“Why is Apple so popular with scammers? Its business model gives them two ways to use stolen credit-card numbers, according to Robert Vamosi, research analyst specializing in security, fraud and risk for market research firm Javelin Strategy & Research,” White reports. “First, electronics are a hot category for thieves.”

“Of course, Apple isn’t the only company that makes or sells hardware; electronics retailers and big-box stores are also targeted by thieves,” White reports. “Wal-Mart seems to be another popular mark; security experts say overseas scammers gravitate toward it because they’re familiar with the brand name (8,000 stores in 15 countries will do that) and because of the company’s recent foray into more name-brand electronics. Domestic scammers like the Bentonville behemoth because it offers a nearly limitless variety of merchandise that can be bought with a stolen card and either resold on the street or returned for credit. Also, hardware is valuable because when thieves get their hands on the newest equipment, they can keep up their end of the arms race with banks, retailers and other developers of security features aimed at locking them out of the marketplace.”

White reports, “There’s a second reason Apple could be at risk. When professional credit-card scammers get card numbers, they don’t get just one. They get dozens or even hundreds, of which only a handful might still be valid. One of the easiest ways to test if a number has been “switched off” is to make a small, innocuous purchase. A 99-cent mp3 file of Ke$ha or Taylor Swift does the trick nicely, and the ubiquitous nature of iTunes means such a purchase is less likely to trip an automatic fraud monitor at the card’s issuer.”

Full article here.

“Simulator-only apps developed with the iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 5 can be submitted as of today for initial review. Upload your apps by 5pm, Saturday, March 27th, and the App review team will e-mail you with submission feedback about the readiness of your application for App Store distribution,” Sadun reports. “You will also receive information about submitting your apps for final review, before the iPad ships and (for most of us) before we even own hardware.”

Sadun writes, “If you’re thinking about waiting: don’t. Apple states that ‘[o]nly apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.’”

More info in the full article here.

Somebody has won a US$10,000 iTunes Store Gift Card!

We’ll let you know who won as soon as Apple announces the winner.

“The response came in an interview that senior vice president Phil Schiller gave Jenna Wortham of The New York Times,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “‘It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see,’ Mr. Schiller said.”

“‘At the end of the day, Apple has a brand to maintain,’ Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, told the Times. ‘And the bottom line is they want that image to be squeaky clean.’ Munster linked the purge to the release of the iPad tablet computer next month, which Apple plans to market for home and school use,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “But neither he nor Schiller could satisfactorily explain why thousands of apps showing bikini clad women were removed, while Playboy and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition were permitted to stay.”

Full article here.

Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider, “As Apple has officially clarified its new ban on ‘overtly sexual content’ in the App Store, one application featuring pictures of women in bikinis — to sell beachwear — found itself removed.”

“Designer swimwear retailer Simply Beach, based in the U.K., was removed from the iPhone and iPod touch App Store last Friday,” Hughes reports. “Andrew Long, managing director of Exploding Phone, the firm responsible for developing the application, spoke with AppleInsider about the situation. He said his company received the same e-mail that Apple sent to other developers, which stated ‘overtly sexual content’ was being removed from the download destination due to “numerous complaints” from customers.”

Hughes reports, “The developer has attempted to contact Apple since last Friday to no avail, but Long feels like the Simply Beach application has been wrongfully removed from the App Store, because it does not feature any sexual content. He said the store is showing off its products, some of which happen to be bikinis. The pictures, he said, are the exact same found on the Simply Beach official Web site, simplybeach.com.”

Read more in the full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“Developer ChilliFresh, creator of the ‘Wobble iBoobs’ application removed from the App Store last week due to ‘numerous complaints’ from users, claimed that a discussion with Apple revealed the company removed more than 5,000 offending applications from the App Store,” Marsal reports. “The total number of removed applications is said to have amounted to roughly 3 percent of the entire App Store.”

Marsal reports, “ChilliFresh claimed that an Apple representative said images of both women and men in bikinis are inappropriate, as are words that have a sexual connotation. Apple allegedly is not allowing applications that can be ‘sexually arousing,’ or that imply sexual content.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

• Armenia

• Botswana

• Bulgaria

• Jordan

• Kenya

• Macedonia

• Madagascar

• Mali

• Mauritius

• Niger

• Senega

• Tunisia

• Uganda

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

Motorola

“Called iDroid, the app has only one function, which is to imitate the glowing red eye of the Droid while linking to promotional material,” MacNN reports. “Unlike some other more prominent rejections, the iDroid case is believed to be clear-cut, since the app promotes” Verizon’s latest pretend iPhone.

MacNN theorizes that the app is just “a simple attempt at gaining publicity, much in the way that groups like PETA rely on controversy from banned TV ads.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews