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Android users who like to "steal" apps rather than pay the developer for their hard work are going to find it a bit harder in the future. The Department of Justice is targeting pirate Android apps sites. With the help of Dutch and French law enforcement, the FBI has now seized three popular Android app sharing sites (Appbucket, Snappzmarket and Applanet) that offered illegal downloads. As noted in their press release, they will continue to seize such sites as part of their cracking down on the piracy of copyrighted works :
“Cracking down on piracy of copyrighted works – including popular apps – is a top priority of the Criminal Division,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Software apps have become an increasingly essential part of our nation’s economy and creative culture, and the Criminal Division is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to protect the creators of these apps and other forms of intellectual property from those who seek to steal it.”
“Criminal copyright laws apply to apps for cell phones and tablets, just as they do to other software, music and writings. These laws protect and encourage the hard work and ingenuity of software developers entering this growing and important part of our economy. We will continue to seize and shut down websites that market pirated apps, and to pursue those responsible for criminal charges if appropriate,” said U.S. Attorney Yates.
I won't go into a rant about piracy on Android but it's there and people know it. Now, with The Department of Justice stepping in and closing some of the more prominent sites down hopefully this will convince others to start paying for the apps they really want. Besides, there is other reasons to not pirate apps aside from the money you'll be spending.
Showing posts with label App. Show all posts
Showing posts with label App. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Microsoft-No New Windows Phone apps after some refuse to install on older devices.
www.tech-sanity.com
Microsoft may face a few uncomfortable questions at Build this fall. A bug in digital signatures resulting from the Windows Phone Dev Center rollout is preventing a "small percentage" of apps in the Windows Phone Store, including not-so-insignificant titles like WhatsApp and Microsoft's own Translator, from installing on older phones that had to upgrade to Windows Phone 7.5 after the fact. While the company already has a fix in the works, it's performing some painful triage to keep the damage from spreading: it's putting the brakes on publishing any new apps until certificate signing is back under control. Microsoft doesn't yet know when it can open the taps once more, either. The momentary freeze won't stop downloads of already-published apps, but it's likely to leave a few customers jittery about resetting their phones -- and developers twiddling their thumbs.
Microsoft may face a few uncomfortable questions at Build this fall. A bug in digital signatures resulting from the Windows Phone Dev Center rollout is preventing a "small percentage" of apps in the Windows Phone Store, including not-so-insignificant titles like WhatsApp and Microsoft's own Translator, from installing on older phones that had to upgrade to Windows Phone 7.5 after the fact. While the company already has a fix in the works, it's performing some painful triage to keep the damage from spreading: it's putting the brakes on publishing any new apps until certificate signing is back under control. Microsoft doesn't yet know when it can open the taps once more, either. The momentary freeze won't stop downloads of already-published apps, but it's likely to leave a few customers jittery about resetting their phones -- and developers twiddling their thumbs.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Good news Windows 8 Store Will Offer Free Seven Day Trials for Paid Apps.
www.tech-sanity.com
Now this has got to be good news for users. Microsoft has released the details on how they plan to run the apps released through the new App Store coming with Windows 8. We have known about the store for a long time, but this is the first time we've heard about the inner workings of the apps, like the cut Microsoft plans to take.
First and foremost, all paid apps will cost at least $1.49 as opposed to the $0.99 other platforms allow. And most importantly for consumers, Microsoft plans to implement a 7-day "try before you buy" setup with apps that will let you opt-out of the full purchase if you don't like it.
Microsoft seems to also want to provide app developers with an incentive to churn out apps for its platform. Although they are sticking with the same 30% royalty cut that Apple takes, Microsoft's new store will only take 20% once your app earns $25,000 in sales.
Now this has got to be good news for users. Microsoft has released the details on how they plan to run the apps released through the new App Store coming with Windows 8. We have known about the store for a long time, but this is the first time we've heard about the inner workings of the apps, like the cut Microsoft plans to take.
First and foremost, all paid apps will cost at least $1.49 as opposed to the $0.99 other platforms allow. And most importantly for consumers, Microsoft plans to implement a 7-day "try before you buy" setup with apps that will let you opt-out of the full purchase if you don't like it.
Microsoft seems to also want to provide app developers with an incentive to churn out apps for its platform. Although they are sticking with the same 30% royalty cut that Apple takes, Microsoft's new store will only take 20% once your app earns $25,000 in sales.
Jordan Ruddess Keyboard Wizard shows off his new project "Spacewiz"
www.tech-sanity.com
Thanks Keyboard Mag this is a great video of Jordan Ruddess with his new gear.
This generative music app uses an animated solar system, whose orbiting planets have realistic physics and gravitational pulls upon one another, as real-time music creation objects. This is the first ever look at this app, which should be in the App Store soon. It's truly stunning on the latest iPad's Retina display, and as for what it does musically, well ... once you pick it up, it's hard to put it down.
Thanks Keyboard Mag this is a great video of Jordan Ruddess with his new gear.
This generative music app uses an animated solar system, whose orbiting planets have realistic physics and gravitational pulls upon one another, as real-time music creation objects. This is the first ever look at this app, which should be in the App Store soon. It's truly stunning on the latest iPad's Retina display, and as for what it does musically, well ... once you pick it up, it's hard to put it down.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Touch-Optimized Version Of Adobe Photoshop Available In App Store - For A While
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In just a snap, shortly after we posted about a probable Feb. 27 release for the iPad version of Adobe Photoshop Touch, the hotly anticipated app has already hit the App Store. 9to5Mac reports that Photoshop Touch, which was initially released in the Android Market, was made available for App Store customers in New Zealand for a short while. The App Store availability of the app was expected to propagate to other countries in the next few hours, but it was eventually pulled to be released as originally scheduled, on Monday.
While the basic Adobe Photoshop Express has long been at the disposal of iPhone and iPad users, it’s only now that a dedicated and feature-rich iOS companion to Adobe’s popular photo-editing program is made available. Photoshop Touch for iPad inherits many of the core features of Photoshop for Mac and PC. It supports layering, tool selection, adjustments and filters, all of which utilize the iPad’s multitouch capabilities.
A couple of special features are highlighted in the app. There’s the Scribble Selection tool, which allows for selecting parts of an image to retain or remove by merely scribbling in and around the image. There’s also an instrument called Refine Edge, which makes zeroing in on hard-to-select elements much easier. Watch the video overview below for a demonstration of these features by John Nack, Principal Product Manager for Photoshop Touch.Of course, Adobe would be terribly amiss not to include a social layer to the app. It has options to share images on Facebook and viewing comments directly on the app, but there’s no mention of any sort of connectivity with the other trendy social network, Twitter. Creative Cloud, Adobe’s paid storage service, is also integrated in the app, as well as image searching and downloading through Google Images.
Photoshop is the first in a projected series of six tablet apps based on Adobe’s Creative Suite software; Adobe Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler and Proto should be coming soon. Before you purchase Photoshop Touch, though, be aware that it is compatible only with iPad 2 units that are running on iOS 5. Another limitation to note is the maximum supported image resolution, which is set at only 1600 x 1600 pixels.
You can download Photoshop Touch for iPad for $9.99 in the App Store beginning Monday.
In just a snap, shortly after we posted about a probable Feb. 27 release for the iPad version of Adobe Photoshop Touch, the hotly anticipated app has already hit the App Store. 9to5Mac reports that Photoshop Touch, which was initially released in the Android Market, was made available for App Store customers in New Zealand for a short while. The App Store availability of the app was expected to propagate to other countries in the next few hours, but it was eventually pulled to be released as originally scheduled, on Monday.
While the basic Adobe Photoshop Express has long been at the disposal of iPhone and iPad users, it’s only now that a dedicated and feature-rich iOS companion to Adobe’s popular photo-editing program is made available. Photoshop Touch for iPad inherits many of the core features of Photoshop for Mac and PC. It supports layering, tool selection, adjustments and filters, all of which utilize the iPad’s multitouch capabilities.
A couple of special features are highlighted in the app. There’s the Scribble Selection tool, which allows for selecting parts of an image to retain or remove by merely scribbling in and around the image. There’s also an instrument called Refine Edge, which makes zeroing in on hard-to-select elements much easier. Watch the video overview below for a demonstration of these features by John Nack, Principal Product Manager for Photoshop Touch.Of course, Adobe would be terribly amiss not to include a social layer to the app. It has options to share images on Facebook and viewing comments directly on the app, but there’s no mention of any sort of connectivity with the other trendy social network, Twitter. Creative Cloud, Adobe’s paid storage service, is also integrated in the app, as well as image searching and downloading through Google Images.
Photoshop is the first in a projected series of six tablet apps based on Adobe’s Creative Suite software; Adobe Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler and Proto should be coming soon. Before you purchase Photoshop Touch, though, be aware that it is compatible only with iPad 2 units that are running on iOS 5. Another limitation to note is the maximum supported image resolution, which is set at only 1600 x 1600 pixels.
You can download Photoshop Touch for iPad for $9.99 in the App Store beginning Monday.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Apple Acquires Chomp to Recreate App Store Search and Discovery
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Apple is acquiring three-year old startup Chomp and plans to use the company's technology and expertise to improve the App Store's search and app discovery technology, according to a report from TechCrunch.
We first covered Chomp in November 2009 to announce their seed funding. Since then, they’ve grown their scope to include not only iPhone apps, but Android apps as well. In fact, Chomp currently has a deal with Verizon to power all of their Android-based app searches. That relationship, obviously, is going to get a bit awkward with this acquisition.
My understanding is that such deals will remain intact for now but are likely to end once the Chomp team and product transitions over to Apple. The same is likely true for Chomp’s stand-alone products.
The terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, but TechCrunch reports that the deal isn't merely about talent -- Apple wants Chomp's technology as well. Chomp has raised more than $2.5 million in funding and apparently all investors are very pleased with the outcome. Chomp's 20 or so employees are reportedly all headed for Apple.
Apple generally prefers to make small to medium size acquisitions of talent and technology, rather than spending huge sums of its $100 billion cash hoard. Earlier this year, Apple paid some $390 million to acquire Israeli flash memory firm Anobit.
Apple is acquiring three-year old startup Chomp and plans to use the company's technology and expertise to improve the App Store's search and app discovery technology, according to a report from TechCrunch.
We first covered Chomp in November 2009 to announce their seed funding. Since then, they’ve grown their scope to include not only iPhone apps, but Android apps as well. In fact, Chomp currently has a deal with Verizon to power all of their Android-based app searches. That relationship, obviously, is going to get a bit awkward with this acquisition.
My understanding is that such deals will remain intact for now but are likely to end once the Chomp team and product transitions over to Apple. The same is likely true for Chomp’s stand-alone products.
The terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, but TechCrunch reports that the deal isn't merely about talent -- Apple wants Chomp's technology as well. Chomp has raised more than $2.5 million in funding and apparently all investors are very pleased with the outcome. Chomp's 20 or so employees are reportedly all headed for Apple.
Apple generally prefers to make small to medium size acquisitions of talent and technology, rather than spending huge sums of its $100 billion cash hoard. Earlier this year, Apple paid some $390 million to acquire Israeli flash memory firm Anobit.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Clear for iPhone
www.tech-sanity.com
This is such a great app. Check out the video as a picture, or video is sure worth a thousand words
Clear, the heavily-anticipated touch-based to-do list app, is launching in the iTunes App Store tonight. And by heavily anticipated, I mean this app was getting tech blog coverage based on demos, previews and teaser videos.
Why the big draw for what’s typically been a rather ho-hum app category, the lowly to-do list? Clear is pure eye candy, for starters. But it’s also representative of a major leap forward in smartphone app design, as it’s been built from the ground up for the touch interface. The app is based solely on the use of now-common gestures: swipes, pulls and pinches. There are no buttons with Clear, and yet, it’s surprisingly simple to use. In fact, that’s the point.
Clear for iPhone (Coming Soon!) from Realmac Software on Vimeo.
This is such a great app. Check out the video as a picture, or video is sure worth a thousand words
Clear, the heavily-anticipated touch-based to-do list app, is launching in the iTunes App Store tonight. And by heavily anticipated, I mean this app was getting tech blog coverage based on demos, previews and teaser videos.
Why the big draw for what’s typically been a rather ho-hum app category, the lowly to-do list? Clear is pure eye candy, for starters. But it’s also representative of a major leap forward in smartphone app design, as it’s been built from the ground up for the touch interface. The app is based solely on the use of now-common gestures: swipes, pulls and pinches. There are no buttons with Clear, and yet, it’s surprisingly simple to use. In fact, that’s the point.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
iMovie vs Avid Studio: iPad video editing app shootout.
www.tech-sanity.com
By Leanna Lofte, Saturday, Feb 4, 2012
By Leanna Lofte, Saturday, Feb 4, 2012
Apple and Avid have been battling it out on the big screen for years, but now they’ve brought the video editing battle to the iPad — and the winner may not be who you think.
Avid Studio for iPad launched this week in the App Store, instantly becoming the first real competitor to Apple’s iMovie video editing app. What makes this so interesting is that Avid was king of digital video editing in Hollywood for a long time, and then Apple came out with the far more affordable Final Cut Pro/ Final Cut Studio, and enticed a few big name directors to give their new software a try.
So is Avid getting a little payback here by bringing the video editing battle back to Apple’s home turf? Most definitely, and as good as iMovie is — some of the best mobile software we’ve seen to date — Avid be even better.
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