Did you know that the App Store got more than 20 new farting applications in 1 week? See for yourself [iTunes link]. I remember when everyone was complaining about how Apple was being ‘selective’ about App Store approvals, and that were making a decision based on ‘taste’ rather than on the technical quality of the apps. Well this is it folks.

The problem is, that not only are these apps coming in droves, they are also making it to the top 10 lists! Number 3 and 4 are occupied by two such apps. Cheap as they are, The problem is that Apple is powerless in this regard. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t kind of scenario.

The only solution as I see it is Apple introducing something like an App Store Elite. Apple could be very choosy about this store, and only approve what they feel are good apps without allowing duplicates to enter. That way no one can complain about Apple being choosy, nor can they complain about it being more of a CrapStore. Of course, this will mean Apple admitting that their App Store is full of craps, and adding a whole lot of confusion in the process, which is why I’m not the CEO in the first place. 

Personally I’ve had the displeasure of using the iFartz Mobile [iTunes link], which I must say it is extremely disgusting and repulsive. I particularly like the ‘security fart’ feature, which makes a noise the moment someone touches your iPhone. All of my friends found this very amusing, which also made me realise the quality of my friends. If it’s a disgusting, repulsive, obscene and feature rich fart application that you’re looking for, you can’t go wrong with iFartz Mobile. If it’s not, I understand how you feel.

Looks like Apple is at its money making tricks, yet again. The all new MacBooks feature a large glass trackpad, capable of understanding upto 4-finger guestures, set for Exposé and App switching. While everyone thought that it was the glass that is conducive to this behaviour, a MacRumours forum member proved that the same functionality is available on the previous generation multi-touch trackpads.

Forum member “Michaelb” has detailed all the steps taken for getting this working. After circumventing the protection that prevents the OS from being installed on a machine other than the type it was bought with, he managed to get the MacBook Air up and running with the OS designed for the new Macs. However, only after a little editing of the plist files, did he finally manage to get the 4-finger gestures working. 

Four finger Exposé on my January 2008 MacBook Air now works just as it does on the unibody MacBook. (Secondary click, where you click the bottom right corner of the trackpad to get a right-click, is also there, but only seem to work in combination with the Air’s physical button - haven’t worked that one out yet, and don’t really care as I am used to soft two finger clicking for right-click.)

I suspect this would work on all later model multitouch trackpads (which includes the previous generation MacBook Pro)

So, Apple caught denying features to previous customers for no technical reason whatsoever. I suppose they wanted to highlight this as one of the features of the all new glass trackpad, and providing a software update would take away its luster. Your take?

While the all new 24” Apple LED Display still displays the coming soon message on it’s page, the older generation 23” display has gone the way of the Dodo. While the Cinema Display product page still raves about the 23 incher along with its siblings, the Store displays a very subtle “Discontinued” status. 

(Note: A glitch in the system shows a screensize as 20” in the “Select a size” option for all the displays, only the 23” display shows the Discontinued status.)

So while many a Macboy can rejoice over the fact that the new display is ready for shipping (not yet, but it’s a sign), the rest of us can mull over the inevitable death of the matte displays. While I am personally more inclined towards a glossy display (honestly, I don’t mind them!), I can’t imagine what any self-respecting professional would have to say about the 30” display going glossy. Take a look at our GlossBook survey. While consumers love the glossy display, professionals are totally outraged.

While I don’t think signing online petitions or sending hate mail to the Apple feedback system is going to help, it never hurts to try. After all, if Apple could rough up the glass on the trackpad, they can very well make a matte glass display.

Mac users swear by iTunes. While Windows users swear at it.

When the Windows version of iTunes was introduced back in 2003, Steve said, ‘iTunes for Windows is probably the best Windows app ever written”. I respectfully disagree.

iTunes on Windows is something that I dread using. Considering iPod users are forced to use iTunes, it makes me wonder how the iPod became the most popular music player in the world. Similarly, mention Quicktime to any Windows user and prepare to be amused with the amount of hate this little application has. Just to be clear, on the Mac one cannot live without Quicktime. 

If you take a good look at both the applications, you will notice that both are very similar to their Mac counterparts. What makes them suck so much on Windows and work so amazingly on the Mac? And more importantly, what opinion does this leave Windows users of Apple’s applications?

No matter how much Steve Jobs complains about how difficult the Windows coding environment, the end user finds a buggy, slow application which doesn’t work half as good as the other offerings on Windows. Quicktime is only installed as a necessary evil for when the average user wants to pay a quicktime trailer. iTunes on the other hand gets installed because of its iPod fame. But even a Core 2 Duo cannot render the Cover flow interface of iTunes like a 1.33Ghz iBook G4 does.

Quicktime on Windows of course is nearly non functional. First of all are the ‘Buy Me!’ nags that show on launch (which Mac users never see). Second, hardly any formats work in Quicktime! On the Mac we have Perian and a bunch of other codecs that make playing video very easy. On Windows Quicktime cannot be customised beyond its preferences.

One thing Apple is doing right, is Safari. The browser has proven to be quite a competitor on Windows. Although it lacks support from third party plugin makers, it still is very speedy and feature rich to compete with the rest of the browsers. Most of the non-geeks I have recommended Safari to have spoken only good words for this browser. I was hoping that iTunes 8 would tell a similar tale, but alas, it just gets slower.

However, there’s still hope. Apple is putting Leopard on a diet, and will soon release Snow Leopard (that’s not how it works in nature though). With Snow Leopard, Apple is removing all the junk code, and putting in some new technologies, and rewriting some of the existing code of applications. Basically making it built for speed and the future.

I do hope that in this grand scheme of things, Apple cleans out the code of Quicktime and iTunes on Windows so that Windows users realise what they are missing (and make it more bearable when we are forced to use a PC). Make them feel like the only two Windows applications that are worth looking at, are made by Apple. Make them want to use Quicktime and iTunes, by choice, not by force. Make them want to switch to a Mac and be done with all that mess.

Over at livemint.com, Priyanka Mehra and Shauvik Ghosh have a story on how and why the iPhone failed to take off in India, and boy, a truer article I’ve never read! Apple either doesn’t understand the Indian market at all or just doesn’t care about it. They’ve never really paid any attention to their flailing Mac business out here or tried to make the iPod as much of a household name as it is in the USA. Now that it’s a mobile phone we’re talking about, they’re finding it difficult to gain a foothold in the country with the fastest growing cellphone industry in the world. And it serves them right.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Apple’s products—everything from the hardware design to the tiniest level of software minutia to the integration between their various products is incredibly well thought out and implemented. However, when it comes to aggressively pricing and marketing their products, the only country they seem to give a damn about is the United States.

How else can one explain the lack of the Apple Online Store, the iTunes Store (one that actually sells music and movies like it’s supposed to), or even a single Apple Retail Store? How can one explain the huge disparity in the prices of all Apple products out here when compared to their USA counterparts? How can one explain the complete lack of any advertisement directly from Apple in any form in the second most populous country in the world?

Apple doesn’t care about the Indian market and it has now come to bite them in the, er, posterior end. At least this one time, I’m glad to see Apple not being a success and people not taking a liking to an Apple product. And the fact that it makes my iPhone unique is only a small part of that. What makes me glad, primarily, is the hope that they will perhaps start taking India a little more seriously now.

What Apple needs to do now is get off the proverbial high horse and face the music. They need to realise that when their CEO climbs up onstage at one of the most high profile technology events of the year and declares that the iPhone will be priced at $199 or less all over the world, their world map had better include India as well.

Furthermore, it’s high time Apple came to terms with the fact that you aren’t really in the cellphone business until you’ve managed to infiltrate the school and college campuses of India. And for that to happen, they need to add the capability to forward text messages pronto. We also need video recording, Bluetooth (that actually works), and copy-paste, but these can be dealt with later. But if you want your product to be in the hands of the millions of teenage prepaid SIM card users out here, it better be able to pass on that not-quite-so-funny joke they just received to everyone on their contact list.

Of course, it is entirely possible that Apple still plans to keep things the way they are currently and is happy with their slice of the Indian market pie, no matter how small it may be. If that is the case, well, it’s just more bad news for us Indians. But something tells me that’s not the case anymore. I do not think that a man like Steve Jobs and a company like Apple would be foolish enough to willingly allow Nokia easy access to the pockets of the millions of smartphone users out here. Sooner or later, Apple will get serious about India. It’s just a matter of time.

Watch this space for updates.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple has maintained a sort of directory of web apps for the iPhone. But since the Apple website isn’t in the least bit optimised for the iPhone, it becomes a little difficult navigating through it. Looks like Apple doesn’t care anymore given the popularity of the App Store

You might think, who needs a web apps when you have the real App Store? Many a times you just need some basic functionality, and having an app installed is pointless. Ben Roberts, a web app publisher by himself, felt the need for a web app directory, and created a WebApp Store, with the look and feel of the real App Store! 

The app is more a directory than a ‘store’, as it doesn’t really sell anything, but the name suits it. Most of the features of the App Store, including the categories and search are implemented in this release. Tapping any of the apps shows you a little description after which you can make it open in Safari. The store currently lists over 200 web apps, all of which are pulled from Apple’s web app directory. However, a desktop version of this web app will allow you to submit new web apps. 

The web app needs to be saved to the home screen, after which it will load in fullscreen mode. The performance of the app is a little choppy, but the developer promises to fix this. Future plans include implementing a review system, ratings, tell-a-friend and performance enhancements.

When asked whether he might be making this as an official App Store app, Roberts says that besides him not knowing jack about Objective-C coding, he fears the Apple approval process. They have already refused to accept this web app into their directory, so even thinking of getting it into the App Store would be folly.

Do you think web apps are pointless or do you think that we might just have something special here? Just visit http://webappstore.spwire.com/ on your iPhone and check it out for yourself.

In a move that is no different from what has happened to the Podcaster and Mailwrangler apps in the past, Apple has rejected the Opera Browser from the iPhone App Store.

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera Software, the company behind the Opera Browsers, speaking with NY Times, said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.

While Apple has been severely criticized by developers and the media for rejecting legitimate apps in the past, I’m not surprised with Apple’s decision this time. By now, it has been pretty clear that Apple clearly dislikes any competition on the iPhone with apps that compete, directly or indirectly, with Apple’s own creations. Though, as obvious as it may sound, John Gruber speculates that it may not necessarily be the case here. He goes on to say that the rejection might be due to Opera’s own Javascript Interpreter, though it certainly isn’t clear what might be the case.

All these rejections, however, make one thing certain. Apple does not wish to have any kind of app on the iPhone that competes with or tries to duplicate the functionality of Apple’s own apps on the iPhone.

First, it was NetShare, and then it was Podcaster. Now it’s MailWrangler by Angelo DiNardi (via Daring Fireball). The application, like MailPlane for Mac OS X, allows you to log into several Gmail accounts simultaneously and use Google’s iPhone optimised web interface to browse through your email. It’s basically a version of MobileSafari that can only open Gmail accounts. And, clearly, it’s of great use to anyone who has several Gmail accounts and needs the starring and conversation features of the web version. Furthermore, it sounds like the best way to let someone else check their Gmail account on your iPhone without messing with any of your own settings.

Angelo submitted his application for App Store approval, only to be met with a rude rejection letter six months after the event:

Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion.

Huh? Really? The three applications (Mail, MailWrangler, and Safari) have three separate icons with three different names. Each application has a clearly different purpose—Mail is a POP3/IMAP client for accessing your email from any service provider, MailWrangler exists solely to open Gmail accounts, and Safari is an Internet browser that can be used to visit any website at all. And this is coming from the company that has sanctioned more than ten flashlight apps (iTunes link) and an innumerable quantity of to-do applications (iTunes link) for the iPhone.

It’s like saying that you cannot write a Baseball game for the device because an application already exists for tracking real world Baseball matches, and the coexistence of both on the same iPhone might confuse users. How stupid does Apple think its customers are anyway? I’m pretty sure that if someone is wise enough to be able to launch the App Store and download an application, they’re capable of processing the difference in functionalities of two applications. Read on for more… Continue Reading »

Having recently had this application rejected, Fraser Speirs, developer of the popular iPhone app ‘Exposure’ has quit the App Store business. Apple recently rejected his application “Podcaster” because it “replaces a feature in Apple’s own software”. Fraser has gone through what must be countless days creating this application only to have it rejected at the last moment.

The application in question downloads podcast episodes directly to the iPhone over Wifi, eliminating the need to dock the iPhone to the computer for the same. It is a non-malicious application, non-pornographic, and it isn’t a bandwidth hog as it uses Wifi for data transfer. 

One might defend the case of Apple, that the SDK documentation clearly mentions that the App Store will not allow any applications that are competitive to that present on the iPhone, and podcasts is part of those applications. But lo and behold, as there are a hundred different weather applications that clearly take the case of Apple’s own weather widget. Then there’s the Calculator apps, the notes, and a lot more if one puts some time in. So how is a developer supposed to know that the application is acceptable or not?

The App Store, at least when it comes to developers, is broken. They cannot speak about the apps due to the non-disclosure agreement of the SDK, they cannot moderate the reviews on the iTunes store, they have to wait weeks before updates are worked into the store, and, they have to bank on Apple’s good mood before starting to write new applications. 

Frasier will continue to provide support and updates for Exposure, but as for creating something new, he’s out. 

Frasier Speirs - The App store: I’m out.

Remember that NetShare debacle back in July? The iPhone tethering app, which to everyone’s surprise appeared on the App Store, was then pulled down, appeared again (for who knows how many times), and then finally disappeared for good. The lucky few who bought the app continued using it happily.

Nullriver had been in talks with Apple – maybe ‘talks’ is exaggeration considering the conversation was a little one-sided – over getting NetShare back on the App Store. After more than a month, Nullriver finally announces that Apple has banned the application from the App Store.

Looks like Apple has decided they will not be allowing any tethering applications in the AppStore. As such, NetShare will not be available in the iTunes AppStore. We are seeing a lot of similar reports from various developers who’s applications were abruptly removed and banned from the AppStore without any violations of the terms of service. This is all unfortunate news for the iPhone platform end-users.

Not just that. Those who had bought the application when it was on the store, a wholesome $10, find that it has suddenly disappeared from their iPhones! I guess this is the kill switch Steve was talking about! We’re waiting to see whether there is a refund in the works. 

Whether this is Apple readying their tethering deal with AT&T, or just being a plan on bully, is yet to be known. AT&T already has a tethering option on their other plans and there is no reason why the iPhone shouldn’t have this.