Apple Launches ITunes App Store With 500+ Apps 121
L. Miriam writes "Apple launched the iTunes App store for the iPhone and iPod Touch today, following the earlier launch of iTunes 7.7. There are over 500 applications available for download, with prices ranging from free to around $35. Both MySpace and Facebook apps are there, as well as a mix of games, utilities and ebooks. You can download applications now, but you can't do anything with them until the iPhone/iPod 2.0 firmware is released. The App Store can't be accessed directly through iTunes, but Mobile Computer explains how to get to it, and has a few screenshots, too."
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http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewGenre?id=36&mt=8 [apple.com]
You can access it directly within iTunes. (Score:5, Informative)
There's a section in Preferences -> General which controls which categories you have on the panel on the left. One of those available to display now is "Applications" which will happily take you to that section of the iTunes Store.
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It's everythingtodowithappleproducts management software.
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What did iTunes ever install without user knowledge?
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Previous poster is probably referring to Apple's Safari Update fiasco where Safari was installed, by default, whenever an iTunes user updated his/her software.
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iTunes got updated for that App store.
E.g. I am OS X only user with 3 macs at my home, 3 macs downloaded some 50 MB or something iTunes update and installed (my choice) because it was a critical update. As a Symbian S60/J2ME user who has ZERO interest in iPhone, I got the 150+ MB download. I got used to it as a downloader of all iPod firmware updates earlier times :)
OS X, kernel, device drivers, frameworks can get "patched" but iTunes can't. As you know, iTunes is a way more critical software (!) than OS X
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Am I the only one that gets a blank dark grey window? Clicking "Check for Updates" and "Get More Applications" just brings up a dialog stating: "The iTunes Applications Store is not currently available. Please try again later."
Who says Slashvertising doesn't work? (Score:1)
In Soviet America... the Slashdot does the advertising FOR YOU!!!
What a country!
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Thanks for this. I just checked it and noticed that they've moved the iPod nano and iPod games I've downloaded to this new Applications tab.
"500" (Score:5, Insightful)
The 500+ figure includes each e-book as a separate "app", but still there's a pretty good showing with much more to come. A lot of it is free or very cheap.
Still, if people thought FairPlay DRM was a lock-in factor for iPods, they haven't seen anything yet. Android is going to be about 6 months too late to intercept the wave of lock-in happening right now with the app store. I'll bet Stallman is firing up a good rant as we speak...
No Real Danger - iPhone A Marketplace Dud (Score:1, Funny)
No one but foaming at the mouth are buying iPhones. The phones haven't even come close to Apple's state sales goals.
The only reason to buy an iPhone is in some desperate hope that by using it at somewhere like Starbucks someone equally as vacuous but attractive will see you using it and want to have sex with you.
Ok, one more reason. A rich guy I know actually bought one and he uses it to show off this hilarious picture of him posing with his giant pot stash. The amazing iPhone lets him spin the picture arou
Re:No Real Danger - iPhone A Marketplace Dud (Score:4, Funny)
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The only reason to buy an iPhone is in some desperate hope that by using it at somewhere like Starbucks someone equally as vacuous but attractive will see you using it and want to have sex with you.
Hey! That's why I bought mine!
It works, too....
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It also includes the doubling up of the free apps -- poking around, it looks like almost half of them are "free" demos, and there's a second premium app you have to buy.
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Re:"500" (Score:5, Informative)
The 500+ figure includes each e-book as a separate "app", but still there's a pretty good showing with much more to come. A lot of it is free or very cheap.
It also includes the doubling up of the free apps -- poking around, it looks like almost half of them are "free" demos, and there's a second premium app you have to buy.
It also includes some pretty crappy apps that surprisingly made the launch day cut [arstechnica.com]: "seven tip calculators, three flashlight applications, nine Bible-related entries, two Zen garden applications, five blackjack games, and almost 10 percent of the entries are ebooks. There is an application to simulate the playing of a tiny violin to console your friends, a Light Saber emulator, an application that gives you a cartoon eye, and two applications that simulate the look of a beer mug."
A $0.99 "flashlight" app that does nothing but turn the screen white seems like a dubious inclusion in the "500+" claim. Others [cnet.com] include a $2.99 app called "Looky" that provides Google Suggest capability, which Google provides for free [blogspot.com]. My favorite is "Hold On!", which records how long you can hold your finger on an on-screen button (with "records").
As for the "doubling up of the free apps," I see more free "ad-supported" versions than "demos." Double-counting "demos" would be really obnoxious, but fully-functional ad-supported versions are less so, IMO. One nice-looking example for Flickr users: Exposure [connectedflow.com] (free ad-supported, $9.99 w/o ads), a Flickr browser that has a "Near Me" feature which uses the iPhone's location capabilities (including 1st-gen iPhones) to browse photos near you.
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A $0.99 "flashlight" app that does nothing but turn the screen white seems like a dubious inclusion in the "500+" claim.
It's surprisingly useful if you're ever poking around behind desks. It's also approximately 5 lines of code; there are multiple free versions for jailbroken iPhones. Unfortunately one result of Apple restricting development and charging for keys is that users will get nickel-and-dimed for apps that would normally be free.
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There may be dross, but there's plenty of super-useful and well-designed apps too. In about 30seconds browsing, I found Babelingo -- I'd have appreciated having that last week in Spain.
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Yes, there was a fair amount of junk, but I spent over $30, and I didn't get everything I was interested in. And there were a lot of free apps, including one of the tip calculators and one of the "flashlight" apps (which just lights the screen up in your choice of colors).
I'd love to know what the day 1 take was. I suspect it was large.
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"seven tip calculators, three flashlight applications, nine Bible-related entries, two Zen garden applications, five blackjack games..."
This seems to happen to any "dominant" platform that offers developers a low enough cost of entry. I remember the days when people would praise Windows for having so much software available, failing to notice that in each case where 50 programs did the same thing (and there were plenty such cases), 48 were complete rubbish.
Re:"500" (Score:5, Insightful)
An app for the iPhone seems similar to the lockin one gets buying a game for the DS or PSP. Sure, Apple is controlling all distribution, but free apps are fine and I haven't seen anything that prevents you from releasing the source code of your app on your own website.
Overall, the iPhone ecosystem is one that other phone makers are going to try and copy because it's easy for the users and appears to just work.
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good alternatives available (Score:1, Troll)
Android is going to be about 6 months too late to intercept the wave of lock-in happening right now with the app store.
Well, I suppose Apple fanboys will get locked in, but they were locked in already.
There are some nice Symbian phones coming out, Symbian is getting more and more POSIX compliant, and it will be open sourced over the next couple of years. That's probably your best bet right now until Android. And Symbian has some nice apps available.
Re:good alternatives available (Score:5, Interesting)
There are a lot of people buying iPhones who aren't "Apple fanboys", and these people will start spending actual money on apps. On many phones you'll have some random ringtones and free Java games and such, but you tend not to have a large catalog of apps you paid for. On the iPhone, if you consider moving to another phone after spending a lot of money on apps you'll have to throw it away and re-purchase everything.
Look, I'm not actually complaining. I own an iPod Touch and plan on paying the $10 for the upgrade and buying some of the really cool stuff I've seen. I'm just saying... it's an interesting market trend. It also makes me think Jobs' allergic reaction to Java won't dissipate anytime soon...
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On the iPhone, if you consider moving to another phone after spending a lot of money on apps you'll have to throw it away and re-purchase everything.
I have thrown away commercial platforms after spending considerable amounts of money when I realized that they were turning into bottomless pits for money. I think people sooner or later just naturally get fed up with DRM and Apple Stores and all that crap, in particular when they get an alternative.
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I think people sooner or later just naturally get fed up with DRM and Apple Stores and all that crap, in particular when they get an alternative.
You may think that but all evidence points to the exact opposite of what you're saying. Apple stores and the DRM'ed iTunes store are more popular every day. This has the benefit of facts. What makes you think the reverse is true?
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For what it worth, the apps that you purchase are tied to your itunes account, not to the phone. If you wipe your phone and go "buy" them again, it will notify you that you have already purchased the app and let you download it for free.
where's the remote desktop or vnc app? or hell, (Score:3, Insightful)
why not even a ssh/telnet client of any kind. WTF apple?
Re:where's the remote desktop or vnc app? or hell, (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, barring anything in the SDK that might prevent an SSH/telnet client from being developed, I suspect it's because none of the the currently-ready iPhone developers thought the market needed it badly enough to develop it now. Don't like it? Write one yourself [apple.com].
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It sounds like a market opportunity to develop SSH on the iPhone. It sounds like Yet Anooter SSH App if you develop one for a Windows or Linux phone.
Re:where's the remote desktop or vnc app? or hell, (Score:4, Insightful)
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How do you get a control-key or an escape on the onscreen keyboard? (I don't think you can...)
(What use is a ssh client if I can't run vi?)
Re:where's the remote desktop or vnc app? or hell, (Score:4, Interesting)
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There won't be any changes , it is the device. If people line up for _that_ iPhone with _those_ applications, Apple is not really stupid to give actual smartphone experience to their users.
J2ME, Symbian, WinCE, all have SSH solutions both commercial and open source.
I am particularly against the idea of hacking a device to get secure shell support.
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You have to read my posts with the understanding that I will contradict myself halfway through my post. Because the reality of most situations lie somewhere between the several opinions. One one hand its frustrating that it doesn't do what I want (something I hold as much more useful than the other features that will be included. Basically, its the equivalent of wanting a power drill included in a happy mea
Re:where's the remote desktop or vnc app? or hell, (Score:4, Informative)
VNC perhaps, but there's a bunch of handy apps (AFPd, SSH server, SSH client, shell access) that are against the terms of the SDK license agreement. Its legal not technical limitations.
Thankfully 2.0 can still be un-crippled and the Installer.app managed versions of those apps will be usable.
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You know, people keep telling me this, but I haven't seen any actual proof that an SSH client would be prevented. But I may well have missed it in the SDK license. Can you point me to where Apple legally prohibits this?
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You're surprised? (Score:1)
why not even a ssh/telnet client of any kind. WTF apple?
You're never going to see ssh. They don't want you executing commands that might amount to an application. It's expressly forbidden. It's the same reason that Sun scrapped their plans to port Java. It's the reason you'll never see a third party browser like Opera or Mozilla on it. There's also not going to be VoIP or P2P. Period. It ain't happening. Hell, you're lucky to get ANY apps past Apple. Look at TomTom. They went to the trouble of developing an app only to scrap the app and drop out of the
Warning: Don't click "Buy" if you use ShoppingCart (Score:5, Informative)
There are normally two ways to shop using the iTunes store 1) with 1-click "buy it now", which is the default, and 2) with a shopping cart, which lets you queue items and decide which to buy later.
Just a warning: App Store does NOT respect the shopping cart setting. If you login to download some free apps and accidentally click "Buy" on a non-free app, YOU WILL BE CHARGED IMMEDIATELY
Hopefully they fix this before tomorrow at 8am.
iPhone Developer Program (Score:5, Insightful)
By current guesses, Apple had about 25k developers sign up for the iPhone Developer Program and only let 5k in. I am sure that the 20k developers who are (still) locked out are pleased as punch that the 5k got first opportunity to get their apps into the App Store.
Apple has been giving away the SDK, but you need to be in the developer program to run your code on an actual device (or to get your app into the App Store). They say that the Simulator in the SDK should be good enough even if it can't simulate one of the more interesting features of the iPhone/iPod touch, the accelerometer.
The iPhone and iPod touch are so cool that we just put up with everything that Apple does and be happy little developers until Apple thinks we deserve to be let in, right?
Re:iPhone Developer Program (Score:4, Insightful)
No, the iPhone and iPod touch will sell so many units that developers are salivating at the idea of selling on it.
Just like developers are now jumping onto the Wii bandwagon.
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Re:iPhone Developer Program (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple has been giving away the SDK, but you need to be in the developer program to run your code on an actual device (or to get your app into the App Store). They say that the Simulator in the SDK should be good enough even if it can't simulate one of the more interesting features of the iPhone/iPod touch, the accelerometer.
I'm still furious that Apple released the Macintosh before I had a chance to write $APPLICATION, and now it's been about 24 years since anybody has written anything for the Mac, because the first 500 applications written covered everybody's needs.
OK, seriously - yeah, it sucks that not everybody gets to be one of the first 500 applications. But, if you blow us away with your application, it doesn't matter. Make it so intuitive, pretty, and powerful that we can't resist. Find an application that meets the needs that I don't even know I have yet, then show me how much better my life would be with your application. That's what Apple does with its products (they were not the first to market with an MP3 player, but they effectively cleared the market of everybody else), and that's what you'll have to do to sell your software to the same users.
Re:iPhone Developer Program (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, it may very well be (and hopefully is) that Apple has a better algorithm for bringing up new apps to users than that.
If you spend 5.99 on a sudoku app in the next week are you really going to buy a much better one in a month? Probably not, you probably won't even be looking for one. Not that sudoku is the killer app for the iphone but the app that is already available is going to have a HUGE leg up on the app that isn't yet in the store.
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If you spend 5.99 on a sudoku app in the next week are you really going to buy a much better one in a month? Probably not, you probably won't even be looking for one.
Well, the point here is that if your application is a dime a dozen, who cares? Somebody will come out with one that's as good as yours (or close), and free. If your application is good enough to generate some word-of-mouth advertising, some the people willing to spend money on a different one in the first place will upgrade. But you're going to have more success by stepping off the beaten path, and coming up with something new.
If you're the first one to make an app that enables voice dialing or voice-con
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Which is why I'm sure that the list of developers 'let in' included all the groups that Apple felt they needed to kiss up to. Lets face it, Apple needs Adobe, Apple doesn't need Garage Developer #253221. At least not till #253221 comes up with something that takes over the platform, in which case Apple figures "No harm, no foul".
Not that I agree with their take on the situation, and if I ever actually got an iTouch/Phone, I'd probably jailbreak it out of principle. But they really haven't shot themselves in
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You mean like that Moo Cow Music guy with the "Band" app? IIRC he's an indie developer and Apple liked his app so much that they let him demo it at WWDC.
Re:iPhone Developer Program (Score:4, Interesting)
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I looked at the various applications being offered and not surprisingly, there were quite a few tip calculators, to-do lists and fitness logs. Just about every straightforward "enter some data and save it or do rudimentary calculations on it" application was well represented. And yes, there were a few cases where you'd have a free to-do list competing with a $9.99USD to-do list.
I don't speak for Apple and can't guess at some of their rationales but I would hope that Apple realized that it's better to rejec
We're in trouble now, Tonto... (Score:1, Offtopic)
The iPhone and iPod touch are so cool that we just put up with everything that Apple does and be happy little developers until Apple thinks we deserve to be let in, right?
Speak for yourself, Kemosabe.
bad link (Score:1, Offtopic)
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he meant http://iflipr.com/ [iflipr.com]
if you leave off the http:/// [http] it gets added to the local domain....
Been browsing and it's severely lacking... (Score:3, Interesting)
The first three things I decided I wanted to find (and even purchase if there wasn't a free version available were:
Now, to my knowledge there is an ssh client available for first gen iPhones (jailbreaked) but despite this no one has bothered putting together a simple SSH client for the 3G iPhone?
/Mikael
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no one I know uses AIM
Weird. Everyone I know uses AIM and no one uses MSN. Someone should do/link to a study that breaks down IM service usage by region, demographic, etc.
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United State = AIM
Other places = MSN
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United States = AIM Other places = MSN
That's a bit of an over generalization isn't it?
I'm not an American but I most certainly do not use MSN.
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Everyone agrees that's a bit of an over generalization .
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You're mostly right. I would add that Japan = Yahoo and China = QQ.
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How about a good password manager? Splash-Id is one of the main reasons I'm still hanging onto my Treo.
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I can bet the Agile 1 Password is in the works. They already provide function with javascript and prepare an actual application.
Watch http://www.1password.com/ [1password.com] or their blog http://agilewebsolutions.com/blog/ [agilewebsolutions.com]
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Yeah, SSH on jailbroken 'pods is great. Can't wait till the 2.0 firmware is cracked so i can use legit apps or jailbroken ones!
-Taylor
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Yay! I haven't been checking much lately, but i wasn't too worried till tomorrow anyway.
-Taylor
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Well if Apple SDK disallows magnificent apps like Fring...
I am completely against buying an iPhone to jailbreak it but if you are interested, here is Fring page
http://www.fring.com/download/iphone/ [fring.com]
Note, they don't even provide jailbreaking details since it is officially illegal and unsupported.
I gave up trying to educate iPhone owners and potential iPhone buyers myself.
So I synced my iphone today.... (Score:2)
I docked my iphone to my pc like any other day, today, Apple wanted to install a new iTunes, sure, go ahead. Then it wanted to stuff Safari at me, no thanks. Oh, there is a software update for your iPhone. Apply.
iTunes crashes, my iphone is stuck at a Apple logo and the swirly. Waited about 45 minutes. WTF? Rebooted my system. Rebooted the iPhone. It has the little logo plug me into itunes.
So, I did. It says it needs to restore the iphone, ok, restoring. 30 minutes later it is done.
Then it complains, can't
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I still can't get into iTunes, but somehow my iPhone automagically activated itself anyway. I just can't sync with my computer yet, I guess.
For my part, it doesn't matter as I also happen to have my old phone, and my wife's phone with me as I haven't ported my number over yet. I figured I'm covered with 3 mobile phones for th
testing (Score:2, Insightful)
testing
sdhf odsig (Score:2, Interesting)
erger rgeger
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Re:That would be this... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh and direct link since I'm a whore: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-4955.20080710.bgt53/iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw [edgesuite.net]
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Downloading apps from the built-in apps store is very easy and the free ones I've gotten so far have been pretty decent. Must go back to playing now!
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Same here, performed the restore with that file and it's all been working perfectly.
Just a note: you might get a .zip extension on that file after downloading it, just remove the .zip extension and perform the restore. It will take a bit but it seems to be official and it works just fine. I'm using apps and fooling around with the new features.
BTW - the new Remote app is pretty cool. Remote control of your Apple TV or the iTunes libraries on your computers, it works seamlessly. Very neat.
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I'm tempted but hmmm... this article [appleinsider.com] claims the GM build number is 5A345. I know it's akamai, but look at that url, who knows what that file is. if someone can post some MD5 checksums that prove it's legit, I'm all in.
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Often by digging through Akamai's (who are Apple's infrastructure provider) servers, using common strings and hoping to strike it rich.
What do you do with your spare time at work? :p
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In other news, apple.com.edgesuite.net is not a direct link to Apple.
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And how is edgesuite.net a direct link to Apple?
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