Recorder apps are a popular sub-group of apps, and each of them seems to offer a slight variation on the same overall theme. Depending on what you are looking for in a recording apps (ease of use, a large number of features, online synching, etc) different recording apps are going to be good or bad. iProRecorder is an app the focuses more on features that speed of use, but the features is has are quite nice.
The Situation: Developers who signed up for Apple’s iPhone SDK Beta and iTunes Connect program last year are coming up on their 1 year renewal deadline.
The solution: Er… there is none — yet. But in the meantime, Ars Technica’s Erica Sadun reports:
Apple has now e-mailed iPhone developers to extend their memberships until July 11, 2009. A short-term solution to the problem is good, but it shows that Apple is still working out the longer-term details.
Here’s hoping them details get worked out soon rather than later.
While we don’t want to turn this into the rejected-app-of-the-day column, as an end-cap to the week, and perhaps a chance to test out the theory we proposed earlier in the BargainBin post, we thought we’d pass along one last example of Apple App Store weirdness, via Mippin:
Quite early on in the process they failed us because of rude words in some of the Internet articles we were publishing. Early this week Tweetie was rejected for the same reason- they kicked up such a stink on Twitter that Apple backed down within hours and accepted it. When this happened to us though, 3 weeks ago, we bowed to their greater wisdom and implemented 2 levels of checking for our iPhone application to prevent “objectionable” content getting through. We rate all our 50,000 feeds in Mippin and prevent most if it even getting to the user, then just to be sure we check every word in the article real-time for a list of rude words and if one appears we block the display of the content from the server. We thought this was enough, but this week we got rejected because of a YouTube video – we were amazed at this. In the very amusing video “sxephil” does use one rude word, but in our minds YouTube have allowed this through – its certainly acceptable to them. What’s even worse we found the same video through Apple’s own YouTube application on the iPhone
Friday the 13th? “Duplicates functionality” coverall? Vestiges of the same Tweetie “Church Lady” reviewer? And will it get to the point where developers can cry “pocket rejection” or “incompetence” when even valid issues are raised by Apple? What do you think?
Brian Kim of Proximi wrote in to tell us that BargainBin, arguably the app that coined the term “pocket rejection”, caps off one of the stranger and most memorable weeks in App Store confusion by actually getting out of the pocket and onto iPhones everywhere.
Following up on AMBER Alert’s approval, and Tweetie 1.3’s rejection and almost immediate reversal/approval, we have to wonder if the internet outcry on Twitter and blogs actually made a difference, and something changed deep inside Apple — or if this is just a cosmically coincidental, Ozymandia-worthy joke.
Heh. Maybe Apple’s just trying to get some good faith back from developers before they preview iPhone OS 3.0 and the new SDK on Tuesday…
If you’re interested in keeping track of price-dropped apps, check out BargainBin [iTunes link] and let us know how it works for you.
Well it is official, Sirius XM will be streaming it’s satellite radio content sometime this spring according to CNBC. This announcement has come very quickly after Nicemac announced they were closing shop and this is exactly what we predicted was going on from the first time StarPlayr was “not accepted” by Apple. Mel Karmazin, chief executive of New York-based Sirius said:
“It behooves us to consider every possible way to grow our subscriber base.”
Good idea Mel, unfortunately no other details have emerged as to price or an exact date they plan to roll this out. So all of you Howard fans out there can finally breath easily, you will soon be able to stream Sirius XM content right on your beloved iPhones.
CBS aims to find out the answer to that very question when it puts a new, March Madness-centric iPhone WiFi streaming app up on the App Store. Will free competition from TV, PC, Mac — and pretty much every other platform out there — along with no cell access to video (audio only on 3G and EDGE) make the price tag too high? Or will rabid college hoops fans who can’t put their iPhone’s down swallow the costs and the radio tether?
The video streams themselves won’t be relegated to “alternate view” camera angles that have become customary for other sporting events. Instead, CBS said it will deliver full broadcasts and play-by-play in sync with their network television broadcasts, which of course will include commercial breaks.
Yeah, commercials. Oh, and it expires on April 6th. So, what answer do you think CBS will get? Will you be watching on your iPhone?
Konami has released some new shots of Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone and iPod touch and they look… snakey! BGR quotes:
A special ‘Advance Edition’ of Metal Gear Solid Touch containing the first 12 stages of the game is scheduled for release on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch in March of 2009. The final release will follow with eight additional stages of gameplay, and will be available to existing players via a free update on the Apple App Store.
Check out their gallery for more grim, gun-splattered goodness!
One of the new features in Apple’s iTunes 8.1, released just today, is iTunes DJ. Replacing the old Party Shuffle atop the Playlists heap, it also integrates with the Apple Remote app for the iPhone for shiny party goodness.
How does it work? At first look, anyone at your party with the Apple Remote app can request songs from your iTunes library, and everyone with the app can vote for which song gets played when. Genius seems to work with it as well.
Jeremy was kind enough to grab us some screenshots, after the break! If you’ve given it a go already, let us know if you’ve found anything else in there!
Yes, as expected this morning, Apple has released iTunes 8.1 (and Front Row 2.1.7) with support for the new iPod shuffle 4G with VoiceOver, also tied into the updated Apple Remote app [iTunes link] released earlier today for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Anyone got it yet? Is it really faster, stronger, and better for you? Let us know!
Michael on Facebook sent us link to this announcement on innerfence, which says Google is shutting down the Infinite SMS App.
According to the developers:
Google has claimed no grievance with Infinite SMS other than its success. Their given reason for the block isn’t abuse or wrongdoing; it’s that we brought too many users (and thus too much cost) to an experimental service.
Google’s official statement reads:
Infinite SMS is a third party app that has been using Google technology to provide free SMS for users, while we were paying for the cost of the text messages. While Google is supportive of third party apps, we’ve decided we can’t support this particular usage of our system at this time. SMS chat is still just an experiment in the early testing stages in Gmail Labs. We’re blocking all external XMPP clients from sending SMS; we’re not singling out Inner Fence.
SMS, of course, uses the carrier channel to inexpensively send short 160 byte text messages which the Telco’s then exorbitantly price gouge users $0.20 per message (do the math, thats thousands for megs) or offer bundled in large or unlimited numbers. They’ve even priced them so high for businesses that companies like Twitter — and apparently more so Google — can’t or don’t want to pay for them, especially for international users.
Are you an Infinite SMS user? If so, what are your thoughts on Innerfence, Google, experimental services, and SMS charges?
