News iPhone App Store details revealed

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07...ils-revealed/1

Apple fan site MacRumours has compiled a list of information regarding the iPhone App Store, due to officially launch this Thursday. The good news is it includes a bunch of freebies!

[p3n]

Looking forward to the app store, shame I won't be getting one of the first 3g's (missed out online, not stupid enough to waste my time at a shop) ... we shall see!

[Timmy_the_tortoise]

I don't even know why they ever wasted anyone's time by releasing a non-3G phone...

That was a really stupid thing to do, and it's taken them a year to sort it out..

[Firehed]

Downloaded, installed, woot. Of course I'm doing this over VNC to my home machine so I can't really test anything, but the 2.0 software isn't out yet so it doesn't matter. Seven pages of freebies, including a few that I recognize from the jailbreak apps. The oft-rumored iPhone iTunes Remote exists (and is free), as well as AIM, Facebook, and a slew of Twitter clients. Plus I also grabbed the Salesforce app as I use it at work (mostly for testing it out really; work gets a presence on my phone when they start paying the bill). And Pandora Radio on the iPhone = win. Also free. Not sure how the logistics of that will work out, as most of Pandora's mobile services are paid.

[<A88>]

I wish WinMo had such a dedicated developer-base and a central app store. So much of this iPhone stuff looks so good, but there's a lot of software I've got right now that I know I'd never be able to get for the iPhone. That said, maybe sometime in the near future I'll find myself developing for it as it seems like a decent enough platform to code for, and certainly popular enough.

[Solidus]

Il be buying one tomorow!

Will be popping into town first thing to nab me one!

[Gareth Halfacree]

With regards the Pandora application, Victoria Briggs from the MCPS-PRS alliance contacted me via e-mail to say:

Originally Posted by Victoria Briggs, MCPS-PRS

To clarify, it is likely that this application will be unavailable in all territories outside the US since Pandora has not yet concluded licensing deals with any music organisations. In the UK this would be with MCPS, PRS and PPL. Licences are available at rates set by the UK Copyright Tribunal and other services have taken them out and are operating. Pandora has chosen not to make its service available rather than take out a licence for the music which is integral to its business model. It is therefore inaccurate to write that 'onerous restrictions by the Performing Right Society' are the cause of the applications likely unavailability.

I offer her comments verbatim by way of right-to-reply. I would, however, note that they jar somewhat with the comments offered by Tim Westergren back in January who stated that his company had "been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable" by the MCPS-PRS, which certainly sounds like he thought the restrictions imposed were onerous.