iPhone App Zealot

In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court of Northern District of California, Storm8 is alleged to have been “accessing, collecting, and transmitting without notice or consent the wireless telephone numbers of iPhone users who download Storm8’s games to their iPhones via Apple’s App Store.” Text of the lawsuit

The Plaintiff’s specific allegations are

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030;
California Computer Crime Law, Cal. Penal Code § 502;
Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code § 17200; and
Breach of Contract

I bring this to your attention since I promoted on AppZealot, and very much enjoy, Ninjas Live.

Originally spotted on FingerGaming and more detailed info reported at BoingBoing.

Update (15 November): None of Storm 8′s games are available for download from iTunes. If you already downloaded their apps, they stay in iTunes and on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The games appear to be working for the moment even though no new players can download. From MTV New’s coverage of the case, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s VP of iPod and iPhone product marketing, was unfamiliar with the case and said about Apple’s policy and practices, “There is no violating privacy. That’s one of the things we look for, so if that did happen I’m either unaware or unfamiliar.”

This weekends sales bring some interesting games down to free. Here are five interesting games that went on sale this weekend (7 November). Enjoy!

Sentinel: Mars Defense

Rating:

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Sudoku Guru

Rating:

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Yumsters! 2

Rating:

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Pocket Jockey

Rating:

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Shuttle Service

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Note: iTunes star ratings I used above to not appear to reflect the individual scores I saw in reviews. For instance, Shuttle Service has six reviews: four 5-stars, one 4-star, and one 3-star yet the average rating is 2 1/2 stars. Go figure. They all look fun. I’ve downloaded them but not yet played any. Happy Saturday!

In a report by DFC Int, other handheld gaming platforms’ growth to remain relatively flat while iPhone and iPod Touch market continues to expand. Shocking! Or maybe not. If you are addicted to iPhones games like I am, this is not news. I game on both the iPhone 3Gs and a first gen Touch. (I did say I was an addict, don’t look so surprised.) I did not shell out the $2,495 DFC Int wants for this report. But I trust TUAW‘s reporting about what it contains. Where Trust is defined as “I suspect they are much more likely to have purchased, read a friend’s copy, or know someone who read the report” than the staff here at App Zealot. What part of “I love free and cheap games and apps on the iPhone” implies anyone here bought the very expensive market report? Is it a game? ‘Nough said.