iPhone Apps

  • iKat Augmented Reality App Works Without Real-World Prompt [Apps]

    Apart from the name—which I personally approve of very much—Zenitum's iKat app has another cool edge to it. It's (we think) the first augmented reality phone app to work without a marker, or real-world prompt.

    The app itself is pretty basic, just a cartoon-like pet running around on whatever surface you aim the phone at. Zenitum, the South Korean company behind iKat, says the app has to recognize an environment to work:

    "Based on Zenitum's D-Track engine, we are working on markerless mobile augmented reality application, iKat. You are breeding a virtual kitten on the phone. The kitten can be mixed into real world using AR. Since no markers or image targets are needed, you need to recognize the space in front of the camera for creating the appropriate space for your kitten."

    Here's the app working:

    It's all built using Zenitum's D-Track software, which is explained in this video below:

    iKat is a neat stepping stone for augmented reality, and while the app itself doesn't do much, I'm sure Zenitum will be expanding their technology for further use. [Zenitum via Recombu]

  • iPhone Tweet Defense Slaughters Zombies With Witticisms [IPhone Apps]

    The premise of Tweet Defense is simple: The more you tweet and the more Twitter followers you gain, the stronger your tower defenses will be. Clever, though hopefully RT bonuses will come in the future. $1. [iTunes via Kotaku]

  • Air Video, the Best iPhone Video Streamer $3 Can Buy [Lifechanger]

    Media streamers aren't exactly new, but there's another entrant to the field that works so simply and easily it should be nearly mandatory for any iPhone user. It's called Air Video—and it's only three bucks.

    Here's the scenario: I've got a NAS with about a terabyte or so of video sitting on my network. Some torrented files, a lot of DVD rips I made myself, a fair amount of random Xvid and MKV files I've kept for years, and quite a few h.264 MPGs that I encoded of my own work.

    Now, getting videos to an iPhone is relatively easy—if you want to convert them to h.264. Toss the file into Handbrake, fiddle with a few settings, and copy the converted file into iTunes to be synced to your iPhone.

    Problem is, you've got to wait for the video to be converted. Then wait for it to copy to your phone. Then hope you have enough space to store it. Then delete it when you're done.

    The natural solution, of course, is streaming. And several nice applications have been written that make that possible, including Orb and (which will also stream live TV if your PC has a tuner), Tversity (which can also stream to Xbox, PS3, and even DirecTV boxes). But Orb is $10; TVersity Pro is $40.

    Air Video is $3. And it's so dead simple to set up that I didn't quite believe it had actually worked.

    I downloaded the Air Video server software to my first-generation unibody MacBook Pro, pointed it at a local folder full of video, and activated it. (It's also available for Windows.) Then I opened up the Air Video iPhone app to find a simple directory listing. Within about three minutes from first discovering Air Video I was watching a 720p episode of a television program on my iPhone, streaming over my local Wi-Fi network.

    Then I pointed the Air Video server at my NAS, suspecting that something would snag. My laptop wouldn't have the CPU power to convert the video in time. My 801.11N network would get clogged. But nope—Air Video happily chugged away, sending a real-time stream of my videos right to my phone.

    I even tried watching a 13GB 1080p rip from the NAS. (Of a Blu-ray I own, thank you very much.) It worked—mostly. Air Video lost the stream occasionally, pushing the stream back in chunks as it rebuffered. Considering my laptop chokes on that file even when it's sitting on its own hard disk, I am not surprised.

    Perhaps it shouldn't impress me as much as it does, but it completely changed the way I think about my media library and my iPhone. I already sleep with my iPhone at my side. And when the iPad arrives, I suspect it'll be on the nightstand, too. Now every movie or television show I have sitting around will be ready to watch in just about ten seconds.

    Air Video manages to be both extremely simple to use, while extremely powerful for the settings tweaker.

    If a video is encoded in h.264, a format which the iPhone can play natively, Air Video simply streams it. If not, you can "Play with Live Conversion", which uses the ffmpeg library on your Mac or PC to convert the file in real-time. (Provided your machine is fast enough. Most newer computers should be able to handle that just fine.) You can also tell Air Video to do a permanent conversion of the file to a h.264, although the real-time streaming works so well I can't imagine you'd find the need to do so very often.

    There are tons of conversion settings that can be fiddled with, as well as different bit rates for streaming. But the default settings and guesstimates made by Air Video work so well, I haven't yet felt the need to touch them.

    You can even stream outside your network if you turn on the "experimental" Remote setting. Air Video will generate a ten-digit PIN that you punch into the iPhone app which allows it to communicate with the Air Video server even when you're away from your home network. (I suspect it is doing some sort of simple DNS-like passing of your external IP to the company's servers, although I have not investigated this.) The takeaway is that you can watch all your movies even away from home, even over 3G. Again, this isn't a brand new idea, but to have it all work so effortlessly in a $3 app is. (There is also a free version that won't display all your files at once that works perfectly, should you want to test it first.)

    I've been toying with the idea of selling my HDTV for a while. I use it, but could live without it. I've barely been playing console games at all over the last few months, using the TV mostly as a giant monitor connected to a Mac Mini that serves as a home theater PC. I'd been considering replacing it with an iPad, as silly as that might seem, simply because I live alone and rarely watch movies and such with guests.

    I don't know if I'll sell the TV and the Mac Mini or not, but Air Video has made me realize that if I wanted to, I could get the same functionality on an iPad. I'll never be without my video library again. Not bad for three bucks. [iTunes]

  • Comcast's Latest iPhone App Manages Your DVR From Anywhere [Comcast]

    Comcast is fairly evil, to be sure. But if they're doing one thing right, it's the latest version of their free iPhone app, Comcast Mobile App 2.0.

    In this walkthrough, you'll see that not only can you set recordings from your iPhone, but you can do so over the multiple DVRs that you may have in your house. (Note: so far, this function is only available in select areas.) Meanwhile, everyone receives new push notifications reminding you to watch or record your favorite shows...which admittedly sounds a bit useless in the DVR era.

    If you're watching the clip, skip about 20 seconds in to get to the meat of it. (Not that Scott the Comcast guy doesn't seem very nice.) [iTunes via Comcast Blog Thanks Simon!]

  • BTW, Wi-Fi Scanner Apps Were Begging to Get Banned by Apple [App Store]

    Also shitcanned by Apple in the Great App Store Purge of 2010: Wi-Fi scanning apps. The reason being that they used private frameworks to access wireless info. While some of these apps might've been useful, especially the ones with GPS functionality to locate hotspots, using private frameworks is kinda like painting a big "ban me" target on your back, even if you do slip through the approval process. [Softpedia via MaximumPC via DVICE]

  • Apple's Sexy App Purge Was Just the Beginning [App Store]

    The Great App Store Purge of 2010 continues. They came for the sexy apps, and other apps said nothing. Now, according to some developers, they're coming for pre-fabbed apps—like RSS apps built using ready-set-go templates from app-building services.

    Specifically, they're blocking new submissions of apps that are basically just re-packaged RSS feeds or business cards. What makes this purge not-at-all outrageous is that they're not clearing out apps they've already approved, and they're at least telling app-building services like AppMakr what they need to change in order to make themselves worthy of the App Store: adding features like push notifications, offline access and in-app purchases.

    They're pushing developers to make their apps useful and different, in other words, rather than taking up virtual shelf space for goods that could be web apps. If Apple's going to be policing App Store submissions for more than mere maliciousness—which seems like it's going to be the case for the immediate future—it's the kind of policing you'd want them to do, at least in theory. A cookie-cutter app is a cookie-cutter app, a determination that's far less inscrutable than the process to decide what's too prurient to be sold.

    But it's clear now that the sex app purge was apparently just the beginning of a larger process to clean up the App Store. Apple's eminently concerned with the App Store's perception as a huckster-y bazaar, and the reflection of that image upon the Apple brand itself. Tacky, shitty apps populating the store are inevitably stains on that glossy Apple logo, and Apple's just starting to wipe them up. The purge will burn hotter before it's over. [TechCrunch]

  • Tekken Will Come to iPhone [IPhone Apps]

    A new war will be breaking out on the App Store—Street Fighter IV vs. Tekken. Namco's confirmed Tekken will be available soon for thumb-twiddling iPhone users, though the details remain as scarce as Ling Xiaoyu's costume. [Fonehome]

  • Pandora, the Survivor [Internet Radio]

    We've chronicled how Pandora was nearly wiped out by the dickish NAB SoundExchange, but actually, it's been a decade-long struggle to survive. Did you know founder Tim Westergren considered a blackjack tour in Vegas to raise money? [NYT]

  • The Week's Best iPhone Apps [IPhone Apps]

    In this week's legitimately purchased app roundup: Google Buzz, appified! Games, sold Costco-style! App Store meme marriages, consummated! Child medical mysteries, solved! Ragdoll physics, taken to its logical conclusion! Travel, meticulously planned! Movie recommendations, mystically conjured! And more...

    This Week's Best Apps

    If you'd like to view the gallery as a single page, click here.

    This Week's iPhone News On Giz


    • This Is Why that Amazing NASA Earth Image Looked So Familiar

    • WTFJeans Have Specially-Fitted Pockets For USB Sticks and iPhones

    • How To: Heroically Salvage a Scratched-Up iPhone

    • TomTom's iPhone Navigation Apps Drop Again to $50/$70

    • Steve Jobs' Favorite iPhone Application

    • Yes, This Is An iPhone Case. Of Course It Is.

    • Layar, the iPhone's Best (Augmented Reality) App, Is Back In the App Store

    • The Month's Best iPhone Apps

    • RedEye Mini IR Transmitter Transforms iPhones Into Universal Remote Controls For $49

    • Netflix Would Very Much Like to Know If You Would Like an iPhone App (Hint: YES)

    • Apple Sues HTC For Infringing On 20 iPhone Patents: The Complete Documents

    • The Myth of iPhone App Piracy

    • iPhone App 'Top 100 Sensual Love Making Sex Songs' Now Available For Budding Caligulas

    • Patent Points to Camera-Based Swipe Controls For iPhone

    This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!

  • TomTom's iPhone Navigation Apps Drop Again to $50/$70 [Dealzmodo]

    TomTom's discounting their US and US+Canada navigation apps slightly, down to $50 and $70, respectively. They've done this before, on both apps, so it's not unprecedented, but it is a good deal if you're looking for iPhone Navigation. [App Store]

  • Google Buzz Gets Its First iPhone App [IPhone Apps]

    Google's mobile web interface for Buzz is technically impressive, in that it behaves more or less like a native app. Cool, guys! But in use, it's just too slow. Buzzie, the first native Buzz iPhone app, helps pick up Google's slack.

    As the first iPhone app for Buzz, Buzzie gets a lot right. The minimalist UI recalls the classier breed of Twitter apps, like Tweetie, why the local and map views are a treat to see rendered natively, in the app and on a Google Map, respectively. My only reservations? I don't see a way to post images in a new Buzz, which is kind of a big deal for avid users. That, and I've found that even when I check the "Remember Me" box, I'm sometimes logged out when the app starts up.

    If you're a serious Buzz user, Buzzie will make your life easier. (But honestly, who the hell is?) If you're not, the $2 price—a promotion, even—is just too steep. [TheNextWeb]

  • Layar, the iPhone's Best (Augmented Reality) App, Is Back In the App Store [IPhone Apps]

    After it was pulled in December due to some bugs, Layar is back in the App Store, available for iPhone 3GS users.

    Just in case you need a run-through, Layar—which is also available on Android—is an augmented reality app which lets you discover people and places around you, based on different layers you select. It's only available for the 3GS as it needs a compass to work, and also uses the camera function to display your surroundings on a cool grid. Definitely worth downloading if you haven't already. [Layar via Mobile-Ent]

  • The Month's Best iPhone Apps [IPhone Apps]

    Each month, the best new iPhone apps-and some older ones-are considered for Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die? Here's the best of the best from February.

    For the full directory of Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps for 2009, click here. Here are the best of the month, and what we've added to the directory:

    February's Best Apps

    For a single-page view, click here.

    Essential App Directory Inductees

    Camera Pro Plus: It isn't enough for a camera app to add options to still shooting. No, nowadays you need video.

    Meebo: An ultra-slick messaging app that makes every other free entrant look either quaint or crappy.

    Angry Birds: I could have gone outside last Saturday, but I didn't. I played Angry Birds instead. I have no regrets.

    Siri: Rolls speech recognition, search, and intelligent text parsing into one semi-magical package.

    Logitech Touch Mouse: Does 75% percent of what more expensive iPhone-as-a-touchpad apps do, for 0% of the price.

    The Fallen

    Fring: Because Meebo is that good.

    Snapture: Replaced by Camera Pro Plus.

    And that's it! What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!

  • Remainders - The Things We Didn't Post: Gone In the Blink of an Eye Edition [Remainders]

    In today's Remainders: disappearing acts. TigerText, a new iPhone app, makes your illicit text messages vanish; an official HTC video shows you how to disassemble an HD2; Intel's new Convertible Classroom netbook makes its keyboard go "Poof!" and more.

    Grrrr
    Incriminating text messages, as a thing, aren't going away any time soon. That is, unless they do go away, which is the whole point of TigerText, a new messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets illicit texters set a expiration for date for their messages. After that time texts disappear—Poof!—and your affair continues without a trace. A fine idea for iPhone-wielding slimeballs, but there's one jungle cat-sized catch: both phones need to have TigerText installed for it to function. So while you don't want your spouse to come across naughty texts on your phone, you don't really want them coming across an app designed explicitly for hiding naughty texts either, do you? [Wired]

    Colorful
    Here's a video showing some nifty (but only nifty) hacks for the Nexus One, and they both involve colors. The first adds a "sexy colors" setting for the little zooming pixels on the phone's default live wallpaper. The other allows you to set the LED notification button to different colors. It definitely looks pretty glowing blue or purple, but it's sort of a one trick pony—let us know when you can set different colors for different notifications. There's no explanation for how to implement the hacks yourself, but if you really want to color in your drab life, you might be able to snag the Twitter names from the video and work backwards to the original Tweets. [Make]

    Disassembly
    Here we have an "official" video showing you how to disassemble an HD2 step by step (earlier today Apple showed us how to disassemble an HTC step by step). But this official video comes to your computer unofficially, probably by way of some third party repair shop. So it's not the most exciting leak, and it's not the most exciting phone, but it's a nice curiosity nonetheless. [CrunchGear]

    Classmates.com
    Today Intel showed off its new Convertible Classmate netbook, which lets you swivel its screen to turn the underperforming netbook into a slightly less noticeably underperforming tablet. Folding over the 10.1" touch screen will make it easier to flick through e-books, which are an emphasis in this newest iteration of the machine (Intel released another transforming tablet/netbook combo back in 2008). Intel has their sights set on classrooms in developing countries, hoping the device can serve as both an e-reader and a more fully functioning computer for those students. Whereas the last One Laptop Per Child update showed off a fantasy slate, Intel's new device has a physical keyboard and, you know, the benefit of being real. [PC World]

  • Win Achievement Points For Every 'To Do List" Task Completed On the Dunnit! iPhone App [IPhone Apps]

    The humble To Do list has been updated, with the Dunnit! iPhone app using gaming-style achievement points for every task completed. Sure beats scribbling on the back of an envelope I guess, though it'd be better if they translated into redeemable points.

    Having some sort of incentive to tick off every task on the list would definitely make me more pro-active, especially if you could translate them into iTunes gift cards or something. Though at $4.99 a download, the developer Runloop would have to be raking in a lot of downloads for that to make financial sense.

    Dunnit! lets you compete against friends who also use the iPhone app, and you can tweet your results to your followers—if you dare. [iTunes via Mobile-Ent]

  • Netflix Would Very Much Like to Know If You Would Like an iPhone App (Hint: YES) [NetFlix]

    Here's a real interesting question from a recent Netflix survey: "How likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?"

    If you recall, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings promised that Netflix streaming would come to the iPhone "eventually" just a few months ago. While survey questions can be indicative of a company's plans—it wouldn't be the first time for this kind of company to tip their video hand via survey—I wouldn't get too excited. Not because of the tech, which is trivial (even considering the jump from Microsoft's Silverlight technology on the desktop) but because of the rights.

    Netflix has already run into issues with studios afraid of it massing too much influence, too many eyeballs, squeezing the lifeblood remaining in DVD profits preserved by the window system—the journey a movie takes from the multiplex to DVD to PPV to HBO to cable— before the studios can extract the last final drops themselves. That disgusting 28-day window before you can rent a new Warner Bros. movie is a primo example. So, to get mobile streaming rights? That's probably a whole 'nother ballgame, and I don't expect the studios will play any nicer.

    But we can dream, we can hope, we can pray. Even if it is only over Wi-Fi. [Hacking Netflix via SAI]

  • Car Locator Android App Makes $13,000 a Month [Android Apps]

    It may not be the $1m that Tapulous brings in each month for its Tap Tap Revenge series of iPhone apps, but independent developer Edward Kim is understandably pleased with his $13,000/month from the Car Locator Android app.

    He's seen 70,000 downloads of the free app, but 6,950 of the paid-for version. Kim originally priced it at $1.99 per download, but increased it to $3.99—with the number of downloads unaffected by the price hike.

    The app is pretty basic, it saves your location wherever you park, and when you return to the carpark it will help you navigate back to the location. Writing on his blog, Kim said:

    "it was netting an average of about $80 - $100/day, until it became a featured app on the Marketplace. Since then, sales have been phenomenal, netting an average of $435/day, with a one day record of $772 on Valentine's Day."

    He's happy to praise the way Android Marketplace swaps featured apps around, unlike the iPhone's App Store:

    "Some may be quick to point out that a featured Android application is only able to net $400/day, while top iPhone apps make thousands. But the Android market appears to rotate applications in and out of the featured apps list in some psedo-random fashion. Every time I open the Marketplace app, the featured list is different and most of the time, I don't even see my app on there."

    Back in November, when he had only 23,000 downloads and the paid-for version cost just $1.99, Kim credited the launch of the Droid as being a reason he'd seen such a spike in downloads. [Edward Kim via Mobile-Ent]

    Image Credit: AndroLib

  • Apple Rejects App For Containing "Minimal User Functionality" [Apple]

    A million fart app developers must've just started sobbing in hysterical fear as Apple decided to reject an app because it "contains minimal user functionality and will not be appropriate for the App Store."

    The app in question, DuckPhone, was developed by Nick Bonatsakis of Atlantia Software and had one simple purpose: To make your phone quack like a duck. For whatever reason, Apple didn't think that was useful enough to an average user and wrote Nick this love letter:

    "Dear Atlantia Software LLC,

    We've reviewed your application DuckPhone and we have determined that this application contains minimal user functionality and will not be appropriate for the App Store.

    If you would like to share it with friends and family, we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing or if you believe that you can add additional user functionality to DuckPhone we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review.

    Sincerely,

    iPhone App Review Team"

    My guess is that whoever was stuck reviewing DuckPhone really hates Jersey Shore, but the bigger issue remains: Apple's now got yet another completely arbitrary reason to reject an app. [Crunch Gear]

  • Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer Available Now, Free For 48 Hours [IPhone Apps]

    Assassin's Creed II is one of the best console games of 2009. And now, Ubisoft has released a top-down multiplayer version of it for the iPhone/iPod touch, free for two days.

    The game, which is to the console version of ACII what the original Grand Theft Auto is to GTAIV, features a top-down viewpoint. The goal is to seek out fellow assassins who you're playing over WiFi and...assassinate them. You sneak around by blending in with civilians.

    Sound fun? Well, it's free for now but bumps up to $2.99 after 48 hours, so get on it! [iTunes Link]

  • The Myth of iPhone App Piracy [IPhone Apps]

    People rarely talk about iPhone app piracy, but when they do, it sounds devastating: 90% piracy rates, $450 million in lost sales, etc. Here's the truth: App Store piracy isn't a big deal—and it never will be.

    With these shockingly high reports comes the general air that developers are being marauded and pillaged by Viking hordes and that Apple isn't doing enough to stop it. This resonates! Developers don't control much about the App Store, so if the entire app protection system has been cracked—which it has—you'd expect the looting to be wholesale; the impact on developers to be immediate and devastating; and the problem to be grave indeed.

    And yet the piracy issue seems to be dying. The story behind the lack of a story, it turns out, is that iPhone piracy is nowhere near as serious as many people say it is, and that before long, it may not be a problem at all.

    How It Works

    It's tough to talk about iPhone app piracy without tacitly endorsing it. The mere mention of DRM cracking methods and application sources is—or rather, was—enough to send people looking, and presumably, stealing. But look at the piracy subscene today reveals that, like the jailbreak scene it's a part of, it's just not the same as it used to be.

    Kicking off your career in app theft isn't too hard, and it'll only take a few minutes of Googling to get the full instructions. Still, I'll keep this as abstract as possible. Here's how you do it:

    • Jailbreak your iPhone or iPod
    • Open Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent of the App Store, and add a particular download source that isn't part of the default lineup
    • Download two apps: One that lets you crack apps you've purchased for the benefit of others; and another that lets you install cracked applications yourself
    • Download cracked apps to your heart's content, from various sources around the internet

    The Myth of iPhone App PiracyAt the peak, there were sites that aggregated huge numbers of download links together into an easily browsable website, which meant that once your phone was cracked, you could tap through these websites like you'd browse the App Store—links to the latest apps were plentiful, and you could snag that game you just read about on Gizmodo within a day or so, tops.

    The most popular of these sites, called Appulo.us, disappeared just last month, leaving pirates without a centralized resource for apps. Soon, torrent sites and carbon copied link-dumps picked up the slack, at least for people dedicated and savvy enough to find them. So, yeah, piracy is alive, to be sure. But how serious is it?

    The Problem

    I wanted to find out how bad piracy was, so I went straight to the developers. I started with the types of apps I thought would be least vulnerable, just to set a baseline: Productivity apps. The verdict? Yes! Piracy happens!

    "Roughly 10% of our paid app users are coming from piracy." That's Guy Goldstein, CEO of PageOnce, the company behind Personal Assistant, a top-selling organizational app. This is pretty stunning, if you think about it. Personal Assistant is available in a fairly full-featured free version, and as useful as it is, it's not the most glamourous of apps—it's a utility, not a flashy game. The paid version tracks a little high for a productivity app, at $7, but not matter how you slice it, Personal Assistant isn't the most obvious target for piracy. Nor, apparently, is it a serious victim: "Although i think piracy is generally bad and negatively effects companies, for us it's not big issue—our business model is based on purchasing, but also advertising. The more users we have, the better." Right, so piracy is happening here, but it doesn't really matter. Let's move onto the people who you'd really expect to be getting ripped off.

    I contacted TomTom, whose navigation apps start above $50. They were cagey. Cagey and brief:

    TomTom takes piracy very seriously. Per corporate policy, we do not disclose information about our ongoing efforts to disrupt software theft.

    So I moved on to their direct competitor, Navigon, whose MobileNavigator North America app runs $90:

    Navigon is well aware of hacked iPhone Apps. As with any other software, it is only a question of time when applications are being hacked and distributed illegally. There's no security mechanism available to prevent this 100%. Since hacking of additional application functions, which are available through Apple's In App Purchase mechanism, is more difficult, this helps to better secure Apps from software piracy. Our legal department is watching this very thoroughly and Navigon will fight piracy with all legal means.

    Less cagey, and more ragey. But this is an official position—a conversation with a Navigon rep left me with the impression that while they don't condone piracy, obviously, it wasn't exactly the Issue of the Day. Ripe targets that they are, nav companies don't seem to be losing sleep over this. Which leaves the game developers.

    What apps are more pirateable than games? They're shiny, they're extremely popular, and they're often expensive. Surely the EAs and Gamelofts of the world are the hardest hit, right?

    On record, they basically clammed up. Off the record, though, they were a bit more free. A rep from one of the largest studios—you've probably played one of their games if you have an iPhone—told me "It happens, but I don't think it's that big of an issue." I couldn't coax out any specific stats, but in relation to total sales, piracy figures are "small."

    In fact, it was hard to come by hard piracy figures from any major developers, but one thing is certain: The occasionally reported 50%+ piracy rates are rare among major developers. And overwhelmingly, major devs are underwhelmed by the problem. So, where are all the pirates?

    The Jailbreak Factor


    Peter Farago, a VP at iPhone analytics firm Flurry—the guys who spotted the iPad in their logs days before it was announced—track roughly one out of every five apps purchased from the App Store, and their software runs deep: Though it doesn't collect individualized personal data, it can tell if a device running a tracked app is jailbroken or not. In other words, Flurry knows exactly how many of the millions of devices its tracked apps are installed on are jailbroken. Take a guess.

    It's... as low as you might expect. Lower, even.

    "Under 10% of the iPhone installed base is jailbroken."

    Just to make this clear, a company that at any given time is tracking five out of the top ten most downloaded apps in the App Store is detecting a jailbreak rate of under 10%. Less than one out of ten, and often significantly less. The figure tends to bottom out at just above 5% after every time Apple issues a software upgrade, slowly creeping back up to previous levels as the Dev Team and the like issue updates to the jailbreak software. Bear in mind, jailbreaking is a prerequisite for app piracy, but not every jailbreaker is running even one pirated app. Start peeling off the people who jailbreak just to enable multitasking or Wi-Fi tethering, or to skin their iPhone, or just to see what all the fuss is about, and "under 10%" starts to looks even slimmer.

    Given the state of jailbreaking, I find these numbers easy to believe. Back in 2007, before there was an App Store, jailbreaking was as easy as opening a website in Mobile Safari. Today, it's a bit more difficult, and depending on which iPhone you have, sometimes impossible. (Late model 3GSers are stuck with a tethered jailbreak, for example.) And Farago says it's always under siege: "There's a cycle that exists, but basically, it's this kind of thing that happens—every time there's an OS swap, it goes away for a while," dipping by "a few percent" before creeping back up to previous levels.

    Now, I don't want to play down these numbers, because even a tiny percentage of a user base as large as the iPhone's is enough to throw a developers' pirated/paid stats out of whack—this can happen, and cases in which pirated downloads exceed paid downloads have been documented—but such stats are misleading. Without even having to speculate about what percentage of pirates would have otherwise purchased the app, they represent a small portion of the app-buying population. In such small numbers, jailbreakers simply can't screw a developer over, except in those rare cases in which the developer has to pay significant continuing costs to deliver data and services once an app is installed. Even then, Flurry finds that pirated apps are often launched just a handful of times after they're downloaded.

    With the App Store offering most—though not all—of what the jailbreak scene used to provide, cracking your phone, going through the trouble of ducking regular upgrades and enduring the constant fear of rendering your phones permanently useless just isn't that attractive anymore. To be a pirate right now, you really have to want to be a pirate. This isn't Napster. This is Usenet. And pirates aren't potential customers. They're pirates.

    Why Developers Don't Care

    At first I found many developers' silence on the issue curious. But after talking to a few, and finding out the scale of the problem, it makes sense: An app developer has nothing to gain by taking their fight public—Apple is clearly aware of the issue, and it's not like you can somehow convince hardcore pirates to start paying for all the dozens of apps they steal, because they were never going to buy them in the first place. To these people they're literally just free samples, and are most frequently treated as such. Developers do have something to lose, be it investor confidence (a lot of studios are heavily funded by VCs, who probably don't want to hear about any theft problems), a relationship with Apple (who would most likely prefer that developers discussed app DRM cracking and piracy privately), or the goodwill of the public, who aren't usually going to feel sympathy for a company anyway.

    Most importantly, if developers do have a problem with piracy—say that, like PageOnce, they found themselves prominently featured on one of the more popular pirated app repositories—they can do something about it.

    When an app is cracked, that is to say that its DRM has been stripped, and the app has been reduced to an unprotect .IPA file, ready for sideloading through a jailbreak utility. But in the middle of 2009, Apple introduced a system by which app developers could sell services or add-ons from within their apps. This was good way for paid apps to extend their profitability, and the in-app purchases were effectively unpirateable.

    Then, in October, Apple changed the rules: In-app purchases were allowed in free applications as well, meaning that developers could provide free trial apps that could be upgraded to full versions by way of in-app purchases. Popular apps could consolidate their free and paid versions into one app, and in the process, make piracy nearly impossible. (Update: But not quite) After all, what's the point in cracking and bootlegging an app anyone can get for free?

    Apple even says as much (albeit with no lack of redundancy): "Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases."

    Ngmoco took their fight against piracy public last year, quoting impressively high unauthorized download figures during new apps' first days in the app store. Today, nearly their entire product lineup is based on on the in-app upgrade model. And even after the transition, Ngmoco insists that piracy wasn't the motivating factor in their switch. In an interview with TouchArcade, it was the massively high download rates for free apps, vs paid apps, that lured Ngmoco toward in-app purchases. The elimination of piracy was a pleasant side effect, at best.

    The moral of the story for developers? If you think you have a problem with piracy, you probably don't. If you still think you have a problem with piracy, you can stamp it out. Simple as that.

    In-app purchases change the way developers market and sell their apps, and just as much, the way we consume them. Downloading a single app and then purchasing expansions for it is a superficially different procedure than downloading a free trial followed by a full app, or just taking a risk on a full app in the first place. But the way in which your transaction happens is different, too.

    When you buy an iPhone app, it can be synced to multiple devices, as long as said devices are authorized on your iPhone account—the cap here if five, but that's enough to share amongst your family or friends, or to enable an easy transition from an old iPhone to a new one. In-app purchases, however, don't work the same way, at all. Here's what Apple says about syncing in-app purchases across devices:

    • Consumable products must be purchased each time the user needs that item. For example, one-time services are commonly implemented as consumable products.

    • Nonconsumable products are purchased only once by a particular user. Once a nonconsumable product is purchased, it is provided to all devices associated with that user's iTunes account. Store Kit provides built-in support to restore nonconsumable products on multiple devices.

    • Subscriptions share attributes of consumable and nonconsumable products. Like a consumable product, a subscription may be purchased multiple times; this allows you to implement your own renewal mechanism in your application. However, subscriptions must be provided on all devices associated with a user. In App Purchase expects subscriptions to be delivered through an external server that you provide. You must provide the infrastructure to deliver subscriptions to multiple devices.

    Problem is, this isn't how it works right now. In-app goods are sold on a strict per-device basis, because the only user information available to developers is the device identifier, not the account identifier. As it stands, when you buy something by way of an in-app purchase, it applies to your phone only, and not all the registered devices—iPhones and iPod Touches—on your iTunes account. Maybe that's no big deal now, but when the iPad arrives, this might become a problem.

    Pirates... From the FUTURE

    App piracy today may not be a massive factor in the App Store economy, but it would be wrong to characterize it as nothing. It does exist, and to a developer who makes money selling apps, even one illegally downloaded app is one too many. Still, looking forward, this issue is clearing up almost completely:

    • iPhone app piracy is already low, and isn't on the rise in any meaningful way
    • The latest iPhone 3GS has proven very difficult to jailbreak, and Apple seems to be actively thwarting efforts with each baseband/software release
    • In-app purchasing is coming of age, and effectively eliminates piracy

    If you want to call the iPhone pirate a species, he would be an endangered one; if you want to call the jailbreak scene a subculture, it would be passé; if you want to call app piracy a problem, it would be more nuisance than crisis.

    Apple's pending extermination of piracy is great news for developers, but for users, it'll come at a cost. And for want of an example as to why, this post couldn't come at a better time, with Apple purging "offensive" apps from its official store—increasingly be the only place for iPhone owners to download apps. If Apple wants to be the only provider of apps (and they do!) then they need to be held to a high standard of transparency and consistency, which—trust us—they're nowhere near meeting.

  • iPhone App 'Top 100 Sensual Love Making Sex Songs' Now Available For Budding Caligulas [IPhone Apps]

    They may not like boobies, but Apple evidently has no issue with sensual love-making sex songs. Especially if they produce babies, who can then be reared on a diet of iPhones and Macs.

    The Top 100 Sensual Love Making Sex Songs app (whatta title), streams the "best 100 love making songs in a single, constantly updated list." You can also add those special love songs that get you in the mood to a "favorite" list within the app—I hope for your partner's sake it's got more than one track—and even sing along to the lyrics printed on the screen. If your partner doesn't mind one eye being on the ball, the other the iPhone. It's available now, for $1.99. [iTunes via Mobile-Ent]