99,980 too many if you ask me.

iPhone app gold rush, officially ends.

Wow, the rush of people to this thread tells me exactly how much people care. Even the fanbois don't really give a damn about this.

100,000... and yet I've made it this far in life with 0 of them.

Yeah, something like 80% of iPhone apps have a userbase of basically 1 person (the person who created it, I bet).

So the new droid phone with 10,000 apps isn't really at a disadvantage because of the number of apps available...

GanjSmokr: Wow, the rush of people to this thread tells me exactly how much people care. Even the fanbois don't really give a damn about this.

I think most reasonable people know that of those 100,000, there are a handful that are at least mildly useful. And of those, only some are reasonably priced.

The rest is a glut of garbage. And sometimes expensive garbage. Take for example the app Wobble. You load any picture you want in it, and place spheres over parts of the photo to distort that area based on the motion of the phone. Translation: Boobie jiggling app. And you get to pay $5 for this privileged.

Grither: So the new droid phone with 10,000 apps isn't really at a disadvantage because of the number of apps available...

Just about any decent app you can think of for the iPhone has an equivalent on Android.

I started a company that sells iPhone apps not too long ago, there's still money to be made for moderately decent and amusing apps -- though we're still getting started and not quite at the "omg quit my job it's easy street" level Shameless Plug (new window)

Grither: So the new droid phone with 10,000 apps isn't really at a disadvantage because of the number of apps available...

I would call the smaller app base a benefit. Less crap to weed through. With 10K apps the useful stuff will be covered.

farkeruk: Grither: So the new droid phone with 10,000 apps isn't really at a disadvantage because of the number of apps available...

Just about any decent app you can think of for the iPhone has an equivalent on Android.

I'll attest to that during my run with the G1. Big name apps either go cross platform or have an equivalent. The new Google Maps on the Android 2.0 platform is especially nice. Free turn by turn navigation vs. the $100 or so apps for the iphone.

farkeruk: Grither: So the new droid phone with 10,000 apps isn't really at a disadvantage because of the number of apps available...

Just about any decent app you can think of for the iPhone has an equivalent on Android.

Tweetie, Fieldrunners, USAA insurance/banking, PDXBus, NPR News, Beer Signal and GDSwarm all have Android versions?

Sooo... still blocking that GoogleVoice app? Awesome. This is just one of the many reasons I'll not be renewing my AT&T contract next year.

error 303: Sooo... still blocking that GoogleVoice app? Awesome. This is just one of the many reasons I'll not be renewing my AT&T contract next year.

That's the reason I shamelessly jailbroke my iPhone. It's not as nice as Google's ap, But GV for iPhone works decently.

error 303: Sooo... still blocking that GoogleVoice app? Awesome. This is just one of the many reasons I'll not be renewing my AT&T contract next year.

google voice is awesome, I am going to drop my text message plan completely and just use that. The rest of the program is quite nice (using it on a Blackberry)

MightyPez: error 303: Sooo... still blocking that GoogleVoice app? Awesome. This is just one of the many reasons I'll not be renewing my AT&T contract next year.

That's the reason I shamelessly jailbroke my iPhone. It's not as nice as Google's ap, But GV for iPhone works decently.

I got my GV invite and added GV for iPhone the day before they killed it - certainly good enough, but has enough rough edges that an official app would be very welcome.

I really like the NPR app.

How many of the 99,999 apps are literally identical clones of the same thing? I think there are at least 2,000 "Light" apps.

Treygreen13: How many of the 99,999 apps are literally identical clones of the same thing? I think there are at least 2,000 "Light" apps.

I dunno, how many FTP or SSH clients are there for Linux? Just because someone makes one doesn't mean that no one ever has to make another one. Competition breeds innovation.

Android may have 10,000 apps, but it doesn't yet have the competition among apps to produce a number of really good ones. Just because you have a Twitter app doesn't mean it's as good as Tweetie. Any old tower defense game isn't as good as FieldRunners. The iPhone app store takes a lot of heat for the innumerable light apps and iFart apps, but there are some incredibly well-done and useful apps in the store, too.

Hender: Treygreen13: How many of the 99,999 apps are literally identical clones of the same thing? I think there are at least 2,000 "Light" apps.

I dunno, how many FTP or SSH clients are there for Linux? Just because someone makes one doesn't mean that no one ever has to make another one. Competition breeds innovation.

Android may have 10,000 apps, but it doesn't yet have the competition among apps to produce a number of really good ones. Just because you have a Twitter app doesn't mean it's as good as Tweetie. Any old tower defense game isn't as good as FieldRunners. The iPhone app store takes a lot of heat for the innumerable light apps and iFart apps, but there are some incredibly well-done and useful apps in the store, too.

Then we should have a story about how many great apps there are, then. Having a large number of apps that fulfill the same function over and over and over and over doesn't warrant praise, at least from me.

I suppose for your analogy, somebody would have to have posted an article saying, "Finally, there are 10,000 FTP clients for Linux". Of course, nobody does that because nobody gives a damn.

Hender: Tweetie, Fieldrunners, USAA insurance/banking, PDXBus, NPR News, Beer Signal and GDSwarm all have Android versions?

There's Twidroid as a twitter client.
Fieldrunners? Doubt it.
USAA? Looks like it
PDXNet? Portland Transit or TriMet Android App
NPR News? Apparantly under development using the API. But don't quote me on that.
Beer Signal? Well, Google Maps + Google Chat + Latitude gets close
GD Swarm? No

You got ShopSavvy? Documents To Go? 3rd Party tethering? What I mean is that apps with quite broad coverage are generally covered. It is weak on games, but this should get better when Flash arrives...

And yet it's been nearly three months since Trillian for iPhone was submitted, and they have yet to hear back from Apple. All their requests for information just get form letters in return.

Treygreen13: Then we should have a story about how many great apps there are, then.

Apple highlights them with their ads. :)

But seriously, there are app review sites and subsites of places like Ars Technica, Engadget and Gizmodo that review good apps all the time. The fact that there are now 100,000 apps just means to me that I've seen or used perhaps 0.0001% of them.

Apple's trumpeting of 100,000 apps is just to trumpet how many developers they have coding for their platform. I think that's a pretty good metric to use in some situations.

farkeruk: You got ShopSavvy? Documents To Go? 3rd Party tethering?

There's an app selling well right now called RedLaser that does barcode scanning and price comparisons. Is that what ShopSavvy does?

There is a native Documents to Go app for the iPhone.

Tethering seems to be limited entirely by AT&T. I don't care anyway--I have a gen 1 that would be pointless to tether.

VonAether: And yet it's been nearly three months since Trillian for iPhone was submitted, and they have yet to hear back from Apple. All their requests for information just get form letters in return.

I think everyone agrees that Apple's app store approval process is still in need of some work.

Hender: Treygreen13: Then we should have a story about how many great apps there are, then.

Apple highlights them with their ads. :)

But seriously, there are app review sites and subsites of places like Ars Technica, Engadget and Gizmodo that review good apps all the time. The fact that there are now 100,000 apps just means to me that I've seen or used perhaps 0.0001% of them.

Apple's trumpeting of 100,000 apps is just to trumpet how many developers they have coding for their platform. I think that's a pretty good metric to use in some situations.

If the ones they showcase on their ads are the good ones, then you have about 25 good apps, and 99,975 wastes of data.

Well, I'm not impressed with the sheer volume, and if I have to go to an outside source to figure out which ones are good, then there are way, way too many.

Having 100,000 apps is just too many for there to be approved for a platform, especially considering so many reported problems getting legitimate apps approved.

Treygreen13: Hender: Treygreen13: Then we should have a story about how many great apps there are, then.

Apple highlights them with their ads. :)

But seriously, there are app review sites and subsites of places like Ars Technica, Engadget and Gizmodo that review good apps all the time. The fact that there are now 100,000 apps just means to me that I've seen or used perhaps 0.0001% of them.

Apple's trumpeting of 100,000 apps is just to trumpet how many developers they have coding for their platform. I think that's a pretty good metric to use in some situations.

If the ones they showcase on their ads are the good ones, then you have about 25 good apps, and 99,975 wastes of data.

Well, I'm not impressed with the sheer volume, and if I have to go to an outside source to figure out which ones are good, then there are way, way too many.

Having 100,000 apps is just too many for there to be approved for a platform, especially considering so many reported problems getting legitimate apps approved.

Do you feel the same way about video games, movies, and news articles?

Just wondering where you draw the line of too many.

The_Six_Fingered_Man: Treygreen13: Hender: Treygreen13: Then we should have a story about how many great apps there are, then.

Apple highlights them with their ads. :)

But seriously, there are app review sites and subsites of places like Ars Technica, Engadget and Gizmodo that review good apps all the time. The fact that there are now 100,000 apps just means to me that I've seen or used perhaps 0.0001% of them.

Apple's trumpeting of 100,000 apps is just to trumpet how many developers they have coding for their platform. I think that's a pretty good metric to use in some situations.

If the ones they showcase on their ads are the good ones, then you have about 25 good apps, and 99,975 wastes of data.

Well, I'm not impressed with the sheer volume, and if I have to go to an outside source to figure out which ones are good, then there are way, way too many.

Having 100,000 apps is just too many for there to be approved for a platform, especially considering so many reported problems getting legitimate apps approved.

Do you feel the same way about video games, movies, and news articles?

Just wondering where you draw the line of too many.

I don't come here to find out what news articles are "good", I come here for the headlines. Nobody markets Fark by saying "We have 60,000 submissions a day!" or "Fark just crossed the 1 billionth headline submission mark".

Part of the problem of the "outside site" issue for iPhone apps is that when I look at the app store, there are a thousand user reviews of the most popular apps, and the first 185 are "this is good my sister likes it lol".

Treygreen13: I don't come here to find out what news articles are "good", I come here for the headlines. Nobody markets Fark by saying "We have 60,000 submissions a day!" or "Fark just crossed the 1 billionth headline submission mark".

That is why I am not a TFer

Treygreen13: Part of the problem of the "outside site" issue for iPhone apps is that when I look at the app store, there are a thousand user reviews of the most popular apps, and the first 185 are "this is good my sister likes it lol".

That's the problem of any store--weeding through user reviews. NewEgg, Amazon.com and other retailers are constantly having to deal with this. I guess it just depends on whether you use the user reviews on a product page as your primary source of information about a product or a secondary source.

Hender: Treygreen13: Part of the problem of the "outside site" issue for iPhone apps is that when I look at the app store, there are a thousand user reviews of the most popular apps, and the first 185 are "this is good my sister likes it lol".

That's the problem of any store--weeding through user reviews. NewEgg, Amazon.com and other retailers are constantly having to deal with this. I guess it just depends on whether you use the user reviews on a product page as your primary source of information about a product or a secondary source.

The store has an approval process for user reviews to go through. I know, I have submitted user reviews to iTunes before. However, it is a farce. They basically just ensure that you don't write "fark you fark your mom" as your review, but other than that I'm shocked that they even bother to have a process, considering how poor the quality of the reviews that get published are.

They could take the time to weed out all the terrible reviews and only publish the informative ones, but they don't. Instead, they publish basically everything and make the user go through other outside sources to find out what is good. If they just went an extra step, the app store would be very user-friendly and nobody else would profit off their apps.

The same problem extends into the Apps themselves. They could take a look at the new App, "iPod Light Lite EXTREME VERSION iphone light" and say, "Hmm, you know, we already have sixteen hundred identical apps, maybe we shouldn't approve this one". Yet, it is approved and added to the stack of useless apps.

That, Hender, is the reason I'm not impressed by the sheer volume of available apps. I'm going to generously say that 3% of the apps out there are useful, not a direct copy of another app, not a "Lite" copy of another app, or serve any purpose other than to be similar to another app out there.

Is there a smug-blocker app yet?

Treygreen13: The same problem extends into the Apps themselves. They could take a look at the new App, "iPod Light Lite EXTREME VERSION iphone light" and say, "Hmm, you know, we already have sixteen hundred identical apps, maybe we shouldn't approve this one". Yet, it is approved and added to the stack of useless apps.

Apple made it perfectly clear when they debuted the app store that they were not going to allow specific types of apps and allow everything else. Apple should not be the gatekeeper based on quality--consumers should.

Treygreen13: That, Hender, is the reason I'm not impressed by the sheer volume of available apps. I'm going to generously say that 3% of the apps out there are useful, not a direct copy of another app, not a "Lite" copy of another app, or serve any purpose other than to be similar to another app out there.

I agree that there's a lot of crap in the store, and that there are some hurdles Apple needs to jump soon. The whole "lite" problem that clogs up the store is because Apple doesn't have a way for a developer to do a demo of the full app, but I've seen some interesting ways around this in some new apps. With Apple's in-app purchasing they added with iPhone OS v3, some developers have been giving away the app and only providing limited functionality until you buy the whole thing. Not a bad workaround.

But my opinion is at the end of the day, I'm more glad that it exists, problems and all, than doesn't.

Hender: Treygreen13: The same problem extends into the Apps themselves. They could take a look at the new App, "iPod Light Lite EXTREME VERSION iphone light" and say, "Hmm, you know, we already have sixteen hundred identical apps, maybe we shouldn't approve this one". Yet, it is approved and added to the stack of useless apps.

Apple made it perfectly clear when they debuted the app store that they were not going to allow specific types of apps and allow everything else. Apple should not be the gatekeeper based on quality--consumers should.

Treygreen13: That, Hender, is the reason I'm not impressed by the sheer volume of available apps. I'm going to generously say that 3% of the apps out there are useful, not a direct copy of another app, not a "Lite" copy of another app, or serve any purpose other than to be similar to another app out there.

I agree that there's a lot of crap in the store, and that there are some hurdles Apple needs to jump soon. The whole "lite" problem that clogs up the store is because Apple doesn't have a way for a developer to do a demo of the full app, but I've seen some interesting ways around this in some new apps. With Apple's in-app purchasing they added with iPhone OS v3, some developers have been giving away the app and only providing limited functionality until you buy the whole thing. Not a bad workaround.

But my opinion is at the end of the day, I'm more glad that it exists, problems and all, than doesn't.

I'll agree that I'm glad the iPod exists, and that the apps exist. I just think Apple should be the gatekeeper, even though they have made it clear they won't.

I have an iPod, and I look through the apps occasionally. I have a few apps, have written a few reviews, but I generally find that there is just too much of everything in the app store.

Check out "molecules". 3d rendering of proteins and shiat. Cool stuff. And free!

/coworker wrote it

Microsoft just countered. Windows 7 passed the 100,000 virus barrier. This is because Windows operating systems are substandard pieces of software. They cannot compare with the reliability and stability of OS X Snow Leopard.

- Mike_LowELL
TotalFark Member
Proud owner of Apple hardware and software.
Owner of three shares in Starbucks, currently worth 57.63 dollars.

Hender: The fact that there are now 100,000 apps just means to me that I've seen or used perhaps 0.0001% of them.

100,000 x 0.0001% same as:
100,000 x 0.000001 equals:
0.1 app

How do you buy 0.1 app?

You Die!: How do you buy 0.1 app?

With a math FAIL. There's an app for that.

I don't think Android will have one of these anytime soon:
Link (new window)

Thanks to my 45-day return policy for being a preferred customer with a big-box store, I took my 3rd-gen iPod touch 32GB back and got a refund, and with the refund I picked up this:


The GP2X Wiz.

It's an open system that runs Flash, functions as a PMP, and also has native support for a variety of console & arcade emulators. If you're a gamer, it beats the holy hell out of the app store.

On top of that, I'm using the remaining dough to grab a PSP again, and that will provide the mobile web browsing and newer games that the Wiz doesn't emulate (yet).

I liked the iPod touch, but I was getting sick of being beholden to Apple... I dropped my Mac this year, and I figured I might as well go all the way, and skip the whole "buy the newest Apple device" thing this time.

I love the Wiz. It's an awesome little device. It handles anything from Atari 2600 to PSX (although PSX is in early stages; They're still working on it). The touch screen lets me do DOSbox gaming with a mouse-like interface. The standard D-Pad plus 8-button (yes, those are four separate buttons in a cross shape, not a second D-Pad) layout works for just about anything prior to N64 (which had 9 buttons, an D-pad, and an analog stick!) It supports SD cards up to 32GB (until they update firmware to handle more) and has 1GB storage built-in. It has way more system RAM than the Dingoo A320, faster processor, and OpenGL capabilities. The OLED screen is gorgeous, too.

iPod touch just doesn't appeal, anymore.

/Dingoo's cool too
//No point unlocking the PSP when the Wiz handles homebrew without having to fight with Sony.
///Besides, PSP is less powerful than the Wiz.

ZeroCorpse: Thanks to my 45-day return policy for being a preferred customer with a big-box store, I took my 3rd-gen iPod touch 32GB back and got a refund, and with the refund I picked up this:


The GP2X Wiz.

It's an open system that runs Flash, functions as a PMP, and also has native support for a variety of console & arcade emulators. If you're a gamer, it beats the holy hell out of the app store.

On top of that, I'm using the remaining dough to grab a PSP again, and that will provide the mobile web browsing and newer games that the Wiz doesn't emulate (yet).

I liked the iPod touch, but I was getting sick of being beholden to Apple... I dropped my Mac this year, and I figured I might as well go all the way, and skip the whole "buy the newest Apple device" thing this time.

I love the Wiz. It's an awesome little device. It handles anything from Atari 2600 to PSX (although PSX is in early stages; They're still working on it). The touch screen lets me do DOSbox gaming with a mouse-like interface. The standard D-Pad plus 8-button (yes, those are four separate buttons in a cross shape, not a second D-Pad) layout works for just about anything prior to N64 (which had 9 buttons, an D-pad, and an analog stick!) It supports SD cards up to 32GB (until they update firmware to handle more) and has 1GB storage built-in. It has way more system RAM than the Dingoo A320, faster processor, and OpenGL capabilities. The OLED screen is gorgeous, too.

iPod touch just doesn't appeal, anymore.

/Dingoo's cool too
//No point unlocking the PSP when the Wiz handles homebrew without having to fight with Sony.
///Besides, PSP is less powerful than the Wiz.

Preliminary PSX support? Nifty.
No Sega Saturn, 32x, Turbo-grafx CD, NeoGeoCD, 3D0, CDi or Sega CD support? FAIL.
/Being a PC/Sega/Microsoft gamer: DO NOT WANT.

So many apps that hardly anyone will bother to sort thru them.
Half assed left handed amateur scripts that waste time and do nothing.

Also, Linux, their software center choices include lots of toilet paper apps. that don't work, so many its a drag to sort thru them.
and the damned Gimp....

to be fair, there are some pretty silly FF apps/plugins.

I'm glad this hasn't happened to windows,
gonna write them about this just to be sure.

Mike_LowELL: Microsoft just countered. Windows 7 passed the 100,000 virus barrier. This is because Windows operating systems are substandard pieces of software. They cannot compare with the reliability and stability of OS X Snow Leopard.

- Mike_LowELL
TotalFark Member
Proud owner of Apple hardware and software.
Owner of three shares in Starbucks, currently worth 57.63 dollars.

Wow, you said that like you think someone here cares what you have to say.

Well done!

GanjSmokr: Wow, you said that like you think someone here cares what you have to say.

Well done!

In all honesty I cared. Now I know who the top runner is for biggest douche in the universe. Keep it up, Mike_LowELL! We're all rooting for you!

Actually, the article and news announcement is somewhat inaccurate- there's actually only about 97,000 apps actually available- there have been over 100k approved, but 3-4k have been pulled for one reason or another. And despite being a big fan of the devices and apps in general (I co-host a weekly iPhone app podcast after all...), I'll readily agree there is a boatload (several, actually) of crappy, pointless, and redundant apps. There's far too many individual apps for travel info on individual cities- from like a dozen different companies. Despite there being a number of good readers, there's still several dozen book released as their own standalone app every day. And, of course, there are scores of flashlight, fart, lighter, fake phone call, etc. apps.

But, there's also some really impressive apps coming out- it's like panning for gold to a decent extent- you have to sift through a whole lot of dirt & crap to find gold. Usually you find a few specks of gold dust, sometimes you find some impressive nuggets. For example, there was a very impressive and well-done online FPS game, Eliminate Pro, released this last week- and it's free (though they do have a lot you can and will probably want to buy as in-app purchases). And sometimes having a lot of one kind of app is good since it spawns competition- Twitter apps are a good example of this, the considerable selection of them means the devs have had to innovate and improve to stand out.

I do definitely wish it were easier to find the good stuff- having to spend an hour or so each day just skimming the apps released- not even accounting for time looking at the ones that stand out- is definitely time I'd love to have for doing other stuff...

Ashyukun: I do definitely wish it were easier to find the good stuff- having to spend an hour or so each day just skimming the apps released- not even accounting for time looking at the ones that stand out- is definitely time I'd love to have for doing other stuff...

Funny how we managed finding decent and useful apps and games for our Palm and WinCE PDAs years before there even was an iPhone.

100,000 apps and yet, there still isn't an app that prevents my friends from taking it out at a bar, setting it in the middle of the table and touching every 2 minutes so the light turns on in hopes that somebody will notice that they have an iPhone.

I don't think they should be calling most of those "apps". That seems misleading... oh wait...

Ashyukun 2009-11-05 10:45:27 AM
I do definitely wish it were easier to find the good stuff- having to spend an hour or so each day just skimming the apps released- not even accounting for time looking at the ones that stand out- is definitely time I'd love to have for doing other stuff..."


// how much is your time worth? $25.oo per hour? $50.oo?

Then an app that took 2 hrs to locate, deploy, uninstal, try another.. finally, after 2 & 1/2 hrs... it is kinda ok, but you suspect it will be uninst. in a week, because its running all the time & phones home too much.
or just wait till the next update borks it.

That 9.10 'buntu ?
after almost 2 full days...whew!
you paid 200 - 400 $ for that OS & it still needs work.
and, you suspect it will be uninst in about a month.

Jedekai: Preliminary PSX support? Nifty.
No Sega Saturn, 32x, Turbo-grafx CD, NeoGeoCD, 3D0, CDi or Sega CD support? FAIL.
/Being a PC/Sega/Microsoft gamer: DO NOT WANT.


It has NeoGeoCD, TurboGrafx CD, and Sega CD support.

Nobody's bothering with 32X because all the 32X games are available elsewhere, in better form, without the need for weird coding.

3DO and Sega Saturn are both entirely possible, but no emulator has shown up for them yet on the Wiz. It's a matter of time, though.

And why the hell would you WANT CDi games?!?! Oh, well, to each their own, I guess. I'm sure you could find most of the same games on other systems.

Here's what it can do right now:

Arcade CPS1 / CPS2,
Arcade MAME
Arcade FinalBurn (Capcom arcade titles)
Atari 2600, 5200, 7800
Atari 800
Atari ST
Commodore Amiga
Amstrad CPC
Commodore C64, C128, C4++, PET
DOSbox (Warcraft, Doom, Quake 1, Quake 2 all working)
MSX
TI-99/4A
ZX Spectrum
Colecovision
GameBoy/GameBoy Color
GameBoy Advance
Genesis / Megadrive
Sega CD / Mega CD
NeoGeo
NeoGeo CD
NeoGeo Pocket
Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom
TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine
TurboCD / SuperCD (all varieties)
PlayStation 1 (limited, work in progress)
SNES / Super Famicom
Vectrex
Flash 8
ScummVM (LucasArts games)
The Ur-Quan Masters (Direct Wiz port of Star Control II)

So no; There's no N64, Saturn, PS2, or later consoles at this point. Anything that requires dual-analog sticks would be pretty hard to emulate on ANY portable aside from the thus-far-nonexistent Pandora, and things like Saturn are limited only by the scene's developers, as the Wiz has the hardware to handle it. I'd love to see 3DO get on there, myself, as there were some unique games on that console that might be fun as portables.

When you consider that the Wiz hit the streets about five months ago, that's a pretty impressive list of emulators.