legal stuff

Despite Apple's best efforts to maintain the App Store's position as the only way to get 3rd party apps on the iPhone, they may soon have some competition. While Cydia started off as just a way to distribute apps rejected by Apple, the creator, Jay Freeman, says he plans to start an App Store of his own, and he's not the only one. Two other App Store competitors have popped up out of the woodwork. One called Rock Your Phone for users who haven't hacked their iPhones, and another to offer what even Cydia won't sell– apps with adult themes.

In a rare turn of events, the antitrust lawsuit filed against Apple and AT&T a year ago will run it's course having not been dismissed by the judge. Judge James Ware of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has denied a motion from Apple and AT&T to dismiss the claim.

The lawsuit filed against Apple back in July of 2007 accusing them of not properly informing users of the iPhone's non-replaceable battery prior to purchasing the device has reached a conclusion. The lawsuit was filed by Jose Trujillo, and he was suing Apple in Illinois state court in July 2007, accusing them of consumer-fraud and seeking class-action status.

Classic game maker Atari has revved up their lawyers and are taking aim at makers of iPhone games that they feel are stepping on their legal territory. So far developer Bootant, maker of BreakClassic [App Store] and BreakTouch 3G [App Store], and Spiffyware, maker of Super Pong 2 [App Store], and Gyrocade, maker of 3D Vector Pong [App Store], were all asked to remove their apps from the App Store.

There's been some buzz going around about how Apple isn't allowing location-based applications to access the new A-GPS technology of the iPhone 3G, which TomTom found out the hard way when it turned out that their software would violate the SDK agreement. However, there does seem to be a method to Apple's madness.