IPhone App Store Has Launched | Hacker News Reader

IPhone App Store Has Launched

techcrunch.com

22 pointsnickb49 comments

There is going to be lot of crap to sift through. It would probably have been a better idea to let anyone distribute iPhone apps and then only include decent ones in the store. Stuff like Tom Peck's many novel apps (literally public domain novels made into an "application", one per app) don't make your platform look cutting edge.

Anyone find anything really cool?

Update: not sure why Apple let this through, but Tom got 43 novels posted as separate applications. That's a pretty high percentage of the total store!

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist...

I actually think it's great news to have e-books available for the iPhone. It may not be cutting edge technology-wise, but convenience-wise, it's smart to use the iTunes app store as a distribution channel for e-books and to use Apple's payment system instead of one's own. Simple and effective. I like it.

It does strike me as a little silly that there isn't a better way to get e-books to people. What if there was a band that released their new album as 14 separate iPhone applications, each with their own audio player?

An ebook reader might be a good app, but selling public domain books as individual apps feels like blog spam (actually even worse since there is money involved).

it would be nicer if it was only app though, but I'm guessing there would be no way then to pay for each book separately. AppStore doesn't allow you to charge for add-ons to an application, right?

So how exactly does it work - does Apple reserve the right to refuse you into their shop. So it can happen that you invest a lot of money and poof, Apple says no and that's it? Or do they promise to host any kind of app, in which case they can't prevent ebooks from appearing?

This closed store thing really isn'T very beneficial for developers...

Yeah, they can refuse you. But they said they wouldn't unless it violated their general rules. So you're right, one day everything could go poof, and a lot of people are nervous/annoying that Apple isn't very clear on what exactly you need to do to prevent that. Basically, until Apple publicly comments on why they allow certain apps and why they didn't allow certain apps,and gives some clear cut decisions, developers are going to be in limbo

Anyone know if there's going to be a terminal/ssh app that you can use without jail breaking your iphone?

Would be excellent for a spot of emergency server admin when away from the desk :)

I can't find one. Which sucks because I had figured there was no point me writing one because someone else was going to. I figured someone would hack http://code.google.com/p/mobileterminal/ and make it an AppStore application.

I commented on their wiki earlier asking if they were going to do it, no response as of yet though.

I wonder if apple will have any problems with it?

apple should have no problem with an ssh app. i'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone (maybe http://www.rovemobile.com/products/networkadministration/ssh...) gets around to releasing one (likely won't be free).

I would expect that they're under pressure to avoid offering apps that might cut into AT&T's business, such as Skype or an IRC client. An ssh client would be about as good as an IRC client.

Might be an SSH app. Sure as hell will not be a Terminal app (unless if you jailbreak...)

There are 27 pages of all iPhone apps in iTunes, including 7 pages of free ones. Looks like most chose to charge a fee.

The most exciting part about flipping through the 27 pages this morning was that there is still A LOT of room for more innovation.

Agreed. I just perused all 27 pages and didn't see any application that just blew my mind. A bit disappointing, but like you said there is a lot of room in this space for a hacker with an innovative mind.

Funny, my company had a test iPhone with the 2.0 software on it (to test the Exchange connector) and we gave it back yesterday. The whole time I had it I could click on the "App Store" button but couldn't connect. If we would have kept it one more day I could be one of the first to try these apps out.

Downloading/sync to iPhone is trivial and slick, very easy to trial/error free programs, apple did distribution right.

I haven't checked out the apps, but it would hardly be surprising if the first ones out the door were kind of crappy.

Suppose you've written an awesome iPhone app with a price tag of $9.99. Would you want to release it the day before anyone was even able to buy a new iPhone in the store? Wouldn't you rather wait until tomorrow, at least, so that on a day when the bulk of new iPhone owners unwrap their 3G Phone and visit the store your app will be near the top of the Hot New Apps Released Today list?

The problem of deciding when to launch a new app is nontrivial, actually. You want to pick a day when the first-day audience has potential to be as large as possible, which means waiting for some 3G phones to sell. But you don't want to be too late!

I don't think they got to pick the day its released. It was either get included for the launch, or wait until we accept your app.

Thanks. If you're right, so much for that hypothesis. I'll have to fall back to my Sturgeon's Law position.

Even if you could pick the day, testing the above hypothesis would be very hard. IF you could guess when the most iPhones would be bought, you couldn't possibly know when people would first visit the App Store (they might not go on the same day they buy the phone). Moreover, even if you got on the list of top apps for that day, it might not be as useful as having already been selling your app for a few days. To me, having known customers is more useful than waiting for the moment of the most potential customers. It sounds nice to be able to wait to launch on the best day and have a nice launch day, but I'd rather get out there sooner and build up my customer base, even if it's slow. In my view, unless you have an actual promotion planned, any day after your app is ready is too late.

Actually, you can pick availability date when registering the app. I don't think anyone would, though.

Yes, but if you release on opening day, your app is likely to get bought up in the 'buy everything' frenzy created by the new store/phone.

Anyone here have an iPhone app they're releasing? I'd love to hear about it.

I got one. It's a password manager with built-in online backup. It's not in the store yet - Apple is taking their time approving it. :-(

In the mean time you can try our Windows Mobile or Android versions - these are free for now at our web site http://www.memengo.com

The online backup feature is my pride - you can actually view and edit your backup online (decryption happens in the browser, not on the server), and you don't need a phone to try that out. So in essesne, it can be used as online password manager.

I'm releasing one at some point. If I can ever get the MLS data. Yikes what a mess. http://codemorphic.com/products

What about the timeline for your other apps?

I will likely cancel mine, after thinking about it for a few days. There are three competitors in the store today. By the time Apple allows me into the market there will be a defacto standard and in this application's market "good enough" is good enough so I won't be able to unseat the standard.

jws - Who are your competitors? Is yours done, or does it still need work?

The field is musical instrument tuners. Mine is not completed, and can't be until I can run on the hardware. I must choose which techniques will yield the best results within the confines of the available CPU power. My test version uses many algorithms in parallel for the purposes of studying them.

I was working under the assumption that Apple would open the gates a few weeks before release day and that would be time for me to select the algorithm, but I was wrong.

I take it there's a lot still to be done? Otherwise why not give it a shot and see how it does?

Support. If sell a copy, then I will be obliged to provide support for years. I won't take on that burden without a reasonable upside.

I'll probably publish my findings on pitch detection algorithms and send the rest to the bit bucket.

Thats a good point. What's your estimate on how much support you'd need to provide? I'm not being a pain here, I'd really actually interested to know how much you think you'd have to do, and where that intersects with making money to make the venture worthwhile in your eyes.

So, what apps have people installed? Any recommendations?

My favorite app so far: "LifeGame" ... it's Conway's Game of Life

Other apps I've installed:

- Loopt (cool integration with Twitter, Facebook, Yelp... just need more friends on it)

- AOL Radio (very nice, except you can't leave it running in the background while you're doing other things, but that's Apple's fault)

- Facebook (quicker than the web iPhone app, which is also very nice)

- Apple's iTunes Remote app

Lots of free apps it looks like. Just what I was hoping to see. 'Flashlight' though? Wow...

Shout It is just as useful... This is the equivalent of allowing someone to post their first music lessons for sale on iTunes. No one wants to buy (or if it's free, download) your Hello World app. Show your mom, don't try and impress anyone else.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa...

Can't anyone just publish a podcast through itunes right now?

The podcast list is moderated, but fairly open. However the app store is a commercial entity and different quality measures should be expected. Much like how you can assume base quality measures for iTunes paid content (certain bit rate, perfectly legal, it comes with album art, it will really work on your iPod, etc etc).

Since they are letting so much crap through it's pretty likely they aren't actually looking at all the apps. I gotta imagine Steve Jobs isn't going to smile when he sees 10% of the apps in his store are public domain books. One of the benefits of a walled garden is a base line of quality.

I still haven't heard the customer service side of the app store. What kind of data do you get about your customers? How do you make paid updates? How do you do demo copies? Evaluation copies? Who decides when a customer gets a refund? Etc etc. Since it's Apple's merch account they have the last say, but to date they haven't said much to developers.

The funny thing is that there are three flashlight apps that cost a dollar, and a fourth one that is free.

The ones that cost $1 are brighter.

But seriously, I don't blame them, it takes almost zero effort and there's probably stupid people out there who will pay.

I'm personally very disappointed that I did not find any mobile video streaming apps on their... like qik or flixwagon... hopefully JTV will move into this space soon so I dont have to create yet another account.

From the NYT:

{Still, Apple could end up at odds with some developers - particularly creators or distributors of content and media - who offer applications that compete directly with iTunes. Rajeev Raman, chief executive of Mywaves, an ad-sponsored free mobile video service available on millions of handsets, including Nokia and BlackBerry smartphones, said he would like to offer Mywaves in the App Store.

But he has made little headway in his discussions with Apple, he said: "We have a reverse conflict because they are not providing video for free, but we are. We are interested, but we don’t want to jump into anything that will have our hands tied behind our backs."

When asked about it, Mr. Jobs said: "He’s right. We will compete." He added, "That’s a discussion to have."}

Looks like you may be waiting for a while...

I dont want to watch video in that sense.

I want to stream live video from an iphone to the net.

I imagine AT&T might have a problem with the bandwidth required for video streaming.

Though there is an AOL Radio application, which is pretty cool.

As an ex-Palm/Handango user, I was hoping for more quality. iPhone games will rock. Time will tell...

The iPhone will kill the PSP and all handheld gaming devices

They will never know what hit them

I wouldn't bet on it. The majority of the 70 million Nintendo DSs out there are likely owned by persons who cannot afford an iPhone (although the situation may be different for the PSP).

The iPod Touch is only about 2X the price of a DS, and you get music + games. If they drop the price on this any time soon it will be a sign that they intend on owning the mobile gaming market.

The iPod Touch also has no buttons. Even though the DS has a touchscreen, there are very few games that use it exclusively; it seems that many of the games that use it do so only for the novelty, much like the detecting-blowing-via-the-microphone gimmick. Although I'm sure people can come up with compelling games using only the touchscreen, I think it would be hard for the iPhone to take on the DS and PSP's "twitch" game audience.

Given the iPhone's unconventional input techniques and the 1-2 years of lead time needed for a professional game, I wouldn't consider an iPod Touch price drop as a sign of interest in gaming. Rather, I'd look for Apple to purchase or contract existing game studios... ideally a year ago.

Having spent the better part of this morning playing cro-magnon rally and super monkey ball, I have to say that you are quite incorrect. The d-pad is so 1990. Accelerometers are where its at today. With the multi-touch touchscreen the ipod touch and iphone are going to get a lot more use out of their touchscreen as an input device than the DS did...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com