Apps

Google Play grows, App Store still cash king

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 20, 2012

What's better: to be taller or wealthier? Carry that debate to Apple versus Google and you have the latest on the battle between Apple's App Store and Google Play. While Google's revenue is growing, Apple's application store for iOS devices simply overwhelms the Mountain View, California firm in terms of cash, even if there's another, much darker side to app economy.

During the last four months, Google Play's combined daily revenue grew at 43 percent compared to the App Store's 21 percent, according to research firm Distimo. However, over the entire year, App Store revenue rose by 51 percent.

But wait, there's more. In November, the App Store rang up $15 million in average daily revenue. That compares to $3.5 million for Google Play during the same time...

You can now download App Store apps without leaving Facebook

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2012

Remember the App Center, a cross-platform application store Facebook launched ahead of its rebuilt iOS app? Hosted and curated by Facebook, the App Center is available as a link in the main menu of their iOS client, listing Facebook-enhanced apps and games that can be found on the App Store. Previously, tapping an entry yanked you out of the Facebook app and into the App Store.

That's no longer the case as it is now possible to install App Store software from a pop-up inside the Facebook app, which is an iOS 6 SDK feature available to all third-party developers who wish to implement it...

Microsoft’s post-PC trouble: capturing the profits of bygone days

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 18, 2012

Before PC demand dwindled, software giant Microsoft was happy with licensing its Windows software to computer makers. Now that we are taking the first steps into the post-PC era, the Redmond firm still wants its profit. But how do you charge a $50 per-tablet royalty fee when the device itself costs $199?

Enter the $499 Surface, says one independent analyst. While Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire both sell for $199, the Surface carries the much higher price tag because Microsoft stubbornly refuses to give up the 30 percent profit margin it's accustomed to receiving for Windows and Office software licenses...

Rovio launches Christmas song, adds 24 levels and new power-ups to Angry Birds Rio

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwd99PfFwpw

Curl up with some hot cocoa and a holiday song from Finnish mobile games developer Rovio. The team has just updated Angry Birds Rio, its marketing tie-in with the 20th Century Fox animated film Rio. The fresh content pack brings 24 new levels and power ups, including a "special delivery" TNT Drop, Samba Burst, Sling Scope laser targeting and Super Seeds to supersize your birds.

There are twenty free power ups in total to boot from, with an additional power up added each day. Plus, you can collect stars to unlock eighteen special Star levels and earn feathers to unlock six Mighty Eagle levels. Rovio also created an Angry Birds-themed holiday song titled “Fly Me Home Tonight” in honor of the festive season...

Introducing Cubasis: when GarageBand is not enough

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ek0PByfVg

Musicians need no introduction to Steinberg, a Hamburg, Germany-based maker of musical software and equipment. Their Cubase program and other software suites support pro music recording, arranging and editing and are widely used in digital audio workstations and VSTi software synthesizers around the world.

When a company this significant releases a multitouch sequencer for Apple's iPad that lets you record, edit and mix on the go, this becomes news in and of itself. "Cubasis places touch-intuitive production tools in your hands, opening up a new world of possibilities for your creativity", Steinberg writes...

2012: a year in App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2012

With 750,000+ apps in the App Store and iTunes approaching half a billion accounts with credit cards enabled for one-click shopping, little wonder iOS, by and large, has remained the platform of choice for mobile developers, in spite of Android's lead in sales volume. While only a small number devs earn millions writing apps, the race to the bottom is taking its toll as most bedtime devs opt to keep their day jobs.

Appsfire, a website devoted to App Store discovery, has analyzed key app trends in 2012, creating an illustrative infographic that highlights today's App Store app ecosystem...

Google+ holiday treats: better photo experience, conversation cards, more fluid UI

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

With over a hundred million active users, Google+ is, as Eric Schmidt put it, "a viable competitor to Facebook" and its nearly one billion users. This morning, the search firm is issuing new iOS and Android builds that enable a bunch of holiday treats. On the iOS side, you can now swipe through photo albums inline or tap once to see the photos full screen. New conversation cards are also available for highlighting specific content, from longer snippets to bigger photos to comments that slide in beneath each post...

Twitter app update with Instagram-like filters now available for download

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 11, 2012

As I reported yesterday, Twitter has updated its Android app with the promised Instagram-competing photo filters, a first for the micro-blogging service seeking to supplant Instagram as your favorite photo sharing service. That, my friends, is a pretty tall order given Instagram's popularity, the Facebook backing and a growing number of new features Instagram's gaining. Be that as it may, Twitter has waited until this morning to roll out filters to its iOS client.

You're gonna love the ability to snap a scene, edit the photo with the filters supplied by Aviary and tweet out your work without jumping back and forth between Twitter and your go-to iPhoneography app. You can grab the free download right now from the App Store. More on other features right after the break...

Find My iPhone, now with driving directions to lost devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 11, 2012

A small but noteworthy update to Apple's Find My iPhone software has just surfaced on iTunes. The iPhone and iPad app which lets you locate stolen or misplaced devices on a world map has gained ability to provide driving directions to your lost gear. This capability requires the new Find My iPhone app version 2.0.1 or later and iOS 6 or later. Apple has also enabled another tweak where Play Sound, Lost Mode and Erase buttons appear separately from the main map view. Unfortunately, the repugnant stitched leather theme is still all over the app...

YouTube app goes iPad, adds AirPlay, iPhone 5 support

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 4, 2012

Following up on its sweet Gmail refresh earlier today, Google's just announced with a post over at the official YouTube blog a long-expected update to its nice YouTube iPhone app. For starters, the program finally runs on the iPad natively, which means you can now search for kitten videos using your beloved tablet and enjoy them in high-definition on that beautiful 9.7-inch Retina display.

The software also takes full advantage of the iPhone 5's bigger display and lets you stream YouTube clips to your badass TV through the Apple TV hockey puck and using AirPlay, a wireless media streaming technology from Apple. Accessibility, video playback improvements and other perks come included with the package. But first things first...

Apple’s Remote app gains iTunes 11 support, Up Next, revamped iPad UI and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 29, 2012

Following the official release of iTunes 11 for Mac and Windows and an incremental Apple TV firmware update, today's update bonanza continues with the release of a minor update to Apple's Remote iOS app. It now plays nice with iTunes 11, of course, and includes a redesigned interface on iPad tablets that takes design cues from the new iTunes, just as the previous version was reminiscent of desktop iTunes. As for iTunes 11 support, the updated Remote app now includes overhauled library views, an expanded view for your media, improved search results, the new UpNext feature and more...