Competition Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen: Steve Jobs is "monomaniacal"

by Mel Martin (Apr 25th, 2011)

I doubt Steve Jobs will regard being called monomaniacal as an insult. My dictionary defines the word as 'An inordinate or obsessive zeal or interest in a single thing or subject." That sounds pretty much like the Apple co-founder and CEO. The comments from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came ...

Skype for Mac design competition announced

by Dana Franklin (Mar 24th, 2011)

Designers, start your creative engines! Today, on its official blog, Skype announced a chat styling competition to find the world's best theme for Skype for Mac. "We want you to create the chat style for an upcoming version of Skype for Mac that will be enjoyed by millions of people around the ...

Xperia Play ad rags on iPhone gaming

by Mike Schramm (Mar 22nd, 2011)

Sony has released a few tongue-in-cheek internet ads for its new Xperia Play smartphone (basically, the PSP phone everyone's been waiting for). In one of the ads, which you can see embedded after the break, performer/Daily Show correspondent/biggest fan of Flight of the Conchords Kristen Schaal ...

Ngmoco's We Farm now available in Canada

by Mike Schramm (Jul 20th, 2010)

Ngmoco has released the followup to its popular We Rule game on the Canadian App Store. We Farm is, as you can see above, very similar to We Rule, with the main difference being that the game is set on a farm rather than in a medieval fantasy world. You'll be able to raise animals, plant ...

AdMob CEO comments on being thrown out of the App Store

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Jun 9th, 2010)

Big surprise here, right? AdMob, freshly picked for purchase by Google (cue dramatic music) has been expelled from Valhalla, also known as the App Store, by a tiny change in the iOS developer agreement. Specifically, section 3.3.9 of the agreement, which precludes companies who do anything other ...

Gowalla announces shared trips

by Mike Schramm (Feb 1st, 2010)

There's a growing battle lately on the App Store over "check-in" apps -- Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown have all seen big gains in users lately (and a few other contenders have been roaming the periphery), and it looks like we're starting to see some innovation in the mix. Gowalla recently updated ...

Pachter: iPod touch is "dangerous" for game publishers

by Mike Schramm (Oct 17th, 2009)

It's been just over a year since we officially noticed that Apple was pushing towards gaming on the iPod touch, and while their advertising hasn't stopped pushing, the actual push hasn't quite gotten to a shove. If you look at this holiday season, certainly the iPod touch is a popular device, butt ...

Levinson resigns from Google, Apple ties broken

by Mike Schramm (Oct 13th, 2009)

It's the end of an era for the relationship between Google and Apple -- Google has announced that Dr. Arthur Levinson has resigned from its board of directors, meaning that the last common member between the boards of the two companies has now "chosen a side," so to speak. I doubt it was that ...

FCC makes it official: Cellular carriers policies getting a closer look

by Mel Martin (Aug 27th, 2009)

Maybe the submissions by Apple, Google and AT&T helped, or maybe they hurt, but the FCC is going to take a closer look at the U.S. cellphone industry and if competition is helping consumers. [Link to FCC announcement in PDF format] Today the Commission said: As communications ...

More red meat for the FCC to chew on with AT&T and Apple

by Mel Martin (Aug 3rd, 2009)

Reflecting on my last post -- and how unbelievable the AT&T statement was that they have nothing to do with what gets approved in Apple's App Store -- convinced me I needed to refresh my dimming memory banks. Remember all the flames about whether Skype would come out for the iPhone last year? ...

AT&T responds on Google questions, throws Apple under the bus

by Mel Martin (Aug 2nd, 2009)

It's going to be interesting to watch the next few weeks as AT&T, Apple and Google respond to the FCC questions about which apps get approved for use on the iPhone. Yesterday, AT&T responded to press questions about this by sending a P.R. email. "AT&T does not manage or approve ...

Apple wins fight in U.K. over iPhone v Android claims

by Mel Martin (Jul 29th, 2009)

The U.K. advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority, says Apple is correct when it claims its App Store is better than the Google store for the Android. In a TV ad Apple claimed that the iPhone had apps for "just about anything". Fans of the Google Android, or at least ten of them, ...

In France, Apple must let other carriers sell iPhone

by Robert Palmer (Dec 17th, 2008)

The French government's competition watchdog told Apple that it must allow other carriers besides Orange to offer the iPhone. Orange is a subsidiary of France Telecom. In September, Orange competitor Bouygues Telecom SA filed a complaint with the Competition Council about the exclusivity agreement. ...

Insomnia Film Festival postponed due to server problems

by Cory Bohon (Nov 14th, 2008)

A few weeks ago, we told you about this year's Insomnia Film Festival -- a contest for high school and college students to create a 3-minute film in only 24 hours. However, eager contestants were greeted with some unfortunate news yesterday when they loaded the Apple Insomnia website. Apple notes ...

App Store Trends: Prices race to the bottom

by Erica Sadun (Sep 26th, 2008)

Last spring, TUAW asked how much you would pay for iPhone software. Well, it looks like $0.99 and $1.99 are the new $39.99 and $49.99 as far as mobile distribution goes. The App Store bucked the trend of high-priced phone software and now is ratcheting those prices down even further. Developers are ...