A plague of iPhone flatulence
There's something in the air this holiday season.
Two weeks before Christmas, Apple loosened its rules and allowed an off-color novelty app called Pull My Finger into the iTunes App Store.
The floodgates of propriety having been breached, there was no holding back. Less than a week later, VentureBeat's MG Siegler reports, Apple approved 14 similar apps in a single day.
Today, by Siegler's count, more than four dozen sound-effects apps not suitable for polite company are stinking up the App Store best seller list, which on Christmas Eve was topped by a program that produces — for immediate amusement or delayed gratification — pungent sounds with names like Jack the Ripper, Howard the Duck and The Sick Dog.
The developer of this noisome program, Internet entrepreneur and author Joel Comm, has atoned for his sins by publicly releasing his sales figures. The chart makes for interesting reading, as it documents the snowball effect (to mix a metaphor) of rising high enough in Apple's Top Paid App list to get the attention of the broad app-buying public.
Here, via MacRumors, is the record of Joel Comm's rise to the top:
12/14 – 841 units – #76 overall
12/15 – 1510 units – #39 overall
12/16 – 1797 units – #22 overall
12/17 – 2836 units – #15 overall
12/18 – 3086 units – #10 overall
12/19 – 3117 units – #9 overall
12/20 – 5497 units, – #4 overall
12/21 – 9760 units, #2 overall
12/22 – 13274 units, #1 overall
Note that sales accelerated once the program made it into the top 5. Note also that at 99 cents a pop, JoelComm is netting more than $10,000 a day. Apple's (AAPL) cut is better than $3,000 a day.
No wonder so many third-party developers can't seem to contain themselves.
But they better move fast. Like all novelty trends, this too will pass.
No worries, folks. Just more LCD* thinking for the knuckle-draggers. Heard there's one born every minute. Trend must be accelerating for Wal-Mart to get into the act. God speed back to the Middle Ages and dirt floors.
*Lowest Common Denominator
As an app developer, I hope that everyone who buys iFart is also buying 2 or 3 other apps. I hope that my two educational non-flatulence Henry & Hailey apps can get a fraction of the success that iFart has achieved.
By and Cuz and Dang and Gonna. Sounds like you are a Republican and were educated here under George Bush's leave no idiot behind policy as well. Congratulations its time for you to open your lead and melamine ridden presents made in China and bought at Walmart. Don't worry about Obama because Bush already sold the country to the Arabs and China a long time ago so you will soon be among friends.
Fascinating contrast as we grapple with legislating manners:
Since When Did Being Annoying Become Illegal?
UPDATED: 1:17 pm EST December 22, 2008
BRIGHTON, Mich. — Since when did being annoying become a crime?
Since Brighton City Council approved a public conduct code Monday night, which includes
fining someone up to $500 for being annoying.
One section of the bill reads, "It shall be unlawful for a person to engage in a course of conduct
or repeatedly commit acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person and that serve no legitimate
purpose."The bill also states it's unlawful for anyone to insult, accost, molest or otherwise annoy any
person in public.
Brighton officials said the ordinance would be subjective and the call will be made by police officers.
The ordinance takes effect Jan. 17, 2009.
Live With Intention,
Dr Bill Toth
"my guess is murdock is the guy sitting in his parents bedroom complaining about the corruption of corporations and all his other little hippy tidbits that people with jobs and the ability to talk to women dont have the time to do."
I don't figure. The Murdock is about as curious as folks get online, but I do not peg him for the guy sitting on his parents bed, raging against the evil of the corporation with his hippie friends.
For a start, the Murdock hates left wing iconography. He is clearly a hard core market guy, although he is convinced that Apple are somehow cheating the market with their evil propaganda machine.
Further, I do not see how you can endorse "having a job" and "being able to talk to women" as some sort of recipe for sanity. Let's face it, most guys would rather be the man who owns the firm who gives out your job, because he sleeps with the women you talk to.
But sure, Murdock is a curious case. If he works, it isn;t as the boss. Surely he is a PC programmer who works for a huge multinational?
He knows some of the programming lingo, and he rages against the unfairness of it all in the context of some guy making a fortune with a very simple piece of Apple programming.
So I would actually peg Murdock as precisely the guy who has a job, and who thinks himself wonderful because he can talk with women.
But he burns with rage, because he wants to be the guy who gives out the jobs, and who doesn't need to entertain for affection.
It is all very American and exciting. We don't have blogs like this in Switzerland.
Murdock (iDope), don't be hatin' on Apple because your girlfriend (iDope 2.0) is mentally defective. Seriously? Can't figure out the touch interface? I see a Darwin award in her future.
Tip: Keep her away from open windows.
Red or Blue. Smart or Stupid. PC or MAC. PhD or drop out. Farting and its associated blessings (odor & sounds) are completely hilarious.
Really? Everyone is worked up over a app for the iPhone? I love coming to CNN and finding worthless news like this.
I've already started the iFart market in a part of the former Soviet Union:
http://boskolives.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/one-small-tug-for-mankind/
"There's something in the air tonight"
Jerry w
my guess is murdock is the guy sitting in his parents bedroom complaining about the corruption of corporations and all his other little hippy tidbits that people with jobs and the ability to talk to women dont have the time to do.
thank God for natural selection : )
Jay,
You are almost right but you cannot find Voice Activated Navigation, Click to Go Location Message, etc offered by LifeInPocket for iPhone.
Sorry to rock your world, doc, but having a brain, preferring an iPhone and being a Democrat are not mutually exclusive.
But then there's captain entropy and Murdock….
LifeInPocket turns ordinary phones into smart phones. If you have an iphone, you don't need that app.
When iPhone will have LifeInPocket on board?
It seems everybody I know has LifeInPocket running on their phones except my dumb iPhone.
John from Virginia: you were so close to the best possible headline for this story:
A fool and his money are soon farted.
Merry Christmas, all!
This iPhone app thing has been great! You can tell how succesfull they are by the sheer number of pissed off PC and Blackberry users here trolling.
Go ahead and lash out Murdock. Get it all out of your system. It's not your fault. We feel your pain.
Speaking for all men in the crowd, I think it is safe to say that this APP will provide endless hours of entertainment for generations to come. Indeed I think it is the best Christmas present I have bought myself this year.
I think it bothers the heck out of certain people that this kind of thing can make real money. But if you look at demographics, it's clear that the young are a huge potential market.
Just smart business, is all.
Lightsaber is another one I think appeals to the younger set. (When you move your iPhone around it sounds like your iPhone is a light saber from Star Wars.)
Not to say that old codgers (like me!) can't enjoy these apps as well….
"Bad as the Clinton era" Well, GI, we can only hope! Peace, prosperous economy, lots of jobs, respected on the worlds stage, a President with BRAINS. Yeah who would want THAT?! If you want endless war, Dooh Nibor economics, police statism, ignorance, anit-intellectualism, and a moron for President, then you can move to Zimbabwe, or Somalia, or Uzbekistan, or Afghanistan, or build a time machine and go stay in USA-2004.
Oh, and Apple is overhyped and overpriced. The iPhone is a mixed bag. I have a friend that works for Apple and she hates her iPhone. My roommate's BF has had FIVE iPhones, all had hardware failures and software glitches that made it a POS, though I know people who have them and they work perfectly. I hope WalMart sells them for $99. It'll be the right price for the chance you take with it.
Such angst over a 99 cent fart program.
Loosen up, people!
P.S. Every topic on CNN turns to Bush, no matter how erroneous. Never fails.
You got me pegged all wrong, iDroids! I LOVE YOU! I love you the same way Stevey J. loves you and the developer of this "killer app" loves you. The fact that you could interpret my post as an endorsement of fascism (when actually I was making the case of Apple being the fascist) brings tears of joy to my eyes. Here I was thinking I was going have to toil and sweat for the rest of my life. But you have helped me to see the light! All I need is a can of baked beans, a microphone, and an iPhone SDK, and soon I'll be moving on up to the East Side to a deluxe apartment in the sky!
So show me, iDroids! Show me your infinite wisdom and CONTINUE to buy these INSANELY GREAT products. What you want is what I want. If this guy can make $10,000 per day off of you with his sweet cheek music, I just imagine what I'll be able to do. Gotta go now, I gotta run to the supermarket and brush up on my Cocoa syntax. You stay stupid, iDroids!
A dollar well spent, however they forgot to include "The Squirrel", "The Zipper" and the "Sqirrel Nut Zipper"
Simple if you don't like the app then don't freakin by the darn thing. GO George Bush… DOWN with OBAMA! Boy we are soo screwed.. .may as well open the country up and let people do whatever they want to us….cuz that's what he's gonna do… next thing you know we'll be standing in circle singing and holding hands.. NOT. Not a dang thing wrong with molding the world into what we want it to be. Someone has to do it… and if we can make some money while doing it .. even better. Gonna be as bad as the Clinton era again.
I am with you Flip. Too many stupid people here in Georgia too. The south has become a land of morons. They want to go back in time to the bad old days of slavery and other debauchery and they like to call it being a good christian. God help us all.
Just goes to show no one ever went broke appealing to the stupidity, baseness, and tastelessness of Americans.
No Internet Exploder for me, iDroid Steve. I'm just gonna chill with my Linux distro. It's called Open Source: you know, the free stuff you that guys pay for because you don't know any better. Mele Kalikimaka!
Just more evidence of the impending downfall of American society. Its no wonder why this country was plunged into darkness for eight years under the despot dictator George W. Bush. We have all been reduced to fart ridden cell phones. American people now have the IQ of turnips and the compassion of neo-Nazi swine. Time to move to Canada.
Wow, I can't believe how much hatred some of you have for Apple and the iPhone. We are talking about a silly fart app that some find amusing enough to buy and some of you get all bent out of shape.
Well, I suppose the only people getting all pissed off are the people that don't own any Apple products that search the internet for Apple stories just so they can spread their version of holiday cheer. Those people really need to get some form of a life.
No fart apps on the Blackberry? Don't take it out on us.
I guess I would get a little pissed if I saw all the
I'm just old school, I guess. To me, digitized fart sounds can never faithfully reproduce the vibrant, penetrating bass heard in live performances.
So people want to spend a dollar on something that gives them a laugh or two? Why are people so outraged by this? Live and let live people – it's the free market! Don't be bitter that consumers are buying something you disapprove of – it isn't your money or your problem. I can gurantee that every single one of you has spent more than a dollar on something that is decidedly usesless (or at least others would be percieved by others as such).
This proves the idiocy of right-wing posters who are always in a state of perma anger and outrage.
BFD, you people mind your own business and get a life.
I'm not going to bother commenting on the rediculousness of an app that does nothing but make fart noises…. well maybe a bit I guess.
All that I wanted to say was that I fail to understand how selling about 3500 apps on his best day at 99 cents a pop can earn him $10000 a day. I think I need to get into this market.
Murdock, I'm sorry that your girlfriend is too lame be able to use an iPod touch. I have a 5 year-old niece that has no problem with it. Oh, and my 70 year-old mom got the hang of it pretty quick. You should really seek some help with your bitterness about a <10% market share company. In the meantime, go download the latest critical patch for Internet Exploder (that's right 'exploder'). Oh, you'll probably have to boot your PC of the disk because whatever virus you already got crashed your system. Maybe your girlfriend can fix it.
Typical credit card purchases showing the state of mind of America as we drown in debt. Just fart yourself for laughs!
Wow Murdock, did you quit AAPL 10 years ago because "the company has nothing going for it"? Where is all your AAPL anger coming from? Suggestion, re-direct that AAPL anger into coming up with the next application all the I-phone users want. Or you could just keep posting angry comments about AAPL while belittling those that find there products useful. Happy Hollidays!
I apologize, iDroid Joe. I don't know what I was thinking exercising my First Amendment rights. Can you find it in your heart to forgive these crimes against the Fatherland? Will you let me join the glorious ranks of iDroids marching in lockstep to the A-Store so I, too, can render unto Caesar? So I can announce the supremacy of the Republic's latest achievement to the world with the Toot Camp App? It would be such a shame if you lost any more of your investment in this bow-wow company. In addition, I wouldn't want the Maximum Leader to have to dip into the $24 billion of plunder that he has amassed by hawking the iLlusion to the masses. iPhone Uber Alles!
Well, farts ARE fun for a lot of (juvenile, and so what) people! The rest of you can just hold your ears and nose. Unlike smoking, this is not harmful to your health, either.
Just goes to show what is becoming of the next generation of consumers: farts are cool? I fear for them.
The guy who really will make money is if he can include the offensive smell. I will stay RIMM thankyou
Go Apple. D L SERVICES marketing for Apple and other products world wide I feel plays a significant role in letting potential customer know these products are out in the market place. Which is good for Apple and the developers. D L SERVICES was one of the first marketing the Apps Store. D L SERVICES have not made a dime since becoming Apple affiliates but we are optimistic and happy to support any products that my turn this economy around. Visit us at http://dlservicesincservices.com
"Farts hold a long and glamorous honor in the annuls of humor."
It's not "annuls", it is "annals". Or should it be written with only one "n"? 
Some of you guys are idiots…"perfect app for a perfect phone" and "This proves the mentality of the people who buy iPhones." Out of the millions of iPhones sold 41,000 people have purchased it. That's not representative of all iPhone owners. It is a stupid app and completely useless. It's something I would never spend money on however when news organizations like CNN give free adverti…err "report" on stuff like this it gives the the developer more and more money. I wish I would've created this app…$10k a day for a farting sound isn't bad…
Many were stunned when Apple announced that they are pulling out of the Macworld Expo and that Steve Jobs would not being doing his trademark keynote speech anymore. This was a very perplexing move, especially when you consider that this a company that is the epitome of pomp-and-circumstance, smoke-and-mirrors event marketing.
I figured it out why they're doing this, though: they really DON'T need a trade show to spew their lies anymore. The Internet will now be their MacWorld Expo. In addition, Steve Jobs WILL be delivering a keynote speech, EVERY DAY, on various blogs and websites.
Here's how it's done: Apple employees and their Wall Street lackeys create new, "third party" websites daily and post their propaganda in order to (1)build hype for the latest rip-off from Cupertino and (2) boost the company's stock price. Steve-O personally writes some of it himself.
Just another day at the People's Republic of Apple and its august leader, Chairman Steve Jong-IL. I wonder if the iDroids will ever wake up and see the rip-off. But I guess that's the entire point of the company: how to take something you could get for nothing or next-to-nothing (cough, cough, FreeBSD!, cough, cough) and make you pay big bucks for it – over and over again.
So go for it, iDroids! Go ahead and waste your money at the Crapp Store, I mean App Store. Blow your stash on those applications you could get free elsewhere. By all means, camp out in front of the People's Republic of Apple Store for the iBrator Nano, my iDroids! "Half as Fast, Twice the Price" – who could resist?
Sing, iDroids! Sing the Gospel of One Infinite Loop!, Repeat the mantra of how it's "Insanely Great" and "It Just Works." Because you're right: I think it's INSANELY GREAT how the iPod Touch that i tested out in order to get a bird's-eye view of the ripoff and then gave to my technology-challenged girlfriend (you know, your target demographic) is JUST sitting here on the floor, unused because she hates it, the "revolutionary" touch interface being her biggest gripe. That WORKS for me!
Google News This Morning: Joblessness rises, spending drops, malls are empty, people are being terribly careful with their money—then this foolishness? Folks are paying for an electronic fart machine? Wake me up when the Depression starts.
Proves the dumbing down on America and how all these white hipster douches in NYC who 'must have the iphone' at any cost will buy into this marketing BS.
I have an Ipod Touch 32GB. Most of these applications are useless and set up for someone with the maturity & intellect of a 5 year old
People pay for this? Seriously? You're telling me that you'd buy a fart app before you paid for an MP3?
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Wow the app store is a hit. We sold over 20,000 units of fart makers and the sky is the limit. Maybe next month a million units. Who wouldn't agree the app store has something of the most important apps to advance us into the future.
Hahaha. Thats crazy. Yeah apple is letting all sorts of thinks thru lately even adult entertainment if the folks know how to get it thru. Like iphone-porn.us
A girl goes to dinner to meet her future in-laws. She accidentally farts, and the dad yells at the dog, "Skippy!". Because she thinks the dog is taking the blame she continues to fart. Finally the dad says, "Skippy, run away, she may crap on you!" Farts hold a long and glamorous honor in the annuls of humor.
You are almost right but you cannot find Voice Activated Navigation, Click to Go Location Message, etc offered by LifeInPocket for iPhone.