We typically don’t follow every little Apple or AT&T lawsuit that closely because, frankly, there are too many of them and the frivolity of some just harshens our collective mellow. Case in point, according to Apple Insider:
Apple, AT&T and several others have been named in a new patent infringement lawsuit, presumably for their connection to Shazam, a maker of music identification software distributed under the same name for the iPhone and several other mobile devices.
The suit was brought by Tune Hunter, Inc. Assuming their case has merit, why sue Apple and AT&T instead of focusing on the actual Shazam app in question? Tune Hunter claims it’s because the iPhone duo are contributing to the infringement. For our part, we couldn’t help but notice Apple especially is contributing towards having tons of money.
They’re also suing Samsung, Napster, Motorola, Gracenote, LG Electronics, Pantech Wireless, and Verizon.
Ok, not many applications currently in the App Store worthy of our Apps for Less. Although, the ones we did end up finding are not bad deals.
First up we have Terminator Salvation [iTunes Link], if you have not checked out the trailer we post two weeks ago what are you waiting for? This is one of the top games in the App Store and it seems like Gameloft has gotten the hang of programming games for the iPhones hardware. The best thing about this game now is it’s price – it has dropped from $9.99 to $5.99. People complained about the higher price and Gameloft has listened. I feel bad for the early adapters as we always get the short end of the stick in terms of price but that’s to be expected.
Next up we have PCalc [iTunes Link], now on sale for $4.99 An excellent app for anyone who needs a feature-rich calculator that the stock app on the iPhone simply can not match. Features are as follows:
- Switchable button layouts – choose from many different horizontal and vertical layouts to suit your needs.
- Calculator themes – pick your look, all the way from minimalist to striking.
- An RPN mode with one button access to the stack and optional two-line display.
- Hexadecimal, octal and binary modes, complete with a variety of bitwise operators.
- All the extensive unit conversions and constants from the desktop PCalc.
- A simulated paper tape to keep track of your calculations.
- Multiple undo and redo. Just flick the LCD to the right and left to reveal the past and future.
- Stylish, consistent user interface.
- Shake to clear! Two shakes to clear, three shakes to clear all.
If you are a developer and have a great app in the App Store at a great price, we want to hear about it!
Zombie fans take note, today Capcom has released an iPhone and iPod touch version of their most popular video game series into the App Store. Resident Evil DEGENERATION [iTunes Link] is a 3rd-person survival horror shooter that is based on the CG-animated movie of the same name, recently released on Blu Ray and DVD. Some features of this shooter are as follows:
- Use your in-game PDA to collect intel, manage inventory and access maps.
- “Laser targeting” allows the players to make aimed accurate shots.
- Backgrounds, character models and objects are all rendered in full 3D.
- Intuitive context sensitive control scheme.
- Action icons pop up as needed.
- Accelerometer features:
>- Shake iPhone/iPod Touch to “Shake of Zombie” melee attacks.
>- Tilt back device to reload.
Resident Evil DEGENERATION is now available in the App Store for $5.99. If you pick this one up be sure to let us know what you think!
More screen shots after the break!
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Back in March, Apple’s App Store was blessed with the free Amazon Kindle iPhone application. One of the biggest gripes that we had with it was the inability to purchase new books right from the app itself. While we still did not get that ability, Amazon has done the next best thing: last night they flipped the switch on an iPhone optimized Kindle store.
This freshly optimized store is nice to have but what, if anything, will change when iPhone OS 3.0 is released? If you remember, 3.0 has the ability to make in-app purchases. Will Amazon finally allow in-app purchases and give Apple a 30% cut off the top, or will Amazon stick with the current arrangement to avoid paying Apple for every book that is sold?
So what do you, our readers, think about this one? Either way, it should be interesting!
The iPhone Dev-Team has posted a few words regarding Jailbreaking the 3.0 software:
Because there are so many beta releases, we couldn’t possible refine, test, and release both PwnageTool and QuickPwn for each of them. That’s why we’re waiting until the final release. You may have seen other “hijacked” versions of QuickPwn out there, but all of them are buggy, none of them work on OSX, and almost everyone who uses them reverts back to 2.2.1 (because none of the useful jailbroken apps (Qik, Cycorder, and others) work on 3.0 yet).
Now this does not mean you currently can not Jailbreak 3.0 because you can, it’s just that the Dev-Teams software is not fine-tuned for the iPhone beta software. If you do decide to Jailbreak the 3.0 beta you will run into some issues. The biggest issue, as stated above, being a lot of the applications available via Cydia will not be compatible with 3.0. It is also important to note that if you ever want to unlock your iPhone 3G, you need to avoid the 3.0 software altogether unless and until the Dev-Team provides a safe jailbreak path.
So our advice to the Jailbreakers of the world: have some patience. When the final build of 3.0 drops sometime this summer you will be able to Jailbreak your iPhone 3G.
(The only way Apple could prevent a Jailbreak does not rest within the software, rather the hardware. As for Jailbreaking the next generation of iPhone, only time will tell, we are sure Apple will make it interesting…)
Apple why must you hurt us like this? Ever since the announcement of the iPhone OS 3.0 software you’ve left first generation iPhone owners with a bad taste in their mouths by claiming MMS — Multimedia Messaging Service — would not work on their devices due to “hardware limitations”. Well MacLife went on a mission to find the truth:
We decided to get to the root of the problem by calling up the makers of the chip–Infineon. We contacted an Infineon representative in Milpitas, CA to uncover the details. The gentleman that answered the phone kindly explained that there is no way the Infineon chip inside the original iPhone is incapable of receiving MMS since that function relies on software rather than hardware.
None of the above should shock any of you, in fact TiPb thought this was the case from the moment it was announced during the 3.0 keynote. If developers of Jailbreak apps, such as Swirly MMS, can figure out a way to send a picture via MMS then there must be a genius at Apple who can surely do it, if not better!
MacLife also went ahead and contacted Apple to see what they had to say about this and we are sure all of you can pretty much guess what their response was. If not, here you go:
“Now the hardware has changed enough between these two devices that not all the features will be available on the original iPhone. For instance, MMS and stereo Bluetooth will not be available on the original iPhone.”
If you own a first generation iPhone and don’t plan on upgrading it anytime soon, how do you feel about this? TiPb is curious…
[Via Maclife]
Cue the Jaws music… According to ifoAppleStore.com it seems Apple has recently changed their policy on water-damaged iPhones. Effective now, Apple will replace the iPhone you dropped in your toilet with a new or refurbished phone – guess that would depend on what kind of mood the Genius is in – for $199 without extending your contract for $199.
There was some confusion earlier about the “no contract extension part” of the deal. Before this policy was in place, customers had to buy a new phone and extend their contracts at the same time. I actually stopped into my local Apple store while I was at the mall this evening, and they verified this is indeed a recent change (and a much appreciated change at that).
So what do you think, is this a way for Apple to dump more stock in time for July or are they just feeling that extra love for us iPhone owners?
[Via ifoAppleStore.com]
The New York Times (via Daring Fireball) reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into whether the ties between Apple and Google’s respective Boards of Directors violate Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act.
The provision is designed to prevent two rival companies from acting in concert to reduce competition. While Google and Apple have rival mobile phone platforms and cloud services, iPhone vs. Android and Gmail (etc.) vs. MobileMe, Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt is on Apple’s board of directors and the iPhone makes use of Google technology such as the built-in Google Maps, Google Search, etc.
According to the NYT, however:
Antitrust experts say that investigations of interlocking directorates rarely lead to major confrontations between companies and the government. Executives typically choose to resign from the board of a competitor if it poses a problem rather than face a lengthy investigation or a bruising legal fight.
The article also points out the “closeness” of Google to the Obama administration, and how that “closeness” doesn’t seem to offer Google any insulation from the FTC.
Dieter rates this rumor at 10%. He may be generous. Never-the-less, noted Silicon spysite Valley Wag is reporting that:
A source who’s plugged into the Valley’s deal scene and has been recruited by Apple for a senior position says Apple and Twitter are in serious negotiations, with the goal of unveiling a deal by June 8, when Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference launches in San Jose.
Valleywag thinks Apple may want to uber-cool web savvy of the Twitter crew for their own. Dieter had another idea: what if they’re looking to spice up a BlackBerry Messenger (MMB)-style service to compete with RIM?
Of course BBM is completely proprietary to BlackBerrys and BlackBerry Connect, while Twitter is pretty much as open a messaging platform as can be, still Apple has been known to weave amazingly slick proprietary versions of software that they, or others, leave as open at its source. (CalDAV, CardDAV, etc.)
Don’t think it will happen. But can we imagine what, if anything, Apple would do with Twitter if they did acquire it? Could they do worse than Google’s done with Jaiku so far?
With all of the rejections in the App Store going on as of late it’s about time we have some good news for our pal Trent Reznor – see link above – and all of the developers out there.
It seems that Apple has rejected a newspaper reading app, Newspaper(s) [iTunes Link], for containing objectionable content. This app contains newspapers from around the world and one of them has a picture of a topless woman. Apple, however, let the developer know in it’s rejection email that Parental Controls have been announced for iPhone OS 3.0 and that it “would be appropriate to resubmit your application for review once this feature is available.”
So there you have it folks. Will these new parental control features (see them in our iPhone 3.0 Walkthrough) help cut down on rejected apps or will we still see these types of rejections take place? Sound off in the comments!
[Via iLounge]
