Another change to the App Store that occurred over the weekend was the reordering of applications so that "Release Date" refers to when the app was first released, instead of when the last update was released.

Old App Store List

Here is another, slightly annoying (and hopefully temporary) change to the App Store. As you can see, the old left hand sidebar used to include links to view all applications, and then to separate those designed specifically for the iPod Touch and iPhone.

New App Store List

However, the new sidebar seems to have disposed of these links and just shows the list of categories, with apparently no way of viewing all apps.

We can only hope that this is a temporary change and that it gets fixed quick - it's handy being able to view all apps on one page.

Last.fm is a fantastic online service that monitors (scrobbles) the music you play through iTunes, and updates your profile with the latest song information. It then builds on this data by notifying you of trends - who you listen to most, what your favourite genres are etc. and goes a step further to suggest other artists you may like.

Last.fm itself, the website, has just been redesigned and lives up to a very high standard that could draw many similarities to Facebook. The desktop app is also very well designed, keeping the interface simple, only showing what is needed and nothing more. The desktop app also ensures that what is important - the song information - is clearly and prominently displayed.

That's why when the original Last.fm iPhone App was released, it had a lot to live up to. The original was good, but not amazing, with quite a few features missing, and a less than smooth interface.

However, almost all of the faults of the original have now been eliminated with the latest release of Last.fm for iPhone:

• Major improvements to the user interface all around (tap to zoom album art)
• Ability to tag songs
• Personal tag radio
• Calendar based events view
• Common artists when viewing a user profile
• Lots of other usability and back-end updates

Tag Songs

Probably the most requested feature of the original app was the ability to tag songs. You can now tag any song with as many tags as you wish, and are greeted with an instant search that autofills with suggestions for tags. You can also start a new "station" based on any tag you wish. This is brilliant - they have taken user requests seriously, and not just delivered on them, but have exceeded expectations.

Cover Art Zoom

A nice little UI feature has been added on the "Now Playing" screen - the ability to double tap and zoom in or out of the album art. Simple but sweet.

Beautiful Startup Screen

Normally, waiting for an app to start is an arduous task. However, with Last.fm, the start screen is truly attractive - black to dark grey gradient, with Last.fm prominently displayed in the centre in crisp white. There is also a subtle loading animation - the "as" of Last.fm (and AudioScrobbler) winds around to indicate the app is working. First impressions count, and this is probably the most understated attractive loading screen of any app I have used.

Calendar View

A new view for the Events screen is Calendar View. Essentially this is the same as month view in iCal, and it makes perfect sense to put it here. You can now easily see any upcoming events of the selected artist by simply browsing over a calendar view.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and highly recommend you try out Last.fm for iPhone. Best of all, it's free, so what excuse could you possibly have!

You could also read Last.fm's official release post here.

Download Last.fm from the App Store.

Both developers and consumers on the iPhone App Store will be glad to hear some good news coming out of Cupertino today: you can't review an app until you've purchased it.

This is great, especially for apps that have a high price tag (or even any price tag) as the reviews section would often become filled with users complaining and giving low ratings for the app due to its price without ever having used the app whatsoever.

This is a small step, but it's good to see Apple adjusting to the way the app store is used.

Now, all you need to do now Apple is to help out those poor developers that spend months working on apps simply to be turned down at the last hurdle because it competes with your own plans.

Our first iPhone App Review is actually a web app, designed to run in Safari on the iPhone. Google Talk for the iPhone is something that everyone should have saved to their home screen, for those frequent occasions when 'MobileChat' fails to function correctly.

Delivered in a very simple, clean, quick to load interface, Google Talk allows you to send and receive instant messages in chat sessions with your contacts just like within Google Talk on the desktop. Moving between multiple open chats is very easy and status updates and contact searching have also been brought onto the iPhone for a very full featured web app.

We use it whenever we're out on the train or at an airport and need to get in touch with the team. Google may have been better off making this into a native app to speed up loading times, and to take advantage of the opportunities provided by Multi Touch. It is almost certain that a native Google Chat app will be released soon, but perhaps they are waiting for their own Android platform to show what they can do before releasing on the iPhone.

Chatting with the iPhone dictionary isn't too much of a nightmare: If you press the send button on the app (as opposed to return), then the dictionary doesn't automatically correct your 'Yo!' into 'To!'

To use Google Talk on your iPhone, just visit www.google.com/talk

We hope you enjoyed the post, and we're intending to bring more helpful reviews and posts soon.