19884070
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Apple has removed the GayCure app after the pressure on Apple to remove the app started to snowball, culminating in an online petition initiated by Change.org which collected over 140,000 online signatures from people who wanted the app removed. Searching for the app now yields zero search results and Exodus International President Alan Chambers tweeted the following on Tuesday night. "It''(TM)s official, the @ExodusInl App is no longer in the @AppStore. Incredibly disappointing. Watch out, it could happen to you. #freedom"
Gay Cure isn'(TM)t the first app Apple has(TM) removed for touting an oeanti-homosexual philosophy. Apple back in November removed an appcalled the oeManhattan Declaration which advocated the oedignity of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
17890940
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
The controversial Manhattan Declaration App has now been pulled from the App Store after more than 7,000 people signed a Change.org petition urging Apple to delete it. Calling it "anti-gay" and "anti-choice," the petition questioned Apple's decision to approve the application and deem it free of "objectionable content." "Want to join the hate fest? There's an app for that!" Change.org said on its site. "Apple needs to hear from concerned people now! Let's send a strong message to Apple that supporting homophobia and efforts to restrict choice is bad business.". In a letter sent to Apple CEO Steve Jobs earlier this week, the religious leaders said they were disappointed to learn that the company stopped selling the application, which included the text of the "Manhattan Declaration." "We do not know exactly why the app was pulled, as we have yet to receive any explanation from Apple, but we assume that it was the result of pressure brought to bear by some who, for blatantly ideologically partisan reasons, claim that the Manhattan Declaration is bigoted, or otherwise offensive," they said. "We hope that you will see how wrong it would be to let one side shut down the opposing side in a debate by slandering their opponents with prejudicial labels such as "bigot" or "homophobe." In a statement, Apple said, "We removed the Manhattan Declaration app from the App Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people." The iPhone application initially disappeared from the app store in late November, The app had previously been given a 4+ rating by Apple that signifies that it does not consider the material offensive.. Can't keep both sides happy I guess. Or maybe they could sidestep such issues by removing the restriction to install apps only from the App Store.
17845496
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
The controversial Manhattan Declaration App has now been pulled from the App Store after more than 7,000 people signed a Change.org petition urging Apple to delete it. Calling it "anti-gay" and "anti-choice," the petition questioned Apple's decision to approve the application and deem it free of "objectionable content." "Want to join the hate fest? There's an app for that!" Change.org said on its site. "Apple needs to hear from concerned people now! Let's send a strong message to Apple that supporting homophobia and efforts to restrict choice is bad business.". In a letter to Steve Jobs, religious leaders said they were disappointed to learn that the company stopped selling the application, which included the text of the "Manhattan Declaration." "We do not know exactly why the app was pulled, as we have yet to receive any explanation from Apple, but we assume that it was the result of pressure brought to bear by some who, for blatantly ideologically partisan reasons, claim that the Manhattan Declaration is bigoted, or otherwise offensive," they said. "We hope that you will see how wrong it would be to let one side shut down the opposing side in a debate by slandering their opponents with prejudicial labels such as "bigot" or "homophobe." In a statement, Apple said, "We removed the Manhattan Declaration app from the App Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people." The app had previously been given a 4+ rating by Apple that signifies that it does not consider the material offensive. Can't keep both sides happy I guess. Or maybe they could sidestep such issues entirely by removing the restriction to install apps only from the App Store.
17789066
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
The main GNU source repository server savannah.gnu.org, used as a central code repository for many GNU projects including gcc, has been compromised by a SQL injection attack and is currently offline. Attackers were able to read encrypted passwords and decrypt them, some presumably by brute force leading to project membership access. There was no database loss since a working backup system was at least maintained. However, the attack does raise big questions about why a organization that prides itself on the security of its software failed to follow minimum basic security practices like storing password hashes instead of encrypting them and mitigating SQL injection attacks. There are no details on whether the attackers were able to sneak in malicious code to any of the projects hosted by GNU. And, as we all know from Ken Thompson's Turing award lecture, once the compiler is compromised, it's game over.
17762050
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Apple dialed it's battle with Android up a notch today by banning an Android magazine app from it's App Store, leaving no way for users to install the app on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches without jailbreaking. The reason for rejection, as given by an Apple rep was "You know... your magazine...It's just about Android.... we can't have that in our App Store." The bi-monthly publication — the Android counterpart to an iPhone magazine Dixon began putting out earlier this year — launched Nov. 11. "It's funny really because I don't think we would sell many magazines on Android through Apple App Store," Dixon told Media Watch. "But the question is where this is going." This comes on the heels of Jobs lashing out at Android calling it fragmented and it's patent attacks on Android.
17126094
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Windows Phone 7 is launching today in Europe and on November 8 in the US. Anandtech has a detailed review of the Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft's last ditch effort to regain marketshare in the highly competitive mobile landscape currently dominated by Apple and Google. Microsoft takes a middle road between the iPhone(no variety in hardware) and Android (fragmentation, different UI schemes) by building a platform but with strict guidelines on minimum hardware and allowing no OS customizations by OEMs or carriers. This allows Microsoft to push updates directly to the devices like Apple. This will eliminate the long wait for OS updates as seen with Android devices. Anandtech reports that 'The overall UI is very well thought out. It’s clean, attractive and performant. It’s easily the best UI Microsoft has ever created and one that I hope inspires revolutionary designs within the company’s other business units.Microsoft made great use of GPU acceleration throughout the OS. Scrolling, panning, zooming, everything is ridiculously smooth. In IE, panning and translating around pages is incredibly fast. It’s iOS level fast if not faster.IE does an impressive job keeping up with even extremely fast scrolling up or down a page. No doubt this is due partially to GPU accelerated UI. Android has some serious work to do here, as translating around on pages and multitouch zoom frequently feel choppy.
15688030
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
The author of iPhone prototyping tool Briefs has decided to open source it after the App store submission has been in limbo for over three months. The app had got into trouble for what Apple believes being able to run interpreted code though the author denies it, saying all the compiling happens on the Mac. While Rob stays civil, his co-worker blasts Apple for not even rejecting the app. Three months is nothing compared to Google Voice for the iPhone though, which is still being studied further by Apple from over a year.
14350938
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Apple has rejected calls for a manufacturing hardware fix to the iPhone 4 antenna woes in the highly anticipated press conference today. Instead, Apple will offer a free case to anyone who faces the issue. According to Jobs, only 0.55 % of iPhone 4 customers have contacted AppleCare with the issue and the return rate is less than that of the previous iPhones.While all phones might have a signal drop, according to Consumer Reports' findings in a RF-shielded lab, other phones tested(including the iPhone 3G) do not have the extra drop because of not having an exposed external antenna like the iPhone 4. This also jives with multiple Anandtech articles and field tests that there is indeed a problem specific to the iPhone 4 and call for Apple to fix the hardware. And just as a clarification to their devoted fanbase, Jobs included this gem: "You know, we're not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren't perfect either."
13657176
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Apple is suing HTC again over patent infringement. Apple is adding two new patents to the twenty included in the earlier case while adding additional details to two patents already included previously. Although Android is not mentioned in any of the court documents, many of the patent infringement complaints refer to the software rather than the hardware that HTC manufactures, leading to speculation that Google is the real target, especially considering that Android sales are surpassing the iPhone's. With HTC countersuing Apple, Microsoft siding with HTC over Android, and Apple trying to stop import of Nokia phones, it seems like Apple has set off a patent Armageddon in the mobile space.
13641836
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Apple is suing HTC again over patent infringement. Apple is adding two new patents to the twenty included in the earlier case while adding additional details to two patents already included previously. Although Android is not mentioned in any of the court documents, many of the patent infringement complaints refer to the software rather than the hardware that HTC manufactures, leading to speculation that Google is the real target, especially considering that Android sales are surpassing the iPhone's. With HTC countersuing Apple, Microsoft siding with HTC over Android, and Apple trying to stop import of Nokia phones, has Apple set off a patent Armageddon in the mobile space which can be summarised as Apple vs. the rest?
13090996
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has refused to answer its request to attend the company's big Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this Monday. Apple’s move to ban Gizmodo seems a direct repercussion of Apple’s prototype leak by Gizmodo and subsequent actions of Apple to get the prototype back. Meanwhile, Gizmodo said that it would resort to a liveblog to cover the event in case of the ban. This comes a few days after San Mateo County authorities announced that a "special master" had been appointed to assist in the search of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's belongings: goods seized as part of a police investigation into the disappearance (and Gizmodo acquisition) of one of Apple's prototype iPhones. It's the very device that's rumored to be announced at the Monday keynote.
12346384
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Adobe Evangelist Ryan Stewart has posted a video on Youtube that showcases a preview version of Flash running smoothly on an Android Nexus One on a variety of sampled sites on the Web. Streaming video of TV shows is demoed on the CBS and NHL web sites and a couple of games are shown running with the touch features working nicely. All the web pages and Flash content demoed are normal desktop oriented web pages and weren't optimized for mobiles. Coming on the heels of Android sales overtaking the iPhone and a possible anti-trust enquiry against Apple, will iPad and iPhone users that want Flash be able to opt-in for a Flash player App? Or will all iPhone OS users be denied access to ubiquitous Flash content and video on the Web due to Jobs' whims? This may accelerate sales of Android phones(and future tablets) even further.
12330836
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Adobe Evangelist Ryan Stewart has posted a video on Youtube that showcases a preview version of Flash running nicely on an Android Nexus on a variety of sampled sites on the Web. Streaming video of TV shows is demoed on the CBS and NHL web sites and a couple of games are shown running with the touch features working nicely. All the web pages and Flash content demoed are normal desktop oriented web pages and weren't optimized for mobiles. Coming on the heels of Android sales overtaking the iPhone and a possible anti-trust enquiry, will iPad and iPhone users that want Flash be able to opt-in for a Flash player App or will all of them be denied access to ubiquitous Flash content and video on the Web due to Jobs' mandate thus making the Appel devices even less desirable leading to more sales for Android phones and upcoming tablets?
8818842
submission
recoiledsnake writes:
Business Week is reporting that Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter. "Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy," says one of the people, who's familiar with Apple's thinking. "Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle." Apple is also working on ways to manage ad placement on its mobile devices, a move that would encroach on Google's ad-serving business. The person familiar with Apple's thinking says Apple has a "skunk works" looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that "if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it's about buying itself time."
