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Early Apple Employees Auction Killer Collectibles

If there’s a good thing about the recession, it seems to be bringing some fine Apple memorabilia out of storerooms and closets.
Cliff and Dick Huston — ex-Apple engineers, for the record employees 27 and 25 — have decided to part with a treasure trove of Cupertino collectibles by auctioning them on eBay.

What’s on the block:

Apple [...]

Video: There’s Sexy Technology, Then There’s This…

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You’re all going crazy with your iPad ordering. Meanwhile, over on Vimeo, BrewBeau has some craziness of his own going on.
BrewBeau writes: “I’m a recent PC convert who waited patiently while Apple worked out the kinks with their latest iMac release of the 27″ Intel powered 2.8GHz quad core i7 iMac. It’s a thing of [...]

Bottom-Feeding Jeweler Unveils Despicable Diamond iPad for $20,000

We all know the wait for the iPad, at least in the U.S., will be over on April 3, right? Wrong. True connoisseurs know they need to wait until June 1, when Mervis Diamond Importers will unleash the hideous and despicable Diamond iPad on the world. It’s a bejeweled and bedazzled monstrosity boasting 11.43 carats [...]

iPhone App Magnets To Appify Your Fridge

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If – like me – your fridge is black, then these shiny iPhone app fridge magnets from Jailbreak Collective will look very smart indeed displayed on the door.
Just 13 bucks gets you a set of these icon almost-replicas. I say almost because if you look carefully, you’ll see they’re not identical to the Apple originals. [...]

Apple Looks the Other Way for iMafia’s Revenue Model

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Apple apparently looked the other way when the iMafia app for iPhone came through the AppStore gates. The game from PlayMesh allows users to buy additional premium content and packages games from outside developers together with the premium content, making iMafia the first app with an approved in-game microtransaction system, according to a report at Gizmodo.

The system allows developers to monetize free apps without advertising, and companies profit by selling in-game bonus material. Apple retains its usual cut from any apps sold within iMafia, but then PlayMesh will take an additional (still undisclosed) cut from those developers working with them. Is it possible everyone wins in this scenario?

If Apple continues to approve apps with such a revenue and promotion model, it could turn out to be one cure for the “race to the bottom” that some developers have complained about.

According to Play Mesh founder Charles Ju, in the two days this system has been live, iMafia has pushed two other games into the top 100 of overall paid iPhone games. iMafia, which is free, currently ranks seventh among the iPhone’s most popular games.

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About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer, musician, web designer attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

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One comment

    iMafia wasn’t the first app to do this. iMob has been doing this for a while now. The two games are very, very similar in almost every aspect.

    Having played both, I can guarantee that iMob did this revenue model prior to iMafia.

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