Articles by Dieter Bohn
Our beloved series of tubes has been going crazy over the “I Am Rich” application from the App store. It’s a $999 application that does nothing but prove you’ve got $999 to blow on an application which displays a red diamond. It’s a little funny, as Kottke points out, as a commentary on the iPhone as status symbol.
The question, though, is whether or not Apple should have let it up in the first place and whether they (or the original developer) should have taken it down. Kottke notes that Apple really shouldn’t be in the business of pulling apps based on bad taste and we’re inclined to agree. Both in our podcast and here and there throughout the aftermath of the 2.0 software announcement, we expressed concern that Apple’s total control of what goes up on the App store has the potential to be abused.
On the other side of things, however, is the concern that Apps — especially useless, thousand-dollar apps — are a little too easy to purchase. Gizmodo reports that there was a review up on the app (pictured at right) that detailed one user’s sorry tale of accidental purchase.
We’re going ot go ahead and express two opinions here. One: buyer beware. We don’t want any added complication in purchasing apps (though we could compromise and say any app over $50 would require another approval step). We’ll also add that, like the consumerist always tells us, we recommend that you attach a credit card to your iTunes account instead of a debit card that’s attached directly to your checking. That way if something goes wrong, it’s not your money that’s missing while you work fixing your purchasing snafu.
The second opinion we’ll express a little more provisionally. Given that we’d rather have Apple include crappy apps than have them censor, it’s not going to be too long before it starts to feel like the iTunes Store is going to need better ways to discover and evaluate apps. We don’t know if trial software is in the cards, so in the meantime keep an eye on our review section and our iPhone Software forum — both are good resources to get other users’ opinions before you buy.
As Rene just mentioned in the previous post, we’re getting sales numbers for various iPhone apps and these sales numbers are very, very promising. John Casasanta of development house Tap Tap Tap hit us up on our tip line about his article on the sales figures at the App Store.
Early on, folks in the Blogosphere were able to get a handle on sales figures simply by checking the download count at the bottom of each page. Apple apparently decided that developers might just want to keep some of that info private, so that was taken down around the same time that Apple started actually delivering real sales numbers to developers. Many of these developers, as Rene mentioned, are just going ahead and publishing these sales numbers despite, as Casasanta says, traditional business instincts to hide exact numbers because they don’t want to seem to be bragging or (if things aren’t going well), failing.
But these numbers are news because of their sheer size — it’s almost as if developers are compelled to share in the same way we might if we’d, say, won the lottery. “Look, I know it’s not nice to brag, but Holy Crap Look At This.”
While most of us have installed the 2.0.1 update (or, ahem, are still waiting for a backup we started last night to finish so we can install it), there’s a key group of folks that should stay away: Jailbreakers and unlockers. As is always the case when a new update comes out, our advice to these users is to wait and see how the iPhone hacking community responds. Right now, according to iphone-dev [via Engadget Mobile], they appear to be responding with a teensy bit of bravado:
We don’t see any major problems with the release that Apple made, but we have not released an update for PwnageTool for it as yet and therefore PwnageTool 2.0.1 will currently not work!
Their advice is pretty sound and mirrors ours: if you never intend on leaving your carrier, feel free to update away whenever if you don’t mind losing jailbroken apps. If you do (or already have), stay the heck away from updates until things clear up.
What about you? Are you law-abiding and currently enjoying a bug-free existence? Jailbreaker glancing longingly at 2.0.1’s reportedly better keyboard response? Unlocker living on the periphery of the cell phone ‘Verse, staring into the black and in danger of becoming a Reaver? Let us know!
You know, you know: the iPhone ranks up there with the PSP for sheer gaming power, heck John Carmack has said it could even be in the same category as the PS2 or the Xbox. Carmack speaks out on the iPhone often enough that TiPb seems to have a full-on crush on the guy. One tidbit that we missed during his last talk comes to us via Apple Insider and it puts our pie-in-the-sky gaming hopes in the proper context:
The verdict is also out on whether Apple has a concrete grasp of gaming, the id co-founder said. The company’s reception to criticism has also been counterintuitive, which has led to its relationship with id being something akin to a roller-coaster ride.
Apple essentially kisses his ass when they need him to show up for one of Steve Jobs’ keynotes, but then throws him the cold shoulder the second he passes judgement, Carmack said.
Ouch. Here’s one way to get Apple to sit up and take notice, Carmack: deliver that ‘graphical tour-de-force’ for the iPhone you’ve been chatting up post haste. It’s a lot easier to get a company to kiss your ass when they can wipe it with $100 bills you’ve helped them earn. Just saying.
Meanwhile, the gaming potential of the iPhone is hitting the mainstream media, as Time Magazine profiles the various happenings on the gaming front. Coming soon: a genuine multiplayer-over-WiFi game (Asphalt 4) and, Spore Origins (SQUEEE!), featuring “18 levels of game play and an ‘Arena’ mode for competing with others around the globe.” We’ve all been waiting for Spore for so long now that we’re pretty sure that when it’s finally playable on the iPhone, we’ll be so enmeshed in the game for so long that actual evolution will likely occur on a massive scale without us noticing it.
Today’s lightning review: Epocrates Rx, available for free in the App Store. For writing the review, Libuff gets a 25% off coupon to the iPhone Blog Store. A review of a medical app from a genuine paramedic: Epic Win! Interested in getting your own coupon? Read the details on how your own Lightning Review could do just that!
Epocrates is the iPhone version of the famous drug reference software which is available on nearly all portable devices. from Palm to Blackberry to Windows Mobile and now to iPhone. This application is not for just the professional, although most of the information would be over the head of the non-medical professional types. This product is FREE, however an online registration is required, but also FREE. You can register here.
I work as a Paramedic, and as such, drug reference material is very important. We are quite often confronted with a myriad of medications which even the most experienced pharmacists have yet to hear about. Because of the ever expanding amount of medications out there, it becomes important to have dynamic drug references.
AT&T has a plan developed specifically for the hearing impaired who’d like to own an iPhone: Unlimited SMS, Unlimited Data, Visual Voicemail, and 40 cents a minute for calls. A good deal all around for $40 bucks a month. Scratch that — it’s $50 now for iPhone 3G users, but like the standard plans, iPhone 2G users can still get the plan for ten bucks less. All you need to do to apply is fill out the requisite forms from AT&T. Also notable: corporate plans of the same clock in at $65, but hey, at least the company is paying that bill.
Electonista via TUAW
Folks who’ve transitioned over from Windows Mobile (or BlackBerry) to the iPhone (or folks who, like me, are dual-wielding) take heed: one of our favorite IM apps from those other platforms has finally made its way into the App Store. It’s Palringo (iTunes Link) and it’s free. Palringo is an instant messenger app that’s able to talk to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, etc. It will also let you send media files (like photos). There is one downside — you do need to set up a Palringo account to get it all going, but for now at least, if you want multi-client IM, Palringo’s your best option.
That’s good stuff, but the better stuff is coming: Palringo’s custom ‘Vocal IM,’ which is somewhere between sending audio files and VOIP chat. We’re also hoping that Palringo will be able to add background notifications when the iPhone supports it.
I’m downloading now, but I tell ya, I’m excited for this app. Seems like an excellent idea for a lightning review, don’t it?
(cjvitek is back with a review of Units ($.99 at the iTunes Store), a straightforward unit conversion app. It’s currently sitting pretty at #4 on the bestseller list, but does it belong? Read on to find out!)
On my old Treo, I had a great conversion program which I used frequently. When I switched to the iPhone 3G, I was hoping to find a similar program. The best I have found so far is “Units”.
Units is a conversion program that allows you to convert currencies, length, area, temperature, energy units, volume, time, speed, and weight. It has a simple, straightforward interface. First you select the mode you want to convert (say, currency), then the “from” units, then the “to” units. You select these options be repeatedly tapping on the “mode”, “from”, and “to” buttons until you get the selection you want. Then, using the calculator style interface, you type in the number you want converted. While I haven’t used the currency converter yet, the currency values are updated daily (automatically) or you can update them yourself manually.
Pre-iPhone 2.0 (remember those days), we managed to snag an early leak of the iPhone 2.0 firmware and install it on our original iPhone. We found it to be buggy, but chalked that up to the distinct possibility that the firmware wasn’t technically designed for the iPhone 2G. Now that we all have official 2.0 ROMs, is the picture any better? TUAW and Engadget Mobile and Ars aren’t so sure — and to be frank neither are we. Take a perusal through our iPhone 3G forums and you’ll find all sorts of examples of bugs and hassles. Heck, it even has our Twitter followers (find us on Twitter, here) checking out the competition!
I myself have noticed significant instability in the few minutes immediately following either installing or deleting an App from the on-board App Store. I’m also still pretty darn unhappy with the various lags and slowdowns in certain apps — the most egregious of which is Contact/Phone. I timed myself trying to make a call to somebody not on my favorites list yesterday. Out of 900 contacts, it took me around 25 seconds to get the call placed. Anything more than, say, 5 is pretty much unacceptable to me.
How about you? How’s iPhone 2.0 treating you? Will the 2.1 firmware save us all?
Today’s Lightning Review comes from FoilTape, a review of Midomi, free on iTunes. Most people have been raving about Shazam for identifying music, but Midomi seems to work better with humming and the like. Let’s see what FoilTape thinks!
Midomi calls itself “the ultimate search and discovery.” It’s a FREE, cool and engaging app that definitely has scored ‘wow’ points with me. Midomi is a song recognition program that you can sing to, hum to, talk to, or type to. You can even hold your iPhone up to your car stereo to capture the sound. Midomi then searches its database and tries to decipher your best karaoke attempt and gives back likely matches.
