General

Thanksgiving’s the one holiday I take seriously. I may complain a lot – OK, I do complain a lot – but I am always aware of how fortunate I am. And I always take time at Thanksgiving to think briefly about everything I’m thankful for. This year it includes:

• That I can still see and hear (despite needing help with both. But I’m thankful that the help exists and works).
• And that I can walk and breathe without any help.
• My fabulous and supportive boyfriend, who really hates when I do things like this.
• The internet. For all its problems, it’s still the best entertainment I’ve ever found.
• And of course, electricity, without which the internet wouldn’t be nearly so good.
• And while we’re on the basics, indoor plumbing and central heat.
• My wonderful eye doctor, who fixed my problem that no one else could even find.
• Showtunes, which make everything so much better.
• And mp3 players, which make showtunes even better (or at least more portable).
• And finally, that I’ve managed to go more than 12 years without working for anyone else. So thanks to everyone here, and everyone who’s reading this, who made that possible.
  

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There was a bunch of discussion about user reviews over at Just Another iPhone Blog the other day. Patrick was frustrated by reviews that either weren’t reviews, were wildly inaccurate, or were little more than an ad for another product. This sort of thing makes me crazy as well, but when I read the comments I was surprised by how many people don’t think this is a big deal.

In fact this is a big deal for consumers. To explain this, I wrote a new article for Just Another Mobile Monday that talks about the issue. Check it out for my views on the trouble with the way some application stores are handling user reviews and what it means to you guys!

And while you’re at it – Just Another iPhone Blog started a new series called “Desert Island Apps” where a guest explains which six apps she or he would take with them to a desert island. Guess who the first guest was! 🙂 You can read about my desert island picks here!

As some of you know, there was quite a bit of discussion over at the Just Another blogs (Just Another Mobile Monday and Just Another iPhone Blog) over Tweetie’s decision to charge for their latest iPhone application upgrade. They did this by creating a new application and charging for it, rather than upgrading the existing one.

Despite the fact that Tweetie had to do something kind of hacky due to the limits of the App Store, the reality is that they did what they had to. Upgrades cost money – sometimes a LOT of money – and that money has to come from somewhere.

To that end, I wrote an article dealing with this issue and talking about the situation from a developer POV. If you’d like to get the full story, check out my post over here at JAMM. It’s also my first contribution as the “Developer Perspective” author for JAMM which is kind of exciting. Also, let me know how you’d like me to handle these posts in the future – do you mind visiting JAMM to read them? Or would you rather I dual post them here and over there as well? Let me know!

If you’ve been reading our blog, nothing that you find in this Newsweek article will surprise you. What is refreshing is to see some honest-to-god journalism going on, and from a major news outlet no less. The article highlights just what a great thing the Apple App Store can be. At the same time, they take a very realistic approach to this, talking about what the reality of the App Store is for the majority of developers and highlighting what it is becoming.

The most interesting point in this area is the admission that the big boys have finally decided that mobile devices are worth their time and that they are forcing out a lot of those indie developers that dominated the top 10 lists early on.

You can read the full article here.