Verizon Wireless is rumored to begin selling iPhone next year.

Earlier this month, some persistent rumors have surfaced pointing to Apple's move to make a version of the iPhone available in the Verizon Wireless' network. The move is mainly a response to the growing threat posed by Android, the Google smartphone heavily promoted by Verizon Wireless and which took over the iPhone in the last quarter, as the best selling phone in the market.
Apple plans to begin mass producing the new iPhone by the end of the year, and it would be released in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal. The phone would resemble the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T, but would be based on an alternative wireless technology used by Verizon, still according to the Journal.

For more, see WSJ.com

eBay's Half.com iPhone app lets students compare prices and shop for discounted texbooks.

Just in time for the new school year, eBay is venturing into mobile textbooks sales with the launch of a new iPhone app developed by the discount site Half.com that eBay bought in 2003.
Using barcode scanning technology, the app allows users to scan the barcodes on items to find the best deals on texbooks, DVDs, books, video games and more with discounts of up to 50 percent or more off retail prices according to techcrunch.
With the emphasis on textbooks, the app contains access to 80 million active listings from more than 700,000 sellers still according to techcrunch. Users can search items based on set criteria such as condition or seller feedbacks and share deals via Facebook and Twitter.

For more, see techcrunch.com

PayPal new iPhone app to facilitate mobile donations and check deposits.

Following the lead of its parent company eBay recent push into the world of mobile apps, PayPal has been putting a lot of emphasis in its iPhone and Android apps as more features are added.
The latest addition is Bump technology which allows users to transfer money and initiate transactions by simply smartphones together. With the next generation of the app for the iPhone, PayPal plans to add the possibility for users to make donations to their favorite charities directly from the app. To reach that goal, PayPal has partnered with 20,000 different charities.
Another interesting feature to be incorporated in an upcoming version of PayPal’s iPhone app is one that will save you the trip to the ATM or bank. When you receive a check, you’ll be able to take a picture of the front and back of a check and and PayPal will deposit the amount from the check’s account into your PayPal account.

We quoted Techcrunch who said that PayPal next generation iPhone app is to be released within a few months.


For more, see techcrunch.com

Field Agent is an app that pays you to do different tasks.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, developers have rushed to come up with all kind of apps that cover the whole rainbow from the very useful to the very silly and useless. Some are free and will probably remain so for lack of a market willing to pay for it, and some cost a fee to download.
Now enters a new app called Field Agent that is free to download but even more, promess to pay you as you use it. Well, sorta, since the pay is not tied to the use of the app per say.
What the app does, is to pull some location based tasks that willing users can sign up to do and get paid for their efforts.
According to the New York Times, they are not even worth doing unless you find yourself in or near the location where the task in hand is to be performed. Generally the tasks consist of filing out a survey, checking the prices of certain products in a store, or taking the picture of products on store' shelves and the pay is around $2 in most cases.

For more, see NYTimes.com