Category Archives: App Store Insiders
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Apple Rolls Out iOS 4.2 Beta 1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
Apple Rolls Out iOS 4.2 Beta 1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Members of the Apple Developer Program now have the option to download and install the preliminary beta of the much-hyped iOS 4.2 by Apple for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. MacStories is reporting that the download weighs in at 514MB for iPad and 617MB for iPhone 4.
iOS 4.2 for iPad includes a number of features already built, optimized and released for the iPhone, including multitasking, folders support and unified mail inboxes. In addition, the Game Center application is now present, allowing users to challenge and compete against their friends or anyone else who has a free Game Center account. New features not seen before on any devices include the ability to print photos, web pages, documents and more to a printer shared on the wireless network, and AirPlay, a free service that allows the streaming of video, music and photos from the iPad to the newly-updated Apple TV. Furthermore, the update includes the ability to search for text on web pages and features a variety of updates with regards to enterprise support, providing businesses with the ability to “take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities, and improved enterprise integration.” (Apple, Inc.)
As is evident from a number of screenshots from MacStories, iPad folders will support up to 20 applications, and a brightness control slide bar can be accessed via the iPad’s home button for applications that don’t integrate it themselves. Apple have also reportedly changed the purpose of the switch on the iPad that serves as a rotation lock to a mute switch, like on the iPhone. The rotation lock button is now accessible through the multitasking bar.
Apple usually releases around five betas followed by Golden Master (GM) version before rolling out the update publicly to all users, in an effort to iron out bugs and improve overall efficiency. iOS 4.2 is scheduled to be released publicly sometime in November.
[Image courtesy of Apple]
[ Apple Rolls Out iOS 4.2 Beta 1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch is a post from 148Apps ]
Apple to publish App Store guidelines, allow third-party dev tools
Apple to publish App Store guidelines, allow third-party dev tools is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad developers – rejoice. Yesterday Apple released a statement announcing the removal of a number of restrictions placed on developers, relaxing the development process and making the approval process significantly more transparent by publishing official guidelines for the application approval process.
Beforehand, developers were unaware of the official process, creating a significant grey area where writers of applications remained in the dark with regards to certain policies – adult content, the use of physical buttons on iDevices etc. For example, earlier last month the developers of ReadItLater – a tool similar to Instapaper that saves webpage content for later reading – had version 2.2 of their application rejected by Apple due to a registration process seen on thousands of other applications live on the App Store. “Applications cannot require user registration prior to allowing access to app features and content” wrote the statement of disapproval from Apple. The application was later resubmitted – unchanged – and approved. It is not yet known when the guidelines will be published for viewing by developers.
The press release also announced that Apple “are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.” In other words, no longer are developers limited to tools made by Apple specifically for iOS software development. “This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need” the release continued.
Finally, Apple also relaxed restrictions on mobile advertising, an unexpected change given Apple’s recent iAd integration. Specifically, the new changes allow developers to choose which type of ads (if any) they want their application to include. “The new terms provide immediate clarification about the status of mobile advertising on the iPhone and will benefit users, developers, and advertisers. Users will benefit from more free, or low cost, apps that can now more readily be supported by advertising” wrote Omar Hamoui, Vice President of Product Management at Google Mobile. “This is great news for everyone in the mobile community, as we believe that a competitive environment is the best way to drive innovation and growth in mobile advertising.”
The changes represent a big step forward for developers, who now have much clearer rules regarding application development. And that’s good news for the end user as well as the developers.
[Image courtesy of Apple]
[ Apple to publish App Store guidelines, allow third-party dev tools is a post from 148Apps ]
Flight Control lands over three million sales, $3814.67 a day
Facebook Places, meet InCrowd
Facebook Places, meet InCrowd is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Earlier this month, Facebook announced their much-anticipated Places feature, integrating social networking with geo-locations to create a more personal and unique social experience. Today, Booyah Inc. announced an application that allows you to tell your friends where you are and what you’re doing at that moment, all through Facebook’s Places feature. Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (though not universal), the free application allows you to send out your own location as well as “check in” to see who is near you. Booyah are also the developers of MyTown, which hosts some 3.2 million active users to date.
InCrowd is placed in the Entertainment section of the App Store because of its popularity contest feature and existence of customizable characters known as avatars. Booyah urges you to “strive for the highest popularity” by announcing your location and interacting with others around you, all through your own customizable character. For example, by posting about a venue nearby you’ll gain a number of points which can be used to upgrade and personalize your avatar.
“InCrowd gives players a completely new way to socialize real-time at the places they love,” said Keith Lee, CEO, Booyah. “We’re compressing the barriers between digital social networks and the real world in a way that lets people find their friends or make new ones in a completely unique manner.”
You can download the application for free by clicking on the link below. A Facebook account, also free, is of course necessary to reap the benefits of InCrowd.
FREE!
iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-31 :: Category: Entertainment
[ Facebook Places, meet InCrowd is a post from 148Apps ]
Firemint’s Cloudcell to work alongside Apple Game Center
New Games from Namco: Hands-On Preview
New Games from Namco: Hands-On Preview is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
I had the pleasure of talking with the folks at Namco today, and got a sneak peak at three of their upcoming games. They assure me that there are TONS of new gaming announcements for the iOS platform in the coming weeks, so stay tuned here and at The Portable Gamer to get the full scoop as the details filter in.
For now, though, here’s what I got to take a look at:
Mishap: An Accidental Haunting is, of all things, a hidden object game. Wait wait, don’t leave yet. This is a visually stunning, fully animated and voiced hidden object game with some seriously fun mini games thrown in for good measure.
Bit.trip Beat is the first musical chiptune game from Namco, originally developed by Gaijin Games for the Wiiware service. Namco took the game in house to develop the iOS port, multiplayer and DLC content, and is currently polishing up the final game for release soon.
Read about all three new games at The Portable Gamer.
$6.99
iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-09-02 :: Category: Games / Adventure
[ New Games from Namco: Hands-On Preview is a post from 148Apps ]
Peavey Introduces AmpKit for iPhone
Peavey Introduces AmpKit for iPhone is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Remember how just over a month ago I wrote about AmpliTube, the guitar amplification application for your iPhone and iPad? Well, Peavey Electronics have now joined the scene with their AmpKit software to create a bit more competition and rivalry in the music amplification section of the App Store.
AmpKit turns your iPhone into a highly customizable guitar amp, boasting a myriad of effects and the ability to record your latest music creations. Such effects include the pedals Noise Gate and Elevenizer, and the mics Workhorse 57 dynamic and Germann 87 condenser. As is to be expected, AmpKit contains a number of in-app purchases, including: 12 more amps, 16 effects padls, 13 cabinets and 8 unique mics. Most of these extra purchases are in the range of $2.99-$5.99.
“We’re delighted to be working with Peavey to provide AmpKit and AmpKit LiNK to musicians around the world. Peavey’s world-class hardware design and manufacturing capabilities complement Agile Partners’ unmatched expertise in creating guitar-focused apps for the iOS platform,” said Jack Ivers, a principal at Agile Partners. “Peavey’s music industry experience and global dealer network will provide musicians around the world with easy access to the AmpKit LiNK guitar adapter.”
The aforementioned AmpKit LiNK adapter, required to hook up your guitar, costs $39.99 and is available worldwide. Interestingly, this is exactly the same price as Amplitube’s IK Multimedia iRig, AmpKit LiNK’s main rival.
The iPhone application comes in two flavours: free and plus. The plus version costs $20, and with that you’ll get access to: a Peavey 3120 amp and a matching 4×12 cabinet, a Colonel Vintage amp, a Vintage Brit amp and a number of additional pedals including distortion, fuzz, compressor, chorus, phaser, flanger, reverb and 10-band EQ.
The application is not natively iPad supported, meaning you’re stuck to the iPhone if you choose the Peavey solution. Agile Partners, developers of the application, are also the authors of the much-renowned GuitarToolkit and TapToolkit applications.
Images courtesy of Peavey. For more details on the application and where to buy the LiNK hardware, here’s where you need to go.
$19.99
iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-24 :: Category: Music
FREE!
iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-24 :: Category: Music
[ Peavey Introduces AmpKit for iPhone is a post from 148Apps ]
App Store Director Sells His Own Apps While Controlling Access for Others
App Store Director Sells His Own Apps While Controlling Access for Others is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
If you have been around the App Store lately, you’re likely to have heard that Apple enforces a strict, albeit inconsistent and subjective, no-offensive-material policy that includes what Apple deems to be pornographic or offensive. We’re not here to debate whether Apple has that right, but rather to talk about Apple’s main App Store Director, Phillip Shoemaker.
Now, imagine you’re a businessperson, trying to eke out a living providing a product or service to your customers. Now imagine if your product or service is regulated in some way, forcing you to do things the way the regulatory body insists you do them. Then imagine that your competitor is in charge of this regulatory body, and has a say over whether you may or may not sell a particular product. Are you upset, yet?
This is apparently what is happening over at the App Store, with Mr. Shoemaker. According to a Wired Gadget Lab post by Brian X. Chen yesterday, Mr. Shoemaker is the lead decision maker on the approval or rejection of apps in the app store. Mr. Shoemaker is also an app developer, having three apps published to the App Store after Mr. Shoemaker was hired at Apple. Huh? Does this seem like a conflict of interest to you?
App Store quality indeed:
‘Even has a Fart Threshold slider to simulate the accidentals!’
It only gets better, however. One of the three apps is iWiz, where you can “simulate the experience of urinating for a long time.” While apps that deal with bodily excretions not prohibited by Apple (Fart apps continue to abound), it hardly seems consistent with Mr. Shoemaker’s role as the gatekeeper on what is and what isn’t appropriate in the App Store.
Interestingly, though perhaps less relevant to any ethical or conflict of interest concerns as an Apple employee, Mr. Shoemaker’s recently purged Twitter account “showed him following lots of escorts and porn stars on the microblogging service, a public indulgence in precisely the sort of content his boss Apple CEO Steve Jobs has deemed too harmful and corrosive even to touch the app store,” according to website ValleyWag.
Seems as if Apple has a serious PR debacle on its hands, at a time when they’ve barely and not altogether successfully cleaned up the previous big-news-that-even-has-its-own-name, AntennaGate. Oh, and the mid-level manager arrested for money laundering and fraud? Who does your hiring, Apple?
Now, I’m no moralizing preacher from the bible belt who needs to equate business with personal life, but it strikes me as the kind of scandal that Apple should be avoiding right now. It may not be as bad as if Larry Flynt was hired on as the director of the National Gallery, or Howard Stern as the director of NPR, but tell that to the developers who have had their apps disapproved, banned, or stuck in approval limbo for weeks and even months on end as they try to make a living in, ironically, the same way Mr. Shoemaker does: by selling apps on the App Store.
Having this guy as the final arbiter of what does and does not make it to the App Store is unacceptable, and calls for immediate action. Apple, where are you in all this? What are you going to do to fix the problem? My hope is that you find a more objective way to police the App Store, setting clear, written editorial guidelines on what can and cannot be published on the App Store, and make sure all the developers and publishers are held to the same standard. Also? Make sure that those very same developers and publishers aren’t the ones deciding the fate of their competition’s apps.
[ App Store Director Sells His Own Apps While Controlling Access for Others is a post from 148Apps ]
Intelli-Diet is actually intelligent, no calorie counting necessary
IM+ Now Supports More Than You’ll Ever Need
IM+ Now Supports More Than You’ll Ever Need is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Journalists are prone to hyperbole, but this title is almost euphemistic. SHAPE Services, creator of the popular IM+ client, are continuing to roll out feature after feature for their mass-market social networking application.
IM+ current supports Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN / Live, AIM (Mac users think iChat), ICQ, MySpace, Facebook, Jabber, Twitter and Skype chat. Outside of the seemingly endless list of clients, the application also provides an equally long list of push notification options, including e-mail arrival notifications from popular clients such as Hotmail, Yahoo! and Google Mail.
In addition to the application being universally built for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, IM+ also features an in-built browser for those who don’t have the ability to multitask – a welcome addition for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch users who are unable to avail of Apple’s much-awaited feature.
The latest update – 4.3 – brings with it a number of new themes and wallpapers, high resolution graphics for iPhone 4 users and VoiceOver support, allowing for speech recognition to be enabled. This last feature will set users back 99c a month.
There’s no doubt that SHAPE Services developers are trying to appeal to everyone. From customizable sounds and animated emoticons to geo-location support and retina display graphics, IM+ is becoming the client of choice for social networking users. It remains one of the top grossing applications for Social Networking – not bad at all for a $9.99 application with almost 4 000 competitors. And to top it all off, there’s a free version too.
$9.99
+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2008-11-14 :: Category: Social Networking
FREE!
+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Our Rating: 
:: RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>
:: RECOMMENDEDRead Our Full Review >>
Released: 2008-08-28 :: Category: Social Networking
[ IM+ Now Supports More Than You’ll Ever Need is a post from 148Apps ]
Award-Winning Pinball HD is Now Available on Your iPhone or iPod Touch
Award-Winning Pinball HD is Now Available on Your iPhone or iPod Touch is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Gameprom, the 2010 winners of the elusive Apple Design Award in Games, have just launched Pinball HD 4 iPhone, an iPhone only version of the top-selling iPad game, Pinball HD. It’ll set you back $1.99 and, in return, provide you with three tables and a plethora of new and exclusive features.
The first of such new features is full 326ppi display support – meaning iPhone 4 owners will reap all the benefits of their immensely clear screen. This particular version of Pinball houses all three tables: Wild West Pinball, The Deep and Jungle Style Pinball. In addition, multiplayer support means “as many players as you like” (according to their press release) can challenge each other, assuming they are on the same Wi-Fi network.
“If you have an iPad, you already know how incredible playing Pinball HD can be. With the release of Pinball HD 4 iPhone, anyone with an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPod touch third generation can get in on the fun” writes the official press team. “Featuring the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, the graphics really pop and the new multiplayer feature brings a new level of involvement and thrills to what is already the best Pinball experience in the app store.”
Other features include an option between portrait and landscape view; built in help for each table; local and global high scores to bring out your competitive nature; unique soundtracks, sound effects and voices and camera tilt, which provides 3D dimensionality without the need of 3D glasses (although if you do own a pair, they’ll work with the application to give you a full sense of immersion).
Given its unique features, the application is not universal – meaning iPad owners of the application will have to shell out an extra $1.99 if they want to enjoy the game on their iPhone. In addition, it looks like multiplayer mode is only available on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad or a third generation iPod Touch. It’s currently unconfirmed whether the iPhone 3G will support multiplayer mode. Confirmed: iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 2G and models older than this are not supported. The game is available to download now through iTunes. You can click on the link below the YouTube video to take you there.
$1.99
iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-08 :: Category: Games / Simulation
[ Award-Winning Pinball HD is Now Available on Your iPhone or iPod Touch is a post from 148Apps ]
Midnight Mysteries brings time-travelling, horror and a hint of truth to the iPad
Morsel’s free health application could change your lifestyle
Morsel’s free health application could change your lifestyle is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
General Electric have just rolled out a new version of the App Store lifestyle application Morsel, having attracted almost a quarter of a million “morsels” – small steps towards a better, healthier lifestyle. Morsel 2.0 is free to download and provides small, actionable steps to better health. The update brings about a number of new features, including: share via Twitter and Facebook; customizable favourites and to-do lists; personalized plans; and the ability to share with the world your own “morsel” of information.
“The new version of free mobile application ‘Morsel’ provides a manageable and rewarding program to take a daily simple step toward better health” writes GE in their press release, “while also allowing you to promote and share that healthy activity with your friends/family/colleagues.”
Each morsel is described in easy to understand language, and comes with “How It Helps” page. For example: Hold your finger in front of your race. Stare at it for 30 seconds, then look away … If you spend most of the day looking at your computer and objects that are nearby, chances are you’re at greater risk for nearsightedness. This distance-focusing exercise will help you strengthen your eye muscles and maintain your vision.
The application is available to download now, and is coming soon for Blackberry and Android. As a free application, there’s no reason not to check it out!
[ Morsel’s free health application could change your lifestyle is a post from 148Apps ]
The Incident brings back 8-bit graphics, ppi made redundant
The Incident brings back 8-bit graphics, ppi made redundant is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Whether you own an iPhone or iPod Touch (163ppi), iPhone 4 (326ppi) or iPad (132ppi), The Incident will look as good as the screenshots suggest it will. The 8-bit game, developed by Matt Comi and with artwork by Neven Mrgan, brings back all the retro fun you might have experienced on the Atari 2600 or Intellivision.
You play Frank Solway, “a regular guy who finds himself having to avoid the sudden, unstopping rain of everything in the world.” Survive by avoiding falling items, collecting power-ups like health and helmets and by climbing higher until you reach the source of the aptly named “kitchen-sink shower.” Each level is vertical, with comical objects like Smart cars, Deloreans, propellers and even the Easter Island Statue falling on you from above.
The application was submitted to Apple for approval recently, so you can expect it to be live within a week or so. As a universal application, it will work on both the iPhone and iPad natively. The price of The Incident is not yet known.
Check out the YouTube video below for the official preview, as well as a number of screenshots. And if you’re really interested, you can watch the development videos produced by Matt Comi himself.
[ The Incident brings back 8-bit graphics, ppi made redundant is a post from 148Apps ]