Photo-sharing service Instagram announced Wednesday that its mobile app for iOS and Android has passed 700 million users. Instagram hit the 600 million users milestone in December 2016, meaning the Facebook-owned company has managed to attract a hundred million new users to its platform in less than five months.
Nintendo just issued a second major update to Super Mario Run for iPhone following the game's App Store inception in December 2016. Version 2.1 includes several enhancements and perks, such as official support for Game Center achievements (finally!), the ability to use your bespoke Miitomo character as your in-game player icon, new buildings including the 8-bit Bowser Statue, Bullet Bill Statue and Bob-omb Statue, plus additional changes and improvements.
Google's dedicated Photos app for iPhone and iPad was updated on App Store today with the ability to enjoy your photos and videos through the Apple TV media streamer with AirPlay. Aside from the ability to beam photos and videos wirelessly to your telly, Google Photos for iOS 2.14.0, a free download from App Store, also includes unspecified performance improvements.
As first noted by Contrast founder David Barnard, Apple just slashed the affiliate commission on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac apps and In-App Purchases from the previous seven percent rate down to 2.5 percent globally.
“Beginning May 1, 2017, commissions for all apps and in-app content will be reduced from seven percent to 2.5 percent globally,” Apple told iTunes Affiliate Program members via email.
All other iTunes content types, including music, movies, electronic books and TV subscriptions, shall remain at the current seven percent commission rate in all markets.
“We will also continue to pay affiliate commissions on Apple Music memberships so there are many ways to earn commissions with the program,” reads Apple's message.
Apple's Affiliate Resources webpage has received a facelift with optimized navigation, a new Getting Started guide on becoming an affiliate partner, an updated Program Overview section providing information on the commission raters, reporting, creating links and more.
Source: David Barnard on Twitter via MacRumors
Apple on Monday issued fourth betas of what would become maintenance and bug-fix updates to its four major software platforms: iOS, macOS Sierra, watchOS and tvOS. Members of the Apple Developer Program can now deploy iOS 10.3.2 beta 4 (build 14F5086a), macOS Sierra 10.12.5 beta 4 (build 16F67a), watchOS 3.2.2 beta 4 (build 14V5485a) and tvOS 10.2.1 beta 4 (build 14W5583a) through the Software Update mechanism.
The popular messaging app WhatsApp for iPhone was update yesterday with a few new features, bringing the ability to have Siri read new messages you have received via the service. The Facebook-owned software now supports the Persian language while the Group Info, Contact Info and Calls sections have been revamped to make them easier to use. WhatsApp's two-factor authentication interface was tweaked as well.
Yesterday at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, photo-sharing service Instagram introduced an offline mode in its Android app. A Facebook spokesperson says the team is “exploring” adding that feature to the company's iPhone and iPad app, TechCrunch has learned. Offline mode could be an important feature for users with limited network connectivity or no data plan, especially given that 80 percent of Instagram’s 600 million users are outside the US.
Instagram recently added a tool that permits you to save posts for later and organize them into Pinterest-like curated collections that only you can see. Whether you want to plan your next day trip, revisit your favorite artists’ illustrations or always have some animal videos on hand, our tutorial will get you up to speed on Instagram's Saved Posts and Collections features and lay out the basics of keeping track of any posts you wish to remember.
Facebook today kicked off its annual F8 conference for developers with a bunch of announcements, including game bots and turn-by-turn games on Messenger, plus a food-ordering feature via the company's M personal assistant. According to Facebook, Messenger users have played over 1.5 billion games in just the last 90 days.
Facebook at last year's F8 brought scannable profile codes to the mobile Messenger app, making it a cinch to add a person you've just met as your Messenger contact. At F8 2017 this week, the company is introducing parametric QR codes on the Messenger platform to help facilitate content discovery in the physical world.
Facebook’s annual developers conference, F8, is underway this week and the social networking firm just announced that its mobile Messenger app is gaining a new tab to help users find their recently used bots, nearby places and businesses to message. Titled Discover, the new tab has started to roll out to a few people in the US today ahead of wider availability.
Apple has offered an Apple Music API for some time now and Facebook leveraged it to integrate the service with Music Stories, a song-sharing feature available within its mainland iOS app. Soon, Apple Music will integrate with the Messenger platform, too (currently used by more than 1.2 billion people every month). At the F8 conference today, the social networking behemoth announced that Spotify integration will be available on Messenger at launch and Apple Music real soon.