App Store

2,108 'App Store' stories December 2010 - April 2014

Apple updates App Store content ratings system with new descriptions and market-specific ratings

Mike Beasley Apr 22 2014 - 3:27 pm PT

Apple has made some changes to the way it handles content ratings in the App Store, as outlined in an email (included below) sent to developers today. These ratings aren’t the five-star reviews that users assign apps, but the age-based restrictions assigned to each app based on the type of content in the app. While most apps are rated 4+ (the lowest), some that contain violent or potentially offensive content may have higher ratings (as seen above).

Starting today, developers will be able to assign a few new content descriptions to their apps in order to help better determine what age group the software is appropriate for. These new descriptions include “Medical/Treatment Information, Gambling and Contests, and Unrestricted Web Access.” That last one is good news for many developers previously forced to use a 17+ rating just because their app included a web browser that could be used to accesss anything on the web.

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Apple enticing games publishers with promotion deals in return for exclusivity

Benjamin Mayo Apr 21 2014 - 1:23 am PT

3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal has published a report saying that both Apple and Google are actively pursuing exclusivity deals with game developers. Whispers of these type of arrangements surfaced last year, with reports highlighting a partnership between Apple and EA for Plants vs Zombies 2.

The Journal confirms that Apple’s exclusivity deals do not include monetary payments. In return, the companies offer “premium placement” (such as featured spots on the home page) for launching first on their platform.

In regard to the Plants vs Zombies’ deal, the report says EA gave Apple agreed about two months of exclusivity.

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MLB At Bat mobile apps adding Chromecast support today for Premium subscribers

Jordan Kahn Apr 17 2014 - 8:15 am PT

5 Comments

Google announced today on its Chrome blog that Major League Baseball is adding support for its $35 Chromecast streaming stick through the MLB At Bat app for Android and iOS. That means that users with the app and an MLB.TV Premium subscription will be able to stream live and on-demand video content from the app (or from a browser tab in Chrome through MLB’s site) to a Chromecast connected TV. You’ll also be able to use the phone or tablet you’re streaming from as a second-screen experience to “check scores, stats and news” while watching the game on the bigger screen:
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Square Enix brings Hitman to iOS w/ new turn-based strategy game

Jordan Kahn Apr 17 2014 - 8:01 am PT

1 Comment

Today Square Enix Montreal released a mobile version of the popular Hitman franchise responsible for a handful of critically acclaimed releases on consoles and PCs over the last decade. The iOS spin-off called Hitman Go sees players taking control of the franchise’s main character, hitman Agent 47, but the gameplay is a completely new twist on what we’ve seen from Hitman games in the past.

In the mobile game, you’ll still have to sneak your way through environments using disguises, distractions, and find secret areas and hiding spots to get to your target and complete a hit, but this time you’ll be doing so with turned-based puzzle/strategy gameplay on your iPhone or iPad.

With Hitman GO, you’ll experience:

• Challenging puzzles that put your assassination skills to the test
• Beautiful scale model-style visuals
• Environments with secret passageways and off-limit areas
• Agent 47’s tools of the trade: Distractions, disguises, hiding spots, sniper rifles and even the iconic Silverballers
• Different enemy types with unique and deadly behaviours
• Different ways of completing each level, silently or forcefully

Hitman Go is available for $4.99 on the App Store now.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9kJxrLSwHU]

A&E and History Channel add live TV stream in iOS apps

Jordan Kahn Apr 15 2014 - 9:34 am PT

7 Comments

A&E Networks has just updated iOS apps for two of its most popular TV channels, A&E and History, with the ability to watch live TV on both iPhone and iPad. The apps, which previously provided full episodes and clips on-demand to users in the US, will now provide a live stream of what’s playing on the TV channels. The live TV feature, however, will require a cable subscription.
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Pandora adds alarm clock feature for iPad, new app for Pebble users

Jordan Kahn Apr 14 2014 - 9:38 am PT

1 Comment

After introducing a new alarm clock feature for iPhone users back in December, streaming music service Pandora today updated its iPad app with the same functionality. The app already let users fall asleep to music using a Sleep Timer feature, and with today’s update to version 5.3 iPad users will now be able to set song or artist stations as alarm clocks.

The alarm clock feature also packs in the usual snooze feature and can be configured from Settings inside the Pandora app. The update also includes “other improvements and bug fixes” for both iPhone and iPad users.

Also available starting today is a Pandora app for Pebble smartwatch users available through the app store within the Pebble Smartwatch app for iOS. Pandora announced the new feature on its blog today and noted Pebble is the first wearable platform that Pandora is debuting on:

Using the Pebble, you can view and change stations, thumb songs up and down, skip, play and pause tracks – all from your wrist! If you already have a Pebble that is paired to your mobile device, you should get a notification that you can install Pandora, or you can start the install process at any time from the Pebble Settings Page.

Pandora version 5.3 is available on the App Store now.

What’s New in Version 5.3

Start waking up to music you love – the Pandora alarm clock is now available for iPad
• Pick your your favorite station to play as your alarm
• Not ready to wake up? Adjust the snooze time to catch more zzz’s
• Use with the sleep timer to hear your music morning and night

Other improvements and bug fixes to give you the best listening experience

Readdle’s Calendar apps get new iPad UI, custom reminders on iPhone, & more

Jordan Kahn Apr 14 2014 - 8:17 am PT

2 Comments

Readdle, the developer behind popular Calendar apps for iPhone and iPad, today updated both its free Calendars by Readdle and the $2.99 Calendars 5 with a number of notable new features.

First up, both apps get an updated iPad UI that includes a number of tweaks for improved navigation and layout. For iPhone users, version 5.4 of the apps brings the ability to create custom reminders, while both iPhone and iPad users gain Smart Input support in new languages including Italian, French, and Spanish. Those new features are in addition to a handful of other improvements and fixes that you’ll notice throughout both apps.

Calendars by Readdle is available for free on the App Store, while the more feature filled Calendars 5 sells for $2.99.

Yesterday Readdle’s popular Print Pro for iPhone app went free for 24 hours and quickly became the #1 free app in 15 countries.

What’s New in Version 5.4

– updated iPad UI
– Smart Input now supports French, Italian, and Spanish.
– custom reminders on the iPhone
– lots of minor improvements

Play Nintendo DS games on non-jailbroken devices with the nds4ios emulator

Benjamin Mayo Apr 14 2014 - 6:27 am PT

14 Comments

nds4ios has released a special version of the app that runs on non-jailbroken devices using a sneaky workaround. As the app is not available in the App Store, previously the app could only be installed on jailbroken devices, such as through the Cydia jailbreak app store. The app gets around Apple’s restrictions by using an enterprise provisioning profile reports TourchArcade. This is normally meant for businesses to distribute apps to company employees, but nds4ios is exploiting it as a way to enable widespread app distribution. Find install instructions after the break.

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OpenTV and Nagravision file patent lawsuit against Apple over video-related technology

Mike Beasley Apr 9 2014 - 2:15 pm PT

3 Comments

Photo: mashable.com

Suing Apple seems to be the thing to do these days. While the company is locked into a furious, seemingly-unending battle with Samsung, another suit has been announced today by two Swiss sister companies called OpenTV and Nagravision.

According to a press release by the The Kudelski Group, the parent company of the two filing suit, OpenTV focuses on software that includes “advanced program guides, video-on-demand, personal video recording, interactive and addressable advertising and a variety of enhanced television applications,” while Nagravision “provides security and multiscreen user experience solutions for the monetization of digital media.”

While the five patents in question aren’t specifically named in the press release, it’s safe to assume that they are related to video playback technologies included in OS X and iOS (both of which are named as infringing in the press release). iAds, iTunes, the App Store, and the Apple TV are also listed.

NBC iOS app finally lets you AirPlay its free full-length episodes to Apple TV

Jordan Kahn Apr 8 2014 - 6:37 am PT

7 Comments

NBC updated its mobile app for iPhone and iPad today with one big update for iOS and Apple TV users: the ability to AirPlay content from the mobile app to your TV via Apple TV.

The update is a big deal for a couple of reasons. The most notable being the fact that NBC offers full TV episodes for free through its mobile app, without the requirement of signing into your existing cable subscription like many other popular network apps. NBC has always been one of the go to apps for cord cutters, and now they’ll be able to beam that content onto the big screen using an Apple TV and AirPlay. Getting a lot of this content on the Apple TV previously required a subscription to Hulu or signing into a cable subscription.
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Amazon A9’s VP of Search heads to Apple to fix up Maps search

Mark Gurman Apr 7 2014 - 10:45 pm PT

8 Comments

Benoit Dupin, Vice President of Amazon A9’s Search Technology group, has left the high-profile search technology firm to take up a job with Apple. Dupin’s profile from Amazon A9’s executive management website disappeared this week, and his LinkedIn profile has been updated to reflect that he began his position as a director at Apple this month.

Amazon A9 is Amazon’s Palo Alto, California-based subsidiary that focuses on developing Amazon’s marquee search and advertising functionality. While Amazon has become popular in the tablet, eBook reader, and now set-top-box worlds, its core business has, of course, been Amazon.com, and Dupin’s work on search powers the heart of the online sales giant…

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Amazon updates Instant Video iOS app with iOS 7 inspired redesign

Jordan Kahn Apr 7 2014 - 7:24 am PT

2 Comments

Amazon has just updated its Amazon Instant Video app, which provides access to its catalogue of over 40k movies and TV shows, with a redesign of the entire UI inspired by iOS 7.

Amazon isn’t listing any new features in the iTunes release notes other than bug fixes and stability improvements, but you’ll also find a new icon and some UI tweaks that come as part of the new redesign. The overall navigation of the app remains the same but buttons and icons within have been flattened along with streamlining of other UI elements to make the app fit in with Apple’s iOS 7 redesign.

The redesign isn’t just for iPhone users, as the iPad version has been given a similar facelift:

The updated Amazon Instant Video app version 2.4 is available now on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Microsoft says Office iPad apps hit 12 million downloads a week after release

Jordan Kahn Apr 3 2014 - 1:37 pm PT

36 Comments

After announcing the release of the Office for iPad apps late last month, Microsoft announced today that the separate Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPad have collectively reached 12 million downloads a week after release. The number also included downloads of the OneNote app for iPad, which has been available for a couple of years leading up to the release of the Office apps, but Microsoft didn’t provide a breakdown of sales by app.
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Vine adds private video messaging, profile theming in latest update

Benjamin Mayo Apr 3 2014 - 12:36 pm PT

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Vine has just released its ‘biggest update yet’ to the App Store, bringing one-on-one video messaging to the service for the first time. Analogous with Twitter DM’s, Vine’s VM’s work in the same way — hosting private conversations outside of the main stream. As you might expect, conversations can include short video clips as well as text messages.

You can start a conversation directly to a recipient, or bounce off a public Vine for inspiration. Just share the Vine to as many as friends as you want to start a message. It’s important to note you cannot have group conversations (yet). If you share a Vine to more than one person, a separate thread is created for each recipient.

Version 2 also adds some new customization options for your Vine profile. In Settings, you can theme your profile with a specific color which then shows to all other Vine users.

Vine can be downloaded on the App Store, for free.

IFTTT app update brings support for push notifications, new iPad version

Jordan Kahn Apr 3 2014 - 8:30 am PT

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If This Then That (IFTTT), the popular web service that allows users to automate tasks from a long list of other mobile apps and web services, is today announcing an update to its iOS app that also introduces full support for iPad and new features for the iPhone version (via TNW).

The most notable new feature is push notification support, allowing any IFTTT “recipe” to result in a push notification to your iPhone or iPad. While you could already get push notifications to show up in a recipe from many apps that send out their own, this will bring universal support for the feature allowing a push notification for any recipe you can think of.

IFTTT allows users to setup “If this then that” recipes that act as rules for when a certain app or web service should begin automating a task. For example, users could setup a recipe that automatically uploads photos posted to Instagram by a certain user directly to Dropbox. With today’s update, users can now setup recipes that end in a push notification being sent to their iPhone or iPad.

The iPad app introduces a new take on the IFTTT mobile UI and the updated app also brings a new Recipe Collections feature that highlights a curated selection of recipes grouped by category.

The updated IFTTT app is available now in the App Store as a free universal download for iPhone and iPad.

Review roundup: Is Office for iPad worth ninety-nine bucks a year?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 3 2014 - 5:36 am PT

44 Comments

Image: smallbiztrends.com

The iPad edition of Microsoft Office has been a long-time coming. This was, it now seems clear, no accident: Microsoft wanted to attempt to boost sales of its ill-fated Surface tablet by pointing to the lack of Office software on the iPad.

Now that the company has accepted the inevitable, that most people would rather have Office on their iPad than buy a Surface, the question is: was it worth the wait … ?
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Apple adjusting App Store prices for several currencies

Zac Hall Mar 31 2014 - 11:04 am PT

1 Comment

As it has previously done from time to time, Apple has announced to developers in an email (seen above) that it will be adjusting App Store prices in a number of countries to address changes in foreign exchange rates.

Prices in Australia, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and South Africa that use the currencies listed above will automatically see an increase on the App Store over the following 24 hour period, Apple says.

Apple has also announced prices listed with the Israeli New Shekels and some listings using the New Zealand Dollar will actually see App Store prices decrease per recent changes in the foreign exchange rate.

Want the new Microsoft Office apps for iPad? Get 33% off 1yr Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions: $67

Jordan Kahn Mar 27 2014 - 2:03 pm PT

1 Comment

In case you missed it, Microsoft finally released its suite of Office apps for iPad today with the introduction of standalone Word, PowerPoint, & Excel apps in the App Store. The Office app for iPhone remains the same apart from dropping the requirement of a 365 subscription (it’s now free for all!), but the new iPad versions of the Office apps WILL require an Office 365 subscription to create or edit documents. So, if you plan on using the Office apps on your iPad in the future, you’ll want to take advantage of a big discount on 365 subscriptions currently on Amazon.

Normally $99/year or $10/month, you can grab a 1 year Office 365 Home Premium subscription for $67.15 with free shipping. That’s a savings of $32.84 (33%) and gets to an access code for 5 Macs or PCs with access to all Office 365 app and services. That includes 20GB OneDrive storage for each for up to 4 household member, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month and all the apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.

1 year Office 365 Home Premium subscription for $67.15

Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are now available on the App Store.
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Realmac teases upcoming Reminders feature in popular ‘Clear’ task app

Zac Hall Mar 26 2014 - 8:11 am PT

7 Comments

Fantastical isn’t the only app with a new version on the way. Realmac Software, makers of the popular to-do list app Clear, have been hyping the addition of Reminders functionality since late last year and expected to ship the update around this time. Realmac says its still fine tuning the Reminders experience in Clear and expects to release the update early next month. This marks the first time we’ve seen a shot of how the Reminders function will look in Clear (seen above) as well as a blurred teaser for the Mac version as well (notice the calendar date picker).

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Apple experimenting with related terms in App Store search results on iOS

Mike Beasley Mar 24 2014 - 9:46 pm PT

7 Comments

Image via Olga Osadcha

Update: Apple tells TechCrunch that the feature we saw should roll out to users over the next few weeks.

Apple appears to be testing a new feature for the iOS version of the App Store that presents users with related search terms at the top of the search results page.

The feature isn’t available to everyone yet, but users on iOS 7.1 and 7.0.x are reporting spotting it. 9to5Mac‘s own Zac Hall only had access to the feature temporarily, though his search results have now returned to the previous design.

The feature was first pointed out by Olga Osadcha on Twitter:

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Apple reaches out to in-app purchase customers, offers refund for purchases made by minors

Mike Beasley Mar 24 2014 - 3:39 pm PT

9 Comments

Police officer Doug Crossan reported his son Cameron for fraud after Cameron spent £3,700 on the App Store

Apple has sent an email to customers who recently made in-app purchases on their iOS devices informing them that any purchases made by a minor were subject to a refund. This is the latest in a series of steps Apple has taken to ensure that children do not make unauthorized purchases on a parent’s device or iTunes account.

The email tells customers that if they suspect a purchase was made by a minor, they can request a refund by logging into their iTunes account and reporting a problem with the purchase:

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New tax law could see UK iTunes customers paying up to 20% more next year

Mike Beasley Mar 23 2014 - 12:16 pm PT

10 Comments

Members of the UK government are seeking to close a tax loophole that currently allows online music, app, and book downloads to avoid the country’s 20% “value added tax” in favor of much lower international tax rates, reports The Guardian. If the push is successful, iTunes customers in the UK will instead be taxed at the appropriate rate for their own country.

However, the new law won’t go into effect until January 1, 2015, so there’s still time for things to change. Supporters of the change say that it will lead to more fair competition among foreign and domestic companies, since UK-based companies are currently at a major disadvantage due to the higher tax rate.

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iTunes Connect issue halting new app and update submissions for developers (U: Apple says fixed)

Zac Hall Mar 20 2014 - 7:00 am PT

7 Comments

After just over a month since the last similar episode, several developers from around the world have reported a critical issue with iTunes Connect that is preventing new app and software update deployment to the App Store. Apple has noted the disruption on its developer system status page with a brief message: “Some users are experiencing a problem with [iTunes Connect].” The system status page lists the service disruption as occurring around 8 PM EST yesterday, but developers first began reporting problems with app and update submissions much earlier on Wednesday. The system status page does not report issues with any other developer services, and all consumer services report no issues. Apple does not provide a timeline for when it expects the disruption to be resolved nor does it offer the cause of the disruption.

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iOS 8: Apple considers Notification Center + Messages tweaks, removing Game Center app

Mark Gurman Mar 14 2014 - 6:00 am PT

69 Comments

Besides adding new Maps, Healthbook, and iTunes Radio applications, Apple plans to enhance and refine the functionality of some of its current pre-bundled applications and features for iOS 8. Here is a list, provided by sources, of some of the refinements Apple is considering for select applications and system functions in iOS 8:

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