It's an eery feeling when you write an article and on the same day the company you wrote about changes or modifies a policy related to the content of your story. It makes you feel like they're watching you.
We posted a story about the SDK for iOS and how the cloudy restrictive nature of the acceptance process might be hurting the creative flow of the App Store. Less than 2 hours later 9 to 5 Mac posted a statement by Apple regarding the App Store review guidelines...
When I was in junior high school the only thing I knew about Apple was that they made computers with enormous floppy disk drives. The Discman was the hottest portable music player and it would cost you about $100 for the latest and greatest. Bill Gates was a nerdy guy who was also the richest man in the world.
Imagine if you will that Steve Jobs never came back to Apple and the quirky computer company died off, leaving Microsoft as the uncontested developer to produce us our technological fixes. Assume that the story plays out identical to the way it is today with Gates and company unveiling the now iPhone under the Seattle based company...
I can't imagine owning an iPhone or other Apple handheld without the addition of the App Store. I've said before that I believe it to be the greatest asset to the iOS platform. So what's the problem?
Apple Investor outlines the possibility that a vague module and a totalitarian controlled acceptance process has caused developers to walk on egg shells thus stunting their creativity. Some say the terms of service are often inconsistent, but as with any report like this, there are two lines of thought to be heard...
It has been several weeks since we have heard about the iPhone 4 antenna issue and how it is affecting the selling power of the new device. With record sales reported it comes as no surprise that a recent survey shows potential buyers are more concerned about the absence of a Verizon branded iPhone.
Apple Insider dissected a Piper Jaffray poll that was comprised of 258 cellphone users in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It turns out that of those questioned, 3 times the population was more upset over not having the iPhone available on Verizon than those who hesitated on buying the device due to the antenna...
Have you ever wondered why Google allowed the iPhone and other iOS devices to use their maps? It turns out that allowing the iPhone to run their location based service is about to become extremely profitable.
CNN has a piece of what Google blogged regarding the advertising it plans on facilitating in the map application:
On launch day of the iPhone 4 I was 26th in line at the Mall of America. I arrived at 2 in the morning and by the time Apple opened their doors there were easily over 300 people waiting behind me. I know that everyone in line that day didn't go home with the new iPhone. It was blissfully maddening.
The latest shortage reports are coming out of Australia where TUAW shows the country's carriers are feeling the heat from a high demand, low supply market. With cell carriers down under getting new shipments each week, and the Apple stores in the US each day, I feel like the company purposely shorthands their retailers and inadvertently causes chaos...
I'll warn you ahead of time, this is a ridiculous piece of news. The folks over at Target have come up with a plan that will allow you to trade in your iPhone or iPod Touch to receive your very own gift card with the amount you're granted in return.
So how much can you expect to get for your respective iDevice you ask? CNET says supported stores will issue you a card that ranges from "a couple dollars" to $200 in value...
If you check out the Apple iPhone Dev Center you will see an encouraging vow to developers stating that they can expect to see quicker, more consistent payments in the future.
As it reads on the website there is a new payment and financial report module in place. Here is an excerpt from the site:
One of my pet peeves is the current state of how apps in the App Store get their review grades. As you probably know the system as it stands is simply set up to allow anyone to write about and rank an application as many times as they like. Nothing had been done to prevent fraud in the sense of app developers writing multiple high ball reviews, until now, kind of.
The Federal Trade Commissions office has satisfied a complaint against a California based PR group called Reverb Communications. It turns out that the company who have worked with several developers were having their employees posing as actual users, and having them write up glorified reviews of different applications...
I think this is a must-watch video of Steve Jobs talking about branding and where Apple should stand. I'm not sure when this video was recorded, but I'm glad Steve didn't do about speech about clothing. I mean look at these shorts, man, that's wild! At any rates, this is the essence of Apple.
It hasn't been long since we speculated that releasing the iPhone 4 so soon to the iPhone 3GS might not be the best business move for Chinese provider China Unicom. According to The Inquirer we were right on the money with our predictions and that China Unicom has reported an astounding 54% profit drop for the 2nd quarter.
It's appropriate to be clear about how Unicom ended up carrying Apple's iPhone in the first place. China Mobile is the top dog in chinese cell service with over 500 million customers. Consequently they weren't about to acquiesce to Steve Jobs and his stern business model, so they told Apple to take their iPhone and have a nice life...
We reported earlier in the month about AT&T downplaying and avoiding questions about the effects it will suffer if and when their iPhone exclusivity runs out. The tune is staying the same from the telephone provider but now they are citing tablets such as the iPad as their future lifeline.
Without getting specific about the rumors of a Verizon iPhone, Glen Lurie (AT&T emerging devices president) says that the company plans to keep "plugging along" at the same rate of success they are now. Yeah, right...