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Another groovy Record Store Day

If you still buy music in a physical format, Record Store Day is for you. Stores stock special releases and have sales on LPs and CDs, so if you're lucky enough to live near a record shop, drop by on Saturday and see what's up. Check the RSD Web site to find participating stores, and touch some (physical) music.

Here in NYC, two of my favorite shops, Downtown Music Gallery and In Living Stereo, are pulling out all the stops. Downtown's Bruce Lee Gallanter and Manny Maris are two of the guys I count on for their … Read more

Apple named in Chinese porn probe

Apple is again in the crosshairs of the Chinese government.

The iPhone maker has turned up on a list of companies being investigated in China over allegedly offering pornographic material through their Web sites or app stores, The Wall Street Journal said today.

Apple isn't highlighted in the story from the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's Communist Party. Rather, it's just one of many companies named in the probe. In total, the investigation is looking at 198 Web sites and several app stores beyond Apple's.

Based solely on a rough Google-translated version of the People's Daily piece, … Read more

AppGratis tries petition to shame Apple on app removal

Facing what appears to be an indefinite ban of its software from Apple's App Store, French app discovery service AppGratis is trying to make a case for itself with an Internet petition.

A new page that went up over the weekend gives users a special e-mail address to send their pleas to if they want to "save" the company. So far, the initiative has accumulated more than 608,000 such messages, according to the page's official tally.

AppGratis was removed from Apple's App Store earlier this month. The software would alert users to a daily … Read more

Store Master 2.7 Review

If you've been to a small shop or corner store lately, you might have seen a manager or owner toting around an iPad. There's good reason for this, as the compact devices make perfect mobile computers to track inventory, ring up sales, and manage staff and resources. Store Master is designed to make this process even simpler; but with so many tools and features, it might profit from more user guidance.

Store Master, at first glance, is overwhelming. The developers have crammed so many features into the app that the learning curve can be pretty steep upon first … Read more

Digital comic not banned over gay sex images, says iOS app publisher

Note: This story was originally published at 8:57 a.m. PT under the headline "Apple bans digital comic over gay sex images, say its creators." It was republished at 11:55 a.m. PT with new information from Comixology about the root cause of the holdup in the comic's availability and a new headline to reflect that change in the story.

The ban on the latest issue of the digital comic "Saga" was apparently due to confusion over Apple's policies and not its images portraying gay sex. At least, that's the word … Read more

Deletion of Apple's AppGratis a sign of things to come -- report

It looks like AppGratis might not be the last app-discovery application to be removed from Apple's App Store.

Apple is planning to remove several app-discovery programs currently available in its App Store on the same grounds that it removed AppGratis, All Things Digital is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of Apple's plans. The site's sources say that Apple is worried that app-discovery applications that help promote programs from other developers threaten the App Store's rankings.

AppGratis was removed from the App Store last week in a move that shocked Simon Dalwat, chief executive at AppGratis. … Read more

Get the redesigned Google Play store app right now

Today Google announced a redesigned Play store app for Android users running Android 2.2 and above.

The redesign will begin showing up for users over the coming weeks, but if you're the type who doesn't like to wait, you can download and install the update yourself.

We knew it would only be a matter of time before the update was posted for all to enjoy, and thanks to Droid Life, you're a few seconds away from looking at the new Play store on your Android device.

Head on over to this post and follow one of … Read more

Yanked iOS app AppGratis: We're 'far from finished'

AppGratis, an app-giveaway service that Apple removed from its stores last week, posted its side of the story this morning, noting that it has tried vehemently to make its app available again.

"I'm still in absolute shock as to what is happening to us," Simon Dawlat, the company's CEO, wrote in a blog post.

In a missive that breaks down the company's storied communication with Apple, Dawlat noted that AppGratis had dealt with rejections of its app before but was able to make changes to get them approved.

The company's version of the service … Read more

Google axes UDID support with updated SDK for AdMob

Google released an AdMob SDK for iOS developers today that completes its transition away from allowing apps access to Unique Device Identifiers, weeks before Apple's official deadline for retiring the system.

UDIDs are the unique string of numbers that individually identifies each cellular device. Typically, they have been used by developers to track app installations across Apple's user base. Tracking users lets companies tailor advertising to each individual, but it also raises a host of privacy concerns.

In response to those concerns, Apple announced last month that, as of May 1, it would no longer accept new apps or app updates … Read more