The “fight” between would-be iOS app Readability and Apple gets ready for round two as Foursquare announces their plans to clutter up your newsfeed with a music festival’s help!
Readability resubmits amidst Jobs’ email clarification
Earlier this week we reported that potential iOS app Readability had been rejected from the App Store for attempting to circumvent the new rules requiring all apps purchased within the store to provide 30 percent of their sales to Apple (AAPL).
Well, according to Readability’s Twitter account, the app has been resubmitted along with an “appeal/explanation,” although they have not actually spoken to anyone at Apple.
While that’s hopeful news for folks who prefer their websites ad-free, if the latest post from Venture Beat is to be believed, Apple may be rethinking their original position on how this revenue sharing is enforced in the first place.
VentureBeat cites a post on MacRumors that claims Steve Jobs sent an email saying that applications that don’t involve actual “publishing content” don’t apply to the new subscription plan.
That’s great news for apps like Readability, Dropbox, and Facebook, though still probably bad news for e-magazine publishers and, potentially, game developers.
At this point, the alleged email from Jobs only serves to further muck up the waters on what was already quite a vague ruling to begin with. Hopefully clarity will be on its way sooner rather than later.
Foursquare announces SXSW Plans; is possibly run by your 14-year-old sister
Foursquare, the check-in based social networking app that people spend half of their Facebook status updates either using or complaining about, has announced some cryptic details on their plans for this year’s SXSW, one of the country’s largest music and media festivals, taking place in just a few weeks.
The “blog post,” written to the official Foursquare blog, reads like it was stolen off of a teenager’s Twitter account:
“SXSW IS LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY! NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR FOURSQUARE. DETAILS COMING. OKTHXBAI.”
Despite the fact that I may have broken up with a girl for talking like that in real life, the combination of SXSW and Foursquare could prove to be the ideal match.
TechCrunch has some thoughts on what it all means. Aside from the rather obvious bits like the new badges mentioned directly in the blog, the less concrete “parties + concerts + moar” certainly leads to some intriguing speculation.
Perhaps there will be some parties and activities where you’ll have to check-in scavenger hunt style to find out the true location? I’m sure we’ll find out soon, but the thought is certainly more exciting than the alternative of people continuing their attempts to become the mayor of the McDonalds down the street.
