Filed under: Humor, Software, iPhone, Holidays, App Store, iPod touch
This just in: Santa Claus has his own iPhone app
Santa Claus has decided that he'd like all good little boys and girls to check in on what he's doing at the North Pole, so he's set up a special webcam network at his workshops. The webcams can only be viewed through a special iPhone app called SantaLive 2008. Starting on Thanksgiving Day and for 30 days after, you can get a daily update on your iPhone or iPod touch as Santa trains his elves to make toys, feeds Rudolph and the other reindeer, and prepares for worldwide toy deliveries during the evening of December 24th - 25th.
On Christmas Eve, he'll be providing a special report. Santa's cyber-helpers warn that the Christmas Eve report might take a while to download.
In an exclusive interview, Santa told TUAW that he's not much of an iPhone developer, so he had to outsource this work to The Casual Game Network to set up the webcams and make the system work. Since he has to pay these subcontractors, he's charging US$1.99 for SantaLive 2008 (click opens iTunes) through November 30th, after which time he's going to charge $2 more.
We'll be talking to the Easter Bunny's press manager soon to see if he's going to follow up with his own app.
Update: Comments suggest that the developer of SantaLive may have offered a cash bounty for five-star reviews on the App Store. While the Amazon bounty page is now offline, we have to say that if this was an actual strategy for harvesting positive feedback... well, someone's getting a lump of coal in his stocking.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Techtistic said 4:09PM on 11-20-2008
Nothing against the app itself, but the developer (or one of them) is paying people to give his app 5-star ratings. See the link below for the proof. I must say, pretty lame.
https://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=CJ5ZSFZ4BZ08HTM3HZJ0
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Louie Mantia said 4:51PM on 11-20-2008
Totally lame! I reported the offending reviews:
"This review was paid for by the developer of this application through Amazon Mechanical Turk."
Techtistic said 6:23PM on 11-20-2008
Here's a link to a screenshot of what used to be on the website he used to offer payment for 5-star reviews:
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc297/ebay111/SantaLive/SantaLive.jpg
At least it's down now.
mark said 5:17PM on 11-20-2008
@Techtistic
didn't apple make it so you have to buy the app before you can rate it?
"here, spend 2 bucks on this app, and I l'll give you a dime if you give it 5 stars"
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ars_workerbee said 5:29PM on 11-20-2008
the mturk link is dead now, but I remember it saying that he'd pay something like $5, so you would come out ahead.
he also wanted everyone to put "five periods at the end of the review, so i can tell" that it came from mturk.
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i_phoneguru said 6:27PM on 11-20-2008
Just looking at 22 reviews, here is the breakout
4 with 5 periods
2 with 4 periods
The mturk link doesnt show the post, but if you say it said you had to leave 5 periods, that means only 4 of the reviews fall into the paid for review classification.
So overall, it would appear that it isnt the overall legs of the review process. I dont have kids so I havent downloaded the app, but the screenshots look good.
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Gary said 7:39PM on 11-20-2008
Looks like you can create videos with Santa as well . . . just found this cool link - www.family.com/santas-list . . . . not sure if they're making a iphone version yet!
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Santa Claus said 7:28PM on 11-20-2008
It's interesting that The Casual Game Network would put out an application using my legal name and likeness without authorization. Please visit our all-volunteer (including me) charity at www.TheSantaClausFoundation.org and help us advocate for the millions of children in the U.S. annually who are abused, neglected, exploited, abandoned, homeless, and institutionalized through no fault of their own. Donating to TSCF is worth far more to vulnerable children in dire circumstances than supporting the Casual Game Network or iTunes, especially this time of year. Thanks and Blessings to all, Santa :-)}
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The Tuesday Night Tech Show said 10:14AM on 11-22-2008
That's a great app idea! Good find, TUAW!
__________
100% Free iPhone Webapps
http://webapps.ifthensoft.com
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Matthew said 2:37PM on 11-24-2008
Great app! Five stars .....
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