AppAdvice’s Week In Review

Are we getting close to another dot-com tech bubble? Perhaps we are when this week's most interesting (and troubling) stories in technology revolved around companies making huge sums of money. While we're all for folks making money, when they do so by screwing customers, we've got a problem. What's going on here? Let's look at the tape:

DOJ: Apple And Publishers Rigged E-Book Pricing

The Department of Justice this week accused Apple and two publishers with establishing an e-book price fixing scheme. The charge stems from a comment the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs made to The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg prior to the January 2010 introduction of the first generation iPad.

Jobs: We don't care what publishers charge, as long as the prices are the same and we get our cut. Old Uncle Walt: Say what?

Did DOJ jump the gun? That is the conclusion made by some experts who think the government's case against Apple is less secure than the one against the publishers. CNET, for example, says there are several “difficulties” with the case, and the general feeling is that the lawsuit is a categorical “mistake. While Apple is poised to have their day in court, the biggest winner in all of this could be Amazon. Immediately following the DOJ's announcement, the largest online retailer confirmed that it would begin offering e-books at less expensive prices, which could give the Kindle maker a competitive advantage going forward. By the end of the week, Apple said the charges were false. Through a spokesman they said the "DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true." Of course they did.

Big Red Is Greedy Too

Want a new iPhone this year and your carrier is Verizon Wireless? Pay your $30 at the door. The largest wireless provider in the U.S. joined the other three national carriers in instituting an upgrade fee each time a user switches one phone for another. While Verizon's fee is $6 less than what AT&T and Sprint charges, it is $12 more than T-Mobile's take. Of course, who shops at iPhone-free T-Mobile anymore?

No Mom, My New Boss Isn't Jesse Eisenberg

Who needs to win $640 million in the lottery when you can develop a free iPhone photo app and two years later walk away with $1 billion? That's what happened for the good people at Instagram who accepted the huge sum to become another Facebook underling. Of course, we aren't really begrudging Instagram here. After all, it's $1 billion! Ready to ditch Instagram after the Empire's takeover? We've got some alternatives for you. And another. Finally, A.T. Faust III believes Facebook's acquisition of Instagram could be bad for Internet privacy. Says one privacy expert:

“The larger issue to me is that Facebook is adding Instagram data to its own,” says Ryan Calo, a privacy researcher at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society. “Instagram users thought they were signing up for a simple service, of relatively little utility to advertisers or government. Now that data is likely to be combined with an entire social graph.” …

EA Wants Your Money. All Of It.

We already knew EA was the worst company in America, but this is a new low. The gaming company bully released a "new and improved" version of TETRIS for iPad this week. Unfortunately, even the game's impressive Retina display capabilities can't make up for its creator's need for more cash. TETRIS Part deux includes a "whole hell of a lot of in-app purchases," according to TouchArcade. And while the added in-app purchases are always a cause for some grumbling among users, this stunt by EA is even worse. Since the game is an entirely new .ipa file, users who lose their copy of the old version are out of luck. The only way to get Tetris back would be to repurchase the game at full price. Bad, EA!

Finally, let's rock (or at least draw a nice picture)

Do you find all this money talk depressing? Find your more creative site by taking at look at our new lists of Apps for Musicians and Apps for Artists. Enjoy!