Apple's draconian stance on the App Store review process has relaxed a bit, as the company opens its doors to software developed using third-party tools.  Oh yeah, it finally published the once-secret App Store Review Guidelines too, which details the reasons for which an app may be rejected.

Previously, any app developed using non-Apple, non-iOS code was automatically banned from the App Store.  The most-publicized of those affected were Adobe, whose Adobe Packager for iPhone sought to provide a way to port Flash code onto the platform.

Why lift restrictions now?  The most likely reason are games, with Apple's thrust to turn iOS into a mobile gaming stalwart.  A lot of the higher-profile games out there run on third-party development engines - a fact that immediately eliminates them from the App Store approval process.  With the rules relaxed, it now opens the door for those developers to bring their titles into the iOS ecosystem.

Apple does have one stringent rule though: no downloading of code.  Basically, you can use cross-platform runtimes on your apps as much as you want, provided it doesn't download anything after installation.  According to the company, this allows developers the flexibility they need, all while avoiding potential security leaks.

The publishing of the App Store Review Guidelines also herald a big move, as some developers have long shunned iOS for the lack of prior knowledge about what exactly constitutes a violation.  The last thing anyone wants, after all, is to devote resources to a project whose main features turn out to be unwelcome by Apple.

[via WSJ]

This is something that could turn out big. A new iphone app called Dreamwalk provides users with a geocaching game that raises the ante a little by getting local businesses involved. Users can use the software to seek out "treasures," just like any similar game. Except, in this case, participating companies get to hide their own prizes for players to pursue, allowing them to get new prospects through the door in the process.

When you launch the app, it shows you a map that details where prizes are hidden. There are three ways to collect bounty - Instant Prizes, Collector's Stamps and Treasure Hunts - all of which require going out into the real world. For Instant Prizes, you simply have to go to the marked location on the map to get the reward added to your onscreen prize bag. Tap that and get instructions on how to redeem. Do note that these are usually simple stuff, like free fries at a local restaurant or cheap tickets to a show.

Collector's Stamps, on the other hand, require you to travel to different locations, gaining letter stamps at each one that spell out the words to the final destination. Treasure Hunts work similarly, except you gain clues instead of stamps. Since they're harder, the prizes for these two are usually bigger (e.g. videocams and gaming consoles).

Because they've only just launched, there are only a few thousand hidden treasures across the US, most of them concentrated in large metro areas (think New York, LA and Washington DC). However, developers at Dreamwalk Pty Ltd are negotiating for new businesses to come in and, potentially, make the loot more lucrative for avid treasure hunters across the country. Participating merchants, by the way, can easily upload new prizes via Dreamwalk's website, which will then turn up on gamers' maps.

Dreamwalk's beauty is that it is a win-win for all parties involved. Businesses get very hip marketing and users get a chance to win loads of free stuff around their area. An excellent concept that's totally worth the free App Store download.

[Dreamwalk Mobile]

Does your kid have an iPhone?  My nine-year old nephew has one - a hand-me-down from his mom when she got her shiny new 3GS.  While kids will most likely use it to play games, you have to keep in mind that they can also use it to surf the web.

As on the PC, you'd like to keep them off from objectionable areas of the internet.  Problem is, Safari offers zero parental controls on that end.  As such, they're pretty much free to wander about cyberspace unrestricted.

The Mobicip Safe Browser fills this gap, giving you options to block out unsavory websites from being accessed on your kids' iPhones.  Yep, it's an alternative browser that's actually approved by the App Store, because it does offer something that the native Safari client doesn't - a child-safe surfing environment.

Before you can force your kid to use it instead of Safari, you'll have to disable the latter manually: Settings -> General -> Restrictions.  It would have been better if this could be handled right from the app itself, although being a one-time change, it's no biggie.

Its main strength is that it functions and looks nearly like Safari, making the transition from using one to the other seamless, with no required learning curve.  The lack of a facility to import bookmarks is  bit of a letdown, though.

Mobicip itself costs $4.99, which gets you the child-safe browser plus a free account for their filtering service.  Any URL accessed from the app gets filtered through the company's servers, which decides whether to either allow or block it.  Free accounts get three levels of filtering: elementary, middle and high school.

If you want more detailed control of your child's surfing habits, you can also sign up for a Premium account for $9.99 per year.  This gets you plenty of latitude, including the ability to blacklist and whitelist specific pages and categories, download activity reports and manage multiple devices from a single dashboard.

[Mobicip for iPhone]

In what has seemingly become the norm for App Store approval, Spotify recently aired their frustration at Apple's unpredictable process, noting the extended time their iPhone app has been through the pipeline.  Shortly after airing the complaint, an App Store rep has now confirmed that the mobile streaming application has been approved and will be rolled out across iTunes stores in countries where the service is available.

Much of the issue with Spotify (along with similar services like Rhapsody, who also has an app undergoing approval) has been centered along the level of threat it represents to iTunes, Apple's own music download service.  For $10 a month, Spotify users can enjoy unlimited music streaming, with some amount of leeway for offline caching, allowing users to listen to songs even without a live internet connection.

Currently available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Britain, France and Spain, the service is expected to roll out in the US before the end of the year, providing a litmus test to see what kind of effect it will have on the online music market.  The Spotify app will allow iPhone owners to listen to their playlists on their mobile handset, along with performing regular functions, such as searching songs, editing playlists and more.

With an inventory of over six million tunes, all of which can be accessed over the web anytime users want to, it definitely sounds like a more attractive deal compared to paying for every song that you download.  With Rhapsody (and, undoubtedly, a few more) also coming to the iPhone, expect this space to be particularly competitive, with potential repercussions to some of Apple's business.

[via Wired]

Sure, the iPhone 3GS is a powerful phone, with the hardware and software capable of rivaling the current set of handheld gaming consoles in the market. Despite that fact, it isn't likely that the platform will see apps drastically improve. At least, that's if the recent analysis of App Store pricing from App Cubby proves itself right.

According to the developer, the new unofficial price ceiling for Apple's download storefront is $5, down from the $10 that it was a few months before. That is a very drastic drop and one that puts software developers at a crossroads - do you keep your price at a premium level, risking slower sales, or try to run after volume?

The problem, however, is much bigger. Right at this moment, the average price in the App Store has gone down to $1.39 for games and $2.58 for all apps. At those prices (even at the $5 ceiling), there are virtually no developers willing to invest more than a few months working on a high-quality software, much less a high-end graphics game that won't run on older-generation iPhones (effectively eliminating a large amount of users).

It's a dilemma with no easy solution in sight. The main issue, according to App Cubby, is that pricing expectations among consumers are unrealistic.   Spoiled by 99-cent apps, their attitudes do no favors for those who wish to gain attractive profits from their work. In a market where only $5 apps will ever have a fighting chance of hitting the Top 100, very few companies will be willing to invest serious money to produce serious software.

App Cubby proposes some strategies to help turn the situation around, although it will likely take some time before we begin seeing if anything can be made from it. It's an unfortunate situation, but one that will likely be resolved as the business model of mobile apps matures - which, obviously, isn't anytime soon.

Photo Credit: MarkJ

In a bit of a surprise stance, Google has gone ahead and declared "app stores" a dead end.  This comes right at the heels of the 1-year anniversary of Apple's App Store, with every other mobile company (from manufacturers to carriers, including Google's own Android Market) angling to set up their own.

Not that Google's particular stance is any surprise.  Throughout its operating cycle, the company has made a point of solidifying its intentions of a web-based ecosystem for both PCs and mobile platforms.  As such, while download storefronts for apps have proven a profitable venture (Apple claims that the App Store has already seen over 1.5 billion downloads in just one year), it's a very temporary infrastructure and will be rendered obsolete once the web takes over.

“We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing,” says Google's engineering VP Vic Gundotra, during the Mobilebeat Conference in San Francisco.  He cites that as the main reason for the company's decision to invest their efforts on web-based solutions, such as ChromeOS and numerous online apps.

Of course, not everybody shares that belief.  While the web is winning, it certainly doesn't look like it's going to be game over anytime soon.  If you've even tried backing up your hard drive over the "cloud," you'll know it's hardly an ideal process, taking days, weeks and, likely, months for those in countries with less-than-ideal internet infrastructures.

“It’s not about web applications or desktop applications, but integrating the internet in the cloud into these applications that are on both my phone and the PC,” says Michael Gartenberg, a technology strategist for Interpret.  For most end-consumers, this is really all that matters, after all, because it's the state of the technology now.

Cloud computing will probably be the wave of the future.  Unfortunately, that future seems to be at least five or ten years away.  Unless, of course, Google knows something we don't.

Photo Credit: Android Community

Verizon is apparently keen on getting into the app store business and is willing to step on its smartphone partners' toes to make it happen.  According to new reports, the VZW-branded downloads storefront will look to merge downloadable content from all major platforms released with the company under one roof.  That, as it turns out, will include those for existing marketplaces such as the Android Market and Blackberry App World.

The main selling point of such a set-up is that Verizon will integrate app catalog purchases with its regular billing cycles, allowing customers to download apps with no separate payment processing necessary.  It's undoubtedly a more convenient process for end consumers.  For their part, developers are being promised "competitive" revenue shares, although details aren't clear as of yet.

What's turning out to be a big deal is the competitive stance that Verizon is taking with their app store efforts.  According to the carrier, all phones released under their banner will no longer come bundled with the respective handsets' default app store software (e.g. App World for Blackberry, Marketplace for Android), which means users will have to acquire them separately.

There's no reaction yet from the hardware and software companies, though I can't imagine Microsoft, Google or Research In Motion (and, for that matter, every manufacturer angling to set up their own downloads storefront) taking it all that amicably.  Expect Verizon to present their plans in greater detail (along with the possible backlash from other companies afterwards) during the upcoming Verizon Developer Community Conference on July 28th.

Photo Credit: Engadget

Not long after news about Hottest Girls, the first porn application for the iPhone broke out, it was summarily removed from the App Store.  Everyone had their own guess about what the dismissal was about, although the developer claimed that the app was pulled to mitigate server overload.  It did not take long for Apple to issue an official statement though, confirming that the app was indeed rejected for its pornographic content.

According to the Apple spokesman, the company "will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography."  The erstwhile groundbreaking application apparently got approved without the "objectionable" material, as it pulls down the content directly from its server.  Most likely, it showed "sexy" photos during the approval process but had switched over to the more provoking material once it went live.

While the incident made it clear that the App Store remained keen on disallowing the distribution of adult material, it also highlights a potential vulnerability in the iPhone: the fact that developers have the  latitude to insert any sort of content into their software after the users download it.  Porn and other adult materials are probably the least of their problems on this end, with the same vulnerability making it possible to insert malicious code (although security experts have concluded in the past that the iPhone’s API is largely secure from data theft).

I guess the iPhone won't be our favorite mobile platform for naughtiness after all, boys.  For now, we'll just have to wait for one of the other platforms to take its place.  How about opening the Android Market for that, Google?

Photo Credit: PocketPicks

Boys, the long wait is over. Dirty apps, complete with nudity and all sorts of mature content, are now allowed at the App Store. First one to break the cherry is an app called "Hottest Girls", which includes "2,200+ images of topless, sexy babes and nude models."

The change in App Store policy comes as a part of the iPhone OS 3.0 update, which now includes a facility for implementing age restrictions in applications running on the handset. As such, "Hottest Girls" is an approved app, duly marked as "rated 17+" for "frequent/intense sexual content or nudity".

Not that the $1.99 adults-only app is any more interesting than staring at a wall. It's just a small piece of software that displays a bunch of photos according to categories, with no real special functionality whatsoever (save for a ratings facility that will supposedly drive future content). You may as well just visit a free adult hosting domain and take a gander at the stuff they have to offer. As the first official adults-only iPhone title, though, the creator should be looking at some decent money from people downloading it for the novelty value alone.

Expect big things from major adult content providers, who finally have a lucrative mobile platform for promoting one of the web's biggest and longest-running industries. Will the other download services (e.g. App World, Android Market) follow suit?

Photo Credit: Gadget Lab

The Kindle always seemed like a great idea.  In fact, it's so good, Oprah went ahead and gave it her shining endorsement.  To Amazon's dismay, perhaps, sales of the Kindle (and the Kindle 2) remained moderate at best.

In a move designed to encourage people to buy the device, Amazon just rolled out a Kindle app for the iPhone.  Free for download at the App Store, the software lets iPhone owners read Kindle books right on their handsets.  According to Amazon, the company is hoping that people who use the Kindle app will see its value and eventually buy an actual Kindle.

The app works much like the Kindle, allowing people to read books, add bookmarks, put highlights and write comments on the downloaded reading materials.  It's actually a pretty nice implementation, made a bit more difficult only by the iPhone's considerably smaller screen.  Now, if Apple's next iPhone iteration will actually feature something like Toshiba TG01's 4.1-inch screen or HTC's upcoming 4.8-inch phone, we're talking a whole new ballgame.

While the actual reader functions are in place, the Kindle Store facility isn't available directly from the app.  Instead, users will need to visit the Amazon interface via a regular browser (either on a PC or on the handset) to purchase and download Kindle books.  For iPhone owners who already own a Kindle, the app comes with a syncing capability, which would allow both devices to store the same items locally.

This app will definitely widen Amazon's portable reading reach, potentially generating Kindle book sales from various countries where it wasn't previously possible.   More importantly for Apple, this adds one more compelling reason to get an iPhone.

Photo Credit: AppShopper