Welcome to the Morning Briefing for 2nd May 2012, where we highlight the tech stories from across the web that broke while you were sleeping and what we are watching here at techgeek.com.au.
Here’s what we are watching:
- Microsoft is trying to clean up the marketplace with introducing new guidelines on their development blog. Microsoft suggests that you should not use trademarks in any part of the app to avoid having it pulled, to differentiate your app icons if developing multiple apps, to keep under the 5 keyword limit for apps as developers have been abusing keywords and limiting the sex apps on the marketplace. Maybe we might see better apps on the marketplace? Chris will be happy…..
- We saw finally what BlackBerry 10 looks like – and lucky developers managed to get a device running on the Alpha version. However, it doesn’t bode well when the device you gave out has no ability to make calls, or access wireless networks. Ouch – though, we’ve woken up with them, now we know how sucky that dev product was.
- If you’re a BlackBerry developer, you could be in luck. RIM has said to developers that they guarantee that you will make $10,000 in your first year of sales. If you don’t make $10,000 then RIM will pay you the difference… How good is that? However, there is a catch… The app must pass RIM’s new stringent app certification guidelines, meaning, no crappy apps will be able to score $10,000 and the developer must make at least $1,000 on their own before RIM swoops in.
- Google Australia reported a loss. Yes, a loss – it only managed to get $3.9 million revenue in this financial year. Now-owned-by-Google Motorola Mobility also reported a $86 million loss and device shipments are also down – and remember, they exclusively produce for Android. They might be struggling to compete with Samsung, HTC and other players.
- And finally, an 11-year-old student managed to $36,000 in damages to a school. Why? He urinated on the class’s MacBook laptops. You would have thought Apple would fix it, but they won’t go anywhere near it since they think its a biological hazard – plus why would you want to fix something that has been peed on.