TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Delicious Library for iPhone runs afoul of Amazon's API terms, pulled from App Store

Michael Rose — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST

Update: As one might expect, this API restriction has also hit Pocketpedia; the app is now pulled as well (as of 7/17).

Sudden removal of an item from the App Store isn't unheard of; sometimes an app has a hidden bug or a content problem, and if Apple hasn't seen fit to take it off the store shelves then the developer can take matters into his, her or its own hands. Even applications that would seem to be wholly gratuitous and obvious ripoffs of other companies' IP might make it past the first round of Apple's scrutiny, only to be abruptly pulled under threat of litigation.

Apps that leverage content from websites and online services have another hurdle to clear: they may run afoul of trademark or licensing restrictions that prevent them from doing particular things with data from those third parties... things like, ferinstance, using that data on mobile devices.

This all brings us to Scenario D: the 'D' is for Delicious, and it's Delicious Monster's iPhone version of Library that's undergoing an unwelcome and rapid yanking from the App Store -- and believe it or not, Apple has nothing to do with it. Earlier today, Head Monster Wil Shipley announced that the iPhone app is on indefinite suspension and is no longer for sale; this is the consequence of a particular clause in the Amazon API terms and conditions. Part 4(e) of Amazon's agreement, which Shipley is a party to due to the desktop DL app's reliance on Amazon for book and DVD data, reads as follows:

(e) You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link , use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device.

Amazon gave D-M an ultimatum: pull the iPhone app, or lose the API access for the desktop version of Library. Despite Shipley's requests for a mobile device exception, the big A did not relent. It's not 100% clear why Amazon chose to enforce this clause now, nor why the company is not providing exceptions to developers. We have an email in to their press office to inquire.

If you've got DL on your iPhone already, enjoy. If not... it could be a long wait.

Anvil photo from flickr: fboyd and remixed via CC license.

Delicious Library for iPhone runs afoul of Amazon's API terms, pulled from App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes Store & App Store problems

Michael Jones — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:17:00 EST

With the App Store celebrating its first birthday, there is a fair amount of news coverage, and with Michael Jackson's memorial service being broadcast, his fans are sure to be hitting iTunes up for some of their favorite songs. So it stands to reason that today is probably not a good day for the iTunes store to be having problems. Don't you just love Murphy's Law?

Reports have been steadily coming in for the past few hours that users are unable to download songs, searches are timing out, and the App Store is not working properly from the iPhone. Several users have also posted threads on the iTunes discussion board with connection problems.

I myself had troubles with searching for music from iTunes earlier today, but things seemed to be working better a short while later, so I figured things were fixed. Since then, however, we have received several other reports of troubles, yet things are working fine for me still. So it seems that this could be chalked up to routing troubles depending on your location, or it may just be intermittent and I've been lucky.

Either way, it's safe to say that there is definitely something going on, although exactly what it is remains a question. Searching seems to be working, albeit a bit slowly, and downloads are working fine for me, but others have reported not being able to download at all. As they say, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Are you having troubles with either of the stores? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

iTunes Store & App Store problems originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3GS ranked #1 in cellphone sales in Japan... for now.

Steven Sande — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST

TG Daily (via Fortune) is reporting that Japanese market research company BCN's latest rankings of cellphone sales in Japan are showing that Apple's smartphone is the the current market leader in that country.

I did a quick check at BCN this afternoon while writing this post, and the iPhone 3GS 32GB is listed in first place in sales (see screenshot at right), with the iPhone 3GS 16GB in second place. The 3GS was just introduced in Japan on June 26th, and the sales figures are from the week of June 22 - 28. BCN's source of data includes point-of-sale information from many of Japan's largest electronics retailers, including Amazon Japan, Eiden, Bic Camera, K's Denki, and Best Denki.

Akky Akimoto at Asiajin is providing some perspective on the numbers. It's not unusual for a new phone to jump to the top of the list as it is released. As he notes, the Sony Network Walkman was #1 in the BCN ranking of music players at one time in 2005, but for the complete year, Apple iPod had a 60% share of the Japanese market.

Still, this is good news for Apple, and as Mr. Akimoto says, "Becoming No. 1 even for a week is better than never being No. 1..."

iPhone 3GS ranked #1 in cellphone sales in Japan... for now. originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VA Apple store closed due to shooting, armed robbery attempt

Michael Rose — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:20:00 EST

The Clarendon Apple Store in Arlington, VA is closed today as police investigate a shooting that took place there this morning. The Washington Post reports that a woman was injured via a gunshot to the shoulder during an armed robbery attempt. TV station WJLA adds the detail that the victim was an employee who went to answer a knock at the store's rear service door.

I've shopped at the Clarendon store, and the staff has always been unfailingly helpful and courteous. I hope that the victim of the shooting enjoys a complete and prompt recovery, and that the Clarendon team can also recover quickly from what must be a very traumatic experience.

Via jdonels tweet, thanks Chris Anderson.

VA Apple store closed due to shooting, armed robbery attempt originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Psystar emerges from Chapter 11, and still making applesauce

Michael Jones — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:20:00 EST

The infamous Mac-clone maker Psystar is apparently set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it seems that they are planning on getting right back into their previous routine with a new hardware offering to boot.

In an e-mail newsletter that went out to subscribers today, the company states that the Chapter 11 protection was "critical" to their daily operations, and that they are now ready to "emerge and again battle Goliath." More information is expected to be available "in the coming days" when they are formally discharged by the Bankruptcy court.

Along with the announcement, the newsletter also introduces Psystar's newest hardware offering, the Open(7), which "brings together OS X and Intel Nehalem Xeon technology" in what they are calling their "fastest and most quiet computing configuration." In addition, they are stating that all new systems will feature a new bootloader, called the Darwin Universal Boot Loader (DUBL), and mentioned plans of an open source release in the near future.

The e-mail was wrapped up with a simple anecdote: When life gives you apples, make applesauce. So this begs the question, are they referring to the fruit, or the company?

Thanks to Sean Wightman for the tip!

Psystar emerges from Chapter 11, and still making applesauce originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is this what's in the next iPhone update?

Mel Martin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:30:00 EST

The iPhone Blog is reporting what's purported to be in the next, and hopefully imminent iPhone update to version 3.1. As we've reported, developers were seeded with the beta Tuesday.

Here's the list:

Voice Control now works over Bluetooth
Updated AT&T profile to 4.2 (MMS is now enabled)
Improvements to OpenGL and Quartz.
iPhone vibrates when moving icons
Non-destructive video editing means trimming a clip no longer saves over the original video but gives you the option to "Save as copy..."
APIs to allow third party apps to access videos and edit them.
Updated modem firmware to 5.08.01

If true, it will put smiles on a lot of iPhone owners' faces. The omission of Bluetooth voice control seemed downright silly. Losing your original video after an edit seemed pretty counter-intuitive as well. It also appears MMS will appear in the update, but that only matters if AT&T turns it on.

No firm dates for the update of course, but if the above is accurate it will be a good one.

Thanks Brad for the tip

Is this what's in the next iPhone update? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fluent Mobile releases the first news aggregator iPhone app

David Winograd — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:00:00 EST

Fluent Mobile has released an innovative news oriented iPhone app that may be a game changer. The Fluent Mobile app aggregates mobile ready content from multiple content providers. According to M:Metrics in January of this year, mobile news sites were visited over 63 million times and the number is growing. This is a huge market.

Currently 1.5% of all web content is Google optimized and nicely formatted for mobile devices and the number is increasing. Fluent Mobile takes advantage of this content and aggregates it, creating a news portal with content from Bloomberg for business, ESPN for sports, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News and USA Today, among others, for news. Upon launch, content will be provided by 32 separate sources and more will be added as relevant sites become mobile enhanced. For the first time an app provides one-stop shopping for news.

The information is organized well, allowing you to choose from a number of categories including U.S. News, Entertainment, Sports, Business, and Travel.

Continue reading Fluent Mobile releases the first news aggregator iPhone app

Fluent Mobile releases the first news aggregator iPhone app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple TV software update adds gesture support via Remote

Michael Jones — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:30:00 EST

Apple has quietly pushed out software updates for both the Apple TV and the Remote application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The update, identified as version 2.4 for the Apple TV, and version 1.3 (24) for the Remote app, adds gesture support for controlling Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod.

Our in-house Apple TV geeks, Megan Lavey and Christina Warren, both installed the updates and gave them a try. Megan indicated the gestures were quick and responsive, and coupled with the ability to use the iPhone/iPod keyboard to search for shows, the new versions made it much less tedious to navigate through your shows.

Boxee users may wish to hold off on updating, however, as it seems that you may not be able to reinstall Boxee after completing the update. Also worth noting is that the new Remote app requires the 3.0 software update to be installed on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Gallery: Apple TV Remote Gestures

Apple TV software update adds gesture support via Remote originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Estimates of 500K iPhone 3G S weekend sales too low by half

Michael Rose — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:18:00 EST

It's a good thing Gene Munster shaded his anticipatory numbers a bit over the weekend, otherwise he'd be in the market for a new crystal ball. As mentioned yesterday, the signs were pointing to a bigger opening weekend for the latest handset from Apple, and the results did not disappoint: in a company press release this morning, Apple announced sales of 'over a million' iPhone 3G S units through Sunday 6/21. Also noted in the brief release were the six million downloads of the iPhone 3.0 software update; no details on the number of iPod touch users who have also updated.

In addition to the raw number -- impressive enough -- there are two other tidbits in this release that bear mentioning. One, it's got a quote from Steve Jobs; this reinforces the notion that El Jefe Esteban is on his way back to the iCEO seat on a more active basis, as reported in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. Two, it looks like bloggers and journalists aren't the only ones having a problem with the odd spacing on Apple's latest product name; the press release repeatedly refers to the new phone as the "iPhone 3GS." We feel your pain.

[via AllThingsD]

Estimates of 500K iPhone 3G S weekend sales too low by half originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WSJ: Jobs had liver transplant, on schedule to return to work in June

Steven Sande — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:50:00 EST

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs had a liver transplant two months ago in Tennessee, but is still expected to return to work by the end of the month.

Jobs, who went on a medical leave from Apple in January, has had continuing medical issues related to a bout with pancreatic cancer. The type of pancreatic cancer that Jobs has will often metastasize in other organs, particularly the liver. According to the WSJ article, it is expected that Jobs will work part-time upon his return to the company in order to speed his recovery.

The 54 year-old Jobs missed the Apple shareholder meeting in February, and hasn't been flying in his corporate jet (one of the perks he receives along with his US$1 annual compensation) as much as he had in the past.

The TUAW staff, along with many of our readers, is looking forward to the return of the Steve Jobs to the company he helped to create.

WSJ: Jobs had liver transplant, on schedule to return to work in June originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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