The Apple App Store is open for business

The Apple App Store: now all you need is a iPhone, or iPod touch
The Apple App Store: now all you need is a iPhone, or iPod touch

To prepare for the impending launch of the iPhone 3G (it's tomorrow in case you've been living under a rock for the past month) Apple has released an update for iTunes, iTunes 7.7.

The 48MB download brings with it software for activating the new, spangly iPhone and access to the applications store. Well, it does if you are in the US. We in the UK will have to wait a few hours before the download becomes available to us.

7.7 heaven

Those that have accessed iTunes 7.7 have taken a quick peak at what is to offer in the App Store, and it seems to be a cornucopia of add-on goodness.

Apps include the obligatory games such as Monkey Ball and Bomberman; social networking tools, including Aim, MySpace Mobile and Facebook; and businesses and marketplace apps such as eBay and Yellow Pages.

UK iPhone users will find out in a few hours if the apps available on the UK site are the same, but we reckon that most will be available in both the US and the UK.

UPDATE: The Apple App store is now live in the UK, just go to www.itunes.com/uk to download the latest version of iTunes and get access.

As with the US and Canada, the App Store will offer over 500 native applications from hundreds of companies around the world in a variety of categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.