One billion makes for a catchy and memorable milestone. The world’s population passed the 1 billion mark in 1804. McDonald’s sold its 1 billionth hamburger in 1963. The 1billionth PC shipped in 2002.
Apple’s App Store hit that mark today, in just nine months, with much fanfare.
Granted, downloading a small program to your iPhone or iPod Touch is an entirely different sort of commerce than selling a burger or a PC, but Apple’s app universe has managed to acquire a remarkable amount of cultural currency in a short amount of time. As evidence, look at the controversy over the “Baby Shaker” app, which Apple quickly removed and apologized for on Thursday (the company’s statement said in part “this application was deeply offensive and should not have been approved for distribution on the App Store”).
It goes without saying that apps have changed smartphones and mobile computing. They have also given rise to a lucrative cottage industry for developers and entrepreneurs, and made Apple a serious player in the mobile gaming space.
Such success invariably invites competition, which is already here and promises to heat up further. Research in Motion recently opened its app store for the BlackBerry, Nokia will launch its Ovi store soon, and Palm will soon follow with a store for its forthcoming Pre smartphone.
As a BlackBerry and iTouch owner, I have to say that the Apple Apps store owns the BlackBerry Apps store - No comparison, IMO.
It used to be that Apple could do little wrong, if the unrelenting mania among the masses for the iPod and iPhone is any indication. Now, the company may have made an unusual and embarassing mis-step in selling a 99-cent “Baby Shaker” application for the iPhone.
Designed by Sikalosoft, the program encourages users to silence an incessantly crying baby by shaking their iPhone until the infant desists, and two red crosses replace the baby’s eyes.
On Wednesday, the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, whose mission is to spread awareness of infant brain injury incurred through abuse or disease, condemned Apple for hosting the application.
“As the father of a 3-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only 5 days old, breaking 3 ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction,” Patrick Donohue, Founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, stated in an open e-mail to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and several of his executives, demanding a personal apology.
“You have no idea the number of children your actions have put at risk by your careless, thoughtless and reckless behavior! We will do everything we can to expose your reckless actions and reverse the horrific impact it will have on the innocent children throughout the United States.”
Apple, which expects to sell its one-billionth app download this week, says it vets every program for sale on iTunes. The app was pulled as of Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman said without elaborating.
According to the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation’s communications director, Jennipher Dickens, whose 2-year-old son has irreversible brain damage as a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome, the app is most likely to be downloaded by the very same young male demographic statistically most likely to shake infants.
Perhaps most controversial was the sales pitch for the app: “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”
Krapps, a website that writes about apps for iPhone, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, first shed light on the Baby Shaker controversy.
Car 1: '10 370Z
Car 2: '06 RSX-S (sold)
Car 3: '06 RSX (wife's)
Well, alrighty then !
:walks off shaking head...but not TOO hard:
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A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life."
Car 1: '10 370Z
Car 2: '06 RSX-S (sold)
Car 3: '06 RSX (wife's)
I have some apps on my touch that are half-ass usable. Tops is the chess game (that I'm still trying to be level 6 on)
__________________
A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life."
Car 1: '10 370Z
Car 2: '06 RSX-S (sold)
Car 3: '06 RSX (wife's)
Well, there's a free dictionary and I also have a "flashlight" that doubles as an emergency/danger flasher.
(you'd be surprised at how much light the "flashlight" puts out)
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A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life."
Car 1: 2009 Scion tC
Car 2: 1997 Integra x2 - R.I.P.
Car 3: 95 Talon TSI AWD - SOLD
There's some that are pretty tight - one of 'em can ID just about any song if you hold it up to the speaker. Then it spits out what the song's called, who sings it, etc. Pretty rad IMHO.
But then, for every one like that, there's one like the fart noises app.
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Originally Posted by rewsintegra
theres no such thing as vtec fluid noob.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TireMeltingRSX
Hell yeah, called Predators. And who directs it is a moot point, putting a predator in any movie automatically makes it awesome. Imagine how good The Notebook or Dirty Dancing could have been if there was a predator in them.
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ones!
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