I’m in absolute heaven, and I don’t know how I missed this. Video game developer Ludia has released The Price is Right for the iPhone, which in my biased TPIR fanboy opinion is one of the best gaming titles I’ve seen on the App Store yet. And at $2.99 for a “limited time,” $2 less than its $4.99 typical price, you can’t go wrong with this one.

The 35 year old game show franchise has made a significant push into interactive media, releasing games for the Nintendo Wii and DS consoles, as well as PC. I guess with the iPhone being one of the preeminent mobile gaming platforms, it was only a matter of time before developers brought the game to the device.

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Okay, I have a confession to make. I am a certifiable weather weenie. I have been since I was a wee tot. If it wouldn’t have been for my horrible math and science grades, there’s a good chance I’d be sitting at a desk at the National Weather Service or AccuWeather right now instead of writing this. Alas, that didn’t happen, but I do get to review all the neat weather gadgets!

The Weather Channel has released a free mobile app which has probably set the bar for mobile weather applications. The version I’m discussing here is for the iPhone, however there is an application available for Android as well. It is now available for US customers through the App Store.

TWC Mobile is split into four sections, “Weather,” “Explore Map,” “Video,” and “Severe.” There is also a section titled “More,” although that has nothing in it other than a help file, information about the application, and links to more videos.

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While we’ve already discussed Apple’s NDA and the muzzle its put on App Store developers when applications get rejected, its reach apparently extends to another area as well: books. Silicon Alley Insider reported Thursday that at least one publisher–Pragmatic Programmers — has canceled its plans to publish a book on developing apps for the device because of NDA restrictions.

News of the cancellation came by way of the publisher’s official blog. While the publisher thought the NDA would have been lifted following the launch of iPhone 2.0, it never was. “It now appears that Apple does not intend to lift the NDA any time soon. Regrettably, this means we are pulling our iPhone book out of production,” it said.

This is not an isolated issue. Take a look at some Amazon search results, which show Apple’s code of silence is also holding up other books as well. All appear to be on pre-order at the moment. There is at least one that explicitly says the release of the book is directly related to the lifting of the NDA itself.

So what is a developer to do? Let’s remind everyone that while Steve Jobs may have made a big deal out of how easy it is to program for the device, for many it is still completely new. Yes, a fair amount of it drag and drop. However for more advanced features some developers are going to need to brush up on on Macintosh programming–most are probably Windows developers first and foremost.

Books like the ones now being quashed are great references to get developers up to speed quickly. While I’m sure developers will survive without them, the learning curve may be a little steeper. Why frustrate the folks that are essentially the core of your entire platform?

While Apple may see its silence as key to keeping a competitive advantage, I’m seeing way too much negative publicity out of this, and its going to end up hurting the company in the end. I’m not sure how much longer the company is going to be able to maintain its current business practices.

Sooner or later, the walls are going to have to come tumbling down.

Stung by criticism, Apple has put a muzzle on applicants to the App Store by including the rejection letters it sends under a non-disclosure agreement. In addition, it has closed a loophole which was allowing rejected developers to find other avenues to serve their applications to users.

The newest rejection letters come complete with a warning to those reading them: “THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE.” No doubt this move is in response to high-profile cases of rejection by Apple, where developers in protest published the letters in verbatim.

We’ve covered at least one of these apps in detail, Almerica’s Podcaster, and shared our laments over Apple’s hard-lined stance several days later when another developer got the thumbs-down. Apparently, Apple’s had enough of this kind of coverage and has decided to put the kibosh on any further releases of its rejection notices.

But it doesn’t end with the extension of the NDA. Apple is taking it one step further by closing a loophole which was allowing developers such as Almerica to bypass the App Store completely. Originally intended for education and software testing, it allowed for ad-hoc licenses to be created which would allow the applications to be run on the phone legally. Continue reading this story…

As you may have noticed, we rarely broach the topic of politics here on Technologizer. We endorse no party, nor any candidate for any office. But some stories are too entertaining not to tackle.
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