App Store

Grab Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon for free

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Lost in the sea of Black Friday holiday deals and discounts on tons of Mac, iPhone and iPad apps and accessories, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon is now available at no cost through Thursday, courtesy of Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion. That's a savings of $4.99 for the iPhone and iPad download.

In this action-role playing extravaganza, Marvel's cosmic antiheroes face Roman, Nebula and other familiar foes.

The game features cartoonish visuals, familiar characters like Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora and Drax, in addition to piles of unlockable ones such as Beta Ray Bill, a story co-written by comic-book scribe Dan Abnett and much more.

I know what you're thinking so I'm happy to report that there are no In-App Purchases in this game and no Internet connection is required to play.

App Store changes ‘Free’ button to ‘Get’

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 19, 2014

Apple's App Store in the United States and elsewhere has changed the “Free” button to “Get”, as first noted by Sebastián Salazar on Twitter. The new “Get” button now appears in the App Store on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, as well as in the App Store section of iTunes for Windows and Mac.

As Salazar noted, the change may be in response to the avalanche of freemium software models that have been dominating mobile application stores for quite some time now.

Apple adds UnionPay as a new payment option for App Store customers in China

Sébastien Page ∙ November 16, 2014

Apple announced Sunday night in a press release that the company has added UnionPay as a payment option for the App Store in China. Having issued over 4.5 billion UnionPay cards to date both in China and abroad, China UnionPay is the major bankcard network in the People's Republic. According to the press release, UnionPay customers will be able to easily link their Apple ID with a UnionPay debit or credit card for one-tap purchases.

Apple says iOS 8 adoption nearing 60%

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 27, 2018

The adoption rate for iOS 8 is slowly starting to pick up, according to Apple. As noted by MacRumors, the company tonight updated its developer portal with a new graph showing that the latest major revision of its mobile software is now on 56% of compatible devices.

This is good news for Apple, as the initial adoption rate for iOS 8 was embarrassingly low for a company that likes to tout the figure. In October, iOS 8 was believed to be installed on just 47% of compatible devices, compared to 70% for iOS 7 in the same time a year ago.

Apple changes its mind again, will allow calculator widgets in Notification Center after all

Sébastien Page ∙ October 30, 2014

Yes. No. YES!

These three words sum up the situation of PCalc, a powerful calculator app that features a Notification Center widget, whose developer was asked by Apple yesterday to remove as it apparently wasn't in line with App Store rules.

Today, it appears that Apple has changed its mind (again), as TechCrunch reports that they've been "hearing that Apple is changing its course. The PCalc app and widget will remain in the App Store, and all calculator-type widgets will be allowed as well, an Apple spokesperson has confirmed to us."

So what gives?

Pandora, Spotify beating Apple’s Beats handsomely on App Store

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Pandora and Spotify rank as the number one and number two music streaming apps in terms of downloads, analytics firm AppAnnie reports - no big surprise. However, where things become interesting is that Apple's Beats Music, which the company purchased for $3 billion in May, is placed ninth, below iHeartRadio, SoundCloud and Apple's GarageBand.

Taco Bell’s new iOS app makes fast food… faster

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Many social media users were intrigued when Taco Bell's social media accounts went dark on Tuesday, fearing the worst. Luckily, it was just Taco Bell announcing a major overhaul to its iOS app that allows customers to order and pay for food on their smartphones before even setting foot in the fast food chain.

How Complete My Bundle works

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 24, 2014

The much-improved App Store in iOS 8 features a number of enhancements. Case in point: app bundles. App bundles make it possible for developers to bundle up to ten of their existing iPhone and iPad applications in a single purchase at a reduced price.

Borrowing cues from the “Complete My Album” feature for music that debuted on iTunes in March 2007, app bundles are great promotional vehicles to drive sales and can serve as a nice reward for loyal customers.

But for the vast majority of ordinary users, app bundles are one of the least understood new features of the App Store in iOS 8. That it's still very unclear how the App Store's Complete My Bundle works is Apple's fault.

And it certainly doesn't make its users' lives any easier with cryptic feature descriptions and the App Store's non-intuitive bundle pricing mechanism. But don't sweat, here's everything you need to know in order to understand how Complete My Bundle works.

Vine updated with support for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, iOS 8 extensions and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 9, 2018

Twitter has released an update for its popular video-sharing app Vine today, bringing the iOS client to version 3.0. The update features a number of enhancements, including support of iOS 8 extensions and the larger displays of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

With iOS 8 extension support, users can now upload content to Vine from the Photos app, or any other video app that supports extensions. Users can also now follow Vine channels, such as Animals or Comedy, to get relevant videos added to their feeds.

Apps with support for Apple Pay

Timothy Reavis ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Alongside today's launch of Apple Pay, the App Store is featuring a running list of apps that have been updated to include support for Apple Pay purchases. These apps can accept payment on any iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 3 with iOS 8.1 installed and Apple Pay configured.

A number of apps have received updates with support for seamless purchases with Apple Pay, and several more apps will follow suit in the near future. We've complied a list of apps, complete with links, that support Apple Pay and will be adding to it as updates are released, so check back soon. If you know of an app that supports Apple Pay but isn't featured here, please let us know in the comments below or via email at tips@idownloadblog.com.

iOS 8 adoption slows, now tied with iOS 7 at 47%

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 27, 2018

iOS 8 is now installed on 47% of all compatible devices, according to Apple. The company updated its App Store support page for developers tonight, showing that adoption for the latest major version of iOS is now tied with iOS 7, leaving just 6% of devices on older firmware.

This means that iOS 8 adoption has gone up just a single percentage point in the past two weeks, as Apple reported it installed on 46% of devices on September 21. It's believed that the still-sluggish iOS 8 adoption rate may be due to the number of bugs that have plagued the software.

New App Store section features “Apps for Health,” a collection of apps that support HealthKit

Timothy Reavis ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

The App Store has been updated Saturday afternoon with an "Apps for Health" section in the Featured tab, which lists several apps that use iOS 8's Health app to aggregate health and fitness data into a unified location for users.

After delaying HealthKit-compatible apps due to a critical bug in the first version of iOS 8, Apple released iOS 8.0.2 on Thursday and quickly began approving apps that take advantage of the health-tracking features the following day. Now, Apple has created this new section in an effort to promote apps that have received their HealthKit updates.

Although there may be more out there – and more are sure to come – Apple has 14 apps listed, and we've compiled them below with links to each.