Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has posted a news bulletin for iPhone developers, informing them they may not use the phone’s geolocation features primarily for delivering targeted ads.

What that means is if you’re playing a game that doesn’t use geolocation for gameplay, and all it’s doing is tracking your location to serve location-based ads, it’ll get rejected. (Many media outlets have reported that Apple has banned location-based ads altogether, which is not the case.)

Apple’s news bulletin reads:

The Core Location framework allows you to build applications which know where your users are and can deliver information based on their location, such as local weather, nearby restaurants, ATMs, and other location-based information.

If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.

Many apps currently serve location-based ads through AdMob, an advertising firm recently acquired by Google. Apple’s new rule implies apps using AdMob ads will get rejected if geolocation is not part of the software’s functionality.

In a statement provided to Wired.com, an Apple spokeswoman said the move was for the benefit of the consumer.

“The Core Location framework allows developers to deliver information to customers based on their location,” an Apple spokeswoman said. “This should be done with the customer’s permission and for a purpose that is directly beneficial to the customer.”

Many, however, have been quick to conclude that the regulation is a move for Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company Apple purchased in January, to gain a leg up in mobile advertising against Google’s recently acquired mobile ad firm AdMob. It’s conceivable that Apple could indeed be improving the mobile ad experience for customers, the Core Location regulation could also be an effort to deter developers from serving ads with AdMob.

My friend Matt Buchanan of Gizmodo argues, “It’s not to protect you.”

“It’s not too much of a stretch to see Apple’s ad platform in the future being the best way to deliver ads in apps, which might offer perks like, say, location-based targeted advertising, or more dynamic ads than you can do now on an iPhone,” Buchanan writes. “It’s also not crazy to think Apple’s way is going to be the only way to get some of those features, like location-based ads.”

Updated 12:30 p.m. PDT with a statement from Apple.

Photo: Fr3d.org/Flickr

In addition to launching its tablet Wednesday, Apple will likely introduce a new programming solution for iPhone developers to easily tablet-enable their apps.

Developers polled by Wired said they expected additions to Apple’s software-development kit that would help make iPhone apps work at any resolution, for full-screen support on the rumored device.

But how will that work? The tablet will likely support all iPhone apps out of the box in their current 480-by-320 resolution. These apps will probably be able to run in the background, perhaps in separate windows. It’s unlikely they’re going to automatically maximize to fill up the tablet’s screen, which is rumored to be 10 inches diagonally, developers polled by Wired.com agreed, because that would result in a blurry, pixelated mess — not Apple’s style.

Therefore, it’s likely that Apple will offer a quick workaround for developers to rescale their apps for full-screen tablet support.

For people who buy the tablet, that means we’ll see a slightly bifurcated world of apps. We’ll be able to access all iPhone apps in small windows, and some of those apps will be resizable to fit the tablet’s larger screen.

“It’s easy to imagine how Apple might offer tools to make it easy for me to not have to make all my graphics from scratch,” said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular iPhone rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge. “That’s one of the things I’d be on the lookout for.”

“We’ve made a big investment,” he continued. “People have made huge investments in their games. I’d expect Apple to accelerate the process of having lots and lots of apps that feel native and migrate from a fixed-resolution world to resolution independent.”

Decrem said he could not comment on whether Tapulous would be appearing as a presenter at Apple’s Jan. 27 event in San Francisco, where the Cupertino, California, company is rumored to be launching a tablet. Tapulous appeared in the recent September iPod event to present a new game, Riddim Ribbon.

Multiple independent reports agree on the physical description of Apple’s tablet: a blown-up iPhone or iPod Touch with a 10-inch screen. But the software experience has remained a mystery. Offering a glimmer of insight, The New York Times just a day before Apple’s product event has published a bold report claiming the tablet would support all 100,000 iPhone and iPod Touch apps currently in the App Store.

“It will run all the applications of the iPhone and iPod touch, have a persistent wireless connection over 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Fi, and will be built with a 10-inch color display, allowing newspapers, magazines and book publishers to deliver their products with an eye to the design that had grabbed readers in print,” NY Times wrote.

Corroborating NY Times‘ report, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw said in a live TV interview that McGraw was developing e-book content for the Apple tablet. He explained that the tablet’s OS was based on the iPhone OS, meaning McGraw’s e-book iPhone apps will be easily portable to the tablet.

Other iPhone developers polled by Wired agreed that Decrem’s theory was solid. They said the SDK needed to be updated with new tools streamlining migration to the upcoming tablet. Jeff Meininger, iPhone developer of Snaptic, said Decrem’s proposed solution regarding resolution-independence would work.

“It would be the simplest and most effective way to be able to support all iPhone apps,” Meininger said. “It’s absolutely technically feasible.”

David Castelnuovo, developer of the immensely popular iPhone game Pocket God, said it was likely Apple would offer some new sizability code in the iPhone SDK with the tablet in mind. But he said it wouldn’t be a blanket solution for all 100,000 apps in the App Store.

Pocket God, for example, is game that involves torturing pygmies on an island, and it would have to be redesigned for a tablet with a bigger island and more pygmies, Castelnuovo said. So, some quick and easy sizability code will likely accelerate full-screen tablet support for form-based apps such as Facebook. For games or apps with more complex interfaces, it could take more thoughtful tweaking.

“Ideally we wouldn’t want to just scale [Pocket God],” Castelnuovo said. “We’d want to make the world bigger.”

Just how big a portion of the App Store will support full-screen tablet resolution will be up to the developers. Appcelerator, a company that helps developers build cross-platform mobile apps, polled 554 developers on their interest in coding for the tablet. 51 percent of respondents said it would be “very important” for them to port iPhone apps for the tablet “in a simple, easy fashion without too much cost or delay.” Thirty percent responded “Somewhat important” and 19 percent responded “Not important.”

It remains a question whether Apple will launch an entire section in its App Store for tablet apps. Decrem said he doubts that, because all iPhone apps will work with the tablet. He said it’s realistic that developers will state in their apps’ descriptions whether they feature full tablet support.

We’ll find out soon. Stay tuned on Gadget Lab for full, live coverage of Apple’s tablet event, which kicks off 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday.

See Also:

• What to Expect From Apple’s Tablet Unveiling
• Everything We Know About Apple’s Touchscreen Tablet
• Apple ‘Tablets’ Sniffed by Analytics Are More Likely iPhones
• Designers Unearth Apple Tablet Prototypes — From 1983
• Tablet Wars: Amazon Adds Apps to Kindle
• Is an Apple Tablet on the Way? Orange Exec Says ‘Oui’
• OLED Could Be Apple Tablet’s Secret Solution for E-Reading
• Rumor: Apple Event to Highlight iPhone OS 4.0 in Addition to …
• Will the Apple Tablet Be Called iPad?
• Apple Invitation Confirms Special Product Event Jan. 27
• iGuide and iSlate — Two Potential Name Candidates for an Apple …
• Apple Bought iSlate.com — Perhaps for a Tablet?
• Approaching January, Apple Tablet Rumors Run Wild
• In-App Sales and iTablet: The Killer Combo to Save Publishing …
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives …
• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Rumor: Back at Work, Jobs Cracks the Whip on Tablet Designers …
• Insider Spills Rumored Apple Tablet Details to Gizmodo

A mockup of an imaginary Apple tablet: Stephen Lewis Simmonds

Hidden among the barcode readers, music players and games in the marketplace for Android software may be apps that could steal your online banking credentials or infect your phone.

Google removed about 1 percent of the apps posted to the Android Market last year, according to a 2009 filing Google made to the FTC (.pdf). While most of those apps were removed because of user complaints about adult content or copyright violations, two apps attempted to gain access to users’ financial information, according to InformationWeek.

“I am surprised it is that much,” says Artem Petakov, co-founder and CTO of WorkSmart Labs, which offers the Cardiotrainer app, referring to the number of apps removed. “I assumed the user reporting and flagging was working better than that.”

The possibility of malicious apps in the Android Market has some developers wondering if Google needs to police the marketplace better. It has also raised questions about the impact of these security holes on consumer confidence and app marketing by developers.

Google launched the free, open source Android OS with the T-Mobile G1 phone in October 2008. Unlike Apple, which tightly controls the submission and the review process for its App Store, Google has taken a much more open approach with the Android Market. Developers don’t have to wait for Google’s approval to get an app into the store. Instead, the search giant and Android creator is counting on users flagging suspicious or malicious apps.

Last month, two credit unions posted a warning to their customers about a rogue app that uses phishing techniques to gain access to a user’s banking credentials. Once Google was notified, it moved quickly to remove the app along with about 50 others written by the hacker.

Android Market’s malware-related challenges are not surprising, says Patrick Mork, vice-president of marketing for GetJar, a company that has a catalog of 60,000 apps and runs its own app stores for phones.

“Whenever you have an app store, you always have a challenge with people putting inappropriate content or not following guidelines,” says Mork. “It’s part of the trade, what it takes to run a retail operation.”

What Google needs is better monitoring systems and a greater emphasis on ensuring a vibrant yet safe marketplace.

“The most immediate thing they could do is to tighten up their content policing mechanisms,” says Mork. “They could add more staff to review apps in greater depth.”

Google declined to disclose how many employees it has policing the Android Market.

Android OS could make changes to its user interface to educate consumers who are downloading apps as to the kind of permissions the app has, says Petakov.

Google has a strong interest in keeping the Android Market clean and free. If consumers are spooked or worried about safety of the apps from the Android Market, it could lead to fewer app downloads. That in turn could eat away at developer support for the fledgling operating system.

“Running an operating system and running a retail store front are two different things,” says Mork. “Consumer confidence is very important in the latter.”

Still, the developers that Wired.com spoke to were clear that Android’s open model needs to continue.

“We have benefited so much from the instant posting of our app,” says Petakov. WorkSmart Labs releases a version of their app every two weeks.  “I prefer this over the iPhone model.”

See Also:

• Android Welcomes App Store’s Rejects With Arms Wide Open
• For the iPhone’s App Store, Quantity Really Does Matter
• Android’s Rapid Growth Has Some Developers Worried

Photo: p_kirn/Flickr

Did you get your ODROID order in promptly when they went up for pre-sale back in September? Hope so, as the first lucky developers should be getting theirs any day now. Just 300 units of the 833MHz handheld are shipping, including the various cables, additional hardware, and documentation needed to start filling the thing with fun games that look an awful lot like other games, but totally aren’t. One of the first is Speed Forge 3D (which totally isn’t Wipeout), shown after the break exhibiting some laggy accelerometer-based controls — but 720p output via HDMI sure is sweet. Orders are still being accepted at $349, said to be shipping in roughly five days, meaning if Santa logs into his PayPal account quickly enough you might still find one of these under your tree.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading ODROID, the Android gaming handheld, now shipping to Android gaming developers (video)

ODROID, the Android gaming handheld, now shipping to Android gaming developers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though indisputably successful, the iPhone’s App Store has been at the center of controversy for Apple this past year. In a rare move, the company’s vice president of marketing Phil Schiller spoke on the record to defend the App Store’s review policies.

Apple has approved over 100,000 iPhone apps to date, but some questionable rejections have brought the company under fire. Among concerned developers, Joe Hewitt, developer of the popular Facebook iPhone app, spoke loud and clear that he would no longer develop for the iPhone because he disapproved of Apple’s review process.

“I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process,” Hewitt told TechCrunch. “I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.”

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Schiller (right) explains why Apple has an App Store review process. In short, he said it’s necessary to ensure iPhone customers get what they’re promised. He noted that 10 percent of app rejections are related to “inappropriate” content, while 90 percent have to do with technical fixes, such as bugs. His third main point is that the App Store has an international audience, and thus several governments and political leaders are asking the company what it’s doing to ensure children are not downloading inappropriate content.

“We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust,” he said. “You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.”

The rest of the interview is available at BusinessWeek.

What do you think? Is a gatekeeper necessary for the App Store? Vote in the poll below.

See Also:

• Apple Removes Baby-Killing iPhone App Amid Outrage
• Android Welcomes App Store’s Rejects With Arms Wide Open
• Apple Rejects Google Voice App, Invites Regulation
• Apple Rejects Obama Trampoline iPhone Game

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com, Apple