Now, however, thanks to an online version of the App Store which scrapes the content of the store in iTunes, you can quickly browse for applications, read reviews, and see screenshots from any computer that has access to the Internet without ever having to open iTunes.

As Amit Agarwal notes, Apple uses a rather cryptic XML format for delivering the pages in iTunes. However, the developers of the online App Store have found a way to decrypt these XML files and render them as regular HTML.

Limitations

Of course, there are some limitations to this approach. You can't, for example, install apps without using iTunes at some point. The online App Store also doesn't have a search function.

Will Apple Shut it Down?

Of course, given Apple's litigious nature, we don't know if this version of the App Store will be around for a very long time, but it's a great resource if you just want to link to an app in the store, for example, without your users having to open the desktop iTunes app (which, after all, is not available on all operating systems).

Customers of the App Store will be in for a rude awakening if they try to review an app without purchasing it first. Customers intending to do so will encounter the following error message:

When checking out reviews of App Store apps, we've all seen the comments about fake reviews. The App Store's review system has helped perpetuate itself into a free for all buffet for spam and phony reviews. Users were welcome to leave any comment they wish with no consequences. Needless to say, Apple is looking to stop this from happening in the future.

A Step in the Right Direction

While, this won't quell more problematic concerns with the App Store, developers will appreciate the new restriction. Fake reviews can cause developers serious head-aches. These fake reviews are usually negative or positive depending on numerous factors such as developer popularity and overall community opinion. Developers won't have to worry about fake bad press or fake positive reviews. Apple is hopying that this new restriction will stop the App Store from being more of a popularity contest, than a useful center for information.

While Apple uses games from Electronic Arts and the I Am T-Pain app as examples of highly popular applications, these apps also profited from instant name recognition and a built-in fan base. For other apps, getting discovered in the Apps Store is getting increasingly hard as the competition heats up. Besides bringing a rather lackluster version of the genius feature to the App Store, Apple also hasn't made any significant improvements to the app discovery experience in iTunes and the mobile store.

Still, if you are looking for free recipe apps launched or updated in the last month, you would have a hard time finding these in iTunes. In uQuery, however, all it takes is two clicks to filter out older or more expensive apps. While search on uQuery is great, however, the service does not (yet?) provide users with a good way to simply browse the store. You can't, for example, just look at all the new games published in the last week that are available for $0.99 or less.

Earlier this year we wrote about App Engine, another web-based alternative to the App Store. App Engine, however, is currently offline. App Engine basically recreated the App Store on the web - including Apple's layout. App Engine is now offline, making uQuery one of the best web-based alternatives to iTunes, though other alternatives like iphonexe.com are also worth a look.

Tip of the hat to AppScout for bringing uQuery to our attention.

This is definitely a service I'll use when I want to buy whole albums and can't make it down to the local, independent record store. I've always felt dirty buying music from iTunes, now I think I'll feel a little less dirty buying DRM free music from Amazon. I saw the news first at Techmeme and there's good music-industry centric coverage at Steven Finch's Crenk. See a longer, more in-depth review of the new service over at our digital lifestyle blog Last100.

During the period where the activation servers were down, the Apple store employees let everybody still buy their phones and had them finalize the activation at home. As it turns out, that might not have been very useful at all, especially if the iPhone servers are still only working intermittently.

According to various reports online, these problems weren't just limited to the US, but pretty much occurred around the globe. Given how widespread these reports about problems are, it would seem that the majority of issues was more due to Apple's fault than the local carriers'.

The user experience of downloading an app from Apple's App Store is something to speak on. It's by far the best mobile user experience I've ever had. However, I've never been interested in purchasing and downloading apps from Microsoft or Verizon when it comes to my Motorola Q9c. Instead, I've headed straight to the developer's site or simply didn't bother. I don't think I'm alone in this situation. I've seen family members purchase ringtones and ringback tones galore, yet not one of them has ever bothered to purchase an application. There are three reasons why they may not have have never purchased an app from their respective carriers:

1. The costs are ridiculous
2. The offerings are not interesting
3. They don't know what they're doing

If You're Going to do it, do it Right

Apple has offered resolutions for the aforementioned three reasons. The developers set the cost, not the carrier. A gang of great applications exist in Apple's App Store to please a variety of users with varying interests. However, these are not only great games, but the graphics and user interfaces are usually superior to applications on other mobile platforms.

On the other hand, most iPhone users are tech savvy. While it's simple enough for mainstream users to use, it's marketed to early adopters and geeks across the globe. You can bet your bottom dollar they know what they're doing. In turn, the App Store is a reflection of the iPhone userbase. This is a formula that T-Mobile and others would be wise to implement if they plan to pursue their own App Store.

LimeWire Store

The site claims that they will be adding thousands more tracks per day, but the big question is: from where?

It wasn't that long ago that the RIAA went after LimeWire's P2P service, claiming "LimeWire has sat back and continued to reap profits on the backs of the music community." LimeWire countersued, claiming antitrust violations among other things, claims which the judge in the matter promptly dismissed.

And today, the RIAA case against LimeWire continues (Arista vs. LimeWire). The current status has fact depositions and expert reports as needing to be provided to the court by March 31st, 2008; rebuttal reports are to be provided by April 30th and expert depositions by May 31st. By the looks of it, this case will be ongoing for quite some time.

So where does LimeWire expect to get all the tracks from? It seems highly unlikely that the same industry that is still involved in a hot lawsuit against LimeWire's P2P software is going to hand over rights to songs that will soon be integrated with that very same P2P software.

Even Napster, which re-launched with support of the recording industry offering legit tunes, has yet to pull off a successful online store. As of January 2008, the company was showing a nearly $10 million loss in the most recent quarter, giving it only 18 months to until it will need another cash infusion or go bankrupt. (It's also a bad sign when the CFO resigns, as did Nand Gangwani in Dec. 2007).

So, LimeWire expects to not only do what Napster could not, but do so without the support of the record labels and while being sued? Who are they kidding?

My advice, stick with Amazon for your DRM-free tunes, but if you must sample LimeWire, at least forgo the subscription plan. Something tells me they aren't going to make it.

However commenter Rian from DailySplice.com thinks it should be the other way round: iTunes to become social like MySpace! Rian wrote: "What if the iTunes store was more like MySpace or Last.fm where you were given a little corner of the store and could even promote your favorite bands?"

Here is Rian's full comment:

"Agreed. Last.fm is one of my favs for this. What if you could purchase and sync up your latest playlist onC Last.fm. We're banking on this kind of concept too as we develop our features for podcasts at DailySplice.com.

But I don't think it's time to say goodbye to iTunes. I think it's just time for iTunes to become more social. This seemed like the game plan for Zune when it came out. What if the iTunes store was more like MySpace or Last.fm where you were given a little corner of the store and could even promote your favorite bands? Hmmm... even make commissions off your sales... haha, ok, maybe now I'm dreaming."

It would be nice if Apple gave us a better breakdown of the kinds of apps it actually delivers (free vs. paid, games vs. utilities, etc.). This kind of transparency is obviously not in Apple's DNA, so we depend on data from third-party services like AdMob for this information. According to AdMob, iPod touch and iPhone users are more likely to buy apps than users of any other mobile platform and are also more likely to interact with mobile ads.

For developers, no matter the grumblings about the App Store approval process, the App Store is simply the largest and most lucrative marketplace for their work right now.

New Scientist takes the slightly creepy soul metaphor even further:

"The virtual computer's "soul" - as the researchers dub it - can then be uploaded to a new PC simply by plugging the portable device in. This host machine needs no special software or even a network connection to take on an entirely new personality."

My take: SoulWeb not far off

I can easily envisage a time in the future when we will not require a physical device to store one's computer "soul". I suggest that before long, you will be able to store all of your personal data on the Web. The IBM SoulPad is just an intermediary step towards a SoulWeb. Because why would we need a small mobile device when we can store everything on the Web?

I've been having a very interesting, sci-fi powered, email discussion with someone on this theme (before I heard about the SoulPad). My correspondent contends that we'll always need a physical device to store what he terms the "trust wall" of our data. My contention is that in future there will be no logical reason why even very personal data can't be stored on the Web, provided security and privacy implications have been solved by that point (admittedly that's a 'big if' looking at it with 2005 eyes).

Any fellow SF-minded Webheads out there with an opinion on this?

There are more than 650 stores currently, with over 250,000 songs in the catalogue - most appear to be available at $0.99 per song or $8.99 per album. The site claims to be "working with" 4,500 labels, including 4AD, XL, Rough Trade, Matador, Dominio, and Ged Day's own Warp.

Other than the lack of major label music, there is another minor annoyance for those of us who don't live in the U.S. - international users will frequently run into a "we're sorry, but this release is not available in your country" message. However on the plus side, all the music available for download is DRM-free and at high quality 320Kbps.

Founder Ged Day set up People's Music Store because he felt that no one company, including his own Bleep.com, can manage music expertise at a large scale. People's Music Store is hoping to tap into the Long Tail and enable music fans to create thousands of unique music stores. In a way it's like 'MySpace meets Etsy'.

On some of the more popular stores, for example one called walpod, we can see plenty of evidence of social media:

• Profiles
• Storekeeper comments - basically a form of blog post
• Shoutbox - like Facebook's Wall
• RSS feeds
• Favoriting stores (kind of like the 'friending' concept in social networks)
• Ability to add items from other peoples stores to your own, with one click
  

However there's work to be done with the social elements on the service - for example it's not intuitive where and how to add content such as 'news' and other multimedia into one's storefront.

Overall I found the concept of setting up my own online record store to be a compelling one, despite the limited range of music currently available and the relatively minor quibbles with social media elements. And in terms of music discovery, People's Music Store does a great job of enabling music fans to find new music. In the 'alternative' music stores I browsed, I discovered several interesting new acts I hadn't heard before. So if you're a music fan, People's Music Store is worth checking out. Let us know what you think in the comments.

For now, B&N only advertises its iPhone, BlackBerry, and PC/Mac software readers on its site, but the company doesn't offer any compatible hardware readers just yet. Since the launch of the eBook store, B&N has announced a partnership with iRex and we are still waiting for the mythical Plastic Logic eReader to appear.

A spike in interest right after the launch of a new product is obviously nothing unusual, but this data shows that B&N could challenge the Kindle in the long run. To do so, however, B&N needs to offer users a clear alternative to Amazon's Kindle. Sony, which offers numerous eReaders that are connected to its eBook store, is obviously also trying to make a major push in the eBook market and while its numbers are slowly trending up, Amazon and the Kindle remain in a clear lead. As Compete's McGovern points out, B&N has shown that it can easily drive its customers to its eBook store - thanks, in no small part, to a very successful email campaign - but it will need to offer a hardware eReader to really take on Amazon.

For example, the site told me to steer clear of a sale for "Empire Kosher Fresh Chicken" at my local supermarket, presumably because the price chart showed that just a couple of months ago the item was a full dollar below the sale price, and because the same item from other brands is priced lower this week by about two dollars.

Users can create a printable shopping list, which is automatically segmented by store. Members are also invited to rate and review products and stores. For most food products, the site suggests recipe ideas, and users can create alerts around specific items and be notified when things go on sale -- so, as the site suggests, if you find a recipe you like, you can find out when the ingredients can be had on the cheap. I do wish the site allowed you click through directly from ingredient lists to search your local shops, though.

GroceryGuide is a helpful local site that makes planning your shopping trips easier. With a little visual love to make browsing through sale lists a more pleasant experience, and mobile support so you could check sale items in the store (i.e., to find out if an item is on sale at Store B while shopping at Store A), it would be even better.

Steve Ballmer hinted that an online store was in the works a couple of weeks ago during a speech to developers in Australia, but forgot to mention that consumers would have to pay premium if they wanted to help save the planet.

In addition to shipping the product to your door, the new online store offers ESD (electronic software distribution).

Trevin Chow, Microsoft senior program manager, in a blog post Thursday said: "buying ESD gives you the advantage of perpetual storage of your product keys." In other words, Microsoft will store your product key so you can use it to reinstall your software at any time. Talking about ESD, he asks: "Convenience anyone?"

Convenient yes, although perhaps he should have asked: "Price anyone?"

We compared the prices Microsoft is offering for some of its products using the list of comparative pricing sites we published yesterday.

Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1

• Microsoft Store: $239.95
• Viosoftware (via Bizrate) $165.87
• Amazon: $222.99

Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1

• Microsoft Store: $319.95
• Royal Discount (via Bizrate) $222.98
• Amazon: $249.99

Office Standard 2007 (Full: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook)

• Microsoft Store $399.95
• Software King (via Bizrate) $169.99
• Amazon: $318.99

Also interesting is the note about pricing on the site: Microsoft points out that it will not match the advertised prices of other retailers for the same items.

While you have to be impressed with Microsoft's effort to give away software to startups, we have to wonder whether having a product key stored in perpetuity is worth the added cost. What do you think?