Cody Taylor

Right now the only real “competition” to Apple’s App Store is the Android Market. Presently, anyone using an Android-based phone can download applications from the Android Market, which first started offering free applications in October. In the coming months we’re also going to see more app stores come online for additional smartphone platforms.

MojoKid writes “Right now the only real ‘competition’ to Apple’s App Store is the Android Market. Presently, anyone using an Android-based phone can download applications from the Android Market, which first started offering free applications in October ’08. A drawback to Android application developers, however, is the fact that the potential Android Market user base is fairly small right now, as there is presently only one Android phone available, the T-Mobile G1. However, in the coming months we’re also going to see more app stores come online for additional smartphone platforms. Nokia will officially launch an app store for its Symbian OS-based smartphones at Mobile World Congress on Monday. Microsoft is also getting in the game for smartphones that run the Windows Mobile OS, with Steve Ballmer delivering the keynote speech at Mobile World Congress as well.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple recently told the U.S. Copyright Office that it believes iPhone jailbreaking is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and infringes on its copyright, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Here are some whimsical predictions for Microsoft’s retail store it announced it would open soon.

Apple is making a number of changes to Apple Stores across the country, starting with the iPhone and iPod touch tables to focus on several categories of applications. The company is also supposedly planning a whole new layout for Apple Stores that will focus more on “digital lifestyle.”

rmav writes “Apple has finally made a statement about jail-breaking. They try to sell the idea that it is a copyright infringement and DMCA violation. This, despite the fact (as the linked article states) that courts have ruled that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software. I cannot help but think that the recent flood of iPhone cracked applications is responsible for this. Before that, Apple was quietly ignoring the jailbreak scene. Now, I suppose that in the future we may only install extra applications on our iPhones as ad hoc installs using the SDK, and if we want turn-by-turn directions, tethering, and the like, we have to compile these apps by ourselves? Maybe we should go and download the cydia source code and see what we can do with it.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Owners of Apple’s new unibody notebooks are experiencing backwards compatibility issues with the units’ redesigned audio jacks, which offer a snug connection for the company’s latest headphones with integrated microphones at the expense of legacy stereo headsets and speaker connectors.