Category: Apps (Page 27 of 34)

      webOS 1.0.4 Fixes Security, Breaks Homebrew

      July 1, 2009 /

      Palm webOS 1.0.4.This is one app decision I understand from Palm. They released webOS 1.0.4, which fixes the security hole that made homebrew apps available. Yes, that also means homebrew apps are no longer available.

      This one’s probably a good thing, because that security hole was kinda huge. It allowed users to install applications via a link in the email. Still, it sucks to kill the simple homebrew scene when the SDK for the app still isn’t live.

      Users can still use previously installed homebrew applications, and of course there’s always rooting if you want to install your own applications. You can find a quick guide on rooting your Pre, with a quick and dirty Linux tut, at the pre dev wiki.

      Apps, Mobile

      Palm Sells 300,000 Pres, Saves Their Company…For Now

      July 1, 2009 /

      Palm Pre selling like bagels.Palm’s Pre sales numbers just continue to grow, and the latest report holds one mind-jarring statistic. The Pre has sold nearly as many phones in a month as Palm sold as an entire company last quarter.

      Those numbers aren’t coming from Palm, who remains quiet where specific figures are concerned. They’re from Edward Snyder at Charter Equity Research, who thinks the Pre could sell as many as 1 million units within its first quarter. That looks small compared to the latest iPhone release, but it’s a full 300% improvement over last quarter, and that’s just for the Pre.

      Palm isn’t out of the woods yet, though. Regardless how many phones they sell, they still need to back those phones up with decent support, and that’s what has some people worried. Their are already droves of complaints of shoddy construction and significant phone damage from relatively mild use.

      I wrote an article yesterday about the importance of application support, which is where Palm is looking the worst. They’ve still got just 30 apps. Even if half of them are excellent, daily use type apps, that won’t be enough to keep a million users interested for long. Palm needs to release the SDK in a bad way, and it’s looking like a couple months before they do

      Apps, Mobile

      Smartphone War: Are Apps the Deciding Battleground?

      June 30, 2009 /

      The touchscreen smartphones.Smartphones used to be the domain of supergeeks and tech professionals – people who needed or desperately wanted the functionality of a full computer in a tidy mobile platform. As the devices became more popular and the desire for on-the-go web capabilities grew you could almost smell the storm coming.

      Then the iPhone came out and sold millions, spurring competitors to make their own touchscreen wonderphone. We’ve now got the Blackberry Storm, the HTC G1, the Palm Pre, the Nokia N97, and the Samsung Jet, all running on a different operating system. While the manufacturers tout the hardware features that make their phone the best (physical keyboards, a screen that clicks, a camera with a flash), consumers are starting to look to the software that runs the phone, and the applications they’re finally able to install, to make a decision.

      Apple has been most successful with third party application sales and support due to their App Store, which opened in mid-July, 2008. Since release, the App Store has seen more than a billion application downloads and now showcases more than 50,000 third party applications. From games to translators, finance tools to ereaders, the Apple App Store has an app for almost anything, leaving its competitors lagging far behind.

      It’s taken nearly a year for competitors to get their mobile application stores up and running, time during which Apple has continued to lure consumers with the promise of a robust app catalog. As Business Insider points out, consumers aren’t just investing in a phone, they’re investing in a platform, with application quality and quantity as a major component of that investment. In a similar article, BI adds that time users spend with applications is replacing time spent on the web. Apps like Yelp allow users quick access to restaurant reviews, where before they would have been using Google.

      This isn’t just good news for Apple, it’s an important statistic for developers. Continue reading »

      Apps, Computers, Gaming, iPhone, Mobile

      WebOS Mojo SDK Beta Leaked – Let There Be Apps

      June 27, 2009 /

      Palm Pre WebOS SDK BetaI’ve tried to be clear about my feelings concerning Palm’s late SDK release for WebOS, the operating system that runs the Pre. In my mind it’s a terrible, bass ackwards plan that’s done nothing to help Pre sales figures.

      There was a bright light today, though, when I saw that the Mojo SDK Beta build had be leaked via torrent. That light’s still at the end of a long tunnel, though, as Palm maintains strict control over the final release build, and certainly won’t publish any apps made with the beta. The good is that developers can finally get their hands on development tools and start polishing their apps for a clean release, whenever that may be.

      Palm also mentioned this week that they are adding developers to their early adoption program, doubling their membership this week. They predict the number should double again next week, though without an original stat, this might not be as many developers as I would hope.

      At any rate, movement is movement, and at the very least the homebrew community just got a new toolset to fiddle with.

      Apps, Mobile

      Update: No Porn in the App Store

      June 26, 2009 /

      iPhone porn?Yesterday we ran a story concerning the application “Hottest Girls,” available up until yesterday in the iPhone App Store. Prior to OS 3.0, the application showed pictures of scantily clad women and allowed users to rate those images. An update yesterday pushed topless images through the application. The app was pulled within a few hours.

      The developer posted to his website later in the day, claiming the application was “sold out” due to server load from all the fresh boobies beaming to iPhones around the world. In truth, it was Apple pulled the app for, you guessed it, explicit content.

      When Steve Jobs announced the App Store, porn was among the first mention of all things verboten. Other unapproved apps included privacy invasion and other malicious apps. “Hottest Girls” would have been the first app sanctioned by Apple with explicit content.

      As an apple rep told CNN:

      Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography. The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.

      Once again we have more noise than necessary concerning porn on the infamous iPhone. Explicit content is still viewable on the device via the web browser, though I think the real issue here is whether or not Apple wishes to be complicit in skin traffic. Apparently they do not.

      Apple, Apps, iPhone

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