Earlier today when Apple announced in-app subscriptions would be available to all they also updated the iOS App Store review guidelines reflecting the change. And it looks like Apple threw in a few additions, one which specifically warns against developers who “cheat the system”.

If you attempt to cheat the system (for example, by trying to trick the review process, steal data from users, copy another developer’s work, or manipulate the ratings) your apps will be removed from the store and you will be expelled from the developer program.

That’s a pretty stern warning to devs who piggyback off of the success of other developers, and will hopefully help cut down on other manipulations of the system we’ve seen before. Other additions in the updated guidelines include:

• A expansion of overly duplicated apps to include fart, burp, flashlight and Kama Sutra apps
• A warning against arbitrary carrier differentiation in apps (no needless AT&T or Verizon-specific versions of apps)
• A caution against advising users to reboot following an app install
• A advisory that media-only apps should be sent to iTunes, not the App Store
• Websites bundled as apps are also a no-no

We’re combing through the update, but let us know if you see anything big we might have missed in the comments!

[Apple via TUAW]

Apple updates App Store developer guidelines, warns against “cheating the system” is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The Phone Dev Team’s PwnageTool, which allows for the Jailbreak of iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV, has been updated to version 4.2 and now is untethered and fixes issues with iBooks.

With [Chronic Dev Team's] permission, we've incorporated their 4.2.1 "feedface" untether into today's PwnageTool 4.2. This means iPhone unlockers can safely restore to a custom 4.2.1 pre-jailbroken IPSW and retain their current baseband and unlock.

PwnageTool also includes two very recent improvements to the 4.2.1 JB: iBooks was just fixed by @comex and @pushfix last night so that it works as intended on DRMed books, and the wifi problem on AppleTV 2G was fixed by @nitotv, @DHowett, and @saurik. Both of these fixes will also be available in upcoming Cydia package updates, so if you're already jailbroken you can wait for those updates rather than restore and jailbreak again.

If PwnageTool is your preferred Jailbreak, go get it via the link below (they have mirrors posted as well) and tell us how it works for you! If you need help, head on over to the Jailbreak Forum.

[Dev-Team Blog]

PwnageTool 4.2 released, untethered, fixes iBooks is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Have trouble making out the small icons and tiny text on iPhone or iPad and curious how you can zoom in for a better view? We’ve previously told you about 2 of iOS’s accessibility features and how you can use them, like reading White text on Black and using VoiceOver to read your messages and audiobooks. After the break, I’ll be showing you how you can zoom your iPhone or iPad screen as well.

If you find it difficult to see the screen on your iPhone or iPad or if you want to focus on a particular area of the screen then you can use the built in zooming functionality.

To Enable Zooming

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Accessibility
4. Tap Zoom
5. Turn Zoom to ‘On’

To Use The Zoom

• Double Tap your screen with 3 fingers
  • Scroll Up To Zoom In
  • Scroll Down To Zoom Out

To Move Around The Screen While Zoomed In

• Scroll around the screen with three fingers
• Drag one finger to the edges of the screen.

There is an additional setting to turn your accessibility features on and off using the home button.

To Turn Zoom On and Off using the Home Button

• Be sure that accessibility options, ‘Triple Click Home’ is set to ‘Ask’
• Triple click the home button to bring up your options. From this menu, you can also turn on “White on Black” and “VoiceOver”.

Do you find this tip helpful and will you be using it? Let us know by commenting.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Daily tip: How to use the zoom accessibility mode for iPhone and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

There’s a Jailbreak bug that affects Springboard (the Home Screen system on iPhone and iPad) and causes your icons to go fuzzy and disappear. Depending on which version of iOS 4 you’re on, and which Jailbreak tool you used (limera1n, greenpois0n, redsn0w, etc.) you may or may not experience it or be able to replicate it, but if you do we have a simple if temporary fix for you after the break.

Though the disappearing/fuzzy icon bug isn’t much more than a annoyance — you can still use the icon in question — is also quite easy to go around.

You can tell if you have the problem simply by swiping quickly from Home Screen to Home Screen. If you you have the bug, some icons will disappear or turn fuzzy. To fix it, just swipe some more and they’ll eventually re-render.

Again, this bug is not incapacitating for your iPhone but it is a bit disconcerting when you see one of your icons has disappeared. (Luckily the name remains under the icon so you can still figure out which app it is).

This bug seems to have started after iOS 4.0 came into effect. We will have to see if it is still in effect in iOS 4.3.

Effect

• Your icons will appear fuzzy and difficult to see.

Cause

• Swiping rapidly through Home Screens

Fix

• Keep swiping until the icons re-render properly.
• If you’re desperate, restore your iPhone and re-Jailbreak with a more recent tool

If you’ve had this problem let us know which version of iOS you’re using and which tool you used to Jailbreak. If you’ve come up with any better fixes, let us know in the comments!

Bugs: Disappearing icons [Jailbreak] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Exclusive Mike Lavalee/Hellbent, Pamela Durkin, Keru tattooed leather cases for iPhone [Sponsored] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

If you launch iBooks on a Jailbroken iPhone there’s a good chance you’ll get an error message and not be able to open any of your legitimately purchased iBooks content. This is NOT a new problem — many of us here at TiPb have been having this issue for a while and with older versions of iBooks. Some thought it was a bug with iBooks or an issue with certain releases of redsn0w or greenpois0n Jailbreak tools, but iPhone dev-team member @comex finally figured out what was causing it.

It seems that before opening a DRMed book, iBooks drops an improperly signed binary, tries to execute it, and if it works concludes that the device is jailbroken and refuses to open the book.

This is what the binary does:

int main() { return 42; }

The complete message you get is:

There is a problem with the configuration of your iPhone. Please restore with iTunes and reinstall iBooks.

If you do restore your iPhone you will, of course, lose your Jailbreak. If you’re an avid iBooks user and can’t live it without it that’s a choice you’ll have to make. Why Apple is only choosing to do this with iBooks and not other iTunes content, like media and apps is unknown.

Again, this is not a new problem but with iOS 4.2.1 getting an untethered Jailbreak courtesy of greenpois0n (and iOS 4.2.6 for the Verizon iPhone), it’s probably something more and more people have noticed and been complaining about. Hopefully the Jailbreak community comes up with a fix, otherwise Apple and iBooks might lose a lot of #TeamJailbreak customers to Amazon’s Kindle store…

Have you had trouble using iBooks on your Jailbroken iPhone? Does it bother you enough that you’ll restore or just stop using iBooks?

[@comex]

Why iBooks doesn’t play nicely with Jailbreak is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

While The Daily was first it certainly won’t be last, not with Apple announcing their new subscription service is now available to all publishers.

"Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers."

This obviously raises a lot of questions. Will Netflix have to — and can they afford to — give Apple 30% of the subscriber revenue? Sure existing subscribers are exempt but if someone downloaded the Netflix app, Apple no longer allows external linking to websites for subscriptions so would Netflix have to offer the same $8 streaming package in-app and split the revenue with Apple? Or is this service meant to be magazine/newspaper specific and not carry over to video services, which would also include Hulu.

Also, will Apple push this same philosophy to all in-app purchases? They might, given it sounds like that’s what caused Sony — and could cause everyone from Amazon to Hulu — some consternation. In-app purchases will be lower friction (since outside linking is no longer allowed) for users and with Apple requiring the same or better offers in-app, high-volume goods like eBooks could see their entire profit margin get shifted to Apple. (i.e. Amazon makes 30% on eBooks, Apple wants 30% on in-app purchases. That’s not tenable.)

Full press release with all the details after the break, and let us know what you think in comments!

[Apple PR]

CUPERTINO, California—February 15, 2011—Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.'s "The Daily" app.

Subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will be sold using the same App Store billing system that has been used to buy billions of apps and In-App Purchases. Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Then with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription and are automatically charged based on their chosen length of commitment (weekly, monthly, etc.). Customers can review and manage all of their subscriptions from their personal account page, including canceling the automatic renewal of a subscription. Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases.

"Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers."

Publishers who use Apple's subscription service in their app can also leverage other methods for acquiring digital subscribers outside of the app. For example, publishers can sell digital subscriptions on their web sites, or can choose to provide free access to existing subscribers. Since Apple is not involved in these transactions, there is no revenue sharing or exchange of customer information with Apple. Publishers must provide their own authentication process inside the app for subscribers that have signed up outside of the app. However, Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app. In addition, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.

Protecting customer privacy is a key feature of all App Store transactions. Customers purchasing a subscription through the App Store will be given the option of providing the publisher with their name, email address and zip code when they subscribe. The use of such information will be governed by the publisher's privacy policy rather than Apple's. Publishers may seek additional information from App Store customers provided those customers are given a clear choice, and are informed that any additional information will be handled under the publisher's privacy policy rather than Apple's.

The revolutionary App Store offers more than 350,000 apps to consumers in 90 countries, with more than 60,000 native iPad™ apps. Customers of the more than 160 million iOS devices around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Apple announces iPhone, iPad subscriptions for all is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Amazon has updated its Kindle app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and added in a few really nice features like real page numbering, percentage read, and Google and Wikipedia lookup.

Kindle now provides real page numbers to books from the Kindle Store. This basically means that Kindle books will mirror the print versions page numbers. This may not sound like a big deal but if you are reading in a group or in class it is very important . Also you can now see how far you have read as a percentage whilst reading the book and the app home screen now shows your progress in a list view.

Finally, and maybe one of the best new features is the ability to lookup words using Google and Wikipedia all from within the application.

The app still does not give you the ability to purchase books through in-app purchase or via iTunes. This apparently was the reason Sony’s application was recently rejected. This is sure to fan the flames of the alleged upcoming war with Sony!

A point to note, after the update, most of my books would not open and had to be deleted and downloaded again. Let us know in the comments if you experience the same problem!

[iTunes- Link]

Kindle for iPhone, iPad updated with more reader-friendly features is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• GoodReader for iPad: This popular, robust PDF reader released a huge update that includes an Auto Sync feature that supports sync with iDisk, Dropbox, SugarSync and any WebDAV or FTP server. [$2.99 - iTunes link

• Truck Jam HD: Get behind the wheel of off-road trucks and race across varied terrains! [$2.99 - iTunes link]

• Robokill – Sale! This dual stick shooter with content across 13 missions containing over 450 levels of shooting fun is now on sale! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Verizon FiOS Mobile Remote: Use your iPhone as a remote control for FiOS TV. [Free - iTunes link]

• YP: The Yellow Pages app has hit 3.0 and includes improved search, local deals, and more. [Free - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for February 15, 2011 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

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Georgia, Chad, and Rene discuss iPad 2 and iPad 3 (with Retina Display!) rumors, free MobileMe rumors, HP’s new TouchPad, true multitasking myths, Apple TV gaming, and the week in apps. This is iPad Live!

Complete show notes for the week in iPad after the break!

iPad 2

• iPad 2 in production, coming soon?
• Steve Jobs still running Apple, working on iPad 2, iPhone 5
• iPad 2 might switch from IPS to Samsung Super PLS display?

iPad 3

• Apple preparing iPad 3 for September?
• Expanding the iPhone and iPad family

iPad competition

• HP (not Palm!) announces Veer, Pre3, webOS 3.0 TouchPad
• iPad competitors: Will the true multitasking please stand up?
• (Discuss price points – Xoom ~$800, TouchPad ~$700)

Free MobileMe

• UPDATED: More iPhone nano, free MobileMe rumors

Apple TV

• Games coming to Apple TV in iOS 4.3?

Apps

• Livestand from Yahoo! set to take on The Daily

Help

• Check out our awesome iPad Forum!
• Tips and how-to

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb
• Chad (@iChadman)
• Rene (@reneritchie)

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

iPad Live #43: Good for you! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog