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Apple warns appayola-using app-makers

App Store competition can be tough, but Apple has warned the consequences of trying to game the system are tougher. Apple is reminding app-makers that using appayola services – paying to artificially inflate an app’s chart ranking – will lead to them being stripped of their ability to release apps in the App Store. In a post on Apple’s Developer website, the company said: “Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. “Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership.” The reminder appears to have come in response to a recent conversation on the forum for the mobile games site Touch Arcade. In the forum posting , an independent developer claimed to have been contacted by an ad network charging $5,000 (

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Android Market gets a Bouncer

Google has released an automated service for the Android Market to help detect malicious apps when they are uploaded. The new service – code-named Bouncer – “provides automated scanning of Android Market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android Market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process,” VP of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer wrote in a blog post . “Once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analysing it for known malware, spyware and Trojans. “It also looks for behaviours that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analysed apps to detect possible red flags.” Once scanned, if the app has been identified as malicious it will be scanned manually for confirmation.

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Facebook finally files IPO

It pays to have friends, especially as Facebook finally files its long awaited IPO. Reports have been swirling for months over Facebook’s looming IPO and it’s finally happened. The company filed initial public offering papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday evening. In the filing, Facebook, which has more than 845 million users across the globe, indicated it was seeking to raise $5 billion – making it the biggest IPO by a web company since Google in 2004 and could place the company’s value as high as $75 billion (

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Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic

Pinterest is the fastest growing referral site on the net, eclipsing the likes of YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, according to new stats released by Shareaholic. “According to our findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, Linkedin and YouTube combined,” head of marketing Janet Aronica wrote on the Shareaholic blog . The virtual pinboard lets users gather and organise things they find on the web, sharing them with other users on the site. Users can add photos to their own pinboards, as well as browse other users and discover new things based on interests including clothing, food and interior design. “Pinterest grew from 2.5 per cent of referral traffic in December to 3.6 per cent of the referrals in January. That’s impressive growth from just owning 0.17 per cent of the traffic back in July,” Aronica said. In just six months, the invite-only site has jumped ahead of Google+, MySpace, Reddit YouTube and LinkedIn – coming up against traffic driving titans like Facebook and StumbleUpon

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Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic

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Apple overtakes HP as biggest PC-maker

The late great Steve Jobs may have declared it the “post-PC era,” but Apple just became the biggest maker of personal computers in the world. Apple pulled ahead of Hewlett Packard in the fourth quarter of last year to become the largest vendor of personal computers, due in large part to the extraordinary demand for its iPad. According to a report by market research firm Canalys, Apple shipped more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Mac computers in the quarter ending 31 December 2011 – representing 17 per cent of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in Q4. The client PC market – including desktops, netbooks, notebooks and pads – grew 16 per cent year-on-year; however, take away pads from the equation and the PC market declined by 0.4 per cent. Of the other top five PC vendors, only Lenovo managed to increase its market share – growing by just two points in comparison to Apple’s six-point gain. Acer, Dell and HP all lost market share. Now the second largest PC vendor, HP was the hardest hit as the company struggles to keep up with competitors following the end of its Touchpad. “Currently, HP is pursuing a Windows strategy for its pad portfolio, producing enterprise-focused products, such as the recently launched Slate 2, until the launch of Windows 8,” said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling in the company’s official press release .

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Apple overtakes HP as biggest PC-maker

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Twitter hushing tweets country-by-country

Twitter tells the little blue bird to hush – but only in certain countries. In a sharp policy turnaround, Twitter has announced that it will now exercise the ability to withhold tweets depending on the rules and laws of specific countries. Previously, the social network had held firm to a stance of refusing to censor tweets that may contravene a country’s laws. However, until recently, the only way in which Twitter could block a tweet was to delete it across the service globally. In an official blog post yesterday, Twitter stated: “As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content. “Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally

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Twitter hushing tweets country-by-country

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The growing Android challenge to iPad supremacy

The latest figures compiled by industry analysts show that the Apple iPad’s market dominance continues for the moment – but that’s set to be challenged by the growing popularity of Android-based tablets. Strategy Analytics say that Apple sold twice as many in the last quarter of 2011 as it did in the same period in 2010. “Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, surging 150 per cent from 10.7 million in Q4 2010. Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains strong. Apple shipped a robust 15.4 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 58 per cent share during the fourth quarter of 2011″ said Peter King, Director of Strategy Analytics, in a company press release . However, Androids appear to be on the march, with their share of the global market reaching 39 per cent. A variety of companies are using Google’s OS as the basis for their products, such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and Acer’s Iconia Tab. Although not a perfect solution, utilising an ‘off-the-peg’ OS, such as Android, allows companies to reduce development time. “Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes,” added Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics

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The growing Android challenge to iPad supremacy

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Apple co-founder wishes iPhones were like Androids

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has admitted his Android-powered smartphone out muscles his iPhone much of the time. “My primary phone is the iPhone,” Wozniak said. “I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.” Though still a big fan of the iPhone, Wozniak argues Android has a better built-in navigation, and that voice commands work better on the Google-made operating system than its Cupertino counterpart. “I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer,” he said. “Now it just misses. It gives me real estate listing. I used to ask, ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ and it would answer.

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Apple co-founder wishes iPhones were like Androids

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Zappos suffers major data breach

In what’s seen as the first major cyber-attack of 2012, Amazon-owned online retailer Zappos has fallen victim to a data breach affecting as many as 24 million users. “We were recently the victim of a cyber-attack by a criminal who gained access to parts our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky,” said Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh in an email to employees. It is believed that the hacker was able to access customer names, email addresses, billing and postal addresses, phone numbers, as well as cryptographically scrambled passwords and the last four digits of customers’ credit card numbers. To combat customer data vulnerability the company said it expired and reset customers’ passwords and would be sending an email with further instructions to all 24 million of its customers. The full nature of the hacking incident is yet to be determined, but in the meantime the Zappos website is currently “not accepting international traffic ,” according to a notice on the site. The company is cooperating with U.S

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Zappos suffers major data breach

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Google sued by BT over Android OS

British Telecom has now entered the legal fray over smart phone patent infringement, lashing out at Google’s Android. The telecommunications giant is suing Google for billions of dollars over claims the Android operating system infringes on a number of its key patents, adding to the intellectual property actions already taken by Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, eBay and Gemalto against Mountain View. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for Delaware and relates to six patents, which BT said are infringed by Google Maps, Google Music, location-based advertising and Android Market products on Android. According to the lawsuit, “BT brings this action to recover the just compensation it is owed and to prevent Google from continuing to benefit from BT’s inventions without authorization.” The filing goes on to name a number of US patents BT applied for and, except for one, were granted in the 1990s, which it alleges Android is infringing on. If successful, the suit could mean Google or the mobile’s handset makers will have to pay BT royalties on each Android handset in use and that is produced. That could be expensive business – Android is currently the bestselling smartphone globally, with its handsets making up more than 40 per cent of sales and more than 40 million produced every quarter. Florian Mueller, an independent expert who closely follows international patent litigation, said: “Android already had more than enough intellectual problems anyway. Now Google faces one more large organisation that believes its rights are infringed

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