Pepsi’s ‘AMP UP Before Your Score’ iPhone App Comes Under Severe Criticism

iPhone sends Aussie smartphone market soaring

Apple's iPhone has spurred Australian smartphone shipments up 29 percent year on year in the first half of 2009, according to research firm IDC.

Micello offers iPhone app demo for mapping inside places

There are plenty of iPhone applications available that give you maps and direction to get to places you want to go like convention centers and malls. Once you get there, there isn’t really an app to help you get around. Micello is set to unveil its new iPhone app today that ...

iTunes LP Format Opening Up to Additional Major and Indie Record Labels

There has been a fair amount of discussion about Apple's plans for its iTunes LP [iTunes link] line of enhanced album content in recent days after Gizmodo reported on a small indie record label owner who claimed that an Apple representative had notif...

State of App Piracy on the iPhone

Pinch Media has shared some data they presented at 360iDev on the state of app piracy on the iPhone, and there are a few key take-aways:

• Pinch Media began “jailbreak detection” analytics in response after developers noted spikes in their userbase that were beyond what iTunes connect was reporting for downloads.
• These analytics show roughly 4 million jailbreak devices, 38% of which are using pirated app(s) (aka cracked apps). In other words, most jailbreakers don’t steal apps.
• Piracy is highest in China, Russia, and Brazil, with Europe and Canada being the mid-ground, and the USA, Great Britain, and Japan having the lowest rates.
• Of paid apps that use Pinch Media’s services, 60% have been pirated.
• Of those pirated apps, 34% of all installs are the pirated version.
• Like legitimate app downloads, pirated apps are used a lot at first, but drop off quickly (more quickly than legitimate app usage, in fact).
• Pirated apps on jailbroken iPhones crash more, which may be why they’re used less.
• Those who claim to use pirated apps as a way to “try before they buy” are full of it. While 7.4% of legitimate “Lite” app downloads up-convert to the paid version, only 0.43% of pirated apps lead to purchase of the legitimate paid version.

Interesting to say the least. Read the full report for all the details, then come back here and let us know what you think.

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

State of App Piracy on the iPhone

CoPilot ® Live ™ v8 for iPhone Gets another Free Update

ALK Technologies Ltd today announced the second update for its popular CoPilot Live iPhone GPS navigation app. This latest update adds new features that further enhance the iPhone navigation experience, including in-app safety camera updates, improved GPS performance and the ability to use the iPhone’s native keyboard throughout the app. Since launch, CoPilot Live has proved [...]

Jailbreaking tool Blackra1n Jailbreaks iPhone 3.1.2

Yes, there’s now a tool to unlock the latest iPhone version, 3.1.2. It’s called Blackra1n, and it’s been released here: http://blackra1n.com/ With it, Windows now has a tool to jailbreak all current gen iPhones. There is however a warning of sorts now associated with the jailbreak. “Warning 3g and 3gs unlockers, do not upgrade to 3.1.2 using [...]

“Tweetie 2″ released into the App Store

A major new Twitter tool has been released into the App Store, Tweetie 2. It’s $3, and includes many speed and performance improvements that make it worth the price, in our opinion. Here’s the list from the site: - Seamlessly handle multiple Twitter accounts - Explore all of Twitter, from your own timeline and mentions, to the favorite [...]

Dev Team Releases iPhone/iPod PwnageTool 3.1.4 for Mac OS X

The Dev Team has just released PwnageTool 3.1.4 for Mac OS X. This release supports the 3.1.2 iPhone software for the following devices: iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and iPod Touch 1G/2G.

• The iPhone 3GS is now supported out of the box in PwnageTool 3.1.4 (or if you have upgraded to 3.1.x in iTunes)
• The iPod 2G is still supported in PwnageTool 3.1.4 but you must already be jailbroken (we’ll update this if there’s a big demand from non-jailbroken ipt2G owners)
• The iPod touch 3G is NOT supported

If you’ve Unlocked your iPhone under 3.0, and want to maintain your unlock, it’s vital to remember:

This release allows your baseband to remain unlocked at 3.1.2, but it does not unlock a new baseband put there by restoring to official 3.1.x. It is super important that people who need the unlock to understand they can keep it only by starting at 3.0 (or earlier) and updating solely to custom IPSWs that don’t update the baseband.

If you used some other method, including blackra1n that involved upgrading to Apple’s 3.1.2, your baseband has also been updated and there’s no unlock until (if?) someone figures it out, and the Dev Team has no time table for that.

For the full details please visit the Dev Teams blog and read carefully as TiPb is not responsible for your jailbreak outcome, good or bad.

Need more help? Visit TiPb’s iPhone Jailbreak/Unlock forum.

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

Dev Team Releases iPhone/iPod PwnageTool 3.1.4 for Mac OS X

Name-squatters targeting the App Store

The App Store is becoming a target for name-squatters, thanks to a policy that lets developers register a name without uploading an actual application.

Disney Draws on Steve Jobs and Apple for Retail Store Makeover

The New York Times reports that The Walt Disney Company is planning a ground-up revival of its retail stores using a high-tech "Imagination Park" concept and has turned to Steve Jobs and the retail store team at Apple for assistance with the project....

Sidekick foul-up is not a failure of the cloud

The Sidekick foul-up is a huge embarrassment for T-Mobile and for Microsoft, with both companies suffering from a loss of credibility when it comes to providing stable and secure mobile service and data protection. However, the failure does not mean that the cloud can't be trusted.

Apple: There’s No $10,000 iTunes LP Charge

Following up on allegations made by an indie label that Apple charges $10,000 for an iTunes LP and wouldn’t even allow indie labels access to the program, an iTunes spokesperson responded to Music Week with the following statement:

“There is no production fee charged by Apple. We’re releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own.”

Fake crisis averted?

[via 9to5mac via Distorted-Loop]

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

Apple: There’s No $10,000 iTunes LP Charge

How to Make a Better iPhone Home Screen (Springboard) Concepts

Ocean Observations brings us a couple concepts on how they’d improve the iPhone Home Screen (Springboard). The first, above, embeds a tiny CoverFlow for apps at the bottom of the screen. While interesting, since Springboard currently supports only portrait mode and icon view, as TiPb’s asked for before, why not let it rotate to landscape for full-screen coverflow?

Next video concept, and another idea from Tog after the break!

Expose is awesome on the Mac, especially in Snow Leopard, but do we want it on our iPhone? The above proof-of-concept video offers a take on how it could look and work. Unfortunately, at that small size, are the tiny Home Screens discoverable? Would it work better if, instead of the Home Screens, it was a set of user-enabled background apps that were shown via Expose?

For both, holding down the Home button to launch would, of course, require giving up the current Voice Control activation, unless more complex controls like tap, tap, hold were introduced and weren’t too user hostile.

Meanwhile, Human Interface Guideline legend Tog offers his own opinion on what the iPhone home page system (called Springboard) needs to do to handle 180+ apps. His suggestions, pictured above, include labeled pages, vertical as well as horizontal scrolling, user-controlled icon positioning (i.e. the ability to leave empty slots), the ability to rename apps, containers (folders), aliases (so you can have the same app in multiple containers), and tags (which he says Apple is already working on).

Take a look at the video and check out Tog’s post, and let us know what you think.

[Via MobileCrunch and Daring Fireball, thanks Matthew for the tip!]

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

How to Make a Better iPhone Home Screen (Springboard) Concepts

The Competition: HTC HD2 Does What Microsoft Couldn’t?

While reaction to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 release ranged from “yawn” to “yeesh”, one device, not even given the stage, certainly seems to have stolen the show — HTC’s HD2.

Theories on why Microsoft didn’t see fit to show off, indeed highlight, the HD2 range from friction with HTC over their foray into Google’s Android OS, to an attempt not to show up other partners whose devices look outdated by comparison. That anyone saw it at all was only due to a few HTC reps carrying it around the show. Microsoft’s latest baffling behavior aside, the device itself clearly shows that if they aren’t going to raise their game, HTC will do it for them:

640×800 capacitive, multitouch screen driven by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, complete with Sense UI built in so deeply Microsoft’s interface is all but completely hidden from the end user.

Our sibling site, WMExperts.com, has been following the device since it was known by the code-name Leo, and report that it should be making its way to the US in the first part of 2010.

It’s nice to see some competition, if not from Microsoft itself then from HTC. But it brings a question to mind — will buyers of non-integrated devices end up going by carrier brand (AT&T, Verizon, etc.), OS brand (Android, Windows Mobile/Windows Phone), or manufacturer (HTC, Motorola, LG, Samsung, etc.)? And will that give the unified devices from Apple, BlackBerry, and Palm an easier shot at mindshare?

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

The Competition: HTC HD2 Does What Microsoft Couldn’t?

Review: Game of Life for iPhone

How you feel about this game for the iPhone and iPod touch will likely depend on how warmly you feel toward the classic board game on which it's based. If you're a fan of the Game of Life, you'll be more than pleased with Electronic Arts' mobile offering.