UPDATE: Just so everyone is clear, the developer did this as a parody, Apple didn’t censor anything. B’okay? Read the full 8008135 story on Three Letter Acronym…
PCalc RPN Calculator [$9.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone has just updated to version 1.8, and the update is… rather unique:
Have you, or somebody close to you, ever turned your calculator upside down and accidentally seen a mildly suggestive word? Have you ever been in a maths class, and had to put up with groups of giggling boys performing elaborate calculations that are not part of the lesson?
Yes, it’s one of the main problems affecting the calculator industry today, the so-called “calculator words”. These otherwise harmless devices can be made to display smut at the press of a few buttons. Added to that, the iPhone App Store is very strict about having inappropriate content in apps. Nobody wants their app to get a 17+ rating, or worse, to be rejected entirely.
Which is why we are happy to announce that the latest version of our PCalc scientific calculator for the iPhone contains a new patent-worthy profanity filter.
Simply enter a number such as “5318008″, turn the calculator upside down, and the offending word will be discreetly censored. Many common calculator words have been included as standard, and we plan to increase this over time via software updates.
The new version also comes, you know, calculator features, and a $9 off coupon for the Mac version (which doesn’t seem to change when you turn your Mac upside down… hmmm… feature parity?!)
We were going to post some long preachy editorial about Tweetie 2.0 being a paid upgrade but it looks like everyblog and their siblingsite has already done that. So here’s our quick take:
We’re buying it, and happily. We asked developer Atebits why they went the route of a new app vs. an in-app purchase, and the response is worth quoting:
If all I were adding were features, then the in-app purchase route would have been an option (but then again, if all I were offering were features, I’d probably release it as a free update). Tweetie 2 is a fresh start, 100% rewritten, shares no code with the original . The only thing they have in common is the name.
So bottom line, Apple doesn’t (yet?) provide a mechanism for paid upgrades, and in-app purchase allows for more content, not for replacing an old app with a whole new one. So, yeah. This is the option Atebits took, and it works for us. New great app, same great price. And it is a great app, one which took considerable time and effort to make, and we want to support that because we want the developer to be successful enough to make Tweetie 3.0 just as big an update next time.
Sure, scale factors into that — $3 is a no brainer, so if you ask us what we’ll do if a GPS app wants $100 again next year, well… We’ll light those torches when and if we come to them.
Apple.com has gone and souped up their iPhone app promotion page, carrying forward the “Apps for Everything” tag from their latest rough of commercials.
Featured categories include apps for cooks, keeping current, the great outdoors, music, work, students, moms and dads, working out, going out, managing money, traveling, and the fun and games.
Another attempt to provide curated recommendations, along with featured apps and staff picks on the App Store proper, it will no doubt give a boost to any developer who gets the spotlight, but it remains to be seen how much it aids iPhone and iPod touch users still struggling with the discoverability of the App Store.
If you check out their listings, let us know what you think of their picks.
Dropbox [Free - iTunes link] is now available in the App Store, and allows iPhone and iPod touch users to access their online Dropbox storage remotely.
For those unfamiliar with Dropbox, it provides something similar to Apple’s MobileMe iDrive, but with a free option at 2GB, and paid options at $9.99/month for 50GB and $19.99/month for 100GB, and syncing between any computers the Dropbox app.
The iPhone version lets you:
Access your Dropbox directory
View your files
Download files to your iPhone
Sync downloaded files
Take photos and videos and upload them to Dropbox
Share links to Dropbox files
View photos
If you give it a whirl, let us know how it works for you!
So you make an app free, get people to download it, then use it to violate your users’ privacy by pulling their telephone number off their iPhone so you can call them and try to annoy them into coughing up money for your paid app.
Yeah, that should be a rejection, if not a banning.
(No, we’re not mentioning the name of the app, why give them publicity? Picture above is proof of concept code showing how the iPhone user telephone number is retrieved.)
[via Mac4Ever -- thanks everyone who sent this in]
an alert box labeled “Application Not Installed” appears, informing users that the accessory requires an application which is not currently installed, and asking if they would like to install the application from the App Store. Upon acceptance, the iPhone or iPod touch then takes users to a new “For This Accessory” page on the App Store, with a direct link to the necessary app’s listing, from which they can download and install the application.
They show how it works for the iTrip, but this is a very “just works” solution in general for users who may not be aware when companion apps are available.
Tweetie 2.0 is one hotly anticipated Twitter client update, and developer Atebits has finally let the lid off just what features users can expect:
iPhone 3.x only
Full persistence
Full offline mode
Drafts manager
Send drafts to Birdhouse
Link Twitter contacts to Address Book
Threaded conversations
Nearby integrated with imbedded maps
Geotagging support
Saved searches to sync with Twitter.com and Tweetie Mac
@people picker
Recent hashtags
Multiple attachments manager
Peek gesture for replies
Landscape support
Profile editing
Improved gesture shortcuts
imbedded email
New-style re-tweet support
Refresh all on launch
TextExpander support
Read it Longer and Instapaper integration
Go-to-User, searches autocomplete
In reply TwitLonger
Reply chain list view
Short URL preview
Tweet translation
Block/follow from multiple accounts
And — wait for it — Atebits claims it’s kept Tweetie’s trademark iPhone-like UI concept:
Every single one of these features fits naturally into the user interface, none adds unnecessary complexity. It’s arguably even simpler than Tweetie 1, all while being vastly more powerful.
While Tweetie 2 for Mac will be a free upgrade, Tweetie 2 for iPhone will be offered as a new app for $2.99. It’s in its final beta now, with plans to submit it to Apple this week. After that, all that’s left is the approval process.
Apple has just announced that their iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch has passed the 2 billion downloads bar. Boom indeed.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, says:
The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone. The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.
Other numbers include more than 85,000 apps now available from 125,000 registered developers, available in 77 countries around the world, for 50 million iPhones and iPod touches sold to date.
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition [$19.99 - iTunes link] is a “the next-generation cable release” for your Canon or Nikon DSLR camera. With it you can trigger the shutter as well as change multiple settings, see through your camera’s viewfinder, and view images directly on your iPhone.
To use DSLR Camera Remote, you will need a computer, a USB cable that connects your camera to your computer, a Wi-Fi network (internet connection not required), and onOne’s free DSLR Camera Remote Server software installed on your computer.
From the creators of the Daily Burn app & Occipital’s RedLaser technology comes FoodScanner [$2.99 - iTunes link]. If you have used DailyBurn before (or if you haven’t you should, but it’s not required to have an account to use the app), then you should know that tracking the foods you eat can become tedious at times, especially when you can’t find just the right food to enter into your Food Log.
. The only thing they have in common is the name.
