It's been almost four years since Apple debuted its App Store platform for iOS (and then the Mac), and MacStories has an in-depth look back at that time. In just four short years, Apple has gone from saying that all we'd need on iOS are web apps, to a millions of dollars a year industry that supports almost half a million jobs. Needless to say, that's phenomenal growth.
But what's most interesting about the growth of the App Store is how the apps themselves have changed. MacStories writes about that initial push -- in those early days, the quality of the software was very low, and there were a lot of "speculators," for lack of a better term: Developers who just released quick and dirty apps (honestly, fart apps is what most of them were) to try and make a little bit of money. App branding, too, has come a long way. In the early days it was all about search and gaming the system, and these days, there are more ways to find good apps than ever.
At the same time, it's also harder for developers to make their mark in an increasingly crowded market. Apple's own success may be its biggest problem. The App Store has grown in a huge way over the past four years, and that may make it harder for both developers and Apple to figure out how to best run it going forward.
MacStories looks at four years of the App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.
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Daily Update for May 18, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The battle over the nano-SIM standard is heating up with Apple on one side and a group that includes Nokia, Motorola and RIM on the other. In the latest series of developments reported by The Verge, Motorola and RIM are countering Apple's nano-SIM proposal with a revised design of their own. This newest design is a compromise which includes elements from both their design and Apple's. It's about "80 percent Apple and 20 percent RIM / Motorola" writes Chris Ziegler for The Verge.
We should hear more about the nano-SIM standard when the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) meets at the end of this month in Osaka, Japan.
Motorola, RIM offer Apple a nano-SIM compromise originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple has announced some details on the 2012 iTunes Festival in London. This 30-day music event will take place at The Roundhouse and feature free performances by Usher, Emeli Sandé, Jack White, Norah Jones and One Direction among others.
Tickets will be distributed via lottery, and fans in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands can vie for a seat. Apple will stream performances to computers running iTunes and iPhones, iPod touches and iPads with the iTunes Festival app installed. The fun starts on September 1 and runs for the whole month.
Apple's iTunes Festival scheduled for September originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
All the little fishies
in bottom of the sea
wish that they were swimming
in my G5 Mac PC
Or for the geekier devs among you: Joy to NSFishies in the G5 PC, @selector(joy:) to you and me...
Video of the case conversion follows for your delectation.
G5 Mac Pro receives Macquarium treatment originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
WellRed Apps launched its DropKey file encryption app for Mac last month, but realized that there's one issue with gaining widespread acceptance -- it takes two to tango, and it takes two copies of DropKey (one each for sender and recipient) to send files securely. The company had been giving away one free license with each purchase of DropKey, but is going all-out through Sunday by making the app completely free.
DropKey pairs 2048-bit keys with 256-bit encryption for incredible security. The app, which requires a Mac running OS X 10.7 or later, is integrated with Address Book and makes encryption drop-dead simple.
When you launch DropKey for the first time, it generates your public and private encryption keys. You can email your public key to a trusted recipient from the app, which adds the key information to your address book card on the recipient's Mac. Prior to that time, a shared password is required; after the keys have been shared, you no longer need the password.
DropKey is a useful app if you need to send encrypted information to co-workers on a regular basis, and there's no better time than now to download a copy for free from the Mac App Store.
DropKey app encrypts Mac files, free through Sunday originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple's march to world domination continues, this time with a new Apple Store planned for the UK seaside city of Plymouth. What's surprising about this store announcement is that Apple apparently made managers of a successful Zara fashion store at the Drake Circus Shopping Centre (above) in Plymouth "an offer they can't refuse."
The Zara store, which fills a 21,045 square-foot space in the mall, has about ten years to go on a fifteen-year lease. Zara is out; Apple will assume the lease for the remainder of the time. ifoAppleStore notes that this space is almost double the size of the standard Apple Store, so Apple may just occupy the ground floor and sublet the upper level.
26 Zara employees are losing their jobs as a result of the announced closing, but there's a good chance that more jobs than that will be created when the Apple Store opens. The Drake Circus store is about 45 miles from the Princesshay Apple Store in Exeter, and fills in coverage for the Devon and Cornwall region of the country.
Apple assuming retail lease, plans to open new UK Apple Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter for the Facebook-inspired The Social Network, is working on an adaptation of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. To help him in this quest, Sorkin has hired Steve Wozniak as a technical advisor, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. Woz will help Sorkin accurately represent Jobs personality and show the technology that drove Steve Jobs's life.
Sorkin said he wants to focus on a controversial or difficult time in Jobs's life and won't do a full-life story. He's been busy working on another project and hasn't decided what part of Jobs's life he will cover. Work on the screenplay will begin in earnest over the summer.
Woz hired as technical advisor on Jobs biopic originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
As noticed by AppleInsider, the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved Apple's application to build a 20-megawatt solar farm on land adjacent to its Maiden, North Carolina data center. The proposal was filed on February 15 and publicly announced at the end of March. It received no complaints and was approved by the Commission on May 14.
This approval gives Apple the green light to continue work on the solar farm, which will provide a portion of the power required by its data center. The solar array is expected to be completed by November and will start providing power late in December. Apple has said it will be the largest user-owned solar array in the United States.
Apple's data center has been the target of several Greenpeace demonstrations around the world. The environmental activist group criticizes Apple for its reliance on coal and says the company could improve its usage of clean power.
[Via AppleInsider]
Apple receives regulatory approval for solar farm in North Carolina originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
After releasing its mail app for the iPhone, Sparrow is back again with another update of its Mac email client. Version 1.6 adds the highly-anticipated support for Pop accounts, giving you a true unified inbox. There's also a handful of minor tweaks and bug fixes that'll make it easier for you to send and receive mail on your Mac. You can see the full list of changes on Sparrow's blog.
Sparrow for the Mac is available from the Mac App Store for US$9.99.
Sparrow 1.6 for Mac available with POP support, more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Sprint wants customers to buy the iPhone 4S and is offering a US$100 credit for the 4S to anyone who brings in an older iPhone as a trade. Details of this trade-in offer was published by TechnoBuffalo, who received it from a trusted source. This offer is supposedly available to both new and existing customers who agree to a new two-year contract and will last until June 30.
Sprint to offer $100 towards iPhone 4S upon trade-in originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Our friends at Joystiq have procured the first gameplay footage of Epic's followup to the popular Infinity Blade series, called Infinity Blade: Dungeons, and you can get a look at it below. As you can see, it's set in the same world as the first two games, but features a completely different take on gameplay, using gestures to fight baddies from a top-down view rather than a fixed camera.
There are also some interesting crafting mechanics, like rubbing out imperfections on a blade you're making, or tapping dents in metal to clear them off. Infinity Blade: Dungeons was announced at the iPad 3 Apple event, and is supposed to be out later on this year.
Infinity Blade: Dungeons gameplay revealed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
IK Multimedia's iRig Mix mixer has finally arrived in stores, and it's just as impressive now as it was back when we saw it in action at CES this year. The mixer is sturdy and impressively small, and it has hookups for two different sources, including two iOS devices or any other stereo input source, as well as an extra mic/instrument input. Those sounds can then be mixed together, balanced, or tweaked with EQ, and sent out to a headphone jack on the bottom, and a stereo RCA output on the top. In short, this is a great full-featured mixer for mixing together sounds from almost anywhere.
The biggest bonus here, however, is that the mixer also works with IK's apps on the App Store, so downloading DJ Rig or any of the other apps will sound extra nice coming through this thing. And there's an X-Sync feature built in to the mixer that works with the DJ app to beatmix for you, making for super simple DJing: Just start up the apps on your iOS devices, turn X-Sync on, and the mixer will beatmatch automatically.
The whole kit is very impressive, and even if you just need a mixer for occasional audio use (unrelated to your iOS devices), it would probably work great. Plus, it's out now for just $99, and good luck finding an equivalent professional mixer at that price.
iRig Mix out now, impresses with size and features originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Chillingo's Feed Me Oil was released a little while ago, and it's a solid game that didn't get a ton of press when it first dropped. The reason for that is probably because it's somewhat similar to Where's My Water, in that you're trying to get a fluid simulation into a certain place on the screen by tweaking physics-enabled objects in the world. But while Where's My Water was all about digging, Feed Me Oil is much more about creation -- you place objects like platforms and wheels in the world to try and get the "black gold" flowing where you need it to go.
Like pretty much all of Chillingo's other titles, there is lots of content here to play through: Lots of levels and puzzles with an increasing number of objects to use and move around to your heart's content. And while the game is on the iPhone as well, it's much better on the iPad -- the graphics are bigger and the objects are easier to manipulate in the game's space. Feed Me Oil is an excellent game, and especially because it's on sale today for completely free. Check it out.
Daily iPad App: Feed Me Oil HD originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Bejeweled is probably the most popular mobile game out there, but for some reason, PopCap has never actually released it officially on the iPad. It's been out on the iPhone before, and of course you could play it on Apple's tablet, but it has never run natively. Until now, that is -- PopCap has finally released Bejeweled HD, which means you can now play the grandaddy of gem matching games in full Retina Display style.
The game is now $3.99, and it's got special modes like Diamond Mine and Butterflies, four special gems to put together, and all of the usual extras that we've seen in Bejeweled games before. If you think the price is high, PopCap has sales on its titles pretty often, so we may eventually see it drop, but keep in mind this is an iPad title, and PopCap usually tries to keep those up as long as possible.
PopCap finally releases Bejeweled HD on iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.
You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.
No Flash? Click here to listen.
Subscribe via RSS
Daily Update for May 17, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Today, beloved leader Victor pointed me to this write-up over at Tidbits. Although Joe Kissel's experience with quite so many devices (nine, I believe) falls a bit into the extremes of iOS/OS X use, the problem of dealing with distributed alarms is a real one: a single reminder can set off alerts all over the home or office. Surely, there's got to be a better way to focus alert attention.
Victor asked if I could brainstorm some geek solutions up that might help coordinate reminders with multi-device deployment (I won't even try to figure out "how to deal with bosses who remind you about too much stuff with shared calendars"). The idea is to let users choose reminder strategies across several devices: Macs, iPads, iPhones, etc.
The strategy brought up by Kissel was to add "do not disturb" buttons and slight time offsets to alerts. The opt-in would allow you to disable alerts either per-device or per-Apple ID. The offsets would allow users to respond to a dialog, allowing them to accept the reminder and disable triggers on other devices. The only slight problem with the time offsets approach is determining which device gets priority.
You can imagine being in bed, exhausted, sleepy and hearing a slightly long symphony of beeps that finally arrives at the iPhone on your bedside. Being able to prioritize a device (e.g. "always alert this iPhone first") would certainly help.
I also started thinking about activity -- and, specifically, giving priority to any device experiencing touches and mouse and key interaction (e.g. "always alert active devices first"). An active use pattern generally links to a human presence -- the likely target of a reminder. It's an easy way to connect alert reception to an audience.
Devices could trigger in order of most recent use, with the reminder ending once a user taps an acknowledge key. In the worst case, the reminder lasts 9 times longer than it did originally, but in the best case, only the most active device is triggered. Per Apple ID, of course. Your partner's devices would have its own alert chain.
But that doesn't take location into account . If your devices are idle but in distributed locations, say one at home, and one at work, which takes priority? Perhaps you'd want both to ring because there's no a priori knowledge of your location. Or maybe you'd want it to alert at work first and then home (e.g. "prioritize work").
And at home? If you have a device downstairs and another upstairs, they may seem to be at the same location-to-detection algorithms, but you certainly would want to be reminded of lunch no matter which floor you're on. At the same time, you'd think devices could potentially figure out they're clustered together.
What if Apple, in addition to slight time delays, could listen to hear alerts from triggers they know would happen on a related device in their Apple ID family (e.g. "listen for duplicate alerts")?
You might be able to skip the active "Okay I get it" button then. Devices could actively suppress extra alerts by listening for ones in their vicinity. The problem again, would be if two Apple IDs were linked to similar reminders but didn't share calendars explicitly.
For this, Apple could build in a "coordinate my alerts with..." option and harmony would once again reign in the land of the multi-device family.
Beepocalypse: How Apple could improve multi-device reminders originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Most takes on real-time strategy for the App Store have to corrupt the form in some way, yet some still turn out well (see Total War Battles for a a great RTS game that takes a different turn). But Amoebattle impressively does RTS as you expect it. You choose units, send them around exploring, and tap to attack or move through the fog of war in real-time.
There are nine different unit types to be discovered during the campaign, and each has its own attributes and abilities. The graphics are cute and colorful, but the tactics are hard to master -- especially near the end, when the game has no shortage of challenges to overcome.
Amoebattle is an excellent RTS title for Apple's touchscreen devices, something that a lot of RTS fans have dreamed about ever since the iPad was first announced. It's not perfect, but it doesn't skimp from RTS traditions, even on a mobile device, and it holds up to them well. The game is US$4.99, in a universal version, on the App Store now.
Daily iPhone App: Amoebattle does RTS right originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom announced in a joint press release that the two companies have resolved their disagreement over video streaming to mobile devices. Details of the settlement were not announced.
The new-found friendliness means Viacom shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will be available to Time Warner Cable subscribers who watch TV via the TWC TV app. The additional channels should be added in the next few weeks. Customers can download The TWC TV app from the iOS App Store for free. It requires a Time Warner Cable subscription.
Time Warner Cable, Viacom settle dispute over TV iPad app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple's attempt to wrest control the iPhone5.com domain name from the hands of a cybersquatter has been a success. TheNextWeb reports that the company's complaint to the World Intellectual Properties Organization (WIPO) resulted in the iPhone5.com domain being handed over to Apple.
The fact that the company has re-obtained the domain name doesn't necessarily mean that the next iPhone will be called the iPhone 5, nor that Apple will ever use the domain name. In fact, the domain is currently being held by Corporation Service Company, a firm that specializes in brand protection and may have been used by Apple to grab ownership.
In the world of intellectual property law, it is considered vital for organizations to actively protect trademarks. In this case, the domain had been registered in 2008 by a group that operated an online forum. While registering the domain, the former owners noted that "it was not endorsed, sponsored, nor otherwise affiliated with Apple" and was "for the sole purpose of entertainment and knowledge."
Apple hasn't been as aggressive in protecting other domain names. It does not own iPad.com, and hasn't attempted to take control of the name. Apple did manage to acquire iPods.com after a protracted battle, but doesn't own iBooks.com (publishing rival Barnes & Noble does) or iBookstore.com.
With all of Apple's intellectual property battles raging around the world, it must feel good to win a small skirmish like this.
Apple wins iPhone5.com domain name originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Update: I made a mistake about Instacast's support for notifications in the original draft of this article. Please read my corrections at the end. My apologies, readers. --Rich
The release of Instacast v2.0 ruffled some feathers recently. Vemedio, publishers of the popular podcasting app, have taken the unusual step of switching business models with the new release. The old version of the app cost US$2.99; now it's $0.99 for the basic version, with an in-app purchase (IAP) to upgrade to Instacast Pro for a further $1.99. However, several features that used to be in the v1.0 app, like push notifications (update: see note at end of post) and the ability to re-order podcasts in the list, have moved to the Pro version. This means existing customers who upgrade to the new releases have to pay again to access them. (I'm going to dub this tactic the Instacast Maneuver.)
Unsurprisingly, this hasn't gone down too well with some longtime customers, who feel they are being unreasonably double-dipped. Angry one-star reviews for the latest version are accumulating in iTunes -- although, to be fair, they are far outnumbered by positive reviews by people who like the new interface.
I think this is an interesting story, and it ties into something I've been meaning to write for a long time about the non-intuitive meanings of "ownership" in our increasingly on-demand all-digital world.
One of the most common reactions to the criticism is that it really isn't much money and, basically, people should stop whining. As accurately stated by Harry Marks, we spend more money than this on bad coffee without blinking. Software upgrades of OS X cost $29, and Windows or Photoshop (amongst many others) can cost hundreds of dollars -- does two bucks matter?
Certainly, I think it's absolutely fair to say that it's not a lot of money to anyone who can afford an iPhone or even an iPod touch in the first place. We're talking about devices that cost hundreds of dollars -- thousands when often-mandatory cellular contracts are added on. But...
Between my iPhone and iPad, I have at least 250 third-party apps. Many of those were free, but if just a fifth of my apps dinged me $2 via the Instacast Manoeuvre, I'd be looking at $100. That's not chickenfeed to me and it probably isn't to you either. So it's my contention that even if you think $2 for Instacast 2.0 is fantastic value, there's still a debate to be had here about value to the end user. If, like Seth Clifford, you don't love Instacast but merely think it "sucked the least of all the [podcasting] apps"; well, then that conversation takes on a different tone.
A similar argument commonly advanced to silence critics is that Instacast is a written by a small dev who needs the money; if you like the app, is it going to kill you to pay a little more for a new version? This is the angle the Vemedio company blog takes and it's certainly one I have some time for. Instacast isn't a top-tier app; many iOS users don't care about podcasts and most of the those who do are satisfied by Apple's built-in support. By definition of what the app does, Instacast is chasing a quite small niche of users and it shares those users with a number of high quality competing apps.
So Vemedio needs to establish a regular income stream, hopefully enough to support the firm and permit future development of the app. Presumably, the users want that, so surely it's churlish of them to complain about being asked to chip in a few bucks?
The problem is that many of them feel ripped off. Firstly, Vemedio took the unusual step of moving existing features into the extra-cost Pro version of the app. That's a questionable decision. Secondly, because of the App Store rules, there's no way for Vemedio to charge upgraders a reduced fee; it's all or nothing. Which brings us to...
The App Stores both Mac and iOS restricts developers to well-defined ways to make money from their software: charge upfront, charge via In-App Purchase for add-ons, and/or charge subscriptions for ongoing services. Notably missing, as veteran Mac developer Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster has written extensively, is any sort of paid upgrade option.
Imagine you're GadgetSoft and you've just released WidgetThing v1.0 to great acclaim. All ten of its main features are popular. You have some great ideas for how to expand and improve it, but it's going to take a good chunk of time and effort to do so. At the end of that effort, you'll be able to release WidgetThing v2.0 with five new features in only one of two ways: as an in-place upgrade, meaning all your existing customers get it for free. Or as an entirely new app, in which case your existing customers have to pay all over again.
Economics theory tells us that WidgetThing v2.0 should be priced for new customers according to its 15 features, but priced for existing customers according to the extra five features it has over v1.0. It has different values to those two groups of customers, so should have different prices too.
Apple, for whatever inscrutable reason, doesn't let app makers do this. Charging longstanding customers full whack for upgrades is likely to be perceived as gouging; giving them upgrades in perpetuity for free is no way to run a business. Inevitably, some app makers simply won't bother. Chances are there are some fantastic v2.0 or v3.0 apps that have never left the drawing board because the developers simply couldn't justify it economically.
But why is it so bad to just give updates away for free? Isn't that a bit greedy? The answer is...
We only have ourselves to blame.
Picture the dawn of the App Store back in 2008 as a group of users in the middle of a big circle of developers. No-one knew how much to charge for anything; these were untested waters, an entirely new business model for consumers and creators. Nervous developers stepped up and pitched price points and users started buying apps. The savviest developers watched each other like hawks, nudging prices up and down in response to each other -- but mostly down, and down, and down.
About nineteen metaphorical seconds later, the nervous circle had turned into the bellowing hustle of the NYSE's trading floor, with everyone hollering lower and lower prices until many apps hit rock bottom: $0.99. The average price of an app today is $2.00, and the modal price is surely the dollar-store low water mark. Look at the initial iTunes reviews of any app costing more than three bucks and someone will inevitably call it expensive.
We know that many apps lose money; I have my doubts about the survey those results were drawn from but I think the general conclusion that only a lucky few devs make serious money from the App Store is a pretty common sense one. The race for the bottom -- the race we all subconsciously encourage whenever we held out to buy a $1.99 app in case it goes down to $0.99 in a sale -- means devs of even moderately successful apps are often left struggling for revenue.
Is it any wonder developers need to resort to every method they can think of to make ends meet?
Surely this is all a storm in a teacup. Why can't existing users of Instacast v1 simply not upgrade to the new version?
Well, Apple doesn't make that very easy. There's no way to mark a specific version as "unwanted" in the App Store upgrade screen. If you accidentally hit Upgrade on that app just once, there's no way back -- unless you have manually extracted a backup of the older version of the app from iTunes, which is less likely than ever in this era of iCloud-powered backups.
Worst of all, you have to resign yourself to never again using the Update All button. If you don't have many apps, it might not be that much of a bother to manually upgrade, one by one, every one except Instacast. Other people, however, have hundreds of apps (I'm one) and receive dozens of updates a week (yo). Particularly given the App Store app's baffling habit of kicking you out to the home screen after each press of the upgrade, it quickly moves through tedious and into downright irritating.
So far I've mostly been talking about Instacast, but the issues I'm describing affect more than just that one app.
Consider Tweetie, Loren Brichter's beloved Twitter app. I paid for Tweetie twice -- once for version one and again for version two, at a cost of $2.99 each time. I was delighted with each purchase, as Tweetie was easily the best-of-breed Twitter client at the time. Until, that is, Twitter bought it, relaunched it as "Twitter for iPhone", and eventually "blessed" it with dubious UI decisions and ads (later withdrawn) and more ads. From the second I upgraded from Tweetie to Twitter, the app I'd cherished and paid for (twice!) was gone, with no easy way to get it back.
For another example, consider the recent rumors that Rock Band for iOS would be shut down. EA claim this was "an error", although how that's possible is yet to be explained (particularly given this entry in the company FAQ which has since been removed).
Looking beyond iOS, EA is also famous for disabling online support in its console games, sometimes for games as little as seventeen months old. Once the servers are turned off, the entire online portion of the game stops working. The game you paid for is gone for good.
These tricky issues of ownership aren't even just about software. Sony removed the OtherOS feature from PlayStation 3 consoles after it emerged that people were using it as a jailbreak vector. A firmware update appeared, and boom -- just like that, my PS3 could no longer run Linux (and unlike many people, I'd actually installed Linux on my PS3). I could refuse the update, as long as I never wanted to play another game online. Not a great choice.
There are almost endless examples of these, and things are only getting more complicated as companies think of new ways to use and abuse the power that over-the-air updates and digital downloads give them over consumer purchases. Sooner or later, someone is going to push the envelope too far, and we're going to have some juicy class-action lawsuits over it. Until then, caveat emptor.
But let's return to the matter at hand -- the Instacast Maneuver. I think it arose from the limitations Apple has imposed on the App Store combined with the sometimes precarious finacial situation that some app devs can find themselves in. Vemedio are far from the only developers in this situation, so I am sure other app devs are watching how this goes closely as they ponder if they will follow along this path.
Overall, though, I have to come down against Vemedio on this one (update: please see the update below.) Not for the use of In-App Purchase itself; I think that was a fairly reasonable way around the lack of paid upgrades on the App Store. What I can't get away from the moving of features, including big ones like push notifications, away from the normal version and into the Pro. I've already bought a version of Instacast that does push. I don't think it's right to charge me, or anyone else, twice for that feature.
Update: I have accidentally propogated a common misunderstanding about Instacast, for which I must beg your forgiveness, reader. V1 of the app didn't have true Push notifications; it used local notifications only for some basic alerting. As several of my commenters below and Raphael Fetzer on Twitter have pointed out, the more dynamic Push notificaitons in Instacast Pro are genuinely new. I am grateful for the correction. Vemedio has also announced since this post was drafted (but before it went live) that the forthcoming Instacast v2.0.1 will make Smart Playlists available for free, i.e. in the base-level, non-Pro version of the app. Finally, the In-App Purchase upgrade to Instacast Pro is currently on sale for $0.99.
In light of these changes, I humbly withdraw -- and apologise for -- my criticism of Vemedio above.
Instacast pricing raises hackles: are apps bought or rented? [Updated] originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If it feels like you not only have more apps on your iPhone, but that you're spending more time in those apps, then you should congratulate yourself on being as savvy as pollster Nielsen. According to a report from the organization, the number of apps on the average smartphone increased from 32 to 41 -- a jump of 28 percent -- over the past year.
As you can see from the Nielsen infographic at the top of this post, the percentage of time spent by smartphone owners in apps rather than on the web has also climbed. The average smartphone user spends only about 19 percent of his or her time on the web; the rest of the time, native apps are being used.
The one other fascinating tidbit on the chart shows that the number of smartphone owners in the US has climbed from 38 million in 2011 to 84 million in 2012 -- that's a jump of 121 percent in just one calendar year.
[via Engadget]
Report: Americans have 28 percent more mobile apps in 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Update: TNW reports this has been fixed. Did Apple hire a bunch of temps lately?
Developers, musicians, and probably any other content provider in the U.S. iTunes Store have a new Apple policy to deal with this morning; you apparently can't use the term "jailbreak" in a product description or name. If you do slip up, or happen to be like 70's rock band Thin Lizzy and have a hit song and album by the name of "Jailbreak", you'll find that it has been censored by Apple.
Apple appears to be blanking out the word "Jailbreak" as J*******k in many cases where it appears on iTunes. Some Americans we're talking to are not seeing the censorship, but we're assuming that's due to caching issues.
It's not only in the music category; "jailbreak" is being censored on the App Store (above), in listings for TV episodes (including a G-rated episode of The Roy Rogers Show from 1951 -- below), and even on a podcast on iTunes U about the Andy Griffith show. We're not certain why Apple has chosen to do this -- it could be that it's an unintended outcome of trying to ban the use of the word on the App Store that went a little overboard. When the word "jailbreak" is outlawed, only outlaws will "jailbreak"...
Apple apparently censoring the word "jailbreak" in US iTunes Store (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Things are getting heated in Kodak's patent battle with Apple. In a recent court filing noticed by Total Telecom, Kodak accused the Cupertino company of trying to interfere in its upcoming patent auction in order to avoid paying US$1 billion in penalties and royalty fees.
According to the court document, Kodak says Apple shouldn't be allowed to claim ownership of a key Kodak imaging patent that describes a method of previewing a photo on an LCD. Kodak argues that the International Trade Commission and a US District Court have denied Apple's ownership claims. Apple, however, continues to assert that Kodak misappropriated its technology to get the patent.
If Apple's ownership is upheld, then the company would not have to pay royalties or any infringement penalties to Kodak. It would also prevent Kodak from paying off its creditors by selling this valuable patent in an auction.
Kodak asked the bankruptcy judge to consider this matter during a hearing scheduled for June 14. This would give the court a few weeks to make a decision before Kodak must file its patent auction rules and timeline with the bankruptcy court. Needless to say, Kodak's patent auction would go smoother if there wasn't an Apple ownership claim on one of the company's most important patents.
Kodak accuses Apple of interfering with patent sale originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Note to readers: I failed to add a "do not pub yet" note onto this post the night before last. It was inadvertently published during our overnight before it finished research and editorial review. The post is much the same with clarification added about how and when the hotkey ban is due to go into effect, and clarifying exactly what functionality we believe is going to be forbidden in the MAS going forward. I also removed specific application names that may be affected by this change.
Editor's Note: I stand behind this story due to the evidence we received, but unfortunately it is evidence we cannot share publicly. While many have claimed our story is untrue, I can tell you that due diligence was practiced and, based on the evidence we received, what was indicated by Apple stands as written. Several clarifications have been added to this story, but all I can tell people is that either Apple is unsure of what hotkey functionality is in this case, or something has changed very recently in such a way as to negate what was said previously by Apple. Therefore, we'll have to wait and see. If further evidence appears to refute what we have written, we will publish a standalone clarification. After all, it is Apple's store to do with as they wish, which includes applying policy as they see fit, or changing policy at any given time.
As I write this, I just got off the phone with a colleague. He just now is realizing that [as far as the Mac App Store is concerned -Ed.] Apple may be end-of-life-ing all those great little hotkey shortcuts that used to let us bring an app to the forefront and do something.
Apps use hotkeys to let you jump to what you want to do while you work on what you must do. Apps can set a system-wide hotkey to trigger an action or event, even when the app itself is not foremost (or is resident in the menu bar). They're on the way out of the Mac App Store as Apple paves the path to safer, more consumer-oriented computing.
Apparently, Apple will allow hotkey apps that are already in the Mac App Store before June to offer only bug fixes after that. New sandboxed apps and any apps that add features (i.e. non-bugfix releases) will not be allowed to support hotkeys.
TUAW has been told that Apple will be rejecting all MAS apps with hotkey functionality starting June 1, regardless of whether the new features are hotkey related or not. Basically, if you're developing one of those apps, an app that assumes you can still add hotkeys, don't bother submitting it to the Mac App Store. [Note that as far as we know this only means systemwide hotkeys, not isolated-to-your-app keyboard commands -- the latter would obviously kneecap OS X and the Mac App Store rather dramatically. -Ed.]
It's not just press-to-switch apps that are feeling the pressure of the future. Many cross-app scripting utilities and macro programs already can't step foot in the App Store and will have to fight for a space on your computer under Mountain Lion's GateKeeper. The Quickeys macro program I've depended on for decades is still limping along for the moment in its creaky 4.0 build, but I don't expect it to last more than a year or so.
OS X 10.9 or OS Xi, whichever comes after Mountain Lion, isn't about to let an app completely redefine the user keyboard. Those macros that let me use Emacs keys regardless of app, and that let me launch all my most-used apps with one combination...I know they're next to die.
I've seen the future and it is iOS. Apple is moving solidly and confidently towards consumer computing and away from mollycoddling the power users. The company knows where its profits come from and power users ain't it. The iPad -- with its simple interface, strong security, and dependability -- has set the standard for what's next.
For all the moments when I want to rage against the coming of the Nanny OS, I know it's on its way. I've lived in iOS now for 5 years. I've played in the sandbox, I've grown to know the sandbox, I've come to accept the sandbox.
I'm not super thrilled by it, but you can't deny the reality. While there's no indication Apple intends to prevent the sale of apps with [systemwide] hotkey functionality outside the App Store, it is clear Apple is working to simplify the user experience within the Mac App Store, and that means "power user" utilities are at risk.
Goodbye hotkeys, macro programs, end-user customization, and all the detritus of operating systems that were full of holes to crawl into and dumpsters wherein to dive. The new, clean way of computing is on its way. It may be a lot less fun but it's gonna sell a hell of a lot of Macs.
Thanks, Gwynne Raskind for providing feedback during the writing of this post.
"Nanny Computing" and the future of OS X originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse signed an estimated US$15.5 billion deal with Apple to carry the iPhone. After a less than stellar quarterly performance, the CEO is trying to quell shareholder discontent by publicly defending his decision, says a report in AllThingsD.
Speaking at an annual shareholders meeting, Hesse assured investors that "carrying the iPhone will be quite profitable." Customers will join Sprint to get the iPhone on an unlimited plan and will stay because most people who buy the phone are happy with their purchase. The iPhone will increase the number of long-term customers with revenue-generating data plans which is good for Sprint's bottom line. Sprint won't see these benefits until 2015, but the CEO believes the iPhone is worth the wait.
Dan Hesse certain the iPhone will be profitable for Sprint originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Speaking at a J.P. Morgan Conference, Verizon Wireless CFO Fran Shammo revealed that the carrier plans to transition its grandfathered customers off their unlimited data plans, says a report in Fierce Wireless. Shammo confirmed that, starting this summer, customers moving from a 3G phone with an unlimited plan to a 4G handset will be required to drop the unlimited plan and sign up for a shared family data plan.
According to the report, Verizon will only offer a shared family data plan for its 4G customers. These plans include one bucket of data which is shared among multiple devices. This change will affect customers upgrading phones, but the report did not say what would happen to current 4G customers on an unlimited plan or unlimited 3G customers who don't want to upgrade.
[Via GigaOM]
Verizon Wireless to transition grandfathered customers from unlimited data plans originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 08:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The TUAW TV Live chat room regulars are a rowdy bunch. Whether it's urikelman, drallgood, harumph, benroethig, docrock, lvreefkpr, macmommy, verso, ericasadun or any of a constantly changing group of participants who is chatting, there's always a lot of back and forth talk about whatever the topic happens to be. The discussion often goes off the show topic, which is great -- it keeps me on my toes.
Well, today I've got a few topics to chat about, but most of the discussion is going to be directed by the IRC chat. If you're watching the show on Ustream you can use the Ustream chat tool that's embedded just below. If you're watching on Justin.tv, you'll want to use an IRC client like Colloquy, LimeChat, or Textual to participate.
Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. You can also choose to watch the show on Justin.tv if you wish, by visiting our portal at http://justin.tv/tuawtvlive. In either case, you'll be watching the show in glorious HD!
If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.
We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.
TUAW TV Live: The chat room speaketh originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 16 May 2012 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Loop spotted a new book over at Amazon called "Who Was Steve Jobs?" that appears to be a children's book, of all things. It's part of a series of books designed to tell kids about famous historical figures and why they're so admired or well-known.
Looking inside the book shows that it talks about Steve's life and times, all the way from the garage in California, up through the NeXT days, and to "Think Different" and "Insanely Great." There's also a detailed timeline included, and even a bibliography of sources. This might be just the thing for any little ones who could use a primer on Jobs and his life.
Steve Jobs subject of new children's book originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 16 May 2012 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If there's one thing about iPhoto for iPad and iPhone that I've never been too happy with, it's that the apps aren't exactly self-explanatory and Apple doesn't provide much in terms of an onboard guided tour. Long-time Apple developer and publisher Saied Ghaffari has just published a new iBook titled Hello iPhoto for iPad & iPhone (US$1.99) that provides a unique way of learning the tricks of iPhoto for your iOS device.
I had the opportunity to talk with Saied recently about the book, which was created in iBooks Author and has been featured by Apple in the iBookstore. He's no newcomer to the how-to book market, having created the popular "It's About Time: Learn the Switch to Mac" application that led a generation of switchers to the OS X platform. That app made it into special bundles with Parallels Desktop as well, providing a way for switchers to painlessly make the way between Windows and OS X.
Times change, and now Saied has embraced iBooks Author and created a helpful companion to the iOS version of iPhoto. Once purchased and downloaded to your iPad, the book appears on the shelf in iBooks. With a tap, it opens to a gorgeous photo of the Grand Canyon -- an image repeated on other chapter headings. In the lower left corner is a small thumbnail that opens a launch page when tapped.
The launch page provides a portal to learning a bit about iPhoto and iTunes on your Mac, iPhoto on your iPad, or iPhoto on your iPhone. Tapping any one of the images on the launch page takes you right into that specific book chapter.
Going to the iPad chapter brings up three more images, any one of which can be triggered with a "tap to learn." The main topics are an Overview of iPhoto, Browsing & Sharing, and Editing. If I select Browsing & Sharing, for example, I see a more focused page with descriptions of two lessons -- one for Browsing, one for Sharing. With a tap on either description, I'm into the lesson. Once you're at this level, the document is readable in the usual "swipe to turn a page" manner.
This is where Saied's experience in computer-based training really shines. Through the placement of small "magnifying lenses" on the page, your eye is drawn to a feature of iPhoto that you're going to learn about. Saied then takes you through a succinct written description of the feature to accompany the images.
To be honest with you, I pretty much ignored iPhoto for iOS until I read Hello iPhoto. In the short amount of time that it took for me to go through the book, I was able to pick up a lot of hints and tips about iPhoto for iOS that I wasn't previously aware of. I feel that the $2 price tag of the book is a perfect price point for Hello iPhoto, as it definitely provided much more value in terms of a learning experience.
If you have purchased iPhoto for iOS, but still find yourself not using the app all that much, you owe it to yourself to buy Hello iPhoto. It will get you up to speed on iPhoto in no time at all.
Hello iPhoto for iPad & iPhone is an amazing new way to learn originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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