MashMine » iPhone

Readability App Final Gets Approval

Ryan Nutley — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:30:54 +0000

In February of 2011, Readability got refused from the Apple App Store as there were conflicts of interest regarding Apple's 30% fee that it takes on every in-app purchase. VentureBeat quoted that Readability commented on the situation:

We might as well share how we’re feeling right now: we believe that your new policy smacks of greed. Subscription apps like ours represent a tiny sliver of app sales that represent a tiny sliver of your revenue. You’ve achieved much of your success in hardware sales by cultivating an incredibly impressive app ecosystem. Every iPad or iPhone TV ad puts the apps developed by companies like ours front and center. It was a healthy and mutually beneficial dynamic: apps like ours get exposure and you get to show the world how these apps make your hardware shine. That’s why we’re a bit baffled here.

The conflict surfaced around the fact that Readability were splitting revenue with content writers 70-30 in favor of publishers. Apple were looking for the other 30%, which would effectively render the company useless, the app might as well be free. Readability have created some outstanding software that allows content to be parsed easily via networks simplified greatly to the end user. To add insult to injury, Apple themselves have used Readability's software on the Safari browser. Now though, just over a year later they have finally been approved and their app accepted into the realm of the Apple App Store. Lets see what lies ahead for them.

Totoya Creatures: Turn iPhones into Huggable Toys

Ryan Nutley — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:24:39 +0000

Toyota Creatures are the latest creation from Carnation Group, that turns Apple portable device, namely the iPad and the iPhone (iTouch), into interactive children's toys. The new product acts as a cover, not only protection but for entertainment, creating a friendly, cuddly and exciting play toy for children, sending the era of Barbie and Action Man right back to the history books. The Totoya Creatures are available in four varieties at the moment: Robotto and YetYet for the iPad and RobX and YetX for the iPhone. They are currently retailing at $79.90 for iPad compatible furries and $49.90 for the iPhone/iTouch versions. The toys come as both an app and a cuddle toy and when used in sync with one another, children can learn to play chimes. The app uses voice effects and touch control learning to enterta in and education children as young as 2 years old. The soft creatures pillow like sleeve is washable and can be drawn on by toddlers. As if the functionality of the tech savvy piece of gadgetry wasn't enough, the toy can also be used separate from the iDevices and doubles as a pillow/night-companion for children. As any parent would know, trying to retrieve your belongings from a child can be difficult, and often you need to wait for children to fall asleep. The Toyota Creature simply slides right off the iDevice, so there's no real need to worry about any damage to your valuable gadgets.

Latest Addition to Angry Birds [VIDEO]

Ryan Nutley — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:23:30 +0000

[embed width="625"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D8f4EnDrNwU[/embed] Rovio has been developing Angry Birds for Halloween (the latest addition to Angry Birds Seasons) for the last few weeks, but noone expected them to introduce a new Angry Bird with the version. The new Angry Birds is called Angry Birds Ham'O'Ween and has 30 new Halloween themed levels. What's cool though, is the new orange nameless bird capable of blowing up to several times his own size, like a puffer fish. This is a teaser video for those of you haven't already downloaded the new Angry Birds. [gallery link="file" orderby="rand"]

Angry Birds Valued at $1.2 billion and May Go Public

Ryan Nutley — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:55:31 +0000

Angry Birds is the best selling mobile game for the smartphone era, with several releases across nearly all mobile platforms. Recently valued at $1.2 billion, Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka (creator of Angry Birds) reckons that the company could be worth more stating, "We're happy with our valuation but we think it's probably a bit north of that." Angry Birds was first made famous through its feature game app on the iPhone platform. Users can now download the world renowned app for Android, iOS, Chrome, Playstation, Mac OS, Windows 7 and Google+. After over 12 million downloads were reached through the Apple Store, the Finnish company decided to go ahead and release various versions of Angry Birds, now offering four different titles, Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Magic. Additional revenue for the company in recent years has come from merchandising, reaching in the millions every month. According to the the company's website, stuffed toys alone are shipping "a million units a month." As if a stuffed toys weren't enough, Rovio also offer Halloween costumes, movie licenses and clothing. Vesterbacka gloats that, "We are very, very profitable. We're not a publicly traded company yet we can fund our own growth." He also has visions for the company to float, yet he hasn't disclosed a date... "maybe a year from now," he exclaimed in a recent interview. Rovio will be making its public stock offer. We really doubt that the company would fair well with an IPO. The health of the company relies heavily on a single game! Unless Rovio start to roll out more products and diversify their holdings outside of their current assets and IP's, they could risk public launch failure. Perhaps they'll acquire some smaller companies and technologies? Maybe some more IP's? Who know's, but hopefully Vesterbacka will continue doing whatever he's doing, because it seems to be serving them well for the time being.

iPhone 4S Pre Orders Breaks AT&T Sales Records

Ryan Nutley — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 12:39:07 +0000

In less than 12 hours, AT&T have received over 200,000 pre-orders for the new Apple iPhone 4S. More than the precast figures for the new product, AT&T Inc. have announced that this is the most successful product debut for the company to date. With over 50% of iPhone 4 users saying they would commit to buying the iPhone 5 when it releases, the release of the iPhone 4S shows that the market has a built up demand for new Apple products. Apple unveiled the product earlier this week (4th of October, the day before the passing of ex-CEO Steve Jobs) at a press conference, announcing the pricing to be $199, $299 and $399, depending on the model in question. Features of the new iPhone 4S include new Seri voice commands and a high resolution camera, as well as the introduction of a brand new microchip known as the A5 chip, that will make graphics seven times faster than the old processor. Apple biggest source of revenue is the iPhone, accounting for close to 50% of the companies income, and for the first time, it is available for purchase from all three of the largest U.S network carriers, the other two being Verizon and Sprint (who haven't yet announced preorder figures). [SOURCE]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-08/at-t-says-preorders-for-new-apple-iphone-4s-broke-company-s-sales-records.html[/SOURCE]