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Microsoft’s Bad Image Should Be a Warning to Apple

Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 27 people have commented

“I’m just wondering why your marketing group can’t do something to try to rein in this next generation, because you’ve got a real bad image out there.”
So said a Microsoft shareholder to CEO Steve Ballmer at the company’s shareholder meeting yesterday. TechFlash reporter Todd Bishop notes that the same shareholder added that Apple’s TV commercials [...]

Cut the Drama: Private APIs, the App Store & You

Written on November 19, 2009 by Andrew Bednarz and 36 people have commented

I’ve had a rant building up for a few weeks. A rant about developer’s treatment at the hands of the App Store submission procedure. However unlike many rants on the topic, mine is not directed towards Apple. It is directed towards the iPhone developers who complain about the poor, unfair treatment they get, carrying their [...]

Apple’s App Store Approval Process Now Includes an Automated Layer

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

App Store developers now have more to contend with than just the fickle tastes of the humans Apple has reviewing submissions. Now, submissions also go through an automated filter that determines whether or not the app is obeying the rules and not using any of Apple’s private APIs, which is a no-no, according to the [...]

Eliminate Pro Becomes First Free App in the Top Grossing List

Written on November 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

I’m not sure how many of you are playing Eliminate Pro on your iPhones, but I’m guessing it has to be a fairly high number, considering the app’s success since its recent launch. ngmoco’s ambitious first-person shooter for Apple’s mobile platform is third overall in the App Store’s Top Free list, but what’s more impressive [...]

App Store Devs Flaunt Copyright Troll With Name Changes

Written on November 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 8 people have commented

iPhone devs are a rebellious bunch, and they don’t like to be bullied by anyone other than their Apple, which both frustrates and affirms their existence. Now, in light of what some might call a campaign being waged against the App Store by a well-known trademark troll, many iPhone devs are protesting what they see [...]

Weekly App Store Picks: November 7, 2009

Written on November 07, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 2 people have commented

It’s time to delve in to the App Store and take a look at a select few releases that could find a happy home on your iPhone. This week I’ve selected four games that I’ll be zoning out with this weekend.
Of course there are scores of games out for the iPhone, but we’ve been lucky [...]

App Store Hits 100K in 481 Days

Written on November 04, 2009 by Charles Jade and 5 people have commented

481 days. That’s how long it took the App Store to go from opening its virtual doors with 500 applications on July 11, 2008 to a catalog of more than 100,000 applications downloaded more than 2 billion times.

Not surprisingly, the folks at Apple are pleased.
“The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly [...]

Ngmoco’s Eliminate and Touch Pets Dogs Come to the App Store

Written on November 03, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

Ngmoco has been talking up its new offerings for a while now, including the visually stunning first-person shooter Eliminate, and the virtual pet Touch Pets series of apps. Both of these are now available, free of charge, on the App Store, as of yesterday.
Even though the apps are indeed free to download and install on [...]

Home Screen Analysis: Too Many Apps, Too Few Good Ones

Written on October 30, 2009 by Alfredo Padilla and 21 people have commented

Recently I read about the First & 20 project, an effort to share the home screens of various technorati. When I heard about it I immediately shot off to the page to look through the home screens. I was most excited about the possibility of finding new applications. As we all know, one of the [...]

Weekly App Store Picks: October 23, 2009

Written on October 24, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 6 people have commented

The long-awaited weekend has finally arrived and with it comes the opportunity to consider purchasing some shiny new Apple hardware. If you’re looking for a distraction from those wallet-emptying new Apple toys, I suggest you check out my picks from the App Store.
This week’s picks are all about distractions, I’ve selected four apps to take [...]

EyeTV Returns to the App Store, Minus 3G Streaming

Written on October 20, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 1 person has commented

As we reported just yesterday, Apple didn’t take too kindly to El Gato’s “accidental” inclusion of a workaround to enable 3G streaming of live TV on the iPhone using its EyeTV app. The app, combined with an EyeTV USB Mac TV tuner, allows users to stream that content from their computer. I say allows, not [...]

Apple Allows iPhone In-App Purchases for Free Apps

Written on October 15, 2009 by Andrew Bednarz and 5 people have commented

When Apple first allowed in-app purchases for third-party apps on the iPhone platform it was restricted to paid apps only, even if the app was only 99 cents. Today, Apple informed all registered iPhone developers that it was now allowing free apps to contain in-app purchases.
While this does open the door to potential ‘bait and switch’ [...]

App Developer Diary Part 6: The 48 Hour App

Written on October 07, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 4 people have commented

Taking you behind-the-scenes of a real iPhone app’s development, in this installment I attempt to make my own iPhone app in one weekend and learn from Ustwo about how to take an idea to the App Store in just 48 hours.

It’s been a few weeks since my last entry in the App Developer Diary. Markus, [...]

Tap Tap Revenge 3 Arrives in the App Store, Features In-App Purchasing

Written on October 06, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 11 people have commented

Tapulous took the App Store by storm with its inaugural Tap Tap Revenge rhythm music gaming title. It followed that up with the no less successful Tap Tap Revenge 2, Tap Tap Dance, and various Tap Tap games branded for individual artists. Tap Tap Revenge 3 (iTunes link) hit the App Store today, bringing with [...]

Colloquy Brings IRC to the iPhone

Written on October 01, 2009 by Lisa Hoover and 4 people have commented

Even though services like Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo, AOL, Twitter and Facebook make it possible to instant or direct message just about anyone online these days, some folks still swear by Internet Relay Chat (IRC). In fact, for many die-hard geeks and software development teams, IRC is the only way to fly.
There are plenty of Web-based [...]

Tweetie 2: The Complete iPhone Preview

Written on September 30, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 41 people have commented

The sequel to Tweetie, the Twitter client that earned itself the much-coveted Apple Design Award earlier this year, is on its way to the App Store as you read this.
For the past few weeks I’ve been part of Loren Brichter’s Tweetie 2 beta program, testing out new features as the former Apple engineer constructed his [...]

Dropbox: Now Native on Your iPhone

Written on September 30, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 14 people have commented

Of all the file syncing solutions available, one of the most popular is Dropbox. As one of the solutions that is also cross-platform compatible, many Mac users have embraced Dropbox as a more reliable and robust solution than other alternatives, like MobileMe’s iDisk. Diehard Dropbox users can now rejoice as the Dropbox team is at [...]

App Store: 2 Billion Apps Served

Written on September 28, 2009 by Charles Jade and 6 people have commented

Marking another base-10 milestone, Apple has announced that as of today, more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded from its wildly successful App Store.
Further, there are now more than 85,000 apps available to more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users in some 77 countries. The iPhone Developer Program now has more than 125,000 [...]

Weekly App Store Picks: September 26, 2009

Written on September 26, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 5 people have commented

As another week draws to a close, the App Store expands even further with a torrent of new toys and tools. As ever, I’ve hand-picked four recent iPhone releases for you to take a look at.
This week I’ve given our picks a creative vibe, selecting four different apps that let you engage with your artistic [...]

Here Are More Apps for That: Three New iPhone Commercials From Apple

Written on September 22, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

It’s fall premiere season, and that means new shows. But it also means sparkly new ads to fill all those commercial breaks. New Apple ads for the iPhone provided pleasant relief for me yesterday from the tedium of the two-hour Heroes premiere. On a side note, the Castle premiere was pretty good.
But back to those [...]