All Articles in App Store Apps

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

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(iGo My Way 2009 – North America For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

iGo My Way [$79.99 - iTunes link] is the fourth turn-by-turn app I have reviewed. As with the other three, I have used the app around town as well as planning for a long trip (the same trip I have taken with the others). It generally suggested very reasonable routes, it had the vast majority of POI’s that I was looking for (in fact, I don’t recall a single instance where I couldn’t find something). So how did it compare in the long distance travel?

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Layar Reality Browser [Free - iTunes link] is technically an augmented reality browser for the iPhone 3GS (it depends in large part on the compass to work its wonders).

For the uninitiated, augmented reality typically uses GPS location and internet data to layer information on the screen over live video. In Layar’s case, for example, to show local search results for “pizza” over the restaurants in an intersection you’re looking at on your iPhone.

Whether cool translates into usefulness — we’ll see. But on cool alone, it’s definitely worth a look. (You can also view search results in map and list view, but what’s the fun in that?”

[Layar via TechCrunch]

Unlike the recently redeemed VoIP, streaming TV over 3G to an iPhone is still a no-no according to AT&T’s terms of service, but has an error (or “error”) on the part of EyeTV [$4.99 - iTunes link] developer Elgato allowed them to go where SlingPlayer is still forbidden to tread?

Apparently so, if instead of tapping okay to dismiss the warning, you tap the message text instead. Then it’s 3G away you go.

Of course, AT&T lets other devices use SlingPlayer over 3G, and of course Apple’s YouTube app, and apps from Ustream and Stickam stream non-TV over 3G, so who while the whole policy makes the kind of sense that doesn’t, it will be interesting to what reaction, if any, AT&T and Apple have to this little workaround…

UPDATE: Apple has pulled EyeTV off the App Store. Elgato has issued the following statement to TotalApps:

“Some test code that enabled live TV streaming over the cellular network was accidentally left in the the EyeTV App. Apple requested that we remove the code since their agreement with AT&T does not allow redirecting TV signals over the cellular network. The code was removed and a 1.0.1 version of the EyeTV app was submitted.”

[Via AppAdvice - Thanks Tyler!]

Gizmodo has an interesting post up on Apple’s iPhone App Store, and how it might be headed straight down the road to oblivion. Their basic take is that downward price pressure, users conditioned by iTunes to expect $1 songs and $2 TV shows, Apple recommending (and wanting) cheaper prices, high development costs with low chances for visibility, all combine to put iPhone (and iPod touch) development on the endangered species list. Further, yesterday’s announcement of in-app purchase for free apps, they argue, makes things like the Top Lists nebulous going forward.

And it doesn’t just apply to the iPhone:

don’t forget, Palm and Android fans, this App Store Effect sends ripples well beyond the App Store. Customers expect to see functionally identical apps priced the same way across platforms, because to us, that’s what makes sense. Can devs really afford to port an app to the webOS to sell to the tens of thousands of Pre owners, when they’re expected to tag it with iPhone prices, calculated for a base of millions? Whether by Apple’s design or totally by accident, everyone who doesn’t own an iPhone will suffer for it.

See their chart, above, showing the pricing differences between platforms. Some would argue the market can correct for anything. If premium developers leave in frustration, users will tire of CrApps, a premium developer will sense the voice, fill it, make a killing, and other premium developers will flock back. Others believe Apple controls the market and so it’s their job to make it as good a market for developers — and ultimately users — as possible through proper policies and procedures (BlackBerry, for example, won’t allow paid apps under $2.99 into the App World).

We’ve all discussed this a lot in the past, and no doubt will continue to discuss it moving forward, but give Giz’s article a read and let us know what you think.

The iPhone and Twitter go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so it’s no wonder we enjoy an unparalleled quantity and quality of Twitter apps for the iPhone. From the earliest jailbreak version of Twitterrific to the latest releases of Tweetie and Twitbit, with everything from TweetDeck, Twittelator Pro, Birdfeed, SimplyTweet, Echofon/Twitterfon, and even Twitter.com’s mobile site thrown in-between (and that’s not counting the specialty clients like Birdhouse, qStatus, and Reportage), it’s really an embarrassment of riches at this point.

So, to help us sort through all the amazing Twitter apps, we want to know which one you use. Granted, like us you might have several installed — you might even have them all! — but we want to know your primary, number one, go-to Twitter client. If you could only have one, today, which would it be? (And feel free to tell us why, and drop your Twitter user name for Follow Friday in the comments below).

TiPb Twitter Team: @theiphoneblog, @reneritchie (Rene), @backlon (Dieter), @iChadman (Chad), @JFSikora (Jeremy), @jamesus (James), @llofte (Leanna), @JHamilton24 (Josh), @justin_horn (Justin), @msproductions (Matt), @skeetobite (Chris).

Apple has just sent out a letter to developers introducing in-app purchasing for free apps.

UPDATE: Developers Erica Sadun on TUAW, and Marco Arment delve deeper into the subject, as does Techcrunch (twice).

ORIGINAL: Here’s what Apple had to say:

In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions, and digital services.

You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.

Visit the App Store Resource Center for more details about how you can add In App Purchases to your free apps.

So in one email, Apple ends the clutter of Lite apps, provides a real possibility for demoware (a developer can provide 1 level of a game, for example, for free, and 10 more via in-app purchase), and offers developers the carrot of anti-piracy measures at the same time.

Previously, Apple was resolute about “free apps stay free” so as to avoid user confusion. What changed their mind, all of the above? And will in-app purchases in free apps be extra-carefully marked to avoid just such confusion?

[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]

An update from the folks Cerulean Studios on the status of the iPhone version of their popular IM client, Trillian:

It’s been 60 days since our initial and only submission to the App Store. Unlike many of the horror stories you may have read about, we haven’t yet received a rejection notice and we’re not frantically going back and forth with Apple fixing reported problems. Despite sending a steady stream of emails to Apple requesting status updates, we continue to receive generic form letters in response – frustrating, to say the least. As developers, we absolutely understand and appreciate Apple’s need to quality control applications – including the need for additional review time when warranted – but being kept in the dark for two months is a strange way to accomplish this. Cerulean remains ready and willing to work with Apple to ensure the software meets all necessary requirements.

We’re hoping they hear back soon as well. We’re also hoping Apple understands that their lack of communication continues to hurt what’s otherwise a fantastic success story with the App Store. Step up to the mic, will ya? Everything can’t be dead silence and boilerplate on one end, Phil Schiller email on the other…

[Thanks Robert for the tip!]

Is Apple’s iTunes App Store broken, a combination of developers racing to the bottom and users getting conditioned — and feeling entitled — to pay less than what an app is worth? Or, are some developers not yet savvy enough in terms of planning and marketing to take advantage of the App Store business model?

Since we covered Ramp Champ this morning, it’s timely to cover both the thoughts of the developer, Gedeon Maheux, and a response from Tumblr and Instapaper developer Marco Arment that are currently surrounding it.

The crux of Maheux’s post, Losing iReligion, is that the App Store is broken, that it’s too hard to gain visibility, and that if you miss the immediate exposure-on-landing of hitting a top list or featured spot, you’re doomed to obscurity.

In order for a developer to continue to produce, they must make money. It’s a pretty simple concept and one that tends to get lost in the excitement to write for the iPhone. It’s difficult for me to justify spending 20-50 hours designing and creating new 99¢ levels for Ramp Champ when I could be spending that time on paid client work instead. I would much rather be coming up with the sequel to Space Swarm than drawing my 200th version of a magnifying glass icon. But I’d also like to have some assurances from Apple about reducing the length of the App Store approval process, having the ability to respond to factually incorrect iTunes reviews, not be limited to 100 beta testers, or that large, prominent developers won’t always get preferential treatment. In short, I’d like to know things will be fixed and I don’t mean merely posting a page of marketing text in iTunes Connect.

Arment, argues that there are The two App Stores. The first is superficial, geared to Top Lists and $0.99 apps that are basically disposable by both users and their developers alike. These make quick money and then disappear. The second are the profound apps, which flourish only from user word-of-mouth and online coverage, and while they don’t get the initial boom, they have a longer tail before it comes to bust. He further argues that it’s when developers mistake one App Store for the others, and miss-target their efforts, that frustration occurs.

The Iconfactory’s apps are able to compete strongly when people choose apps based on research, reviews, or feature comparisons. But that’s not how App Store A’s customers operate. Whether Ramp Champ is a better game than Skee-Ball is irrelevant to them because they’ll never take the time to find out.

Anyone interested in development and why we get the apps we do (and the ones we don’t) should take the time to read both posts (linked above). Then come back and let us know what you think. Are there two App Stores? Which one do you shop at? And why?

TwitBit 2.0 Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Surprisingly, nearly 3 months after iPhone 3.0’s release, there are only a few twitter applications that offer push notifications. Twitbit is one of them. Version 1.x wasn’t compelling enough for me to use as my primary client, but the latest 2.0 update is rather impressive and brings Twitbit up to par with other great Twitter clients. The design is clean and simple yet not lacking in important features.

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