Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s take our minds off all this nasty Google Voice business for a minute, and focus on the apps that we do have. Google may not make an appearance this week, but how about Wikipedia? NPR? The Discovery Channel? Simplify?

NPR News: The unaffiliated Public Radio Player was great great great, but this is somehow better. It brings twice as many stations, adds written news content along with offline reading, on-demand NPR shows and a surprisingly navigable interface. Guiltily free, since you don’t even have to sit through pledge drives.

Wikipedia: I just assumed this app already existed, but Wikipedia somehow didn’t have an app until this week. Weird! It’s sort of a website-wrapped-in-an-app snooze for now, though it’s open source and Wikipedia would very much like you to help make it into something decent, that people might actually want. Free, and quite.

Fluent News (Update): A personal favorite news aggregator of mine, Fluent now supports Google News-style searches across sources and emailing from within the app. The search feature is more useful than it might sound, especially if you want to dig right into a news story right after hearing about it. Free.

WHOA: You know Telephone, the group game where you pass a complicated, whispered message around a circle of people until it turns into something about penises, usually? This is that, with writing and drawing, on the iPhone. Here’s what you do: You write a word, the next person draws it, the next person writes what he thinks the drawing is, and so on. A dollar.

Aha: Crowd-sourced traffic, with a big-buttoned, simple interface intent on not causing you crash into other people. It’ll let you see how traffic is on your preferred driving routes based on input from its users, who can literally yell at their iPhones to record short voice messages about how bad (or awesome, I guess) the roads are. It’s only available in a few cities for the time being, but the concept is promising, as are the early reviews.

Discovery Channel: Better than your average dedicated station or publication app, though it follows the same concept: This is video, audio, photo and text content from the Discovery Channel, home of Mythbusters and LOTS OF SHARKS, in a nice little packaged news-style app. No full show episodes—gotta buy those in iTunes—but lots of decent clips and plenty of meat for DC nerds, if there is such a thing.

Simplify Photo: Simplify’s other app lets you listen to your home music library from anywhere with a sort of zero-setup server app, and it’s absolutely indispensable. This one does the same thing for photos, letting you access your entire home photo library wherever you are, without taking up much space on your iPhone’s dinky drive. The experience is surprisingly seamless considering how much it depends on the iPhone’s data connection, and the app is only a dollar.

This Week’s App News On Giz

• You Can’t Read the Good Part of Google’s FCC Response

• Apple and AT&T Answer FCC About Google Voice Rejection: It’s All Apple

• App Store Approval Process Slowly Getting Less Horrendous?

• iPhone’s Sonar Ruler App Measures Distance Using Sound

• Native Twitter Location Data Means More Stalker Power With Every Tweet

• Blow Virtual Kisses with Happy Dangy Diggy

• i.TV iPhone App Grows a Remote Control Framework, TiVo Gives It a Whirl

• Apple Exec Phil Schiller Reaching Out to Rejected App Developers

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a swell weekend everybody.

While Apple was busy batting away the FCC with its litany of reasons why its app approval process is totally hunky-dory, Google was apparently having its own VoIP-related firefight. It seems that an article in the USA Today which hit newsstands this morning alleges that the internet giant sought to block (dare we say reject) a full Skype application from making its way into the Android Market. The story claims that the application was neutered to become “a watered-down version of the original that routes calls over traditional phone networks” — which would obviously cast a decidedly malevolent slant to the benevolent company’s policies.

Here are the facts, clear and simple: While the first generation of our Android software did not support full-featured VoIP applications due to technology limitations, we have worked through those limitations in subsequent versions of Android, and developers are now able to build and upload VoIP services.

As we told USA Today earlier in the week Google did not reject an application from Skype or from any other company that provides VoIP services. To suggest otherwise is false. At this point no software developer — including Skype — has implemented a complete VoIP application for Android. But we’re excited to see — and use — these applications when they’re submitted, because they often provide more choice and options for users. We also look forward to the day when consumers can access any application, including VoIP apps, from any device, on any network.

[Via TechCrunch; Image courtesy eBoy]

Read – Google-AT&T-Apple fight over Net calls draws FCC interest
Read – Android and VoIP applications

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Google refutes USA Today report on blocked Skype application originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cheap earbuds are not hard to come by; there are hundreds of sets on the market that won’t cost you a penny more than $30. And all of them are, by and large, indistinguishable from one another. Of course, there are the rare exceptions, such as the iBlink Earbuds.
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Originally posted at iPod accessories

Whoa — we were just sent AT&T response to the FCC’s investigation into the rejection of Google Voice apps from the iPhone app store, and Ma Bell isn’t pulling any punches: according to the letter, AT&T “had no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application.” That puts the ball pretty firmly in Apple’s court, but it doesn’t close the door on AT&T’s involvement in App store approval shenanigans entirely, since the letter also says “AT&T has had discussions with Apple regarding only a handful of applications that have been submitted to Apple for review where, as described below, there were concerns that the application might create significant network congestion.” Not only did that result in CBS and MobiTV killing the Final Four app’s ability to stream video over 3G, it also explains what happened to SlingPlayer Mobile — we’ll see what the FCC says about that.

Update: And here come Apple and Google’s responses as well! We’re digesting everything as fast as we can, we’re going to do this semi-liveblog style after the break, so grab a frosty and dive in.

Update 2: Okay, so we’ve read through all three filings and broken them down after the break. Our main takeaway? Apple’s being pretty hypocritical by claiming on the one hand that the iPhone is at the forefront of a mobile revolution and then saying iPhone users can’t figure out how Google Voice is different than the iPhone’s built-in functionality on the other. Either your customers are paradigm-busting visionaries or they’re not very smart at all, Apple — you have to pick one. As for AT&T, well, it just seems like it’s worried about its network above all else, and while we think it’s ridiculous that it enforces the VoIP and SlingPlayer ban on the iPhone and not, say, Windows Mobile devices, we can see why the carrier would push those contract provisions hard. In the end, we’re just hoping the FCC forces everyone involved to be more open and transparent about what they’re doing and the deals they’re making — Apple’s not necessarily exaggerating when it says these are entirely new problems, and whatever happens next will set a precedent for a long time to come.

Continue reading AT&T, Apple and Google respond to the FCC over Google Voice and the iPhone App Store

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AT&T, Apple and Google respond to the FCC over Google Voice and the iPhone App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PR speak doesn’t usually come this blunt, but the situation warrants it. AT&T’s full response to the FCC’s investigation into the Google Voice app rejection can be summed up like this: This one’s on Apple. As for Apple’s? It’s complicated.

An AT&T senior VP:

We appreciate the opportunity to clear up misconceptions related to an application Google submitted to Apple for inclusion in the Apple App Store. We fully support the FCC’s goal of getting the facts and data necessary to inform its policymaking.

To that end, let me state unequivocally, AT&T had no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application for inclusion in the Apple App Store. AT&T was not asked about the matter by Apple at any time, nor did we offer any view one way or the other.

We had nothing to do with this! Really! But we’re just saying, even if we did—we didn’t!-it wouldn’t matter, since you’ve got web apps! Seriously.

The most interesting in AT&T’s statement is regarding VoIP. It seems like Apple could actually allow Skype over 3G, if it wanted to (though AT&T would really prefer all VoIP apps run over Wi-Fi), and they agreed when the iPhone contract was first forged that Apple wouldn’t make its own VoIP app, meaning a video iChat probably ain’t in the cards for a long time:

“AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service (including 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi) to make VoIP calls without first obtaining AT&T’s consent. AT&T and Apple also agreed, however, that if a third party enables an iPhone to make VoIP calls using AT&T’s wireless service, Apple would have no obligation to take action against that third party.”

Apple’s statement is even better, saying they haven’t even rejected Google Voice:

Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it. The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail. Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing this distinct and innovative way to seamlessly deliver core functionality of the iPhone. [emphasis ours]

Here’s where Apple states it alone shot down Google Voice:

Apple is acting alone and has not consulted with AT&T about whether or not to approve the Google Voice application. No contractual conditions or non-contractual understandings with AT&T have been a factor in Apple’s decision-making process in this matter.

Of course we all know their core reason—”it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience”—is a crock, since there are ton of other dialers and messaging apps out there, as we’ve pointed out. Apple pretending that it’s also because they care about your safety is cute, too:

“In addition, the iPhone user’s entire Contacts database is transferred to Google’s servers, and we have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.”

Riiiight.

Amidst the swirl of horsecrap, Apple does provides key insights into the App Store review process: There are merely 40 full-time reviewers for those thousands of apps, and at least two of them must review each app. Apps that might have a problem are escalated to an executive review board that meets “weekly.” Even with these constraints, Apple says 95 percent of apps make it through the review process within 2 weeks. 20 percent of them are rejected. And incredibly they’ve reviewed over 200,000 apps and updates.

Anyway, there’s a lot to sift through here, though amazingly, none of it really explains what happened to Google Voice. See for yourself: AT&T’s full release release here; Apple’s here. Warning: They’re loooooong.