It would be very helpful to have some basic templates to non-game apps, using the new widget API (I know its in beta and may take some time).

The most important one, to me at least:
Universal apps with split views for tablets and single view for phones, and support for orientation changes.
Thanks

+1 on the Split view....

A utility app should be super easy since it really has no UI elements other than the info icon. (the template that is...., of course each view will have UI elements.... but of your choice!). Add either the Scene class or the Director Class so you get the flip animation and you should be good to go.

In a recent daily build, we now have a widget based tabBar controller widget, so it might already be in the sample code for the build... Let me look. Sure enough, under Corona SDK->SampleCode->Interface->TabBar is a sample project that does exactly what you want.