As every smartphone maker under the sun continues to try to come up with the latest iPhone-killer, iPhone app programmers continue to make that aim ever-more unreachable. With upcoming innovations like the iPhone-powered car, offline Gmail, the supercharged 5-row QWERTY keyboard, and the turnkey iPhone app platform for entertainers, is it any wonder that over 25,000 people in two of the world's wealthiest nations--Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates--snatched up their own iPhone 3G within just hours of premier release there?

iPhone-Powered Car

Swiss company Rinspeed unveiled at the recent Geneva Motor Show a concept electric automobile that can be remote-controlled by an iPhone. The app, called iChange, will allow you turn the engine on and off, operate the headlights, perform various GPS-related actions (such as mapping), and operate various other dashboard-based functions. It will not, however, let you steer remotely.

Offline Gmail for the iPhone

Google, meanwhile, has issued a mobile app for both the iPhone and the Android OS (of course) that allows users offline access to their Gmail accounts. The app is browser-based and doesn't require any additional software downloads. It also supports Gmail's relatively new "Labels" feature.

5-Row iPhone QWERTY Keyboard

A company called Kenny has hacked jailbroken iPhones to include extra keyboard preferences, including an additional numerical row at the top of the keyboard to match the style of QWERTY keyboard on a standard laptop or desktop computer's physical keyboard. Press the Shift key and this row transforms to useful symbols. Additionally, it sports a number pad (like that of an adding machine), cursor keys, forward Delete, Tab, and Escape.

Turnkey iPhone App Platform for Entertainers

With iPhone apps all-the-rage but those requisite iPhone app platforms such a drag to create, many entertainers dream of marketing their media on the iPhone but lack the resources or the know-how to get it done and do it right. That's why a company called Kyte has released its iPhone App Framework to make it easy for artists to create their own iPhone apps to help distribute their art, including video, chat, Twitter-feeds, RSS, and monetization capabilities without all the time, effort, and expense involved in doing so.

So far, five IGA recording artists (The All American Rejects, Lady Gaga, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, Keri Hison, and The Pussycat Dolls) have all released iPhone apps on the Kyte platform, with more--no doubt--to come.