Sam OliverCiting data from San Francisco mobile media research firm Busted Loop, Forbes reported Thursday that Apple has designated 20 categories for books on its iBookstore, which will be available for download on the iPad. That number has been whittled down from about 35 categories that were listed in February.
The categories include "Fiction & Literature," "Comics & Graphic Novels," "Reference," "Romance," and "Cookbooks." The top-level categories include more than 150 sub-categories, such as "Manga" under the comics section.
Apple has also reportedly gone through and deemed some applications as compatible with the iPad as developers update their existing software on the App Store. Developers have been given the option to test iPad compatibility when they update their applications, and so far only 16,700 of the more than 140,000 applications on the App Store have been deemed compatible.
Given the fact that the Wi-Fi-only iPad lacks a GPS receiver, Apple has also flagged certain applications as "iPad Wi-Fi" and "iPad 3G." About 40 of the 16,700 certified applications are iPad 3G-only, the report said.
The report also made note of the "explicit" category that Apple temporarily enabled for the App Store. The tag was quickly removed, and one source with the company said that though the company is considering an option in the future, "It's not going to happen anytime soon."
Busted Loop found that the "Explicit" category was renamed to "Test" after it gained attention on the Internet.
As the App Store has swelled with software, Apple has worked to make combing through the tens of thousands of options simpler and easier. Last September, the Cupertino, Calif., company introduced a "Genius" system that recommends new applications to users based on the software they already have installed.
Last summer, the company also allowed developers to add keywords to applications, to make searching within the App Store easier and more accurate. Developers can enter words and characters, separated by commas, which are used in searching the store for the iPhone and iPod touch.
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20 Comments
16k apps for the iPad at its launch? While I still have a mild dislike for the AppStore as a whole I'm not fighting city hall this time.. Thats a HUGE number of Apps for a device that hasn't even hit the store shelves yet. Other tablets will have a really hard time overcoming the flood of software EXPRESSLY WRITTEN for mobile devices that the iPad will be swimming in.
YES the HP tablet will be able to run just about ANY Windows app but think about it... Those apps were not build with touch screen in mind and weren't written with any care what so ever for conserving battery life. The HP tablet will fail for this reason and this reason alone... Yea it'll work and maybe some people might like running apps that were expressly written for a conventional computer (computer, screen, keyboard + mouse) but once these folks start installing Apps they will see just how fast the battery dies. I guess they COULD keep it plugged in all the time..
Back to the apps... I'm curious.. what the 40 apps would be that 'REQUIRED' 3G in order to work (instead of simply using the faster and more reliable wifi)... 40 seems like pretty big number. Anyone wanna throw out the names of some AppStore Apps that they know for a fact demand 3G to function.
As the iPad 3G is the only one with GPS capability I think these 40 apps are all more or less using this feature...
Back to the apps... I'm curious.. what the 40 apps would be that 'REQUIRED' 3G in order to work (instead of simply using the faster and more reliable wifi)... 40 seems like pretty big number. Anyone wanna throw out the names of some AppStore Apps that they know for a fact demand 3G to function.
Follow the links in the articles.
Apple has also reportedly gone through and deemed some applications as compatible with the iPad as developers update their existing software on the App Store. Developers have been given the option to test iPad compatibility when they update their applications, and so far only 16,700 of the more than 140,000 applications on the App Store have been deemed compatible.
Does anyone thing that this sort of fragmentation of the iOS will lead to problems?
... The report also made note of the "explicit" category that Apple temporarily enabled for the App Store. ...
I just find it endlessly hilarious that to Apple (and presumably the average USA American), "Explicit" means girls in bikinis and possibly a boobie now and then, whereas most of the world would reserve such a term for hard core graphic pornography.
I mean if "explicit" is the *worst* it can get, and there are five different adult or semi-adult ratings *below* that, where exactly do you go from there? This kind of censorship is more immoral than the supposedly immoral acts we are being protected against IMO.
If we are living in a society where an app that shows pictures of women in panties (ZOMG!), is so rude it has to be banned from the store (and we are), we might as well all go Muslim and force women to walk around in black bags.