idiots posts

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Pepsi apologizes for sexist iPhone app, inadvertently fans the flames

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 13th, 2009

PepsiCo's Amp Energy brand stirred up a lot of hatred in the last couple of months when the "AMP UP Before You Score" app [iTunes Link] was released. This app, branded as sexist and inappropriate by a lot of people who rated it in the App Store, provides guys with cards to "identify her type," pickup lines that are useful with a particular "type" of woman, and ways of keeping track and spreading the news via social networking if you "get lucky."

A public apology was made by Amp on its Twitter feed (@ampwhatsnext) which introduced the app and its questionable content to a larger audience. Even worse is that the apology included a new Twitter hashtag, #pepsifail, and was retweeted on several other Pepsi feeds. That had the effect of not only causing more people to become aware of the app, but also increased the furor towards it and towards PepsiCo.

A post on Advertising Age noted that Pepsi's strategy seems to be somewhat confused, as they haven't pulled the app, and by linking the Amp Energy app to the Pepsi brand they're beginning to get heat for the entire brand -- not just the app.

An App Store review by iPhone developer Raven Zachary said it best: "Dear Pepsico, your iPhone app, AMP UP before you score, is offensive and is a great new case study for branded apps gone wrong." You have to wonder, though, if this is actually working to introduce many more people to the Amp Energy brand.

[via AdAge]

Tags: app, app store, AppStore, branded app, BrandedApp, crude, idiots, iphone, pepsi, rude, socially irresponsible, SociallyIrresponsible

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Wireless, Odds and ends

This just in: California 'cool car' law may hose your iPhone reception

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 13th, 2009

Whenever I visit California, I'm always amazed with the number of state laws that have been enacted for one reason or another. For example, you're warned about alcohol's effect on pregnant women (duh!) when you go into bars and restaurants, and many buildings have mandated warning signs outside telling you if there are materials inside that might be cancer-causing.

Well, the latest California state law that will affect almost everyone in the Golden State is the new "cool car" regulation, set to take effect in the next decade. The idea here is that by reducing solar heat in cars by mandating reflective metal oxide additives in window glass, car air conditioners won't have to work as hard and gas mileage will be improved. The law calls for the coatings to prevent 45% of the sun's thermal energy from entering vehicles by 2014, raising the limit to 60% by 2016.

While this is a noble and worthy goal, there's one major issue -- these materials, according to a post on our sister blog Autoblog, seriously degrade the transmission of radio frequency energy as well. That means that just about any electronic device that depends on signals from the outside world, including iPhones, GPS receivers, and wireless broadband cards for laptops, will be "adversely affected by the metallic reflective standard." You think AT&T's service is bad now? Just wait until you're sitting in a car that is shielding you from any wireless signal!

Most likely, California vehicles will also need to be equipped with a group of (hopefully) aerodynamic external antennae to ensure continued wireless and GPS service as the law goes into effect.

Tags: air conditioning, AirConditioning, california, energy efficiency, EnergyEfficiency, idiots, regulations, stupid laws, StupidLaws, wireless

Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

Talkcast tonight: 10 PM EDT Sunday

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Sep 20th, 2009

We apologize for the late notice, but wanted to remind you that a group of our alpha geeks will be on hand for more Talkcast fun.

Barring any Skype disasters, we're back for an hour of fun and questions. There's no set topic for this evening, so bring your questions or comments and join in the fun!

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!

Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.

Tags: fun, idiots, podcast, talkcast

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Bad Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Stupid and unjustified App Store rejection letter of the day

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Aug 28th, 2009

TUAW has covered the fine iPhone apps from Tapbots more than once. ConvertBot is a beautifully-designed and functional app to do a myriad of unit conversion calculations, while WeightBot is my personal favorite app for keeping track of my incredible ballooning body.

Tapbots posted an entry on their blog today stating that the most recent version of ConvertBot (1.4) had been rejected by Apple. What was Apple's reason for the rejection? As you can see in the graphic at the top of the page, the ConvertBot icon for time conversions looks very similar to the Phone app icon for recent calls. This is the same icon that has passed Apple's scrutiny in previous versions, so it is ridiculous for the company's eagle-eyed app inspectors to suddenly decide that the icon is unfit for iPhone consumption.

Mark Jardine of Tapbots noted "So what's the plan? I need to redo the icon, I suppose. But Convertbot icons were meant to use as little lines/shapes as possible to identify the category. I feel that our current icon represents time as simply as possible. So how can we make Time different? What if it's set at 9 o'clock instead of 3? Is that acceptable? The big problem here is the only way I can get that answer is by making the change, resubmitting the app, and waiting another week or 2 for Apple's verdict."

What gives, Apple? You release a couple of amazing apps to the world this week (Facebook, Spotify, TUAW, and Yelp), but you hold up the next release of an established app over an icon. I'm giving the App Store approval people the "idiots" tag on this post.

Tags: app store approval, AppStoreApproval, idiots, iphone, software, tapbots

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Because iFarting is serious business

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Feb 18th, 2009

We were just fine with letting this story dissipate right into the air like so many bad smells, as it's not exactly the most impressive thing to ever happen in the App Store. But in the interests of completionism, we'll bring it to you anyway.

First, there were two apps that made fart noises, called Pull My Finger and iFart. Then, there was allegedly some inappropriate twittering (and shady iPhone reviewing -- we seriously doubt that tons of people want to give five stars to an app about MC Hammer), $50,000 of damages were requested, a "Social Media Expert" (read: "tool") got angry, and eventually a lawsuit was filed, and now every blog and website everywhere is posting that two apps about flatulence are suing each other.

Like we said, not the story out of the App Store that we're most proud to report. But Apple did get mixed up in all of this early on -- Gizmodo reports that the Mothership was approached for a solution, and that it was decided to let the devs fight it out. Maybe if Apple had said early on that applications on the App Store had to do a little more than make fart noises (or that there was already enough farting going on in the store -- what do those other 29 apps have to do with any of this?), the iPhone wouldn't now be known as the premiere device for farting.

But we suppose there's money to be had -- someone out there is buying either or both of these idiotic apps, and as a result, both of these guys are willing to go to court over software that reproduces the sound of passing gas in the hopes of getting even more money, despite the fact that you can simulate the same effect with the human armpit. Can we cut the lawsuits and get to producing some actual software for the platform, please?

Continue reading “Because iFarting is serious business”

Tags: app-store, fart, flatulence, idiocy, idiots, ifart, immaturity, lawsuit, mc-hammer, pull-my-finger, software

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