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Apple's plan to allow developers to add in-app payments to applications sold through its iPhone App Store could be the next game-changing step the company takes as it charges ahead in the mobile market.

Apple announced the new feature at the iPhone OS 3.0 preview event in March. And next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco the company is expected to announce the release dates for the software upgrade.

While in-app commerce is only one of several new enhancements to Apple's iPhone operating system, it may be the most significant. The reason is very … Read more

It sure looks like somebody didn't want to be left out of the app store party. Sony Ericsson Wednesday announced that it will include applications to its suite of PlayNow arena services, following the likes of Apple, Research In Motion, Nokia, Samsung, and Palm.

The Japanese-Swedish outfit is inviting developers to submit their applications starting July 1. These apps will initially be based on Java and Symbian software, with "additional platforms" (Android perhaps?) expected in the later part of this year.

The PlayNow arena, a service that lets users download music and movies, is currently available in … Read more

Apple has started decorating San Francisco's Moscone Center in anticipation of the Worldwide Developers Conference, which opens Monday morning.

And as has become tradition, when the banners go up, the seemingly round-the-clock guessing game of what Apple will announce intensifies. This year, the banners say "WWDC: One year later. Light-years ahead." Now the objective for many is parsing that phrase and poring over every image on the banner to extract some sort of meaning.

The phrase itself, plus all the application icons on the banners, indicate the centerpiece of the conference will be the App Store and … Read more

Apple is among 15 companies that have been slapped with a lawsuit by Actus. The company claims the defendants infringed on four of its patents.

The lawsuit, filed on May 26 in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, describes a method of using electronic tokens for e-commerce that Actus says the companies infringed on with their own systems. For example, the lawsuit claims that the Apple Store, iTunes, and the App Store all infringe on the Actus patents.

Actus claims four counts of infringement for e-commerce patents that were issued between February 2007 and May 2008.

Companies involved in … Read more

The big news coming out of Sun's JavaOne conference this week is that Sun (soon-to-be Oracle) is trying to outbid Microsoft as the world's biggest photocopier company. ("Redmond, start your photocopiers.")

No, Sun isn't actually building photocopiers but, like Symbian, Microsoft, and others, it is playing catch-up to Apple's App Store with its new Java Store, as The Register reports. The store is intended to be a central repository for Java and JavaFX applications, but it's unclear how it will distinguish itself.

As a consumer, I don't care if an application is … Read more

Apple's clearly onto something with its 24-hour store plopped down in a tourist hot spot.

The New York Post reports that as of sometime last year, Apple was pulling down $440 million a year in sales at its Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City. The numbers surfaced in the paper's investigation of empty retail space along Fifth Avenue.

Even if it is a high-end retail outpost for Macs, iPhones, and iPods, that's an impressive amount of money coming in when seemingly every retailer was clobbered by the arrival of the current recession. By comparison, the … Read more

My Notes Keeper promises to help users stay organized by collecting the little bits of information we need to keep around but have a tendency to misplace. This program combines several useful tools, but offers nothing new.

My Notes Keeper has a very basic interface that, while cluttered with buttons and options, should not be a difficult to learn. It looks like a version of Microsoft Word, with some added options that most users will immediately recognize. The center holds a word-processing screen with familiar icons for saving, editing, and customizing the text. The biggest change is a file tree … Read more

Update at 2:58 p.m. PDT: Launch date for The Sims 3 corrected.

Apple is using its retail stores to demo one of the most anticipated games on the Mac in recent memory, The Sims 3.

The Electronic Arts game doesn't go on sale until June 2, but Apple stores are offering a sneak peek. The game is running on every Mac in the store, so you can try out a few of the features before you buy it.

The Sims 3 gives you tools like "Create a Sim" to customize your Sim more than ever … Read more

The recession has been difficult for every segment of the economy, from tech companies to the retailers, but Apple plans to spend its way through the downturn, according to USA Today.

Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail, was brought into Apple by Steve Jobs to start and build the company's retail store strategy. And he has done just that, very successfully.

While many companies have been forced to cutback on their investment or close their doors completely, Apple is expanding its retail presence. Not only is the company building new retail stores, it is also renovating … Read more