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Five-year-old spends $2,500 on in-app purchases
The next time you let your child play with your iPad or iPhone, you might want to pay attention to what he or she is up to. The BBC ran a story today about 5-year-old Danny Kitchen of Bristol, England, who ran up a £1,700 (about US$2,500) bill in iTunes after his dad entered his passcode to allow Danny download a free iPad game from the App Store. While Danny only spent about 15 minutes playing with the game, that was long enough for him to repeatedly tap an in-app purchase button and rack up a string of £69.99 (about $105) charges. Mum and Dad received emails from the iTunes App Store the next day itemizing the purchases, but they figured that the charges were an error and ignored them. Danny's parents found out that the charges were real when they received a call from their credit card company asking about the transactions. Apple was reportedly helpful in providing the Kitchens with a full refund, and Danny has learned "not to do it again." Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng offered a quick solution for parents who don't want their little darlings to spend their college tuition on in-app purchases: turn off in-app purchases in Settings > General > Restrictions before handing over the iOS device.
iTunes among the world's largest media companies
Bloomberg's Edmund Lee took a look at Apple's iTunes in an online post today, and notes that Apple's media business is huge -- in fact, it's bigger than "most major media companies." How big is that? Well, if you take the iTunes Music and App stores together, they make more than the New York Times, publisher Simon & Schuster, Warner Bros. film studios, and Time Inc. combined. In fiscal year 2012, Apple pulled in $8.5 billion in revenue from its media stores, while the combined revenue for all of those "media giants" was only $8.3 billion. While iTunes pales in comparison to the likes of News Corp. ($33.88 billion in sales in Apple's fiscal year) and Disney ($42.28 billion), it is growing faster than the bigger media companies with a growth rate of about 35 percent annually. It's expected that iTunes will eclipse Viacom Inc. by 2014. The largest part of Apple's media influence comes not from the sales of music and apps, but from the 435 million iTunes accounts stored in its databases. According to Talal Khan of Credit Suisse Group AG, "that's what gives Apple the power to come into media companies and ask for terms."
Square competitor Groupon Payments launches today, promises lowest cost for retailers
Popular deal website Groupon is venturing into the world of smart phone-based credit card payments today, launching the Groupon Payments initiative nationwide after a successful pilot program is the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year. Groupon's boasting a guaranteed lowest cost pricing to merchants using Groupon Payments for credit card transactions -- MasterCard, Visa, and Discover will cost retailers 1.8 percent of credit card sales, plus a $0.15 per transaction fee, while American Express will cost three percent of credit card sales, plus a $0.15 per transaction fee. The biggest competition in the space comes from Square, headed by former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which charges a flat 2.75 percent rate on all transactions against all cards, though PayPal, Intuit, and Verifone all offer similar services. Today's news matches up directly with leaks we saw back in May, adding on that merchants will see the day's credit card purchases credited to their bank accounts overnight, rather than waiting two to three business days (per standard practice). Beyond credit card services, Groupon's Merchants app also accepts Groupon daily deals, which helps elucidate why Groupon would be interested in entering the mobile credit card payments market in the first place (beyond it being a lucrative market unto itself, of course). Interested parties can sign up over on Groupon's website, and snag the free payments app right here. Finally -- finally -- you'll be able to sell all those $10 gift certificates to Chili's you've been hoarding. Perhaps charge $5 a pop for their $10 value and ... is this a paradox? This might be a paradox.
Adobe Revel 1.5 released with new UI, text captions and auto-syncing albums
Adobe's cloud-based photo storage and editing app has been enjoying its new name since it hopped off the Carousel, and now it's appreciating a feature bump too. Version 1.5 has just hit the virtual shelves of the Mac and iTunes stores, complete with a new UI and the option to log in using Facebook or Google accounts. Functionality wise, the update adds text captioning for your snaps and the ability to create albums which auto-sync across your devices and can be shared with others via the web. Alright, so the update isn't revolutionizing the service, but we're sure those that currently subscribe are reveling in it.
Verizon's Viewdini appears on iOS: works on any network, hunts video from 11 sources
The Viewdini streaming metasearch service launched a few months ago for Verizon's 4G LTE-laden Android hardware, and now it's finally available on iDevices. While the droid app is exclusive to those with a 4G plan on Big Red's network, anything running iOS 4.3 and up can now make use of Viewdini, independently of carrier ties. As the screenshots above show, you're also good to go on 3G, although you better watch that data allowance to avoid any nasty surprises. Interestingly, the iOS version currently only digs through the catalogues of 11 content providers compared with 18 on the Android version, but you're still getting access to various big names like ABC, Crackle, Hulu Plus, Netflix and Verizon's own video service. More providers should be added to the list soon, and if you'd like to give Viewdini a try, it's available at the App Store now.
EGLS to 'modify some parts' of its iOS MMO in wake of Torchlight asset theft accusations
Chinese developer Entertainment Game Labs will remove "some parts" of its game, Armed Heroes Online, the company tells Joystiq. Those "parts," it sounds like, are the ones that Runic Games is saying were stolen from its Torchlight franchise. "Players always come first," EGLS said in a statement. "There, we prefer to modify some parts of Armed Heroes Online where have caused those disputes rather than go on arguing. As long as this carves out a way out of angry disputes, it will be definitely worth our efforts," the statement reads.Despite the alterations coming to AHO, its developer sticks by the game, remaining defiant that any of Runic's Torchlight assets were used in the creation of its iOS MMO. "We want to make clear, if necessary, that we would like to submit the documents, files, and other materials related to the game developing to Apple to prove the originalities of the game and the efforts we devoted into the game developing," the statement says.Runic Games president Travis Baldree contends that he's already looked through AHO's files, however, and that they're far more damning that EGLS wants to admit. "I also downloaded the app, and you can just unzip them and look at any iPhone app. And there was a sound manifest that listed all the sound files in the game, and they were verbatim all of our sound files, including our own misspellings," Baldree told us in an interview yesterday. "Our technical artist Adam Perin did voices for a sword called 'The Sword of Adam.' And it had goofy little things that he would say when you swung the sword. And those were in there [Armed Heroes Online], even in one of their videos," he said.For Runic, this solution – should it actually play out – is exactly what Baldree was hoping would happen. "We're really just trying to get the thing pulled down from the App Store and to have them use their own assets. We were a little baffled by their initial response, and we'd be more than happy to talk to them and see what's up," he said. As of right now, Armed Heroes Online isn't available via the iTunes App Store, and it's seemingly been pulled by Apple following Runic's takedown request.See the full statement from EGLS after the break.
Torchlight art found in iOS MMO; MMO dev denies theft against strong evidence
Art assets from Runic Games' Torchlight franchise bear more than a passing resemblance to those used in iOS MMO Armed Heroes Online, from Chinese developer Entertainment Game Labs ("EGLS"). And Runic Games head Travis Baldree is calling foul, taking to Twitter this week to say, "So, wow - this game is releasing on the app store. They wholesale stole most of the assets from Torchlight," and linking to the EGLS game website.Baldree made the image seen above as well, comparing the two games' art assets from source material he found in YouTube clips of Armed Heroes Online with those of his company's game. Beyond talking, Baldree tells us that Runic "have contacted Apple with a takedown request but haven't heard back yet." The company's goal at the moment is "simply to get the game removed from the App Store until it no longer infringes upon our copyright." It's unclear if representatives from Runic's parent company, Chinese MMO company Perfect World, have been in contact with EGLS separately.Baldree says Runic "have been unable to directly contact the company," but a rep from EGLS posted on Touch Arcade's forums with a lengthy public statement today. "We can hardly agree with Mr. Travis Baldree who judged that EGLS 'wholesale stole most of the assets from Torchlight!' only based on the similarity between several small monsters. The judgment is simply untenable," the post reads.It goes on to say that some EGLS employees "are both crazy game fans and ecstatic movie lovers," alleging that the comparisons drawn are nothing more than an accident at best. Bizarrely, the statement then compares Torchlight to WildTangent's PC RPG Fate, as well as Diablo 2 – both games that Runic employees were instrumental in developing.Armed Heroes Online remains available via iTunes for now, but we don't expect it'll be there for much longer. The game is free-to-play with in-app purchases (read: microtransactions). An EGLS rep didn't respond to request for comment as of publishing.
Apple aware of corrupt apps issue, working on a fix (Update: Fixed!)
Earlier this morning, reports started circulating that the App Store was pushing corrupt binaries to iOS and Mac users, resulting in constant crashes of the affected apps. Marco Arment, of Instapaper fame, was one of the first to notice and very vocal -- bringing the issue to the attention of many in the media and at Apple. The list of affected apps is pretty staggering, including such high profile titles as Angry Birds Space, Yahoo! Search, Google Reader and, of course, Instapaper. The number of developers affected now tops 115, so we'd hold off on those updates. For the first several hours Apple was mum on the issue, but it has finally acknowledged the problem in the support forums and even reached out to developers via email. Suspicions seem to be that the FairPlay DRM is at the root, but until we have official word from Apple we'll refrain from laying the blame at its feet. Cupertino is working (we assume tirelessly) on a fix, which will hopefully be delivered sooner, rather than later. Update: Apple has confirmed to AllThingsD that the problem was due to a "server that generated DRM code" and has been fixed. Affected end users are advised to delete the corrupted apps and redownload them.
Apple ups over-the-air download limit to 50MB for iOS
This tid-bit didn't warrant a lot of attention during Apple's presentation today, but it's definitely worth noting: the limit on downloads from the App Store is now 50MB over-the-air, instead of a paltry 20MB. Now, anything larger than that and you'll still need to hop on a WiFi network, but you probably don't want to chew through your data plan that quick any way. So, enjoy downloading Jaws Revenge without the aid of 802.11.
New privacy policy standards agreed to by world's major app store owners
The California Attorney General has struck a deal with the world's major app store operators that will see new privacy policy standards put in place. Apple, Google, Microsoft, HP, RIM and Amazon have all agreed to require any software that uses personal information to provide a privacy policy that can be viewed in the store before an app is downloaded. The agreement will bring the various markets in line with the California Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires developers provide such a policy. In addition to providing links to the relevant documents in an obvious and consistent location, the companies will have to offer a simple way for users to report devs that violate the rules. For more details about the deal check out the PR after the break.
WWE WrestleFest on iOS today, coming to XBLA, PSN, PC, Android in 2012
Well, this is definitely the craziest thing to happen in wrestling games in quite some time -- and wrestling is a sport built entirely on human insanity. WWF WrestleFest, the classic arcade game by Technos, has been updated for release on iOS by THQ. The new "WWE Wrestlefest" has smoother graphics and an updated roster of wrestlers (a rostler, if you will) including John Cena and Randy Orton, alongside old-school wrestlers like the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage. It's also been modernized with "an extensive downloadable content program."The app is available in a free "Lite" version and a $2.99 "Premium" version for iPhone, and both "Lite" and paid for iPad.THQ also plans to release this new WrestleFest on XBLA, PSN, Android, and PC, sometime in 2012. So we hope the new version is good.
Apple readies $10,000 prize for 25 billionth app milestone
It keeps growing. More downloads, more hard-to-comprehend milestones. This time, Apple's gearing up to hit its 25 billionth app download and it's got another $10,000 prize for the lucky soul that claims that very app. The App Store doubled its download count in the last year -- and then some -- so it's got good reason to be in a celebratory mood. To enter, you can either go grab yourself an app or enter via the prize form below. $10,000 for a random download? Count us in.
PSA: Call of Duty Elite iOS App now available
As promised, the Call of Duty Elite app for iOS is now available via the iTunes App Store, and just like its console counterpart, it's totally free. The Elite app offers a chance for Modern Warfare 3 players to track stats, player progression, revisit past matches, and a variety of other services, though we're told it's all the more thrilling if you're paying for the annual Elite subscription. The application is expected to arrive on Android devices next week.
App downloads top 1 billion during the holiday week
During the holiday week (by which we mean the seven days between the secularized celebration of a Christian holy day timed to replace a pagan winter festival and the beginning of a new year in the Gregorian calendar) the iTunes App Store and the Android Market combined to reach a record-breaking 1.2 billion downloads according to analytics firm Flurry. The sudden surge in downloads is no shock considering the impressive number of activations on Christmas day, but a 60 percent jump over the week of December 4th through December 17th is still quite a feat. Check out the source for a few more details.
Alien Hominid: PDA Games adds new trial levels
We get it. In this tough economy, it's hard to scrape together cash for a game sometimes, even if it is only a buck. And so you've been rationing the trial levels in Alien Hominid: PDA Games. Well, today The Behemoth has added more trial levels for its frugal fans. You can download the free version over on iTunes and, should you change your mind about that buck, you can purchase the full game in-app. The full version sports 20 different achievements across 500 levels.
iMame app pulled from iOS App Store after a few short days of freedom
Apple has officially pulled iMame, the free, ROM-playing arcade unit emulator, from its App Store, killing one of the very few venues for getting old arcade games onto your iOS device of choice. The move is presumably due to Apple's long-standing policy of not allowing applications running on its devices to play emulated software (despite a few exceptions in Capcom and Atari). As with other emulators to have somehow sneaked past Apple's App approvals process, it wasn't long before Apple got wind of iMame's uses and shut it down. That said, if you already snagged yourself a copy of the free App, it can't be taken away, though it can't exactly receive updates either. Unfortunate, yes, but at least you've got a few months of unadulterated, portable, emulated gaming ahead of you!
App Store hits 15 billion downloads, $2.5 billion paid by Apple to developers
It's hard to believe that the App Store has only been around for three years, but it's easy to believe that its successes are many. Very, very many. Apple has just announced that it has rolled over the 15 billion mark for downloads, that from a selection of 425,000 apps. Apple's proud of paying $2.5 billion to app developers and we're pretty sure those developers are proud to be a part of that figure -- even if they grumble about the 30 percent they're losing for the privilege.
Bungie celebrates 20 years with promise of Bungie Aerospace reveal, free iOS app
It's hard to believe that the house that built Halo has been around for nearly 20 years, and only kicked off the past decade of Halo games halfway through its lifespan, but that's the case. The now-independent developer is celebrating the big two zero this year, and in typical Bungie fashion the studio will be offering a variety of special items to its fans, starting with an already released (and free) iOS app. For those of you who without an iOS device, a whole mess of other things will be going down between June 23 and July 7 -- "Bungie Day" -- such as special additions to the Bungie store. And more importantly to us, the still mysterious "Bungie Aerospace" will be explained "in explicit detail. You can also win some totally serious actual steaks if you beat the Bungie dudes in Halo: Reach "by 20 kills or more" on July 7 -- a difficult feat for sure, but one worthy of earning the title "Steaktacular." The team will be in Reach multiplayer for all 24 hours of that day. [Thanks, Tyler C]
HBO Go mobile app hands-on (video)
HBO Go has been live on the iTunes App Store and Android Market for just a few short hours, but we've already put it through the paces, poking and prodding on our iPad and iPhone, to see what all the hubbub's about. We're pleased with the hefty amount of video that HBO's offering up here, and the interface is pretty intuitive as well. Still, browsing through the myriad content on the iPad's larger screen is definitely a bit more leisurely than on the iPhone's 3.5-inch counterpart. Both apps sport the same feature set, so searching for content, saving things to watch later, and blasting updates to Facebook and Twitter will work well on whichever device you choose. To make the deal even sweeter, it's free for current subscribers, so there's really no reason to not check it out for yourself -- unless you don't have HBO, in which case we have a video walkthrough embedded after the break. Update: Sorry Android users, but it looks like the only supported versions for the Android app are 2.1 - 2.3.3. However, we're getting reports that it does function in the browser -- so long as you've got Flash installed, of course. We're also told that the HBO Go site works just fine on the PlayBook as well. %Gallery-122541%
EA boasts 'record-breaking quarter on iOS' thanks to 'well-timed' holiday promotion
EA COO John Schappert took to the airwaves during his company's Q3 earnings call to elaborate on the claim that Electronic Arts was the "#1 publisher in the Apple App Store for both iPhone and iPad and #1 on Microsoft Windows Phone 7." Some of you may remember EA's massive holiday-season sale in which it dropped the price on many of its apps to just a dollar; what you may not have known is that Apple freezes the charts every holiday season, and EA timed its price drops perfectly. Its apps shot up the listings and remained in the Top 25 Paid Apps while the App Store charts were frozen; meanwhile, the competition was unable to respond with lower prices and, even if it could, sales successes wouldn't be reflected on the charts. "In December, a well-timed promotion of our iPhone and iPad games resulted in an unprecedented share and chart position for our titles," Schappert said. "The day after Christmas, the millions who were activating their new devices, EA held 14 of the top 25 paid apps for the iPhone and 15 of the top 25 paid apps for the iPad. Needless to say we had a record-breaking quarter on iOS." For EA, "each of these devices represents a new platform, a new revenue stream, and millions of new consumers." Schappert also called attention to the success seen in the Kindle Store, where EA's "Scrabble game outsold all books to become the #1 selling download in the Kindle Store from Christmas to New Year's." And of course, "Angry Birds was the #1 selling game for both iPhone and iPad in 2010" – while EA may not own the rights to the franchise itself, it does own the original iOS publisher Chillingo. With its plan (crafty timing and all!) in place, perhaps the sting of losing Adam Sussman – EA's mobile veep, credited with pushing the publisher's iOS strategy – to Disney Interactive last week won't last long. Now how about a $0.99 sale on the excellent Dead Space?
