A billion apps. Developers getting rich. Apple making a bit of money. Or is it all just a house of cards ready to come tumbling down, with only one sneaky developer and a rule-breaking easter egg to blame?

See, the App Store has rules. You can’t, for example, include porn in an application and expect it to get approved and hosted by Apple in the App Store. But lets say your app looks all sweet and interesting, gets approved by Apple, and then lets slip that with one little gesture or secret code — porn. Or worse, malware or other malicious code.

Sound crazy? Wired (via Ars) tells us it’s already happened, albeit with language in an app called Lyrics.

Seems the app had some language that caused Apple to reject it, so the dev applied a language filter to clean that **** up, but added in a stealthy way to swipe the About screen to re-enable it. Said developer Jelle Prins:

"It's almost impossible for Apple to see if there's an Easter egg because they can't really see the source code. In theory a developer could make a simple Easter egg in their app and provide a user with whatever content they want."

Until Apple reads that quote, begins scouring apps even more closely, maybe asking developers to submit the actual code base, and making current app approval delays look like the blink of an eye.

Geniuses the lot of you.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Easter Eggs Could Kill App Store Golden Egg?

UPDATE: Full super-rumored specs list, via Engadget after the break!

ORIGINAL: Palm Pre announces a release date and all of a sudden iPhone and Apple blogs have to rumor up a next generation iPhone release date? Yep, that’s how we roll… right over the news cycles.

So when’s the rumor? July 17, 2009. And no, no idea if that’s an international roll-out like last year. Speaking of which, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G at WWDC 2008 and had it on sale July 11, so a similar pattern this year makes the kind of sense that does, even if July 17 just also happens to be the default date on every iCal instance in the world…

As to specs, pretty much what we’ve seen rumored already, 32GB, 3.5mp camera, video recording, digital compass, OLED screen, and here’s a kicker — illuminated Apple logo like the MacBooks.

How does that sound to you? Perfect timing? To soon? Too late? Too many crazy rumors, bring on WWDC already?!

[TUAW via AppleiPhoneApps]

• 32GB and 16GB storage (up from the current 16GB and 8GB models)
• $199 and $299 price points to be maintained
• 3.2-megapixel camera (up from the current 2-megapixel camera)
• Video-recording and editing capabilities
• Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
• Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
• OLED screen
• 1.5 times the battery life of the current models
• Double the RAM and processing power
• Built-in FM transmitter
• Apple logo on back will glow
• Rubber-tread backing
• Sleeker design
• Built-in compass
• The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations
• Turn-by-turn directions

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: Super Rumor: Next Gen iPhone — As Spec’ed — in Stores July 17?

As we mentioned yesterday, Apple has begun load testing of their Push Notification Service. Certain developers have been given promo codes to a special version of AP News that, when installed, can be configured to utilize Push Notification. This means that screens we’ve seen previously via code digging can now be seen for real, and there are a few interesting things therein.

The setup seems not dissimilar to how GPS was handled on the iPhone 3G. A popup identifies the app and requests permission to send you Push Notifications, and you can choose “Don’t Allow” or “OK”. A Notifications panel in Settings lets you choose to globally turn the service On or Off, and lists the apps using the service so you can individually toggle Sounds, Alerts, and Badges On or Off as well for each one. (i.e. if you want Twitter to badge but not alert, IM to sound but not badge, etc. you can have it your way).

More screenshots after the jump, and check out our massive iPhone 3.0 Walkthrough for even more!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.0: Push Notification Settings Redux

Looks like Apple is throwing some telecommuting muscle behind their phone support, with up to 450 “At Home Experts” joining the team just in time for… Well, that’s the big question.

The time frame seems to be from July through September, which sounds a tad late for new iPhone hardware, though if Apple has something extra to announce, something that might take a couple extra months for developers to work on before release, something that does for the ultra-portable market what the iPod and iPhone did for MP3 and smartphones…

Well, then, we’d be rumormongering too. cough iTablet cough iNetbook cough.

Here’s all we do know:

Changing the world is all in a day’s work at Apple. If you love innovation, here’s your chance to make a career of it. You’ll work hard. But the job comes with more than a few perks. If fulfillment, inspiration, adventure and advancement are your kind of perks, we’d love to hear from you.

Like to be around people who love technology? Like to be around technology that loves people? Apple offers a work environment unike any other.

[...]

There’s the typical job. Punch in, push paper, punch out, repeat. Then there’s a career at Apple. Where you’re encouraged to defy routine. To explore the far reaches of the possible. To travel uncharted paths. And to be a part of something far bigger than yourself. Because around here, changing the world just comes with the job description.

What do you think?

[Cult of Mac via Ars Technica]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Embiggening Phone Support Just in Time for…?

It’s here. Finally. The day everyone but iPhone users has been waiting for! No, not the release of the Palm Pre, silly. The release of the day it will finally be released! It’s been a long, hard epoch in the desert for our Palm faithful friends, so with snark firmly holstered, our sibling site Precentral.net has your official Palm Pre launch day details:

June 6th. $199 after $100 mail in rebate and a 2 year contract. Believe it. It will be at Sprint Stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Wal-Mart. The Touchstone dock will be available on the same day, $69.99 for the dock and battery door, or $49.99 for the dock alone and $19.99 for the battery door.

$100 mail-in rebate taken for granted (though we tend to forget those, or the checks seem to somehow get lost in the mail), the price is exactly the same for an 8GB Palm Pre as it was and is for an 8GB iPhone 3G. Sounds competitive. No doubt our friends at PreCentral.net are already lining up, camp gear packed and spirits high. (We’ll send pizza!)

Of course, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) kicks off just two days later on June 8, where last year Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone 3G and this year anticipation is high that Phil Schiller will introduce the third generation iPhone.

So is Palm crazy to start selling the Pre right before WWDC, or crazy like a fox? Do they get a couple of days of peace before riding b-reel for the massive mainstream news blitz that comes with any new Apple hardware? Do Rubenstein and crew — the folks who left Apple and the iPhone to work on the Pre — get to pay a final, seasonal homage to their former employer? Or are they gambling that Apple won’t announce a new iPhone, or that people won’t want to wait the extra month or so for it to be released, and so in antici-pointment or impatience, jump on the already available Pre?

Should be a fun month, next!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Attack of the iClones: Pre-Day Commeth June 6, Right Before WWDC!