More App Store News, Spoerrle Marco

More App Store News: No Mac App Store Promo Codes, iOS/Mac App Names, Push Notification Security

posted by Eric Slivka on Wednesday December 08, 2010 04:55 PM

In addition to today's news that promo codes for applications in Apple's iOS App Store are now valid worldwide, several other items of interest related to the iOS and Mac App Stores have surfaced yesterday and today.

First, MacStories notes that the latest version of Apple's iTunes Connect Developer Guide makes clear that promo codes will not be available for Mac App Store applications. In conjunction with last week's tip that Apple will not permit "demos, trial versions, or betas" of applications in the Mac App Store, this latest bit of info suggest that Apple will be fairly restrictive in what can be offered through the Mac App Store, preferring that developers use their own sites for non-mainstream distribution for testing and review purposes.

Given that Mac OS X is much more open than iOS in terms of officially-supported application distribution mechanisms, it appears that Apple feels that limiting its role to mainstream distribution is a preferred strategy, at least for the time being.

Second, Apple yesterday announced on its developer news page that iOS developers can now submit Mac OS X versions of their applications to the Mac App Store with the same names as their corresponding iOS applications. Apple had previously required that applications in the two stores carry different names, but has apparently now opted to support the branding and consistency permitted by using the same name for a given application on each platform.

Finally, iClarified reports that Apple has informed iOS developers that it will be upgrading the security on its push notification service as of December 22nd, introducing 2048-bit certificates to ensure greater security for connections between applications' notification provider servers and Apple's servers. The change will not require modficiations to iOS applications, but will require developers to update their notification servers with the new certificate.

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Marco Spoerrle - Handheld Gamers Moving From Dedicated Devices to Smartphones

Handheld Gamers Moving From Dedicated Devices to Smartphones

posted by Eric Slivka on Wednesday December 08, 2010 04:23 PM

Industry Gamers reports on the results of a new survey from market research firm Interpret revealing that users of handheld games are increasingly moving away from dedicated devices such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP in favor of smartphones such as the iPhone.
The report, "The Phone Gaming Revolution: Do the DS and PSP Stand a Chance?," found that 43.8% of the phone/DS/PSP gaming market plays games on phones, which represents a significant 53.2% increase over the past year. At the same time, Interpret says that the proportion of those who play on the DS or PSP has fallen by 13%.
But while that data could indicate that the market for handheld gaming is simply expanding with the increasing capabilities of phones, other data shows that users of dedicated gaming devices are in fact abandoning those devices in favor of their phones.
The company notes, "Gamers appear to be defecting from their handheld gaming devices to phones to get their gaming kicks: a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s)."
With existing dedicated gaming devices being forsaken in favor of all-in-one smartphone devices, some analysts are questioning whether dedicated devices have a significant role in the future portable gaming market. Sony at least appears to be responding to the threat with a "PlayStation Phone" of its own that appears to be an Android-based device offering many of the features of a smartphone while also including hardware buttons akin to those found on traditional handheld gaming devices.

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Exposing Device History Reduces ‘Friendly Fraud’ Rates - Marco Spoerrle

Exposing Device History Reduces ‘Friendly Fraud’ Rates - Marco Spoerrle

For many online merchants, friendly fraud is a persistent problem. Without the right security tools in place, it is difficult to identify whether or not a customer is committing fraud.
According to the article, “Friend and Foe? Combating E-Commerce ‘Friendly Fraud’,” financial cybercrime against card-not-present (CNP) retailers can take many forms. While MasterCard says 70% of [...]

Marco Spoerrle: Dr Akif Khan of CyberSource and Greg Pierson of iovation talk to eGaming Review about the ways in which their companies are fighting fraud within the online gaming arena

Combating cybercrime – Marco Spoerrle

Dr Akif Khan of CyberSource and Greg Pierson of iovation talk to eGaming Review about the ways in which their companies are fighting fraud within the online gaming arena


http://www2.iovation.com/e/1692/es-pdf-egr-fraudroundtable-pdf/I7OGW/204834332

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Jobs: Software Update to Address iOS 4 Performance Issues on iPhone 3G 'Coming Soon' Marco Spoerrle

Jobs: Software Update to Address iOS 4 Performance Issues on iPhone 3G 'Coming Soon' Marco Spoerrle: http://bit.ly/a12sgW

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Marco Spoerrle - Google Adds Gmail and Calendar Push Notifications to iPhone App

Google today announced an update to its Google Mobile App for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, bringing push notifications for Gmail and Google Calendar.
Ever missed an appointment or important email because you were away from your desk? Now Google Mobile App can help with push notifications from your Google account to your iPhone -- an icon badge shows you've got new mail in Gmail, and Google Calendar event reminders appear right on your home screen.
Also included in the update is as-you-type results for searches on flight info, weather, stock quotes and currency conversions.

The update appears to just be going live now, and may not yet be appearing for all users.

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posted by Eric Slivka on Monday August 23, 2010 01:47 PM

Facebook Sues Teacher Resource for Using the Word "Book" - Marco Spoerrle

Facebook Sues Teacher Resource for Using the Word "Book" - Marco Spoerrle

Facebook is suing a company called Teachbook, which operates a social networking site for teachers, apparently because it has "book" in its name and "competes" with Facebook. Teachbook is described as "a professional community for teachers". Sounds like a threat to Facebook's existence doesn't it?

Do you think Facebook should be suing Teachbook? Tell us what you think.

Ryan Tate at Valleywag draws on some irony, saying, "Imagine: Someone ripping off the name of an existing social networking tool for his own site. Why, that hasn't been done since 2004 when some punk kid at Harvard registered TheFacebook.com while college administrators were already developing their own 'online facebook.'"

The beginning of the suit reads:

Facebook has become a worldwide social, cultural and political phenomenon. With fame comes imitation. Here, Defendant Teachbook.com LLC rides on the coattails of the fame and enormous goodwill of the FACEBOOK trademark. Misappropriating the distinctive BOOK portion of Facebook's trademark, Defendant has created its own competing online networking community in a blatant attempt to become Facebook "for Teachers." Despite Facebook's protests, Defendant has willfully and deliberately persisted in its misappropriation of the Facebook brand, forcing Facebook to protect its user community and the strength of the Famous FACEBOOK trademark through this action.

They're protecting us - the user community.



When a user (teacher) joins Teachbook, the site promises the ability to manage a professional profile and all info in the account by choosing to share with admins, colleagues, parents, or public. It lets teachers create lesson plans, instructional videos, and other teaching resources. It lets users manage their classroom communications with secure parent-teacher communication tools (gradebook, events calendar, classroom newsletter, homework space). It lets teachers communicate with colleagues through discussion, chat, blogs, etc. It lets them create and manage online courses and instructional modules. It lets teachers manage student grades by recording, calculating, and sharing them within the Gradebook. (I wonder if Facebook knows they're using the word "gradebook" too).

Facebook drops the following stats in its case for why others shouldn't be able to use the word "book" in their names:

- Facebook has over 500 million active users

- Those users spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.com.

- Facebook is the second most trafficked site in the U.S.

- Over 150 million Facebook users also engage with FB through third-party sites each month

- Over a million sites have implemented tools Facebook makes available

- Through Facebook, users can interact with over 900 million objects (individual and community pages, groups, and events) and 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.).

"Through this usage, Facebook has permeated the web and Facebook users are accustomed to seeing and expect to see Facebook across the world wide web, not just on the Facebook site," the suit proclaims. "Facebook, and its FACEBOOK trademark, are famous."

The suit also mentions that Facebook owns a number of U.S. registrations for the mark FACEBOOK, covering a variety of goods and services, such as online networking services, chat functions, electronic media, online journals with user-defined content and electronic publishing services, and software to enable uploading, tagging, and sharing of electronic media or info.

By this logic, other companies that use either "Face" or "Book" may have to fear. It's unclear what the company's stance on the word "the" is, as Facebook was first called "The Facebook". "The" is only slightly more common than "book", especially in the teaching profession, I would imagine. Since "the" is no longer part of the Facbook brand, I'm guessing they won't pursue that.

It's also worth noting that Facebook just launched a product called "Facebook Places" , even though Google (their direct competitor) already had a product called "Google Places".

This suit comes at a time when Facebook is becoming much more integrated with not only the web, as the company pointed out, but the real world as well. Facebook Places is bringing physical locations to Facebook, and other third-parties are also coming up with different ways to connect physical objects (not just places) to Facebook. Watch out, books!

The entire suit can be read here (pdf).