Jacob Hall, Editor-in-Chief of TapSauce | APPS | 08.01.2012 @ 1:00 pm
It happened pretty quietly, but it’s official…the Facebook App Center is now officially available in every country that has access to Facebook. Sometime soon, we plan to take a closer look at this and see how it measures up to the other app stores on other platforms, but for the moment we’ll say this much: for better or worse, it looks like Facebook. That means that it’s undeniably slick and professionally designed, but also overly complicated and baffling, with no easy way of navigating or figuring out what the heck you’re doing. We’ll check in later and see what we think after some extended experimentation.
One of the problems with every app store is the sheer amount of junk everywhere you look. For every app worth your time, there are ten cheap knock-offs and a handful that exist solely to get your credit card number. As big as the app market is, the stores themselves often resemble wastelands. It’s a shame, really…and Google is tired of it. Google has updated the Google Play developer page with new policies that will help curb this problem. Highlights include stricter policies on impersonating existing apps and tighter restrictions on app’s the require your personal information. Check out the whole thing here.
Yesterday, we wrote about Apple TV finally landing Hulu Plus, positioning it as the dominant streaming device on the market. Today, we have proof that Amazon isn’t taking that lying down: their Instant Video app, previously only available on the Kindle Fire, can now be downloaded for iPad. The app gives you access to the online giant’s video library of 120,000 titles. Anyone can purchase and stream movies and television shows, but Amazon Prime members will have instant free access to all titles. Hmm, that $79 a year fee now sounds like quite the bargain…
What does it take to break the city of Los Angeles’ computer system? The 2012 Olympics, apparently. LA’s chief technology officer has requested that all city employees stop streaming the games, since the sheer amount of stress it is putting on the computer systems is “impacting city operations.” What is this? Employees choosing to BS around on the internet instead of doing work? What fresh horror is this! Hopefully, this won’t catch on. For the children.