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Anyone looking for a $69 16GB iPad 2? Apparently, some IT guy over at one of Sears’ third-party resellers, GSM On Sale, had a bit of a face-palm moment: the site temporarily listed the iPad for $69.
Oddly
enough, the listing claims that you’ll save a whopping $30 by taking
advantage of this deal, posting an original price of $99.99. Honestly
we’d snatch up an iPad at either of those price points, if at any time,
in any world, it was possible to do so.
Sadly, it is not. The item has been de-listed, even though the page still remains if you have the right link. Right now Apple lists the 16GB iPad 2 for $499.99, so you’d actually see savings of almost 85 percent had this deal been for real.
We’re
not sure if purchases made before the de-listing were honored, so if
you’re one of the lucky few who stumbled upon the page early, let us
know if they held up their end of the accidental bargain. We’ll be sure
to keep your name confidential so the millions of people who paid $499
and up don’t come after you in your sleep.
In breaking legal news this afternoon, CNET is reporting that Apple has won a partial victory in its patent suit against HTC. Patent expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents tweeted (above) that the result could be a ban on many or all HTC Android products from the U.S. market.
The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that HTC had infringed on two Apple patents that were included in an earlier lawsuit. HTC is expected to appeal the decision.
The shelters are currently in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which is sadly the same firm that brought us the Microsoft "I'm a PC" campaign, is using the tag line "Alternative Energy Source" to describe both the Vitaminwater product and the function of the bus shelter plug.
Samsung has had charging kiosks in many airports for several years, so the concept isn't exactly new. But this is the first time that charging has hit the streets, usually the one place that you really need to plug in and charge up. It would be wonderful to see more advertisers providing this type of public service, giving their products and potential customers a plug.
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A game developer victimized by piracy via "jailbroken" iOS
devices has expressed frustration that Apple's Game Center service is
apparently fully functional for users who run stolen software.
GAMEized, the maker of the 99-cent iPhone and iPad game FingerKicks (iTunes link), told their story in a post on their official site this week. The tale of rampant piracy, highlighted Friday by TechCrunch, reveals that FingerKicks was pirated by 91 percent of those who have played it.
The developer discovered this because those who have stolen the game
apparently still have their high scores posted on Apple's Game Center
service for iOS. While the soccer-themed game has reportedly sold 1,163
legitimate copies, the developer said at least 15,950 pirated copies
have been logged on Game Center.
The number of users who stole the application was helped by the fact
that one illicit piracy service showcased FingerKicks as a "featured"
game on its main page.
Frustrated by the situation, the developer has publicly questioned why
Apple does not at the very least bar users with pirated software from
utilizing the Game Center service. A Game Center account is tied to the
same Apple ID used to purchase content from the App Store.
"Most bewildering of all is that even with all their rhetoric chastising
piracy and intellectual property theft, Apple apparently has no
functional counter-piracy safeguards in place on their Game Center --
essentially permitting users to play pirated software on their Game
Center without fear of reprisals or consequence," GAMEized's Luis
Fonseca wrote.
Despite frustration with what was characterized as a "humiliating piracy problem," the developer also added that they are fans of Apple's products and platforms, as evidenced by the fact that their game is exclusively available on iOS.
Users can install pirated software on iOS devices by "jailbreaking" the operating system. Jailbreaking is a warranty voiding process that exploits security holes in iOS in order to allow users to run unauthorized software.
While jailbreaking is legal and can be used for legitimate purposes such as custom themes and modifications to iOS, it can also be used for illegal purposes such as stealing applications from Apple's official App Store. For its part, Apple has warned users not to jailbreak, citing security risks.
The stigma of piracy connected to jailbreaking is not lost on the hackers who work to find the exploits in iOS. The latest browser-based jailbreak released earlier this month even pleads with users: "Please don't use this for piracy."
Developing Apps for the iOS devices is very lucrative. Despite the developer support Apple provides, it still takes a knowledge of writing code to fully prepare an app for launch. Google has been working on a drag and drop app builder for primitive apps for Android but Apple's developer program is still pretty hard for non-programers to use.
