Apple today has quietly started a Spanish language account on Twitter for the App Store. The purpose of the new Twitter feed is to reach a broader audience when it comes to marketing and promoting applications. The account carries the username of @AppStoreES and is touted as offering “all you need to know about apps directly from the App Store editorial team.”
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Without giving away official download numbers or stats (or ever featuring the app), Apple has officially shared that Pokémon Go has broken the record for the highest number of downloads during launch week on the App Store. The popular iOS app has ranked #1 on both the Free and Top Grossing Top Charts in the App Store since its launch earlier this month.
App analytics company App Annie is today out with a new report concerning the second quarter of 2016. At the beginning of this year, we covered the firm’s wrap-up report for 2015, noting that Apple’s App Store brought in 75% more revenue than the Play Store, despite a large difference in downloads. Now, the gap has gotten even bigger as the App Store continues to grow.
Update: Netflix has addressed the issue on Twitter:
We are aware of an issue where some users cannot download the latest Netflix version on iOS devices. We are investigating the issue.
— Netflix CS (@Netflixhelps) July 14, 2016
According to a variety of posts from Twitter user and confirmed by my own testing, Apple’s App Store appears to be suffering from a handful of issues tonight. Users are unable to update a variety of apps. The issues most notably seems to be affecting Netflix and Snapchat.
Apple’s new European iOS App Development Center, announced back in January, is about to officially launch as the Università di Napoli Federico II in Italy today confirms it has partnered with Apple on the initiative (via Macerkopf).
When Apple first announced its plans for the new development center, the first of its kind to offer training for app developers in Europe, it didn’t say which school it would be partnering with to push the specialized curriculum. Today it confirmed the Università di Napoli Federico II will play host to the “iOS Developer Academy” with a dedicated facility that will offer Apple’s specialized app development training to a couple hundred students.
The program will begin in October and last nine months.
Reports are coming in that a list of App Store and iTunes services are currently down for users. Those affected are prevented from logging into their accounts, downloading and updating apps, or streaming previously purchased content. Apple’s system status as of 05:33 PM EST doesn’t list any services as being out, but tweets directed at Apple’s official support account seem to indicate otherwise.
Since iOS 10’s first beta hit last week, testers have been seeing signs of Apple’s Search Ads in the App Store. Officially announced a week earlier, Search Ads were marketed as being a way to help customers “discover or reengage” with an application. Something I wondered immediately after the original announcement was how Apple would regulate the Search Ads in a highly competitive market. After having used iOS 10 for over a week now, I’m not any less concerned.
Apple today released a new version of its iTunes Connect app for iOS during a demo of new features for the iTunes Connect developer portal at the company’s WWDC 2016 conference.
During its presentation, Apple noted that app review times “have gone way down” and offered a brief overview of changes it made to App Store policies. Apple recently completely revised guidelines to include easier to read language and an overall improved experience.
Big changes appear to be headed to iOS thanks to iOS 10. First party apps have begun appearing in the App Store, hinting at the strong possibility iOS users will be able to uninstall stock iOS apps. It also could potentially mean that users will be able to install and use third-party apps as default apps.
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Following news of incoming changes to Apple’s App Store that will benefit developers with a new subscription revenue split and paid search result ads, Spotify today outlined to The Verge why the improvements don’t address their issues with Apple’s policies.
Specifically, a Spotify representative noted the company’s inability to offer special deals to customers and lack of access to data into “why customers churn — or who even qualifies as a long-term subscriber.”
It seems Apple isn’t going to be alone in offering a better deal to developers of subscription-based apps. The same day Phil Schiller revealed that developers will receive 85% of subscription revenue from year two, Re/code reports (and TNW confirms) that Google will be offering the same deal to Android developers – but with one big difference …
Apple’s WWDC event kicks off on Monday, but App Store head Phil Schiller is already sharing some major changes coming to the App Store that will impact developers. The news comes just six months after Schiller added additional App Store responsibilities to his role.
Yahoo is today launching a Yahoo Sports app for Apple TV that lets users access free sports news, live streams, and video highlights that the service already offers via an iOS app and across other platforms.
Update 2: Apple is reporting that the iCloud.com services have also been restored.
Update: Apple is reporting that the availability of some services has now been restored but several features of iCloud are still down and undergoing maintenance.
As noted by Apple’s system status page, a multitude of Apple services are currently experiencing instability and downtime for some users. The affected services include the App Store, Mac App Store, Apple TV services, iTunes In The Cloud and critical features like Find My iPhone. We have also had a few reports of Apple Music downtime, seemingly repeating the outage yesterday, but Apple’s official status report does not mention any problems with Apple Music at this time.
Apple has quietly rolled out a change to the Apple TV App Store on tvOS in the last few days, which affects how apps are listed in the Top Charts. For the Top Charts (Top Paid, Top Free, Top Grossing), the Apple TV App Store will now hide listings for apps that the user has already downloaded, so the charts update dynamically per user. This means users can only browse for apps they don’t already own, removing some clutter and allowing less popular apps more opportunity to be seen. This behavior is novel and isn’t currently replicated by the iPhone and iPad App Stores.
To try this out for yourself, open the Apple TV App Store and download the #1 Top Free app. After force-quitting and re-opening the App Store (by swiping it away in the multitasking tray), the app will disappear from the charts. What was previously listed at #2 will now take the top spot (via Equinux).
Following the expanded launch of Apple Pay in Singapore this week, TechCrunch spoke with Apple VP Jennifer Bailey about Apple Pay’s roadmap. The Apple executive said the company wants to bring Apple Pay to every significant market in which it operates with particular focus on rapid expansion in Europe and Asia. Apple Pay is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Singapore and Australia. Apple has already said the mobile payments service will reach Hong Kong soon …
As we approach Apple’s WWDC 2016 developer conference scheduled for June 13-17, there are more than a few reported in-development features and fixes that are likely candidates for stage time. An Apple Music revamp, Apple Pay updates, improvements for the App Store, and new features for HomeKit, Siri, and Apple News are just a few possibilities for Apple’s event next month. Below we roundup those features and much more as we take a look at the most likely new iPhone and iPad features in the works for iOS 10:
Adobe today announced an update to Adobe Capture CC—its iOS app that lets users capture and edit images for use in its other editing apps.
The update brings a new Patterns feature that the company says “transforms any image or real-world object into a geometric or organic pattern.”
“Traditionally, the process of creating a pattern required manual tiling and a tedious chore of blending between tiles. The newest capability in Capture CC automatically blends the seams between tiles for a perfect pattern.”
And you can see in the screenshots above how the patterns feature works from with the Capture CC app on iPhone. After taking a photo, the feature allows you to select a portion of the photo to use and then automatically generates a pattern for you to preview.
Adobe offered up some other examples of the new Patterns feature in action. This one is made using a source photo of the Statue of Liberty:
Also included in the update:
IMPROVED SHAPE EDITING
Users asked for more editing controls when creating a new shape. You can now remove unwanted details or break connected paths with the new erase tool.
OTHER FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
This release also includes several bug fixes and improved app stability.
The updated Capture CC app for iOS, version 2.0, is available on the App Store now.
We heard last month that Apple has a team of around 100 people working on revamping the search functionality in the iOS App Store. If true, it’s long overdue because App Store search is a truly terrible experience. You know it, I know it, developers know it, everyone in the world knows it – except, it had always appeared, the Apple execs in charge of it.
If Apple is actually going to fix App Store search so that it works, that’s excellent news. But one part of the report sounded distinctly less encouraging.
One of the methods that Apple is considering is paid search. Essentially, developers and companies could pay to have their app shown more prominently in search results.
That gives the impression that Apple is more focused on generating additional revenue than delivering a great user experience …
While there hasn’t been an official policy change or new strategy made public, software developers have been noticing dramatically shorter review times when submitting apps through Apple’s approval process on both the iOS and Mac App Stores. Citing data from AppReviewTimes.com, Bloomberg today highlights the positive trend, while noting that iOS App Store review times currently average just two days turnaround time and just one day for the Mac App Store.
Netflix is today introducing a new way for users of its mobile apps to adjust the quality of video streams based on data usage. The new “cellular data controls” in the mobile apps include Low, Medium, or High settings.
[UPDATE: Users in comments and elsewhere are reporting similar issues with books and music, and Apple has now updated its status page.
Users are experiencing a problem with the App Store. We are investigating and will update the status as more information becomes available.]
[UPDATE 2: Apple says the issue is now resolved.]
A number of Reddit and Twitter users are reporting problems searching both iOS and Mac App Stores, with major iOS apps like Star Wars, Spotify and Google Apps failing to show up in search results – and even Apple’s own Xcode failing to show in searches of the Mac App Store. I’m seeing the same issues myself …
Apple has announced on its developer blog that it will require all apps submitted to the iOS App Store to support IPv6-only networks from June 1 2016. Apple originally introduced the transition a year ago at WWDC 2015, implying it would soon become a requirement.
Moog Music has been known for producing some of the most popular synthesizers since the 70s— we reviewed a couple of the newer models in our Logic Pros series and noted that iPad/Mac synths still can’t quite capture the experience of even a $1,000 Moog. But today Moog is releasing its own iPad and iPhone version of its popular $10,000 Model 15, aiming to offer a similar experience in a $30 mobile app.
Moog’s own techs helped program the app at the Moog Factory in Asheville, NC, according to the company, with the app both resembling the look and sound of the original 1970’s Model 15 hardware:
