Developer Tommy Refenes has attracted the attention of a substantial number of his developer peers this weekend. Refenes’ game “Zits & Giggles” was yanked from the App Store a few days ago without the developer receiving any word from Apple as to why the pimple-popping game for the iPhone and iPod Touch was dumped. Read more…
Apple has been making last-minute changes to its App Store and iBookstore leading up to the April 3 launch of the iPad, according to a new report.
Citing data from San Francisco mobile media research firm Busted Loop, Forbes reported Thursday that Apple has designated 20 categories for books on its iBookstore, which will be available for download on the iPad. That number has been whittled down from about 35 categories that were listed in February. Read more…
Tap Tap Revenge 3 has been updated with many improvements to the quality and stability of the popular game for iPhone and iPod touch.
With more than 15 million downloads, Tap Tap Revenge is by far the most popular game on the iPhone and iPod touch. Tap Tap Revenge 3 is the first major game to tap into the App Store’s new in-app commerce capabilities to offer a catalog of great music from top artists. Read more…
For some reason there’s a flood of gaming news coming from the App Store this afternoon. So we’ve rounded it up for you to take in all in one read:
24/7 Wall St. reports that Apple and App Store developers appear to have lost approximately $450 million to piracy since the marketplace for iPhone and iPod touch application opened in July 2008. The rough number is based on several estimates regarding the proportion of downloads that are paid applications, the piracy rate for paid applications, and the proportion of pirated app users who would have paid for the applications had pirated versions not been available. Read more…
I better be careful next time I walk out of my Apple Store here in Santa Monica — apparently burglars are targeting Apple Store customers here in the Los Angeles area. Over 100 customers have apparently been targeted after leaving the store and keeping a computer or other purchase in their car. The thieves wait for customers to walk away from Apple Store bags in their car, either at home or at another store, and then they break in and take them. For some reason, no computers have yet been returned, either, which makes cops think that they’re possibly being “shipped out of the country or fenced right away.” But of course that would require an organized ring, and police aren’t even sure these are all related yet. Read more…
Apple on Tuesday revealed that more than 3 billion applications have been downloaded worldwide from its App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.
“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”
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Blockbuster has released its official application for the iPhone and iPod touch.
With BLOCKBUSTER’s new app you can search an incredible 95,000 movie titles. Add, delete and reorder movies in your BLOCKBUSTER Movie Queue. Find your nearest BLOCKBUSTER store, and see if the movie you want is in stock. You can even link the app to your BLOCKBUSTER by Mail account and manage it all from your iPhone. And the app updates you on all that’s new and exciting at BLOCKBUSTER. It’s like having all of BLOCKBUSTER right in your pocket.
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Apple this week revealed the most critically acclaimed and best selling content of the year in the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music seller and mobile application destination.
iTunes Rewind 2009 is a feature on the iTunes Store that gives a glimpse into trends for the duration of the year. Content is presented as an editorially chosen “Best of 2009,” along with a list of the year’s “Top Sellers.”
But while Apple numbered individual songs in terms of sales rank for the year, App Store software for the iPhone and iPod touch is not as clearly defined.
Instead, the “Top Sellers” for 2009 in the App Store are divided into two sections: Games and Apps. Featured games among the top sellers are The Sims 3, The Oregon Trail, Madden NFL 10 and Flight Control. Among the top selling apps are MLB.com at Bat, Textfree Unlimited, ColorSplash and The Moron Test. None of the software listed are free downloads. Read more…
Apple has added a new automated layer to its approval process for App Store software, but according to one developer, it’s not perfect.
Apple recently began using computers to automatically scan for the use of private application programming interfaces. The new automated scan does not change any of the rules Apple has had in place for the App Store: Private APIs have always been banned from use in iPhone software. But according to Gizmodo, the rule was not entirely enforced, because it can be difficult to determine when an API falls within the rules and when it does not.
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