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Phil Schiller Is A Man On A Mission: To Save The App Store

Posted: 15 Aug 2009 01:01 AM PDT

ref_phil_schiller2As Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, you’d have to imagine that Phil Schiller is a pretty busy guy. He’s also been moonlighting as Apple’s keynote speaker during Steve Jobs’ medical leave of absence. But now it’s really start to look as if Schiller has taken on another task: App Store savior.

We’ve already talked at length about the two instances in the past week or so of Schiller personally reaching out to bloggers to set the record straight about a few of the App Store issues. But he has actually taken it a step farther. He’s also been reaching out to individual app makers to talk to them about their apps and offer his assistance in getting them approved, we’ve learned tonight. And one such app, Rising Card, is now available in the App Store thanks to Schiller.

Rising Card is a magic application developed by Theory11. The reason it was initially rejected after a long period of hearing nothing from Apple was that they felt the app would be confusing to customers. Of course, that was the point of the app as it’s a magic trick meant to confuse people. The developers wrote Apple to explain that to them, but heard nothing back. They figured all hope was lost as this was hardly a high profile application, and Apple clearly didn’t seem to care too much about it.

Then the Apple blog TUAW covered the rejection a few days ago, and all of a sudden, Apple started reaching out to the developers. And of course, not just anyone at Apple, but Schiller and also Phil Shoemaker, Apple’s Director of Application Technology. Based on this and Schiller’s previous responses, it would seem that not only is Apple reading the blogs that cover App Store issues, but it really is trying to resolve them. And in this case it did. Shoemaker called yesterday to let the developers know that the app was now in the store.

Obviously, the developers are very pleased with situation. Jonathan Bayme, the CEO of Theory11 wrote this to us this evening:

Schiller was unbelievably responsive throughout the whole ordeal. Our first communication from him was late at night on the 11th – with another email sent to us an hour later. He was extremely nice and although not promising anything, he said he would have their team look into the situation ASAP.

To be frank, Chris and I [the creators] were both amazed that this had reached the heights it had at all – given the fact that it is just a fun magic trick. We had spent months creating, polishing, and finishing this thing – and up until then we thought all hope was lost. It’s been quite the rollercoaster.

This morning, we received another email from Schiller advising us that Phil Shoemaker (Director of Application Technology) would be in touch with us soon to discuss our app, and as promised I received a phone call about three hours later from Phil. Shoemaker said that his team was looking into the issue as we spoke, and he was hopeful to see resolution of this by the end of the day.

True to his word – it was in fact approved late this afternoon. In sincerity the whole process was quite the ordeal, but I must say that I respect the hell out of the fact that we received the personal attention that we did. They were responsive, attentive, and truly listened to what we were saying. While one could argue that it took us over a month to get to that point, I would judge this situation based on the lengths they went to to fix the problem – they were incredible.

So there you go, another happy customer. This new Schiller strategy seems to be working wonders for the App Store.

But I still find it a little crazy that it’s Schiller who is personally doing this. On one hand it’s great, but it’s also odd. Perhaps that speaks to this being more serious of a situation then just some apps being rejected. After all, the FCC is looking into Apple’s role in the App Store and how it handles app approvals/rejections. This follows Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app and the removal of all apps that use Google Voice. Google and AT&T are also the subjects of that investigation.

When the government gets involved — the government that is already looking into Apple for its board of director issues (with Google), anti-competitive issues (with iTunes/iPod), and hiring practices issues (again, with Google) — you are naturally going to take things a little more seriously than you were before. The fact of the matter is that Apple had, and still has, a lot of problems with the App Store. They waited too long to fix them, and the situation started to get out of control. So it looks like Apple may have had to bring out the big guns to restore order, and it appears to be working.

Now, Schiller and Shoemaker cannot possibly personally look into every app, or even just every app rejection, but they appear to be focusing on the ones that are getting attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was some kind of stop-gap move until the improvements to the App Store approval process that Schiller has been alluding to are ready to go. We know they’ve already broken up the iPhone PR team into two divisions now (hardware and App Store), a next step could well be a complete revamping of the app approval process and team.

When MobileMe was having troubles following its launch last year, Steve Jobs stepped in to right the ship, and it worked. It looks like Schiller may be doing the same now with the App Store. Let’s hope that works too.

Oh, and the Rising Card application that led to all of this? It’s pretty good, very smartly designed. Is there any reason Apple should have rejected it? No, and so it’s good to see it in the App Store where it belongs. Find it here for $2.99.

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Phil Schiller Is A Man On A Mission: To Save The App Store

How would you change Nokia’s N97?

Posted: 15 Aug 2009 12:02 AM PDT

3ff8dd2441stylus.jpg How would you change Nokias N97?

It’s the phone that Nokia should’ve used to introduced the world to Symbian S60 5th edition, but is it the “hero”-type device that it was marketed as? Nokia’s N97 is undoubtedly expensive, debatably beautiful and thoroughly polarizing (as two of our own found out). While it’s impossible to say the handset was introduced to go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone (the whole “only sold off contract” thing kind of hampers that), there’s little doubt that this phone was Espoo’s most significant attempt yet to make a name for itself in the full-touchscreen smartphone market. If you handed over the handful of C-notes required to take this bad boy home, why not tell us exactly how you feel now that you’re an owner? What would you like to see changed on Nokia’s next attempt? What measures up? What falls short? You’ve got one shot (maybe two, depending on the mood of our comment system) — don’t screw it up.

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How would you change Nokia’s N97? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big Baddass Lego Spock’s Ship [Lego]

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 11:00 PM PDT

Apple iPAD outed in Borders bookstore survey?

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 09:41 PM PDT

255e5adeabgust09.jpg Apple iPAD outed in Borders bookstore survey?

Now, we don’t really know what to think about this one, considering how many rumors are swirling about upcoming Apple devices at the moment, but make of it what you will. An online survey currently being conducted by Borders bookstore lists the “Apple iPAD (large screen reading device)” in one of its questions about e-readers. There along with the Amazon Kindle, the Kindle DX, the Sony Reader and the Plastic Logic Reader is the option to check “I plan to buy an Apple IPAD this year.” It’s safe to say that there are two options here: either Borders has access to some privileged Apple tablet / Kindle killer info that we, the wondering masses, do not (and yet is still making blunders like “Blackberry” and “Apple iTouch”) — or they’re just assuming that there must be some truth to all the fuss. And hey, who could blame them? Like we said, we’re not going to put too much stock in it, but go ahead and hit the read link to take the survey for yourself — but be forewarned: you’re going to have to dish on your opinion of Dan Brown before you get to the good stuff.

[Via MacLife, thanks AC]

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Apple iPAD outed in Borders bookstore survey? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gmail Nudges Past AOL Email In The U.S. To Take No. 3 Spot.

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 09:28 PM PDT

77c6ca4ad4evolve.png Gmail Nudges Past AOL Email In The U.S. To Take No. 3 Spot.

Good thing Gmail is out of beta. It is now the third largest Web mail service in the U.S. In July, Gmail nudged past AOL Email with 37 million unique visitors compared to 36.4 million for AOL, according to comScore estimates. (Gmail is the orange line in the chart below). That puts Gmail within sight of the No. 2 player, Windows Live Hotmail, which has 47 million unique visitors. After that there is a wide gulf separating Yahoo Mail and its 106 million monthly unique visitors.

The last time checked on Gmail’s progress was at the beginning of the year, when it seemed like it would still take at least two years for it to catch up to its nearest rivals. But so far this year, Gmail’s unique visitors grew 25 percent, while AOL’s declined 22 percent. Thus, the two crossed paths in July. (Hotmail grew only 8 percent during the same period, while Yahoo Mail increased unique visitors by a healthy 16 percent).

If Google wants Gmail to pass Hotmail quickly and gain the No. 2 spot, my suggestion is to keep pumping in new enhancements through Gmail Labs and to speed up the pace at which mail storage increases. Not that I am a typical user, but I am already at 97 percent of my allotted 7,358 megabytes. One of the primary lures of Gmail has always been its seemingly endless and ever-expanding storage limits. Please don’t make me pay for more storage.

44fee0bad2otmail.jpg Gmail Nudges Past AOL Email In The U.S. To Take No. 3 Spot.

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Gmail Nudges Past AOL Email In The U.S. To Take No. 3 Spot.

Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 09:04 PM PDT

Did you think that Ares facing delays or cancellations was bad? Well, what about a freaking huge honkin’ asteroid obliterating Earth, all because NASA doesn’t have enough funding to track every potentially-deadly object out there? Yes, exactly my fraking thoughts.

Here’s the deal: NASA was supposed to be tracking at least 90 percent of all potentially dangerous asteroids by 2020 under the Near Earth Object Program. This was mandated by Congress some time ago. Right now, they are on track to detect 90 percent of all asteroids .6 miles wide this year. However, that leaves a giant amount of other objects that, while not as big, are potentially lethal too. Rocks that can take out the entire West Coast of the United States, for example (hey better Brian and jason, than Matt, John, and I, ok?)

Well, guess what? Congress isn’t giving money to NASA to properly fund the program, so they are not going to meet deadlines. And when I say deadline, I also mean lines that can make all of us dead.

In other words, if tomorrow an asteroid hits New York, I will know exactly who is to blame. Of course, we can also blame the euromorons, the Japanese, and every other developed nation who can help in preventing the total or partial annihilation of humankind. Shortsighted morons, some humans are. [CNN]





Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space] Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space] Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space] Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

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Asteroids May Destroy Earth Because Some People Are Obtuse Tightfisted Bozos [Space]

CubeTree Adds Group Chat To Its Branches

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 08:57 PM PDT

picture-55CubeTree, the collaboration suite built on an enterprise social networking platform, has launched a new group chat feature today that should allow its customers to communicate more efficiently with chat room functionality.

CEO and Co-Founder Carlin Wiegner says that there are also more APIs coming to CubeTree, including some that are related to the new live chat feature. CubeTree also has applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Blackberry, Adobe AIR and Jabber support. Group chats can be enabled so numerous users can communicate with each other at once. After chats are completed, they are archived for later viewing, which you can also search through by keyword.

Just earlier this week, Socialcast launched its own brand new set of developer API’s to help Socialcast users better communicate with each other.

CubeTree was founded in 2008 and is backed by Mitch Kapor and Trinity Ventures.

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CubeTree Adds Group Chat To Its Branches

Nokia / InterDigital patent drama continues with ITC ruling in Espoo’s favor

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 07:54 PM PDT

8d683f99ecnokia.jpg Nokia / InterDigital patent drama continues with ITC ruling in Espoos favorCorporate legal teams are so large, so powerful, and often so evenly-matched that when you combine them with the glacial wheels of justice, patent disputes can take years to resolve — in fact, we’d say it’s the rule rather than the exception — and inevitably, they end in anticlimactic fashion with the alleged offender agreeing to shell out some fraction of the plaintiff’s original request in exchange for sweeping the whole matter under the rug. Nokia’s had its fair share of such spats, and one that’s been dogging the company for a good long while now is with InterDigital, which has been systematically targeting firms in the industry for years with claims that it holds patents inherently required for UMTS — in other words, if you make UMTS gear, you automatically owe InterDigital money. Of course, Nokia has been politely disagreeing with that claim all along, and the US International Trade Commission has just issued an initial determination in its favor, saying that it doesn’t violate the four patents InterDigital’s all worked up over. For the record, the US ITC has been investigating this issue for a solid two years now, so yeah, if someone’s ripping off your IP, don’t expect a speedy resolution. The commission’s initial determination will be followed by a final, binding determination this December; in the meantime; Espoo “will continue to present its case.” Now that we think about it, we’re pretty sure we saw this episode of Law & Order already.

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Nokia / InterDigital patent drama continues with ITC ruling in Espoo’s favor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 07:50 PM PDT

1fa79422ffysmall.jpg North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]Some dedicated Palm Pre fanboys/Pre Central readers did a bit of snooping around and found a model number for a North American, GSM Palm Pre in the certification database for Wi-Fi.org. Intrigue!

The model number on this new Pre on the Wi-Fi.org site reads P100UNA (where as the Euro GSM version reads P100UEU and the CDMA version reads P100EWW). There are also references in the Bluetooth Gadget Guide and TUVdotCOM to back this up.

Engadget seems to have the right idea in guessing that this phone is first heading to Bell and our friendly neighbors to the north (that’s Canada, for the directionally challenged). Why, you ask? Because Bell is in the process of switching from a CDMA network to a GSM one, and Sprint is the still the exclusive carrier of the Pre in the US for at least the rest of the year. Then again, maybe Palm is just really, REALLY excited about early 2010. [Wi-Fi.org (PDF) via PreCentral via Engadget





North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]

North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]

North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]

North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones] North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones] North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones] North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]

North American GSM Palm Pre Reveals Itself (In Name Only) [Smartphones]

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Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 07:20 PM PDT

7e7e7af432xl 02.jpg Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]A handful of stats students at the University of Ottawa decided to create a working mathematical model for zombie outbreaks, and possible ways of thwarting the attack. What did they learn? We’re screwed. Kind of.

First, some background. They based their methodology around three groups: zombies, those susceptible to zombie attacks, and those who are unaffected (dead zombies). They based their model around zombies who infect humans with saliva via bites, and walk in slow, irregular strides. They also allowed a 24 hour incubation period from the moment of infection to complete zombification.

What did they learn? Well if left unaddressed, a zombie attack on a sizable city would wipe out the population in a matter of 4-8 hours. If you tried to quarantine the zombies, it would essentially have no effect on the outcome because the zombies would inevitably escape, or infect the humans attempting to quarantine zombies. And if you tried to generate a zombie antidote, you’d still lose a lot of people in the process of creating the antidote, and it wouldn’t revert the zombies back to a dead state, which means they could possibly infect people in other areas.

The best solution? The only hope of wiping out a possible zombie invasion is to attack the undead in focused, strategic attacks that progressively increase in intensity. This will help address the growing number of undead in the process. But even then it would prove difficult to emerge victorious, as it would take 10 days worth of heavy fighting to quell the outbreak.

But luckily, you don’t have to worry about any of this because some sap mathematically proved it would be impossible for zombies to exist (along with vampires). Something about how they would feast themselves into oblivion. [University of Ottawa (PDF) via io9]





Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies] Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies] Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies] Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

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Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions [Zombies]

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