Category Archives: App stores
Apple fanboy’s charity e-book enters Top 40
Rating: Proceeds from Rob Shoesmith’s Bin There Done That go to homeless
Famed for spending ten days camped outside an Apple Store in London’s Covent Garden, Rob Shoesmith has set himself an ambitious target of selling a million copies of his e-book. The book is available from Amazon and the Apple iTunes iBooks Store. Shoesmith actually works for an smartphone app developer operating under the name of MEDL Mobile. His idea is to sell enough copies of the book – ‘Bin There Done That’ so that he can sell his house in Coventry [England] and donate the proceeds to a charity for the homeless. The book only costs 99 pence or $1.99. Shoesmith emailed GoMobile News to announce that the book had got into the British Top 40 best selling books on iTunes. It has subsequently dropped to No. 60, so he needs more help from Apple fans everywhere. Continue reading
Bank holiday tip – adding UK holidays to your iPhone
Rating: Severals ways to peel an Apple
Here’s a few good tips for those who want to add holidays to their iPhone’s calendar. It’s particularly apt for our UK readership where today [May 7th 2012] just so happens to be a May Bank holiday. This tip arose because a Brit had forgotten that extra Bank holidays [...]
Smartadserver combat’s Apple’s UDID ban
Rating: Provides a solution with SecureUDID
According to Smart Adserver, Apple has started rejecting some applications making use of the device UDID (Unique Device IDentifier) from the iTunes App Store. This development raised concerns amongst developers, publishers and advertisers. That’s because – until now, UDID has been used on the Smart AdServer network and by most advertising systems for user identification purposes, analytics and in-app tracking. The company has reacted to Apple’s move by introducing a new SDK which incorporates SecureUDID. Smart Adserver advises its customers that live iOS applications do not have to be submitted again. However, it strongly recommends that its customers to use the new SDK version for future application submissions. Continue reading
87 per cent of mobile app downloads will be free says Juniper
Rating: Operators need to partner with mobile payment experts
Juniper Research is predicting that the number of app downloads to mobile devices – made by consumers- will reach more than 66 billion per annum by 2016. That’s more than double the 31 billion that occurred last year [2011]. The bad news for developers is that Juniper reckons that the overwhelming majority of apps (87 per cent) – will be downloaded for free. However, the good news is that content publishers’ revenues will increasingly be derived from post download opportunities – like content subscriptions and virtual item sales. Although nearly one in four downloads will occur on a tablet by 2016, this growth will still continue to be driven primarily by smartphones. Continue reading
Brit woman tries to sell a Bertha Lum via wallpaper
Rating: Strange requests for help of our time
This one takes the biscuit. A British woman, Janet Stuart, is desperate to obtain some publicity for a ‘painting’ by American artist, Bertha Lum, that she has inherited. It seems that while Lum is presently flavour of the month in her home country (USA), over in the UK there is little interest in her work amongst the art auction houses. She’s trawled the Net and there is no sign of any image of the work. So she’s approached GoMobile News with the idea of creating either an app or a wallpaper so she can get the image onto the iTunes App Store. We’re not sure whether or not this ruse will work. Continue reading
Spanish speakers hit by fake Android banking apps
Rating: Just exactly is this malware escaping into the wild?
It seems a number of players in the mobile security sector are getting hot under the collar thanks to the discovery of ‘fake’ mobile banking Android apps. At present, it seems to GoMobile News that these attacks are targeting Spanish speakers – particularly as the banks in question are Banesto, BBVA and Santander. What’s really worrying the security experts is that they are not quite sure how these Android malware apps are escaping into the wild. However, at least one security software provider, ESET, is confident that its Android security app will pick up these nasty example of malware ‘heuristically’ as a variant of the Android Trojan – SMS Stealer C. The issue has been highlighted by The Hacker News here which in turn spotted mention of the outbreak on McAfee blog post here. Continue reading
So, Android Market rebrands to Google Play
Rating: Move may backfire as sounds more like games store
It’s right up there with Microsoft getting Windows users to click on the Start button when they need to switch the computer off. Renaming the Android Market to Google Play doesn’t seem to have been thought through properly. When GoMo News‘ loan Motorola Razr volunteered to download the new client ‘Play Shop’ yesterday [March 12th 2012], we were quite astonished. Market is such an obvious place to look for suitable apps. Why would anyone searching for mobile security software think to look in the Play Shop? It just sounds as if Google wants to flog more games software. Continue reading
iPad apps for nothing, and Angry Birds for free
Rating: Get yer free iOS apps from FreeMyApps whilst they’re still hot
If you manage to fork out $800 for the new iPad next week, here’s a way to save a bit of money – get your apps for free. Yes, a site called FreeMyApps offers iOS the chance to obtain genuine prepaid apps for free – just by agreeing to download and try out other apps (again for free). These aren’t naff apps, either. The list includes GarbageBand, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope and, of course, Angry Birds. The site has been created by Fiksu using the same technology it invented to power Fiksu for Mobile Apps. The idea behind FreeMyApps is simple. Advertising is expensive and this site can drive traffic to your paid for apps. Simples. Continue reading
Opera Mini browser finally makes it onto BlackBerry App World
Rating: Will it work if BlackBerry crashes again we wonder?
Although it has actually been compatible with the BlackBerry OS for some years, the Opera Mini browser has finally made it onto the BlackBerry App World app store. Savvy BlackBerry users have been saving money on their data plans by downloading it manually from http:/m.opera.com. Having it made easily accessible on the official BlackBerry App World should ensure much wider usage if nothing else than the fact that consumers trust the official download sites for their brand of mobile OS. You have to wonder why it has taken so long to happen? Perhaps RIM is waking up to harsh commercial realities? Continue reading
Apple hits 25 billion app downloads milestone
Rating: One lucky Apple fan collects $10,000 prize
Apple has hit its 25 billion app downloads milestone as we predicted here. If you visited theappera.com here you would have noticed that the person who downloaded that particular app would have won a prize worth $10,000. That lucky person turned out to be Chunii Fu. Continue reading
China Mobile has long way to go to catch iTunes
Rating: China Mobile’s Li Yue reveals app store stats
Speaking at the Opening Keynote on mobile operator strategies at MWC 2012 in Barcelona, China Mobile’s president, Li Yue, revealed some interesting stats on the performance of its own app store – Mobile Market. China Mobile is, of course, the world’s largest mobile operator by both revenues and subscriber numbers. “Compared with Apple we have a long way to go, but it shows the potential,” Li Yue told the conference. “We are the gateway for selling services in the Chinese market.” Given the size of the Chinese market – which Nokia has just said it will attack with its W7 Mango Lumia phones – GoMo News wonders just how long it will be before Mobile Market overtakes the iTunes App Store? Continue reading
Vodafone 360 found alive inside the Hub
Rating: We stumble upon it with a W7 Mango phone
Now GoMo News had the distinct impression that Vodafone’s 360 offering – which it did describe as a ‘communications hub’ at the time of its launch, had been dead for about two years. Back in April 2011, Motti Kushnir – Telmap’s CMO, told this publication that 360 had effectively been dead for about a year. (See here). Now if you actually visit www.vodafone36.com , the site will tell you that you can only access the site if you registered before June 30th 2011. Luckily we did. The system will then tell you that, “To save your 360 account data, you need to export it before 31.03.2012.” Ah, but click on the ‘Hub’ icon available from the Vodafone Hub app in your Nokia 710 W7 Mango phone from Vodafone, you’ll see a screen that says “Welcome to Vodafone 360″. So 360 isn’t quite dead yet. Continue reading
Report predicts demise of OS-centric app storefronts
Rating: Bring on D2C and HTML5
Market Analyst, Juniper Research has just released a new report that predicts the demise of OS-centric app storefronts in favour of HTML5 and direct-to-consumer (D2C) models. “The closer integration between web-based apps and handsets should mean that the advantage that native apps have is reduced,” the report claims. That will favour HTML5 which is a mark-up language that reduces end-user dependence on plug-in app technologies. Smartphones users will utilise their handset’s browser to access platform independent apps. This report also highlights the growing importance of operator and in-app billing and predicts tablets’ share of the apps market will rise considerably. Continue reading
Beware January Bargain Android tablets
Rating: If it doesn’t support Android Market don’t touch it
GoMo News had a rude awaking when asked to configure an Android Tablet purchased in the January sales. Being handset orientated, this hack hadn’t noticed that not all Android Tablets are supported by the official Google app store – the Android Market. If you can’t get onto the Market then you can’t get access to the full range of apps available for such devices. It’s akin to purchasing a device running iOS that can’t access the iTunes App store. Our advice? If support for Android Market isn’t specifically mentioned on the box or the web site then don’t touch it. We made this discovery when handed a Coby Kyros touchscreen tablet purchased from UK electronics retailing specialist – Maplin. Our research shows that there’s no clear pattern to which tablets are Market compatible. Even Google’s own list isn’t definitive. Continue reading
Urgent: Absolutely last chance for 12 free BlackBerry apps
Rating: Thank You Gift from BlackBerry finishes today
Back in the Dark Days of October 2011, Research In Motion (RIM) – maker of the eponymous BlackBerry handsets – suffered a catastrophic outage at its NOC (Network Operations Centre) in Slough. In order to compensate its loyal customers for circa three days of chaos, RIM introduced its Thank You Gift from BlackBerry offering. From a consumer perspective, this equated to 12 free apps which for reasons better known to itself, RIM released in dribs and drabs. GoMo News spotted the last two remaining free apps – both games from Gameloft – finally appearing in the BlackBerry App World on December 3rd [2011]. However, today [December 31st 2011], is absolutely the last chance you have to download these apps for free. Continue reading
