apps

Apple to compensate millions of parents whose kids splurged on apps

February 26, 2013 2:24 am by Tim Bradshaw

As a now-famous YouTube clip from 2010 shows, kids as young as 2 can operate an iPad, quickly learning how to open apps and play games. Unfortunately, some parents who used their iPad or iPhone as a babysitter ended up with a steep bill when their kids spent hundreds of dollars on virtual items in “free” games.

Five disgruntled parents blamed Apple for failing to provide appropriate controls around in-app purchases, and together filed a class-action lawsuit against the iPhone maker in 2011.

After fighting the case for two years, Apple agreed to settle last week, according to court filings first spotted by GigaOm. Read more

Tags: apple, apps, class action lawsuit, kids
Posted in Digital media, Mobile | Permalink

Wooga pilots a new episode of profit

February 22, 2013 12:35 am by Tim Bradshaw

Wooga, the social games developer behind Diamond Dash and Monster World, said it was profitable last year, but indicated that it had no immediate plans to follow rival Zynga onto the public markets.

“We were profitable for the year 2012,” said Jens Begemann, Wooga’s founder and chief executive at a press briefing in San Francisco where he also unveiled four new games. Read more

Tags: apps, berlin, mobile games, social games, wooga
Posted in Europe, Games, Mobile, Social | Permalink

Facebook takes a step towards “mobile first” with new iPhone app

August 23, 2012 9:16 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Facebook has overhauled its much-criticised application for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, in the social network’s latest attempt to tackle the challenging transition from desktop to mobile. Read more

Tags: apps, Facebook, iphone, Mobile
Posted in Internet, Mobile, Social, Tech | Permalink

Apple addresses address-book furore

February 16, 2012 10:08 am by Chris Nuttall

Apple appears to have acknowledged it needs to tighten up enforcement of its app guidelines following Path’s much-criticised uploading of users’ contacts to its servers without their knowledge.

“Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines,” an Apple spokesman told the FT. Read more

Tags: address book, apple, apps
Posted in Digital media, Mobile, Security | Permalink

Story of the Week: Path’s privacy concerns

February 11, 2012 7:50 am by Maryam Nabi

This week, Path, the social networking app, faced criticism for storing users’ information after Arun Thampi, a developer, discovered his iPhone’s address book was uploaded to Path’s servers without his permission.

While Dave Morin, CEO of Path, apologised in a post and vowed to delete the contacts from Path’s servers, tech commentators debated how iOS developers and Apple should deal with access to user data. Read more

Tags: apps, ios, path, privacy, social media
Posted in Mobile, Social, Tech | Permalink

Android app downloads overtake Apple

October 25, 2011 10:53 am by Phill Tutt

Tech news from around the web:

Downloads of Android’s apps overtook those of Apple’s iOS apps in the second quarter of 2001, Business Insider reports. According to figures from ABI Research, the market shares of Android and iOS were 44% and 31% respectively. However, Apple still gets more downloads per user than Android. Read more

Tags: android, Apple TV, apps, ios, Zynga
Posted in Computers, Digital media, Games, Internet, Mobile, Social, Tech, Tech Finance, Telecoms | Permalink

Apple-Verizon is all about the audience

January 11, 2011 7:00 pm by Joseph Menn

Perhaps the only surprising thing about Apple’s long-expected decision to end its US exclusivity with AT&T and bring the iPhone to Verizon Wireless is that it didn’t wait for the No. 1 network’s upgrade to much-faster 4G, which is still in process. The fact that it couldn’t wait shows how badly Apple wants to boost growth both for the gadgets themselves and more fundamentally for its slice of the mobile audience, where Google is pulling ahead. Read more