apps

Now that Apple has officially launched the App Store, everyone seems excited about the possibility of expanding the functionality of their favorite cell phone and doing more with the same old hardware. I can't fault them for feeling that way, but I don't see any reason to spend money on it.

Undoubtedly, Steve Jobs will come out in January at Macworld and discuss how well the App Store is performing, thanks to strong iPhone app sales and even a few iPod touch sales thrown in for good measure. He'll discuss the benefits of using the App store and why we should all buy up "some of the best applications in the world."

It makes sense -- Apple has a vested interest in the success of the App store and certainly wants to see you buy more software than download for free because it gets a piece of the pie on all profits.

But as for me, I don't see any reason to spend money in the App store and I definitely won't. It's not that I'm protesting anything or trying to stand my ground, it's just that I think there will be so many great free apps in the store that I won't even need to worry about paying for software.

It may sound a bit radical, but trust me, I don't think you'll be spending too much money in there either.… Read more

As expected, iPhone and iPod Touch owners can now use their devices as remote controls for their iTunes libraries and Apple TV boxes.

The feature is now available as a download in the new iPhone applications store, which went live on Thursday morning. With the free, one-megabyte application installed, an iPod Touch or iPhone can use a Wi-Fi connection to control and search through an iTunes library remotely, flip around on an Apple TV, and control AirTunes speakers.

Most new Apple products already come with remote-control devices that perform the same functions, but using the iPhone download conveniently renders them … Read more

Apple has launched the latest version of its iTunes Store a day earlier than anticipated.

iTunes version 7.7, available now for Windows and Mac, includes the App Store, a method for delivering third-party iPhone applications.

The download appears to have some quirks: for this user, the version number remained at 7.6.2, and no direct link to the App Store was available, but it could still be reached by linking here.

The newest version of the iPhone is due out Friday. The App Store will be preinstalled on the new iPhone 3G, but it will also be available … Read more

Apple may be launching its iPhone App Store a day earlier than expected, because the sun never sets on the iPhone empire.

Forbes is reporting that Apple will launch the App Store--the delivery vehicle for third-party iPhone applications--at 9 a.m. PDT on Thursday, which happens to coincide with midnight New Zealand time Friday, where the iPhone 3G will make its worldwide debut. The App Store will be preinstalled on every iPhone 3G, but it will also be available as a download for owners of the current iPhone.

That means that some third-party iPhone applications could be ready … Read more

Zkout, a location-based mobile social network has just released a new version that integrates both Twitter and Yahoo's Fire Eagle. The service, which first demonstrated its technology at last year's Le Web 3 conference in Paris, enables anyone with a compatible handset to write notes, take pictures, and chat with others based on where they are.

Not unlike competitors Brightkite, Loopt, and the now-defunct Meetro, the goal of Zkout is to discover and interact with people around you no matter where you are. However the big difference is that Zkout is remaining platform agnostic, and will work on … Read more

Tuesday brought a mixed bag of Microsoft news. On the Daily Debrief, I sit down with CNET News senior writer Ina Fried to discuss the good, the bad, and the downright embarrassing.

Let's start with the good. The company announced the pricing of the new, pay-as-you-go business apps for the Web. The whole suite of business tools, which includes a variety of office communication tools, will run you $15 a month. Individually, the apps will go for $3 a pop. Ina suspects these tools will be very handy for professionals on the go or for companies who choose not … Read more

Apple has posted a new guided tour of the iPhone 3G that primarily rehashes previously announced features, but also fully demonstrates purchasing and downloading of applications from the App Store--a mechanism not seen in action heretofore.

The video shows an application being purchased via a "Buy Now" button in a fashion similar to the Wi-Fi music store. Once the application is purchased, the user is immediately returned to the home screen and an application icon with a progress bar appears. The user can (presumably) perform other actions while the application is being downloaded.

Posted from our sister site … Read more

LimitNone, a small software development company, is seeking nearly $1 billion in damages in a lawsuit that accuses Google of reneging on a partnership with the small company and misappropriating its trade secrets for its Google Apps online service.

Specifically, the suit concerns LimitNone software called gMove designed to let people move e-mail, contacts, and calendar information stored in Microsoft Outlook to Google's online service. Google initially helped LimitNone develop, promote, and sell the product, assuring LimitNone it wouldn't offer a competing product, but then reversed course by giving away its own tool, Google E-mail Uploader, to premier-level … Read more

One advantage of cloud computing is that it's an expert's job to keep the centralized computing infrastructure up and running. But even experts have problems, and that's what's going on Tuesday with Google's App Engine.

The service has been having outages Tuesday, according to a mailing list posting Tuesday. App Engine, launched in April and still in "preview release" mode, is a service that lets people create interactive Web applications written in the Python programming language.

"We've experienced several outages during the past 12 hours, the most recent of which started … Read more