Comscore: AT&T sells twice as many smart phones as any competitor

Twice as many smart phone users have picked AT&T over any other wireless U.S. carrier, but research doesn't list iPhone.

iCombat’s stats on app pirates

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store, Jailbreak/pwnage

Miguel Sanchez-Grice, creator of the iCombat app (a remake of the old Atari game), sent us these stats on piracy of his app after writing a blog post about the same thing, and I find them fascinating. Instead of building DRM into his app, he just detected if the player was using a copy that wasn't from the App Store, and then forwarded them onto a web page that he could track. It seems like he equates unique visitors to his Pinch Media site as users (though he doesn't go into detail about exactly where those "Pinch Media New Uniques" numbers come from), and then subtracts legit app sales from those numbers to get the number of pirates. And while he says the numbers are lower than he expected, they seem pretty high to me: there is a substantial number of people out there using cracked apps.

Continue reading iCombat's stats on app pirates

iCombat's stats on app pirates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iCombat's stats on app pirates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Friday Fun Video: TiPb Screaming for Palm Pre to Bring it On!

You’re the world champion, but some old-school commentators keep talking like maybe you’re yesterday’s news. They say you haven’t faced any real challengers lately, that you’re getting soft. They say that some new device is looking hungry.

But here’s the thing: you know you’ve still got it. You know it and you want to prove it. You want to fight. You want to fight now!

But the challenger just ain’t showing up. And worse, they ain’t even saying when they will finally show up. Makes you so riled you just want to SCREAM!

That’s the emotion TiPb’s Rene tapped into to help out editor-in-chief Dieter, and our siblings over at PreCentral.net, video up a little demandment for Palm.

Release the release date. The Palm faithful want it to show what it can do, and dagnabit, we want to see what it can do. Bring it on!

Eye of the Jobs, baby!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Friday Fun Video: TiPb Screaming for Palm Pre to Bring it On!

Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

I don't think I've ever fallen in love with an app as quickly as Bebot. Not only is it a pretty darn powerful synthesizer with an interesting touchscreen interface, but that robot. That robot! He makes you want to play something, anything, with those cute little closed robot eyes and that dashing tux and that knowing smile. If you just want to make funny robot noises, that's easy enough, but for the musically inclined, there's a really surprising amount of features under the hood, including analog filters, a delay/looping effect, chorus and overdrive effects, and even an autotune system. Oh, and because of the multitouch screen, you can play up to four waveforms at a time. In the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, this thing can be really impressive.

It's available from a company called Normalware (any app with that robot in it has basically sold me from now on -- there's even a t-shirt of the guy) on the App Store right now for $1.99.

Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPod touch and iPod nano to Get Cameras?

We’d heard rumors about the iPod touch getting a camera already — makes sense and would tie it even more closely to the iPhone OS. HardMac (via MacRumors) is now saying the iPod nano will as well.

Sounds plausible as it provides an easy way for Apple to both strengthen ties within their ecosystem and incrementally update both platforms in time for the holidays.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPod touch and iPod nano to Get Cameras?

Best Buy Prepping for 3 New iPhone SKU’s Code-Named “Charlie”?

PhoneArena (via Engagdget) was sent a tip that Best Buy has 3 mysterious new product SKU’s listed in their system as “PROJECT CHARLIE”. Why is this important and what does it have to do with iPhones?

ZOMG! We’re 3 weeks before WWDC here people! Everything is iPhone!

Okay, in all fairness, Best Buy is one of the very few big iPhone retailers (aside from Apple, AT&T, and Walmart) and even if they have no direct info from Apple, they could be prepping themselves for a similar launch as last year (iPhone 3G in 8GB, 16GB Black, and 16GB white).

But for the Lost fans among us — 3 SKUs, for the 3rd gen iPhone, 3 weeks before WWDC and iPhone OS 3.0? Cue creepy music

UPDATE: Our friend Phil over at WMExperts, throws in a plot twist: what if they’re new Windows Phones?!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Best Buy Prepping for 3 New iPhone SKU’s Code-Named “Charlie”?

Next Gen iPhone Details…

From what seems to be a questionable post from a forum poster at a Chinese site, it seems that the 3rd generation iPhone may be a small upgrade. So far, the features unveiled are:600 Mhz CPU256 Mb RamDigital Compass & FM tuner3.2 MP Camera w/autofocus32 GB Flash StorageNo changes to ...

Dealing with app-noxious app-oholics

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Humor, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store

The other day I had the fortune of hanging out with TUAW's own Mike Rose and our old colleage David Chartier in Chicago, and my main fear going into the meeting was that, given what a bunch of iPhone geeks we were, we'd just spend the whole time showing off apps on our iPhones. Not that seeing cool apps isn't awesome, but if you've ever had anyone excitedly show you what an app can do, I think it gets to be a little much. And I'm not alone -- though yes, the iPhone does a lot of things that we have never been able to do before, it is possible to get "app-noxious," a term coined by MSNBC to describe people who are way too excited about what their iPhone can do. Yes, we know already, there is an app for that. Give it a break.

This isn't the first time this phenomenon has popped up, and if you own an iPhone, you probably already know about it anyway -- I was definitely looking for made-up ways to use SnapTell Explorer when I first installed it. So next time you feel the urge to break into someone else's conversation to let them know about this app you bought last night that does exactly what they're talking about, hold your tongue, at least until you're not interrupting.

And of course that doesn't mean that app nerds can't still be nerds about it -- yes, though Rose and Chartier and I didn't spend the whole time showing off apps to each other, we each did bring out phones at least once to show off just how great this new app we just got was.

[via MacDailyNews]

Dealing with app-noxious app-oholics originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dealing with app-noxious app-oholics originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Face Fun for iPhone lets you remix faces

A new iPhone application, Face Fun, lets you isolate faces from your photo library and apply fun effects to them.

New iPhone and iPod Touch Details? iPod to Get Camera?

HardMac claims that they have heard some interesting tidbits about future iPhones and iPods from their sources.

- The future iPhone models will have exactly the same shape and size than the current iPhone 3G, despite fakes and rumors ...

Apple and AT&T sued over ties to Shazam ID service

Apple, AT&T and several others have been named in a new patent infringement lawsuit, presumably for their connection to Shazam, a maker of music identification software distributed under the same name for the iPhone and several other mobile devices. The 8-page complaint, filed Tuesday by Tune Hunter, Inc. in the patent litigation-friendly Marshall Division of Texas, [...]

App Store may not be as profitable as many think, according to report

Although many imagine the App Store a cash cow for Apple, a detailed examination has revealed that the iPhone maker may only have earned between $20 million and $45 million from the store for its first billion downloads — a figure the company is likely more than happy to accept. Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Liew made [...]

Review: Pointer Remote for iPhone

The interface for this PowerPoint and Keynote remote control app may not win any design awards, but Pointer Remote functions well and gets the job done.