Reuters' Sinead Carew reports this week that the Verizon Hub is getting an app store.

"The Verizon Hub, a new kind of home phone with some Web add-ons like weather and traffic reports, will soon come with an applications market, following a trend among cellphone makers such as Apple to open up to third-party apps," Carew writes.

"For now, every widget will come from Verizon, like a Flickr screensaver app or a pretty swell Rhapsody app that lets you stream music," writes Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan. "But! The Hub is built on Linux and will eventually be opened up for anybody to develop for, which is obviously when it'll be able to reach its full potential..."

"The idea seems to be about moving the Hub more towards a role as another connected device for a kitchen or living room, and less about trying to sell it as a fancy phone, and that's definitely a step in the right direction," notes Engadget's Joshua Topolsky.

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