Matt Drudge, author of the intergalactic blog phenomenon known as the Drudge Report, dodged a bullet from his own smoking gun this week by allegedly calling off a copyright infringement claim made to Apple, Inc. Drudge raised a minor stink over the release of "iDrudge Drudge Reader", an unofficial news app offering iPhone and iPod touch users easy access to Drudge Report content.
Joseph Nardone, a self-professed Drudge Report fanboy created the wildly popular "iDrudge Drudge Reader" ($.99) app, successfully launching it into the App Store on August 25th. Within a matter of four short days Nardone's epic Drudge Reader reached number one in the News category of the iTunes App Store.
The uncomplicated application displays up to 100 links and linked images from the Drudge Report web site, allowing users to scan headlines and the top 25 links in all three columns of profound Drudginess. It was everything longtime Drudge fans never knew they wanted.
Then suddenly without any warning, iDrudge vanished into oblivion with an App Store message reading "no matches found", confirming that this Drudge-tastic app had suffered a premature death. Killed off just one week after its celebrated launch.
The iPhone Savior contacted Joseph Nardone in a desperate attempt to understand the reason behind this grand buffoonery that wiped his beloved Drudge Reader from our news obsessed planet.
"Matt Drudge asked Apple to pull the app because he thought that we were copying his web site onto our own server and selling an app to view the stolen content," Nardone candidly told the iPhone Savior.
"He did not realize that the app only translates his published HTML source and displays it just as any other Internet browser would. The difference is that the iDrudge app displays the information in a format that is optimized to take advantage of the iPhone's features. Matt Drudge sent an email to Apple late last night and withdrew his claim that the iDrudge - Drudge Reader application was violating his copyright." Nardone said.
The (ultra-fanboy) iDrudge app has finally been returned to the iTunes App Store. Once again, allowing iPhone Drudge junkies instant access to their Drudge of choice with just one swipe of an erect index finger.
Fortunately, the world at large can now breath a euphoric sigh of relief knowing that this temporary App Store mishap has delivered a rare Hollywood style ending for Apple, Joe Nardone and wild throngs of committed Drudgies.
Thank you so much Matt Drudge, Planet Earth is smiling on you at this very moment. Seriously... look outside, right now brospeh. Please hurry, it won't last long.
"Thank you so much Matt Drudge, Planet Earth is smiling on you at this very moment. Seriously... look outside, right now brospeh. Please hurry, it won't last long.?
No! Not as long as the CNet/ZDNet/Microsoft propaganda machine is on the job!
Posted by: zato | September 03, 2009 at 09:24 PM