App Store

Sometimes you can't be in a place where you get to see fireworks on the Fourth of July — or like me, you're in a place so foggy all you'll see is some colored clouds.

So no matter where you are this Independence Day, get your dose of exploding pyrotechnics with the free Handmarks Fireworks App.

Pick one of your own photos as a background (or use one of four preprogrammed images), grab some music, and then let 'er rip.

Swipe the fireworks with your fingers to manipulate them and be mesmerized as you get your own private show, courtesy your iPhone.

Amazon may staunchly stand by its policy of not censoring its Kindle offerings (never mind that one incident), but Apple, however, behaves differently. Developers must go through a review process to get their apps approved; Apple bans certain things that it deems low-quality or inappropriate — like apps that lack usefulness, creativity, or effort, or ones that are too racy.

But do you think Apple should extend its guidelines to keep other types of apps out as well, such as discriminatory or potentially dangerous ones? Just this week, outraged users successfully fought to ban an app from Christian group Exodus International that said it could cure homosexuality, and senators are demanding that apps that tell you where DUI checkpoints are located should be taken down.

Read what I think about these controversial apps after the break.

Apple has been mostly absent from Twitter save a few accounts and its recent Ping integration, but it has just added an official AppStore account promising followers app spotlights and special deals.

The account, @AppStore, only started posting yesterday, but already tens of thousands of people have elected to follow the account, and its follower count is growing fast. With so many apps crowding the market, it'll be helpful for Apple to use this account as a platform for featuring its favorites that may otherwise be buried elsewhere.

As Apple approached its 10 billionth app download, it announced a large prize for the person who downloads the milestone app: a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Late last week, Apple hit the mark, and when the VP of iTunes tried to contact the winner, Gail Davis of the UK, she thought it was a sales call and hung up the phone.

Luckily, an Apple representative was able to reach the winner, who realized her daughters had downloaded the fateful app (free game Paper Glider). The family plans to spend the $10,000 on more apps. (Side note: I wonder if that is even possible.)

Davis says, "The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity."

Apple is counting down to its 10 billionth app download, and if you're the lucky user who downloads app No. 10 billion, Apple plans to reward you — with a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

The App Store hit its impressive 1 billionth app download in April 2009, just nine months after the store's inception. In the not-quite two years since, the store has grown by leaps and bounds and is now on target to hit the billionth download soon!

If you're not an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad user, you can actually still win the contest (I assume it's a legal thing) by filling out and submitting a form to Apple. Submitting it at the exact time that the 10 billionth app is downloaded will net you the prize, too!

The official Google Voice for iPhone app hit the App Store in November, and now Google has added support for the iPod Touch and iPad, bringing both devices thisclose to standing in for your cell.

The new app allows users to send and receive free text messages and initiate calls by designating which phone they'd like to use; Google Voice then rings that phone and connects the call. So, while it's not a stand-in for a phone, it's very, very close.

Google included a few more features in the app update, including a new Do Not Disturb setting to send all calls to voicemail, faster and easier access to all of your contacts when dialing, and faster, more streamlined text messages. The app and update are available now for free in the App Store.

Apple released a statement outlining its updated rules and guidelines for app developers this week, which relaxed some restrictions on the company's app approval system. It also gave some tips on what not to submit to the app store — Chatroulette and fart apps being two examples.

The good news is, this opens up some new opportunities for iOS app developers, including the previously rejected Google Voice apps. Will iPhone and iPod Touch users finally get a dedicated Google Voice app to use? A recent tweet from one developer gives us hope. Find out more after the break.

During last week's presentation, Steve Jobs lauded the successes of iTunes, noting that soon more music will be digitally downloaded via iTunes than purchased on CDs (hence the logo change). But, a new graph comparing the amount of songs downloaded to the amount of apps downloaded from the iTunes store paints a shocking picture; by the end of this year, there will be more app downloads than song downloads.

Find out why this is happening after the jump.