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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 102 declined, 11 accepted (113 total, 9.73% accepted)

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Submission + - Flickr: pr0n or free speech? (electricpig.co.uk)

Submitted by UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: Yahoo! publicizes the safety features of Flickr, but as this article points out, adult content is accessible to all. The article quotes a Yahoo spokesman who outlines the safety of Flickr, but the telling disclaimer comes at the end:

It’s worth pointing out that our terms of service make it clear that users will find a broad range of content on Yahoo!, and the responsibility for what children may see rests with their guardian. Term Number 3 states: Please remember that the Services are designed to appeal to a broad audience. Accordingly, as the legal guardian, it is your responsibility to determine whether any of the Services and/or Content are appropriate for your child.

This issue is of particular interest to me because I recently had my Flickr coverflow iPhone app, iFOTOFLO, initially rejected because of 'inappropriate content," but when I replied to the rejection...

My application uses the Flickr API, and since your feedback/rejection, I have set the Flickr search parameters to reflect the safest search possible (safe_search=1). Please re-review my application. Note that if this filter is not sufficient for Apple, then I would argue that all Flickr-related search apps should be removed from the App Store. I would also like to point out that my previous Flickr-related app, iFOTOMO, was rejected with more-graphic examples, but that I was encouraged to resubmit when the 3.0 Parental Controls were implemented. I subsequently re-submitted that application under 3.0, and it was accepted.

...Apple approved my app the next day. Based on the article above (and the Most Recent/Most Viewed searches that you can see on the app), perhaps Apple shouldn't have been so quick to approve it, even under the 12+ rating...

Submission + - faith in the App Store approval process restored (ifotoflo.com)

Submitted by UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: My iPhone Flickr Coverflow app, iFOTOFLO was rejected because of possible inappropriate content even though I rated my app as 12+. Dismayed, I wrote to Apple:

My application uses the Flickr API, and since your feedback/rejection, I have set the Flickr search parameters to reflect the safest search possible (safe_search=1). Please re-review my application. Note that if this filter is not sufficient for Apple, then I would argue that all Flickr-related search apps should be removed from the App Store. I would also like to point out that my previous Flickr-related app, iFOTOMO, was rejected with more-graphic examples, but that I was encouraged to resubmit when the 3.0 Parental Controls were implemented. I subsequently re-submitted that application under 3.0, and it was accepted.

Apple approved my app the next day.

My app had been rejected earlier because the reviewers thought I was using the undocumented iPhone Coverflow API, but when I proved to Apple that I was not using this API, my app passed that hurdle.

Communications

Submission + - Make-My-Life-Easier Applications of Twitter?

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "I'm always looking for things to make my life easier, and I finally found an application of Twitter that does just that. I'm obsessed with the Kogi and COOLHAUS trucks in Los Angeles even though I live in San Francisco, obsessed to the point that when I travel down to LA, I make sure that I time my trip to arrive at a truck location. I follow tweets (text msgs to my cell phone) from from Kog and COOLHAUS to get the up-to-the-minute status of the trucks. (Actually, now that I think about it, has this application of Twitter REALLY made my life easier???) :-) I've always disdained Twitter until now, but I'm sold on its usefulness because of the food truck craze. Anyone else have make-my-life-easier applications of Twitter for me?"
Graphics

Submission + - Siggraph 2009 COLLADA Contest winners announced (www.colladacontest)

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "The Siggraph 2009 COLLADA Contest winners have been announced with NaviCAD taking the grand prize.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers of NaviCAD :-)

NaviCAD is the only iPhone app that lets users view and navigate around models from the Google 3D Warehouse. With the recent announcement of COLLADA support in the latest Spore patch, we are also collecting Spore COLLADA models from Creators so that they can be viewed in 3D in our app (send zip files of dae+texture files to feedback@navicad.com). Currently, we have to modify them slightly to make them accessible by our app. We will be issuing an update to fully-support Spore-generated COLLADA models.

Developing a complex-model, graphics-intensive app for the iPhone is both fun and challenging due to device and OS limitations. We are in the process of writing an article (hopefully, Ars Technica will accept it!) documenting our journey. Subsequent updates will include serialization of the COLLADA files (for faster model generation on the second access) and possibly a client-server architecture where the serialization happens on the server."
Software

Submission + - NaviCAD, a Collada iPhone app released

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "Disclaimer: I am one of the developers of this app :-)

The Khronos Group has posted a news item about our app NaviCAD, the only way to view and navigate Collada models (especially models from the Google 3D Warehouse) on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Developing this 3D app on the iPhone platform was fun/challenging because of the device features/limitations. It is currently a client-only app (meaning the model processing is done on the client). However, because it takes...a while...to generate the OpenGL ES model from complex-model XML-plus-texture files, we are moving to a client/server model where the XML-plus-texture files will be processed on a server and a serialized version of the model will be sent down to the client. Initial tests show an order of magnitude increase in speed for generating the OpenGL ES model from the serialized Collada model.

After releasing the update, we would like to write a web article documenting our development journey (hopefully, Ars Technica will publish it!) as it provides a nice compare-and-contrast to cloud computing paradigms and getting down to the nitty-gritty of pushing the envelop of device programming that brought us back to the good ol' days :-)"
Software

Submission + - iPhone/iPod App Store Becoming More Restrictive (ifotomo.com)

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "In light of the Kama Sutra-related submission, I think that Apple is becoming even more restrictive with their censoring policies as the platform serves more and more people. I recently submitted an update to my app i F O T O M O that made some performance changes (but no content-related changes), but it was rejected on the basis of possibly serving up objectional content from Flickr!. The app that's available now can serve up that very same objectional content as we speak. Of course, maybe they didn't catch it the first time, but I think they are just getting more restrictive..."
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - IBM to acquire Sun (ifotomo.com)

Submitted by UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: Less than a week ago, I wrote that I felt old when submitting this story. One more story like this, and I'll be ready to fit myself a nice pine box. First Silicon Graphics-I-mean-SGI, now Sun.

Sun only came into the consciousness of the unwashed masses with the company not being able to get E10K's out the door fast enough in the first bubble. We here will remember some pizza-box looking thing, establishing 32mb of RAM as a standard, and when those masses were scratching their heads at slogans like "The Network is the Computer." Add your favorite Sun anecdote here...
Silicon Graphics

Submission + - SGI assets may be sold for $25M

Submitted by UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: Several articles including this one from the San Jose Merc are reporting that SGI has agreed to sell itself for $25 million to Rackable Systems after seeking bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years. A judge still has to approve the deal. Stories like this make me feel old.
Google

Submission + - Gmail gets themes

Submitted by UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: Google is doing a phased rollout of themes for Gmail (personal accounts). Lots of articles (here's one), of course. I especially like the Terminal theme (since I submitted this theme for the /. redesign contest, but, of course, it didn't win). I haven't seen anything yet about customizing themes (other than the old unofficial way)...
Television

Submission + - Netflix enters the set-top box fray

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "The NYT has an article about Netflix's entry into the set-top box market with Roku (in which Netflix has a stake). In contrast, there's no market for something like this or AppleTV in other countries — my cousin uses his 54MB connection in Korea to get on-demand access of movies, tv shows, etc. through his provider (actually, they're moving to fiber because I guess people are complaining that 54MB is too slow)."
Businesses

Submission + - Craigslist countersues eBay

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "Several weeks ago, eBay sued Craigslist for stock dilution. Craigslist has now countersued with multiple charges, among them (from Reuters):

Craigslist's complaint alleges a plan by eBay to use its position as a minority shareholder in Craigslist and its position on the Craigslist board to gather competitive information that led to the launch of eBay's rival classifieds business. The suit claims eBay code-named Kijiji its 'Craigslist killer' in internal strategy discussions.
Many articles about it, but it's been a while since I've looked at Wired :-)"
Digital

Submission + - Pascal Dangin and Box Studios

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "The New Yorker is running this article about Pascal Dangin and his photo retouching empire, Box Studios (note the URL goes to a nondescript page — Dangin must want it that way). Dangin anonymously has a hand in most of the fashion and advertising shots, and the article delves into all the issues associated with photo retouching including history, anatomical accuracy, color, body image, etc. His studio has even developed its own retouching software (he apparently has six programmers on staff).

Related, here's a great site with before/after shots, AKA reality to plastic..."
Robotics

Submission + - Maker Faire Bay Area this past weekend

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "The Maker Faire put on by Make Magazine was held this past weekend at the San Mateo County Expo Center. My son and I didn't get to spend enough time there. The coolest thing we saw was tortillas getting laser engraved which, of course, brought out the grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary story out about a thousand times..."

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