ie8 fix

apps

Jobs confirms iPhone app blacklist feature

Straight from the horse's mouth: Apple's iPhones do indeed have the capability to check for, and potentially defang, software that Apple deems unfit for the iPhone.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirmed the existence of the so-called "kill switch" capability, following last week's ruckus over early reports of just such a function. The word from Jobs was tucked at the bottom of a story in The Wall Street Journal about Apple's hot-as-a-pistol first month of sales at its App Store.

The intent behind the capability is high-minded, Jobs said. Apple would need it in case … Read more

Jobs on iPhone apps: $30 million in 30 days

In a variation on the new math, 2.0 plus 3G equals $30 million now and about $360 million next summer.

Or in plain English: Apple has raked in about $30 million in sales of iPhone applications in the one month since the company opened its App Store and brought the iPhone 3G onto the market, CEO Steve Jobs told The Wall Street Journal. Jobs also sees big numbers ahead, if Apple continues its current pace of selling an average of $1 million worth of applications per day.

That rate would add up to $360 million by the first anniversary … Read more

Build a better photoblog this weekend with Pixelpost 1.7.1

There are plenty of free ways to build an average photoblog, but if you have dreams of creating one that meets your needs and not just the masses, check out Pixelpost 1.7.1. Updated earlier this year with a bunch of new features including an Install Assistant, this MySQL/PHP-based application is a free download and needs only a modicum of technical knowledge and some server space to use.

Everything is tweakable and functionality can be extended with a number of free downloadable add-ons for everything from the ability to use PayPal to let visitors buy photos to adding … Read more

Apple boots $1,000 app from App Store

The $1,000 application on Apple's App Store, which lets people know how rich you are simply for buying it, has been removed without explanation, making some developers wonder what it takes for Apple to pull the plug.

The "I am Rich" application developed by Armin Heinrich, a German software developer, does nothing more than display a picture of a red ruby on the iPhone screen. After initially approving the $1,000 application, Apple removed it from the store this week. Eight people managed to dish out $1,000 to buy the useless application, generating about $5,… Read more

CNET Live - Episode 66

David Merkoski from Frog design stopped in to talk about how touch screens work and how interfaces are designed for them.

Watch the show on CNET TV.

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Desk Rocker USB speakers.

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AppCleaner

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Your calls

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Want to encrypt a thumb drive and be able to use it even on computers that don't require admin privileges. I've … Read more

The 404 158: Where Randall Bennett is obsessed with the 404

On today's show: Randall Bennett, former host of The 404, makes a guest appearance on the show to announce his newest business venture, Ubisoft video game event, calls from the public, face tattoos, Play-Doh bombs in lingerie stores, no-ho zones, and the $1000 iPhone application.

After a very long hiatus shrouded in mystery, Randall Bennett finally comes onto the show to reveal what he's been doing for the past few months, and contrary to our assumptions, none of it involves sleeping in! Turns out, he's working with a company called Crowd Fusion, a new "Web publishing … Read more

iPhone can phone home and kill apps?

Apple has apparently included a blacklisting mechanism in iPhone OS 2.x through which the device can phone home, check for unauthorized applications, and disable them. The OS includes a URL that points to a page containing a list of unauthorized applications, specifically those listed here.

According to Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Open Application Development and an iPhone forensics manual:

This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 782: Two-steppin' robot cows

You can lead a cow to the dance-hall, but you can't make him two-step. Unless, that is, you've got a dollop of artificial intelligence and some wraparound earphones. In technology news of the day, universities fight back against the RIAA, a cut-and-paste application appears for iPhone (and it's really, really hard), and robots learn to move themselves.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 782

Episode 782

11 charged in theft of 41 million card numbers http://news.cnet.com/11-charged-in-theft-of-41-million-card-numbers/2100-7348_3-6244876.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

Tufts tells judge, we can’t tie IP addresses to MAC … Read more

App Store price fluctuation angering some iPhone users

When Konami's Frogger popped up in the iPhone App Store early Wednesday, the $9.99 price tag immediately set off a firestorm of angry user reviews. Apple's review system has doubled as a forum for users who find bugs, or otherwise feel the need to vent about the shortcomings of various developer-built applications.

The rather exorbitant price tag for a 26-year-old software title has been met with overwhelmingly negative reaction from potential customers, even though it's been rewritten to include iPhone-hardware-specific controls using the accelerometer and touch screen. Similar offerings that have started out at the same price point have succumbed to outspoken users and have issued price drops.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's something very different going on with developers who have offered their applications for free. They've found a fairly simple way to work Apple's own ranking system to their advantage. Since developers are able to change their price point at any time, some have offered early versions of their applications free of charge then switched the price over once it reaches a critical mass.… Read more

Coder links Yahoo search, Google App Engine

The goliaths of the Internet are dangling an ever-larger supply of bootstraps for folks who want to try new ideas for the Web.

The first case in point is Google App Engine, an infrastructure that lets people run their Web applications on Google's servers, for free up until certain limits are set. Second is Yahoo's BOSS (build your own search service) that lets people extract Yahoo search results, reorder them, and mix them with other content--also without constraint within certain limits.

On Monday, Yahoo programmer Vik Singh, who has been involved in the BOSS project, released software that … Read more