All Articles Tagged techcrunch

Techcrunch reports that during Google’s I/O developers conference they showed off the iPhone version of Latitude — which lets users stalk keep track of their friends via GPS and other location-based services — but not as part of some revamped Map or Google Mobile application as many suspected:

Google has been waiting for the [iPhone] 3.0 software is because it’s not actually creating a native iPhone app for Latitude — as all other location-based services on the iPhone are — instead it’s using the Safari web browser to run Latitude. Thanks to HTML 5, Safari will be able to access a user’s location information and Latitude will be able to access that as well (provided the user gives permission). This will put it on par with what Google is doing in its browser for Android.

Now, Google has made arguably the best and most impressive catalog of WebApps seen on the iPhone to date, but why go that route with Latitude? And waiting for iPhone 3.0 to be released this summer, which also sounds strange given MobileSafari in 3.0 doesn’t look to answer any of the persistent-connection problems Latitude faces on the iPhone platform (i.e. lack of background multi-tasking).

So, call us interested but not impressed… yet.

(Thanks antonioj for the tip!)

Friday we linked to Business Insider and Daring Fireball both quoting sources that claimed Apple was considering allowing some form of limited background multi-tasking on the iPhone at some point in the future. Now TechCrunch is weighing in, having heard a similar rumor from its sources:

while this is in no way a done deal yet, Apple is definitely trying to come up with a way to offer background support for third-party apps. They went on to note that while Apple may have something to say about it at WWDC, it’s very unlikely that any solution would be ready at that time, and could be a situation similar to how Apple announced Push Notification at WWDC last year but said it was coming in a few months (which it later was delayed until iPhone 3.0).

TechCrunch cites processor power, user experience, and battery life as factors currently concerning Apple. They also suggest the soon-to-be released Palm Pre, with its webOS multi-tasking as a driving force behind all chatter we’ve been hearing about it all of a sudden.

Techcrunch ran one of their big, blazing headlines today reporting “Apple’s iPhone App Refund Policies Could Bankrupt Developers”. They cited Apple’s contract which allows for Apple to charge developers 100% of a refund, even though devs only get 70% of the payment to begin with. Under that model, developers would get hit for 30% extra each time an App Store purchase was refunded. Not nice, for certain. But apparently also not (yet?) the case.

TiPb contacted several developers to find out what was going on. While some were aware of the potential for a 100% refund charge back, none had experienced it. Uniformly, they reported very few refunds, and when they did occur, charge backs only for the same 70% cut Apple had originally passed along to them.

For now, at least, Apple is eating whatever processing, administration, and other charges that occur out of their own, 30% cut.

In general, all the developers we spoke with hadn’t seen many returns and didn’t seem to consider this a huge problem right now. This might be because the process of getting a refund is not easy to begin with. If that changes, as recently discussed on Twitter, it could become a greater concern.

As to Techcrunch’s other charge, that a refunded app becomes unusable, we’ve been unable to find an occurrence of that in the real world. If you’ve had a refund on any apps, let us know if it goes dead, keeps working but won’t upgrade, or stays the same.

Not had your fill yet with iPhone nano and iPhone Pro “sliders“? Want even more form-factor furor to fuel your pre-Macworld fires? TechCrunch and the iTablet to the rescue!

We’ve got this from three independent sources close to Apple: expect a large screen iPod touch device to be released in the Fall of ‘09, with a 7 or 9 inch screen. Prototypes have been seen and handled by one of our sources, and Apple is talking to OEMs in Asia now about mass production.

Of course, we all know the story about the iPhone originating as a tablet device code-named Safari Pad, as well as Steve Jobs’ statement that he’s just as proud of the devices Apple hasn’t released as the ones they have.

So, while we have no doubt that Apple already has working iTablets deep beneath the vaults of Cupertino, given the shape of the tablet market, which outside Bill Gates has yet to take off, who knows if they’ll ever surface as a production device?

Uptake on the iPhone/App Store platform and popularity of the “netbook” class ultra-mini laptops may make some feel it’s more likely now than ever, but with Apple you only ever really know for sure when Steve Jobs (er… or Phil Schiller) hold it up on stage.

Still, the graphic designer would love one of these babies. How about you?