Terrence O'Brien
Staten Island - http://www.terrence-obrien.com
App Developer Sued for Stealing Customers' iPhone Numbers
Storm8, the developer of popular (but terrible) iPhone games like 'Vampires Live' and 'iMobsters,' has found itself on the wrong end of a potential class-action lawsuit. A lawsuit has been filed, on behalf of Washington resident Michael Turner, that alleges Storm8 built its games with a "feature" that automatically sends the phone number of each host iPhone to the developer. Turner is suing on the grounds that this practice is in violation of both the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California state law, and is pushing to turn it into a class-action suit, on behalf of all Storm8 customers.
Storm8 has admitted to collecting the phone numbers, but denies any real responsibility, attributing the "phone home" function to a simple bug in the code. The company maintains that the glitch has been fixed. Turner countered that a "glitch" could not lead to the collection of phone numbers and that specialized code would have to be purposely placed within the games to have that effect. Not being programmers,we can't say for certain whether or not the collecting of phone numbers was intentional, but it doesn't sound like the sort of feature that could be accidentally implemented.
Cell Phone Inventor Says Mobile Devices Are Too Complex
Last year, Martin Cooper, the man credited with inventing the cell phone at Motorola in 1973, made headlines when he complained at a Boston conference that the iPhone was too complex. Further cementing his reputation as a curmudgeon, Cooper told a gathering in Madrid this week pretty much the same thing -- that modern cell phones are too feature-packed to be useful. "Whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well," he told the crowd.
Now, our knee-jerk reaction was to dismiss Cooper as a crotchety, out-of-touch coot when he said, "[Our] future... is a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing." Clearly, the trend in technology has been convergence -- cramming more and more capabilities into fewer, smaller gadgets. Many of us at the Switched offices lug around smartphones that can snap photos, record video, play games, browse the Internet, get directions via GPS, play music and video, and make calls. Yet a quick survey revealed that most of us own, and still use, dedicated iPods and GPS devices, as well. And no one would even contemplate ditching a computer to rely purely on a smartphone for Web access.
9 Banned Apps You'll Never See on the iPhone
Much of the consternation stems from the fact that Apple has never published hard and fast guidelines for what determines whether an app will be allowed through Apple's gatekeepers. To make matters worse for frustrated developers, Apple frequently contradicts itself in its judgments. So, say, while porn stars are free to peddle T and A to consenting adults, e-book packages that include the "Kama Sutra" are apparently too risqué for Apple. In the hopes of discovering a method to this maddening process, we've looked at nine high-profile iPhone apps that were found guilty of transgressing Apple's (unwritten) approval terms, and weigh in on the fairness of Apple's judgment and the likelihood an app will have it overturned on appeal in the future.
Maryland Computer Crash Causes Gridlock and Mayhem
O, mighty gods of technology! How beholden to you we are! You hold every facet of our lives in your cold, digital paws. And to remind us of just how much control you wield over our fragile lives, you decided to bring all of Montgomery County, Maryland to a standstill this week.County technicians are still trying to figure out why a computer that controls all 750 traffic lights in the area crashed around 3 a.m., Wednesday. The computer, which oversees the timing and synchronization of the lights for the entire county, which itself includes several major suburbs of Washington, D.C., dates back to the Carter administration and is in the process of being phased out. But, apparently, the system couldn't hold onto life any longer and turned the entire county into a sea of glowing brake lights. Thanks to the meltdown, the grid failed to switch into rush-hour mode and, as a result, did not leave individual lights green for long enough to keep traffic flowing.
Google Dashboard Reveals Your Digital Dossier
The big 'G' just launched Google Dashboard, a service that summarizes the data stored by the various Google services you use, and then provides quick links to the privacy and personal settings of each. According to Google, the aim is to provide a transparent look into the information of yours that it has stored.
Purdue's 'Hotseat' Brings Twitter to the College Classroom
Schools have been surprisingly quick to embrace new online tools to enhance education and encourage participation both in and out of the classroom. Professor Dave Parry, from the University of Texas at Dallas, has taken his class to Twitter, The University of Missouri has required all Journalism majors to own an iPhone or an iPod touch, and Griffith University has an entire course dedicated to ...'2001' Geeks, Rejoice! World Learns Why HAL Sang 'Daisy'
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We're sure many of you are familiar with the death-of-HAL scene from the Kubrick classic '2001: A Space Odyssey,' in which the rebellious computer slowly, and childishly, drones the lyrics to 'Daisy Bell.' It's one of the most memorable scenes in a film loaded with iconic images (the obelisk ...Windows 7 Performing Just Fine, Despite Haters
Apparently, some media outlets are so eager to see Microsoft fall flat on its face that they're already calling Windows 7 a failure -- less than two weeks after its debut. Electronista and CNN Money have already declared that, with Windows 7, Microsoft has blown its chance to stop the rise of Mac.
According to Internet tracking firm Net Applications, Windows has seen its ninth drop in market ...Radio and CDs Still More Popular than MP3s, Finds Study
Believe it or not, digital media and iPods aren't the most popular way to consume audio entertainment. In fact, it's not even close. The most popular source of audio media, according to the Council for Research Excellence (PDF), is good ol' broadcast radio.
According to the study, which followed around 300 adults in five U.S. cities, some 77-percent of Americans listen to some broadcast radio ...China Blocks Access to 'World of Warcraft'... Again
'World of Warcraft' (WoW) is painfully popular in China. So much so that, out of WoW's roughly 13 million subscribers, 4 million are in China -- almost a third of the company's customer base. Considering the large portion of revenue coming from the psuedo-communist country, WoW publisher Activision Blizzard, is probably having a mini freak-out right now as WoW has again been blocked by the ...
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