iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Tuesday, April 19, 2011
News Category: Mix

Apple has revamped its former Support Discussions section, renaming it Apple Support Communities. The new support section divides the discussion and question threads into “communities” based on certain products, offers the ability to track community activity via email or RSS, the ability to “Like” posts, the ability to see correct and/or helpful answers without needing to dig through an entire thread, and more. The new section can be accessed by visiting discussions.apple.com.

Apple has added Chimei Innolux, an affiliate of the Foxconn Technology Group, as a third supplier for touchscreen sensors for the iPad 2, according to a new report. Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports that Innolux will begin supplying the components next month, joining TPK Holdings and Wintek, who will remain Apple’s key suppliers for the sensors. Notably, Foxconn is also the assembler of both the iPad and iPhone.

Former Apple iPhone Game Technologies team member Graeme Devine has made several comments regarding the state of iOS gaming. Speaking in an interview with Business Insider, Devine said with a chuckle that he “can’t talk so much” about Apple’s future plans, but said that Apple is serious about gaming on iOS. “Apple is clearly focused on gaming. A lot of people say Apple doesn’t get gaming, but Apple has probably the most popular gaming device on the planet right now, and that doesn’t happen by accident,” said Devine. “Apple is intensely focused on gaming and intensely aware of it. Every ad for the iPod Touch only shows games; no running music.” Devine, who left the company in December 2010 to start his own studio, added that it “would be crazy cool” if Apple decided to expand the Apple TV’s reach into the gaming segment.

Apple is cracking down on applications using pay-per-install marketing campaigns, according to a new report. Citing Tapjoy, developers of a number of such apps, GigaOM reports that a number of developers have recently seen their apps rejected because they were running incentivized app installs, in which developers pay to have their app installed in other apps, including offering virtual currency in exchange for app downloads. Tapjoy speculates that Apple may be using section 3.10 of the developer program agreement to justify the rejections; the section states, “[d]evelopers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods will be removed from the iOS Developer Program.”