Hasta La Gadget!

We expressed our excitement when we first heard about Getaround, the personal car rental service that enables users to rent out their autos by the hour or day, and at TechCrunch Disrupt the service has officially gone live for drivers outside the Bay Area. The company also announced an accompanying car kit that allows potential renters to unlock their temporary ride using just an iPhone app, at which point they can access a physical key inside. The company says it functions just like any other keyless entry device, and can be set up in as little as five minutes. Worrisome owners should also know that when you offer up your ride you get full insurance coverage from the Getaround folks, so all liabilities are transferred to the individual behind the wheel. Renters get rated by car owners so there’s definitely an incentive to keep things neat and tidy, though we’d totally get downrated for neglecting to return the seat to its original position. Be sure to check out the demo video at the via link, you’ll wish you thought of this yourself.

Getaround car sharing service goes live, rent out your ride with an iPhone app and car kit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 08:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After less than three years of existence, Apple’s App Store has accumulated half-a-million mobile apps.

The iTunes App Store, which launched in the summer of 2008, surpassed the 500,000 milestone Tuesday morning, according to 148Apps, an iPhone app reviews blog that has been tracking the store closely.

To be clear, that’s 500,000 apps that Apple has approved — they’re not necessarily live yet. In the United States, the App Store is just shy of reaching 400,000 apps available for download.

“The fact that it has taken less than three years to reach this number is remarkable,” said Jeff Scott, editor of 148Apps. “With the improved tools for developers and steady adoption of smartphone technology, I anticipate there is still a lot of runway.”

Since its birth, Apple’s App Store has expanded rapidly, from 500 apps on day one to 100,000 about one year later. On the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, the App Store is the only official channel for customers to download and purchase third-party software with the tap of a button.

The App Store’s seamless, friction-free purchasing process provided an efficient business model for the software industry. Prior to the App Store, independent software coders had a difficult time competing against larger software companies with big budgets. Many tried marketing and selling their apps with methods such as the shareware model, or on their personal websites, but few found success through these ad-hoc channels.

By tying the App Store to iTunes and including the store on every iPhone, Apple created a captive audience and an effective marketing platform for distributing software, where programmers both big and small had an equal chance to make serious money. A handful of lucky developers struck it rich with hot app sales.

After the App Store exploded, other competitors launched their own app stores. Google’s Android app market, which launched eight months after the App Store, is the closest rival, with about 300,000 apps to date.

To celebrate the App Store’s half-a-million milestone, Scott of 148Apps collaborated with Chomp, a company that makes an app search tool, to create a large infographic (see full graphic below the jump) summarizing statistics about the app landscape.

Some tidbits from the App Store infographic:

• It would cost $891,982.24 and over 7 terabytes to download all available applications.
• Approximately 36 percent of all apps are free, and paid apps have an average price of $3.64
• Angry Birds has held the number 1 paid spot more than any other app at 275 days total.

At one point does quantity no longer matter? Nobody needs 500,000 apps, but I’ve argued in the past that the more apps an app store accrues, the more likely it can fill every need for various professions, hobbies and special interests.

See Also:

• The 19 Most Wired iPhone and iPad Apps of 2010
• iPhone App Store Approaches 1 Billion Downloads
• Apple Pre-Celebrates App Store’s First Birthday
• App Sales Sluggish, Despite Android’s Popularity

Onavo runs your incoming data through a proxy server, saving bandwidth

Onavo is an app which cuts your cellphone data use drastically. Amazingly, it works in the background even on the iPhone and iPad, which sounds like some kind of impossible voodoo given Apple’s strict multitasking rules.

It turns out that the app does actually compress data, but not how you think. Once installed, it performs some tweaks to your network settings and runs all you non-Wi-Fi data through a proxy. Thus, any incoming data to Safari, Mail, Facebook, Google Maps and Twitter passes through Onavo’s servers where it is heavily compressed before being forwarded on to your iPhone.

This is similar to what Opera does when you use its iOS browser, but it works system wide.

Comments on the iTunes App Store page say that it works, with several caveats. First, images are compressed so drastically that they can pixelate, making the tiles in the Maps app hard to read, for example. Also, sometimes visual voicemail disappears, and you’ll lose the ability to tether your data connection. And of course you are running your data through a third-party server, which could give you the privacy heebie-jeebies.

Onavo is free, and although its probably not worth using at home thanks to the above problems, it could save you a lot of money when you’re on vacation with a roaming plan. What it won’t do is compress streaming video or VoIP calls, which are probably your biggest data-sinks, further limiting its utility. An Android version is coming “soon.”

Onavo product page [Onavo]
FAQ [Onavo]

See Also:

• Approved! Plucky Underdog Opera Now on iPhone
• iPhone Customer Sues AT&T Over 'Rigged' Data Charges
• 3G iPhone Unlimited Data Plan Will Cost $30 Per Month, But You Can …

Steve Jobs points to the audience as he announces the software development kit for iPhone app programmers in a March 2008 event. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple’s legal team has fired back at a patent-owning firm that was threatening to sue iPhone app programmers over usage of in-app payment technology.

Apple stated in no uncertain terms that it planned to protect Apple developers.

“Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license,” wrote Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, in a response to Lodsys (.pdf) sent Monday. “Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.”

The patent firm Lodsys on May 13 sent letters to several iOS app programmers, claiming that it owned a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button, allowing customers to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases within apps. The letter demanded that programmers pay a licensing fee for the patent, or face legal action from Lodsys.

In the technology industry, large companies are already tangled in legal disputes over patents on technologies they claim to have invented or pioneered. For instance, Nokia filed suit against Apple in 2009 for patent infringement, Apple filed a patent lawsuit against HTC in 2010, and Microsoft has gone after Google’s partners offering Android-powered products.

However, with the case of Lodsys, it was odd to see a patent firm shaking down smaller companies for using technologies provided by a larger company.

Apple’s letter said that the technology that Lodsys claims it patented — an interface that enables interactions with a user to elicit feedback — requires the use of APIs provided by Apple to the app programmer. Therefore, because Apple owns a license for Lodsys’ patents, they extend to programmers that use Apple’s technologies, too.

Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the popular iPhone game Pocket God, was one of the first programmers to receive Lodsys’ letter. His lawyer David Alberti told Wired.com that Lodsys’ claims made against app developers seemed like a “very far stretch,” because the patents in question seemed to relate to feedback systems on hardware, such as a fax machine, and not technology in a pure software environment.

Lodsys owner Mark Small, who sent the initial letter to app developers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pocket God maker Castelnuovo said he was happy to see Apple respond very quickly and publicly to Lodsys.

“It shows that Apple cares about its developers and they are willing to stick up for them when something like this occurs,” Castelnuovo told Wired.com.

James Thomson, programmer of the pCalc scientific calculator app for iPhone, was one of the first to receive Lodsys’ letter. He told Wired.com he was glad Apple was getting involved, but the fight is not over yet.

“I’m just relieved to hear that Apple’s got our backs,” Thomson said. “Of course it’s not over until Lodsys withdraws their claims, but this is a big step. I will sleep a lot better tonight, that’s for certain!”

See Also:

• Samsung Ready to Battle Apple in Patent War
• Apple to Samsung: Stop Stealing Our Ideas

Apple has responded to developers targeted by Lodsys, a patent holding firm that accused iOS devs of infringing on its intellectual property covering in-app upgrade purchases. In a letter from Apple dated today, the company claims that Lodsys’s accusations are baseless, and explains that devs, or “App Makers,” are “entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys,” because Apple has already licensed the technology on their behalf. Apple’s response is firm, and as expected, the company is in full support of developers. Jump past the break for the full letter from Apple legal.

Continue reading Apple responds to Lodsys infringement accusations, says developers are not responsible

Apple responds to Lodsys infringement accusations, says developers are not responsible originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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