Apple censorship: write or wrong?

Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo reports that Apple seems to have censored the two best sellers of her bookstore. The problem? That they were short stories of erotic content written by Carl East (full article at http://gizmodo.com/5598114/is-apple-censoring-their-book-store-bestseller-list).

While I think that Steve Jobs and Apple have the right to rule inside their market place and platforms as they best like (at the end, rules are known before entering the game,…) until they don’t limit agreed rights, on the other side I have two points:

a) for how many time this chensorhip will be applicable, considering the breaches in apps and books selection that exists (because in my opinion, some very light xxx applications and books are admitted since they don’t become so much visible) and money they bring to App store

b) why is so difficult to have a differentiated offering for those willing to access xxx applications (couldn’t be ethical for someone, but brings a lot of bucks…. 🙂 )

This post as a comment also at http://gizmodo.com/5598114/is-apple-censoring-their-book-store-bestseller-list

Iphone: more books than apps, more spam than ever

John Herman at Gizmodo writes an article informing us that in Apple Appstore in october the number of books released was bigger than applications, though is increasing the number of people spamming or releasing same copies of public domain books (full article at http://gizmodo.com/5395396/iphone-ebooks-the-new-fart-apps).

I agree on everything said. Selling crappy versions of public domain books is easy, costless and could get some cash.

I’m surprised that Apple authorizes this.

Though I’m quite convinced that if  books will be sold on App store with a kindle like approach and with App store prices, this would be a great channel for  selling.

This post as a comment also at http://gizmodo.com/5395396/iphone-ebooks-the-new-fart-apps

Iphone as an enabler: the real joys of third gen economy

Brian X. Chen at Wired (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/author/bxchen/) writes a good article about Adobe decision to realease a new Flash developer kit allowing programmers to “port” Flash based applications to Apple IPhone compliant ones (full article at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/flash-economy/).

I really appreciate the concept of seing a technology as an enabler for something, because, I think is not only an enabler but a sort of “multiplier”.

Flash has, as written in the article, a wide base of users and a wide base of developers all of them needing something (easy and nice applications for users, money and easily reachable market places for developers): Apple IPhone and much more its application store could be the “take off condition” and the real breakthrough for developers.

Only a copule more point:

a) Flash has got a wide spreading also because allowed everybody to develop and release applications that now will be “evaluated and approved” by a third party (remember Google Voice case?)

b) IPhone apps store is really big at this moment, what will it be with some millions of Flash Apllications potentially being inserted?

This post as a comment also at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/flash-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-95648

Windows 7 and time warp

Dan Nosowitz at Gizmodo writes an article telling that for a Microsoft engineer data, upgrading with many applications and mid ranged hardware to Windows 7 could take up to 21 hours (full article at http://gizmodo.com/5358025/worst-case-scenario-windows-7-upgrade-can-take-21-hours). Same thing does Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica (full article at http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/microsoft-upgrade-to-windows-7-can-take-up-to-a-day.ars).

In my opinion is, again, the demonstration that sometimes software (and especially OSes) are thought and engineered without consciousness of user capabilities.

Ok 650Gb of datas are a lot of bytes, but space counted in Terabytes is not a so remote idea.

Ok is a worst case scenario, but also in high end scenario hardware we are talking of a range form 8 to 10 hours.

Maybe people could like to migrate to Windows 7, but maybe they cannot afford all the time and money needed.

How far seem to me those time where a complete OS stood in 16-20 or 48kb (no mistake, kilo not giga or tera… 🙂 ).

This post as a comment also at http://gizmodo.com/5358025/worst-case-scenario-windows-7-upgrade-can-take-21-hours and at http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/microsoft-upgrade-to-windows-7-can-take-up-to-a-day.ars?comments=2&comment_id=125007341041

Is Desktop shop the next stop for users?

Christian Zibreg (http://www.geek.com/users/dujkan/) at Geek.com writes an article asking the question on possible implications of a desktop application store (full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/opinion-what-we-really-need-is-a-desktop-app-store-20090827/).

Seems to me a good idea especially for the average user and especially for the following reasons:

• average users can make “impromptu” buying if price is low enough (like 0.99$ price on app store)
• average users are often afraid of security and tend not to buy if not sure of the site. If the store is considered safe (like app store) will be a plus
• average users can get centralized assistance on software bough, started by store (which can be payed by a small fee) and delivered by the software maker (that can get the rest of the fee)

Seems interesting… 🙂

This post as a comment also at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/opinion-what-we-really-need-is-a-desktop-app-store-20090827/comment-page-1/#comment-1845072