Quick App: OMG Pirates!

MikaMobile, the developers who brought us the popular side scrolling shooter Zombieville USA, [$1.99 - iTunes Link] recently submitted their follow up release, OMG Pirates! to Apple for App Store approval.

Looks like we can expect a great side scrolling experience along with a campaign mode, an unlockable “hard mode”, and survival modes. Personally I am a huge fan of Zombieville USA so can not wait for this to land in the App Store. Look for it to hit the App Store within the next month at the $1.99 – $2.99 price range.

[Thanks to PhxBlue for the tip!]

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

Quick App: OMG Pirates!

New Apple Black Friday Sale Leak?

Boy Genius Report posts a supposed leak of Apple's forthcoming Black Friday sale items. Among the discounted items are iMacs ($101 off), MacBook Pros ($51-$101 off), iPod nanos ($11 off), and iPod touches ($21-$41 off). Also included are the Apple ...

Is The iPhone App Store Capping Out?

Some of the biggest headlines in regards to Apple’s iPhone over the last few weeks revolve around the app store. Due to the fact that Verizon has been on an all-out assault against AT&T and their precious iPhone, AT&T has responded by promoting the amount of apps that are available on the iPhone. Just about [...]

iPhone Already A Huge Success in South Korea

The iPhone will be available in South Korea for the first time ever later this month. If the overall success is comparable to early pre-order reaction, it seems as though the iPhone will be in just about every hand that carries a cell phone in South Korea. One company has already reported that over 15,000 [...]

Third iPhone worm targets jailbroken iPhones in Europe, Australia

Another iPhone worm is targeting jailbroken iPhones throughout Europe and elsewhere. Like its predecessors, it takes advantage of default passwords.

Bookmark for iPhone

Notwithstanding some annoying limitations and quirks, audiobibliophiles will find much to love about Bookmark, an iPhone and iPod touch app that gives you greater control over audiobooks on your mobile device.

New Malicious Worm Affects Jailbroken iPhones in Netherlands [Updated x2]

BBC reports that a third worm has been discovered that attacks certain jailbroken iPhones. The malicious software was discovered by security company F-Secure but appears to be isolated and specific to the Netherlands.

It is specifica...

New Malicious Worm Affects Jailbroken iPhones in Netherlands

BBC reports that a second worm has been discovered that attacks certain jailbroken iPhones. The malicious software was discovered by security company F-Secure but appears to be isolated and specific to the Netherlands.

It is specific...

The Barcodescan Pro app helps you find the best price

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

Barcodescan Pro [iTunes Link] is an app that uses the autofocus camera of an iPhone running OS 3.1 or better to scan a bar code and provide a variety of information on the product including pictures, high and low prices and more depending upon how much information is in the Barcodescan database.

To scan a barcode, you just hold the iPhone so that the barcode appears in a highlighted window and as soon as the image is steady enough, the app automatically takes a picture, compares it to its database, and renders your results. Another way of getting information into the app is typing in the numbers of the barcode into an oversized numeric keyboard.

I had it scan the CD of Tommy and it came back with a picture of the album cover, a prices line showing the lowest to highest found price which when tapped upon, showed the underlying five vendors, another tap gets you to the selected vendor's site to buy it. You can also choose a tab to get to Google for a standard search and another for Amazon where you can log-in and put it on your wish list or purchase the item. The vendors in the low to high price list never included Amazon, which I thought odd since Amazon was a persistent button on each search.

You can check If the item is found on iTunes. If so, you are presented with a contextual service option which brings in iTunes information. Instead of giving me one entry for the album of Tommy, it gave me many instances that contained the word Tommy.

Results are saved to lists. The Recent list shows the last thing you searched for, the History list shows everything you've searched for. You can create custom lists and easily move any searches between lists. Results can also be shared allowing you to email the search.

So, is it any good? Read on...

Continue reading The Barcodescan Pro app helps you find the best price

The Barcodescan Pro app helps you find the best price originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Barcodescan Pro app helps you find the best price originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPod touch Camera Rumors Return

Like horrible holiday movie sequels, iPod touch camera rumors just keep getting spit out the mill with the same tired old plots and ever weaker impact. This time, the Examiner claims an “inside source” who claims that the iPod touch with camera was delayed last year from quality assurance reasons, but will return this spring with an iPod nano-like video recording capability.

Our take? Yeah, the camera was bumped from last year’s iPod touch G3, but Apple likes its product cycles so we probably won’t see a camera again until the iPod touch G4 is introduced in September 2010 (and we surely hope it’s not the low-res, video-only nano camera by then either — not on the flagship device, no sir!)

[Examiner via 9to5Mac]

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

iPod touch Camera Rumors Return

Phil Schiller Addresses App Store — Not to Developers but to BusinessWeek

Apple Senior VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, has once again stepped forward to address growing concerns about the iTunes App Store approval process — but this time he’s avoided developers and their complaints about opacity and inconsistency, and instead gone to BusinessWeek to get ahead of the story going mainstream.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Schiller’s previous, highly publicized comments have been emails addressed to bloggers and Mac developers, and wrung truthy enough to give a tiny glimmer of hope to those who just assumed Apple’s upper management was oblivious to the problems around rejected apps. These comments read more like spin; like instead of fixing the App Store, they’re worried concerns are spreading beyond developers and the blogsphere, and instead of earnestly working even harder to fix them, they just want to minimize and marginalize the complaints in the minds of the general press and public, who might be hearing about it for the first time following Facebook developer Joe Hewitt’s high-profile exodus from the App Store.

The problem is, Apple has historically proven they’re terrible at handling bad PR. From the original iPhone price cut to MobileMe’s disastrous launch to Steve Jobs’ health to everything involving the App Store approval process to date, they come off as wrong-headed and out of touch until it seems almost too late. Case in point, Schiller’s comments to BusinessWeek today, where he cites 90% of rejections being related to technical bugs in the app (and contends developers are happy about the “safety net” Apple QA provides). 1% which fall into gray areas Apple hadn’t previously considered (example given, apps that help cheat at Casino gambling), and an undisclosed amount that violate trademarks or copyrights:

• “We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust. You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.”
• “Whatever your favorite retailer is, of course they care about the quality of products they offer. We review the applications to make sure they work as the customers expect them to work when they download them.”
• “There have been applications submitted for approval that will steal personal data, or which are intended to help the user break the law, or which contain inappropriate content.”
• “We had to go study state and international laws about what’s legal and what isn’t, and what legal exposure that creates for Apple or the customer.”
• “We’ve had a lot of eyes on us. We’ve had inquiries from governments and political leaders asking us what we were doing to protect children from inappropriate content,”
• “If you don’t defend your trademarks, in the end you end up not owning them. And sometimes other companies come to us saying they’ve seen their trademarks used in apps without permission. We see that a lot.”

Rogue Ameoba’s Airfoil Touch rejection is used in the article, and Schiller responds in the abstract:

• “We need to delineate something that might confuse the customer and be an inappropriate use of a trademark from something that’s just referring to a product for the sake of compatibility. We’re trying to learn and expand the rules to make it fair for everyone.”

Apparently it will work out, however, as Airfoil Touch is being re-submitted with the original Mac OS X-pushed artwork restored. And some of Schiller’s points are fair enough, we suppose, they’re just addressing the wrong forum, and overall (still) avoiding the real problem. And no, it’s not Apple being a “gatekeeper”.

If Apple wants to run a boutique instead of a flea market, good for them — the market will decide if end-users ultimately prefer that to the webOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and WebApp alternatives. Just stop being a bad “gatekeeper*. Talk to your developers. Get a dedicated developer point man like Palm has. Take questions about the App Store (especially at WWDC). Spend less time with BusinessWeek and more talking to the great developers, so end users get those great apps. B’okay?

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

Phil Schiller Addresses App Store — Not to Developers but to BusinessWeek

Apple Online Store Teases Black Friday Sales Event

Apple Online Store has exactly one sale a year — “Black Friday” on the day after US Thanksgiving, and this year that falls November 27. While there’s no way of knowing exactly what will be on sale, and how much the savings will be (though they’re never much), Apple is getting their tease on already:

Come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You’ll find dozens of great iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas — all with free shipping.

Mark your calendar now. And until then, start your research by browsing the Apple Online Store to find iPod, iPhone, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

For our international readers, Apple Canada, Apple UK, Apple France, and we’re guessing many other Apple Online Stores around the world will be following suit. Best Buy and other Apple resellers will also have sales, so you may want to shop around as well.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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

Apple Online Store Teases Black Friday Sales Event

Mobile shopping’s first Christmas

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Deals, iPhone, App Store

I don't know that I completely agree with this article over at Business Week (technically, last year was our first Christmas with the App Store), but I think the concept is fascinating. Lauren Sherman and her interviewee Retails Systems Research managing partner Paula Rosenblum reason that this coming Christmas season -- surprise, we're only five days away from Black Friday 2009 -- will be the first where mobile shopping apps (and the smartphones that can run them) will be generally ubiquitous.

Not only will people have access to apps on their iPhone that help them find deals, stores, and prices, but they'll all have 'net-connected phones as well, which many of them actually got last Christmas. You'll see people sending texts to each other, playing games while in line, and even scanning coupons in at the register -- all with their phones.

As I said, this was all possible last Christmas, but since then, we've seen non-iPhones like the Pre and the Droid drop, and the iPhone itself has claimed a lot more customers than Black Friday 2008. These people won't be out buying smartphones, obviously, but they will be using them, and it'll be interesting to see how much this changes the experience. When I was a kid, you planned out your route ahead of time and hit what few stores you could, but between Twitter, apps, and all the other information available on a phone, shopping during the holiday season might be very different this year.

Although you can be sure there will still be lines, parking frustrations, and lots and lots of people buying junk just because it's cheap. Then again, maybe it's better to use that slightly older piece of technology, the desktop browser, and just do the shopping from home.

[via MacBytes]

Mobile shopping's first Christmas originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mobile shopping's first Christmas originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jailbroken iPhones exposed to second worm, this time malicious

As inevitable as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West, an innocuous iPhone worm has been transformed into a malicious bank details-stealing virus. The second recorded iPhone infection operates on exactly the same principles as the first, as it targets jailbroken handsets with SSH installed, but this time adds the ability for the hacker to remotely control and access the phone. By throwing up a purported ING Direct login page, he (or she, or they) can collect your online banking credentials and, presumably, all the cash they are supposed to protect. Presently isolated within the Netherlands, this outbreak may spread further still, as it is capable of infecting other jailbroken iPhones on the same WiFi network.

Jailbroken iPhones exposed to second worm, this time malicious originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gameloft backs iPhone and backs away from Android

Filed under: iPhone

To iPhone or not to iPhone? That is the question on which a number of high-profile app developers are weighing-in. A couple of weeks ago it was Facebook app developer Joe Hewitt and software maker Rogue Amoeba saying they'd had enough of jumping through hoops to be on the iPhone and that they'd be working on other things.

Last week, Instapaper web-service and iPhone app [iTunes link] developer Marco Arment said, "Go if you want to, but there are more than enough people in the App Store to keep me fat and happy and not nearly enough in any other mobile app ecosystem to draw me away." I'm paraphrasing of course.

Now, French mobile phone game developer Gameloft has given its two cents. According to a company exec, Gameloft and other software developers are drawing down the resources spent on developing applications for Google's Android platform. Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference late last week, "We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others."

Did he say what others? No. Did he say why? Yes.

Rochefort, like Instapaper's Arment, says the people just aren't there for the Android. "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone," says the exec. "Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue."

Meanwhile on the App Store, money flows like water for Gameloft and the water's fine. Games for Apple's handhelds generated 13% of Gameloft's revenue last quarter. According to Rochefort, Gameloft is selling 400 times as many games for the iPhone and iPod touch as it is for the various Android powered phones.

[via Reuters]

Gameloft backs iPhone and backs away from Android originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gameloft backs iPhone and backs away from Android originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phil Schiller Defends App Store Approval Process

Despite the massive success of the App Store, the actual app approval process has been a constant source of criticism for Apple. A couple of well known developers have recently quit from developing iPhone apps altogether due to the process. Busine...

iPhone slated for South Korean debut on November 28

Look, South Korea, we know it's been about four decades since a handset without an integrated DMB tuner or two launched in your neck of the woods -- and no, there isn't an app for that -- but just how badly do you want in on this Apple mojo? Following government clearance a couple months back, South Korean operator KT says that it's now ready to offer the iPhone to customers next Saturday, November 28 for prices ranging from 396,000 won ($343) on a 45,000 won plan ($39) for a 32GB 3GS all the way down to absolutely free for an 8GB 3G on a 95,000 won plan ($82). Given that KT and its competitors typically rival Japanese carriers for sheer technological insanity, it'll be interesting to see how the average Korean consumer responds to the late launch.

iPhone slated for South Korean debut on November 28 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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