (As seen during Apple’s iPad event).

For a large company, Gameloft has proven time and again they can react quickly to take advantage of new developments in the iPhone OS and whole new platforms like the iPad. It will be interesting to see what else they have planned for us in 2010. Fun too.

Watch along after the break!

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 5.3: Gameloft (GDC 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog