Apple has just sent out a letter to developers introducing in-app purchasing for free apps:

In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions, and digital services.

You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.

Visit the App Store Resource Center for more details about how you can add In App Purchases to your free apps.

So in one email, Apple ends the clutter of Lite apps, provides a real possibility for demoware (a developer can provide 1 level of a game, for example, for free, and 10 more via in-app purchase), and offers developers the carrot of anti-piracy measures at the same time.

Previously, Apple was resolute about “free apps stay free” so as to avoid user confusion. What changed their mind, all of the above? And will in-app purchases in free apps be extra-carefully marked to avoid just such confusion?

[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]

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

Apple Introduces In-App Purchase for Free App — Buh-Bye Lite, Hello Demo!

Ross Miller of Engadget is giving more credibility to some of the reports of iPhone MMS on AT&T’s network being a little wonky. It seems as if some users sending MMS messages are having their pictures delivered, but with the message on the recipients end displaying an incorrect phone number for the sender.

We’ve done some research on the issue and at the moment there is no viable explanation from AT&T, and no resolution (including the recently released AT&T 5.6 carrier file). Have any of our readers experienced this MMS behavior?

Sound off in the comments!

[Via Engadget]

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

AT&T’s iPhone MMS Displaying Incorrect Sender Number

PhoneView is a desktop companion that fills in the holes left by iTunes for any iPhone user on the Mac (sorry Microsoft faithful). Some of PhoneView’s features are as follows:

• Use your iPhone as a disk
• Play and export music
• Create, edit and save notes
• Search and save SMS/MMS messages
• Download camera photos
• Save voicemails
• View and export call history
• Play and save voice memos
• Export synced photos
• Export Contacts

We often see folks in TiPb’s forums looking for more syncing functionality than what iTunes provides. Could this be for you? PhoneView is available to demo for free and $19.95 to purchase a license. Be sure to check out this video for a quick tour of PhoneView’s features and functionality.

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

PhoneView Desktop Companion for iPhone on Mac OS X

It seems like just the other day TiPb linked to a concept rendering of what Apple’s Mac Exposé might look like for the iPhone, and now Steve Troughton-Smith, creator of Stacks for iPhone, has gone and brought it to Jailbreak.

It’s not publicly available yet, not via Cydia much less via Apple. But do we want?

[Slashgear via Engadget Mobile]

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

iPhone “Exposé” Shown Off for Jailbreak!

iDriver, an iPhone remote-controlled car by the Artificial Intelligence Group at Freie Universitaet in Berlin scares us off the roads. But we wants it.

[via 9to5mac]

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

Thursday Fun Video: iDriver iPhone Remote Controlled Car

Acceleroto, makers of the iPhone apps Air Hockey [$0.99 - iTunes link] and Air Hockey Free [Free - iTunes link] have written an interesting post on the differences between developing their app for the iPhone App Store vs. the Palm Pre App Catalog. Some take away:

• They charge more for the webOS version due to lower volume expectations
• iPhone and Palm Pre are “remarkably similar” hardware-wise
• They already knew Objective-C, but Javascript wasn’t difficult to pick up
• iPhone is native, webOS is interpreted, so there’s a difference in execution speed (more important for game developers)
• Getting code onto the Pre is faster. Debugging is much more difficult than iPhone.
• Had to “skinny up” iPhone code to get 30-fps for webOS.
• Multitasking and garbage collection impacts performance
• Since webOS apps are “web pages”, touch events are handled as mouse-clicks and aren’t as smooth
• No sound yet, because the requisite timing isn’t possible.

So, as we’ve heard before, development for non-intensive apps is likely quicker and easier for the Palm Pre, but more intensive apps, like games, are still a challenge. Doubtless Apple will continue to work on making casual apps easier to deploy, and Palm on making deeper apps run better.

The full post also includes the backstory of how and why Air Hockey was ported to webOS, and shown off as part of the Palm Pixi introduction. Give it a read, and then let us know what you think.

[Acceleroto via PreCentral.net]

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

Acceleroto on Developing Air Hockey for the iPhone vs. Palm Pre

First up, the highly anticipated HTC Hero is in Android Central’s house, and Casey gives us a look at the decidedly non-Google Android phone and SenseUI, something closer akin to HTC’s previous Windows Mobile powered TouchFLO3D. And we think he likes it:

We believe that you'll be stunned at how easy it is to use and how polished it all works. If you're looking from the myTouch 3G or T-Mobile G1, you can't help but be jealous of the Hero. The UI offers a great experience while still maintaining the same lovely Android and even adds a better browser! We have no hesitation in saying that the HTC Hero is the best Android phone available and after using HTC Sense, will be for quite some time.

Next up, I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned “Motorola” and “competition” to the iPhone in the same paragraph before, but with the introduction of the CLIQ, their first device running Google’s Android OS, do we have to stop chuckling at the mere concept?

Maybe. We often say (okay, Chad often says) that Apple designed the iPhone for RAZR users — the first dead-simple, consumer-friendly smartphone. Well Moto built the RAZR, and now they’ve built MOTOBLUR, a new, hyper-social network focused new layer on top of Android designed to hook the heart of the Twitter/FaceBook generation (yes, Icebike, I campout firmly in the former). And they’ve put it on a G1/Dream-style horizontal slider.

Have they succeeded? Engadget says:

Let’s be very clear: though it fares pretty competitively against the aging crop of Google-powered devices on the market today, the CLIQ isn’t the Android phone to end all Android phones. Then again, it’s not supposed to be — at least, we hope it isn’t — because a smallish HVGA display and an overworked, outmatched MSM7201A core aren’t going to win any believers that haven’t already been won over by HTC’s stable. What the CLIQ does do, though, is lay the groundwork for something better — a Motorola that doesn’t cause eyes to roll, a Motorola that makes aspirational phones that people can want to own again.

One thing’s clear, however. The competition is focusing on the social networks, something Apple’s never been historically good at, and something they may still not quite understand. Is it an achilles heel for the iPhone? Not yet, especially not with the App Store. But there’s no MOTOBLUR or widgets or Synergy in the App Store yet, and likely there won’t be given SDK restrictions. So, Apple, howsabout 4.0?

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

The Competition: HTC Gets a Hero and Motorola Goes Android with CLIQ

BlackBerry Storm2, RIM’s second bite at Apple’s multi-touch, black slab iPhone form factor, is just about ready for prime time, and as always, our sibling site CrackBerry.com has the complete Storm2 review. Kevin sums it up thusly:

The Storm2 fixes many of the BlackBerry Storm’s outstanding issues and makes a ton of incremental improvements, all of which add up to something that feels noticeably better. In a way that never quite applied to the original Storm, the Storm2 could legitimately be called the flagship BlackBerry.

Sounds fair to us! The Storm too got little-to-no love for RIM, even from RIM, but Storm 2 sounds like it fixes a lot of what went wrong the first time around. The build quality is better and that monstrous single-button screen of carpal tunnel has been replaced by a more sophisticated, and natural-typing friendly multi-press technology.

Sure, it’s still got that trusty, rusty BlackBerry J2ME OS and middling browser (for now) but with App World this time around, and Verizon’s network power (hey, it’s better than their chart-making power!) behind it, those users whose venn-diagram intersects CDMA with BlackBerry with touchscreen might finally have a usable option.

Check out the full review, then let us know if Apple has anything to worry about, berry-wise…

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

The Competition: BlackBerry Storm 2 — Do Over?