All Articles Tagged app store

Our guess is that the buildup to this Tuesday’s iPhone OS 3.0 Preview will be filled with rumors, new and old. Speaking of old, Wired has just dusted off the Premium App Store (or App Store Plus) story from back in January. While that story focused on Premium Games, and Wired re-enforces that focus, they all suggest there could be a wider range of content:

This “velvet rope” section of Apple’s store could feature software programs that cost $20 or more, making it friendlier to publishers whose products are too complicated to be created in one developer’s spare time. That change would make the App Store more friendly to game publishers, as well as enterprise software companies such as SAP that would otherwise prefer to focus on the more business-user targeted BlackBerry phones. BlackBerry is expected to launch its own app store, called the BlackBerry App World, later this month.

I would pay $20+ for an app that was worth $20+, and if separating those apps off from the $0.99 fartsnjiggles crowd helps developers pay their bills while making what we hope are the Next Great Apps, more power to them.

The question then becomes, what’s worth $20+ to you in an iPhone App?

This has been a good week so far for cheap apps on the App Store. Here are some of the highlights for the week.

If you are a MobileMe subscriber this first app is definitely one to check out, especially at the low price of FREE. MobileFiles [iTunes Link] is a very nifty app that allows you to access, view, and share files from your iPhone. The file viewing is pretty good, offering support for .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff, .gif, .svg, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, .htm, .html, .mht, .txt and .mp3. All files are viewed on the iPhone beautifully and even landscape mode has been included. You can also choose to download these files directly onto your iPhone itself for some easy offline accessibility. Keep in mind this is free only for a limited time so grab it while you can.

This next one happens to be one of my favorite games available for the iPhone, Zombieville USA [iTunes Link]. This one is still on sale for the low price of $.99 but this sale can end at any minute so be sure to get in on this deal. For a quick overview and a brief gameplay video on Zombieville USA, be sure to check out our Quick App from just a few days ago.

Lastly, we have one for all of the NASCAR fans out there. Days of Thunder [iTunes Link] is the first stock car racing game for the iPhone and it’s now on sale for a limited time for only $.99! Use your iPhone’s accelerometer to speed your way through six racing circuits, defeat your competition, and win the championship. This is a game any racing fan will appreciate!

Enjoy!

Ok, well Apple is really not selling $200 iTunes gift cards for only $2.60 so keep dreaming. But according to Music Ally Chinese “pirates” have hacked the algorithm that generates the iTunes gift cards and so now fake cards are flooding the market for as low as $2.60 in China. When we say flooding we literally mean flooding the Chinese market:

Apparently six months ago, a $200 card went for around 320 RMB (roughly $47), but the price has since plummeted to around 18 RMB ($2.60) as more sellers pile in.

With the iPhone 3G getting ready to make an appearance in China it should be interesting to see just how Apple responds to this. Apple will more than likely make a quick change to nullify the pirates ability to create these cards but it’s not like you can do away with the ones already in circulation as there is no easy way to decipher a bogus card from one that is legit (unless they have some super secret Apple wonder-ETL and ad-hoc query/number-crunching monster we don’t know about).

[Via Music Ally]

Wow, alliteration much? Not sure if it was just a delay (as Apple seems mostly impervious to pressure from the web or customers, open letters included), or some bizarre equal and opposite reaction to Tweetie 1.3 being rejected, but AppleiPhoneApps.com is now reporting that Jonathan Zdziarski’s AMBER Alert app has (finally?) been approved and published to the iTunes App Store:

AMBER Alert [iTunes link] is now available at the [US] App Store for free, and gives users real-time information regarding missing children. Zdziarkski worked closely with the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children to make this the official AMBER Alert tool for the iPhone.

Another app, BargainBin, is still languishing in limbo, however, prompting an interesting question on the same site about whether or not the App Store uses “pocket rejections” at times.

Clearly the App Store process remains anything but clear…

Is this really a surprise to anyone who was following the whole Sirius StarPlayr for the iPhone debacle? No wonder Nicemac said their iPhone StarPlayr app was “not rejected” but rather “not approved”. It looks like they ran into some sirius issues with Sirius XM and not Apple. Which I might point out, is what many of our readers predicted.

NiceMac has decided it is in our best interests to discontinue the StarPlayr project. NiceMac will be issuing refunds for purchasers of StarPlayr for Windows Mobile on a first come first serve basis until corporate funds have been exhausted.

Could in their “best interests” mean Sirius XM told them to close shop or they will shut them down themselves?

So what do you think? Nicemac never seemed to have issues before with their software. Whether if it was for Windows Mobile or Macs. This iPhone app may have brought too much attention and Sirius XM said that’s enough.

Maybe we will see a official Sirius XM app in the App Store sooner rather than later. Hmm… we have a feeling it will be sooner.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Let me start off by saying if you are a fan of side scrolling shooters or zombies, spend the money and buy this game now. Zombieville USA [iTunes Link] is my new favorite iPhone game available in all of the App Store.

As the lone survivor of a zombie apocalypse, it’s up to you to battle legions of the undead in a never ending fight for survival! How long can you hold out? Scrounge for cash and ammunition, and buy up to 15 upgradeable weapons as your inevitable doom closes in around you…

Zombieville USA has two simple objectives: shoot zombies and stay alive. Your weapons and ammo are in short supply so using them at the appropriate time is critical. As you progress thru the levels you can jump into houses that will supply you with cash and ammo as well as keep you protected from the zombies. At the end of each level you can use the cash you’ve pick up to upgrade weapons and refresh your health.

While Zombieville USA is not without some quirky bugs, the developer promises to have them addressed in it’s first update, which is due out next week. This game is on sale and can be purchased right now for only $.99! The sale ends next week when the update is released so be sure not to let this one pass you by.

So again, if you are a side scrolling shooter fan or just love zombies and have a fantasy you are Bruce Campbell kicking some zombie butt in Evil Dead 2… minus the chainsaw, this is your game.

Wait, there is a chainsaw… “Groovy…“

The developer of Cydia, Jay Freeman, wants to take his creation to the next level. Freeman wants to turn the jailbroken app manager into a direct competitor of Apple’s official App Store. For anyone not familiar with Cydia, what it does is act as a jailbroken application gateway. Every single jailbroken application out there is found via Cydia.

Currently, there are paid apps within Cydia but they require the use of Paypal and unlocking keys. Those are all set up by the developers of the apps themselves. Having an organized jailbreak apps “app store” would be ideal but it could also give Apple the nudge to really start going after the jailbreaking community. It wasn’t long ago Apple claimed jailbreaking to be illegal.

According to Gizmodo, Freeman has already hired a lawyer. And TiPb thinks its for good reason… Now we all wait for a official response from Apple…

[Ed: We might have already seen the game plan in Apple vs. Psystar and the "John Doe" filings which may target the Hackintosh community -- Rene).

[Via Gizmodo]

Well, Baseball season is fast approaching and you all know what the means: Major League Baseball is taking full advantage and is releasing two new MLB At Bat apps.

The first is available right now in the iTunes store, MLB At Bat Lite. Good thing is, that app is completely free. It’s essentially the same app as last years paid app minus in-game video highlights.

The paid version of MLB At Bat 2009 will be available on April 3rd in the App Store with a price as yet-to-be determined. What this version offers in comparison to the lite version is actual in-game live audio and in-game video highlights (not to be confused with actual live video feeds). With the live in-game audio you will have some options. You have the choice to listen to the home or away teams’ own broadcasters, which is a really nice feature.

The big question here is the price for this app. MLB.com mobile has the same in-game audio feature currently and that alone costs $4.99 a month. So what does that mean, if anything, for this iPhone app? Are we looking at a subscription fee on top of the price of the app? If so, why not simply update the app we purchased last year for $5.00. Seems to us like MLB is double dipping here…

So all of you Baseball fans out there, what is your take on this?

[Via Macworld]

CrackBerry.com is reporting that BlackBerry maker RIM has finally settled on a name for their version of the App Store: App World.

See, it’s not a place to buy applications, it’s a planetary system where apps spawn and live SIM lives, and… argh. Who knows?

RIM is expected to spin it ’round their sun some time tonight. Given that BlackBerry’s can only store applications on the tiny sliver of internal RAM left after the OS and filesystem have taken their share (estimated to be 50-100 megs as opposed to 7-15GB on the iPhone), it’s likely to be a small, small App World after all.

To be fair (not that we want to remove our tongue from our cheek any time soon), RIM has to respond to the App Store, just like Google did with Android Market, Nokia is doing with the Ovi Store and Microsoft is doing with SkyMarket, and Palm will do with the Pre. Apple has again changed the game, and if the other players can’t out-innovate, to keep up they must at least replicate.

So, anyone going trade in their iPhone Apps and run back to RIM come launch time?

Well Tap Tap Revenge 2 is now available in the App Store and for a great low price: Free!

Right off the bat, Tap Tap Revenge 2 comes with more than 150 free downloadable tracks, and we’ll continue to add great new tracks every week. The three bundled tracks in the game are some of our favorites. Death Cab for Cutie’s “The Sound of Settling“ is supremely catchy and super fun to play.Stroke 9 went into the studio to write and record Tap Tap DomiNation, the hot new title track for Tap Tap Revenge 2.

Tap Tap Revenge 2 has the same addictive gameplay as the first game but add a completely new look and feel to it with some additional new features. Some of these new features are: a online multiplayer mode, 3-D experience where the feedback and the colors get crazier the better you do in the game, multi-tap – tap & hold and instant tap feedback make the game more challenging and fun at the higher levels, a career mode, and finally a kids mode.

Once again, you can download this game for free in the App Store today. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for free and paid music track downloads in the near future!