Google Play had more apps than the Apple iTunes Store at the end of 2014, marking a big change for app community, a new study from appFigures said on Tuesday.
It said Google surpassed Apple for total number of apps with 1.43 million compared to 1.21 million. The apps come from roughly 390,000 Android app developers and 280,000 iOS developers, those of which have to pay $99 a year to be a part of Apple's Developer Center.
Spotify now has 15 million subscribers paying for its premium features and 60 million active users total, the music streaming giant announced on its blog on Monday.
The new numbers on Monday compare to number two months ago when the company said it had 12.5 million paying users out of 50 million subscribers, showing impressive growth for the latter number.
Apple has added a new category to its App Store, aimed just at children, the company's official App Store Twitter account announced on Saturday.
"Set children loose in wondrous worlds designed especially for them," the "Games for Kids" category description writes." From cute puzzlers to accessible tower-defense games, our selections are perfect for a wide range of skill levels and interests."
Rise & Shine is a new app, from the folks at Foley Productions, that has a creative way of getting you to wake up in the morning (or evening, depending on your schedule). We've seen apps where you have to shake the handset to make the alarm clock shut up, however Rise & Shine takes it a step further - you have to show it your pearly whites with a smile.
5by is an app on the iTunes App Store that will serve you with videos based on your mood. I've often done this through YouTube, where I'm in a really bad mood and will search for comedy videos to help brighten my spirits (I'm rarely mad, but it happens). 5by, also available on the web, will help expedite the process.
As reported by AppleInsider, Apple has raised minimum prices of iPhone and iPad applications in the App Store in Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and in the European Union.
As a result of the changes, customers in Canada will now see a minimum app price raised from $0.99 (USD$0.83) to $1.19 (USD$1.01). In the United Kingdom, the new minimum tier has gone up from £0.69 ($1.04) to £0.79 ($1.19) and €0.99 ($1.17) in the European Union, up from €0.89 ($1.05) before.
In addition, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets Apple sells in Brazil saw their prices skyrocketing by an average of 10 percent due to the steady devaluation of the country's currency, real.
Twitter plans to unveil its new video feature in the next few weeks, reports Recode, and apparently some of the past details shared were wrong. Instead of a 10 minute video limit for the Twitter Video service like previously believed, it will be closer to 20 seconds and actually have a lot of similarities to the six-second, Twitter-owned Vine.
Apple on Thursday announced that the first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store, with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases. It also revealed New Year’s Day 2015 marked the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history, as customers presumably used gift cards and took advantage of App Store sales.
In an effort to drum up more engagement from users, Twitter plans a native video player as an extension of its Vine service, and as a rival to Google's YouTube. Instead of just tweeting a URL to a video elsewhere, Twitter wants users to actually upload videos to its site to keep engagement and sell you products through advertisements.
The Twitter Video website, with limited access, appeared for a short time on Friday evening, clueing us in on some of the features Twitter Video may feature when it launches in the first half of 2015. While Twitter provided a few small details about its video service on a conference call in November, this is the first time we've gotten some real details.
Apple has extended its "Start Something New" campaign, to highlight art and photography created on the iPhone and iPad, past the web and into its retail stores.
Twitter user Storeteller noted on Friday that the Regent Street Apple Store in London began displaying the art Apple began showing on the "Start Something New" webpage earlier this week.
Apple's marketing team has pushed a new webpage worldwide titled "Start Something New" to highlight the iPad as a way of creating art through drawings and photographs.
Apple announced Tuesday evening that its iTunes Connect portal is now open again after shortly shutting down for the holidays, allowing developers to once again manage their apps with price changes, updates, and more.