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iPhone app claims 95% piracy rate
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Hacks, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store
With all of the success stories coming out of the App Store, it's been pretty easy to forget the problem of piracy for most developers. Not so for Fishlabs, who've posted over on the Touch Arcade forums that their latest game, Rally Master Pro 3D, is experiencing a 95% piracy rate. You read that right: supposedly 95% of the people playing the game on the iPhone haven't paid for it.

There's probably a multitude of reasons why that is -- the app is $7 with no trial version, it's not a super-popular app quite yet (so one pirated copy on a popular message board is probably traveling farther than the copies coming off of the official App Store), and there are probably at least a few other factors in the mix that we don't know yet. Still, 95% is obviously pretty darn high for a platform that's supposed to only deliver software through Apple's official store.

Now, fortunately Fishlabs doesn't sound litigious -- they're not pulling the old "piracy = lost sales" fallacy that many companies in this situation would do. They are lowering the price on the app -- they expected it to be worth more, but apparently their consumer base seems to disagree. They tell Mobile Entertainment that they'd entertain the idea of providing content only through Apple's in-app purchasing service (presumably, that would prevent piracy by locking down the extra content), but they also say that's a gamble they've tried and missed on other platforms before.

Of course, it'll take more than one post on one message board to make hay out of the problem of app piracy -- it definitely happens, but on the other hand, there certainly are apps selling well, and there are also apps not selling well that don't have this level of piracy going on. Apple already has lots of authentication and validation processes in place, but if app piracy is this big a problem for everyone, they may need to look at more.
TUAW iPhone app claims 95% piracy rate originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - AppStore - Apple - Unofficial Apple Weblog - TUAW
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Giant iPhone wedding cake threatens to devour us all
Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, iPhone
Or maybe it was devoured first? Jerry Brito emailed a link to his wedding cake photos, made by the good folks at Charm City Cakes. It's an astoundingly accurate rendering of an iPhone save one thing our own Dave Caolo spotted: four bars on AT&T? Wishful thinking, although in the context of a wedding cake, maybe it's a good signal.

This is neither the first nor the last cake done as Apple gear, although it is certainly one of the best. But Charm City does nothing halfway, which you know if you've ever seen the show 'Ace of Cakes' on Food Network.

Congratulations to Jerry and his wife!
TUAW Giant iPhone wedding cake threatens to devour us all originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: IPhone - Apple - Cult of Mac - TUAW - Food Network
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Uh oh! Google releasing free turn by turn GPS app for Android
Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store
Just when you thought it was safe to buy a nav app for the iPhone, Google goes and announces a free app for Android, and says it's going to be available for the iPhone if Apple will let it into the App Store.

The app, called Google Maps Navigation, will ship with phones running the Android OS 2.0 and includes search by voice, search for points of interest by voice while in route, satellite and street view, and support for a hardware dock for 'certain devices.'

This won't be great news for TomTom, Navigon, or any of the rest. Google says the app is U.S. only for now, and will be seen first on the Verizon Droid which will appear in November.

Talk about disruption! With the FCC watching it will be most interesting to see if Apple allows the app onto the iPhone and, whether yes or no, the effect on Android sales.

I can't wait for all the fur to fly. You can watch a video of the app in action in this YouTube clip. Admit it. You want this!
TUAW Uh oh! Google releasing free turn by turn GPS app for Android originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - AppStore - Google - Apple - TomTom
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Anomalous AIM Activity Afflicts Adium, Aggravating All
Filed under: Software, Bugs/Recalls
For the past several weeks I've noticed some rather strange behavior with Adium, the free and open-source multiservice IM client. On random occasions I suddenly appear invisible or offline to contacts in my buddy list while logged into my AIM account. And I'm not alone. Not a day goes by that I don't find myself asking a friend or co-worker why they are not online, only to learn they share the same problem. Either that or they're all making this up in effort to avoid conversing with me -- I have that effect on people.

The only cause to this problem, or pattern to its occurrence, I can come up with is a loose theory that it happens during periods of inactivity. My hunch is that when you appear "idle" AIM somehow misinterprets this as a disconnect. Locally you remain logged in, but AIM thinks otherwise. Luckily I may have discovered a workaround.

Launch iChat (quitting Adium is not required) and go into Preferences. Click on Accounts. Make sure your AIM account is selected, then click on the Security tab. Changing any of the settings in this options panel, then returning them to their original state, somehow magically vexes the problem, at least so far as I can tell.

I don't know whom to point fingers at in this case; AIM or Adium. Both begin with the letter A, so that makes each of them equally culpable in my opinion. Wherever the guilt may lie, I just want the problem fixed ASAP.
TUAW Anomalous AIM Activity Afflicts Adium, Aggravating All originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Instant messaging - AOL Instant Messenger - Open source - Chat - Adium
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Timeline: no-regret version control for Photoshop
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Productivity

If you work in Photoshop, you've probably had designs which branched off from the original look, based on your own ideas or client feedback. This has, more than likely, resulted in multiple files with names like mockup1.psd, mockup1b.psd, mockup2.psd, etc. The solution would be what coders know as Version Control, something which allows you to "commit" any version of your project to a repository, letting you jump around from version to version, making changes without worrying about losing one of those branches you went off on as an experiment. Version control systems like Subversion and Git can do this for you, but there's a learning curve and a certain amount of geekery required to make it work smoothly.

Timeline from PixelNovel aims to take the "geek" requirements out of using version control in Photoshop. Timeline goes beyond other options and uses a Subversion repository to store any revision of your progress while working on a Photoshop file. If you don't know what Subversion is, that's ok. Timeline simply shows you a row of previews of versions you've chosen to save, and you can jump back in time with a couple of clicks. Make a change, commit it, jump to a different version ... all in a slick, minimal toolbar. You can add comments (a commit message for those already svn-savvy) to each revision, which is handy whether you're working alone or collaborating.

Timeline offers two ways of handling the repositories necessary for it to function. The least geeky option is to use their hosted Subversion service, which provides easy-to-use collaboration options, a web interface and automatic backup. It's available at a subscription fee, but signing up includes a copy of the plugin for free. Alternatively, you can host your own Subversion repository, which isn't terribly difficult. This avoids both the hosting fee and (if you create a local repository on your own computer) the need to download your revisions from a host.

I spoke with the developers of Timeline about the potential for a Git version, and it's something they're looking into. For now, though, the Subversion plan is working quite well. If you frequently find yourself with a folder full of poorly-titled versions of a project, and flipping between them is getting to be a pain, it's definitely something to consider. The plugin itself will cost you $60US and -- if you choose the hosted route -- an account runs $5US for 5GB of storage, or $20US for 25GB. TUAW readers can take advantage of a special offer, and get 20% off of either: use coupon tuaw1 for a standalone license, and tuaw2 for a 20% discount on a hosted option.

[Side note: For the Git-inclined, I've found that the previews in GitX combined with a few shell scripts can provide a decent (but less integrated and robust) versioning system for Photoshop and other graphics applications.]
TUAW Timeline: no-regret version control for Photoshop originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Subversion - Revision control - PixelNovel - Git - Configuration Management
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Quick and easy podcasting with an iPhone 3GS, GarageBand, and Posterous
Filed under: Audio, iLife, How-tos, Podcasting, iPhone, iPod touch
I love podcasting.

My first podcasts weren't really podcasts, just recordings that I made and uploaded to a website in the late 90's so that other people could listen to them. Unlike the podcasts we know and love today, there was no way to subscribe to all of the episodes that I recorded. When podcasting as we know it hit the world in 2004, I started hosting podcasts through one of my companies.

Despite creating two long-running podcasts between 2004 and 2007, I finally gave up because of the time involved. Part of the problem was due to me being a stickler for perfection in my podcasts, while the rest was due to the fact that I was stuck with podcasting when I was near my iMac and could edit and update a feed file on a regular basis.

Earlier this month, I decided that I wanted to start up a personal podcast again. Yeah, I talk about tech, but for the most part I wanted this to be a free-form podcast that could talk about photography one day, music the next, and the joys of being a cat owner the third. Since my calendar is already pretty well jammed, the only way I was going to be able to commit to doing a podcast every day was to get the podcast workflow down to as little time as possible.
Continue reading Quick and easy podcasting with an iPhone 3GS, GarageBand, and Posterous
TUAW Quick and easy podcasting with an iPhone 3GS, GarageBand, and Posterous originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Apple - IPod Touch - TUAW - IMac
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Get your social notifications on the cheap with Boxcar
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, App Review
Since the arrival of the Push Notifications feature in iPhone OS 3.0, all manner of apps have added support for it. Games, task management applications, you name it -- they're all more than happy to make your phone beep at you in the middle of the night and prompt your spouse to kindly insist that you silence that infernal device. Or so I've heard.

It seems like a no-brainer to me that this type of functionality would exist among the throngs of social networking applications. If the game where you flick the thing while the music is playing can tell me when I've got a new challenger from the Far East, why can't my favorite Twitter client let me know when I've got a new direct message? Sadly, most of the apps in the store (as far as I know) haven't implemented this functionality yet. I realize that it has some sporadic adoption, but certainly not the universal support that I personally expected.

Enter Boxcar [iTunes Link]. This little free app has existed in the store for months now and has received some very nice reviews, and for good reason. I've been a faithful user of this app for many moons and I find it pretty indispensable. Here's how it works:

When you install the app (which is free at the time of this writing), you can choose to enable a single service for notification -- Twitter, Facebook or an email account. It will poll the selected service at a short interval and send you a standard push notification message if there are any updates. In the case of Twitter, you can configure it to open one of several supported Twitter client apps. If you want to enable additional services, you can do so through the in-app purchase mechanism, and most options cost $.99US.

I'm a big fan of Boxcar and use it for Twitter and Facebook. It's one of those free applications that's actually worth more than what you're paying for it -- a quality that's becoming increasingly rare among free iPhone apps these days! Version 2.1 was just released a few days ago and includes several new features like support for Facebook Mail and better accessibility.

Pick up Boxcar now for free from the App Store.
TUAW Get your social notifications on the cheap with Boxcar originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: AppStore - iPhone - Apple - Twitter - TUAW
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Apple posts Wireless Mouse Update for the Magic Mouse
Filed under: Peripherals, Software Update

If you just happen to have a Magic Mouse, and are wanting to use its Multi-Touch features, there's now a Wireless Mouse Update available from Apple that lets you do so in Mac OS X. You still probably can't find a Magic Mouse around unless you buy an iMac, but if you happen to have one or want to prepare for when you get one, you can go ahead and download this update before you get it.

This Update is available for Snow Leopard or Leopard, and can be downloaded from the Apple Support Downloads page.
TUAW Apple posts Wireless Mouse Update for the Magic Mouse originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Apple - Mac OS - iMac - TUAW - Apple Software Update
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App Store Stories: One man's app. Three corporations. Lyrics 2 against the world.
Filed under: Features, Apple, App Store, App Review
When Joris Kluivers (@kluivers on Twitter) set out to write his Lyrics app for iPhone, he never intended to personally take on Apple, Sony, and Gracenote. Kluivers, a student at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, was just trying to get his foot in the App Store door, not go toe-to-toe with three media behemoths. The story of how he ended up navigating through the corporate bulwarks to eventually successfully publish his latest release, Lyrics 2 (iTunes Link), with the blessings of all three companies, no less, makes quite the App Store saga.

The initial version of Lyrics was simple. Kluivers collaborated with Moop.me, a programming cooperative, to build his application. Published this past May, Lyrics was the first application on the App Store to allow users to find and display song lyrics. Several other similar applications followed in the weeks after.

Kluivers built the application around the LyricsWiki database. Featuring over 700,000 songs, the wiki provided easy access to a much-desired resource. It was exactly that access to a vast library of songs that caused the first of Kluiver's corporate challenges. Apple insisted on censoring his lyrics.

Read on to learn more about what happened...

Continue reading App Store Stories: One man's app. Three corporations. Lyrics 2 against the world.
TUAW App Store Stories: One man's app. Three corporations. Lyrics 2 against the world. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: AppStore - iPhone - Apple - iTunes - TUAW
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