Jonathan Zdziarski has found what he believes to be a “call home” URL that the blogsphere has been reporting could/will be used to tell iPhone’s (and related Mobile OS X devices) to revoke the certificate of an application, blacklisting — effectively killing — it even if it has already been bought and paid for by the end user.
Huhbuwhathe#$%? Zdziarkski explains what he found during a forensic analysis of an iPhone 3G, specifically CoreLocation.
Read about that, the replies, and the whole sordid after the jump!
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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.”
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So it’s been a day since 2.0.1 was made available and we at TiPb would like to know how it’s been running on your iPhone. Did this bug-fixer of an update actually fix any bugs? Or are we all getting suckered into believing that the update has made things snappier? Pains in the update process? Backups faster? Apps Crashing? Or are things just less sucky? Maybe you completely avoided the update..anything and everything, we want to know!
Personally, things have “felt” a little bit smoother. Contacts load noticeably quicker but my SMS is still a good couple of seconds too long. No crashes to report yet but I did have one ginormously big hiccup after updating: the mail app crashed on launch. I had to completely restore and set up my iPhone as a new iPhone which was more than mildly annoying, to put it lightly. So other than that, YAY 2.0.1. Woot.
So TiPb faithful, how is 2.0.1 treating you?
Have you checked out our forums lately? The community is growing and the commentary is getting better and better each day. Unconvinced? I’ll bring out a thread, a post, a topic, or a comment directly from the forums and post it on TiPb’s front page every week to prove it to you. We here at TiPb love the interplay, quid pro quo, repartee with our readers, so step up your creativity and tighten up your diction, you could be next!
This week we have a tip from forum member, h22kai, on how to swap out your broken iPhone 3G for a brand, spanking new one at the Apple Store. We at TiPb have heard of more hardware issues dealing with the iPhone 3G than any other Apple product in recent memory, so if you own an iPhone 3G and are running into build quality issues, feel free to take a look at h22kai’s list!
It includes simple advice like restoring your iPhone prior to your Genius Bar appointment and more specific suggestions like removing any discount from AT&T.
Go Check out h22kai’s tip on how to swap out your broken iPhone 3G at an Apple Store!
Have you checked out our forums lately? The community is growing and the commentary is getting better and better each day. Unconvinced? I’ll bring out a thread, a post, a topic, or a comment directly from the forums and post it on TiPb’s front page every week to prove it to you. We here at TiPb love the interplay, quid pro quo, repartee with our readers, so step up your creativity and tighten up your diction, you could be next!
We’re going to start with Trevor’s post detailing reasons why the iPhone replaced his Crackberry. Trevor didn’t just blast his Crackberry into outerspace or dump it in the Hudson River, he provided reasons why his iPhone isn’t perfect as well. More than a few of his reasons supporting the iPhone have to deal with its role in the Mac ecosystem and I’d have to agree, the ‘it just works’ feeling is how technology should be.
However, Trevor, being a former Crackberry user, listed durability as a concern. No worries there Trevor! That glass screen is as resilient as it is pretty!
Go check out Trevor’s reasons why the iPhone replaced his Crackberry and tell him what you think!
Sure, we’re hard on the BlackBerry here at TiPb, what with its aging operating system (it still has legs, sure, but one suspects they’re coming up on the limits of the OS’s capabilities), its tic-tac keyboard (although, honestly, I still prefer physical keyboard myself), and its sad little browser. One thing we haven’t touched on yet, though, is how RIM (like every other Smartphone company out there) has utterly missed the boat when it comes to 3rd party application developers. You probably know where this is going, but Apple’s App Store may just be the biggest deal of all the big deals that have come out in the past two weeks. Lest you think we’re totally biased, let us point you to this excellent essay by a (former?) BlackBerry developer: “Galileo and Apples.”
What Apple has done is for the first time ever successfully given a finger to carriers and torn down walls. And the net result? Users are loving it. And so are developers. Who would’ve thought…Oh yeah, that’s right we all did! It was patently obvious to every single mobile developer that if everybody just got out of our way and let us do our thing we’d be able to drive activations (device handset sales), device stickiness, and all around there would be rejoicing and everyone would profit. But nobody would listen.
They’re listening now though.
The App Store isn’t doing to grab developers just because the iPhone is going to become the #1 smartphone on the face of the planet and destroy all others in enterprise and the consumer space alike — because let’s face it, it won’t. No, what the App Store does it offer developers gobs of money simply because it’s the first way to purchase and download smartphone apps that doesn’t stink. As Neil Sainsbury writes, most folks with even a passing familiarity with the smartphone world have long thought that the faustian pact between carriers and smartphone makers has stifled innovation, progress, and profit. Apple’s App Store has proven us right.
Surprise, surprise, the Free Software Foundation doesn’t want you to use an iPhone 3G. Less surprisingly, they don’t want to provide anything more than hyper-sensational, factually challenged reasons why you shouldn’t buy it:
Phone completely blocks free software. iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology. iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge. iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora. iPhone is not the only option.
Sigh. Why is it those who demand freedom the most are usually the same ones who respect freedom of choice the least?
They go on to call Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, a snake-oil salesman who uses good design to pied-piper the dull mundane consumers into buying his shiny little toy, thus abandoning themselves drone-like to his evil, conspiratorial prison. Patronizing? Hypocritical? Black and white just one option too many for the FSF?
DaringFireball gives it a sentence. Allow me to give it a retort! (After the break)
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So I ventured out to an Apple Store yesterday hoping that since the iPhone 3G was a couple days old that I could easily grab one. No, not for me. For the girlfriend and my sister. I could have gone to the AT&T store only a few blocks away but whenever Apple releases a new product I prefer the full Apple experience at an Apple Store (Brea, CA); it’s just more complete that way. Expecting to get some hands on time with the iPhone 3G and pick up the Macbook Air again, I was pretty excited to get to the store.
As I cheerily walked through the mall eagerly anticipating the iPhone 3G, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was at least a 100-person line that stretched multiple storefronts! The Apple Store Employee ‘in-charge’ estimated the line to be a 5-hour wait! This was a Monday afternoon, didn’t people have work to do?
But it gets better (read: worse).
Read on for the rest of this very weird Apple Store Experience!
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This is it. We’re in the home stretch. Golden goal, all or nothing, and Steve Jobs kicking it high and to the side. In 2 days we find out if Apple gets the world cup, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) championship, or if they send it flying over the post with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.
Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Sunday it was GPS. Monday we tackled the 2.0 Firmware update. Tuesday we detailed the rebirth of .Mac: MobileMe. Today we’re looking at the mother load, App Store.
Why should you want Apps? Of course you want Apps, read on to find out just how much!
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