When it comes to picking up new apps, many iPhone and iPad owners rely on the reviews they get to read on iTunes. Not every app developer company offers a free version of its products, leaving consumers with the task of searching for reviews and feedback from other iPhone owners. Unfortunately, not all these reviews and positive recommendations are legitimate. While not every reviewer can be bought, there are people who will sell their souls just to get their hands on new shiny apps (and get a percentage of their sales). Developers understand the power of getting early positive reviews posted on iTunes. Some are willing to let “real users” do the job for them. Others try to buy positive reviews.

Reverb Communications, a California-based PR agency, recently got into hot water with the FTC for posting fake reviews to iTunes. The positive reviews posted looked as if they were from regular consumers. In reality, there were nothing more than paid endorsements. Reverb Communications may have settled its case with the FTC, but there is no question the issue of fake iTunes reviews is pretty widespread.

Reverb and Snitker did not disclose that they were hired to promote the games and that they often received a percentage of the sales. These facts would have been relevant to consumers who were evaluating the endorsement and deciding whether to buy the gaming applications.

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Apple just does not seem to get a break these days. iPhone 4 has plenty of issues that Apple is dealing with at the moment. Camera and antenna problems have slowed down Apple’s momentum. The company is not having its way in Europe either. In fact, it could be forced to adopt Flash on its devices or face fines and other actions. Add to it all the lawsuits that Apple will soon be facing in the U.S., and Apple could have seen much better days.

The company has had to deal with security issues in the past few weeks. First, it was AT&T being hacked and leaking sensitive account information. Then we heard about iTunes being hacked and funds being used by hackers without users’ permission. Apple now has a bigger issue on its hand. How is it that someone gets around Apple’s security measures and adds numerous bogus apps to iTunes store without being found out for a while? Apple has banned the developer and removed all those questionable apps from iTunes. But this episode raises a lot of questions about Apple’s ability to protect its customers’ data.

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A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

In 1987, Steve Jobs introduced to the world the wonderful and somewhat puzzling NeXT “Cube.” It was designed as the computer for the college student who could also afford a $6000 machine with no floppy drive.  For all of the ridicule and head scratching the machine provoked, it pioneered a number of great technologies. Perhaps the most well known of these powers every Mac and iPhone now being made today: OS-X.

One of the other less successful aspects of the NeXT episode was Jobs’ software distribution model. Considering that the Cube was meant to be a networked based system, all software distribution would be via the net (either that or via the $150 Canon “floptical” disks that would price most applications out of the reach of the demographics). Jobs’ proposed electronic means of purchasing and distribution of NeXT applications would have been pretty cool. Except for one small detail: there was no general solution for handling small secure transactions over the Internet. That is, no way to pay. His dream quickly vanished and vendors ultimately would have to sell their wares by permitting stores to copy them onto the customer’s own disks.

It would take 22 years, but finally that vision would be realized in the form of the iPhone’s App Store. It’s not bad…for a first attempt that is. But there remains a lot to be done from both the developer’s and customer’s standpoints.

For developers, managing the app and gleaning sales trends is unwieldy at best. For customers, discovering great apps is tedious and a hit-or-miss affair. Go with the safe stuff, the stuff on the top-100, and you’ll be okay. If your app is one of the 134,115 other apps not on the list, tough.

I imagine that the success of the store and the SDK caught Apple by surprise, and as such the store worked fine for small numbers of applications, but in the end proved not to be very scalable and soon started bustin’ the seams. Read the rest of article…

Apple had promised us that it was not knowingly preventing Palm Pre and other competing devices from syncing with iTunes. At the same time, the company had fired a warning shot to any other company that claimed to be compatible with iTunes. Apple has kept up its promise with the latest iTunes update (8.2.1). If Apple was going easy on Palm Pre, that’s all going to change. Apple simply doesn’t support iTunes support for the device. Here is what an Apple spokesman had to say:

iTunes 8.2.1 is a free software update that provides a number of important bug fixes. It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre.

The move is not really surprising. Palm is a competitor to Apple, and their latest ad campaign that attacks iPhone has not made Apple too happy. Palm Pre fans have been counting on iTunes to manage their device, but that is not a possibility with iTunes 8.2.1. If you are a Pre owner, you can always avoid upgrading your iTunes or use a third party hack to get the job done. But be aware that Apple is going to give the Pre a tough time in the future. So think twice before switching to Palm Pre from iPhone.

This is a very risky move by Apple. You simply get in trouble when you own a monopoly and make it look like you own a monopoly at the same time. iTunes doesn’t really have a decent set of competitors, which means it could provide Apple an unfair advantage over other devices (especially if Apple goes out of its way to disable their iTunes sync function). Palm essentially poked the bear by claiming the Pre to be better and cheaper than the iPhone, so it had coming.

Your take: should Apple be allowed to disable iTunes sync function when it comes to iPhone competitors?

The Apple rumor-mill is in full force as we hear something new everyday about what Apple is planning with Verizon. A few days ago, a lot of experts were claiming that Apple would be adding Verizon to its list of iPhone carriers in order to expand its reach. A Verizon iPhone gives a lot of folks a chance to try the gadget on their favorite network. Now, a lot of websites are reporting that Apple is planning to introduce an iPhone lite and a mediapad with Verizon. At this point, there is no reason to believe any of these rumors, but it’s interesting to think about the possibilities.

We have heard about iPhone nano for weeks now, but now it seems if an iPhone nano is introduced, it will be with Verizon. The move makes sense as Apple doesn’t seem too interested in Verizon’s rather obsolete network. The mediapad could be Apple’s answer to Amazon Kindle. There is no secret that Apple is a big picture company. Apple never solely focuses on hardware but pays more attention to building new platforms. Apple already has the iTunes store to back its mediapad up. The success of Kindle may have changed Steve Jobs’ mind about the e-book market. Still, I have trouble imagining an Apple e-book reader.

Introducing a mediapad could be an exciting development but it will be interesting to see whether Apple can keep its prices as low as Kindle. Apple’s mediapad will probably be more for entertainment purposes rather than just reading books, so technically Kindle and mediapad could co-exist. Nevertheless, there is nothing for certain at this point. We have also heard a lot about Apple netbook/tablet hybrid. At this point, we’ve got no choice but to wait.

What’s your take: what do you think Apple is planning? A netbook, a mediapad, a super iPod Touch? Please share your take here.