purchase

YouTube's spin on 'American Idol'

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Motorola will sell the Wi-Fi-only Xoom for $599.

YouTube announces YouTube Next Up, its spin on "American Idol" for the Web.

The European Union is going to revamp its 16-year-old online privacy laws.

Apple changes in-app purchase protocol so that any additional purchases require a password.

Samsung releases a new line of laptops for students and office workers.

Google updates collaboration messaging within Google Docs.

Mozilla announces that Firefox 4 will be available for download next week on March 22.

40 percent of new Angry Birds buyers doing in-app purchase

SAN FRANCISCO--It's no secret Rovio has made a small fortune off its sales of Angry Birds on the App Store (and other platforms), but there had been some question about the success of its dabbling in the in-app purchase market.

That question was answered this afternoon by Rovio's "mighty eagle" Peter Vesterbacka at the Game Developers Conference here. In a talk outlining the company's efforts to build the Angry Birds franchise beyond its humble beginnings, Vesterbacka announced that 40 percent of new Angry Birds buyers had purchased the 99-cent "mighty eagle" add-on, which … Read more

FTC looking into Apple's in-app purchasing policy

The Federal Trade Commission will review how Apple markets games with in-app purchases, but not for the reason you may think.

Apple introduced a controversial policy for developers last week when it said that it would take a 30 percent cut of revenue generated from subscription publishing apps that included in-app purchases. Apple also said it would only accept apps whose subscription offers through its iOS app are consistent with the lowest price offered by the publisher elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Justice said last week it would take a look at Apple's policy, but stopped short of … Read more

New Apple program lets schools buy apps in bulk

Apple this week launched what it calls the App Store Volume Purchase Program, which lets educational institutions buy 20 or more apps in bulk for faculty or students.

The program requires schools to designate at least one "program facilitator" to join. Upon doing so, the institution needs to buy volume vouchers worth between $100 and $10,000. Only those vouchers can be used to buy applications from the company's App Store. Applications that schools want to purchase with a credit card can only be purchased through an individual account.

Although volume purchasing might hint at discounted pricing … Read more

Playing Eliminate Pro can eliminate your money

Popular iPhone gaming developer Ngmoco released Eliminate Pro yesterday, its much-anticipated, online, first-person shooter. This well-polished "free" game features smooth looking graphics, onscreen controls that are fairly effective (no match for a controller or keyboard/mouse setup, but that's to be expected), a number of power ups to improve your weapons and armor, and five playable maps. In-game kills and winning matches earn you credits you can use to buy new weapons and armor. There are eight armor types, five weapon types, and items to buy like armor designs (skins) to give you a new look. The … Read more

Apple OKs in-app purchases for free iPhone apps

Developers of iPhone and iPod Touch applications can now enable purchases from within their freely available App Store applications.

Until now, Apple has permitted in-app sales of content, subscriptions, and digital services only for apps costing at least 99 cents.

Apple on Thursday sent the following e-mail to developers:

Considering all the drama surrounding the App Store approval process, this latest move by Apple appears to be a positive one for iPhone SDK developers, as it gives them a bit more flexibility in how they design and potentially profit from the applications they build.

We'd like to hear from … Read more

eBay for iPhone gets notifications, pay-on-phone

A new update to eBay's free iPhone application (App Store link) enables users to better keep an eye on items they're interested in buying.

Users can now opt to receive push notifications for when they've been outbid, or when an auction they're watching is close to ending. As soon as a watched item enters that threshold, the user gets a message that both alerts them and gives them a quick option to jump back to the item to make an increased bid.

The app isn't just about viewing, though; users can now use it to … Read more

Powerful invoicing program

Ezy Invoice 7 is a multifeatured program that allows users to create invoices and many other useful business documents. Although it takes some getting used to, the program's features make it worth the effort.

Ezy Invoice's creators seem to have made an extra effort to create a simple and uncluttered interface, but it seems they may have even gone too far; it is at times difficult to determine where in the interface you are. Similar-looking screens open on top of one another and it's not hard to get confused and lose your starting place. However, once the … Read more

Not quite a card replacement...yet

CardStar is a free app that's designed to help you thin out your wallet or key chain, by replacing all of your discount, reward, and membership cards with bar codes. CardStar requires some work up front, as you have to enter your identification numbers by hand for each card. The app currently supports more than 130 companies, from popular grocery and drug stores to gyms, airlines, and libraries. You can also use the app's "advanced" mode to enter cards for companies that aren't listed.

The developers behind CardStar say that the app works better with … Read more