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AT&T announces $5/day 250MB data pass for iPad users

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AT&T’s SVP of Emerging Devices Chis Penroseannounced today at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference that the carrier is introducing a new $5 a day plan for tablet users. Available for your 3G and LTE iPads (and other AT&T compatible tablets of course), AT&T’s $5 data pass will offer a cheaper alternative to expensive hotel WiFi for travellers and others that only need a day or two worth of data.

The plan will give users 250MB a day and AT&T says it will make it easy for customers to purchase the data sessions online directly on their iPad. The carrier is also offering a new plan for tablet users that offers 1GB over three months for $25.

The new plan is of course in addition to the $10/month option to add a tablet to Mobile Share plans and the 30-day 250MB DataConnect Pass for $14.99 that AT&T already offers.

Apple settles in-app purchasing class action, agrees to pay $5 iTunes credit or cash refund

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Last time we checked in on the in-app purchase class-action lawsuit against Apple, courts refused Apple’s request to throw out the case brought on by parents arguing the iOS freemium model, i.e. in-app purchases, allowed children to easily rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars. Today, Law360 (via GigaOM) reported Apple has agreed to pay a settlement and will be contacting 23 million iTunes users that “made a Game Currency purchase in one or more Qualified Apps.”

According to the report, Apple will pay $5 in iTunes credit to those who claim in-app content was purchased by a minor without their permission. For purchases above $30, users will be able to request a full refund. However, credits will likely not get to users until early 2014 when the settlement meets regulatory approval:
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Apptrace launches in beta, company claims 400K iOS apps get no downloads

App analytics firm Adeven is launching its new Apptrace tool today that provides statistics on iOS apps including the number of countries an app is available in, its global ranking, overall ratings, and daily rankings for specific markets. Also, the ability to compare apps to one another is coming in a future update to the free tool. Speaking with GigaOm, the company shared some pretty interesting stats about the App Store—approximately 400,000 apps have no downloads or rankings:

“The reality is there are only a couple of thousand apps that really make some kind of downloads,” Christian Henschel, Adeven CEO, told me. “This is based on Apple’s closed system — it’s tough to discover those kinds of apps. You don’t have proper search, so the only way to discover new apps is through the top listing.”

“If you’re not on those lists, it’s not sure that you’re being discovered by anyone else. The top 25 tend to be the same companies who spend millions of dollars to get to the top of those lists. If you’re an independent, small app publisher, then it’s really tough to be discovered.”