Small steps: reports from several iPhone developers indicate that Apple has showcased two key features on the Dev Center website that may improve the mood and attitude of anxious app submitters.

Feature #1 is a queue status graphic (seen here), letting everyone know how long the approval wait should be -- like the line signs at Walt Disney World, only far geekier.

Feature #2 is the presence of a new 'all issues' escalation email address, so developers with urgent bug fixes that need to be prioritized can get their questions answered -- something that the Iconfactory's Craig Hockenberry specifically asked for in his wrapup of the 1st-anniversary state of the store. This email channel has apparently been open for a week or two, but is now being publicized on the front page.

Several other tips & suggestions posts have also been updated in the past 24 hours, including notes on the keywording/tagging options and walkthroughs on changing your app name and assigning/adjusting the app's rating. If you're a registered developer, swing over to the Dev Center and take a look.

[via the delightful Nik Fletcher]

We've posted about Payback before -- it's a Grand Theft Auto clone that's playable (and pretty impressive) on the iPhone. Apex Designs, the company behind the app, sent us a note that they've updated to version 1.1, and with that update come a nice round of fixes and improvements. As you can see above, the camera angle has been tweaked to take a little more advantage of the 3D engine, the minimap has been beefed up, and the display now rotates as you tilt the iPhone. Looks very nice.

And there's even better news: even if you're not willing to shell out the $5 required for the full app, there's a lite version just released to the App Store -- it lets you explore one of the eleven cities available in the full version. Payback was impressive when released, and only suffered from a few gameplay glitches, but it looks like Apex is committed to ironing those out. It has developed into an even better game than before.

It's the Holiday Season, and over the years I have happily spent a lot of my XMAS money with our favorite fruit named company. My love affair with Apple products goes back to the venerated Apple II. I do have a couple of PC laptops in the house, and of course I can also run Vista on VMWare Fusion, but I'm pretty much a Mac guy through and through. Always have been. Always will be.

Nevertheless, I'd like to find some gifts from Apple under my tree this year. They are not big deals, but would be greatly appreciated. So Kris Kringle, if you're listening, pass these on to Mr. Jobs and friends.

• How about some documentation? I know Steve thinks books are dead, but in the old days Apple documentation was really first rate. Remember that old MacWrite manual? Apple, I know you are in the electronics business, but reading help files on a laptop screen that covers up the application I am trying to learn is a bit of a pain.
• When you release an update to an iPod, iPhone or OS X how about telling me what the update really does. I know you have gotten better at this, but why should people have to guess all the features and fixes that you have put in? Just own up to it and trust your customers.
• Find another partner in addition to AT&T for the iPhone. My phone is a great product that is significantly damaged by an inferior, unreliable network. To me, "more bars in more places" means I'm looking for bars to find a stiff drink so I can recover from my frustration with dropped calls, poor signal strength, and sporadic 3G coverage.
  
• A lot of your products get really warm. My MacBook Pro can be a sizzler on my lap. My Mac Pro keeps my office pretty warm, and I don't need those high temperatures since I'm in Arizona. Don't get me started on the Apple TV. I do think it is a great product, but I'm thinking I could make a fondue on that top surface. There is no fan in the Apple TV and when I put it in standby to spin down the hard drive it wakes up by itself paying no attention to my command. If I want to be ignored, I can walk into any Home Depot. (Update: Some users say the Apple TV does have a fan. I regret the error. It's still too darned hot!)
  

OK. it's not a big list, but it's a list just the same. What's on yours? And to all, a good night!

MailTags has received some attention at TUAW. If you're already a fan, you'll be very excited about the MailTags 2.2 Public Beta 3 that was released today. If you're not a current user, this might be a great time to check out a plugin that improves on Mail.app by allowing comments, tags, projects and other metadata to be attached to any message (among other perks).

Version 2.2pb3 introduces "MailTags Extras", which appears to be a plugin architecture for MailTags. It comes bundled with a first round of these extras, which include functionality for iCal Events and Todos and a quick way to color messages with a swatch palette in the sidebar. And as extras, these features can be individually disabled or uninstalled. Throw in some fixes for things like tagging issues, working with preferences and conflicts with other plugins and this is a release worth talking about.

With a final release scheduled for this month, this beta is maturing an already great plugin. MailTags 2.2 (Leopard) will be a free upgrade for registered 2.0 and 2.1 users, and the beta is available now.

Scott Morrison sends word that MailTags, the Mail plugin that lets you both tag your emails and connect them directly up to iCal, has hit 2.1.1. The 2.1 release came a few days ago, and introduced incoming reply tagging-- whenever you sent out a message with tags on it, the reply that came back automatically received the same tags-- and the 2.1.1 update improves that feature. You can now tag an outgoing message as "expect reply," and MailTags can notify you through Growl and with highlighting that the reply has arrived.

The release also includes an example AppleScript that lets you use a "killed" tag to mark a message and any incoming replies to it as read-- if a thread has ceased to be important to you, you can ignore it completely. Bugfixes involving iCal interaction have also been implemented, and a column sizing interface improvement has been added.

The 2.1.1 update is a maintenance update and available for free to MailTags users over at the website. If you haven't bought the plugin yet, you can get it here for $29.95.

Transmit, Panic's FTP client that I firmly believe was coded by angels, has been updated to version 3.5.4. They offer detailed release notes, but the cliff notes include SFTP error improvements, upload/download error and Growl notification fixes, navigation tweaks and much more.

Transmit 3.5.4 is a free update and available from Panic's site.

I swear, if developers keep adding decimals to their versioning systems, I might just have to start a petition or something. Firefox 1.5.0.4.3.2.1.12 is available with "improvements to product stability" and several security enhancements. I believe it should be available via Firefox 1.5's built-in updating system, or simply from Mozilla's Firefox page.


[note: extra '.3.2.1.12' added for humor. Not intended as a real software versioning system - yet]

Grab a cup of coffee and get your downloading mice ready ladies and gents; this week's software review is coming at you:

Shareware

• AppZapper 1.5: minor fixes and improvements
• ChatFX: spice up your iChat video conferences
• TextExpander 1.3 (formerly Textpander): an essential utility gets even better
• QuarkXPress 7 (yawn): but the Universal is still in beta
• SubEthaEdit 2.5: the much loved collaborative text editor and code-ninja tool receives AppleScript-ability, bug fixes
• Videator: be careful when using it to spice up your videos
• iComment 4.1: maintenance release and compatibility with iWeb 1.1.x
• DivX 6.5: Universal (and free) player along with a retail price encoder for indie video codec

Donationware/Freeware

• Bricksmith (donationware): virtual legos on your Mac. I dare you to name something cooler
• Safari Tidy (free): plug-in to check sites for XHTML compliance
• CoreDuoTemp 0.8 (free): maintenance fix for utility to keep track of temp, CPU usage and frequency on Intel Macs
• MappingService (donationware): get a map from any app
• SmackBook (free): hilarious hack for multi-desktop management utility
• Proxi 1.0 (free): broader app support for application automation utility from Griffin

Open Source

• Maintenance 3.5: minor updates to fantastic Automator action/AppleScript
• Password Assistant: hook into Keychain Access to easily create complicated passwords
• Books: feature-rich book catalogging

Free Updates

• iWeb 1.1.1: hopefully those publishing woes have been vanquished
• Xcode 2.3: Apple's premiere code-ninja tool receives enhancements and bug fixes
• Logic Express 7.2.1: maintenance release

Universal Binary

• Delibar 0.8 (donationware): My personal favorite del.icio.us menubar bookmark utility

If you're an iWork '06 user, Software Update has a couple of presents for you: Pages 2.0.1 and Keynote 3.0.1.

About the Pages update (direct link): "addresses issues with charts and image adjust. It also addresses a number of other minor issues."

About Keynote's update (link): "addresses issues with three-dimensional charts and textures. It also addresses a number of other minor issues. This update should be installed on all computers that share your Keynote 3.0 files, so that textures display properly."

Enjoy.