News from category ‘AppStore’

Phillip Shoemaker, Apple's Director of Applications Technology for the App Store, is a former App Store developer himself who has a handful of applications, several of which fall into the category of low-brow fart and urination humor, still available for sale. Shoemaker's App Store development work was handled under the name GrayNoodle LLC. The game Animal Farts features various cartoon images of animals with their buttocks facing forward, giving users buttons to trigger "Fart," "Poot," "Drop" or "Wiz" sounds accompanied with animations illustrating said emissions.

According to an Apple spokeswoman, all of Shoemaker's applications had been approved prior to his employment with Apple. Apple's statement is apparently contradicted, however, by App Store data showing that three of his applications debuted in the App Store up to six weeks after Shoemaker had tweeted that he was working for Apple in early March 2009.

Coconut Island Studio has introduced a new game called Finger Balance. This application has taken the lead in many rankings and is now ready to please everyone. Finger Balance received the title of "New and interesting" and "What's New" in the world of Apple App Store. To celebrate the success of the application and show gratitude to all the users who appreciate it, Coconut Island Studio decided to present a free iPhone 4 and, as a bonus, give a classic game iDragPaper this weekend.

Everyone can take part in the raffle. To do this, just buy Finger Balance and pass levels 4-N, N 7-and 10-N. Then, at each level you will see a button. Click on it, enter your email address, confirm it, and you are registered in the raffle! Now Coconut Island Studio will give a winner 10 iTunes gift certificates at $ 15 each.

Raffle ends at midnight on August 22, 2010. The winners will be contacted by e-mail. So do not waste time, play!

New iPad TV commercial just launched by Apple introduce some 3rd party apps for iPad like Fruit Ninja HD, Twitter.com, Flipboard and others. The idea is obviously to show that iPad with apps from the App Store and Web can do nearly everything. Let's watch:

Now you can find a lot of accessories for iPhone 4, some of them offer high functionality, while others make it even more attractive! Most of you probably have already seen accessory Xtand for iPhone 3GS, 3G and iPod touch, which enjoys wide popularity. Its main advantage is that it allows you to turn your iPhone into "the smallest desktop in the world." Xtand accessory is fully compatible to work with iPhone 4, but most important is the fact that now everyone can make his or her favorite iPhone 4 in the “mini” iMac, to give it a presentable appearance. Do you still doubt? Then look at the image above.

Accessory Xtand is a perfect complement to the existing list of accessories for iPhone 4 and it is without a doubt, the best way to show off your iPhone 4 all around. It can be ordered from the Apple Store for $ 24.95.

Apple has removed the updated of the Camera+ application from the App Store within two weeks. It happened because Cupertino found out that the current app has some hidden downsides allowing let the volume buttons on the iPhone side to act as a camera shutter button, each time a user comes opens Mobile Safari and searches for the URL camplus://enablevolumesnap.

It definitely violates the regulations and rules of Apple, that’s why the company decided to get rid of this application quite unceremoniously. What does it mean? It means that when you try to buy the app, you’ll get the following error: “the item you are trying to purchase is currently unavailable”.

The developer of the Camera+ photography application, TapTapTap, might think about creating new versions of the app in future, but we hope it won’t have such “surprises”.

First Apple’s iAd was Nissan Leaf ad. Users who viewed Nissan's Leaf electric car iAd spent 90 seconds with the interactive advertisement -- ten times longer than customers will spend with a traditional ad. Moreover, people are five times more likely to click on interactive advertisement than they are a traditional online display ad. One more proof of iAd success was made by Unilever, maker of Dove shower products, said its initial advertisement proved to be successful, with 20 percent of viewers checking the ad multiple times, and a percentage in the double digits seeking further information about the product. iAds are also popular among iPhone users,  because they don't have to leave their app and launch a browser to view them.

iAd success helps Apple to take up more than half of the mobile advertising market in 2010. And developers, too, have found success with the new iAd platform: Apple providing them a 60 percent cut of the advertising revenue.

At first glance, Apple's new “Apps to Impress your Friends” section may seem like an innocent section showing you the coolest apps that will surely wow your pals. Look again and you will soon realize the section should be called "Apps to Impress your friends enough to buy an iPhone." The section includes amazing and the newest iPhone exclusive apps.

These apps leverage advanced technologies. But apps work extremely well on iOS. For example, Ocarina will blow your friends away when they see you're playing an instrument with your breath, Red Laser will blow your friends away when you scan items at the mall and etc.

Read the rest of this entry »

New free app in the App Store called "Ht-Connect" allows you to wirelessly control Human Touch AcuTouch 9500 massage chair and even to customize it to your own needs with an iPhone or iPad. Though the chair itself will be available only this fall and its price will be $5999, the video above shows how cool it looks.

Today iPhone and iPad Box.net apps were upgraded and now allow saving necessary files for offline access, which means that with a new version you can use Box.net services even if no Internet connection available. When collaborator makes changes to documents on any of the Box platforms, previously saved files may be synchronized with its updated versions. The update also includes iOS4 support, high-res graphics and fast app switching.

One of the Box.net's co-founders Aaron Levi said that the investments in the mobile strategy are caused by several facts. First of all, the increasing number of business tasks may be now performed on mobile devices and everybody should take it into account. Besides that the service's competitors like Microsoft Sharepoint haven't yet created strong mobile offerings, which is a chance for Box.net to increase its share on this market.

At the moment iPhone and iPad apps that implement Box.net services have been downloaded 150 000 times. Levie said that up next are Blackberry and Android apps.

Along with "Try Before You Buy" Apple added Genius section to the iPad App Store. Though there was no official announcement, according to MacRumors the section appeared as far back as last night.

"Genius" option can be found next to "Updates" section at the bottom of the store. If you click on it for the first time you'll need to agree to the terms of service and activate the feature.

Genius is designed to create lists of recommended apps that based on users' previous purchases. That makes it easier for users to uncover, download and buy more relevant applications.

Genius page also includes "iPad Upgrades" section that has iPad versions of apps that have been earlier developed for iPhone.

New section in App Store called "Try Before You Buy" allows users to test drive selected list of apps before purchasing it.

At the current moment section contains freemium, "lite" and ad-supported apps that have both free and paid versions. If the app doesn't have free version, it will not appear in the section.

Section "Try Before You Buy" can be found under the "Free on the App Store" heading. Currently there are 98 apps, including such games as Labyrinth 2, Metal Gear Solid Touch, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown and free versions of apps like AccuTerra and Moodagent.

As you remember, few weeks ago iTunes Store was hacked and the top list of the Books category had been filled with a bunch of obscure books. That was achieved by a number of unauthorized charges that were made on accounts of several iTunes users, who eventually lost few hundred dollars. In turn Apple deleted developers who were found to use the fraudulent purchases.

These days Apple added new layer of security which now require every user to enter the security code of their credit card each time they register a new device or computer with their account, according to Different District blog. So if earlier malicious user just needed to guess a password for the account in order to receive and/or resell the acquired information to fraudulent buyers, after Apple’s security innovation it will require more efforts to do that.

As you may know, this week Apple removed Chatroulette’s clone app iChatr from the AppStore because "users were exposing themselves" and it was a part of the company's anti-porn stance.

Now we have information that DLP Mobile's app, which simply represents an idea of mirror for the iPhone 4, was also rejected because the screenshots that were submitted along with it were considered as "obscene, pornographic, or defamatory" (referring to Section 3.318 from the iPhone Developer Program Licence Agreement).

Read the rest of this entry »

Today Skype released a new version with support of multitasking (iTunes link).

What's New In Version 2.0.1

- Run Skype in the background with multitasking in iOS4.
Receive Skype calls and IM while other apps are running or when your iPhone is locked. You can also continue your call while you switch to another application.
Multitasking is available only with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

CNet specialists will show us what is Firefox Home for iPhone:

You can download Firefox Home for iPhone free of charge here.