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Posts tagged with "app store"

US Privacy Investigation Targeting Smartphone App Developers

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey are reportedly investigating whether various smartphone applications are illegally obtaining and transmitting data from users without their consent or knowledge. In the US it is a violation of federal computer fraud laws for companies to collect information about a user without notice or authorization.

The prosecutors are investigating whether various apps on smartphones such as the iPhone and various Android phones are not notifying users what data is being collected and why such data is required by the app. This data being collected ranges from a users location to the unique identification data for that device and even personal information. The Wall Street Journal tested 101 apps and discovered that 56 of those transmitted the unique identification number for the device without letting users know, 47 transmitted the phones location and 5 sent a users age, gender and other personal information. Worryingly 45 of the apps tested did not have any privacy policy either in the app or on their website.

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Grades 2: The Student’s Record Book to Success

As ambitious as we are as students, we’re not always guaranteed good grades or perfect scores despite long nights and exam crams. With nothing more than a few syllabi and red ink, keeping track of your grades and measuring your performance with a calculator is outdated and unnecessary. Weighted grades and a failed exam can turn a trip to the calculator into a worrisome mess of numbers and unmet expectations. In your pocket, however, you already have all the tools necessary for instant grade-ification. Grades 2 is your personal performance record that crunches all of the numbers so you don’t have to, providing near instant feedback on what you need to aim for to maintain your target grade (preferably an A). Jeremy Olson is at it again, refining the user experience from Grades and delivering a free update that adds a GPA calculator and due dates to keep you on schedule.

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iAd Gallery Violates Apple’s Own Guidelines

iAd Gallery, a free iPhone app Apple released yesterday in the App Store, has generated several debates on the Internet about its rather “limited” feature set: the app, good-looking and responsive, does only one thing: it’s a collection of advertisements you can browse and “love.” By aggregating the best campaigns recently launched on the iAd network, iAd Gallery only lets users interact with a spinning wheel featuring ads from different brands, view information and “launch” them to experience the rich functionalities of iAds. Basically, it’s a free ad collector for iPhone. Not exactly the kind of “productive” (or at least entertaining) software most users would expect from Apple.

As noted by Dan Frommer at Silicon Alley Insider, it is kind of ironic that iAd Gallery may be violating Apple’s own Review Guidelines for iOS apps and should have been rejected by Apple itself. In the 2.13 section of the Guidelines, the company explains:

Apps that are primarily marketing materials or advertisements will be rejected

iAd Gallery indeed is based on marketing materials and doesn’t do anything but enabling you to browse various ad campaigns. Sure, you can read details about a specific campaign and learn more about the agency behind it, but that’s not really a “functionality” in our opinion. The app also lets you get in touch with the iAd team with a Contact button: perhaps the App Review Team at Cupertino thought that was enough to let the app through the App Store gates.

The truth is, of course Apple won’t reject its own app because it violates one of the Guidelines. They manage and have the ultimate word on the App Store, and they can release whatever they want under the Apple, Inc. name. But looking at the big picture, it is kind of funny that Apple is distributing an app that would have been rejected if it came from someone else.

Angry Birds Rio: 10 Million Downloads In 10 Days→

Angry Birds Rio: 10 Million Downloads In 10 Days

Perhaps Rovio’s success with the Angry Birds franchise doesn’t surprise anymore as much as it did in 2010, but we still think the numbers these games for iOS and Android are generating are impressive. The latest game of the series, Rio, is based on a collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox to merge the gameplay of Angry Birds with the world of Rio. With a tweet, Rovio said that Angry Birds Rio hit “10 in 10” – suggesting 10 million downloads were achieved in 10 days since the release of the app for iOS and Android devices, both in free and paid editions.

A bit of investigation by Mobile Entertainment has proved that, as expected, said tweet referred to the number of downloads in the same number of days.

Rovio didn’t provide detailed numbers for iPhone, iPad and Android sales, nor did they specify whether the free version was downloaded more than the paid one. Still, 10 million downloads in 10 days is impressive. Now about that fake movie trailer…

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More Than 75,000 iPad Apps Are Now Available

Back in December, we ran a story about the incredible rise of native iPad software in the App Store: in nearly 260 days since the release of the original iPad in April 2010, third-party developers created more than 50,000 apps specifically for the device. As the iPad was a relatively new device in 2010, that was quite an accomplishment. Especially considering that the iPad App Store had “only” 20,000 apps in August, and 10,000 in June. By the end of 2010, Apple closed with roughly 60,000 native apps available for iPad owners.

In the past months, however, many interesting things happened in the tablet market: Apple announced and released a successor to the iPad after much speculation, Google unveiled a version of its Android OS meant for tablets, Android Honeycomb. Motorola was first to release a Honeycomb-based tablet, the Xoom, which is capable of running Android apps built from scratch for the tablet form factor – rather than blown up versions of smartphone apps. On the other hand, RIM will release its BlackBerry PlayBook onto the market in a few weeks – this one is also capable of running Android apps alongside native BlackBerry apps. Other manufacturers will follow throughout 2011 with their own vision for “the tablet”.

Back to the initial point, anyway. If there’s one segment (let’s just forget about tech specs for a minute) where Apple has a huge advantage over its competitors, that would be the App Store. Since our report from December, the iPad App Store has grown to accomodate over 75,000 native apps – even more than the ones mentioned in Apple’s press releases. Compared to 20 apps available for the Xoom, I think we can all agree that’s a huge advantage for Apple. And even if geeks can say “most of those 75,000 apps suck”, the numbers still hold true: 75,000 apps are available, the 100,000 milestone will be reached in a couple of months. And Apple will make a strong remark about that figure at their next public event. Perhaps at the WWDC itself where, and everything falls into the place, a new version of iOS will likely be announced and demoed.

75,000 apps for the iPad doesn’t come as a surprise if we consider Apple’s powerful marketing machine and the iTunes Store infrastructure. But to think the iPad came out 365 days ago and now we can choose from a selection of 75,000 different apps – I believe that says something about the current status of the tablet market.

Instacast 1.1 Casts New Features, Updated Playback Controls

If you’ve been consuming podcasts with Instacast or have been waiting for some more features to trickle down the pipe, Vemedio has opened up the fire hose with their latest update. The interface plays a huge role in making Instacast incredibly user friendly, thus interface sounds have been added to provide the audible feedback element. That doesn’t seem like much, but the biggest improvements have been made to the playback controls. Shake your iPhone or iPod touch to rewind the podcast thirty seconds, and adjust the playback speed of your podcast (if you prefer 2x speed for example) with a simple tap on the artwork. Other interface tweaks include clearer button labeling and options to control how many unread feeds you want pouring in when you add new podcasts, and best of all there’s been lots of little bug fixes that make Instacast more pleasurable.

If you haven’t dove into to Instacast yet, now’s the time. It’s only $1.99 in the App Store, and you can supplement the recommendation with our original review.

AppAppeal Collects iOS Apps That Are Donating Proceeds to Japan

Created by developers Masashi Ono and Milo Bird (Bird is the same guy behind popular RSS reader Byline), appappeal.jp is a website that collects iOS applications whose developers are currently donating 100% of the proceeds to the Japan relief effort. As developers around the world donate their proceeds to charities like the Red Cross, App Appeal wants to provide a unified way of discovering which apps you can buy to get great software, and contribute to Japan at the same time.

The list isn’t huge for now, but Bird and Ono aim at collecting more apps as developers get to know about App Appeal and through the classic word of mouth. So, if you’re a developer and you’re planning on donating your proceeds to help the people of Japan, you should get in touch with App Appeal; if you’re an iPhone or iPad user, keep an eye on the website to see which apps you can buy now and the ones that will be added in the next days.

If you don’t want to buy new apps to help Japan, Apple also lets you donate to the Red Cross in iTunes.

The Big Data Center Theory

Data Center Theory Banner

Data Center Theory Banner

Amidst news about the departure of Bertrand Serlet, this morning has seen some outstanding opinions about what Apple will do with their data-center in Maiden, North Carolina. Combined with the unrelated rumors that Apple could license AirPlay to consumer-electronics makers, and we have various pieces of the puzzle that when brought together give pundits food-for-thought.

It’s stupid at this point to speculate whether Apple’s data-center is being built for delivering iTunes content and MobileMe: that answer was satisfied by COO Tim Cook at their shareholder meeting last month. Yet that’s a non-answer, because if Apple’s model for consuming iTunes content doesn’t change then why bother with a bigger facility? Scale is one thing, but you don’t invest a billion dollars in something without a game-plan. The question isn’t what the data-center will be used for, but how. Certainly MobileMe needs some help in the reliability department, but iTunes’ current model for consuming content (with a focus on downloading vs. streaming) has been well handled. Has anything recently consistently stuttered or ground to a halt on iTunes? Downloads have always been generally seamless. To instigate such an expenditure, the iTunes model would obviously move from primarily downloading content to streaming it. They’re not building a data-center because Apple can’t handle the iTunes load – they’re building it to prepare for what’s next. When you match this to today’s AirPlay rumors, I think Apple will make a huge play for the television market this year.

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Drink Up or Stay Sober with BeerStat for iPhone

BeerStat Banner

BeerStat Banner

Drinkers of beer tend to settle the evenings in a local pub or in backyards over an open grill and a standing longneck. Quick work is made of the Sam Adams shuffled between the ice cubes in the cooler, and pretty soon you’re two beers in towards your eight beer weekly limit. BeerStat for the iPhone is all about statistics, tracking how much cash you’ve spent, and keeping a long log term log about your total alcohol consumption and previous records. If you ever wanted to know how much of your monthly salary you spend on beer or how how much beer you’ve chugged in body weight, BeerStat keeps those statistics based on your personal profile and beer of choice.

BeerStat is recommended in part because of its lust worthy design, showing off beautiful pixels as the streamlined interface is overlaid with booze-tastic 8-bit icons. Instead of your traditional tabs, you can scrub through the various sections of the app as you dive between records, your calendar, and a way cool section on fun-facts about beer. It’s got everything you beer-drinking hipster-loving designers would want in an iPhone app, but I will complain slightly about adding your favorite beverages. You can add your favorite brand of beer and its various qualities to BeerStat, but I wish there was a simpler way to add common supermarket brands with just a couple of flicks. Beer is individually priced, so you have to divide out the price of a bottle from a six pack. I’d like to see a quick pick implementation in a future update, but as of now you specialty drinking / pint loving fools can brag or keep tabs on just how much beer you actually consume. BeerStat is only a dollar in the App Store, and would look great donning your homescreen next to that Starbucks icon. Check out the video after the break.

And please. Drink responsibly.

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