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App Store facing competition from jailbreak app sales?
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, Jailbreak/pwnage
While we're pondering the consequences of RIM announcing that programs in the Blackberry "App World" must be at least $2.99US, there are alternatives to the iTunes App Store emerging from the jailbreak side of the iPhone world. The Wall Street Journal reports that Cydia is making the transition from package repository to a full app store. There are also plans for an adult-only app store and a new jailbreak service.

The big question at the moment is how will Apple take this? Apple filed a complaint with the US Copyright Office last month claiming that jailbreaking is illegal. They're not going to take firing a direct salvo at the App Store itself lightly. There is competition for the iTunes Music Store, but Apple could argue that the homegrown app stores infringe on its copyright by using modified versions of its software.

It's not a huge shock that App Store competition is popping up; the only surprise is that it took this long to happen. After all, developers are frustrated that excellent programs such as Podcaster are passed up in favor of the latest, greatest novelty app -- then to make matters worse, those same features turned up in an official iPhone update.

While there are a lot of really terrible apps out there that have no place on the App Store -- I won't even begin to tell you about one adult app pitched to TUAW, we do want to remain a mostly family-friendly site -- there are a lot of good software that get turned down because of Apple's stringent developer's agreement. These developers want an avenue to distribute their programs, and homegrown app stores are one answer.

Cydia's Jay Freeman told the WSJ that he has lined up a lawyer in case Apple comes knocking at the door. He may also want to get in touch with the team that represents Psystar ... just in case.

[via Engadget]
TUAW App Store facing competition from jailbreak app sales? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What every superhero needs: Watchmen black SE/30
Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple, Retro Mac
Even though reviewers and early attendees have pointed out a slew of Apple references (including a snippet of the 1984 ad) in the Watchmen film, the one we've been waiting for most eagerly is the appearance of Adrian (Ozymandias) Veidt's sleek black SE/30. In the film version of 1985, it's what every 'world's smartest man' is using as his desktop computer. Never mind that in our universe, Apple didn't introduce the 68030-based compact Mac until 1989.

Looks like Gizmodo has the first photos of the all-in-one running System 6 (naturally). Hey, it's the consensus best Mac ever -- what else would you choose? Also, pay no attention to the fact that while that's a consistent ADB mouse, the keyboard appears to be for a PC.

If you can't get enough Watchmen, Giz also has a spoilerific discussion of whether one of the characters resembles a certain iCEO, and the iTunes store is chock-full of smiley-face content for your enjoyment. If the idea of a black SE/30 makes you all tingly inside, check out geektechnique's slick mod on his machine.

Update: Word is that there was, in fact, a security-hardened 'Tempest' model of the SE/30 that matches this description, except for the color. Commenter defor writes:

IT actually IS a Tempest SE/30, model CSI-1891T (the proper model which is a SE/30 that's been tempest-ized) by Candes Systems http://web.archive.org/web/20011127001651/members.aol.com/tempestcsi/ I can't say I've seen one in black before, but it looks fully legitimate, and i've heard of them existing. The old manuals i had seen only showed the platinum variant.
Those of you buying tickets to Watchmen via movietickets.com may have discovered, as I did, that there's an iTunes bonus in effect through 3/15: a chapter of the Watchmen motion comic + a "sneak peak [sic]" of the Tales of the Black Freighter animated minifeature. Be sure to scroll down on your ticket confirmation page to see the gift code, as it will not be emailed to you (at least, it wasn't in my case).

Thanks to Laurie & everyone who sent this in.
TUAW What every superhero needs: Watchmen black SE/30 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Win more stuff from TUAW in March
Filed under: TUAW Business

Back in December we gave away several hundred dollars in gear. In January, we went to Macworld and along with our friends at Styleit.tv, we gave away over a thousand bucks of loot. Check out the videos on Justin.tv here and here. Last month we gave away a few things... So starting next week (we had to take a little break), we'll start giving away more stuff again.

In fact, this month you'll have a shot at winning one of two copies of iPhone in Action (reviewed by yours truly here), and one of two MovieWedges (reviewed here), plus the MiniRizer. I've also got a box full of LogMeIn swag (sorry, no licenses or anything, just a bunch of trade show stuff), several more cases in various flavors, and some other doodads. Keep reading TUAW for your chance to win!
TUAW Win more stuff from TUAW in March originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ghost Buddy puts you in the graveyard
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Interested in a supernatural gaming experience? Ghost Buddy [App Store link] puts you in the middle of a graveyard at night to try and help some good ghosts and capture the baddies. The US$0.99 game has a unique form of game play. You use your iPhone/iPod touch like a virtual ghost viewer. As you move the phone up, down, left and right your view changes, so you get a 360 degree view of the foggy and spooky graveyard. You can move freely, even look straight down, or up above toward the sky. The good ghosts are white, and you have to return them to their graves. The bad ghosts are red, and you must defend against them.

The graphics are quite good, and if you wear headphones, the 3-D sound is compelling and atmospheric. You also hear a low bass beating heart (it may be your own) as you explore the graveyard. You can control the levels of the game (number of ghosts) and also increase or decrease the fog. If you have 'hints' turned on, red arrows point to the ghosts so you can turn in the correct direction.

The drawback to the game is the control scheme. You are supposed to tap near the bottom of the screen to capture, or defend yourself from a ghost. There are no icons, you just have to refer to the built in instructions to tell you where to tap. It isn't always clear when you have caught a ghost, although there appears to be a special sound that likely marks the event.

Ghost Buddy is an interesting concept, and I'd like to see the developer make the controls more obvious, as well as apply his unique method of viewing the playing field to some other games.

For $0.99, you have more than a ghost of a chance of enjoying the game.

Update: The author of the program reports that he has submitted an updated version of the program which shows the control buttons on screen. That should make a big difference in how the game plays. Look for the update to version 1.3 very soon.

Gallery: Ghost Buddy Screen Shots
TUAW Ghost Buddy puts you in the graveyard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Boxee launches update, "App Box" and Hulu RSS support
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Mac mini, Apple TV

My favorite media center software, boxee, has just released a new alpha update for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 users and Apple TV users. This update, which the boxee team classifies as bleeding-edge (which means, if you don't want to deal with any potential bugs, wait for the more stable release scheduled for March 24, 2009) adds the "App Box" -- boxee's version of the App Store, automatic updates, and most excitingly, a new video-optimized RSS reader. The new RSS reader allows users to access Hulu's public RSS feeds directly from boxee.

Two weeks ago, boxee was forced to remove Hulu streams from its service. As boxee noted in its blog, users aren't going to wait around for Hulu's content providers to get with the program, or for an official agreement to be ironed out. Within hours of the initial Hulu shutdown, industrious coders created alternatives anyway; those alternatives were thwarted, rebuilt, thwarted again, and the game continues on. Although the RSS feed implementation isn't as slick or as quick as boxee's stand-alone app was, it's a start. Plus, on my 40" Samnsung HDTV, the quality wasn't bad at all. Playback was a little more stilted than via the direct boxee app, but it is certainly more than watchable.

Boxee's "App Box," which is similar to the Plex App Store, utilizes a lot of video source plugins previously available from places like BoxeeHQ. Now the installation process is one-click, and not a bunch of steps. Right now, the only repository of apps set by default is the official repository, which contains add-ons built by boxee or trusted sources, but you can easily add access to additional sources as they crop up (dir.boxeehq.com will get you access to every BoxeeHQ app). Some of the new sources that are especially cool: TED Talks and Boing!Boing! video. BoxeeHQ is prepping a PBS app for the March 24th boxee release, so lots of cool stuff is on the way.

To download the latest boxee release, head over to app.boxee.tv, head over to Download and download the Mac version. Apple TV boxee users just need to go to Downloads in the Launcher menu (where Boxee and XBMC are located) and grab the latest version (it'll say 0.9.9.5324 test version) that way. If you need to put boxee on your Apple TV, head over to the ATV-USB Creator page and you can get all the information you need to create a patchstick.

I've updated my Apple TV and my MacBook and I'm digging the new features. What do you think?
TUAW Boxee launches update, "App Box" and Hulu RSS support originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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New Tap Tap Revenge slammed with network issues
Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, iPod touch
Tapulous unveiled the latest version of its megapopular iPhone music game franchise, Tap Tap Revenge 2 (link opens iTunes), a few days ago. While it has become the top free app in the App Store, the program is plagued with several issues due its massive popularity.

An update posted on the App Store yesterday lets users know that Tapulous is experiencing network problems that are leading to issues with music downloads and online play -- in addition to the app itself crashing. Tapulous has promised a resolution to the network issues as soon as possible, and there should be an update to Tap Tap Revenge 2 over the next few days.

Tap Tap Revenge 2 features more than 150 free tracks and three ways to play with friends -- Challenge mode, Two Player Split-Screen and Online Play. You can also progress through Career mode and share your results with that as well.

Tap Tap Revenge 2 improves on an already fantastic game, and retains the same free price as the original. However, you may want to wait a couple days for the network problems to be resolved in order to take full advantage of the update. You can check out Tapulous' blog to see the progress on these issues.

Thanks to all who submitted this!
TUAW New Tap Tap Revenge slammed with network issues originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Would Blackberry's price minimum ensure a quality App Store?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Here's an interesting idea for the App Store. Gizmodo posts that the new Blackberry "App World" has set a minimum price on its apps, asking no less than $2.99 for whatever you buy in there. At first glance, that's pretty rough -- there are a lot of free apps on the App Store right now that we wouldn't pay 99 cents for, much less $2.99. But then again, Gizmodo is willing to at least suggest the benefit of the doubt: maybe it's done on purpose, to get us past the scourge of the many fart and other useless apps populating the App Store. Maybe if every app is sold for $3 or more, they'll end up all being worth that much, too.

But we have to agree with Gizmodo's conclusion, too: while it would be nice if every app on the store was worth more than $3, there are definitely a few apps out there that are worth having the lower (and free) prices for. And to add to that, it's hard to believe that, even at $3, every app would strive to live up to that price -- most likely what will happen is that you'll end up with just as much crap on the Blackberry's store, except that you'll be paying $2 more for it.

Still, it's an idea. If Apple did a little price tweaking, is it possible that they could ensure a little more quality to what shows up on the store? Or, in the case of the junk that's on there now, will we just end up with higher-priced junk?
TUAW Would Blackberry's price minimum ensure a quality App Store? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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First Look: Wild West Guns
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
We've been gushing over Gameloft's foray into iPhone game development for a while now, and it seems that the more good things we say about them, the better the iPhone games they make. Their latest game is no exception. Wild West Guns [iTunes link] brings gun fights and western themes right to your iPhone -- just draw your iPhone from its holster and tap to open this app.

The game is composed of different levels ranging from saloons, stables, and a moving train (my favorite level). You tap on different objects (people, animals, tin cans, signs etc.) to shoot the gun; when you do, people will fall over in a realistically animated style. There are six different levels inside of 5 different difficulties (normal, hard, survivor, reload, and sniper) making for an extended life of the game.

Probably the coolest thing in the game is that you aren't limited to only shooting the target at hand ... you can shoot pretty much anything in the background to earn points. My favorite scene was in a saloon where you were able to shoot the candle holders, windows, etc. to earn more points. Sometimes an enemy might grab you, and you have to shake your iPhone in order to break their grip. This makes for an interactive play experience that isn't found in most iPhone games.

If you like apps that feature gunplay, then you'll no doubt find Wild West Guns entertaining and fun. If you do plan on playing this game in public, however, we suggest that you mute the volume or play with headphones. Wild West Guns is available from the iTunes App Store for $4.99US.

Gallery: Wild West Guns
TUAW First Look: Wild West Guns originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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