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Entries in Apple (371)

6:42PM

An Open iTunes App Store: What Would It Look like?

It's probably one of the most highly debated/argued issues out there today. Should Apple continue to keep their App Store closed down, or should they open it up and have developers just upload it right to the App Store? There have been many arguments on both sides as to what Apple should do, but honestly, I think we all know what they WILL do. They're probably going to keep it locked, and that will be the end of the story.

But have you ever imagined what would be the case if Apple let the gates loose and everyone was able to get an app approved to the App Store almost immediately? Here are a few of my predictions (good and bad) of what the iTunes Store would be like unleashed.

An overcrowded, Hard to Use App Store

Yeah. You may be thinking that if Apple opens the gate to the App Store, everyone will be happy downloading their own application and downloading all the other banned applications to their iPhone. But you also need to look at the fact that there are already over 185,000 applications in the App Store. There are probably 20,000 banned applications that have been rejected by Apple, and I'm sure there are many more that if Apple didn't have the policy they have now, would be on the iPhone. If this number goes all the way up to 500,000, or maybe even 1 MILLION, it will be very hard to look through Applications in the App Store. Yeah, we have a search feature, but what if you're just looking for some new games? There will be a ton of games to search for and quite frankly, it will just get too overcrowded.

1 Million + iPhone apps

Definitely a possibility. Think about it. If you have a locked iPhone App Store with 185,000+ apps, just imagine how many applications the App Store would have if Apple let any developer make their own application. At first thinking about this, I saw this as a good thing. But then I started thinking that it would eventually become a bad thing. The App Store would then start getting bloated with random apps that no one cares about(yes, more pointless than some of today's apps) and the App store would take forever to load on your iPhone. However, there will be some nifty applications that would come out of this lift. So it's petty hard to choose. More productivity, but more crap as well.

Categorized Apps Approved by Apple

This may be a bit confusing, but here is how it could work. If Apple opens the App Store, they should have a little "certified" green logo on the bottom of every application that has been approved in the App Store from the top 25 paid, free, etc. Then the ones that have not been certified by Apple have a little "uncertified" logo on the bottom. All certified applications would be apps that Apple has checked to see if they don't contain any malware or if they are a scam. Those not certified by Apple are giving the user a warning saying that this application may not be what you expect it to be, since we haven't checked it and not sure what it could contain. And lastly, have an explicit button in the app if it contains any explicit material, such as porn, bad words in text, violence, etc.

Filtering

This would be something that would be a huge improvement to the App Store. As the App Store continues to expand, it will get to a point where there will be so many sub categories of each category that Apple will probably add a filtering feature, where you can have a certain category or sub category not show up in the App Store. This definitely would fix the issue with the store being overcrowded.

Don't get me wrong. I would love to have an open App Store, but in order for that to happen Apple would have to reconstruct the App Store, because with the way it is now, it will get way too overcrowded. At first, if Apple did this, people would be very happy and thank them for finally not locking down their system. However, as the App Store grows exponentially and eventually the number of pointless, stupid, and useless apps beat out the productive, well-made, thought out apps, and the App Store gets overcrowded, people will start to complain again and ask Apple to remove some of the useless apps. As a matter of fact, we have that going on right now! People are complaining as we speak for Apple to remove some of the useless apps in the App Store.

You've seen my thoughts on how an open App Store would be like. Do you agree or do you think it will go someplace else? Keep in mind, this probably won't happen since Apple has kept an unpopular policy of keeping their operating systems as locked as possible.

8:35PM

Review: Opera Mini 5 Beta for Android

Opera Mini 5 for Android is my most used app on my phone. It is a fantastic web browsing experience and I would take it over the Dolphin Browser. The one thing I do miss from the standard browser and Dolphin Browser is multi-touch. I really hope Opera decides to fix this! I also would like to see the option to make this the primary browser. It is pretty annoying to use the Google Search button and have it take you to the standard Android browser.

But overall, I give this browser a good 4.5/5. See you all in the next post.

3:19PM

Apple's Pricing Rant 

I love Apple. I love their products and the company itself, but what I don't like about them is their pricing.
I'm not going to go on a rant to say that Macs are overpriced because when it comes down to it, they are not overpriced. But Apple's other products like the iPhone and iPad vary in price internationally. I'm not just saying in some countries an iPhone costs a couple of $s more than in others, as that is understandable due to shipping costs etc. But in some cases Apple's products can cost over $100 more in another country.

The example I will give will be the Apple TV 160GB. In the US Apple store it costs $230 which is the equivalent of £150 a very good price for such a wonderful gadget. But in the UK Apple store it costs £223 which is the equivalent of $343. That is over $100 more than in the US and trust me if you get it from the UK you don't get anything extra.

All in all Apple is a great company, in fact Apple is an amazing company but no company can be perfect, many can try but they won't succeed and Apple is just the same. But to be honest I don't mind paying an extra $100 just as long as when I open that Apple box it is going to be a great product, which it will inevitably will be.

twitter.com/xelentoliver

8:13PM

iPhone OS 4.0

Hey guys I know it has been awhile since my last post. I have just been really busy with everything but today I am really excited to share with you iPhone OS 4.0 and my thoughts on it. Yes, I know this was released yesterday but I had some previous jobs I had to do. So here it is.

First I will go over the 4 major new features that were gone over in the keynote because I just don't have time to write about all 100 new features. The first new feature I will go over is multitasking. This is a real big addition to the iPhone OS. One reason for this is because their biggest competitors have been able to multitask on their devices for a long time. Apple claims that they haven't had it on their platform until now because they wanted to wait until they had it just right. What they mean by this is not only the interface of it but while using multitasking you wont kill your battery or lose a lot of the phones power. Multitasking will let the customer play music from other apps while they go into another app. For example a user could be listening to their Pandora account and then close out of it and go into another app and the music wouldn't stop like it use to. Another way to use multitasking is by using VOIP or Voice over IP. This is like taking a skype call and then closing out and staying on the call and being able to go play a game. This is a real big thing for many people. The next big feature that was added is folders. Folders will let the user put all the apps they want in one place. With a simple drop one app on top of another app you will be making folders. You will even be able to name the folders. For those of you that ran out of space because you could only have 180 apps on your device you will now be able to have 2,160 apps with these new folders. The next big feature that was added is an even better mail app. With this new mail app you will be able to have multiple exchange accounts hooked up to the same device. You will also have the option to show all your email accounts in one big inbox so you don't have to keep switching back and fourth between the different inbox. Other parts of the new mail app include being able to open attachments in third party apps, organizing messages by thread, and switching between inbox faster. The last major feature that they showed off was iBooks. Now yes iBooks was released with the iPad but now Apple has brought that same app, book store, and all the other books you have bought to the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can even do this while listening to music. One other cool new thing they talked about and showed but didn't go into much detail was about being able to change you home screen background. You now will be able to have what ever picture you want as your background and it doesn't have to stay black. At the keynote that also went over a new thing called iAD and Enterprise. They also went over the fact that there is now over 1,500 new APIs for developers to use and make their apps do what we just talked about. iAD in a quick little description is Apples new way to put ads in developers apps so that they can keep them free and still make money.It is a really cool and interactive way to put ads in apps. Enterprise is for companies. This will let companies easily deploy many iPhones through out their company. This will also let them make and distribute apps just for their company very easily to every one. A cool new thing about that for them is that they wont even need to plug in their phones and sync the apps they will be able to do it wireless. Now here is the catch this is a direct quote for apple.com " Phone OS 4 will work with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the second- and third-generation iPod touch this summer, and with iPad in the fall. Not all features are compatible with all devices. For example, multitasking is available only with iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod touch (32GB and 64GB models from late 2009)."

Now for my feelings and impressions about the new iPhone OS. Over all I am very happy about all the new features and will love to have them on my iPod Touch. The only downfall is that I wont be able to multitask on it because I have the 2nd Generation. This disappoints me very much because this is something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Now if we put that aside I am extremely happy. I will be able to set one of my own pictures as the background and these new folders will let my organize my minimal app collection. I will also be able to merge my inbox and for me this isn't the biggest thing because I really only get mail in one inbox but when I do get mail from the other mail box I wont have to spend the time to switch to it. Another feature that was talked about but I wont be using is the feature of being able to have multiple exchange accounts. The first and the biggest reason is that I don't even have one exchange account so this doesn't effect me. Now for the iBooks app. I'm not the biggest reader and for that I rarely read at all. When I do read it is in school and during school I cant pull out my iPod and claim to be reading so I most likely won't be using this app but if for some reason I do decide to download a book and read it using this app from what I know the experience will be great. Over all as you can tell I am very happy with the turn out of iPhone OS 4.0 and can't wait to use it this summer.

iPhone OS 4.0 will be available this summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch and then later this fall for the iPad. There is no price that it will be going for at the time. For more information on iPhone OS 4.0 go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/. You can also download the keynote or watch it one apple.com for more information and demos of everything talked about.

For more of my work go to http://applman02-appleworld.blogspot.com/. Thanks.

4:04PM

iPad Wi-Fi Issues?

Recently it has become apparent that new iPad owners have started to complain about connectivity issues surrounding their recently purchased iPads. This was a concern held by many before the iPad's release, and now as the forums fill up, could this be the major downfall of the beautiful all aluminium backing of the iPad?

Perhaps.

The obvious resolution to this problem is the iPad 3G version set to hit the shops later this month, being that the 3G version incorporates a plastic backing at the top to allow for 3G connectivity, this could increase wifi-connectivity, therefore resolving any issues. However I'm not sure that this is what current iPad owners want to hear. Many have speculated that Apple may quietly release a software update for the device to address the issue, and let's hope so!

This could indeed be a lesson to Apple about connectivity issues, however it is highly unlikely that Apple didn't rigorously test the iPad before it's release, and so I suspect that this could just be down to a software issue.

 

What is also interesting though, is that new owners are required to connect the device to iTunes before it's first use, could this perhaps hint as towards a quiet software update? Maybe, maybe not.

Lastly could the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 solve these issues? Given that the iPad OS is based on a newer version of the OS than the iPhone, it could be the case that Apple is just working around the bugs, and has scheduled a conference regarding this update so soon, so that it is able to get the software out to all the affected devices to stop the many frustrated owners.

What's your opinion on the subject? Are you an iPad owner, and if so have you experienced any issues like those mentioned above? If so, let me know your thoughts, I'd be interested to know if this, widespread, issue is one of unbearable conditions.