Monthly Archives: December 2009
NY Times Business section features the App Store
It’s always an interesting Sunday when the front page of the New York Times business section features a mostly-glowing piece on the dynamics of the App Store, leading off with some facts and figures from Freeverse‘s Ian Lynch Smith (who also appeared in our own video visit to Freeverse last month). Smith let the Times know that one month of sales for chart-topper Skee-Ball, an app that took two months to develop, came to $181,000. Not bad at all.
The entire article is worth a read, and it at least gives a brief nod to the ongoing struggles between independent developers and Apple’s review process than we’re used to hearing about (including a mention of one unlucky VoIP shop with an ‘in review’ time measured by the year). The anecdotal evidence is starting to mount that Apple is thinking seriously about how the App Store’s failings are effecting the ecosystem and driving quality developers from the platform: direct executive intervention to approve apps, responding to allegations of review fixing, and quick turnarounds on low-logic rejections all help matters.
What would help more than those examples of good exception handling? More clarity, more transparency, and more equity — assuming you’re not in favor of my modest proposal to subvert app review entirely. Since there are now suggestions that even non-jailbroken phones might be vulnerable to data theft from malicious apps, it seems unlikely that Apple will let unreviewed apps through anytime soon.NY Times Business section features the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Relax Japanese-style with Yoritsuki
Here’s an app I picked up early last week that’s earned a permanent home on my iPhone. Yoritsuki* by HYBRIDWORKS places you in a (virtual) Japanese inn complete with a beautiful view.
More of a toy than a game, Yoritsuki lets you customize the scene’s appearance and behavior. The main screen depicts the perspective of someone sitting on tatami mats and gazing upon a wooded pond through shoji (sliding doors). The doors are customizable: Choose from 15 designs, slide them open and closed or eliminate them entirely.
The time of day depicted depends on your iPod/iPhone’s clock, and the season is determined by the date. Of course, you can opt to show winter, spring, summer or fall at any time. Birds fly by and chip, leaves fall in autumn and snow in the winter while the sound of rushing water is ever present. At night, fireflies (or “lightning bugs” as we called them in Scranton) fly past.
2222 short stories in your pocket with the Colossal Short Story Collection
I’ve done quite a bit of testing of eBooks, and quite honestly I’ve had a problem with the concept of reading a whole book on an iPod touch or iPhone. At a normal font size, an eBook can display about 75 words on a single screen. This requires even a rather short book to be hundreds and hundreds of screenfuls. My well worn copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer comes in at 218 pages which in the app Classics2Go [iTunes Link] translates to 813 screens of iPhone/iPod touch text. I know that this isn’t a problem for a great number of people, but I haven’t finished a book yet. There is too much flipping, and no matter how pretty the presentation, it just doesn’t feel right to me. Your personal preferences may vary, of course.
The Colossal Short Story Collection app, currently under Apple review, solved my problem almost entirely. Contained in the app are over 2222 short stories, all in the public domain, that can be read in 15-20 minutes each. The vastness of the collection assures that you’ll always find something that you want to read by authors ranging from Hans Christian Anderson to W.B. Yeats. An average story is around 30 screens. If light entertaining/distracting games can be referred to as casual gaming, this would be an app for casual reading.
I found that reading short stories on an iPhone/iPod touch is very enjoyable and not once did I get frustrated by the page size and number of pages/screens. Nothing got in the way of the story. Reading short stories seems like the perfect use of an eBook. Everything is in byte-sized pieces and I never had to make the considerable commitment that comes with starting an 800 page novel.
iPhone App Developer Demonstrates Inherent Security Flaws On iPhone
We have recently witnessed quite a few worm attacks on jailbroken iPhones.
In case you thought non-jailbroken iPhones are not vulnerable to such attacks, you could be wrong.
A Swiss iPhone app developer, Nicolas Seriot claims that it is pretty easy to install spyware on iPhones using iPhone apps built with just one of those Apple-approved APIs without the need for any kind of phishing or hacking attempts. In a discussion in Geneva, Seriot outlines the possible ways by which your confidential information on the iPhone can be compromised.
Apple Sued For Patent Infringement On iPhone Camera
St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants, a Michigan based organization has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the United States District Court in Delaware accusing the company of infringing on four of its patents.
These patents relate to some of the widely used elementary technologies available in present day digital cameras.
In the lawsuit, the company has sought for a jury trial and damages caused to them as a result of Apple’s use of these technologies on the iPhone. The four patents in question are