PlayMesh

The FTC is reviewing Apple's in-app purchasing policy after reports of inadvertent purchases by children have continued to surface. FTC Chairperson Jon Leibowitz agreed to look closely at the matter after Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts brought the matter to his attention. Leibowitz will most likely focus on Apple's 15-minute window, a single instance sign-in that lets iOS users log in once and make additional purchases and downloads for the next 15 minutes. It is during this 15-minute window that children left unattended with a device are able to rack up huge charges. The latest such incident involving exorbitant charges by children involves the Smurf's Village app. In this incident, the child reportedly purchased berries and other items totaling a whopping US$1400. Earlier reports singled out Fishies by Playmesh, a virtual aquarium game for children. Fishies offers pearls for your tank which can cost as much as $149. Children hooked on the game and playing unattended have charged hundreds of dollars to their parents' iTunes account. Apple has combated this problem by pointing out that parents can block all in-app purchases using iOS 4's parental controls. The ability to turn off in-app purchases places the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the parents who should lock their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch before handing it over to their children. Though these parental controls may be enough to thwart any action from the FTC, Apple may also decide to limit this 15-minute window and require a password for each in-app purchase. To disable in-app purchasing on your iOS device, go to Settings > General > Restrictions and enter a passcode when asked. Then, tap on "Enable Restrictions" and scroll down to "In-App Purchases" and flick the toggle to "OFF." Read More

Update: Manton Reece points out that the issue of in-app purchases being made without challenge is probably due to the App Store's holding onto purchase authentication for a few minutes after buying or updating an app. Craig Hockenberry cites the advantages and potential pitfalls of 'communal computing' on iDevices. Several iPhone and iPad users have noticed charges totaling several hundred dollars on their iTunes accounts. At first, the issue looked to be part of the App Store's recent woes, but it appears to be linked to an app called Fishies from PlayMesh -- best known for its iFarm app. Fishies allows you to create a virtual fish tank. You can raise fish, become friends with other users and make purchases for your underwater world. The program itself is cute and colorful, therefore appealing to kids. While the app itself is free, you have to purchase in-game currency called virtual pearls. These run from 99 cents for 10 pearls to $149.99 for 1950. To do this, you need to input your iTunes account information -- though some are reporting that the app isn't prompting for this before the purchase is made. Designer Mike Rohde wrote on Friday that the app had made nearly $200 in unauthorized purchases from his iTunes account. When his son asked for permission to buy virtual pearls, Rohde turned him down and urged him to sell items to generate currency for free. When both father and son tried to do this, the program kept crashing. Later, they discovered that the app had gone ahead and purchased the pearls without any iTunes account information entered. There are other reports ranging from a 13-year-old purchasing $375 worth of virtual pearls (although in that case, the kid had Dad's iTunes credentials) to a Scottish man who had £485 ($730) disappear from his account after the program did not prompt him to enter in his iTunes information. The FIshies app itself has nearly 700 1-star comments on the App Store, many citing frequent crashes of the sort that led to inadvertent purchases. Other complaints include the inability to receive the in-game currency after purchases were authorized. As of yet, there has been no comment from PlayMesh. As of today, Fishies is not even listed among the company's games. Apple's response has been to tell customers to file a dispute with their bank or credit card company, although after Rohde called Apple's iPad Read More

Once again, we have a list of mostly iPhone games that have gone free, but we were able to discover a secret message sending app that is optimized for both the iPhone and iPad. Finger Vs. Finger ($.99 -> Free): A turn-based game with the goal of pushing all of your enemies off of the map before they do the same to you. Each game begins with your pieces and the enemy’s pieces on opposite sides of the board. You take turns firing pieces at each other in hopes of knocking the opponent’s off of the board with a nicely timed shot.  Objects such as walls, warps, and bumpers will help and hinder you in your quest. The game features three modes of play including local and online multiplayer, four difficulty levels, and 32 different stages. Finger Vs. Finger is available for free for a limited time. Sole ($1.99 -> Free): A puzzle game where you must slide marbles in order to remove them from the board. The game requires you to slide any one of the marbles on the board at other marbles in order to make them touch, which removes one from the board.  The only way you can move a marble is if it will touch another marble by sliding in one of the four directions.  If you can’t find any moves and there is still more than one marble left, you will have to start over. The game features an unlimited number of randomly generated levels, online leaderboards, and fully licensed classical music. Sole is available for free for a limited time. Friendsheep ($.99 -> Free): A multiplayer game that will have you frantically herding sheep. Two players compete head-to-head on the same device in a variety of sheep collecting games.  Each round you will be given a different task, such as collecting the most sheep or collecting sheep of s certain kind, before the other player is able to.  A four-player bonus mode is also unlockable, which makes the game even more hectic. The game features adorable hand-drawn graphics, simple but entertaining gameplay, and a variety of mini-games. Friendsheep is available for free for an undisclosed amount of time. Windows Washer ($.99 -> Free): A game that will have you cleaning windows to no end. In the game you are a window washer who must clean all of the windows on a skyscraper.  Tapping cleans the Read More

The Android Market is starting to get a nice influx of new apps. Keeping up with those apps is becoming harder with each passing day. That’s why Androinica.com highlights the latest apps shooting up the Android Market and a few apps that you may have missed each week. Want to recommend an app for an episode of Android Apps Alert? Name some of your favorite apps on Twitter with the #androidapps tag and you may see your recommendation included in future editions. Follow @androinica on Twitter and stay up with the latest Android app news. Google Gesture search (0:00 – 1:00) Google Gesture Search premiered as a Google-made Android app available only to users with Android 2.0 or higher. Donut users were fortunate enough to gain access to this new feature earlier this week as Gesture added 1.6 support. The app works as a shortcut for locating contacts, bookmarks, or apps by performing gestures. For people who have a long list of either, it provides a quick shortcut to those entries. Downloading YouTube videos is a breeze on the desktop, and Tube Downloader makes it just as easy to snatch videos on your phone. Tube Downloader makes it easy to browse video content on YouTube, DailyMotion, and Google Video. Users can preview video, gain information, download as video, or download as MP3. Link 4 is a game for anyone who has ever had the urge to play Connect 4 on their phone. Link4 supports multiplayer so users can wait in the lobby and find someone to play against. The object is to get four of the same color discs in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. There are thousands of businesses in thousands of cities in the U.S., and the Yellow Pages knows most of them. The Yellow Pages app is a great way to search and locate businesses, ranging from pizzerias to pharmacies where you can buy Pepto  Bismol to deal with all that pizza you ate. Search can be done through GPS or a specific zip code. Drop the ball into the opening before the screen catches up with you and ends the game. This is the easiest and most simple game seen since ball-in-a-cup! Read More

Aquí os dejo un listado de juegos gratis que podéis encontrar en la App Store. Algunos ya lo eran antes (y posiblemente lo sigan siendo), pero otros muchas han sido rebajadas por ser el Black Friday. Así que si os interesa alguno, aprovechad para descargarlo antes de que vuelvan a su precio original. Listado después del salto. ¿Conocéis algún otro juego que ahora se pueda descargar de manera gratuita? Comentadnoslo para poder añadirlo a la lista. Read More

Michael (Admin) | Aug 7, 2009 User rating: ( votes, average: out of 5)  Loading ... It’s been a few weeks since the last round of untested free stuff, but this one was worth the wait! Eric’s dug up a bunch of apps that look unique and really worth trying out. If the mosquito-repeller works come back and let us know!!!! Learn Chess by Tom Kerrigan: It astounds me how many people don’t know how to play chess! If you’re one of those folks you should remedy that… you never know when you’ll want to impress the neighborhood geek. Anti Mosquito Free by iPushUpCounter: There are several anti-mosquito apps that claim to play a noise that only mosquitos (and dogs?) can hear… some reviewers of this app say it’s great, others say it totally blows… CardStar by Mesa Dynamics LLC: Digitize all those annoying “club” cards you have to sort through when you go shopping How To Videos From Howcast.com: Learn how to do all kinds of oddball things and, most importantly, learn how to moonwalk Military Might by Playmesh: Run an army instead of a mafia Assassin’s Creed Altair’s Chronicles Free by Gameloft: Well it’s Gameloft so you know it’s good, but it’s also “free” from Gameloft so you know it’s short Read More