WSJ: Apple to Exhibit at CES 2010

post from Daring Fireball on 29 July 2009 11:54:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

Ben Charny, reporting about CES for the WSJ Digits weblog:

Apple plans to attend the show?s 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there.

Stated as fact, but there’s been no such announcement. There have been rumors, but no announcements. Interesting.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/07/29/will-apple-ceo-headline-ces-10/

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LG Chocolate BL40 Official

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 29 July 2009 11:25:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

LG tonight at last confirmed some details of the first-ever touchscreen phone in its Chocolate line....

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Keywords Won’t Fix App Store Search

post from TheAppleBlog on 29 July 2009 08:00:00 PM. © TheAppleBlog

AppleInsider reports on Apple’s plodding efforts to fix the biggest problem with the App Store (besides the mercurial and arguably unfair approval process), finding stuff.

Through iTunes Connect, the submission service for the App Store, developers may now use keywords totaling 255 characters.

“It is important to enter keywords for all applications as soon as possible so your application can continue to be successfully located on the App Store,” the update from Apple reads. “Keywords can be updated with the submission of a new binary.”

With the unrivaled success of the App Store and its alleged 65,000 apps, it has become harder and harder for consumers to find what they are looking for. This was noted by Apple COO Tim Cook at the conference call for last quarter.

We are always looking for ways to categorize apps differently, and we do have some ideas in this area. As you know, today we do it by type of app and also show popular apps and top-selling apps, etc. We realize there?s opportunity for further improvement and are working on that.

Unfortunately, keywords are probably not the answer. Unless Apple closely regulates the system, unscrupulous developers could abuse keywords in the same way meta tags are abused for web search. Misleading keywords boosts ranking in search results, be it on the web or at the App Store. Of course, keywords are easy to implement for Apple, but if the company is looking for a simple and effective improvement to search, the browse function is a better choice.

Browsing games by popularity

Under Quick Links, in the right sidebar of iTunes Store home screen, Browse allows for quick and easy searching of the App Store via three categories: iTunes Store, Category and Subcategory. Using App Store ? Games ? All shows a list of 2500 items, which can the be sorted by column. It also includes the ability to add columns, like Popularity. The biggest drawback is that only one column can be used for sorting at a time, so you can’t search for, as an example, most popular paid games.

One could easily imagine greater granularity — a few more categories and sorting by multiple columns. More importantly, Apple would be in control of the search system, rather than developers who might find it hard to resist gaming keywords for fun and profit.

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/29/keywords-wont-fix-app-store-search/

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Justin Williams: Where Do I Sign Up

post from Daring Fireball on 29 July 2009 07:55:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

iPhone developer Justin Williams:

With the latest app rejection being Google Voice, I am one step closer to selling off my iPhone products and focusing entirely on the Mac once more. I can?t help but feel that I?ve wasted the past 9 months of my life building on a platform that is so hostile and anti-developer.

And he makes a strong point here:

Rather than saying duplicating functionality, I wish Apple would just own up and say why they are really rejecting these apps: they compete with existing Apple products or Apple?s carrier partners. Google Voice and GV Mobile compete with Apple & AT&T by offering an alternative to hefty minute and SMS plans.

This “duplicate functionality” explanation is worse than no explanation at all, because it just can’t be the true reason. If “duplicate functionality” were disallowed, there’d be no third-party note apps, or timers, or calculators. If Apple is not willing to say that they removed Google Voice apps because AT&T required them to (and who knows, perhaps their contract with AT&T prevents Apple from saying so), it’d be better if they just said “We will not to explain the reasons behind this decision” than to offer an explanation that doesn’t make sense.

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Read The Full Article:
http://carpeaqua.com/2009/07/28/where-do-i-sign-up/

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GWR iPhone world record

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 29 July 2009 07:55:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Guinness World Records and Warner Brothers Digital Distribution has announced that the player with t...

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Layton Duncan: The Emperors New Clothes

post from Daring Fireball on 29 July 2009 07:46:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

Scathing critique of the entire App Store from iPhone developer Layton Duncan. Here, on iTunes Connect:

Any developer who has experienced the business side of the App Store, iTunes Connect, the app submission process, is well aware that there is virtually zero care and attention to detail taken, it barely works for it?s intended purpose, and that lack of care and attention even creeps into the customer facing App Store. Put simply, the whole thing is entirely unprofessional, bordering on incompetent, and Apple should be highly embarrassed by it. The astounding thing is that this is so at odds with what most people expect from Apple: it?s certainly a far cry from the usual obsessive attention to detail in most of it?s consumer facing products.

Earlier in the piece, Duncan focuses on how everything is skewed toward 99-cent prices.

There are exceptions, to be sure. Cultured Code’s Things is $10, and is a consistent top seller in the productivity category. But there’s no denying the overall dollar-store atmosphere.

I’m wondering how much of the problem is that the App Store is built on the foundation and framework of the iTunes Music Store, which was designed from the outset specifically as a venue for selling 99-cent downloads.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.polarbearfarm.com/blog/?p=124

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Drive Genius 2.2 released

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 29 July 2009 07:30:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Prosoft Engineering has released v2.2 of its flagship application, Drive Genius. The software is use...

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Video Converter Pro ships

Wondershare has released its newest application, Video Converter Pro for Mac. The software is used t...

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MobileMe iDisk App for iPhone

Works great. What took them so long?

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.apple.com/mobileme/news/2009/07/mobileme-idisk-app-for-iphone-ipod-tou
ch-now-available.html

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Recover PDF Password ships

Eltima has introduced Recover PDF Password, an application used to retrieve misplaced PDF file passw...

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