How Mobile Apps Stores Work

shalom me youtuo. How are you today? I'm doing all right? Yea. So we were, I don't know, going to talk about some applications. Yeah, it's mobile applications. Yeah, they're hard to pin down, but because they're mobile, in case you guys didn't get that, because they're mobile. So yeah, we're gonna talk about mobile phone applications and mobile device applications. Uh, it's the that's the new, big, big thing, right, I mean, well,

mainly because smartphones have hit the consumer market. And now that they have and everyone's starting to pick up these phones that can do lots of cool stuff, They're like, where's all the cool stuff I can do, and so

we've got all these developers creating really interesting applications. So we wanted to talk a little bit about the different Apple app stores that are out there, and um, you know what kind of sets them apart, and maybe talk a little bit about a couple of applications that we use, because, as many of our listeners have probably already figured out, Chris is worships at the altar of Apple and um and I have sold my soul to Google, so we can we can talk about the various apps we use

on our our our mobile devices. Well, um, what do you want to start with? I think do you want to start with the actual apps themselves? If we do, I gotta turn my phone on. Okay, well let's you know, I feel like we should probably start by pointing out that this is all sort of Apple's fault, for good or bad, because, um, you know, when the iPhone was released, it was locked down. Ha ha that's a big surprise

coming from Apple. Okay, so yeah, exactly. Um. But with the with the release of the second generation iPhone known as the three G iPhone, to confuse everyone the network and not the phone. Um, they also opened it up to developers and um, yes, it is still very difficult for me not to quote Steve Bomber and say developers fifteen times in a row. UM, so you're making great progress. I know, thank you, except I mentioned it, so I didn't. So yeah, Apple, Apple sort of unleashed the genie from

the bottle in this case because UM, I don't. I think everybody else was watching UM and I think that what's happened since then has proved that. But at the time we are recording this, UM, Apple is rapidly approaching one billion app downloads from the app store mine buggling, Well, a lot of them are free, so I think probably. So. I mean, you know, you sit there and you think about you're like, okay, well that that means that you know,

there there's a very wide user base out there already. Absolutely. In fact, I would go so far to say in the consumer market that the iPhone dominates the smartphone uh platform. Well, it was bound to happen because number one, they were the first UM and it's open not just to the iPhone but to the iPod touch UM that and everybody else was sort of hanging back and watching to see whether they'd fall flat on their faces and that was

a smart strategy. You had some smartphones out there already, like you had you had a Nokia phone that was a smartphone. You had several Nokia phones actually, and then you also had the Blackberries out there, but those were mainly used by enterprise individuals, so we're talking about like high powered executives. And the Samsung and l G phones that have followed have been closed systems for the most part.

You know, Symbion which is also well, you know, Nokia related at this point, so it's you know, it's very very limited as far as what you could do with it to the stuff that was on there. But app was the first one to really open it up and go, hey, guys, what can you throw on here? Right? And and so they created this, um, this kind of realm for developers to work in. And uh, at first, when we first heard about the application market, um, the applic app store,

actually the iTunes app store, it sounded amazing. I mean, you had this idea about all these developers creating innovative applications that would turn your phone into all sorts of really useful devices. You could consolidate tons of electronic devices into one device, which gets to my favorite word, convergence. But the applications would create, you know, would turn your smartphone into a cool device, into a freaking cool device because it could suddenly do tons of things that you know,

you didn't even imagine when you first bought it. Um As time passed that the glimmer kind of wore off a little bit, not a whole lot, because and iPhone has gotta a pretty devout fan base. But on the developers side, there were some there were some hiccups along the way. UM. One would be that Apple demanded that it UH review and approve all apps that would go

into the App Store. So you said Apple, not Nintendo, right, because I was thinking of I hope so um, I have a habit of saying the wrong name at times. You never know I'm teasing. Nintendo has a similar policy that they are very careful about the stuff that they released for their play. Of course, Nintendo came to came about right after the great uh home video game crash of the eighties, so it made sense. Nintendo was like, Hey, we're not gonna let all these lousy applications or in

their case, lousy games screw up our cool system. We're gonna put a tight control on this, make sure the games are top notch, and that way we will sell lots and lots of product. Apple pretty much the same way. Of course, you know, Steve Jobs has the the the famous uh kind of philosophy that it has to meet

his standards or else it does not go. Yep, and uh, actually I made the joke about Nintendo, but really there there there is another similarity because one of the biggest, biggest sections of the app store for the iPhone and the iPod touches games, and they turned Apple turned well they didn't really, but they sort of did turned it into a gaming platform simply by making it available for

developers to write games for. And the accelerometers inside the devices make it possible to uh sort of operate the games like you would a Wei remote for the Nintendo because you can move. Uh. You know, their their physics games that involve moving the iPhone or iPod touch around, and there are other applications too that involve shaking the device. Jonathan likes to suggest that Apple um did that on purpose so that you would drop it and have to go buy a new one. Yeah. For instance, Natalie Dell

Countie them the Reporter for c net. I think she's on her sixth iPhone because she's dropped it so many times. Oh a gun, no kidding, I'm not joking, And I think her current one has a crack in it and the in the screen. It still works, but it's it's damage. But okay. So that that's basically how we got to this point. Apple had a runaway success with the app store UM. And you know, they're all kinds of games and other applications, even even enterprise applications, which made sense

for other people to duplicate. Uh, in which case you know other people are starting to get into the act. Yeah, so let's look at some of the other choices Apple made. So they said they had to approve all applications. Well, how do you get an application into the app store in the first place. That's a good question. You have to apply, right, and part of the application process is a there's a developer fee you have to pay to be to have your applications considered, which is ars per

year with Apple UM. So you have have to pay this developer fee. Then you go and you develop your application, you test it out and you make sure it works on the platform, and then you send it to Apple and say, hey, does this pass muster. Apple then reviews the application and then sometime at some point gives either the y or the nay about whether it goes in the App Store, And if it goes in the app Store,

you're golden. If it doesn't go in the app Store, you got to go back to to you know, you have to go back to design and fix it and fix whatever the problems are in order to get it in the app Store. Because the problem here is that you cannot with a regular iPhone or iPod Touch, you cannot download any application that is not in the App Store. It has to be in the app Store for you to be able to download it unless you jail break it.

Unless there are a whole other problems so that we we could go into, but you know, it's not really necessary for this conversation. Yeah. The only exception that sort of falls in the acts. Maybe you have an excellent application and you submitted it, but Apple finds that you've duplicated functionality of one of Apple's applications, in which case they will tell you to take a hike, even if that application that you duplicated hasn't even hit the App Store.

Yet yea, because that was the whole podcast thing, right, Yeah, yeah, they there was an organization that created a podcast application and at the time, you couldn't download podcasts directly to your iPhone or I. You had to sink it, you had to think it with your computer. And uh, Apple said no, you couldn't do it, and they eventually relented. The developer went back made some modifications. Plus Apple had

already added the functionality to its own devices. So there there's been sort of an accord if you will, in that regard. But um, yeah, if you if you're a little too close to the mark and he won't let you in. And just to go back to a little bit of the financials. If if it's an application that you are charging money for, so it's not a free application, you're actually charging for this, um, the developer gets to keep seventy of that of that cost of that you know,

of that purchase, the thirty other goes to Apple. Um here's where another sticky situation comes up, because Apple has agreed that at least in principle, that if you need to return an application, if an application for some reason is not working properly, and you have to have a really good reason. Apparently they don't do it for just anything. But if you return an application, the developer is the one responsible for returning of that application cost. Apple keeps

that thirty percent that they got the initial purchase. So in theory, if you really hated a developer, you could buy a whole bunch of the applications, return them all, and then slowly bankrupt them at a time, assuming, of course, that you could prove that there was something. Actually, it would be tricky, it would not be easy to do. I'm just pointing out a flaw in the system. It's not necessarily one that you could actually exploit well. But but the seventy thirty uh division that kind of set

a standard to Yeah, it did. You'll see that in other app stores as well, and I think we should we should start talking about them. Uh. You know, you are very familiar with the Android marketplace. Yes, yes, I use it all the time, Google Android Marketplace. If you have an HTCG one, then you have also probably taken a look at the Google Android Marketplace. If you don't have an HTCG one, you can still look at it.

It's not you know, nearly as enticing. If you don't have anything that running Android, but you can look at it, um and uh yeah. Google, when they were pushing the Android operating system, one of the big things they were pointing out was that they also were going to support a big community of developers, and so the developers were

kind of getting excited about this. Google had a competition where they they picked I think it was fifty developers who came up with really cool applications that would be available close to launch for the hd CG one and it would really show off androids capabilities. Um, you can find a lot of the applications that uh, well, not a lot, but you can find several applications that are available on the iPhone also in Google Android. And then there are plenty that you can't find on Google Android

that you can on iPhone. There are a few that are Google specific to that you're not going to find anywhere else. Um. Google charges twenty five dollars per year for developers to submit applications to the marketplace, and they do not require you to go through some sort of weird check system before it goes live in the marketplace.

All right, So if you want, if you know that, if you're deciding do I develop an application for iPhone where I may or may not be able to get it into the store, or Google where I can definitely get in the store. But the customer base is smaller. I mean, there are not as many Android phone owners as there are iPhone owners, so your audience is going

to be smaller. There are a lot of things you have to consider before you can see there and just say, oh, well, I want the freedom that Google gives me, so I'm gonna go to Google. Well, you're not gonna get as many people looking at your app, so you have to balance it all out, you know. Um they're the iPhone and the HTC G one are sort of seen as consumer devices, but of course there are business applications for them which might make some other people start to sweat,

like BlackBerry, for example, because they have a huge enterprise market. Unless, of course, people start going, hey, those phones are cooler, I want one of those. Look at all the cool business stuff that I could do and fun consumer stuff. I could have one phone for both. So now you've got the BlackBerry app world. So Blackberries gotten into the app game two, and it's also tried to entice developers to come in and create applications for the BlackBerry platform,

the RIM platform. Yeah, you know, I I took a look at some of the most popular applications right now. Of course I don't actually have a BlackBerry, but you can find out information about it on the website, and there are they are going exactly that route. I think. I think, to use your favorite word, convergence, I think enterprise and consumer stuff is going to converge on people's phones,

regardless of who gives you the phone. Right, So if you look at the iPhone and the Android, you're gonna see a lot more quote unquote toys and then fewer applications, and then Blackberries the other way around, you're gonna see more tools and fewer toys. Well, you know, I thought that, and there are things and they're like, well no, but I mean you see things like Salesforce and the HRS Hotel Organizer, and you know world Mate Live, which is

a business travel um helping enabling program. But there were other things too. The among the most popular are chat programs like aim and I c q uh, MySpace, Pandora. Pandora is huge. I was gonna get away my favorite app. Well, I mean they have it for BlackBerry and the iPhone. I know stuff rubbing it in. It's only a matter

of time. But the thing is, um, you know, well, I was gonna get in my favorite apps, but you know, Facebook, these are things that I would not have expected necessarily to see among the most popular BlackBerry apps, but there they are. But if you're looking for the if you go, hey, I have a Windows Mobile device, I want to go to the app store, you can't, at least not until Windows Mobile six point five comes out, which is when

it released. And while we're talking about that, we can also mention Symbian and Palm because they are also coming out with app stores now. Symbion is a little more complicated because it's on several different carriers, so that's gonna be all sorts of mess But Nakia is going to have its own or Nokia if you prefer um, it's gonna have its own little app store. The OVI Store is that what it's called. It's officially opening in May and it's available for S forty and S sixty based phones.

So by the time this podcast comes out, it may actually be open. It's it's not at the time of recording. However, there is a website for it, and you can learn a lot more about what they're gonna do. It's gonna have a lot of location based stuff cool, and Palm has the Palm Developer Network, which is still in the

early stages. Right now, they don't have any as far as I could tell, I didn't see any information about how much it would cost to UH to assent to apply to have your application in Palm's store, because right now it's all on the development stage where they're kind of testing things out. So um, right now it looks like it's free. But again, this is before any device can run any of these applications. Because the Palm Pre they still Palm at the time of this recording, has

not announced when the pre will go on sale. We expect that announcement any day now. Yes, actually that's true. It's it's We could have even announced it while we

were in a meeting earlier today. We have not been able to check the news since since that meeting, So uh, I feel like you know that That's the thing is, there are not many app stores that are completely open and ready for business, but there are tons that have announced it, and I bet there are more coming, and they all have to play catch up with Apple, and I don't think it's going to take them long because the developers who are working on these things, like, for example,

their Facebook applications for all of the major platforms that are available now, you can bet that it's not going to take them long to catch up. And we might we might start seeing lines get drawn in the sand, and we may even see some developers decide they want to develop exclusively for one platform over the others. And then you may see really large developer developers say well, we have to develop all of them because we have to hit our all of our customer base. It'll be interesting.

I'll be curious to see if this actually affects the UM you know, which which phone comes out on top, or if it'll just remain a very competitive field. I hope it stays competitive, because that ends up being the best for the consumer. UM Now, I guess we can talk a little bit about our favorite apps. Yeah, I mean we've we've talked about some cool apps in the past, But do you want to do you want to do

some Android apps? Yeah? Well, and one a lot of them are are apps that are also available on other systems like UM. I of Shazam, which is also available on the iPhone and BlackBerry. UH. And that's an application where that recognizes music. If you hear music playing, you can you can activate Shazam. It'll analyze the music and compare it against a database and come up with suggestions for what that song might be. And most of the

time it's pretty accurate. That's one of mine. You want to flip switch off or you just want me to go through all of them really quickly. Well, I was going to throw out Pandora, of course, not not sure. Not to pick on you, that's true. Well, you know, the last FM app is pretty good too. UM. And I've tried. I've tried several of the streaming audio apps.

And if I had an iPhone instead of an iPod Touch, it would be extremely useful because then I could stay on my cellular network and keep going and listening to music as I move from place to place. As it is, it's just sort of useful when I'm at a network where I'm not moving. UM. But it's fantastic because you get the power of Internet radio UM over your cell phone, which a lot of people think will be the death

knell for satellite radio. UM. But it's very very nice, and like I said, the other ones are the other ones are really good too. I like last FM on there too. I've got twit droid, which is a Twitter client for the Android platform, which is pretty cool. They keep adding functionality to that, so I'm I'm very satisfied with that. Does tend to uh occasionally require a force close, but it tends to boot right back up as soon as you do that, so there are some stability issues,

but otherwise I'm quite pleased with it. I've got let's see the weather channel on here. I'm actually going through it right now. I've got the weather channel app on here, which is pretty handy. I've got unless you're trying to look up whether the dry tortugas, which is always wrong. UM. I've got the a compass program, a tip calculator, stop watch, uh, some voice recording software, snap Photo, which is great. It has some stability software in it so that your photos

come out a little more sharp than they would otherwise. UM. There's some cool stuff. And also the nice thing about snap photo it also has some uh some cool functionality and lets you share photos through various applications like Twitter or Facebook. Um. Just you know, you just push a button and it sends it to your profile, which is also really neat UM. For for Twitter on my iPod, I use twitter Ific from the the icon Factory, which is fantastic. UM. I also like air sharing which is

UH and wireless file sharing clients. So if I want to UH send a document or take a document home, I don't have to carry a flash drive with me or save it online or carrying my computer with me. I could actually upload it to my my iPod and take it home with me and then download it. Basically, it you allow. It allows you to add your iPhone or iPod to your network UM and do it that way.

Stanza is an e book reader which is really nice UM and it even allows you to down download thousands of free public domain titles from places like Project Gutenberg and UH and other places UH. Plus you can you can buy titles if you want to as well. And UH Boxy, which is fairly new to me, but UM I had had trouble using Boxy on my iMac at home because I had real difficulty getting the UH the remote to work with it because it's just not functional

enough to to have, you know, to help me use Boxing. Well, this actually works as a remote. It sinks wirelessly with the iMac and let's me you know, use it as basically a giant keypad. UM. So now I can really use Boxing on my iMac and I'm really starting to

get into it. So, uh, it's very nice. You they're Apple even as a remote for iTunes that you can sync up with your your Macintosh and basically will let you you know, it has the code for that that computer and then you can go, you know, from place to place and you know, play it from across the room or even not in the same room using your wireless connection. Very nice stuff. And I mean they're they're thousands for applications. Yeah. The only other application I wanted

to mention really quickly. Very recently, I wrote an article UM which was called a five Green Mobile apps, And so I was looking at different mobile applications that would promote a green lifestyle. And I was trying to make sure I didn't, you know, favor one platform over all others. So I was trying to find, you know, examples from all the different platforms, and I kind of hit a

brick wall with BlackBerry. I thought that I found something cool when I saw an application named green Finder, and it turned out that it's an application that tells you where the nearest golf course is. Yeah, so, uh yeah, BlackBerry is not going to shake that executive elite you know, exclusive sort of uh image anytime soon. I think. I guess if you asked them, they would be okay with that. Probably. Well. I guess that that that's about all I have for

app stores. How about you? You know what that brings us to? Listener? Mai, So today's listening al comes from Sylvia and it's a doozy. Here we go. Hi there. You recently had a podcast about digital cameras where you recommended holding your sunglasses in front of the lens to enhance the contrast of a scene with a lot of glare.

For listeners who don't know how polarizers work, you should be careful to specify that the sunglasses need to be oriented the same way they would if you were wearing them, so that an imaginary vertical axis from the ground matches the vertical axis of the glasses as worn. Otherwise you run the risk of actually enhancing the glare in the scene and reducing the contrast. This is also true amountable polarizers if you have the kind of camera which rotates

the camera lens as it auto focuses. On another topic, you mentioned that a polarizer can protect the lens. That was Chris who mentioned that this is true, but at a cost, since polarizers chew up some of the light and darken the scene. There are gizmos called daylight filters, which are just high quality pieces of flat glass you can mount in front of your camera lens to keep it clean and protect it from the occasional whack on a passing door knobs. True experience. Listen to your podcast.

I learned so much from you guys. Keep up the good work. That's our haiku. Thank you Sylvia very much for that. That was very informative, and um, I'm so glad to hear about the daylight filters now. I I wrote back to Sylvia and mentioned that I use a little point and shoot cyber shot camera, so it doesn't really apply to me anyway, but um, you know, for other shutter bugs out there, it's good to know that.

I have to admit, maybe you do learn a lot from us, Sylvia, but I learned a lot from you too, So thank you very much for writing in Yeah, greatly appreciate it, And if any of you have anything you'd like to say to us, you can write us at tech stuff at how stuff works dot com. You can read our blogs at how stuff works dot com. Just

go over there, look in the right hand side. You'll see our blogs over there, and uh, everyone pretty much here just about blogs at this point, it seems so you can see lots of different blogs about lots of and subjects, not just tech stuff, although of course the tech stuff ones are the best. And if you want to learn more about apps and cameras and all sorts of other wacky technological gadgets and gizmos, you can at

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