This week’s edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes an app for capturing printed text, a simple image editor, and a budget manager for couples. And as always, we have two new games for you to check out this weekend.
Oil giant ExxonMobil introduced basic Apple Pay support within its mobile Speedpass+ app in March 2016, allowing customers to pay for fuel at approximately 6,000 gas stations nationwide. Yesterday, the company announced that customers can now pay for fuel and car washes using their Apple Watch and Apple Pay at over 10,000 Exxon and Mobil refueling stations across the United States.
Users must launch the Speedpass+ app on their watch and select the pump they're at to authorize it for payment. Next, press the Side button twice to invoke Apple Pay and approve the payment. You can start fueling up your vehicle.
Other new features available within the app include support for Touch ID app protection and Ford vehicles equipped with SYNC 3 technology to easily authorize payments, making it the first fuel payment connected car app in the United States.
Ford owners can additionally use the Speedpass+ app to check how much fuel is left in the tank when they are away from their car. Customers even have the option to apply for an ExxonMobil-branded credit card issued by Citibank from inside the app.
Once your application has been approved, the card will be automatically added as a payment option within the app, and you can start using it right away. For a limited time, new accounts shall receive a savings of 20 cents per gallon for the first two months, then six cents on every gallon after that, the company said.
ExxonMobil's app now supports several payment methods, including major credit cards, debit cards, ExxonMobil Smart Cards, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
ExxonMobile Speedpass+ for iOS is available for free on App Store.
Apple has clarified in an email communique by its iTunes Affiliate Support team that the recently reduced affiliate rates which went into effect May 1 only apply to in-app content, not to apps linked on websites and other outlets.
The company announced a policy change last month, saying commission rates for apps and in-app content would drop from seven to just 2.5 percent. The firm now clarifies that the change applies only to affiliate links used inside apps, not the ones on websites like iDB.
“Please note that only in-app commissions have changed,” reads the message from iTunes Affiliate Support. Here are the correct new app commission levels, according to Apple itself:
iOS apps commissions: 7 percent In-app iOS commissions: 2.5 percent Mac apps commissions: 7 percent In-app macOS commissions: 2.5 percentSeveral website owners and bloggers linking to App Store and Mac App Store apps have reported that the seven percent commission for apps has in fact remained unchanged.
MacGamerHQ provides the following screenshots of Apple's email to iTunes Affiliate members.
Apple originally said about two weeks ago that beginning May 1, 2017 commissions for all apps and in-app content would get slashed from seven percent to just 2.5 percent globally. The poor wording of the message has been blamed for the misunderstanding.
“We will also continue to pay affiliate commissions on Apple Music memberships so there are many ways to earn commissions with the program,” Apple said two weeks ago.
Aside from slashing commissions for in-app content, items like music, movies, books and TV subscriptions remain subjected to the seven percent commission rate across all markets.
iTunes Affiliate Program lets website owners and developers claim a small percentage of the proceeds from linked apps and content.
The company's Affiliate Resources webpage offers a Getting Started guide on becoming an affiliate partner, an updated Program Overview section providing information on the commission raters, reporting, creating links and other useful resources.
Snap Inc. is gearing up to launch original TV shows on the service that would last between three and five minutes long. As per the Wall Street Journal today, the company has partnered with a bunch of content owners on the initiative, including NBCUniversal, Turner, A+E Networks, Discovery, BBC, ABC, ESPN, Vice Media, Vertical Networks, NFL and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Snap is aiming to air between two and three new episodes of original TV shows per day by the end of 2017. The company is looking for scripted dramas, daily news shows, horror, documentaries, animated shows and more.
Snap is also in discussions with CBS and Fox, said people familiar with the matter.
They could soon reach a deal with Scripps Networks Interactive, which owns Food Network and HGTV. According to the report, HGTV could produce offshoots of its current TV shows for Snap, including House Hunters and Chopped.
TV companies “are flocking” to create original shows for Snap because its executives “embrace certain old media values” like scarcity and promoting a select group of premium content above user-generated fare.
“I don't want to be a TV killer,” said a former News Corp. executive who works for Snap.
Here's an excerpt from the article:
To this extent, Snapchat might change some fundamental aspects of the social network in order to encourage binging and catching up with its shows, instead of sticking to its ephemeral content strategy which removed some past shows from the service after 48 hours.
For the new slate of TV shows, it's still unclear when exactly Snapchat plans to begin the launch, but users can at least expect them to begin debuting by the end of the year.
TV shows will be provided in the Stories tab of the mobile Snapchat app.
Snap has now launched an interactive audition experience akin to “The Voice” in its mobile app.
NBC's “Saturday Night Live” has already created original shows for Snapchat, like an episode pictured top of post where a couple tries to boycott all things related to Donald.
Apple yesterday pushed the first update to Clips for iPhone and iPad following the software's debut on App Store nearly a month ago. Bumped to version 1.0.1, Clips packs in improvements to the Live Title feature that lets you create animated captions and titles in 36 different languages using your voice.
Apple says you can now tap on Live Title text while playing or paused to edit it manually in case Siri misheard you. Additionally, when you share your edited video to a contact who has multiple messaging addresses in your address book, the app will now suggest the most frequently used address.
Lastly, the stability and reliability when capturing and sharing videos that contain certain posters have been improved in this edition of the app.
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Clips is compatible with iPhone 5s and later, 9.7-inch iPad (2017), all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad mini 2 and later and sixth-generation iPod touch.
The app requires iOS 10.3 or later and does not work on 32-bit devices.
For more on Clips, check out our walkthrough video included above. Clips was introduced as part of a flurry of Apple's Spring product refreshes in March.
Download Clips for iOS for free via App Store.
Hulu's long-expected live TV service has gone official with today's launch of the Hulu Live TV app on App Store. Designed for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV, the software lets subscribers access the entire Hulu streaming library and more than 50 top live and on-demand channels, including FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, FX, NBCSN, FS1, History Channel and TNT.
In addition, live sports from top pro and college leagues, as well as regional sports networks, are available in certain areas. As a bonus, you'll get to stream national news with local feeds in select cities, popular kids shows, can’t-miss events and thousands of popular on-demand shows and movies from many of these channels.
You can choose to subscribe to Hulu with ad-supported Live TV for $40, or an additional $4 per month to get rid of advertising. Advanced features are available for extra money, such as Cloud DVR which lets you record live TV to watch your favorites on your own time, the ability to watch concurrent streams on multiple devices, as well as track and record games from your favorite teams with a My Teams feature.
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For an additional $15 per month, you can upgrade Cloud DVR functionality with up to 200 hours of cloud storage and the ability to fast-forward through commercials. Unlimited simultaneous viewing on as many screens as you want is an additional $15 per month. And if you purchase both add-ons, you'll save a cool $10.
As soon as you launch the app, you're greeted with all-new onboarding experience.
Firstly, you're asked to log in with your Hulu subscription credentials. The app cannot be used unless you're a subscriber. The setup procedure then takes you on a quick tour of the app's main features such as your personal live TV lineup, a My Stuff section and more.
Next, you can optionally tell the app about the kinds of shows you prefer to watch, helping it recommend content that's tailored to your needs. Finally, you can add your favorite shows and movies to the My Stuff section, or skip this step and set up these items at a later stage.
The app lets you create up to six personalized profiles so everyone in your household gets to enjoy their own personalized Hulu experience with their own collection of shows, movies, networks and more. Like with other services, the more you watch, the smarter the system gets.
You can browse Hulu's library while you watch with a Fliptray feature that lets you quickly find what else is on, change the channel, or get recommendations of what to watch next. Just tap the Fliptray button during playback to get started with this multitasking capability.
The app supports iPhone and iPad with iOS 10+ and the fourth-generation Apple TV.
A free seven-day trial of Hulu Live TV is available to new and eligible subscribers. As a cool bonus, Hulu will let you try out each of the add-ons for one month without being charged.
Download Hulu Live TV from App Store.
Google has confirmed that it will be bringing back support for Apple Watch to the Maps app for iPhone and iPad at some point in the future. In a statement issued Tuesday to AppleInsider, a spokesperson for the search giant said: “We removed Apple Watch support from our latest iOS release, but expect to support it again in the future”.
The company provided no explanation for the removal of Apple Watch functionality from Maps for iOS, which went largely unnoticed because it wasn't mentioned in App Store release notes.
As we reported yesterday, recent updates to major iPhone apps like Google Maps, eBay, Amazon and Target came stripped of all Apple Watch support, perhaps indicating that watchOS features in them were not widely used.
Google brought its Maps app to Apple Watch in September 2015, with features like turn-by-turn driving, walking and transit directions for recently visited points of interest. The app lacked other features found in Apple's Maps for Apple Watch, such as no conventional map view and the inability to conduct searches without a tethered iPhone.
There’s nearly a full second of delay after pressing your Home button before the app you’re in actually closes. Whether you love or hate the delay remains to be seen, but if you aren't fond of it, now there's something you can do about it.
Installing a new free jailbreak tweak called Accelerated Home Button by iOS developer Mehul Rao from Cydia virtually eliminates the delay effect, making access to your Home screen instantaneous after pressing the Home button.
The popular messaging app WhatsApp is experimenting with a new pinning feature in the chat list that, when released for everyone, will permit you to stick up to three contacts to the top of the conversation list, regardless of when they last messaged you.
As first noted by AndroidPolice, it was spotted in the latest beta builds of WhatsApp for Android. Other features in an iOS beta of the app include albums, the ability to revoke a message after it's been sent, sending your real-time location to friends and family and more.
WhatsApp Albums, another upcoming feature, is in its early stages of development. Eventually, it will let you create custom albums of photos for sharing with individuals and groups.
Like other WhatsApp features, albums use end-to-end encryption.
According to WABetaInfo on Twitter, the unsend feature may be remotely enabled in the latest stable version of WhatsApp. Full support for rich notifications is being worked on, too.
Recent WhatsApp updates brought us improvements like the ability for Siri to read aloud newly received messages, text-only statuses, two-step verification for your account, sending messages offline, searching for animated GIFs from Gify and more.
You can join the WhatsApp for Android beta channel on Google's Play Store, by tapping Join Beta at the bottom of the listing. WhatsApp for iPhone betas require a jailbroken device.
A few major iPhone apps have recently removed support for watchOS from their iOS updates submitted to App Store, including Google Maps, Amazon and eBay. As first noted by AppleInsider, retailer Target also removed Apple Watch support from one of its recent updates although the company still offer watchOS integration with its Cartwheel app.
Apple's dedicated TV app on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV now supports Sony's Crackle video-streaming service, in addition to content from Filmstruck and Freeform apps. The company's support document highlighting the TV app was updated earlier in the morning to reflect these additions.
Italian developer Bloop today updated its excellent Mac email client Airmail with a bunch of new features, third-party integrations and other enhancements. Airmail 3.2.5 for macOS, a free update for existing users, introduces new integrations with the information management app DEVONThink and Bear, a beautiful writing app for notes and prose. Other new features include HTML user templates, out-of-office auto responders, enhanced privacy and more.