Apps

Spotify’s Discover tab finally makes its way over to Apple devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The Swedish streaming music startup Spotify has finally updated its iOS client today with a new Discover tab which made its way into the Android build back in December 2012 and four months later into the web interface.

Basically a music recommendation engine, Discover suggests similar songs based on your listening history and your playlists. Oh, and iPhone users will be happy to learn that Spotify now lets them fully customize their playlists.

This feature was previously inexplicably reserved only for the iPad client. Oh, and they just flattened the app icon so it fits better on your iOS 7 Home screen...

Microsoft enhances OneNote, revamps for consistent cross-platform look

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Microsoft's otherwise fine OneNote app has seen little updates on mobile devices, with Evernote and other offerings beating the Windows giant handily to the note-taking punch.

Figuring it better do something about it, the Redmond firm on Monday issued a pretty major 2.0 update to iOS and Android builds which brings consistent look and feel across Windows, Windows Phone, Android and iOS.

And in addition to rendering ink on your iDevices, version 2 of OneNote enables full support for Office 365 notebooks in SkyDrive Pro, rich formatting toolbars on iPads to style your notes, search across notes and more. If you can't live without Microsoft's Office suite and prefer to run productivity apps from a single vendor for seamless sync, you should give OneNote a try...

Yahoo News iOS app gets cleaner UI, frictionless sharing and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 1, 2013

Yahoo has been busy updating its key iOS apps around a delightful new look. In weeks past, for example, the company has re-launched Mail and Search apps while releasing a brand new Weather app that has to be seen to be believed.

Each of these program has been meticulously rethought with a cleaner, flatter and more fluid user interface that's consistent with Yahoo's modernized design language.

Today, the Internet giant has issued a refreshed version of its News iOS app that brings visual tweaks while adding improved sharing and navigation, sponsored stories and other treats...

It takes 72,000 downloads a day for an app to reach top 10 spot in the App Store

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 12, 2018

You have a whiz-bang idea for an iOS app, but want to know how much effort it will take to get into the top 10 list? On general, it requires 4,000 daily downloads for an app to reach the top 10 paid apps, and it requires earning $47,000 per day for paid apps to reach rank 10 in the grossing charts, a new study finds. For the bean-counters in the audience, that translates to $32 in purchases per minute or $1,920 per hour.

Another tip: never try to break into the top 10 during weekends. Instead, you'll have better luck on Thursdays. If you want little competition, try Google or Amazon, where all you hear are crickets chirping, according to an app analytics firm...

Apple introduces new app pricing tiers

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 28, 2013

As you know, Apple gives its iOS developers the freedom to choose pricing of their wares on the App Store, keeping 30 percent of the proceeds to itself. But rather than let a developer price an app at fifteen cents, for example, Apple offers a bunch of tiers. This also means localized versions of apps carried on international App Stores are priced differently to reflect a rough conversion of the U.S. prices.

Seeking to better align with the pricing structure in the U.S. App Store, Apple has now introduced alternate tiers for international App Stores so developers can price their software in .99 increments in the country’s native currency...

Netflix launches virtual recommendation assistant Max, coming soon to iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Netflix today announced that PlayStation 3 users can take advantage of its new feature, a goofy recommendation engine dubbed Max.

Kinda a crossover between iTunes Genius and Siri, Max is designed to help you find something great to watch in a fun, conversational way (Netflix rather confusingly calls it "the child of Siri and HAL 9000").

Tapping Netflix's extensive database of tags and your viewing history, the engine recommends movies and television shows it thinks you might be interested in watching. And when it doesn't feel confident enough about its predictions, Max may ask you a question or challenge you to play a "ratings game"...

Microsoft releases SkyDrive Pro iOS app for Office 365 subscribers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Windows maker Microsoft today released a new iOS app focused on its SkyDrive storage, which is deeply integrated throughout its Windows 8 and Windows Phone offerings. Although the company already has a nice SkyDrive app on the App Store which gives you quick access to 25GB of free cloud storage in the Microsoft cloud for your personal files, this one's different in that it requires SharePoint or Office365 credentials and is meant for businesses subscribed to Office 365 ...

AOL releases brand new iPad app for mail, weather, news and video

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 27, 2013

It's not just Yahoo: in a bid to regain its relevancy, AOL is doubling down on software. First, it jumped on the Google Reader bandwagon with its own AOL Reader.

But AOL is just warming up: today, the beleaguered firm has launched an iOS app that lets you access its popular properties like News, Weather, Video and Mail. If I wanted to be cynical, I'd say AOL has been lingering on the brink of relevancy for quite some time now.

The firm's customer base had been reduced to 10.1 million subscribers by November 2007, just narrowly ahead of Comcast and AT&T Yahoo. If you count yourself as an AOL fan, go past the fold for the full breakdown...

Skype iOS apps updated with free and unlimited Video Messages

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 27, 2013

Microsoft-owned Skype was testing a new Video Messages feature since mid-February, but it wasn't until mid-June that they opened video messaging to everyone.

Today, the software maker has finally updated Skype for iPhone and iPad with free and unlimited Video Messages, basically short videos Skype users can send to each other, even when offline.

Previously, you could only send 20 free messages up to three-minute long each before being prompted to sign up for a $4.99 premium Skype account...

Reeder for iPhone goes free, support for Google Reader alternatives coming soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

Whenever I feel like skimming through my RSS feeds, I turn to Reeder, Silvio Rizzi's excellent RSS client for the iPhone and iPad. I've been using it for years now and with the impending July 1 Google Reader shutdown, Silvio figured he could kick his value proposition up a notch by making Reeder for iPhone free. In addition, he's busy working on the next update which will enable a number of Google Reader alternatives such as Feedly, Wrangler and others...

First Google Hangouts update brings new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 27, 2013

In the first major update since its release back in May, Google's cross-platform unified messaging software Hangouts has just enhanced your chatting experience with a couple new additions. Addressing some of the top requests, Google Hangouts versions 1.1.1 features improved iOS 6 support and now finally lets you send URLs, as well as and click on links received in chat messages. I've included more information about this update after the break...

Apple dogfooding iWork for iCloud Beta to all employees

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 26, 2013

Along with a host of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks announcements, Apple spent some air time during its WWDC 2013 keynote talking about the much-improved cloud component of its iWork productivity suite for Macs and iDevices.

iWork for iCloud, as it is called, for the first time provides rich Pages, Keynote and Numbers web apps that run smoothly in a web browser like Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer, much like Google's Docs suite.

After making iWork for iCloud Beta available to its registered developers via the beta.icloud.com web page, the company has just started dogfooding the software to all its employees...