App Store

If you’re like me and you just can’t start your day off by rolling out of bed without the morning ritual of caffeine intake, then you’ll probably be interested in a new App that combines the power of Twitter aggregation to help you find local coffee houses.

Coffee Buzz, which only costs $0.99, (iTunes Link) shows a map of nearby Twitter users who are drinking a cup of caffeine loaded goodness or even decaf if they roll that way. Tapping on someone’s name will show you what they’re drinking and where they’re drinking it. Some awesome Google Maps integration will bring up the contact info and address for that particular coffee dispensing locale allowing you to whip up a quick route there to satisfy your need for a double shot iced mocha with extra awesome or whatever combo suites your tastes. Want to get in on the coffee sharing action? Log in with your Twitter user name and you can Tweet what you’re drinking and where or put in your coffee mix presets.

Via: The iPhone Blog

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If you’re a victim of the platform wars for computers (Mac! Windows! Linux!) you’ll remember that one of the arguments against the MAc was that there weren’t many programs available for the device. If you wanted to do anything useful besides Photoshop you had to use a PC. At least that was the gist of the argument.

That history makes it all the more interesting that the iPhone now has more programs available for the device than Windows Mobile. Immediately you can start arguing about the usefulness of the apps, pull my finger isn’t as useful as a mobile version of Word but the sheer number of apps in the App Store means that the concept is being well received by the developer community and that is great for the iPhone platform as a whole.

Get the complete story at Ars

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While jobs are shed at a record rate one company needs to start hiring. That company is Apple,  apparently the contract process is overwhelming the company. how can we be sure Apple is overwhelmed? Check out this summary from the Apple Insider post:

Apple’s ability to process iPhone developer contracts is quickly turning into a minor crisis as what was once a smooth process is rapidly turning into a months-long backlog that threatens to keep new developers out of the App Store.

That’s a nice summary and tells you all you really need to know (though the entire post is worth reading). Of course this is one of those things that doesn’t matter to end users right now. Right now you’ve got over 25,000 apps to choose from. Just because things are great right now doesn’t mean they will stay that way. The contract process won’t stop iPhone app development but, and this is a lesson Apple can learn from Microsoft, making development easy leads to ubiquity. While the delay doesn’t matter to you right this second it might if Apple doesn’t speed up the process in the future.

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Since Apple's introduction of the App Store early last year, AOL has been one of the bigger developers to support the iPhone with a native and free AIM client. However, AOL is making changes to the AIM app by making two versions available: paid (iTunes Link) and ad-supported (a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=281704574&mt=8" >iTunes Link). The pricing tiers come with version 2.0 of the App bringing IM notifications through SMS texting and location aware messaging.

The new 2.0 update will allow AIM members to IM people within their general area (leveraging the iPhone's Core Location component of course) which should give you some kicks if you're one lonely guy. An alternate means of background notification is being utilized with the newest version: SMS Updates. To better facilitate instant messaging your buddies from a run of the mill phone, IMs could be sent out as a text message so you could talk to your friends via SMS instead of using the AIM client. The iPhone version uses the same thing to alert you to a new message which you would respond to within the client. Besides the few additions in 2.0, a… more...

We’re sure that our intrepid app reviewer will get to NPR’s new app sooner or later (hey, Jovan Washington is a busy guy) but for those of you out there who can’t get enough NPR there’s now a an app available that gives you access to 200 NPR stations. So you can now listen to Car Talk from from the station of your choosing we guess.

Actually, you know the drill. NPR has some great shows but your local affiliate doesn’t play them when you want to hear them Yeah, a podcast is one way to get around it but some of us just like to hear what is going on in other markets or don’t want to wait until the podcast is uploaded. Read the story here or just get the (free) app!

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iPhoneK has compiled a list (with charts) of the companies with the most apps in the App Store. The bigger winner is… GP Apps. Yep, we haven’t heard of them either but the company does over 250 apps for you to buy and enjoy. You’re thinking it’s just one kind of app repackaged in multiple ways right? Wrong GP Apps has apps for about everything. IT’s amazing that the company can crank them out so quickly. In second place is an India based development company with over 200 hundred apps.

Judging quality of the apps by the number of apps a company produces is not a very good way to go about it. But the list is interesting for revealing that some companies are going with the “more apps is better” approach to marketing. Check out the entire list here.

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The App Store is a weird place. you’ve got a bunch of developers trying to sell and a bunch of people worried that unless prices increase the developers won’t be able to keep developing. That’s kind of a rare thing, usually consumers don’t worry about the providers staying in business, they generally want stuff as cheaply as possible. This kind of thing is generally self correcting, at least if you buy into the Invisible hand theory.

Invisible hand or not developers are faced with the challenge of making their apps more popular. The most obvious ways is too make the apps cheaper. That seems to be what is happening according to a report from Business Insider. The report states (with a nice graph and everything) that the average price of the top 100 app has declined from $3.15 to $2.55. Clearly developers aren’t as clever with marketing as they are with programming. But don’t worry, someone will figure it out and create a new model. Some weird model where the product is valued much more than the competition. But for now it is kind of a buyers… more...

If Android is going to beat the iPhone in cell phone space anytime soon (and it isn’t clear that this is a goal of Google) one of the keys is going to have to be applications. Android, like the iPhone, has an application store but unlike Apple Google doesn’t control the contents of the store nearly as tightly as Apple does. That, one would think, would be a competitive advantage for Android based phones. It turns out that the advantage is slim. For proof take a look at this list of apps you can get in the Android store that would never make it in the App Store. Except for the tethering nothing on the list seems remotely compelling.

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When it comes to App Store openness there are persuasive arguments on both sides of the issue. A free for all means more choice for consumers but also more really bad apps. Tighter control of the App Store means better (better for whom isn’t always clear) but fewer apps. But the convenience and the lock in of the App Store trumps everything else. Since you’ve got nowhere to turn for apps short of jailbreaking your phone Apple can run the App Store how it feels and you’re stuck. Should you be angry? Happy? Apathetic? We have no idea, try not to get so worked up about an app store!

IF you’re just curious about what you might be missing PC World has put together a list of ten rejected iPhone apps. The list is interesting but out the 10 apps listed the only app that interested me personally was Podcaster. You might have a different take, maybe you would’ve bought MyShoe or Murderdrome. Check out what you’re missing with the list.

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Got an email today from DataViz today saying “Shhhhh.. you are the first to know. The App Shop from DataViz is now open!”

So I just had to mention it. I’d give you the link but they obviously want to keep it quiet.

So another App Store wannabe. This one is a little different because is independent of any manufacturer. The DataViz App Shop sells software for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian devices.

Otherwise it’s yet someone else thinking they can hang a shingle that says “App Store” or some such and the crowds will come.

Sorry guys, it aint that easy. After all, there’s been various Palm app stores for years without them making any noticeable impact in the world.

One of the key features of the Apple App Store’s success is the absoluter simplicity of getting the apps onto your phone. I can’t see how a non-manufacturer like DataViz will have any chance of emulating that. Likewise the manufacturers probably will screw that up with their own stores too.

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