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20 Jul 2011 22:33

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Tech: App lets iPhone users see all of your drunken mistakes

  • A new iPhone app allows you to view real-time video feeds from inside local bars, so you can, in the words of the creators, “see what a venue looks like, to get a head count.” Cool idea, but that means that if you’re in one of said bars, everything you do is being streamed online—whether you know it or not. Bars that opt-in to this aren’t required to tell patrons that they’re being filmed, and the footage is accessible from the company’s website, so it’s not just limited to iPhone users. The creators defend the app’s integrity, saying that “the point of the product is not to make a stalker utility.” Which is a vapid defense, of course, because the intent behind a product has no bearing on the manner in which it’s capable of being used. We suspect Apple might pull this one before too long. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jul 2011 10:29

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Tech: More on “App Store” suit: Why Apple has nothing to worry about

  • 15 billion freaking downloads from the App Store; no mistaking it source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Mar 2011 15:44

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Tech: Appocalypse Now: Controversial apps wither under scrutiny

  • drunks Four U.S. Senators (Schumer, Lautenberg, Reid, and Udall) have asked that app stores stop selling map apps designed to help drunk drivers avoid random sobriety checkpoints and police cars.
  • “cures” Answering not to elected officials, but to the pressure of public relations, Apple has pulled the religious “Gay Cure” app from its store, which supported “freedom from homosexuality.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2011 12:02

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Biz, Tech: Regulators probe Apple’s new subscription service plans

  • tuesday Apple launches its subscription plan – in which it’ll take a 30 percent cut off of in-app subscriptions. OK for newspapers, awful for online music firms.
  • friday The Department of Justice launches an inquiry into the subscription plan, which suggests that something may be pretty rotten in Denmark. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 10:50

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Tech: Steve Jobs on subscriber service: We won’t always take 30 percent

  • Our philosophy is simple – when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing.
  • Steve Jobs (who’s still on medical leave) • In a statement announcing the new App Store subscription service, which reveals a pretty awesome financial path for publishers of all stripes. Apple will take their 30 percent revenue share if they lead to the subscription; if the publisher does it, they keep 100 percent. One interesting thing to note is the way that the service handles consumer information. Many magazine publishers make money by using consumer information from their subscriber base – a move somewhat at odds with Apple’s App Store model. In a compromise move, Apple will allow consumers to say how much information they want to give out. The overall model is similar to that of The Daily, which launched last month to general praise. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jan 2011 21:14

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Tech: App Store milestone winner thought winning phone call was prank

  • The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity.
  • Gail “Thank you very much; I’m not interested” Davis • Revealing that she initially hung up on Apple as they offered her a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the 100 billionth app from the store. Eventually realizing that she was the winner (her daughter downloaded the app), she frantically called back the help desk, getting an unhelpful person, then later got another phone call from Apple’s VP of iTunes. The lesson of this story: In case you’re ever presented with this situation, don’t do this. Alright, interwebs? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jan 2011 19:43

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Tech: Like milestones? Apple’s App Store just reached a major one

  • 10 billion apps have been sold as of today; we downloaded a few source
  • » And the lucky winner: Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK, will be the lucky recipient of a lovely $10,000 iTunes gift card. Be sure not to spend that all on one app, OK? That Wolfram Alpha app is cool and stuff, but is it really worth it?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

18 Jan 2011 10:26

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Tech: App Store: 14-year-old’s “Bubble Ball” game topples “Angry Birds”

  • See this game right here? It’s more popular than “Angry Birds” right now. And it was built by a 14-year-old Utah kid. “I was pretty astonished,” said Robert Nay, an eighth-grader, about having the most-popular program in the App Store. “When I released it, I didn’t think it would do so well.” Instead, the physics-oriented “Bubble Ball” has done gangbusters. Nay made the game on the suggestion of friends, using Ansca Mobile’s Corona SDK to simplify the task. Nay still had to write 4,000 lines of code, and it appears it was totally worth it for Nay, who managed to impress the heck out of the Corona SDK developers.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 10:35

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Tech: Microsoft suddenly complains about Apple “App Store” trademark

  • then Back in 2008, Apple trademarked the words “App Store” to advertise its silo of third-party programmed application goodness. The U.S. Patent Office opened up the name for opposition in 2009, and Apple later used it for it Mac App Store.
  • now Microsoft, trying to gain a foothold with Windows Phone 7, decided to protest use of the name, saying that it was too generic. Note that the U.S. Patent Office has allowed others to protest this trademark for more than a year. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jan 2011 11:14

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Tech: Apple’s Mac App Store: A cool concept, with caveats

  • So, look, the idea sounds cool. And we admit to be looking forward to checking it out. But at the same time, we totally understand why some developers might be freaking out. If the app store is successful at changing the behavior of Apple’s biggest die-hards, it could turn consumers used to spending $20-30 on a program into people who routinely complain that an app costs more than $2. But if this thing is a hit, just think of the scale it could have! So, as you browse through the 1,000+ apps on the store today, keep that in mind before you go too crazy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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