The class action suit is on behalf of all who have purchased apps from Storm8 and have had their phone number “phoned home” by the apps.

Storm8 admits to collecting the numbers but has called it a glitch in their source code. They also say the problem has since been corrected. In his suit, Turner says “glitches” would never lead to the collection of phone numbers and that the developer created specialized code in their games to do so.

The developer has yet to respond to any questions about how a bug in code can lead to phone number collection and has not publicly spoken about whether the numbers remained saved in Storm8 databases.

[Thanks: http://www.afterdawn.com]

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Apparently one of the phantom sources said that introducing a sub $100 iPhone 3GS is a move to compete with the new Droid smartphone launches.

Apple currently offers 16GB and 32GB versions of the iPhone 3GS priced at $199 and $299, and an 8GB iPhone 3G priced at $99. The iPhone 3G includes a still camera instead of a video camera, doesn’t have a built-in digital compass, and can’t take advantage of the iPhone 3GS Voice Control features.

Replacing the 8GB iPhone 3G with an iPhone 3GS version would make the $99 price point even more attractive to budget conscious smartphone buyers, but so far there isn’t any tangible evidence to support the rumor.

[Thanks: http://www.macobserver.com]

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This means Apple can manufacture one device, the “world mode” iPhone that will work on all of the networks it’s currently compatible with as well as Verizon’s CDMA network. Previous reports speculated that Apple would wait until at least 2011 for Verizon’s launch of LTE technology.

With the exclusive AT&T deal expiring sometime in 2010, Apple will be free to sell its hardware through other wireless carriers. OTR Global reports that Apple has already signed a deal with Verizon to offer the iPhone on their network in the third quarter of 2010.

AppleInsider received the OTR Global report from an industry analyst. From AppleInsider:

Qualcomm’s new hybrid CDMA/WCDMA chip offers the potential for a single, global iPhone that users can take to any major carrier, solving the network fractionalization problem. It also solves other issues that had served as roadblocks, including the issue of user confusion that would result from Apple selling separate CDMA and GSM/UMTS versions of the iPhone.

Apple plans to have the new Verizon-compatible iPhones assembled by Asustek subsidiary Pegatron to increase the number of manufacturers from which the company can source hardware. Current iPhone models are assembled by Hon Hai.

[Thanks: http://www.iphonefaq.org]

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Beamer, as the name connotes, is an iPhone case with a built-in LED light you can turn on to use as both a flashlight and a camera flash. Just the thing I needed when I wanted to shoot the Leaning Tower of Pisa at night with my iPhone, having left my real camera back at our hotel.

And it sure would have helped in Paris when we returned at night to our historic apartment building and had to climb six flights up a pitch-black spiral staircase. (I did light the way with my iPhone, but this would have been much better.)

Beamer has a hard-plastic, two-piece design, equipped with a replaceable coin cell battery that provides about 10 hours of illumination. Pressing the silicone button once will turn the light on for 10 seconds. Pressing it twice in a row will leave it on indefinitely, or until you press it a third time. It comes in an array of bright colors.

The case is just the latest design from Quirky, a relatively new collaborative design community that also conceived of the super-cute DigiDude tripod and that cool Watt Time light-bulb shaped alarm clock.

In line with Quirky’s crowd-sourced production model, the Beamer won’t be available for consumers until 500 orders have been made, at which point those who have committed to buying it will be charged $32. Right now, 44 prospective Beamer owners have preordered.

[Thanks: http://news.cnet.com]

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Reporting from Beijing - Apple Inc.’s iPhone has been a ringing success wherever it has been launched. But in China few are picking up the buzz.

Challenged by high pricing, missing features and stiff competition, iPhones have logged only 5,000 sales since the handset debuted Oct. 30 in the world’s biggest cellphone market. By comparison, more than a million units were sold in the first three days when the latest iPhone was launched in North America and Europe in June.

One major hang-up might be the price. China Unicom, the state-owned mobile carrier and the exclusive partner for Apple, has been selling the phones for between $880 and $1,170 with a service plan. The devices currently sold in China also don’t feature Wi-Fi. U.S. devices have Wi-Fi capability and sell for $199 to $299 with a two-year service plan.

“They’re not exactly flying off the shelves,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of research firm BDA China Ltd. “The consumer will quickly figure out it doesn’t have Wi-Fi. . . . At the end of the day, it won’t be a winning strategy.”

With 700 million cellphone users and growing, China represents the largest battleground for mobile phone makers and software developers. Apple faces stiff competition from technology rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Blackberry’s Research in Motion for market share. Finland’s Nokia currently sells the most mobile phones in China.

Though iPhone sales have so far failed to meet analysts’ modest expectations, China Unicom officials said they were unfazed by the initial numbers, telling reporters in Hong Kong this week that the device was priced appropriately for a two-year service contract.

“We are satisfied with iPhone sales so far,” said China Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing.

Apple declined to comment.

The China launch contrasted greatly with those in the U.S., where iPhone unveilings have been received by throngs of eager buyers standing in line overnight outside stores.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., beat Wall Street’s expectations last month by reporting a 47% surge in profit in the fiscal fourth quarter largely on the backs of its popular Macbook notebooks and iPhones.

In Beijing, the iPhone was introduced to a more reserved crowd on a cold, damp evening at a shopping mall known for its expansive outdoor television screen.

Analysts said the device was too expensive in a country with growing, less-expensive options for smart phones, computer-like handsets that also have Web browsing and e-mail features.

The iPhone will mostly appeal to the urban elite and those who value the status of carrying the trendy device, they said.

But many people who fit that mold have already been buying gray-market iPhones — versions that have been smuggled into China and reprogrammed to work with Chinese networks. There are estimated to be as many as 2 million gray-market iPhones in China.

Analyst Clark said there were anecdotal reports that the iPhone release at such high prices had driven up the price of gray-market iPhones by $20 to $30, to about $500.

He said the disappointing initial sales of the phone were also due to the lack of a Wi-Fi feature on China Unicom’s iPhone — a standard function for all other iPhones, including gray-market models.

Chinese regulators had previously banned Wi-Fi in order to promote a domestic version of the same technology. They have since reversed the ban, but China Unicom still procured iPhones with the function disabled.

The feature may be installed on future models.

[Thanks: http://www.latimes.com]

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A lawsuit has been filed, on behalf of Washington resident Michael Turner, that alleges Storm8 built its games with a “feature” that automatically sends the phone number of each host iPhone to the developer. Turner is suing on the grounds that this practice is in violation of both the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California state law, and is pushing to turn it into a class-action suit, on behalf of all Storm8 customers.

Storm8 has admitted to collecting the phone numbers, but denies any real responsibility, attributing the “phone home” function to a simple bug in the code. The company maintains that the glitch has been fixed. Turner countered that a “glitch” could not lead to the collection of phone numbers and that specialized code would have to be purposely placed within the games to have that effect. Not being programmers,we can’t say for certain whether or not the collecting of phone numbers was intentional, but it doesn’t sound like the sort of feature that could be accidentally implemented.

The company has yet to respond to the charges filed against it, and has so far not returned our request for comment. We also asked the company for an explanation as to how a bug could lead to the collection of customer’s personal information, and whether or not that data was saved once sent back to the developer. We’ll keep you posted.

This incident also raises more questions about the App Store approval process. If a developer could get through Apple’s gatekeepers several games that all collect customers’ potentially sensitive data, how much stock can we put in Apple’s ability to identify and block legitimately malicious programs?

[Thanks: http://www.switched.com]

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I gave a full overview of our online App Store a few weeks ago here, but feel free to go directly to http://appstore.iphonedownloadblog.com/ to see it for yourself.

The real news today is that we also have a web app for the store. If you go to http://appstore.iphonedownloadblog.com/ from your iPhone, you will be redirected to the mobile-friendly site.

The homepage will give you the 5 newest apps, the 5 latest apps on sale, and the 5 most popular apps in the App Store. From the top navigation bar, you can also go directly to the new apps, apps on sale, or tap categories to browse applications by categories. By tapping ” … “, you can search for an app by typing its name and have access to recently visited apps.

To learn more about an application, simply select it and you will be given a full description, including ratings and screenshots. To download an app, simply tap “Download”.

It’s worth mentioning that if you buy any app from our online App Store, the blog will be paid a 5% commission. See, if you buy a $1 app from us, the blog gets $0.05. That’s a nice way to contribute to the life of the blog.

A few people told me this web app wasn’t as good as I thought because the official App Store app does exactly the same. This is wrong! The official App Store app doesn’t allow you to see the very latest apps on sale and the very newest applications.

Apple has a “new” category but if you look at it closer, it shows you a selection of “new apps” that have been out for 2 weeks or more. Doesn’t look very new to me!

Same for applications on sale. There is no way in the App Store to see what the latest apps on sale this exact day are. Our online App Store and its mobile version will do just that.

I really think our online App Store and its web app are the best way to find out right now about the newest apps and latest price drops. But I might be a little partial, right.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about it and maybe how it could be improved. Thank you, guys!

[Thanks: http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/]

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9. South Park
The defense: An impressive looking ‘South Park’ iPhone app that would download wallpapers, assign character photos to contacts, and, most importantly (and impressively), stream every episode of the show, ever.
The complaint: The official word from Apple is that the content of the streaming episodes was potentially offensive.
Fairness of the judgment: Potentially offensive is a bit of an understatement — ‘South Park’ is incredibly offensive — which is why we and millions of others love it. According to the court of iTunes, however, uncensored seasons of the TV show aren’t offensive enough to keep them from being available for purchase right from your iPhone, which means this ruling puts the prosecution’s case firmly in hypocrisy territory. We suspect that Apple is simply protecting its iTunes revenue stream and motivated by pure greed. But that couldn’t be the case, could it, Apple fanboys?
Likelihood of appeal: Expect the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, to fight tooth and nail to get their application past the approval blockade. Apple knows it was stepping in it (and by “it” we mean a word that starts with “shhhh”) when it banned the app, so it left the door open a crack for future backtracking when it’s beaten down by hordes of ‘South Park’ fans. Parker and Stone were told that standards were evolving, and Apple highlighted that it didn’t sell any music with profanity in it when iTunes first launched. Let’s not forget: These are the guys who got the FCC to allow them to use that previously alluded to “sh” word 162 times, uncensored, in one episode. Apple is up against a formidable opponent.

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8. Obama Trampoline
The defense: A game that has you bounce one of 18 politicians on a trampoline and have them pop balloons with their heads.
The complaint: Supposedly the Bill Clinton caricature was pants-less, in violation of Apple’s policy against content that ridicules public figures, and also may be considered personally defamatory.
Fairness of the judgment: Watching a video of the gameplay didn’t reveal what the offending material is, so we don’t see why this would have been rejected. Even if Clinton is depicted as not wearing any pants, it’s not something we’d consider wildly offensive.Though tired at this point, “Bill Clinton: womanizer” jokes are still staples of late night talk shows, and last we checked, no one was suing Jay Leno for defamation. Lame jokes, sure — he’s guilty as hell — but not defamatory.
Likelihood of appeal: With the presidential election season behind us, it’s doubtful the developer will file an appeal. And after watching the game play video, we’re not losing any sleep. Our iPhones already have enough overly simple games with poor control schemes.

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