Currently, the App Store has more than 300,000 apps.

It’s a huge milestone in the life of the App Store, which lets people downloads games and software programs for their iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.

Around 2 thousand apps were being downloaded every second, as per the counter for last few minutes.

Apple inc launched the 10 billionth app downloader promo to celebrate the success of their iTunes app store, as well as their new gold rush app portal for OSX computers, the Mac App Store. Apple says it will soon announce who downloaded the 10 billionth app (or submits a free entry form at the right time) – he or she will win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

Also Checkout:

• Top 10 iPhone, iPad iOS Apps of All Time
• Top iPhone, iPad Apps 2010
• iPhone apps Gallery

For more Tech, iPhone, iPhone apps, Android, Gaming, Tech News, catch us @taranfx on Twitter.

The stats show that most popular Paid apps on iPhone/iPod Touch are Games. 9 out of 10 apps are actually Games, the only app that made it to  Top 10 i.e Paper Toss.

However, iPad had fewer games in the paid segment and more or entertainment, Music related apps.

Here’s the list of the most downloaded applications:

All-Time Top Paid iPhone Apps

1. Doodle Jump
2. Tap Tap Revenge 3
3. Pocket God
4. Angry Birds
5. Tap Tap Revenge 2.6
6. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
7. Traffic Rush
8. Tap Tap Revenge Classic
9. AppBox Pro Alarm
10. Flight Control

All-Time Top Free iPhone Apps

1. Facebook
2. Pandora
3. Google Mobile App
4. Shazam
5. Movies by Flixster
6. The Weather Channel
7. Google Earth
8. Bump
9. Skype
10. Paper Toss

All-Time Top Paid iPad Apps

1. SoundHound
2. StickWars
3. FlightTrack
4. Backbreaker Football
5. Calorie Tracker
6. BlocksClassic
7. iFart Mobile
8. GoodReader for iPad
9. Cro-Mag Rally
10. Ambiance

All-Time Top Free iPad Apps

1. Pandora
2. Google Mobile App
3. Movies by Flixster
4. Google Earth
5. Yelp
6. Fandango Movies
7. Remote
8. iBooks
9. Bible
10. Solitaire

Similar:: Top 10 iPhone and iPad Apps of 2010.

For more Tech, iPhone, iPhone apps, Android, Gaming, Tech News, catch us @taranfx on Twitter.

The hacker of the iPhone App store has come with a solution for Mac App store, and claims that they don’t encourage piracy but they hate a model where a user cannot try before buy. There should be app testing bracket before buying.

Why Mac App Store sucks:

1. You’ll have to Re-purchase many of your apps
2. No trials, no demos, no beta versions
3. Heavily restricted, controlled Apps.
4. Many apps would not be available on App Store, thanks to their policies (VLC media player included)
5. No System-related apps: Apps have no “root” permissions, whatsoever.
6. No downloaders: No ftp, http downloaders or even browsers. WTF?
7. Not many open source apps: Mac App Store violates GPL, most open source would never make it to app store.

Do you still need another reason ?

Disclaimer: This method doesn’t encourage Piracy. Try the apps, buy them if you like them, support the developers OR one day you wouls stop getting good apps.

Warning: The illegal app sharing violates the copyright and Apple App Store rules.

How to Crack / Pirate Mac App Store

1. Install the latest Snow Leopard update (10.6.6) from system updates.
2. Log in the new App Store (from your dock) and download Twitter (free app)
3. Now go to Applications folder, locate Twitter, right click, Show Package Contents, navigate to Contents folder and copy _CodeSignature, _MASReceipt and CodeResources.\
4. Download Angry Birds ( http://bit.ly/gy9wzk ) and run the dmg file.
5. Now drag Angry Birds into the Applications folder. Right click, Show Package Contents, navigate to Contents folder and delete _CodeSignature, _MASReceipt and CodeResources. Now paste in the files you copied from the Twitter.app in step 3.
6. Complete, now your Mac App Store is cracked. You can enjoy Angry birds and other .app file from the new Mac App store which you can find online.

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Hackulous is the mastermind behind making piracy on App Store possible. Now, they have been working and knock off DRM on Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad products, for about two years.  Why? They do what they do because they believe that Apple’s App Store is unfair to consumers since it has no trial service or refund policy.

Hackulous’s system comprises of two parts : Apptrackr, a web-based index of cracked apps;  Installous, the  app on jailbroken Apple devices which allows the installation of apps found via Apptrakr . The number is huge, there are around 10million devices which use them.

Hackulous is about to make it worse by providing updates to the existing software that would make it ever easier to share pirated IPA files (Apps).  In the past, owners of App Store apps would have to crack the software using special instructions and then upload it manually to apptrakr and share it to millions. Obviously, there were millions who were passive either due to ignorance or due to lack of ability.

But Installous will now bring a new update that will make it possible to share apps installed on any iOS device to auto-upload in background to Apptrakr servers, distributed over devices, just like BitTorrent.

“Essentially what will happen is when you’re using Installous you’ll get a little pop up that says ‘Hey, you have an application that Apptrakr doesn’t. We will add the application to a queue in the background (if you say yes) and it will start uploading tiny pieces of it, kind of like a torrent, up to the cloud’,” Dissident explains.

With hundreds or thousands of copies of the same piece of software, and little tiny pieces of each upload from each person’s device to the cloud in order to make one final copy, which will then become available from Apptrakr. From there it will be available for 10 million+ devices to download. Imagine how much easier it would become, and how much inevitable.

Going further, Hackulous has plans to pirate Mac App Store as well. They already have the stuff ready but, as per the author, they don’t wish to discourage developers, hence they would wait till Mac App Store gets significant amount of “crappy apps”.

In his own words:

“We don’t want to release kickback as soon as the [Mac App] Store gets released. I have a few reasons for that,” says Dissident. “So we’re not going to release Kickback until well after the store’s been established, well after developers have gotten their applications up. We don’t want to devalue applications and frustrate developers.”

As per the estimates, the plan is to roll it out sometime around feb-march time frame.

It would be a mess of pirated apps all over the Apple stores. Will Apple counter the attack ? They’ve to!

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With Adobe CS5, adobe had made possible to let developers write iPhone apps on windows using Flash CS 5 builder. Days before the release, Apple announced iOS4 which claimed that 3rd party tools will be kicked out. Of course, Adobe was’t happy with the decision and complained to FTC. Apple’s announcement today seems to be undoing the change made in iOS4. They have finally lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines, which has direct implications for Adobe’s Packager for iPhone. After hearing the announcement, Adobe has resumed development work on this feature for future releases.

The goodness of this news is not limited to Adobe alone, it goes much farther than that. This is, in general,  great news for developers.

Third-party development tools, including those made by Adobe, allow developers to write apps once and then programmatically create variations for multiple platforms. Last spring Apple changed its development agreement to force developers to write apps for iOS devices using its own programming language “Objective-C”, arguing that third-party tools made apps that weren’t as powerful and secure as they should be.

This could be a case of an App Store reviewer stepping out of line and making a mistake.

Many are expecting that lots of rejected apps will get a second chance. The hottest rumors are surrounded around Google voice coming to iOS. But there’s no official statement from Google as of now.

“We currently offer Google Voice mobile apps for Blackberry and Android, and we offer an HTML5 web app for the iPhone. We have nothing further to announce at this time.”

In an unofficial tweet, Sean Kovacs, developer of google voice for iPhone did see higher hopes to get Google Voice on iPhone anytime soon.

Is FTC Pushing Apple?

The FTC reportedly opened an investigation into the ban in spring 2010, and, FTC attorneys have been talking over the summer to app developers, about whether the ban makes it less likely that they will make apps for competing platforms such as Google’s Android mobile OS and Windows Phone 7 OS, among others.

The FTC was also reportedly interested in Apple banning Adobe’s Flash, but story has been rumored that interest “might just be a red herring” and the FTC was really concerned about the developer rules Apple had been living with.

It could be the time that Apple is feeling the heat from Google Android and now realizing the need of Openness, or it could be a legal Push from FTC. We’ll know soon.

We write about Latest in tech, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them@taranfx on Twitter or below:

I ended up trying a number of applications like TVersity, certain webapps, and certain paid apps but, none of them gives you the features I found in addictive app: Air Video

The Key Features of Air Video:

• Cross-Platform: Available on Both Windows PC and Mac OS X
• Easy to configure, takes few seconds, IP configuration is optional. Just enter the password and you are good to go. Setup as many computers as required.
• Native iPhone App: Web apps are good but never as user friendly as Native app.
• Plays all videos, Live convert: Other Video streaming solutions would only allow iPhone compatible videos, but Air Video desktop Features “Live Convert” That converts your video and streams int he realtime. The Result: Play any video format with minimal delays. You don’t even have to wait for complete conversion, it streams as it is done.
• Secure: PIN based access. Add only required folders, iTunes Playlists.
• Stream Over Internet (Beta): This is early feature which lets you stream videos on to the web so that you can still watch your videos, while you are away. At this moment, it is limited to non-NAT based internet access. (Unfortunately, most internet connections are NAT based.)

Without going into  too much detail, let’s set things up. Its as Easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. Download “Air Video” to you iPhone from App Store and corresponding Server software for PC/Mac from here.
2. Add folders you wish to share to iPhone and goto “Remote” tab and enable itnernet access and note down the PIN
3. Enter the PIN in iPhone and you are done.

iPhone app is available in tw flavors: Free and Paid ($2.99). Free app restricts no. of folders and videos.

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The Apps MarketPlace is essentially an app store integrated within Google Apps that would allow third-party developers to sell software directly to Google’s business consumers. The concept is very similar to Apple’s App Store difference being it target corporate business customers.

The marketPlace is all about how easy it will be to create, set up, and install apps using Google’s App Marketplace. It appears that the big focus is on how everything—apps and existing Google products—will work together seamlessly and allow for all your tools and data to sit in the cloud. Right now the appeal is for business applications, but the potential seems incredible and would certainly touch end users someday.

What it Means for App Developers, Business Users

Google is offering developers access to 25 million users and only asking for a one-time fee of $100 and 20% revenue in exchange—that’s less than Apple’s 30%. Of course, Google is providing a solid system with apps being authenticated using OpenID, secured using oAuth, and made available through a universal Google Apps navigation system.

there are already 50 partners right at launch. There are no details on approval process, But once an app is in the Marketplace, it’s easy for users or buyers to add them to their Google accounts.

What is the Scope?

App development of these apps is so simple that the moment the developers came out of GooglePlex, they started writing apps.

What does all this mean right now? For business users, there are plenty of apps already available—ones for Business WorkFlow, payroll, data entry, management, and an office suite—and they’ll be able to run everything right from the cloud.

This is a great opportunity for each and every business user, developer, since all the power of apps that had been offline, would now be  leveraging the power of the cloud.

We write about Latest in tech, Google,  iPhone, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them all@taranfx on Twitter or below:

Opera has announced that it would be releasing Opera for iPhone, very soon. The work had been going since a long while and it has matured enough to go public. Opera Mini for iPhone will be previewed during the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC).

“We are thrilled to offer journalists and partners an exclusive preview of Opera Mini for iPhone during the year’s biggest mobile event,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. “This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices. Opera’s mission is to bring the Web to the world, and by making Opera Mini available on yet another platform, we are one step closer.”

The biggest obvious question comes, will they be able to make it App Store? Apple had been long eliminating competition by putting a common rejection ” Duplicates features of existing app”. We know, it’s no duplicity, Opera mini is going to be faster and more feature-ful. Opera has a way out, they will create the Buzz at MWC, excite people and will hence force Apple to take-off the flood gates.

Let’s see how it goes. Stay tuned.

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But on the software side, it’s a different story. Few who envy Open source believe information is free and must be redistributed at no cost. But software giants have a different approach to it.

Most iPhone users would know that the pirated market for iPhone apps is a big business, but now we’re starting to get a better understanding of the numbers associated with content piracy in the app world. Incredibly, the “business of pirated apps” is starting to compete with numbers set with piracy of  films and music.

Record labels and movie studios have complained about and tried to battle content piracy. Now it’s the app developers’ turn.

Apple is aware of all these facts but they have showed zero resistance to this. They are still earning in millions without waving a hand, but what about developers?

The 24×7 Wall Street had a detailed post calculating the amount that Apple and developers of paid apps are losing when copies of their wares are downloaded to jailbroken, or unlocked, iPhones.

Their Conclusion: For every paid app downloaded in the App Store, three are distributed for free [pirated]. That’s a loss of $140 million for Apple to date, almost 1/3 to 1/4th of the revenue of the total  $500 million to $700 million from App Store. For developers, the loss is even higher: $310 million. So overall $450Million ~ $0.5 Billion

These numbers are averaged. But few of the developers have reported very high losses. Here are companies that affected the most:

Neptune Interactive Inc and Smells Like Donkey Inc have reported piracy rates has high as 90% for their game $1.99 Tap-Fu and claim that it was available in a pirated version within 40 minutes of its release on the App Store. Another company,  Web Scout Inc. reports a 75% piracy rate for its $0.99 iCombat game. The developer of the $4.99 art program, Layers, reports a piracy rate of 75%, and Fish Labs reports 95% for its $7 Rally Master Pro 3D. Piracy rates almost certainly increase with the cost of an application. TomTom’s US & Canada GPS product for the iPhone, which retails for $79.99, ranks second in handheld application downloads on piratebay.com, a file-sharing torrent. The top 100 downloads listed at piratebay.com is littered with expensive TomTom and Garmin GPS products. A conservative estimate of the average piracy rate is that for every paid application developed and sold at the App Store 3 more are pirated.

Why is Apple Silent over this ?

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Back in time we saw how a iPhone App made $20k in a Week,  another company made Million$ in few weeks from a single Game. No doubt, this is a great way to earn, provided you are innovative (and get lucky, of course).
But here is a story that makes one developer prouder each day. The maker of the popular rhythm game: Tap Tap Revenge reports sales nearing $1 million per month by Tapulous (Download Link [iTunes])

The secret is that the app generates the revenue through sales of its games, ads and selling songs inside games.
With 50 million iPhone OS devices, one-third of them have Tap Tap Revenge installed, Tapulous’ most popular game title costing $1 in the App Store. The strategy has been working for them: give out a bit free and charge for further addons.
One can’t argue that Apple’s App Store provides a simple business model for developers to market and sell their apps. However, the store is now overflowing with more than 100,000 apps, and the app market is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive.
Every title released gets multiple clones at cheaper price beating the hell out of the original developer.

We decided to make a list of most expensive, Overpriced Apps:

1. I Am Rich – Cost $999.99

The cost seems so ridiculous. What did App do? Nothing, It showed you a red diamond that reminds you that you were able to afford this. Easy to realize, pointless. Few iPhone users bought it an then repented. Apple soon took an action refunded the money, removed the app from App Store.

2. iVIP Black – $1,000

iVIP is one big drill in your pocket  which target lifestyle management. The App grants you access to VIP privileges in restaurants, bars, night clubs, helicopters, jets and more. There are zero ratings for the app in the App Store, and I have no doubt why.

3. MATG – My Accounts to Go – $450

The App interfaces with SAP’s BusinessOne financial management software. Designed for sales reps or marketing/finance execs. Equivalent Oracle Apps one is available for free. How unfair!

4. iRa Pro:  - $899.99

iRa Pro and iRa Direct are used to view and manage super-expensive enterprise surveillance camera installations. Clients could include corporations, schools, government, etc. What it does is simply view cas over WiFi, 3G network. Highly Overpriced iTunes link

5. PDR Quote – $349.99

An App for Business users which take care of auto repair: Create quotes and invoices, includes huge database of cars, forms you can personalize, etc. A personalized equivalent desktop version comes for free. iTunes link

6. Mobile Cam Viewer - $349.99

We rank this below PDR since it has no utility. There are cheaper alternatives aavailble for Cam viewers and controls. iTunes link

7. Lexi- Dental Complete -  $299.99

Lexi-Dental Complete is a library of reference material—except for dentists. As such, their promotional image is GROSS. A slightly less expensive version, Lexi-Dental Select, is also available.

8. iDcrm - $200

This app is intended to sync with Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and provide all of the same functionality. It also has the ability to work offline. Two hundred bucks is a lot, yes. But chances are the accounts payable department will be signing off on this one, not you.

9. ROSIE Home Automation -  $200

ROSIE home automation system users can control their a/v systems, lighting, security, and other services. Requires a ROSIE system which will cost you couple of thousands more, Total of $2k+. Do I look Like nerd?

10. XA1 – $180

Intended for professional level studio people, XA1 soaks up audio via the iPhone’s microphone and then displays it as a visual graph of the audio spectrum. While the app does offer some very cool and very geeky features, we’re wondering who would buy this. Wouldn’t you be better served by actual in-studio equipment? iTunes link

This doesn’t end here more apps like Nursing Constellation Plus, Interpath, WoframAlpha.

We don’t recommend any of those Apps, unless you have enough to burn your currency. however We do recommend reading The Top 20  best 3D games on iPhone.

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There hasn’t been any official announcement from Apple yet, though it is possible we could hear something from them at any time about this.

Earlier we saw Apple celebrating 1.5 Billion downloads, 65k Apps and 2 Billion downloads, 85k+ Apps.

This is a great deal ahead of any other mobile OS out there, by an whooping large margin. Given the fact that most other platforms based their app stores on the one found on the iPhone, this is no surprise by any means.

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Currently, there are  50 million iPhone and iPod Touch customers powered by over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program. All that has combined to make the company’s App Store the world’s largest applications store.

It’s ironical, that cellphones from Nokia, Sony,  had been around since decades, still their apps combined, the no. would be much less than Apple’s.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

In about three weeks’ time, it has added over 10,000 apps and users have downloaded an additional 200 million applications.

Even though Apple had been jeopardizing the App Store, still the rise is inevitable. Apple’s recent rejection of Google Voice was taken seriously and currently lies with FCC do give the final word.

The apps are now available for downloaded in 77 countries, in over 20 categories, Apple said.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive said in a statement. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

Apple achieved its first billion apps downloaded in about nine months, from July 2008 until April 23. The most recent billion was achieved in about five months. The growth is exponential.

Recently,  GameLoft added one more to it’s collection called Blades of Fury(AppStore), an arcade-style fighting game that, could best be compared to Mortal Kombat that too for iPhone.

The Game has Rich graphics and they run smooth even during extreme action. The game is well organized with 10 warriors. As one would expect each has their own moves, attacks, and even stories. There are 10 different backgrounds or scenes where the fights would happen.

The Best thing about this game is, it gives you what you dream of : Multiplayer. You can challenge nearby competitors via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. though there is No Internet play, but Gameloft has plans to support in upcoming releases. Online Multiplayer could make a Big Hit.

If you’ve ever played Mortal Kombat, Tekken, or it’s kind, you know that the fun lies in mastering various attack combos so you can dish out maximum damage. Same goes for Blades of Fury, but the onscreen buttons aren’t a match for that on the console, but still it’s fair deal.

Best iPhone 3D Games Reviewed. Top 20 Must have Action, RPG, Sports, Racing.

Though, the game gives you a choice of a joystick or d-pad for character movement and swipe or button controls for attacks and defenses, it’s not the one you could compare to consoles.

May be it’s hightime that we need some accessory that acts as Joypad for iPhone. We heard of a project working over a year, though they never finished for retail. hope goes back to Apple. And good news is, apple now confirms that they are working on accessories. Listed on apple.com:

Third-party Game Accessories
Connect fun new game accessories via the iPod touch 30-pin connector and Bluetooth.

On the other hand, control issues aside, Blades of Fury offers a ton of skull-bashing fantasy fun, and I find myself going back to it more than a lot of other action games.

It’s worth spending $6.99 , though I badly feel joystick is missing.

Note: The store currently shows that the app is version 2.5, but if you click the Download button anyway you’ll get the new version. It’s Apple’s caching issue, ignore that.

What’s New ?

The new update completely upgrades the Facebook iPhone app, still the #1 most popular application in the iTunes store. This upgrade was absolutely essential. While Facebook 2.5 allowed you to browse your friends, update your status, check your notifications, and use Facebook Chat, that’s really all it could do.

The new application brings a big list of new features, making it what may be the most useful app on the App Store.

Among the additions are Events, which have frustratingly been omitted from previous versions. Now you’ll be able to look up where your Events are, and you can also respond to them and see which of your friends are attending (for anyone who has ever had to boot up the web version of the site just to look up an Event address, this is a big deal). You can also post video directly to the site if you have an iPhone 3GS — a feature that will likely see the number of videos on Facebook increase dramatically.

Smaller changes include a News Feed that more closely reflects the feed you’ll find on the main Facebook site, as well as the ability to “Like” items your friends have created.

Joe Hewitt, the developer of the Facebook iPhone App, actually has a list of new features and improvements posted last week. Here’s what’s in store for you when you open up Facebook 3.0:

- See your upcoming Events and RSVP – See your friends’ birthdays
- See Pages and post updates and photos to Pages you administer
- Write Notes and read your friends’ Notes
- Upload videos from an iPhone 3GS
- Upload photos to any album
- Complete photo management (create albums, delete albums, delete photos, delete photo tags)
- Change your Profile Picture
- Zoom into photos - Like posts and photos
- See the same News Feed as the Facebook website
- Visit links in a built-in web browser
- See all of your friends’ friends and Pages
- See mutual friends
- Easily search for people and Pages
- Make friend requests
- Become a fan of Pages
- Quickly call or text your friends
- Create shortcuts to your favorite friends and Pages
- Friends sorted by first or last name according to your settings
- Chat friends sorted alphabeticaly

One feature that users will be missing is Push Notifications, which

we suspect will be rolled out in version 3.1, which Hewitt, the App Developer, is already working on. There will also be support for landscape mode in the upcoming release, and we may also see support for the ability to watch Facebook videos from the phone (right now you can only upload them).

Speed

This is one another segment which has improved over the 2.5. Posting images, switching tabs, posting messages, everything is faster.

A simple image upload which took 9 seconds on Facebook 2.5 to upload took around 5seconds on Facebook 3

Browsing Image galleries are also faster, zooming in and out are smoother and cool. I remember earlier it used to get nasty slow while brwsing galleries at times, but 3.0 tackles that issue.

Overall

Pretty Feature full and faster Facebook app. Definitely, It had been a worth wait.

Since the price of the application is $0.99, it turns out the app has pulled at least $39,600 so far, or just under 3,000 dollars per day, and it’s still growing. It reached the #2 top paid app spot in the US App Store, jumping from about a 1,000 downloads on 13th of August to over 6,000 daily downloads on August 25th.

Earlier, we have seen The iPhone App Fetched Million$ in Few Weeks – F.A.S.T.

Of course, not all of the money goes to the developer, tap tap tap. Because of the 70/30 revenue split with Apple, the developer actually earned around 27,720 dollars in the first two weeks. Still, very impressive for a one dollar app.

John Casasanta, the developer behind Convert, is no stranger to making money in the App Store; he has posted some impressive numbers before for a GPS-based app called Where To? which directs you to the nearest points of interest. Convert, however, is a very general, all-purpose application that, unlike Where To?, might stay in the top 10 for quite a while. If it manages to keep growing, or at least retain its current download rate, Convert might be one of the biggest moneymakers in App Store history.

When it comes to the App Store as a whole, it’s become a serious business. Today’s numbers from AdMob’s report (PDF) suggest the App Store market size is $200 million per month, or $2.4 billion per year, and those numbers are nothing to be laughed at.

Two-Fold concept ?

AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service (including 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi) to make VoIP calls without first obtaining AT&T’s consent. If a third party enables an iPhone to make VoIP calls using AT&T’s wireless service, Apple would have no obligation to take action against that third party.

The parties’ concurrence on this provision was particularly important in light of the risks the parties assumed in bringing the iPhone to market.

The parties’ willingness and ability to assume the risk of their investments in the iPhone and of their pricing strategy were predicated, in significant part, on certain assumptions about the monthly service revenues that would be generated by iPhone users. In particular, both parties required assurances that the revenues from the AT&T voice plans
available to iPhone customers would not be reduced by enabling VoIP calling functionality on the iPhone. Thus, AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service to make VoIP calls.

Without this arrangement, the prices consumers pay for the iPhone – particularly the broadband-enabled iPhone 3G – would likely have been higher than they are today.  During the course of the agreement, AT&T indicated to Apple that it does not object to Apple enabling VoIP applications for the iPhone that use Wi-Fi connectivity rather than AT&T’s 2G or 3G wireless data services. Although AT&T has no involvement in producing Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), which establishes the iPhone functionalities accessible to application developers, AT&T understands that the SDK enables application providers to develop VoIP applications that use the iPhone’s Wi-Fi capabilities and that such applications are currently available in the Apple App Store.

As noted above, AT&T regularly reviews its policies regarding features and capabilities available through the devices we offer in order to provide an attractive range of options for our customers. Consistent with this approach, we plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network. AT&T will promptly update the Commission regarding any such change in its policies.

After Phil gave out a public statement, It’s now time for Apple to furnish information on Google Voice.

In response to the question about the rejection of the Google Voice app, Apple states:

“Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it. The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail. Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing this distinct and innovative way to seamlessly deliver core functionality of the iPhone.”

Additionally, the response describes how the Google Voice application fails to make use of the Visual Voicemail feature and the native Messaging app, as well as the fact that it uploads a user’s Contacts list to Google’s servers with no “assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.” Apple commits that it is still “continuing to study the Google Voice application and its potential impact on the iPhone user experience.”

Regarding the role of AT&T in relation to the Google Voice app, Apple clearly explains that AT&T has no role in the app approval process, nor does anything in Apple’s contract with AT&T have any bearing in this situation. It is noted, however, that the agreement with AT&T does require Apple to not “include functionality in any Apple phone that enables a customer to use AT&T’s cellular network service to originate or terminate a VoIP session without obtaining AT&T’s permission,” which clearly provides the reasoning behind the Wi-Fi-only functionality of the Skype VOIP app and other similar apps.

Apple’s response to Question 6 provides further details on the app approval process, describing that there are “40 full-time trained reviewers” and that “at least two different reviewers study each application so that the review process is applied uniformly.” Apple also reveals there is also an executive review board that oversees policies and procedures and reviews apps escalated because they “raise new or complex issues.”

It’s time to digg-out things from the mine Apple had been hiding. Last week, we reported Apple’s Phil Schiller coming out to explain things – Facts about rejections.

Developers are shocked when they receive a rejection from Apple. Their iPhone non-harmful app, had been blocked from iTunes because it contained “inappropriate sexual content.”, “Too high on resources”, etc.

The developer couldn’t believe anyone found his application pornographic, heavy, resource intensive, etc.

Background & Fact Process

Apple began allowing independent developers to offer iPhone applications online in June 2008. But before any app can be offered for sale, it has to go through a vetting process that many say is unclear and cumbersome. Although some apps are barred because they are offensive to almost anyone—Baby Shaker invited users to rattle a virtual crying baby to death—others are nixed because they might upset political sensibilities. Freedom Time, which featured a countdown clock to the end of the Bush Administration, was nixed because “it would offend roughly half of our users,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a rare e-mail to the developer.

Other programs are rejected because they duplicate (or potentially compete with) Apple’s iPhone software. On July 31 the Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to Apple questioning its rejection of Google Voice, a Google’s VOIP application. Many analysts believe the service was blocked because it could have snatched revenue from Apple’s exclusive wireless service provider, AT&T, by providing cheap call rates over Google’s lines. AT&T denies any involvement in the move. Among the FCC’s questions: Why was Google Voice rejected? What are the standards for acceptance and rejection?

App Store – The Only Monopoly

Apple isn’t the only smartphone maker that decides what can and can’t be sold on its app store; BlackBerry maker RIMM, Nokia , and Palm do, too. The difference is that users of those smartphones can bypass those makers’ app stores and download programs directly from the developers. Apple apps can be downloaded only from the iTunes App Store.

“The process is just very opaque,” says Montgomerie. He had already invested almost a year of nearly full-time work on Eucalyptus, and the prospect of having wasted all that time persuaded Montgomerie to yield to Apple’s demand to remove the Hindu classic. “I had to sell my soul a little bit, I guess.”

Apple did not respond to requests for comment. But some analysts say the outcry over several dozen rejected apps is dwarfed by the opportunities Apple has created. “We hear about those developers because they are vocal. But there are 65,000 apps on iTunes right now, with more than 1 billion downloads,” says Michael Gartenberg, vice-president at technology research firm Interpret.

“Apple has jump-started a whole industry that makes the process dirt simple for developers who don’t even need to worry about how to distribute their products.”

And Gartenberg is quick to point out what he considers the major success of the review system. “The net result is quality control—you don’t hear of many cases of an app blowing up people’s phones.”

While Gartenberg concedes that the process isn’t perfect, he says it’s still in its infancy and has already improved.

“What we have seen in many cases is Apple rejecting apps and then listening to what people have to say on the subject, and realizing the rule doesn’t make sense going forward. This is new ground for them, new territory.”

Apple does provide limited guidance through a 10-page user agreement with broad rules such as

“Applications may not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind.”

Remedy ? A Pre-Development Approval Process Could Help

But Montgomerie says he would like to see Apple make their restrictions clearer.

“The rules could be much more specific in terms of what is objectionable. Rejection letters could also say specifically how an app might be fixed and approved rather than just quoting a rule. Montgomerie believes there should be an approval process before development begins. That way a developer wouldn’t waste months on an idea that Apple won’t let in. The developer could even pay a nominal fee [for the approval process].”

Podcaster developer Alex Sokirynsky, whose app was rejected because it duplicates iTunes functionality, would also like to see a pre-development approval process. The Podcaster would have allowed users to download and search for podcasts.

“You put so much time into an application. And you never know if it’s going to fall into a gray area until Apple tells you,” says Sokirynsky, whose app was rejected in September 2008. “It would be better to spend my time doing something else if I knew the app wasn’t going to be approved.”

Eight months later, Sokirynsky released a scaled-back version of Podcaster, called RSS Reader, which was approved by Apple.

Both developers say that since Apple’s rules are vague, they would recommend that other app makers steer clear of potentially controversial content as well as areas of overlap with Apple’s core businesses.

Despite his setbacks, Montgomerie ended up scoring big on the iPhone. A week after his rejection in May, he wrote a blog entry describing Apple’s objection to the Kama Sutra. Soon after his widely discussed post, he received a phone call from Apple telling him that his app would now be allowed, with no removal of the sacred text necessary. His app was for sale on iTunes as of early June, along with a requirement that users be 17 or older because of the sexual content.

On a good day, Montgomerie now sells several hundred copies of his $9.99 software, which nets him $7 after Apple takes its 30% fee.

“It’s enough that I can make a living off of it. It looks like I will make about what I was making at Apple,” says Montgomerie. “In the end, I guess I will continue to develop for the iPhone. It’s the biggest platform.”

Apple Responds to App Store Rejections

Collection of Most Popular Rejected apps from App Store

Apple had been rejecting Apps without being able to timely justify the reasons and Google Voice App rejections made things worse. We even saw frustration of a developer ending up in shooting iPhone.

After rejections, one Apple executive is trying hard to win customers — and developers — back

Apple’s App Store practices have bordered on schizophrenia, with it frequently accepting applications only to later reject them and rejecting others only to later accept them.  Worse yet, frequently rejections seem to follow no consistent pattern, with some apps being rejected for containing some sort of forbidden content, while others with that same content get accepted.

These inconsistencies have led to customers growing dissatisfied with the iPhone — or in some cases even leaving it.  They have also led to a growing discontent among developers, some of whom have also jumped ship.  And it has even brought down a government investigation concerning Apple’s role in rejecting the Google Voice app.

However, there is one man who hopes to fix the system.  Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller is trying to right the iPhone App Store and is personally taking a hand in trying to win back customers, developers, and placate government investigators.

Mr. Schiller (with occasional help from Phil Shoemaker, Apple’s Director of Application Technology) has been surveying the blogosphere and personally picking up on blogs about unjustly rejected iPhone apps.  He’s then contacting app developers and personally trying to work with them to get the apps approved.

Jonathan Bayme, the CEO of Theory11, was frustrated when his Rising Card application was rejected for being “confusing” to customers (despite the fact that the whole idea of a magic trick is to confuse).  However, a blog posting and dialogue with Mr. Schiller later the app was on its way to being accepted and he had changed his tune.

He describes:

Schiller was unbelievably responsive throughout the whole ordeal. Our first communication from him was late at night on the 11th – with another email sent to us an hour later. He was extremely nice and although not promising anything, he said he would have their team look into the situation ASAP.

To be frank, Chris and I [the creators] were both amazed that this had reached the heights it had at all – given the fact that it is just a fun magic trick. We had spent months creating, polishing, and finishing this thing – and up until then we thought all hope was lost. It’s been quite the rollercoaster.

This morning, we received another email from Schiller advising us that Phil Shoemaker (Director of Application Technology) would be in touch with us soon to discuss our app, and as promised I received a phone call about three hours later from Phil. Shoemaker said that his team was looking into the issue as we spoke, and he was hopeful to see resolution of this by the end of the day.

True to his word – it was in fact approved late this afternoon. In sincerity the whole process was quite the ordeal, but I must say that I respect the hell out of the fact that we received the personal attention that we did. They were responsive, attentive, and truly listened to what we were saying. While one could argue that it took us over a month to get to that point, I would judge this situation based on the lengths they went to to fix the problem – they were incredible.

Mr. Bayme’s story is not an isolated one — many developers are coming to view Mr. Schiller and Mr. Shoemaker as “app saviors”.  The good news for Apple here is that it appears to be trying to change its ways, and to some extent its working.

However, a critical problem still remains.  While Mr. Schiller and Mr. Shoemaker appear to be performing above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to damage control, the illogical rejections continue.  Thus while Apple’s executive leadership seems to be changing its tune, the Apple employees responsible with screening appear to be singing the same old notes.  And until that changes, there will still be headaches in store for developers, customers, and the Apple executives alike.

But this guy, is somehow frustrated by “Apple’s monopoly”. He clearly shows by writing a message in notes app that he is left frustrated by the policies and not the Technology at Apple. The way Apple has monoplized App Store – is the best example.

He gives the iPhone multiple shots and then lubricates it to fire and ashes showing his extreme frustration.

Who is this user?

He could most probably be a developer whose hard-made App was never approved over App Store or something similar.

Google is planning on over-hauling the application. In NYT, David Pogue’s column regarding the ongoing saga of Apple and Google Voice, he reveals that Google has already found a loophole:

Already, Google says it is readying a replacement for the Google Voice app that will offer exactly the same features as the rejected app–except that it will take the form of a specialized, iPhone-shaped Web page. For all intents and purposes, it will behave exactly the same as the app would have; you can even install it as an icon on your Home screen.

As you might already know, Google Voice is a free application that lets users assign a unify your phone numbers by using single number to ring their home, work, and cell phones, and also get voice mail as text transcriptions. Earlier we speculate that AT&T had hands behind rejection of app from App Store, but on FCC questioning, AT&T washed their hands free.

The new app can be installed as an icon on your homescreen.  The specially crafted iPhone-shaped webpage will offer all the features of the original app.  In other words, in a move akin to flipping the bird to Steve Jobs, Google has essentially highlighted a way for app developers everywhere to easily publish their rejected content.

The move could usher in a new era of freedom for iPhone users.  Freed from Apple’s dictates of what apps are fit and proper, the phone’s true potential could finally be achieved.  As the New York Times’ Dave Pogue puts it, “What’s Apple going to do now? Start blocking access to individual Web sites?”

Google Voice online will offer free SMS text messaging and reduced rate international calling.  The cheap calls are achieved via a scheme similar to Skype’s.  Text messages are normally almost completely free to carriers as they use extra capacity previously unused capacity.  Granted, they represent a minimal cost in terms of cellphone tower power and the loss of potential revenue from selling the part of the channel, but in the end they come at little cost to the telecoms, while the average cell phone users pays $10 or more on their phone bills a month for them (some plans include per-message billing, which can run as much as $0.20 per message).

Google’s decision to defy Apple is an exciting development.  And one thing’s for sure — Apple’s likely not happy and is likely trying to scheme how to stop them.

It’s not clear if simply making Google Voice available as a Web app will change Apple’s mind, but there is precedent. Apple also rejected Google’s Latitude for the iPhone until it was remade as Web app.

A Google spokesperson did not say how close to completion the project might be, but reiterated a previous statement. “We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users, for example by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.”

It didn’t make sense. Most people predicted the culprit is AT&T. Apple living hard on AT&T’s mercy, goes as per what suits this steamy big old carrier.

Were predicting that someone someday will wake up to investigate why Google’s Voice app was rejected. Did Apple give out a similar excuse – like they did for avoiding Leagalization of Jailbreaking of iPhone.

Now FCC is involved and they have begun an investigation into the matter.

“The Federal Communications Commission has a mission to foster a competitive wireless marketplace, protect and empower consumers, and promote innovation and investment,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said last evening. “Recent news reports raise questions about practices in the mobile marketplace. The Wireless Bureau’s inquiry letters to these companies about their practices reflect the Commission’s proactive approach to getting the facts and data necessary to make the best policy decisions on behalf of the American people.”

As a matter of fact, Investigation had already started. In its letters to AT&T, Apple, and Google, the Commission asked each party to clarify exactly what happened and why the application was blocked from the iTunes App Store.

From Apple, the FCC would like to know why the Google Voice applications were removed, why Google’s own client was rejected from the App Store, and whether or not any other related applications were removed. In addition, the FCC would like contact information for the involved developers. They’re also interested in any differences between Google Voice and other VoIP applications that did get approved for the App Store.

They also want to know if Apple did this in consultation with AT&T, or whether they acted alone. On a more general note, they also want to know if AT&T has any influence in the App Store approval process, whether in general or for specific applications.

But this isn’t all. The FCC is also interested in the App Store beyond just the Google Voice issue. The FCC wants to know the criteria for App Store rejection, the details of the submission process, the amount of rejected applications, a list of those applications, and so on.

Among its half-dozen questions, the FCC bluntly asked Apple why the app was rejected, and whether there is a list of prohibited apps that is provided to potential vendors, developers and iTunes customers.

To AT&T, the commission asked a number of similar questions,and asked to “Explain AT&T’s understanding of any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol applications that are currently used on the AT&T network, either via the iPhone or via handsets other than the iPhone.”

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out this evening, this inquiry is significant because the FCC received no complaints about the rejection, and it was spurred purely by “Recent press reports [which] indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store.”

On Tuesday, Verizon held a conference at San Jose, California, Inviting developers for VDC – Verizon Developer Community. Developers showed high Interest in the idea.

Though there holds a big hurdle for the project — cross-platform consistency

At the conference, Verizon Wireless gave some details about its VCast App Store, scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter, 4Q. Inspired by the blockbuster success of the App Store for Apple’s iPhone, as well as the launches of application shops from Google, Research In Motion, Microsoft and other players, the nation’s biggest mobile operator plans to make it easier for developers to get their applications out to mobile users. Its goal is to take applications from submission to commercial availability in less than 14 days.

Verizon talked about development initiative. It will provide APIs that give developers access to Verizon resources including billing, location, messaging and presence. Those APIs will complement the existing SDKs for mobile platforms such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Verizon said.

Uhmm.. Because we know Android, Palm Pre and possible iPhone are also arriving, we were expecting a realted announcement, but nothing came out, yet.

Good News for developers:

The business strategy is very similar to Apple App Store. Developers will get 70 percent of the revenue from paid applications.

Verizon isn’t charging developers to register on its site, and it intends not to charge for testing and certification of applications, said Roger Gurnani, senior vice president of product development, now that’s similar to Palm.

Developers are worried about how Verizon will handle the many platforms it will probably have to support. Jeffrey Baitis, a senior applications architect at RiffWare, wants to make sure the Verizon APIs for various phone types are consistent. Some features of Riffware applications have not been supported on all phones, he said. For example, one application had a camera function that only worked on 60 percent of handsets, he said. Riffware’s current products include a guitar-tuning application and a tool for blocking unwanted calls.

Baitis was hoping to hear how developers could tell Verizon what capabilities need to be on the carrier’s “white list” of requirements when it tests new handsets.

“Someone needs to manage that, so these kinds of things don’t happen,” Baitis said.

If Verizon manages to answer this question well, it’s going to hit the stars.

Verizon Strengths on VCast App Store

One software company working with Verizon that was featured at the conference reported a good experience so far. Music-streaming and purchasing application Slacker already appears on Verizon phones. Preparing the application to appear on Verizon wasn’t all easy, said Slacker President Jim Cady, but the carrier was willing to take input from Slacker, make reasonable compromises and make changes rapidly, he said.

The moderately sized meeting sold out, which bodes well for Verizon’s app store plans as well as its intention to open a West Coast research center in Silicon Valley next year. The carrier already has one on the East Coast, where it’s based. At the West Coast site, Verizon hopes to meet with some of the “best and brightest” mobile developers in the Valley.

“Hey, Verizon, it’s time to digg holes for monopolies, let’s do it.” said one excited developer.

Excitement is on the rise, let’s see how well can Verizon design their multi-vendor APIs.