First, elderly rock 'n' roller Bon Jovi gives Steve Jobs grief over allegedly killing the craft of album listening - which, pipe down, Jon Bon - now customers are complaining that their rotten kids were amassing hundreds of dollars worth of charges due to the iPhone and iPad's 15-minute password-free timer for the App Store.
The issue was that after a user entered his or her iTunes password on a device, the device didn't prompt for the password again for 15 minutes. Any purchases, whether in the iTunes store or inside kid-friendly games such as "The Smurf's Village," went through without a new password prompt.This meant that parents who handed over their iPhones or iPads to their kids were sometimes shocked by large purchases of "Smurfberries" and other virtual bling.
And just like that, the Smurfberry Crunch ad jingle is stuck in our head. In berry red and smurfy blue! Here, allow us to share the earworm with you. You're welcome.
Anyway, according to a December 2010 Washington Post article, one parent accused Capcom, the maker of "Smurfberries," of preying on children. IN response, Apple announced this week changes with the iOS 4.3 software update, which will have a separate password for the App Store and iTunes, and a separate one for in-app purchases.
The parents AP talked to have since "received refunds from Apple for the inadvertent purchases."
[KTVU]