Tag Archives: AppStore

March 26, 2013

Son makes over $5,600 in app purchases, policeman father reports him for fraud

By Dave M.

A U.K. policeman has reported his own 13-year-old son for fraud after the young man racked up a £3,700 charge for in-app purchases on his iPad that Apple refused to refund. The officer, Doug Crossan, says that his son was not aware that he was being charged for these downloads, and that he wants Apple to cancel the charge. Apple has refused to do so, so in order to get his money back, he reported the purchases as fraudulent.

via Son makes £3,700 in app purchases, policeman father reports him for fraud | iMore.com.

I’m calling Bull-Pucky on this! Not the story, it’s apparently true, but the son claiming that he was unaware that his in-app purchases were free!

Each and every in-app purchase clearly states the value of the purchase. We’re not talking a 5 year old here like a previous case, no we are talking a 13 year old.

This is a clear case where the parents failed to do their jobs as parents and are trying to blame someone else instead of taking responsibility.

You should see the sad faced photo’s of the father/son. Surely folks like these shouldn’t be responsible for the sad looking 13 year old’s actions! After all, they clearly are not trying to defraud Apple and the developers of the software that his son IAP’ed.

Since the father has contacted the National Action Fraud helpline to report his son in an attempt to recover the money his son charged, it’s possible that his son could be charged for the crime. I say the father should be the one charged with fraud and sentenced to time in prison, or at least let go from the police force he works for. I mean really, a policeman pulling a stunt like this.

It’s not like the father had no way to block IAP’s in iOS. iOS has very easy to use Parental Controls for making sure things like this don’t happen.

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January 13, 2010

Apple App Store Has Lost $450 Million To Piracy

By Dave M.

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If the headline is a true statement, then Apple needs to get off it’s backside and work out a way to protect applications from being pirated.

Via: 24/7 Wall St.
Apple and the companies that sell software for the iPhone and iPod touch at the App Store have lost over $450 million to piracy since the store opened in July 2008 according to an analysis by 24/7 Wall St. There have been over 3 billion applications downloaded since the App program began. Bernstein analyst, Toni Sacconaghi, estimated that between 13% and 21% of those downloads are from paid applications. According to this analysis, the average price of an application purchased at the App Store is $3. Sacconaghi estimated that Apple’s revenue from the App Store is between $60 million and $110 million per quarter. That amount has certainly increased since this research report was published because of the rapid growth of the number of applications.

If what that article is saying is true, then it’s clearly up to Apple to solve the problem. If for no other reason than to save the $135,000,000 that Apple is losing per 18 months.

There are folks out there that question the $450 million number and I must say that I have to wonder a bit too. The only way people can pirate iPhone/iPod touch apps is to jailbreak their iDevice. There are those that are doing this. In fact, some say that 10% of the iDevices out there are jailbroken. That comes to about 7.5 million jailbroken devices. Now, are we saying that, on average, each jailbreaker pirates $60 of software every 18 months? That sounds like a doable number. However, I really doubt that every jailbreaker is also a pirate. Now, what percentage of jailbreakers are pirates needs to be figured out.

The article states that 40% pirate, so now we are talking about 3 million jailbroken pirates would need to be stealing $150 worth of apps per 18 months. This still sounds like a doable figure. I mean we are talking less than 1 $0.99 app per month per jailbroken iPhone/iPod touch pirate. Assuming all the numbers are close to accurate.

If this is all true, then Apple is loosing way too much money to be sitting back and letting it happen. They must be working on something. If Microsoft can put together a system to prevent Xbox 360 pirating, then Apple can sure do something.

5 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in General, iPhone/iPod touch, News, Opinion

December 21, 2009

Apple Approves App With Image Of iPhone In Icon

By Dave M.

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Yep, that’s right. Furry Scurry and Furry Scurry Lite both have icons with the image of an iPhone in them. Is this a sign of a new Apple and AppStore approval policy? Or is it just another example of Apple’s reviewers messing up.

It was just under 2 months ago that Apple rejected an update to RSS Player Podcast Client due to the image of an iPhone in the splash screen that RSS Player used. The image was of the logo of a podcast in a montage of many podcast logos.

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RSS Player was forced to change the splash screen to remove the “offending” podcast logo and resubmit the application. One month later, the application finally made it back into the AppStore.

Now all of a sudden, Apple is approving an application that clearly has the image of an iPhone in the apps icon. This is the kind of mixed signals that has been messing with developers minds for the past year and a half.

There have been other examples of Apple rejecting apps due to images of Apple products other than RSS Player. A recent update to Airfoil Speaker Touch by Rogue Amoeba was also rejected for displaying images of Macintosh hardware to indicate where Airfoil Speaker Touch was getting it’s sound from. Later, after Rogue Amoeba decided to stop development of iPhone/iPod touch software did Apple change it’s mind and allow the images to be displayed.

I have no idea why Furry Scurry was allowed to have the image of that iPhone in it’s icon. I suspect that the reviewer just missed it during the review. However, this is exactly what the problem is with Apple’s review policies. There are so many “rules” that have to be followed that not every reviewer and/or developer can know every rule.

Yet, so long as there are all the rules that there are, there are going to be mistakes made. CodeSource Solutions is going to find out later, when they try to update their application, that the application is going to be rejected and they will have to change their icon in order to get the app approved again. Until that time, or until someone else at Apple notices the icon, Furry Scurry will be the only application in the AppStore that is allowed to have an image of an iPhone in it.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in iPhone/iPod touch, News

October 6, 2009

Welcome Back Mobigame!

By Dave M.

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Its been quite some time and I’m sure a huge amount of hell for Mobigame, but Edge by Mobigame [$4.99] and Edge by Mobigame Lite [Free] are both back in the US AppStore!

It appears that one of the concessions to getting back in the AppStore was to change the name from “Edge” to “Edge by Mobigame”. Both apps are updates to the existing versions which claim “bug fixed” as to what was changed in them. No mention of the change in the names, but at least they didn’t have to get rid of the “Edge” part of the name.

Its a real shame that they have been away from the store for so long. The game is truly one of the most original games for the iPhone/iPod touch there was when it first came out. It still really is. Mobigame also offers the music in the game as a free download on their site and as music, it stands up really well and is quite enjoyable to listen to. I have it in my music library to listen to just to listen to it.

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The game is a simple matter of getting your cube to the exit while collecting the small mini-cubes (as seen in the screen shot as that small yellow cube). Completing the level as quickly as possible.

The game currently has 48 levels, and if they stick around this time, hopefully they will be adding more and more levels as time goes on. This was something that they were doing before they had to leave the store.

Here’s hoping that they stick around this time and do very well.

1 comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Games, iPhone/iPod touch, News

September 18, 2009

1Password Pro and 1Password

By Dave M.

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1Password Pro [$7.99] / 1Password [$4.99]

1Password Pro and 1Password is the iPhone/iPod touch equivalent to the Agile Web Solutions 1Password for the Macintosh. 1Password is by far, the best data encryption software available to the public for the Mac in iPhone/iPod touch. The price listed in this review for the Pro version is currently 50% off. It’s been that price since Aug. 4th, so I don’t know when the price will jump to it’s final $15.99 price, so I suggest grabbing it now while it’s still on sale.

1Password has a great feature list:

  • Securely store your website names and passwords so you never forget them again
  • Save important information like credit cards and membership numbers
  • Jot down other notes too sensitive for stickies or bar napkins
  • Synchronize it all with 1Password for Mac (sold separately, available at http://1password.com)
  • Automatically log into Web sites on iPhone and iPod touch to avoid remembering and typing usernames and passwords
  • Hardware-accelerated AES encryption and Auto-Lock keep your data protected even if your iPhone is lost or stolen
  • All cryptographic operations are performed using standard iPhone libraries to ensure there are no security gaps or backdoors
  • Two-layer defense with Unlock Code and Master Password to combine security and convenience
  • Data Backup & Restore option available on Mac, Windows and Linux.

1Password Pro adds the following list of features:

  • Special easy switching mode allows you to quickly copy-and-paste usernames and passwords to Mobile Safari.
  • Support for copying multiple field values (for example, both username and password) from 1Password to Mobile Safari.
  • Folders for better organization
  • Features coming soon: Favorites, MobileMe/WebDAV syncing, and more.

This app has been a huge life saver. I store information like my wife’s Social Security Number, all my credit card numbers, detailed information about the vehicles we own (VIN numbers, License Plate numbers, etc…), and other sundry items that I would never feel comfortable storing in a standard notes application.

1Password has two security codes. The first is a 4 digit pin number that is used to log into the application. Once in, you can see any information that you have deemed with simple PIN security. The second security code is a password that you enter when first starting up the application. Actually both the 4 digit PIN number and the larger Master Password are prompted for when you first start the application. Attempting to look at an item with the Master Password Proctection flag set will prompt the user for the Master Password before they are allowed to see the item.

[singlepic id=7 w=160 h=120 float=left]A great side feature of 1Password is the ability to help generate secure passwords for any use. In 1Password, you select the Passwords tab and tap the “+” button. A Generate screen appears with a slider that you can slide from 4 characters to 20 characters. You can tell it to allow/disallow Numbers and allow/disallow Special Characters. You can then save the password for a website or just give it a description so you can find it for what ever need you wish.

If you have the Macintosh version of 1Password, you can sync all your information stored on you main computer to your iPhone/iPod touch. This allows you to have super secure passwords for any website you want. Just tap the Logins tab and find the site you want to log into. Tap the address field and you will be taken to that website using the 1Password web browser with the username and password already filled out.

Now, to be fair here, the Pro feature that allows the user the ability to use folders seems a little “lite” considering the price difference between the Pro version and the standard version.

The “special easy switching mode” is really nothing more than a bookmarklet that is added to the iPhone/iPod touch’s bookmarks. Once on a page that needs a password, you use the bookmarklet, which launches 1Password Pro so that you can use the Login item stored in it’s database to grab the password. Not the most efficient way to get the info, but really the only way since applications can’t talk to each other on the iPhone/iPod touch.

The only real useful features of the Pro version are the ones that are “coming soon”. Favorites and MobileMe/WebDAV syncing will be a huge plus with 1Password and the iPhone/iPod touch.

So, I have to say that the Pro version is probably not work $15.99 right now, but I would say that it’s worth the $7.99 being asked right now. Otherwise, $4.99 for piece of mind when it comes to credit card, social security, and other very sensitive numbers is well worth it.

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Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in AppReview

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