Apple Inc. confirmed last night that it is now allowing iPhone, iPad and iPod touch developers to build apps that can make Internet calls over a 3G cellular network.

“We revised our Program License Agreement in conjunction with our updated Software Development Kit for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Apps,” wrote an Apple spokesperson.  “Included in this update is the ability for developers to create VoIP apps that utilize cellular networks.”

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol — essentially, Web-based telephony.

As we reported last night, several VoiP apps have been approved for use on the iPhone, including iCall and Fring.

Skype, one of the most popular VoIP applications, said it had a 3G iPhone app ready to go, but wanted to get a couple of service details squared away.

Skype is waiting for Apple to clarify when the new SDK terms of service for iPhone OS 3.2 SDK beta, which were published yesterday, will go into effect for current iPhone users who are still bound under the terms of iPhone OS 3.12 SDK, according to Skype spokesman Chaim Haas.

“As soon as we have that clarification, Skype will submit its application for approval,” Haas wrote.

Apple announced Wednesday that iPad owners will be able to purchase…

We recently looked at the impact of a hard drive upgrade on a desktop PC to find out whether or not it’s worth replacing a three-year-old disk with a brand new one. Our scenario involved the now-common choice of upgrading from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, and starting over with new storage at the same time. We found small benefits on the power consumption side and more noticeable increases on the performance side.

In short, if you intend to make major modifications to your system, then it makes a lot of sense to question your hard drive. Capacity, performance, and power consumption have reached new levels. But what are the results on a mobile machine, where many of those factors end up being multiplied? Can you get noticeably more performance or increase the battery life if you exchange the hard drive?

Desktop drives have marched straight up to 2TB capacities, but progress has been even more extensive on the mobile side. While 2.5” hard drives remain much slower than desktop hard drives, capacities have reached 640GB, and the drives have been more finely tuned for power consumption and efficiency. Additionally, growth in the mobile space has been more substantial than…

Some analysts say that this year will also be the year of the start of a mobile commerce tidal wave. Market researcher Gartner predicts mobile app revenue will hit $6.7 billion this year, up from $4.2 billion last year — and the trend will continue to almost $30 billion in 2013. “Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, researcher at Gartner.

One of the reasons for the money train: slow moving, big brands are finally realizing that the iPhone is a real platform for reaching customers. “Last year has really awoken big brands to deliver an iPhone app,” says Subramanian. “We’re starting to see a lot more movie studies starting to advertise in the iPhone space.”

Games and movies aren’t the only kind of apps evolving. “You’ll start to see apps that really bring enterprise software to the mobile phone, as well as more conference calling and video chatting,” says Subramanian.

According to Gartner, the top 10 mobile consumer app areas for 2012 will be: money transfer, location-based services, mobile search, mobile browsing, mobile health monitoring, mobile payment, near-field communication services, mobile advertising,…

Developers have already started digging into the iPhone OS 3.2 code now that Apple has released the latest SDK in connection with the iPad. There are several hints that increased functionality is on the way in future iterations of the iPhone.

Some of the highlights in the code include ways to accept and decline a video conference, switch a video feed from camera to camera (front and back?), and run a video call in full screen mode or in a window. Could it be that a front-facing camera is on its way to the 4G iPhone for video calling?

The Chinese government won’t limit the use of Google Inc.’s Android operating system for mobile devices by Chinese telecommunications operators, a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spokesman said.

The comments were China’s first official word on the future of the Android operating system since Google’s announcement more than two weeks ago that it will stop obeying government censorship rules on its Chinese search site as a result of concerns over hacking and censorship. The spokesman’s comments suggest the government might be open to letting parts of Google’s business continue to function in China despite that announcement, which Google has said might require it to close its China offices.
As long as it complies with Chinese laws and regulations, and as long as it has good cooperation with operators…their use of the system won’t be limited.” MIIT spokesman Zhu Hongren said Wednesday at an annual news briefing.

There are several Android-based phones already in China, and the country’s three major telecom carriers—all of which are state-owned—are planning more. Last week, Google said it was delaying the planned China launch of two mobile-phone models using Android. The phones, made in partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc., were to be sold with carrier…