TUAW is where I first saw this. I checked it out myself, and confirmed that if an App Store customer hasn’t bought or downloaded the App they are attempting to review, this dialog box pops up:
This goes a long way to preventing reviews on an app based solely on the price, instead of the reviewers just posting a review that says “$4.99?!??!11? Their insane if they thing I’m going to pay that!!11″
On the other hand, it leads to reviews that could be falsely positively skewed, because a person downloading an app is more prone to wanting it and liking it, rather than taking a dispassionate view of it in their review. But better that than the other way though. The ratings will get a much more fair because of this move. I’m hoping it will be retroactive, and the reviews so far will be examined and pulled if the reviewer doesn’t own the app.
Now, if only Apple could clean up it’s OWN review policy and let apps into the store that “duplicated” their own services, Podcaster being the most famous example, we’d be in good shape.
As it is, many people have lost faith in the App store ever fufulling it’s potential.
For a “limited time” all Pangea games are discounted in the app store. I hadn’t picked up Cro-Mag Rally yet, so I took advantage of the $1.99 price. Billy Frontier is $3.99 (I’m not sure what it is normally). But it looked cool so I picked that up as well.
They don’t give a definite end date to this sale, so if you’re interested in any of the Pangea titles, you might want to snap ‘em up while you have the chance! Enjoy!
About 24 hours after the iPhone 2.1 software update was released, and Apple had blocked jailbreaking phones via modified .ispw files in iTunes 8, the Dev Team struck again and released a tool for Jailbreaking the 2.1 firmware.
It was initially thought that the Jailbrake would require patchng iTunes, but this version of QuickPwn and the PwnageTool works without modifying anything in iTunes 8. I plan to Jailbreak my non-critical V1 iPhone today to see how it goes, and may even get brave enough to pwn my 3G.
At last! I’m crossing my fingers this will end the Great App Crash of ’08 once and for all.
Apple’s list of fixes and enhancements:
decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
significantly improved battery life for most users
dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
improved email reliability, notably fetching mail from Pop and Exchange accounts
faster installation of 3rd party applications
fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of third party applications
improved performance in text messaging
faster loading and searching of contacts
improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
Genius playlist creation
Of course iPod touch owners are experiencing many of these enhancements already.
Be sure to back up your current phone setup before updating!! EDIT: I guess an automatic backup happens as part of the update process. But I still recommend a backup before ding anything.
Share your experiences with this update in the comments, please!
Steve Job just confirmed that there will be an iPhone update Friday which promises, mostly (wait for it…) bug fixes!!
Significant improvement to battery life, no more app crashes & faster backups are among the highlights. Stay tuned for more after Friday. I’ll install it just for you! And report on what’s what.
I’m not exactly sure how new these ads are, but tonight’s the first time I noticed one during Olympic coverage on the USA network. Here’s one I uploaded to the iPhapp YouTube Channel. It’s a bit fuzzy. You can see the app in it’s original pristine glory here on Apple’s website.
AppleInsider reports one of it’s readers has revealed he received an email straight from Mt. Olympus itself, and Job assures him the crash is a “known problem” and will be fixed in the next update, due September.
Beginning September 7, Best Buy will be selling the iPhone, the first retailer beyond Apple and AT&T in the United States. Can 7-11 be far behind?? Rejoice!
In an interview with Nick Wingfield appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Steve Job says Apple would be “Irresponsible” not to have a kill switch to stop malicious apps that may make it onto your phone through the app store. (Wasn’t that what the whole vetting process was for??)
Also, he throws some app sales numbers around. They look good. $30 million in the first month, spent on apps (so about $10 million earned by Apple).
That’s what “they” are calling it. It’s a hidden iPhone app that retrieves a list of blacklisted apps from Apple, and stores them on the phone (that’s my simpleton understanding of it). For what purpose, it hasn’t been determined. But among other things, the guy who found it—researcher Jonathan Zdziarski—says it could be used to kill apps that Apple doesn’t want on your iPhone. Here’s his blog, where you can read Zdziarski’s take on the app and the rumors flying around it:
UPDATE: It’s being widely reported now that this is for killing malicious apps useing locations services without authorization. Why it couldn’t be used for just killing apps that Apple wants, I don’t see. It still sets a dangerous precident in my eyes.
