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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Apple app store hits 10 billion downloads (AP) : Technet

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Apple app store hits 10 billion downloads (AP) : Technet

Apple app store hits 10 billion downloads (AP)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:04 PM PST

– Sat Jan 22, 3:04 pm ET

NEW YORK – Apple says that its app store has hit the 10 billion downloads mark. The milestone, announced on Apple Inc.'s website Saturday, arrives as the company's hugely popular smart phone is likely to become even more popular with the addition next month of Verizon Wireless as a carrier.

The company has sold tens of millions of iPhones since the device launched in 2007 and continues to expand the use of apps with its iPad tablet computer. Its app store has drawn an army of software developers hoping to piggyback on the company's success. The store now boasts more than 350,000 different programs for the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Apple said it would give the 10 billionth person to download an app a $10,000 gift card to its iTunes store, which now offers movies and TV shows along with digital music files. And the winner is Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, in the U.K. She downloaded a free game app called Paper Glider.

Palestinian charged with insulting leader online (AP)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 10:38 AM PST

By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Dalia Nammari, Associated Press – Sat Jan 22, 1:38 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – A reporter tagged in a Facebook image that mocked the Palestinian president said Saturday he faces trial for insulting a public figure, raising concerns about freedom of speech in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Mamdouh Hamamreh, who works for the pro-Hamas Al-Quds TV, said security forces detained him in September, just hours after the image appeared on his Facebook feed. The picture showed President Mahmoud Abbas — a Hamas rival — standing next to an actor who plays a villain on a popular Syrian soap opera, the reporter said.

Hamamreh said he was held for more than 50 days in a Palestinian lockup after the picture appeared on his feed. He said he had nothing to do with the image. He was released in November and says a hearing has been set for next month.

"I censor myself now," Hamamreh said. "I'm careful of what I say."

Facebook allows people to tag images, video clips or articles so they automatically appear on another person's profile with that person's name attached. The second person can remove the item.

Abbas' security forces have previously mined social networks to catch dissenters. In November, an atheist blogger was arrested after posting incendiary comments about Islam on Facebook.

His forces also have cracked down frequently on West Bank-based loyalists of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized control of Gaza in 2007 after routing Abbas' fighters.

Gaza's Hamas rulers have also gone after Abbas supporters and other opponents, including reporters. Riham Abu Aita, a media rights activist, said about 30 reporters were detained in the West Bank and Gaza in 2009, but did not have figures yet for 2010.

Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for the Abbas government, said there is considerable free speech in the West Bank but special circumstances needed to be taken into account — an apparent reference to the bitter rivalry between Abbas and Hamas.

In another development, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she "deplores" the continued imprisonment of prominent Palestinian activist Abdullah Abu Rahmeh by Israel. Since 2005, Abu Rahmeh has been a key figure in weekly protests against Israel's separation barrier which cuts into West Bank land.

In Friday's statement, she said the Palestinians have the right to engage in peaceful demonstrations.

He was to have been released Nov. 18, after serving his yearlong sentence. However, earlier this month, an Israeli military court extended his sentence by four months following a request by a military prosecutor.

Israel has portrayed the weekly protests as violent riots. Routinely, Palestinian demonstrators throw stones at Israeli forces who fire tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and at times live rounds.

___

Associated Press reporter Diaa Hadid contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

10 billionth download for Apple's App Store (AFP)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 01:53 PM PST

– Sat Jan 22, 4:53 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Apple's App Store hit 10 billion downloads on Saturday, the California gadget-maker announced.

"Thank you. Ten billion times. The App Store has reached 10 billion downloads. Thanks for getting us there," Apple said in a message on its website.

The App Store offers more than 300,000 free and paid mini-programs known as applications, or apps, for Apple's popular iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The success of Apple's App Store has spawned rivals Blackberry, Google, which is the developer of the Android mobile operating system, and others to launch their own online app stores.

Apple reported a record quarterly net profit of $6 billion on Tuesday, a day after the company's iconic chief executive, Steve Jobs, announced he is going on medical leave.

The Internet is Running Out of Space...Kind of (Mashable)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:33 PM PST

Sarah Kessler Sarah Kessler – Sat Jan 22, 3:33 pm ET

On February 2nd around 4 a.m., the Internet will run out of its current version of IP addresses. At least that's what one Internet Service Provider is predicting based on a rate of about one million addresses every four hours.

Hurricane Electric has launched Twitter and Facebook accounts that count down to what it has termed the "IPcalypse."

Every device that is connected to the Internet gets a unique code called an IP address (it looks like this). The current system, IPv4, only supports about 4 billion individual IPv4 addresses.

As PC World's Chris Head explained in a blog post yesterday, some of these addresses are reusable. The problem, however, is that their one-time use counterparts will eventually lead to the complete depletion of IP addresses.

Fortunately, some smart folks foresaw this problem long before we did and invented IPv6, a system that invokes both letters and digits to handle 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses (shall we just call it "a zillion?").

Hurricane Electric's doomsday campaign encourages other Internet service providers to transition to that system. Fortunately, the Internet Society's Wiki assures us that IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist during the transition despite being largely incompatible. Software and hardware developers are working on transition mechanisms, and most operating systems install support for IPv6 by default.

Since many of us still have some canned food and bottled water stacked up in our basement from the Y2K era, we should be OK either way.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

With 10 billion downloads in the books, here are the most popular iOS apps (Appolicious)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 02:23 PM PST

Report: China Poised To Sell Apple iPad 3G. Finally. (PC Magazine)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 08:27 AM PST

Sara Yin - PC Magazine Sara Yin - Pc Magazine – Sat Jan 22, 11:27 am ET

The Apple iPad 3G has passed a major regulatory hurdle in China and is expected to launch soon on China Unicom, China's second largest carrier and exclusive network to Apple China.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology listed a generic Apple model number "A1337" under its list of approved items, with specs suggesting the Apple iPad 3G.

Apple and China Unicom were unavailable for comment, but have declined to comment in other publications. There is no word as to when the iPad 3G will actually hit stands in China as the device has to pass several more tests.

Currently Apple offers the iPad Wi-Fi in China. It sold 125,000 units in China during its launch month in September, according to the WSJ. Meanwhile anticipation is still rife for the 3G model, to the extent that one city even organized housewives to act as mules for smuggling in the device from overseas.

But despite the numerous iPad copycats and hype, and the iPad's success in the U.S., analysts expressed concerns over the iPad's performance in China.

"[The] iPad 3G tablet is less attractive than iPhone 4 for China Unicom in a short term, since more pressure on its 3G network flow will be added without considerable revenue," Zhu Jinsong, an analyst with China Galaxy Securities Co, told the China's Global Times.

He Lin, a Gartner analyst, told the Global Times that China's high 3G taxes might hinder the slate's performance. Furthermore official Apple products cost around 20 percent more on the mainland than they do overseas.

Palestinian Reporter On Trial For Facebook Photo (Mashable)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 08:22 AM PST

Sarah Kessler Sarah Kessler – Sat Jan 22, 11:22 am ET

A Palestinian TV reporter faces charges of insulting a public figure after being tagged in a Facebook photo that ridicules the Palestinian Authority president, highlighting how social networks can just as easily be used to repress dissent as they can to aid it.

Mamdouh Hamamreh, a correspondent for Palestinian television station Al-Quds, was detained in September after he was tagged in an image of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas next to a picture of a Syrian actor who played a spy in a popular Arab television show, English-language Israeli paper The Jerusalem Post reports. The implication of the image is that Abbas is a traitor.

Hamamreh, who has since been released, told the Associated Press on Saturday that his prosecutors have set his first court date for next month. It's worth noting that his TV station is sympathetic to militant Islamic group Hamas, which opposes Abbas's Palestinian Authority. Prosecutors say Hamamreh posted the image, but Hamamreh says he had nothing to do with it.

The arrest highlights how social networks can be double-edged swords when it comes to free speech. While it's easy to point to conflicts in which social networks have played a critical role in aiding dissent like the Iran election protests last year and the recent overthrow of Tunisia's corrupt government, repressive governments also use them to monitor and quell dissent.

Bloggers in repressive countries were once largely permitted to write about topics that traditional media didn't dare broach, but as their influence increased they started to be harassed and in some cases arrested by their governments. It wouldn't surprise us if a similar story continues to emerge from social network use.

App Store racks up ten billion downloads (Macworld)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 11:18 AM PST

Aayush Arya Aayush Arya – Sat Jan 22, 2:18 pm ET

Apple launched its 10 billion download countdown for the App Store a week ago when it was at a little over 9.7 billion downloads. For the past week, the counter has been racing ahead at a speed of about 1.8 million downloads a day, eventually reaching its target on Saturday.

The winner of Apple's promotion is Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK. Gail's fortuitous download of Paper Glider will earn a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. That's enough money to download another billion apps (provided almost all of them are free).

"With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years—a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone—the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams," Apple vice president Philip Schiller said in Apple's announcement of the milestone. "The App Store has revolutionized how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold. While others try to copy the App Store, it continues to offer developers and customers the most innovative experience on the planet."

Apple's App Store hits 10 billion downloads (Reuters)

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 04:26 AM PST

– Sat Jan 22, 7:26 am ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Apple's App Store reached landmark 10 billion downloads on Saturday, further underlining the lead of the iPhone-maker in mobile online software battle, a counter on front page of the store showed.

Apple launched the iPhone store in mid-2008 and it proved to be an instant hit, driving sales of the smartphone and helping reshape the way mobile content is delivered.

The iPhone app store offers more than 300,000 programs, and there are also more than 40,000 apps available for the iPad.

Its closest rival is privately-held GetJar, which sells software for all platforms, and reached 1 billion downloads in June 2010.

Google's Android Market and Nokia's Ovi Store are among other larger mobile online stores.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki)
at 9:33 PM

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