[lnichols]

I bet RIM lets them through simply to increase the total numbers in Appworld. Unfortunately numbers of apps has been made into an important number by the tech blogger world. If they ever get a lot of good apps in there then they could probably be more discriminatory, but if you look at some of the apps that got free Playbooks with the original giveaway, some were tragic jokes (PLINKO).

[anon(2692400)]

Completely agree! My free and quite neat GEOrendr app didn't even make the new apps list between all the "offline" maps and free but being charged for "book apps".

I feel bad for the companies that spend a lot of time developing an app to have it lie undiscovered and not-discoverable.

nice app, dowloaded and works nice also gave a positive review.

[mandony]

I agree:

Most of the 'books' are presently in the 'e-book' section.
The reader apps should be put in the 'utility' section.

With not much else 'important' to buzz about .. I guess this is as good a topic as any

[reeneebob]

I agree it's annoying they should have one app and allow you to download books through it. One app per book is ridiculous.

Does OS 2.0 have something in the works for that? I agree that it would be irritating - I know we have iBooks and the books are only visible there. I would think that would be something RIM would do, considering they created BBM Music...books seems a natural progression.

[anon973381]

This is a very nice app , and I have been curious for sometime maybe you can answer- what motivates developers to give away apps for free? I mean thank you , but shouldn't you request compensation for what obviously is a lot of hard work? Do you not need money, do you just do it as a hobby for fun? Are you promoting something? Do you undervalue your work? Is it for pride and notoriety? I just don't understand.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, but in some ways it does other developers a disservice when people begin to expect quality apps for free. They begin to complain when anyone charges for apps, I myself avoid paying if I can and go straight to the free section I must admit.

Great question! To be honest, I am a long time BES Admin that was annoyed with all the other mapping "solutions" for the PlayBook... So I tried out 4 different APIs for Flash to find something that would use some of the PlayBook's unique capabilities and give at least as good of an experience as folks have using an iPad.

I am satisfied now that I have an app I can use myself (updates will enable the geocoding feature in time) and share with others asking for something like it. I really wanted to place data on the map but didn't want to be relied on for the data upkeep for the ESRI API gave instant access to a library of content (like weather radar, etc.).

The good news is that because I am leveraging proven ESRI APIs they will not simply go away or stop working some day and they are free to leverage for non-commercial use. This means that the app will always be free, cannot generate revenue and all data is RAW. You may also notice that the app can only leverage GPS and Internet access, no local shared storage and no identifying information. There are no analytic components included either and it only talks to ERSI's servers.

I don't mind paying for apps in most cases to ensure there are no ads, etc. however when someone releases a great free app I see no reason not to jump on it provided there is no advertising or capturing of other data. In this case I see it as the data is ESRI's and the online content is community/government/user generated and I am just happy to make it available to us PlayBook users.

My wife has been asking me to build an app from an idea she had and maybe even charge a small fee for it... We'll see how much work it is to implement and if I have the patience.

I am contemplating writing another community data sourced app much like "Mactracker" (catalog of Apple hardware specs and other interesting information since their inception) but for RIM/BlackBerry specific products and being completely free designed solely for the PlayBook and desktops... Thinking about it and mocking up designs, many of us enthusiasts would love something like this I'm sure... If anyone has a very accurate source for this type of data I would be interested in hearing from you.

Sorry, for the long winded, off-topic... but still sort of on-topic post folks!

[reeneebob]

I am contemplating writing another community data sourced app much like "Mactracker" (catalog of Apple hardware specs and other interesting information since their inception) but for RIM/BlackBerry specific products and being completely free designed solely for the PlayBook and desktops... Thinking about it and mocking up designs, many of us enthusiasts would love something like this I'm sure... If anyone has a very accurate source for this type of data I would be interested in hearing from you.

Sorry, for the long winded, off-topic... but still sort of on-topic post folks!

Thanks for the Mactracker info - I am downloading now! Here's a page I found that may help you on the way towards a RIM one..

The History of RIM & the BlackBerry Smartphone, Part 1: The Origins - BerryReview

The History of RIM & the BlackBerry Smartphone, Part 2: The Black & White Years - BerryReview

The History of RIM & the BlackBerry Smartphone, Part 3: The Evolution Of Color - BerryReview

If I find more I will update.

EDIT

There's also this:

BlackBerry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know it's wiki, but it's pretty accurate.

The history of the BlackBerry | BBGeeks

http://blackberryplanetbook.com/inde...Device_History (that one seems really good)

[anon973381]

reeneebob, thanks! The BlackBerry Planet link seems most useful, but I am not sure of the ramifications of just taking this data...

I remember reading through these articles in the past and wishing for some type of database.

I wonder if this could be requested of RIM directly?!? A really good start would be a comprehensive list of specs, release dates, software versions, and carriers and I would think RIM would have such a thing... Weather they would share it is another thing though...

[reeneebob]

*tips the hat*

Good luck to you, sir! I doubt they would have a problem with it. I remember they used to have a timeline on their site themselves with a breakdown of all specs, about 3 years ago or so.

[blackjack93117]

Great question! To be honest, I am a long time BES Admin that was annoyed with all the other mapping "solutions" for the PlayBook... So I tried out 4 different APIs for Flash to find something that would use some of the PlayBook's unique capabilities and give at least as good of an experience as folks have using an iPad.

I am satisfied now that I have an app I can use myself (updates will enable the geocoding feature in time) and share with others asking for something like it. I really wanted to place data on the map but didn't want to be relied on for the data upkeep for the ESRI API gave instant access to a library of content (like weather radar, etc.).

Well then thanks for sharing it with us! VERY nice.

I am already finding it a lot more useful than as you say, other mapping solutions based on Google - and a LOT faster rendering. Will you be upgrading this with new features or had enough fun?

[JaredPress]

Well glad I am not alone and should probably feel free to register a complaint.

Thanks to TheProto for the cool app...keep drumming up nuggets like that and I will have to think of more stimulating conversations to strike up.

Cheers

[CrackedBarry]

If you emailed RIM about this, don't hold your breath.

I'm sure they're really upset about this... You know, pushing the apparent number of available apps up, without RIM needing to spend money or time on the problem?

Yeah, I'm sure they spend sleepless nights tossing and turning over this problem

[sivan]

If you emailed RIM about this, don't hold your breath.

I'm sure they're really upset about this... You know, pushing the apparent number of available apps up, without RIM needing to spend money or time on the problem?

Yeah, I'm sure they spend sleepless nights tossing and turning over this problem

I remember when the Palm app catalog was being spammed. Palm didn't lift a finger until they passed the 1000 apps magic number.

[FF22]

I remember when the Palm app catalog was being spammed. Palm didn't lift a finger until they passed the 1000 apps magic number.

My word, does that mean all 400,000* or so public domain books will be appearing before rim tackles this issue.

* I have no idea how many books there really are!

[skynny70]

Anyone else getting annoid by all of the books someone is releasing on App World.

I log on hoping for new apps...goood ones I mean like a descent bloody checkbook / budget app. At first glance I get my hopes up when I see a bunch of new releases only to discover all of these damn books.

If I wanted a book I would go to a bookstore and not an app store.

Would you think me a **** if I contacted app world and lodged a complaint?

I use Mobile Checkbook and really like it. It is by Mobatech and is 50% off right now. You may want to check it out if you haven't already.

[pattste]

I agree with everyone here that the ebooks are ruining the already poor App World experience. In my opinion, both AppWorld for smartphones and for the PlayBook are poorly designed and implemented. It is too easy for developers to release junk that cluthers the lists. I have complained before about the fact that theme developers can release the exact same theme in different colors or different sport teams and occupy 10 or 15 spots on the list of 25 new apps. The problem has never been acknowledged or addressed.

[thomas7918]

Anyone else getting annoid by all of the books someone is releasing on App World.

I log on hoping for new apps...goood ones I mean like a descent bloody checkbook / budget app. At first glance I get my hopes up when I see a bunch of new releases only to discover all of these damn books.

If I wanted a book I would go to a bookstore and not an app store.

Would you think me a **** if I contacted app world and lodged a complaint?

Oh how I agree!!!!!

[GlenB]

Perhaps RIM could create an eBook category or something similar. That way they still gain their increase in app count, and we can segment off all that dross!

[Bonnie Bonzai]

+1 on that. I been asking the same think. Almost feels like spam on the app world. All by the same publisher as well. They should create a main app and list all their books in that. I would probably download it. But right now i just want to boycot them.

I saw this too and wondered why they'd let one publisher flood app world with so many books. I like to buy books in a book store.

[Dylan255]

Its getting down right ridiculous for the last week or more all I keep seeing is this crap from Digital Media Apps. As other members have posted a lot of these books are already in the public domain. Seriously is there a way to flag a developer because they are really trying to make money off rights that are not there ... let's hope no crackberries have bought these books. Hopefully RIM will do something about it. It makes it difficult to find real featured and new apps.

[rockiet]

Really want to open a new thread... but there has been one.

RIM Please Tackle this! You must have discussed about this in the DevCon ,so is there a decent solution?

[Crackberrykills]

Anyone else getting annoid by all of the books someone is releasing on App World.

I log on hoping for new apps...goood ones I mean like a descent bloody checkbook / budget app. At first glance I get my hopes up when I see a bunch of new releases only to discover all of these damn books.

If I wanted a book I would go to a bookstore and not an app store.

Would you think me a **** if I contacted app world and lodged a complaint?

Totally not an arse for this. It is ridiculous. Now that the PlayBook has actual amazing apps, these books need to go. Actually, App World should get rid of those apps that have no place on the PB. These books should be the first to go.