The iPhone 3.0 OS has more improvements on the inside than the outside. The SDK itself has opened up a thousand new APIs, has improved core technologies, including the engine that drives the Safari browser. Back in June 2007, Apple announced that instead of writing native apps, web developers could write web apps instead. Thankfully, even after the app store was announced, developers are continuing to write good web apps for the iPhone.

We’ve already seen how the Gmail app uses the HTML5 database feature to store email for offline use. Now Flickr has a new feature in its iPhone optimised web app—a location aware ‘nearby photos’ feature. The app will use the iPhone’s GPS data to pick out pics from near your current location, much like a normal app would do. There are other apps like i.wund.com and

Neven Mrgan on the other hand has created a stunning web app “Glyphboard” for copying special characters to your clipboard. The beauty of this app is that it stores data offline, and if saved on your home screen it loses its control bar at the bottom, appearing to be a ‘regular’ app store app! The app is beautifully designed including tapbots-like rounded corners, and even has a ‘scratchboard’ for you to temporarily store glyphs for mass copying.

Among web apps that I use, I find the Google Reader web app a stunning piece of work, and will surely keep the Glyphboard somewhere on my home screen.

[via Ars Technica]