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Amid recession, developer finds hope in App Store

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry.

Not long ago, during an evening of hanging out with friends, five of us sat in my living room, staring at and holding tight to our iPhones or iPod Touches.

This wasn't the anti-social behavior you might think, though. Actually, we were having a great time, banging our fingers furiously on the touch screens of the five devices, trying to kill each other (and not be killed ourselves) in the utterly addictive multiplayer shooting game Maze Wars Revisited.

The … Read more

300 Million iPhone Apps Downloaded

Apple has announced that 300 million iPhone apps have been downloaded or distributed from the iTunes App Store since it first opened in July 2008. The announcement was made via ads placed in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The ads emphasize and promote some of the more popular apps for the iPhone.

Apple has also confirmed via these ads that the App store recently passed the 10,000 mark in available apps in the iTunes App Store. Apple reported in it's last earnings report on October 21, 2008 that iPhone users had downloaded 200 million … Read more

iPhone App: Hero of Sparta

When you think of portable gaming, two handheld systems come to mind: the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS. But soon you may have to include the iPhone/iPod Touch in that same breath.

With the Apps Store's wide variety of downloadable content, and the fact you don't have to carry any cartridges or memory cards, the iPhone is an ideal device for your all-around entertainment.

However when most people think of gaming on their phone, games like Tetris, Blackjack, Sudoku, and Bejeweled come to mind. Not that there's anything wrong with them, they're great games. … Read more

Apple App Store tops 10,000 applications

Apple has announced catalog and download numbers for iPhone applications in the form of a full-page ad that ran in Friday's edition of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The ad, which can be seen after the page break, boasts that more than 300 million applications have been downloaded from a catalog that now tops 10,000 different apps. That information confirms recent reports on the total number of available programs. Still missing, however, is any sort of breakdown on how many of those 300 million downloads were free versus paid applications.

As Apple pointed out in an e-mail to CNET News, the App Store launched in early July with just 500 applications, and has reached the 10,000 benchmark in less than half a year. … Read more

The future of music retail

Coolfer has an interesting post this morning, responding to Peter Kafka's suggestion that it's getting too hard to buy music because fewer retailers are stocking CDs. I think Kafka's confusing cause and effect--if retailers were still making lots of money on Britney and Rihanna, CDs would be sold front and center. But regardless of the chicken-and-egg question, Coolfer makes the very good point that most music purchasers don't seek out music and aren't willing to sift through the racks at their local record stores, but rather pick up a CD as an impulse buy on … Read more

'Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes' storms App Store

When Apple finally announced the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the door was opened to many possibilities. With its huge library of applications, the one thing that seemed to be missing was a World War II shooter. I'm sure many keen minds tried to bring a real game experience to this portable device, but a good control scheme is essential for a real gaming feel. Because of its lack of buttons, this posed a problem until now. On December 2, Gameloft's Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes landed in Apple's App Store.

This is the first WWII shooter to debut in the App Store; it also captures all the action from the Brother in Arms franchise and brings it to your iPhone.

13 missions in across 3 historical campaigns: Normandy, Ardennes & Tunisia Impressive 3D graphics and crisp clear audio The capability to command Jeeps and Sherman tanks to help advance the Allied forces across the battlefield A wide range of weapons at your side (bazooka, sniper rifle, machine guns, and so on) Use of the iPhone's accelerometer controls to launch grenades and the touch screen to aim at and shoot enemies

This game (check out the video below) will definitely make your morning commute seem a lot quicker.… Read more

Amazon Mobile now ringing up sales on iPhone

On Wednesday, Amazon announced the throwing open of its virtual doors to iPhone and iPod Touch users everywhere with Amazon Mobile, a free app now available in the iTunes App Store.

It's a pretty nice offering that simplifies the search experience for products found not just on Amazon.com, but also on partner retailers Target and Macy's.

The bulk of the app is dominated by a search bar you can launch either from the home screen or from a separate Search screen. While there's a tiny promo area on Amazon Mobile's home screen, the app completely … Read more

iPhone app promo codes trickle out

On Tuesday, the first promotional codes that will make iPhone apps free to some users began trickling out of the App Store.

Apple is finally bequeathing apps developers with a way to let some media testers review an app at no expense and reward or attract a few lucky users. (The first invite has already floated into my in-box.)

This is Apple, so there are limits. Fifty promotional codes per product, to be exact.

Also, as wonderful as it is to see the passcodes allowed and implemented, they are not free trials. Developers angling to hook new customers will still … Read more

Entertainment dominates top iPhone applications

It's clear from the list of top applications downloaded from the App Store this year that iPhone and iPod Touch users are looking for entertainment.

Every year around this time Apple releases the most-downloaded songs and videos on iTunes, and this year is particularly interesting because it's the first year of the App Store. Six of the top 10 paid apps were games, including Apple's Texas Hold-Em and the heavily promoted Super Monkey Ball from Sega, but Koi Pond's mesmerizing virtual aquarium led the way as the top-selling paid application for the iPhone and the iPod … Read more

The iPhone 2.2 software update, a hands-on report

Just hours after I posted my WTF report (for "where's the feature," of course) on the iPhone 3G with version 2.1 software, Apple released the 2.2 update. I figured I ought to go through my post and see if any of the things I mentioned were addressed in the update.

But the short summary is: not much has changed. The new 2.2 software, as described on Apple's main page for iPhone updates, is mostly about internal quality.

Apple describes only four areas of new features for US users: an improved Google Maps application, … Read more