Archive for July 10th, 2010
The Best iPhone, iPad, And Android Apps This Week
Week two of the all-new, all-inclusive weekly app roundup brings some truly excellent iPad games — Osmos, Monkey Island 2, and Samurai: Way of the Warrior — in addition to a whole host of other excellent apps for both iPhone and Android.
Archetype: An exceptionally shiny first person shooter optimized for the iPhone 4, with slick, functional controls. Best of all is the 5 v 5 team deathmatch mode, which is just like the multiplayer action you’re used to on the consoles—including multiple guns, grenades, maps, and medals—except this one you play while you’re sitting on the toilet. Mulitplayer works with Wi-Fi or, slightly less well, with 3G, but all in all you get a lot of pocket-size FPS intensity for just $3. Quite an achievement.
Chase Mobile: OK, very cool for Chase customers, not quite as cool for everyone else, but the latest update to Chase’s app lets you take deposit checks by snapping pictures of them with your iPhone. Chase isn’t the first bank to do this sort of thing, but they’re definitely the biggest, and when gigantic companies like JPMorgan Chase do some futuristic stuff like adding cameraphone check depositing, it’s nice to take a second out of your day to appreciate the effort. Free. Also available for the iPad
My TSA: You certainly don’t want the Transportation Security Authority in your business any more than they have to be, but it turns out having them on your phone isn’t all that bad. Their well-designed new app has real time status updates on major airports including info on delays and wait times for individual security checkpoints, as well as a fun “Can I bring my…” feature where you tap in a word—”shampoo,” I tried—and it gives you a full rundown on whether or not you’ll be able to bring it on an airplane. Free (My TSA is part of USA.gov’s new collection o’ apps. Helpful!)
Hipstamatic: Probably the most cleverly designed of the iPhone photography apps, and certainly among the most loved, Hipstamatic’s recent upgrade brings all sorts of good stuff. In addition to getting iPhone 4 optimization and background uploading, there is a new stacks feature for organizing photos and batch upload to Facebook, Flickr or email. And a handful of helpful bug fixes rounds out a solid update through and through.
NYCMate: An iPhone version of the Android standby, NYCMate offers free, official pinch-to-zoom maps of New York’s subways and bus routes. And once you figure out where to find your transportation of choice, it has schedules to tell you when exactly you should head in that direction. Free.
I just had a videochat over 3G and it was the most amazing thing I’ve experienced all day. There was some lag, voice quality wasn’t perfect, and video was sometimes jittery. But I loved every minute of it.
Why am I so excited about something so ridiculously simple? Because as much as I adore my iPhone 4 and its FaceTime feature, I hate that I have to rely on Wi-Fi and can only call friends who own iPhone 4 devices. But with the updated Fring iPhone app I can now call anyone who uses Skype or Fring-on their computers or mobile devices. I can even call from a beach without a single Wi-Fi spot near.
Of course, some of these configurations work better than others, but if you got a taste of FaceTime and want more more more, Fring’s free app opens up many more mugs for you to check out.
Free.
Expenditure: As far as they go, Expenditure is a gorgeous way to track expenses on your iPhone, giving you big, pretty buttons to add new expenses, file them in appropriate categories, and see overviews of your recent activity. I can’t imagine many people diligently filing their every single transaction, but for say keeping track of how many lunches your buddy owes you or wrangling receipts on a business trip (with the helpful photo note feature), it’s a solid option that’s both simple and polished. $2
Light-O-Matic: This week, Apple let a flood of flashlight apps into the App Store, which is kind of exciting because maybe sometime you’ll want to use your LED flash as a flashlight but even more exciting because it’s a rare instance of Apple giving developers the OK to use their precious for a function it was not explicitly designed for. Baby steps, people! Of this flash flood, Light-O-Matic stands out as one of the best designed and most fully featured, and it’s only a buck. But if you’re a real cheap-o, there are plenty of free options like LED Light for iPhone 4 Free. Straight shooters, those guys.
Dreamscape: What’s the one thing I learned from playing Dreamscape? Popping bubbles is incredibly satisfying, even when those bubbles are fake. The pretty backgrounds give you a pleasant place to pop, and the bubble popping noise is just right (this, of course, is very important.) Free today (Friday, June 9), less free thereafter.
Osmos For iPad: My favorite iPad game yet:
The game, which is adapted from a well-regarded PC version and costs $5 in the App Store, puts you in control of a tiny blue organism, a mote, which you direct around the screen, growing in size as you absorb the smaller blobs around you. Of course, all sorts of challenges, including bigger motes trying to absorb you, complicate that mission.
But what’s really special about Osmos is the experience of controlling that game play. Tapping behind your mote scoots him around the screen, predictably, but at any time you can pinch to zoom in or out, allowing you to navigate a tight passage or survey the level at a distance. Additionally, you can swipe with one finger to alter time-drag left and all the motes slow to a crawl, drag right and they shoot around like bouncy balls. Different speeds and levels of zoom have situations in which they’re uniquely useful, and these elegant controls are the perfect complement to the game’s polished visuals.
Night Browser: Who would’ve thought that the iPad’s lowest brightness setting could sometimes be WAY TOO BRIGHT. Night Browser adds another layer of darkness on top of your browser, allowing you to surf the web after hours without blasting your eyeballs or disturbing who or whatever might be laying next to you. It could be a pet! $1
Droptext: Droptext isn’t nearly as pretty as Dropbox’s official app, but it has one simple feature that makes it worthwhile: the ability to edit text files. If you’re a frequent mobile Dropbox user and have started at documents in frustration knowing you can’t make a little edit here or there, this could well be worth the $1. Also works on the iPhone
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: The Monkey Island (sequel) you know and love, gorgeously redone for the iPad. Jesus, resident Monkey Island expert, says it’s nearly perfect, with great graphics and excellent controls. If you’re still not convinced, he’ll be telling you all about it very soon. $10
StreamToMe: LifeHacker’s new Handbrake profiles for iPad make encoding videos a snap, but most of the time I skip that step all together and just stream stuff directly from my computer, and StreamToMe’s my favorite app for the job (other people like AirVideo). Anyway, StreamToMe just got a whole lot better with a recent update: A new, split-pane interface lets you browse your computer’s files while you’re playing one back on your iPad, and the app now lets you play a folder of items in succession. Share your iTunes folder on your computer and stream a full album right to your iPad. $3 Also works on the iPhone
Samurai: Way of the Warrior HD: Jesus loves this game. Here’s what he had to say:
Sure, Samurai is just a game, but it’s a clear example of how cool the iPad could be. Why?
It’s not the beautiful graphics-a combination of hand drawn ink drawings with cartoon-rendered three-dimensional models in a 3D world. It’s not the effective animation and the special effects-especially the blood splattering. And it’s not the touch control, which just requires point and click to move your warrior, and slash your finger to attack the enemy.
No, it’s none of those factors alone but the combination of all of them with this thin touchscreen computer. On another platform, Samurai would be a nice game. On the iPad, it’s a nice game which is really extra fun just because of the way you interact with it and look directly into it. Even the comic book story line, which you can read between stages, feels perfect in the iPad (like the Marvel and DC comic apps show).
$5
ESPN Radio: It’s ESPN Radio. On a phone. So you can listen to the talking heads of ESPN make sense of Lebron on live sports radio streams and over 40 different sports podcasts (including Bill Simmons). There’s Sportscenter updates too. Sports radio can be a screaming mess, but ESPN Radio has some good content. It’s $5, so only buy if you’ll really listen.
Pricegrabber: Like the ten million other barcode scanning apps for Android, but it’s hooked into Pricegrabber. The big feature is its ‘BottomLine’ pricing, which adds in shipping and tax, so you know how much something actually costs. Free.
1Password: Maybe it’s a little scary to have all your passwords on a mobile device, but 1Password is the best password manager around. It keeps track of all of your complicated “G2zs01Tt”-type passwords in a simple program, using a single master password as the key. You have to manually import your passwords onto your phone from your computer, which is annoying. It’s still in beta, so it’s a bit rough around the edges. Technically free, but requires $39.95 purchase of the desktop version. Android 2.1+
Borders eReader: Powered by Kobo (which has its own Android app) but with Borders gloss. It looks and works decently enough, but is mostly nice for big Borders shoppers, since it links up to Borders Rewards program. The app also supports automatic bookmarking and customized font and type sizes. Free. Android 2.0+
AppBrain Fastweb Installer: An alternative to the official Android Market, you can install apps from the web over-the-air. Kevin from Lifehacker:
With the Fast Web Installer add-on for AppBrain, you can head to AppBrain’s own market, search and sort to find an app, then click “Install” and see it instantly download onto your phone.
Which makes getting apps onto your phone way easier. Browsing app stores on your phone is convenient, but certainly not fast by any measure. It only works with free apps.
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The Jobs Question: It’s More Than Just The Birth-Death
Just how dynamic is the US job market? If I told you we created over 4 million jobs in April, would you believe me? I had a long conversation with Mohamed El-Erian of PIMCO yesterday. He is openly speculating that employment may no longer be just a lagging indicator but may also be predictive. It is an interesting insight, which we will explore as we take a very deep look at US employment. And I answer a few questions about my thought that there is a 60% chance for a recession in 2011, and why there is a 40% chance we won’t. What could change those numbers? We explore that and more, while I suffer from the injustice that LeBron will play with Wade and Bosh. Where’s a nonproliferation treaty when you need it?
First a quick commercial note. I want to let Conversations subscribers know that we will post on Monday a Conversation I recently did with Rick Rule and Marin Katusa. Rick is a decades-long friend and maybe the smartest and most successful resource investor I know of. Katusa writes a resource letter for Casey Research and is wicked smart on energy. This is a very good piece that you don’t want to miss, as Katusa identifies what he thinks are some of the really great new energy plays.
A month or so ago we also posted a Conversation with two noted hedge-fund managers, Kyle Bass of Hayman Advisors (and his staff) here in Dallas and Hugh Hendry of the Eclectica Fund in London. Our discussion centered on what we all think has the potential to be the next Greece, but on a far more serious level (that would be Japan).
That garnered a lot of positive response. Herb wrote, “Wow. What a great discussion. What smart guests, how little BS. Congratulations. It’s the best of your Conversations that I’ve listened to.”
And ACK wrote: “Wow!! Just the most important discussion I have been treated to as an investor and fund manager this year or last. Your product is dreadfully underpriced, as it delivers more value and education than almost any other subscription that I have… Thanks so much… This particular conversation was just mind-blowing!”
Actually, we get that last comment almost every issue, as we somehow seem to connect the dots for different listeners. When we started, I promised to do 6-8 a year, and we have already posted 6 timely Conversations in the first 6 months of this year, including my special Biotech Series as well as the Geopolitical Series with George Friedman.
For new readers, Conversations with John Mauldin is my one subscription service. While this letter will always be free, we have created a way for you to “listen in” on my conversations (or read the transcripts) with some of my friends, many of whom you will recognize and some whom you will want to know after you hear our conversations. Basically, I call one or two friends every now and then, and just as we do at dinner or at meetings, we talk about the issues of the day, back and forth, with give and take and friendly debate. I think you will find it enlightening and thought-provoking and a real contribution to your education as an investor.
As noted above, I have also recorded a Conversation with Mohamed El-Erian, who is one of the smartest human beings I know, as well as one of the nicest. We will work hard to get it up ASAP. As you can see, I can get some rather interesting people to come to the table. Current subscribers can renew for a deeply discounted $129, and we will extend that price to new subscribers as well. To learn more, go to http://www.johnmauldin.com/newsletters2.html. Click on the Subscribe button, and join me and my friends for some very interesting Conversations. (I know the price says $199 on the site, but for now you will only be charged for $129 – I promise.)
All of the previous Conversations are posted and available, as well as most of the speeches from my Strategic Investment Conference a few months ago. I do work hard to make sure my subscribers get more than their money’s worth. And now, to the letter.
It’s More Than Just Birth/Death
Last week, I wrote about the Birth/Death Adjustment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment numbers. Jeff Miller took me to task in his blog for not noting that the B/D numbers are not seasonally adjusted (which I know) and a few other items. I did some research on his work on employment numbers and came away with a few new thoughts that I think are worth sharing. Miller (a former professor and a nice guy) and I spent several hours on the phone talking about the BLS data and what he sees as an unusual divergence in the data, which I agree is far more interesting than the B/D Assessment.
To get to the interesting part, I am going to risk boring you with a few wonkish background paragraphs. First, let’s look at the basic process of how the BLS does its survey. Basically, the BLS tries to count every job in the US every month. They survey 140,000 businesses and governments representing about 410,000 worksites each month. It takes a while to get companies to respond. You get about 60% on the first round, another 20% the second round, and another 10% the next time. That is why there are revisions each month to previous data as the BLS gets more accurate info. And since the revisions represent a significant number of businesses, the direction of the prior month’s data revision is often more important than the current number.
But that also means that the BLS must make an estimate concerning the other 10% who did not respond. They more or less assume that those who didn’t respond are statistically like those who did. One of Miller’s points is that this estimated number is far larger than the B/D Assessment.
It’s a Seasonal Thing
The non-seasonally adjusted number for any given month is a VERY noisy, volatile number. If that number made the headlines it would cause massive rejoicing or heart attacks each month. Let’s look at just how volatile it is.
First, there are about 130 million employed people in the US. Every month we get a report called the JOLTS report (the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey) on data a few months old, which is mostly ignored because it is “old” data. Last June 8, we got the data for April. There were 3.1 million job openings, up from 2.5 million a year ago. 4.3 million people found jobs and 4 million either voluntarily left or were laid off. In one month. And that pretty much has been the case every month for the last year or so, but note that the number on the positive side of the ledger is down a million from what it was a few years ago. Remember, this is not net job creations we are talking about, just activity.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, in January 2010 we lost 2.8 million jobs (January is always a big loser). In April and May we created 1.1 million jobs each month. And then there were the 1.5 million we lost last July or the 224,000 we gained last April while we were still in recession. September and October saw a combined 1 million jobs, November was plus 80,000, while December shed 521,000.
Like I said, it’s all over the place. One month you’re way up and the next you’re way down. Then you could be flat. There is in fact a seasonality or rhythm to the numbers, but that is way too much detail for this letter.
So, why does the BLS use the Birth/Death Assessment? They found out early this decade they were missing new businesses, so they created the B/D Assessment to try to get closer to the real number.
Nine months (more or less) after the BLS does it payroll employment number, we get the actual number from the state employment insurance reports. Since no one will pay unemployment insurance on employees they don’t have, if you add up the number of employees in the program, you come pretty close to the actual number (again, with some adjustments).
That and other data allow the BLS to adjust the unemployment numbers to something on the order of pretty darn close. By adding in their B/D Assessment they have been able to reduce their revisions rather dramatically. The following chart shows what the revisions would have been without using the B/D model, and what they are by using it. Clearly the B/D numbers have been useful in damping down the volatility in the BLS employment data. Since they started using this number, the average revision has been less than 0.2%.
Stay with me. The BLS adds the non-seasonally adjusted B/D number to the non-seasonally adjusted survey numbers and then seasonally adjusts the total, so that the number we get each month have a more smoothed appearance.
And Miller is right about this. The imputations they must make for non-respondees is far larger than the B/D Assessment. And in months with large basic survey numbers the difference the B/D numbers makes is very small. In other months it can have more impact, but it does smooth out the overall number. I stand corrected.
When you think about it, the fact that the BLS can survey an economy with 130 million jobs that sees 3% of those jobs change each month, with tens of millions of new jobs being created and lost each year and hundreds of thousands of new businesses being created or dying, and then get within + or – 100,000 jobs with reasonable probability on their number, is pretty good.
A Breakdown in Communications
Miller tracks job creation and losses from yet another report, the BED report, which is based on state unemployment insurance data and is thus accurate, if nine months behind. Let’s look at the chart he produces:
Note that even in the worst of the Great Recession, the US was creating almost 6 million jobs a quarter. It’s just that we were losing over 8 million, so unemployment rose dramatically.
Second, Miller notes that job creation and loss more or less tracked with each other for the last ten years, until early 2009, when the relationship simply fell apart. In our discussion, he was curious about the reason for this. I told him I think the reason is in the next charts I am going to show you. (You can see his piece on the whole employment issue, with a lot more detail, at http://oldprof.typepad.com/a_dash_of_insight/2010/06/understanding-the-employment-issue.html.)
Notice the dramatic falloff in bank lending below. It occurred about the same time as the large differential in the job loss and gain numbers. Also notice that lending at large banks is down by over 25%, and there seems to be no sign of that improving. Leverage and loans allowed small and medium-sized businesses to expand. That blood supply has been cut off, and with it the job creation that comes from business expansion.
Mohamed El-Erian’s thought is that employment is now a leading indicator in the sense that the Fed and other policy makers look at the employment numbers and adjust their policies going forward, influencing the economy of the future.
Some Thoughts on Double-Dip Recessions
Let me be clear about something. The US economy should not dip back into recession next year. I certainly think the data tells us it will slow down as the stimulus starts to go away, but a slow Muddle Through Economy is not a recession. Double-dip recessions are rare. The last one we had was in 1980-82, and then it was Volker with his foot on the inflation brake that caused it.
The reason I think that we could see a double-dip recession is the rather large tax increases (over 1% of GDP) that will come beginning in January 2011, coupled with large tax increases or spending cuts at the state and local levels (also 1% of GDP). We will get to see whether taxes matter.
Now, if Congress decides to delay those tax increases or stretch them out over a few years, or reduce them, that assessment could change. Right now, there seems to be little talk about doing that. Stay tuned.
Vancouver, New York, Maine, etc.
I fly to Vancouver in two weeks for the Agora Wealth Symposium and will also do an event with my Canadian partner John Nicola on the evening of the 20th. Then back home for a few weeks before I fly with my son Trey to New York for a day and then on to our annual fishing gig in Maine with David Kotok and friends. It looks like CNBC will be covering it again this year. I will come back to NYC for a day, then it’s on to Washington DC and then Miami and a five-day vacation with good friend Barry Habib in the Caribbean. Life is good.
I am working furiously on my book, The End Game. Slowly, it is taking shape. It is a challenge to write a book even a Congressman can understand.
And I guess my dismay at LeBron going to Miami (who I congratulate, as I wish we had those guys here in Dallas!) is tempered by the announcement a few hours ago that the Texas Rangers signed Cliff Lee. Finally, a real pitcher to go with our hitting. Maybe this year we could see a game in October. It’s funny, since I moved from the ballpark a few years back, I have not been back for a game. Looks like I will start to try and hustle some tickets.
Have a great week. And here’s hoping Mark Cuban can figure out how to sign our own nuclear options to go with Dirk.
Your just almost having more fun than the law allows analyst,
John Mauldin
John@FrontLineThoughts.com
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How A “Free” iPhone Game Suckered Me Out Of $190
My PlayMesh Fishies App Story
I am angry.
I’m burning with a white hot passion to tell the story of the Fishies iPhone app from PlayMesh charging me for $190 worth of useless pseudo-currency in a iPad/iPhone app.
This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of free iPad/iPhone apps and in-app purchasing.
This will be a long post, so hang on.
Today, iPhone app developer PlayMesh took multiple unauthorized in-app currency purchases from my 7 year old son, while he played their Fishies app on our iPad.
Read that again — from my 7 year old son.
It Started with a Free App
The story starts when we downloaded PlayMesh Fishies from the iTunes app store for Nathan to play with. It seemed innocent enough — a free iPhone app that let him create a virtual fish tank. Looked like fun.
When Nathan called me over, asking if he could buy some pearls for his new fish tank to get more items, I hesitated.
They were asking for our iTunes username and password. No way! I didn’t want any part of their virtual pearls currency, thank you very much!
I asked Nathan if he could just sell some items to get other items, that’s when he told me the app crashed every time he tried to do that. I tried to sell something, sure enough — crashes every time!
This Fishies app was getting stinky.
I looked at the iTunes reviews for Fishies and saw posts from users claiming to have bought things in-app and not getting them as promised. Bad news.
There’s no way I would buy anything in this app or from this company, because of bad reports and the crashes when we tried to sell items.
That’s when I should have deleted the Fishies app.
Shocked by a $153.97 Purchase of Virtual Pearls
Fast forward to today — we puchased a racing app and while it downloaded to our iPad, Nathan fired up Fishies to pass the time.
“Hey dad! There are all sorts of pearls and items in Fishies today, isn’t that cool? I wonder where they came from?”
I glanced over and saw the iPad screen and mentioned that the developers must have made an app upgrade to get the app working again.
Then I received an email from iTunes, opened it up and…
WHAT? A $153.97 BILL FOR FISHIES PEARLS?!!
I immediately told Nathan to shut the app down and ask him if he had clicked any windows to purchase anything: he said no.
I wouldn’t have mattered if he had though, as in-app purchases OUGHT to require a username and password — and Nathan doesn’t know it either.
What the heck was going on?
I immediately went to iTunes and saw the damage – multiple chests of virtual pearls for the Fishies app, escalating in value: $0.99… $1.99… $149.99!
$153.97 in unauthorized purchases from PlayMesh Fishies!
Time to Complain
I emailed iTunes support with a complaint immediately, but I also noticed in the iTunes terms that all sales are final. No refunds.
Then I sent PlayMesh support an angry email, demanding a refund for these unauthorized purchases:
SUBJECT: Refund for unauthorized in-apps purchases in Fishies
Dear PlayMesh support:
I’m very angry – just minutes ago when opening up Fishies on the iPad, the application made unauthorized purchases of pearls for a total of $149.99, $1.99 and $0.99.
There were no actions taken in the application to purchase these items and I would like a full refund to my account immediately for these unauthorized in-app purchases.
Apple iTunes support has also been notified of these unauthorized purchases in the app.
Please respond immediately with full refund details.
Mike
Then I called PayPal and they were very helpful, but as it turns out, all they can do is dispute all transactions from iTunes — they can’t do it for past purchases on my PayPal debit and they can’t dispute specific purchases from iTunes.
ARRRGGGGGG!!
So I have another look at my iTunes account and guess what? The day we downloaded Fishies and Nathan played with it (that day he wanted to buy things in the app?) they charged us $37 for virtual pearls.
Greaaat. I’ve been tricked out of $190 in unauthorized in-app purchases by PlayMesh and their stinking FREE game, Fishies.
Can you tell I’m livid?
I thought so.
An I’m not alone as it turns out:
The Sun: Alec McSalley charged £485 to play iPhone game
A FURIOUS dad told last night how £485 mysteriously vanished from his bank account after playing a simple game on his iPhone.
Will PlayMesh Make Things Right?
As of 10:00 PM on Friday, that’s where the story stands. Nothing yet from either Apple iTunes or PlayMesh on refunds of money that was taken from me.
I plan on keeping this post updated with replies (or lack of them) with the goal of:
- Shining a light on the shady tactics of PlayMesh in games like Fishies
- Sparing others from getting tricked by apps like Fishies and PlayMesh
- Get a refund for the $190 PlayMesh took in unauthorized in-app purchases
Whatever you do, avoid PlayMesh games and be careful about in-app purchases.
I’ve learned the hard way, hopefully you won’t have to.
Stay away from PlayMesh Games and Fishies!
Update: Friday July 9th 12:40 AM
Wow! I mentioned this post on Twitter and it’s been re-tweeted like crazy — first by Mac and iPhone developer Daniel Jalkut @danielpunkass and then a variety of other people. I think this story has touched a nerve. I hope it saves others from this hassle.
I’ve also learned through tweets and emails tonight, that Paul Thurrott’s kids were also hit by a similar scam through Fishies in-app purchases for a whopping $880! He was able to call Apple and have the charges refunded, so Saturday I’m going to call Apple support for the iPad we had issues on to see what I can do.
Hear Paul and Leo LaPorte discuss the story on Windows Weekly 162 at about 1:02:15 into the podcast (MP3) Thanks Mike, Paolo and Michael! for the tips!
Another odd thing — I can no longer find any mention of the Fishies app on the PlayMesh website. It’s as if the app has been wiped from the site. No idea what that means, but it’s certainly odd under the circumstances.
Update: Saturday July 10th 10:00 AM
I took Paul Thurrott’s advice from the podcast above and called Apple via the iPad support line — worked great.
The Apple support agent was as surprised as I was about the situation. He thought it was odd that in-app purchases happened without an iTunes username and password.
Apple refunded the largest $153.97 purchase.
They would only refund one day’s purchases in Fishies, so PayMesh gets the $37 from the day in June we downloaded the app and unauthorized in-app purchases were made. Maybe PlayMesh will refund this, we’ll see.
I asked the Apple rep if iTunes one-click caching works with in-app purchases. He said iTunes requires username/password entry for every in-app purchase.
Also getting feedback from iOS developer Noel Llopis @SnappyTouch on Twitter:
@imost @rohdesign As a dev of an app with IAPs there’s no way to purchase anything w/o your username and pw (and it’s not stored in the app)
@imost @rohdesign At the same time, they should have offered a refund as soon as you contacted them. Definitely bad customer serv. from them
@rohdesign I believe you have to enter your pw once in an app. It will remember it for some time (all under Apple’s control not ours)
@rohdesign Right. As far as I know, one click doesn’t apply to IAPs. That’s only in iTunes.
This still kind of a weird gray area right now.
I know I’ve purchased multiple apps with a single password entry in the iTunes store (one-click) but this info suggests in-app purchases can’t occur without entering a username/password. How did Fishies enact purchases of i never entered that info?
Man that’s dangerous if you don’t know about it.
Also found My iTunes Account Was Hacked for $375—By My Own Kids by Kevin Tofel on BusinessWeek:
As this past weekend included the Fourth of July holiday, I expected to see plenty of red, white, and blue. Unfortunately, all I experienced was red when, on Saturday, I noticed three unfamiliar iTunes transactions totaling more than $375.
What about restrictions preferences on the iPad itself?
@NeoNacho on Twitter asked if I had set the Settings > General > Restrictions in the iPad to turn off in-app purchases. I hadn’t realized this needed attention and hadn’t disabled in-app purchases.
Still, even with the restrictions left at default (on) for in-app purchases, it doesn’t explain how Fishies could have enacted in-app purchases without entry of my username and password.
I replied:
@NeoNacho iPad restrictions weren’t set – but @SnappyTouch says each in-app purchase requires a username & pw which my son doesn’t know.
NeoNacho says:
@rohdesign The password is definitely cached for a while. If you typed it in for getting the app and didn’t lock in between, that’s why.
My reply:
@NeoNacho Interesting explanation. I would have thought there’s a barrier to cached un/pw when moving inside of an app. That’s scary if so.
I don’t know that I buy this explanation or not. What I’m hearing is that in-app purchases require at least an initial re-entry of username/password in the app.
However, with this all being unclear, NeoNacho’s explanation seems a possibility.
If caching username/passwords to in-app purchases without any warning turns out to be the case, it seems to me a very dangerous approach by Apple.
So, today things are better with the refund, and some clarity on in-app purchase workings. Yet it’s still unclear how Fishies sold us $190 worth of virtual currency without needing a username/password.
I’ll keep digging. If you’re a developer for iOS, drop me a line if you have any ideas.
Mike Rohde is a user experience and visual designer with a passion for simple, effective and usable design solutions with 20+ years of professional experience. He specializes in user experience and interface design, icon design, logo design and web design. More about Mike →
This post was originally published at his blog, Rohdesign, and was republished with permission. Follow Mike on Twitter at @rohdesign.
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Bovis reports “solid” private sales
Bovis has reported a steady half year in terms of sales, although the new homes market remained “subdued” with first-time buyers limited by “liquidity issues”.
However, the house builder delivered “solid” weekly private sales rates in the six months to the end of June 2010, and achieved prices that were ahead of expectations.
During the period, the [...]