Warning: The App Store Is Dangerous

By Chris Maxcer
MacNewsWorld
Part of the ECT News Network
08/06/08 4:00 AM PT

The App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch is a dangerous place, writes reviewer Chris Maxcer. The layout is as familiar and intuitive as any other wing of the iTunes store, and downloading apps by the handful -- useful ones, fun ones and dumb ones alike -- is devilishly easy. Luckily, some of them are free. Still, keep an eye on your wallet.

Recently, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) App Store -- the iTunes area designed to showcase and sell independent, third-party programs for the iPhone and the iPod touch -- hit an inventory of 1,001 applications. The store launched with a little more than half that number, and in the first weekend it served up 10 million downloads.

Some reporters have likened the App Store to a candy shop, but I think it's more addictive than that. Every time I swing through to check it out, either via iTunes on my Mac or directly from my iPhone, I find myself struggling to exercise self-restraint, lest I burn through a hundred bucks without even thinking about it.

True, most applications are $9.99 or less, and more than 300 of them are free, but it's the purchase method that's troublesome: It's so easy to use, you're hardly aware that you're spending real money at all.


How It Works

The App Store is a lot like iTunes' music and movie stores, and it's set up in a similar way to showcase what's available. You can sort by all iPhone applications, all iPod touch apps, or all free applications, in addition to choosing handy categories such as books, business, entertainment, games, navigation, sports, utilities and more. Apple also showcases what's new, what's hot, and the top paid and top free apps -- almost exactly the same way it promotes music.

Buying from iTunes is a matter of clicking the Buy App or Get App (free) buttons, which will either start the download process immediately or send the app to your shopping cart in iTunes, depending on your personal iTunes settings. Apps that are downloaded via iTunes can be synced to the iPhone or iPod touch whenever you next connect to your computer.

For those who prefer to shop from the iPhone's home page, the App Store icon launches you into the App Store, which lets you sort by item, category, top 25, or your own search term. Once you find the app you want, you can download and install it immediately without connecting to your computer. It's super easy and surprisingly fast, since most games are very small in file size. Some graphic-intensive apps like the game "Super Monkey Ball," for example, ramp up a bit -- Super Monkey Ball is 32.2 MB, and Netter's Neuroscience Flash Cards comes in at 49.7 MB. For some of the store's larger applications, the user must connect to the Internet via the phone's WiFi antenna rather than through AT&T's (NYSE: T) wireless network (or just hook up to your computer).


What's Available

As of the time of this writing, Units Converter 1.1., a simple $.99 app that does what it implies -- converts values like pounds to kilograms or feet to meters -- held the No. 1 spot for paid apps. A poker game, "Texas Hold'em," has shown real staying power since the launch of the store, and is currently at No. 2. Other games like "Super Monkey Ball" and "Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart" are selling well, and these graphic-rich games use the accelerometer in the iPhone as the directional control.

Games based on the accelerometer seem at once difficult to control and yet effective all the same -- it just takes time and practice -- so an adult might need a half hour of practice to master a monkey in a ball ... but a child could figure it out in 30 seconds.

For business users, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) is offering a free app that provides iPhone access to Oracle's enterprise reporting applications, and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Latest News about Salesforce.com has its own free mobile app. Of course, both free business apps require paid services to access; but the point is, the realm of business apps will likely grow, too.

Social networkers have nearly three dozen apps to choose from, including interfaces for Facebook and MySpace . There are also interesting apps such as Loopt, which turns your iPhone into a social compass that can show your friends your location and help you find out where they are and what they're doing.

There are also apps for grocery lists, task management, secure password storage, scientific calculators, tracking sports scores and more. For adventurers, RiverGuide for Kayakers tracks real-time streamflow information in cubic feet per second throughout the United States.


Danger Lurks

There are so many interesting, useful and funny applications already available that it's just astounding. Clearly, this is just the beginning. Take the flash card application I mentioned above, for example -- with tools like that for the iPhone, anyone might be able to become a doctor. That's a bit facetious, of course, but as study aids and reference tools, the iPhone and iPod touch are blowing everything else out of the water. This is educated speculation -- just wait until Apple releases a tablet touch screen device, which would likely work with App Store applications. Let me say it again: The App Store and iPhone are just the beginning for Apple.

Still, despite all the promise of business applications, educational tools and ground-breaking utilities, the App Store is also dangerous. The dark sides are numerous and the pitfalls many -- though none have to do with Apple's delivery of the store.

I've got PhoneSaber, which turns my iPhone into a virtual light saber that uses the accelerometer to hum and buzz. Imagine how dorky Star Wars-loving iPhone owners are going to look waiting in line to see the upcoming "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" movie, which will open this month.

And then there are the productivity killers. It's one thing to play a few hands of "Texas Hold'em" poker while waiting in line at the bank; it's another thing entirely to ignore friends and family for hours while trying to win in at a virtual Vegas table. One reviewer on the iTunes store, in a review of a "South Park Imaginationland" game, noted, "I got totally focused on trying to finish the game that I caught myself playing the game for hours ... at work."

But wait, there's more: In a fit of glee, I just downloaded More Cowbell, which is a virtual cowbell that lets you tap cowbell audio in time with any song playing on your iPhone or iPod touch. It's free, luckily, and any fan of the Saturday Night Live "More Cowbell" skit with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken will download it instantly.

What's really surprising, it turns out, is how more cowbell can really enhance most any song you've got. Try it. I had no idea.