You might be surprised at exactly how much Apple is earning from app sales.  Apple just announced last week that the 200 million iOS users have downloaded 15 billion apps.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster commented on this today stating that the average price of an app in the App Store is $1.44, or which Apple nets $0.18 after deducting the cost for credit card fees and server cost.

According to Munster, Apple has generated $538 million from app sales, and has spent $246 million on server fees.

This brings in a total net profit of just $292 million for Apple.

However, this definitely isn’t looking at the bigger picture.  As a result of the apps, both paid and free, Apple has generated billions of dollars in revenue from the sales of iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.

via BI

Back in June, Apple tooks steps to fight the jailbreaking of their devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) by enabling a jailbreak detection API.

This nasty little API would actually shut down a device that was detected as being “jailbroken”.

What is Jailbreak you ask?

It’s basically when someone goes into the device (say an iPhone) and  removes Apple’s lock on the operating system.

Once a device is jailbroken, then any software, apps, and even other operating systems such as Android, can be ran on the iPhone.

Of course, Apple wouldn’t want this because it strips the exclusivity that Apple has on the device – keeping everything with Apple’s world.

Apple disables its jailbreak detection API

In the latest iOS 4.2 software update, reports are out that Apple has now disabled their jailbreak detection API.

Which also means that jailbreaking an Apple device will now proceed unhindered.

For those of you that are trying to find some new, innovative ways to use your iPhone, iPad, or your new and improved iPod Touch, then you might just be in business. Coming by the end of this month in the United States (October 2010), is the first ever remote controlled massage chair. And when I say “remote controlled” what I mean is controlled from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Pretty cool new way to use your fancy new iPad huh?

So who’s running out to pick up this high tech massage chair?

Here’s a video just in case you want a peak:

The Netflix app for the iPhone and iPod Touch is now available in iTunes. The Netflix app is free to download, but you do need a Netflix subscription or take advantage of their free 30 day trial.

One of the most demanded iPhone apps to date has been the Netflix iPhone app. Up until now, the iPad has so far been the only beneficiary. But today Apple approved the release of the Netflix app for both the iPhone and iPod Touch.

You can access the Netflix iPhone app in iTunes by clicking here.

The Netflix iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch app is free, but you’ll need to have at least an $8.99 a month standard subscription – or you can get a free 30 day trial.

You’ll be able to watch TV shows instantly and stream movies instantly right over your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Watch as many movies as want, resume watching movies that you were watching on your TV or computer, and browse movies right from your iPhone.

You can read more about the Netflix iPhone app.

One of the hottest features of the new iPhone 4 is FaceTime (video conferencing).

It is being reported that a future iOS release (4.1 beta 3) will allow FaceTime sessions to launch by either phone or email contacts. Simply tap a contact’s phone number or email address to launch a FaceTime video conferencing session.

The implications for FaceTime connecting via an email address (or a non-phone number) is simple – FaceTime may be coming to both the iPod Touch and the iPad.

The iPad device would make a perfect video conferencing tool, and using FaceTime to connect on your iPad would be as simple as tapping a contact’s email address.

This new update is said to be available in a iOS update as early as next month.

via: BGR

The days of traditional phone calling are quickly come to an end.

The rise of social networks like Facebook are opening the doors to entirely new ways for friends to connect and communicate.

Since Facebook is a web driven platform, doesn’t it make sense that it was only a matter of time before a “call your Facebook friends” app was developed?

Introducing the Vonage Mobile App for Facebook (see the “how to” below)

Vonage Mobile for Facebook is available as a free download for any iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phone users.

The Vonage App actually shows the iPad as a device that is Coming Soon!

So does this mean that the iPad will have mobile phone capabilities for voice communication?

Anyway – that’s for another article.

To use the new Vonage Mobile App for Facebook you simply sign in with your Facebook username and see a list of Facebook friends who also have the app. Tapping a name places a call to the friend, whose phone rings. The app doesn’t need to be running on the friend’s phone for the call to go through.

“Essentially, we’ve given Facebook a voice,” said Marc Lefar, the CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp., which is based in Holmdel, N.J.

Based on test results conducted in New York City, call quality varies.

So if you download the app, make sure you understand that this is new technology and probably still rough around the edges.

How to get Vonage Mobile App for Facebook

1) Go to Vonage on Facebook (click here)

2)  iPhone® or Android OS users get a direct download link sent to your smartphone by entering your mobile number.  If you an iPod touch, iPad (coming soon) or non-U.S. mobile numbers get the app from the iTunes App Store or Android Market.

3) Follow instructions from the text message

Video from Vonage on the Vonage Mobile for Facebook app:

I’m going through the process of trying out this new app right now.

Check it out for yourself and then let us all know what you think in the comments below!

In fact, jailbreaking any iDevice (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) has not only gotten a whole lot easier, but it is now legal.

That’s right – according a new bill that passed in Congress, it is now perfectly legal to go ahead and jailbreak your iPhone or iPad device.

Yesterday, the iPad jailbreak release became available.

Today, as you might be expect, the web has been filling up with every type of “iPad jailbreak” article and video that  that you can imagine.

However, I’ve been able to find this one particular video that shows jailbreaking the ipad step by step.

Let me know what you think of the vid:

The newest jailbreak for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad, are available and compatible with iPhone OS 3.1.2, iOS 4.0.1, and pretty much every other Apple mobile OS in existence.

A couple of points about this new jailbreak that makes it more interesting than say past jailbreaks is that:

1) Jailbreaking is now legal

2) The new jailbreak is available 100% via the web

Previous jailbreak releases required you to download an app from your Mac or PC. But this newest jailbreak comes directly from the web!

To start jailbreaking your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, simply point your mobile Safari browser to:

http://jailbreakme.com

After you jailbreak your device, let us know how it goes in the comments below!

Most people don’t realize this – at least it’s not widely discussed anyway – but Apple actually has an open source web browser platform called Web Kit.

Web Kit is “an open source web browser engine. WebKit is also the name of the Mac OS X system framework version of the engine that’s used by Safari, Dashboard, Mail, and many other OS X applications. WebKit’s HTML and JavaScript code began as a branch of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE. This website is also the home of S60’s S60 WebKit development.”

According to Steve Jobs, Web Kit is the predominant web browsing platform for mobile web browsers. This is primarily because Web Kit is the open source platform that powers the Safari mobile web browsers of the iPhone and now the iPhone (and the iPod Touch too).

It’s interesting how you don’t ever hear too much about Web Kit. In fact, I would say that there is more discussion about how “closed source” Apple is, and the perception that Apple is adverse to open source projects. Yet with Web Kit, and fully open source web browsing platform, Apple is quietly leading the way in the mobile web browser war.

What do you think?

I do not, by any means, profess to know a lot about Web Kit. But I (and the readers here at Social Media SEO) would be interested to read more insight from those who are knowledgeable about Web Kit.

Here’s something that Steve Jobs should be proud of. The new Google Pacman Logo game is not built in flash which means you can play it on your iPhone, iPad, and / or your iPod Touch.

I just pulled up Google on my iPhone and of course I had to first switch to the “classic” Google view on my iPhone Safari browser.

But once I switch over to the Google classic view on my iPhone, the Google Pacman logo game fired right up.

I did not get any sound however – so maybe I did something wrong, but I couldn’t get sound to come through on my iPhone while playing the Google Logo Pacman game.

And this “no sound” issue might also be isolated only to the iPhone. Since I don’t have an iPad or an iPod Touch, I can see what happens with the sound when playing the Google Pacman game.

Google Pacman Logo is Javascript, HTML, and CSS (No Flash)

In a move that even Steve Jobs would be proud of, Google built the Pacman Logo out of Javascript, HTML, and CSS – no flash anywhere to be found.

Steve Jobs doesn’t like flash, as was obvious with the Steve Jobs ‘Thoughts on Flash’ letter.

So do you think that even Steve Jobs might have been proud of the Google Pacman Logo?

And so it continues! Google’s Pacman Logo is up for a 2nd day as Google celebrates Pacman’s 30th birthday by not only creating a Google Pacman Google Doodle logo, but by turning the Google Pacman Logo into a live game of Pacman that you can actually play.

Play 2 Players on Google Pacman

Here’s something that you may not have noticed. Where the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button used to be is not a button called “Insert Coin”. If you push the “Insert Coin” button once, the game will launch. If you push the “Insert Coin” button a second time, then Ms. Pacman will appear and you can now play simultaneously with two players!

Google Pacman Logo Not Using Flash

The other cool part of the Google Pacman Logo is that it is not using flash – only Javascript, HTML and CSS. So the Google Pacman Logo is something that even Steve Jobs would be proud of.

And since the Google Pacman Logo is not using Flash – this must mean that you can play the Google Pacman Game on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Has anyone played the Google Pacman Logo game on their iPad?

How long will Google Celebrate the Pacman 30th anniversary?

There have been several instances in the past where Google carried on for days with a Google Logo celebration.

For example, Google celebrated Sesame Stree’s 40th Anniversary with 7 days of Google logos (see all 7 Sesame Street Google Logos).

Also, for this year’s 2010 Winter Olympics, Google celebrated the Olympic games with a new Google Logo for each day. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Google decided to highlight one specific winter Olympic game with their Google Logo. And the day 2 Winter Olympic Google Logo actually saw 2 different logos because of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili incident where he died during a luge practice run.

I covered all 18 days (I think it was 18 days) of Google’s 2010 Winter Olympic Logos.

So how long exactly Google will continue on with the Pacman 30th Anniversary Logo is unknown at the moment, but since the Pacman Google Logo is the same today as it was yesterday, then I would guess that it will not be up for much longer. Perhaps through the weekend…

What do you think?

So have you played the Google Logo Pacman game yet?

Have you found any little secret golden nuggets or tricks that Google has placed in the Google Pacman game that aren’t obvious initially?

“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is scheduled to hit the theaters at the end of this month (May 2010).

Along with the new movie, Ubisoft is planning to launch an accompanying iPhone App (and iPod Touch) game into the Apple’s App Store.

According to MTV.com, Ubisoft announced the newish “Prince” title as a part of their release schedule for April to June 2010, according to a report by G4. A specific launch date didn’t appear, but that’s often the way things roll with the App Store.

When the new Prince of Persia iPhone App is released I’ll be sure to post an update here for you.

Will you be downloading the new Prince of Persia iPhone game?

Wal Mart’s strategy with Apple devices has worked in the past and continues to work to this day with the hot selling Apple iPod and iPod Touch. However it seemed to take Wal Mart quite a long time to finally bring the iPod’s to their electronic departments.

The iPad hasn’t even been available for purchase for a month yet and already Wal Mart is moving in on the iPad frenzy to get their share of the pie. And certainly there is a lot of iPad pie to go around. Just recently Apple launched the iPad internationally after having explosive sales with both the iPad and iPad 3G here in the United States.

Wal Mart Comments on Apple iPad

“We anticipate being able to have the iPad later this year,” Gary Severson, senior vice president of entertainment for Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores, said in a telephone interview. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company isn’t prepared to provide specifics on the timing and pricing of the iPad, he said.

Apple has sold more than 1 million iPads since they went on sale in the U.S. last month, making the debut more successful than the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Apple sells the device, a tablet computer that lets users read digital books and access the Internet, online and in its stores. Best Buy Co. also sells it.

Apple’s iPad Strategy vs the iPhone Strategy

I’m going to go ahead and make the prediction right now – Apple’s iPad is going to outsell the iPhone within 2 years and here’s why. Apple is suffocating their iPhone sales by allowing themselves to be roped into the AT&T exclusivity clause – meaning, AT&T is the only retailer that can sell the iPhone and provide data plans.  And since Apple is exclusive to the AT&T with the iPhone, anyone who wants to own an iPhone has to become an AT&T customer – not the top of the “to do” list for a lot of people, especially here in the United States.

And because of Apple’s obsession with AT&T, they are suffocating iPhone sales in the US. If Apple would open up the iPhone to Verizon, Apple would immediately see a doubling of their iPhone sales.

Compare that to the iPad sales strategy that Apple is employing – sell the iPad through many retailers even here in the US. The more retailers that are selling the iPad, the more iPads will be sold – it’s really that simple.

But for some perplexing reason, Apple remains hooked on AT&T with the iPhone – it’s like there’s an obsession between Apple and AT&T.

What do you think?

Do you think WalMart is going to be a huge boost to Apple’s iPad sales and bottom line?

Do you think Apple will actually give Wal Mart a reduced price on the iPad allowing them to undercut just about every other retailer on the market?

Pay With Square, Credit Card Payment for iPhone, iPad, Android (Video)

Just when you thought that mobile phones couldn’t do anything more than they are already doing, let me introduce you to Square – the first ever mobile phone credit card reader.

Square is a creation of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey who said today that its iPhone and Android applications are live, and that it has begun to ship its first wave of credit card readers.

Here’s a promo video about Square:

Square is based in San Francisco, along with his company Twitter, and they have basically created a small plastic reader that plugs directly into an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or an Android powered device. And even if you are using Square, but don’t have the small plastic device, you can still enter credit card payment information directly into the iPhone, iPad, or Android powered app.

Some other cool features of Square is that they include email and SMS receipts, photo ID system for users in order to prevent other people from swiping your credit card, and best of all Square is 100% free!

Jack Dorsey said via the Square website today:

We started in February 2009 with what we thought would be a simple task: open a merchant account to accept payment cards. This proved surprisingly difficult for us, and as we asked around, similarly challenging for countless others. Once we were approved for our account, it was unclear how much we were paying, to whom, and why it cost so much. Before us was an industry and a process in dire need of simplification.

Evolving something down to its essence isn’t easy (or instant).  In Square’s case, it requires the identification, coordination, and navigation of many massive and forward-looking organizations. Square seeks to build an amazingly beautiful experience; every pixel, piece of plastic, rate, detail, word, policy, partner, and decision is considered, debated, and improved constantly.

Today, in addition to releasing clients for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android devices, we are opening up our first cut at activating card processing and pricing, and sending out our first production batch of free card readers. All represent just the beginning of what Square is striving to become: a simple payment utility for everyone.

Here’s Jack Dorsey talking about Square:

Square’s investors and backers include Khosla Ventures, Google’s Marissa Mayer, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone, angel investor Ron Conway, Digg creator Kevin Rose, and others.

Check out and read more about Square at SquareUp.com.

CBS March Madness iPhone App

If you’re looking for the best way to experiencing the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year, then the iPhone and iPod touch might be the best way to take in all the action.  CBS released their March Madness iPhone App (opens iTunes).

The CBS March Madness iPhone app – also for the iPod Touch – only costs $9.99 from the app store.  The March Madness app is basically an on demand service that will offer live video of all 63 games, and will include news, results, team-by-team comparisons and matchups – everything you need to stay up to date with March Madness.

Check out the CBS March Madness iPhone App on iTunes.

Photos of the CBS March Madness iPhone App:

Google Mobile App will now allow iPod owners the ability to conduct voice search, local and regional searches, and experience Google as a whole, right from their iPod.

The new Google Mobile App will only work on 2nd generation iPod’s or newer.

This announcement by the major text book publishers made me think that future students, whether it be high school or college, may no longer have to lug around heavy backbacks full of text books.   Instead, everyone will just have an iPad device.

Not only with students be able to quickly access whatever textbook is needed for that particular class, but live interactive forums, videos, and other media can easily be accessed to compliment lessons!

What do you think – do you see the iPad, or some other device like Google’s new tablet concept, eventually replacing text books?

I’m particularly fond of Google Apps and have successfully converted several organizations over to the Google Apps platform.  One of the biggest advantages I’ve seen in my experience with Google Apps is the integration with mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry, and the iPod Touch.

The officers within the organizations that I’ve integrated into Google Apps now spend more time on their mobile devices checking their emails, following calendars, and staying connected through Google Apps.

The University of Delaware has taken the steps to enhance their communication and collaboration practices and according to their university website, they will be “using their UDelNet IDs (udel.edu e-mail addresses) and passwords, students can now use Google’s advanced e-mail interface, Gmail, for their University e-mail — and can also use the entire Google Apps for Education software suite.

UD Information Technologies (IT) and Google have made the new service available as a pilot program since November 2009, during which time more than 200 students have taken advantage of this opportunity. IT has now opened Google Apps @UDel.edu to any UD student who would like to move.

With just a UDelNet ID and password, a UD student can instantly use the full set of Google Applications for Education:

• Gmail – udel.edu e-mail, communicating with on- and off-campus correspondents;
• Google Calendar – organizing schedules;
• Google Docs – creating and sharing documents (formatted text, spreadsheets, presentations);
• Google Sites – creating and sharing Web pages; and
• Google Talk – communicating with others via text, voice, and video messaging.

** WARNING ** MUST BE 17 YEARS OLD TO DOWNLOAD GAME!

So if you’re above the age of 17 – which my site analytics say that you are – then you might be happy to know that the hugely popular video game Grand Theft Auto is now available on the iPhone.

The cost of the Grand Theft Auto iPhone App is only $9.99 and it’s sure to be a long term hit for the video game.  With 72 ratings already in iTunes, 66 of those ratings give the app 4 starts – that’s pretty impressive!

The new Grand Theft Auto iPhone App is only compatible with iPhone and iPod touch (2nd generation), and requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later.

Get the new Grand Theft Auto iPhone App (opens iTunes)

Here’s a video of Grand Theft Auto on the iPhone courtesy of TouchArcade.com:

To access the free service TiVo customers can simply log into their TiVo account at www.mytivo.com.au from their computer to access the online scheduling or http://m.mytivo.com.au from their mobile handset.

Robbee Minicola, chief executive of Hybrid TV commented on the launch of the new service.

“The immediacy of TiVo Genie is what makes it so appealing – we have enough to remember in our busy lives before we head out the door. If we can remove one stress it is now the one of knowing you don’t have to remember to set a recording at home before heading to the airport,” she said.

“The TiVo product just keeps getting better and more in tune with what people want in terms of content, control and convenience –always remaining simple and easy to use for the whole family.”

Minicola said that the TiVo Genie combined with the new TiVo 320 and CASPA service demonstrates how the TiVo can no longer be compared to other DVRs and has truly earned its badge of a ‘media device’.

Well much to my surprise (NOT), Microsoft is already faced with major issues with it’s Bing iPhone App.

There are 3 primary issues currently plaguing the Bing iPhone App:

1)  No search results outside the U.S.

For Bing to really become a major iPhone App player, Microsoft really has to get this thing working on a global level.  Although Microsoft claims to have search results delivered internationally, right now its a no-go.

Microsoft’s official response: “We’ve identified that the issue relates to the region the phone is set to. We’re working on a fix for this right now, and we’ll update the app in the next few days. People will get the update automatically – you won’t have to update or reinstall the app. If you are encountering this issue you can temporarily work around it by going to Settings > General > International and change your Region Format to “United States.”

2) Using voice search outside the U.S. crashes the app

Microsoft’s official response: “The Bing app officially supports 2^ndgeneration iPod Touch devices, but we’re in the process of testing those 1^st generation devices as well. We’ll announce support for that as soon as testing is complete.”

What’s crazy here is that the Bing iPhone App has voice search capabilities, but if you try to search via voice – and you’re outside of the United States – then you’ll end up crashing the iPhone App altogether.

3)  App doesn’t work on first-generation iPod Touch

Microsoft’s official response: “At this time Bing is only fully supported on the iPhone for the US; in some regions people may not be seeing results at all. While there was a brief period of which the Bing iPhone app was being offered in international markets at this time international availability has been suspended. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience and we hope to expand our support and availability of the app in other regions in future versions of the Bing app for the iPhone. If you are in the US or if you are encountering this issue and or you are looking for a  temporarily work around go to Settings > General > International and change your Region Format to “United States.”

Again, I’m continually amazed at how Microsoft, with the amount of resources and engineering brain power they have, that they continually bring sub-par products to market.  And because these products are either novice at best, or just don’t work, the web community completely destroys Microsoft’s attempts, and then the negative content begins to flow.

Oh well… let’s see what Microsoft comes up with next!

If you are a proud owner of a Mercedes-Benz AND you own an iPhone or an iPod Touch, then your life may have just gotten a whole lot easier today!

M ercedes-Benz announced today a new app where you can actually make your payment to Mercedes-Benz Financial, the loan company that provides the financing on new cars.

I found the article initially at AutoObserver.com, however, when I clicked their link to go the iTunes app store, the link appeared broken.  Then I went directly to iTunes but still couldn’t find the app.

So maybe it’s not yet available on iTunes, but it sounds like a cool app that would be useful to Mercedes-Benz owners – of which, I’m not.

I certainly understand, and I would like to add some counsel to help you attract customers, get your phones ringing, and generate sales!

Small business blogging is critical in today’s online economy.

It’s nothing new, people are plugged in via the Internet all day at work, their iPhones and Blackberry’s, their iPod Touches, laptops, and more.  People’s attention are more engage on the web today than anything else in history!

Below are 5 reasons why you, as a small business owner, needs to be blogging:

1)  Search engines rule! People turn to Google and search for businesses more than any other resource.  So it’s safe to say that the majority of your prospects today have already, or will soon be, on Google searching for your type of business, product, or service.  It’s what everyone is doing to find what they want and need.

2)  Google’s favorite appetite. If Google was a customer in a restaurant, what he (they) would order is freshly updated content.  A blog is the best tool to deliver exactly what Google wants on a daily basis – fresh content!

3)  Your competition is clueless. More than likely, your competitors – or at least the majority of them – are clueless about the ROI that can be realized from being found at the top search results in Google.  This means that if you start a business blog, and generate content on a conisistent basis, then over time you will be found everywhere your prospects are searching for you, allowing you to instantly connect to new customers.

4)  Keywords rule the day. When people type something into Google, they are using keyword phrases.  And when it comes to your customers searching for your products and services, they are using keyword phrases that define what they want / need, and what you specifically can offer.  And if you’re a local business owner, more than likely your town or city is part of that keyword phrases.

You can quickly dominate your niche market by generating keyword targeted blog postings.  Doing things like using keywords in your title, and also throughout your blog postings, will allow those pages (postings) to be presented to searchers (prospects) who are actively in search of what you offer.

5)  Consistency is key. Finally, when starting your business blog, give yourself 3 – 6 months of consistent effort – either daily, weekly, etc… – of generating high quality, informative, and helpful content using keyword phrases as I described in step 4.

Being consistent will, overtime, cause you to not only dominate your niche market, but the longer keep blogging, the more difficult it will be later when your competitors figure out what you’re doing and try to duplicate your efforts with their own business blog.

Time – and the age of a domain – is a huge variable in Google’s algorithm.  And remaining consistent over time will cause you be a powerful force in your market for a long time to come!