iTunes Connect has gone back online today after a short hiatus due to the holidays. This is not unexpected as Apple told developers the website would be closed between December 21st and December 27th. iTunes Connect is the online portal for developers to manage, upload, and make changes to their applications on the iOS App Store. This means developers can now make price or content changes and means customers will be able to get the latest changes.
On the second day of Apple’s “12 Days of Gifts” promotion, the app is now offering a free download of Rovio’s ‘Tiny Thief’ app. This morning the 12 Days of Gifts app was offering a free pilot episode of TV show Once Upon a Time, but Apple appears to have now switched the gift to the ‘Tiny Thief’ app. It’s unclear if Apple mistakenly offered the TV show download for a short period of time or if it plans to offer various gifts throughout the day as part of the promotion.Yesterday the 12 Days of Gifts app was offering a free download of Justin Timberlake performances from the recent iTunes Music Festival.
If you were wondering why Nokia’s HERE maps app for iOS disappeared from the App Store earlier this month, today the company has issued an official statement on the situation. While citing issues with iOS 7 that “harm the user experience,” Nokia unfortunately does not go into detail about specific problems with the development of the app for Apple’s latest version of iOS. It does, however, point users to the official web app, which is essentially the same experience the company wrapped into the iOS app minus many of the bugs users reported with the release of an iOS 7 update. No word on if Nokia will bring back the native app at any point, but for now we get the following statement issued to the TheIndianExpress (via Engadget):
“We have made the decision to remove our HERE Maps app from the Apple App Store because recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience. iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of HERE Maps under m.here.com., offering them core location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge.”
As it has done in recent years, today Apple launched a special Boxing Day sale in at least the Canadian iTunes store offering deals on select albums and songs. The sale is accessible through the iTunes store on both iOS devices and on the desktop. While Boxing Day is recognized as a holiday on Dec. 26 in Canada, retailers usually hold Boxing Week sales that last from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2. Expand Expanding Close
Apple has officially kicked off its “12 Gifts of Christmas” promotion by offering a free download of four live songs (two of which have videos) from Justin Timberlake’s performance at the iTunes Festival in September.
Previously available as the 12 days of Christmas app in a few countries internationally, this year Apple has released a new “12 Days of Gifts” app that is available in the U.S. for the first time. Starting today through January 6, users will be able to download the app to access one free gift a day. The gifts are usually content from across the iTunes, iBooks, and App Stores, with today’s gift coming as a free download directly on your device through iTunes.
Whether you are just unwrapping a new iPhone or iPad or have received stacks of iTunes gift cards this holiday season, you are undoubtedly on the hunt for the best apps to fill up your shiny iOS devices. Read on for my recommendations of the best apps and games for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for 2013.
Jailbreaking may be for those who want the freedom to step outside of what Apple has decided iOS devices should do, but even jailbreakers are not immune to the influence of the company’s design guidelines, it seems.
The Cydia app, which allows users of jailbroken iPhones and iPads to install software not available on the App Store, has been updated with a flat look, bright colors and translucent overlays in line with iOS 7. This follows the surprise release of an iOS 7-compatible untethered jailbreak by the Evasi0n team.
There’s perhaps a small amount of rebellion in the fact that the app’s icon has not yet been updated to an iOS 7 look.
A thank-you for help with the new look was tweeted by @saurik. Video of the new app below the break …
This morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a lengthy memo to employees as a reflection of the soon-ending 2013 and the upcoming year of 2014, according to multiple sources. In the letter, Tim Cook discusses people experiencing Apple products this holiday season, the Apple products launched throughout 2013, and corporate initiatives. “This holiday season, tens of millions of people around the world, from all walks of life, are experiencing Apple products for the first time. Those moments of surprise and delight are magical, and they’re all made possible by your hard work,” Cook says in the beginning of the email.
Cook notes Apple’s new manufacturing process for the Assembled in the USA Mac Pro and calls iOS 7 an “extraordinarily ambitious project.” “We extended our lead in the smartphone market with iPhone 5s; launched iOS 7, an extraordinarily ambitious project; released OS X Mavericks for free to our customers; introduced the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina display; and this week began shipping the Mac Pro from a manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas,” Cook told employees. Cook also notes his pride over Apple reaching 50 billion App Store app downloads this year. Apple reached this milestone in approximately five years…
Santa’s coming a little early this year for App Store shoppers. App Santa, collaborative campaign between a group of award-winning app developers, launched today with deep discounts on fifteen of the most popular iOS apps from ten different developers.
Bring a little holiday cheer to your iOS devices by grabbing these apps while they’re on sale, or spread some joy to the world by gifting your favorites to your friends and family. You can find the full list of participating apps below.
The IMDb iOS app for iPhone and iPad gets a nice update today that finally introduces an iOS 7 style redesign for the app. On top of the new look and feel, the app also adds a bunch of new features that improve navigation and make it easier to track people and release dates using filters and wish lists:
What’s New in Version 4.0
– New iOS7 look and feel!
– New navigation and homepages for iphone, including a sleek dropdown menu, accessible from every page.
– Name lists! Finally, you can keep track of your favorite people!
– New list sorts and filters (including the much requested Release Date sort for Watchlists).
– Vote on interesting name trivia, title trivia, quotes, and goofs.
The updated app also includes a new section dubbed “Road to the Oscars” that includes “all your nominations and award season photos leading up to The Academy Awards®, including live results during both the Golden Globes and The Academy Awards® broadcasts.”
Need a new game to entertain you over the holidays? The sequel to the popular Cut the Rope series just launched today with all new levels and characters and its exclusive to the App Store.
As with the original app, Cut the Rope 2 follows the main character Om Nom through an animated world through a puzzles to solve in pursuit of candy.
The sequel to 2012’s Game of the Year continues the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse. Left to fend for herself, she has been forced to learn how to survive in an unforgiving world. But what can an ordinary child do to stay alive when the living can be just as bad – and sometimes worse – than the dead?
Experience what it’s like to play as Clementine, meet new survivors, explore new locations and make gruesome decisions in this five-part game series of choice and consequence.
Episode one is available now for Season 2, but Telltale notes that you can “Save 25% on additional episodes in The Walking Dead: Season Two by purchasing the Multi-Pack [Episodes 2-5 bundle] via in-app in the ‘Episodes’ menu.”
Way back in May, Justin Williams’s Second Gear teased an unannounced app via Passbook using an in-house system called Pit Pass. The Passbook pass updated to reveal the icon and name of the app released by Second Gear today: Photos+.
What the app does is really simple but useful in a big way. Photos+ displays your images from your Camera Roll and other albums found in Photos.app, but it takes a different approach to displaying thumbnails and most importantly includes EXIF info like timestamp and location hidden in the native photo browser…
If you’ve grabbed a Flipboard article that you want to share with other Flipboarding friends, the latest version of the iOS app allows you to do it right from within the app.
Do you ever find something on Flipboard that you want to pass along? Now it’s easy to share the stories you enjoy with other people within in the app—give the gift of awesome reading this season.
– Share stories directly to your friends on Flipboard. Select the mail icon in the share menu and enter their name or email address. Your friends will be notified in Flipboard to see what you have shared with them.
– Receive notifications when other people on Flipboard share stories with you.
– Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Flipboard is a free download on iTunes. The app was last updated in November with a more iOS 7 style look and performance improvements.
Ssshh, don’t tell the kids they’re learning physics, just tell them it’s an iPad space game! Stephen Hawking’s Snapshots of the Universe is an iPad app containing a mix of mini-games, videos and text that allows children to discover some of the fundamental principles of physics and space.
Based on the work and writings of Stephen Hawking, this app teaches both adults and students the basic theories that govern our lives on Earth as well as the movement of the stars and planets. You can play and learn at the same time in each of the eight experiments included in Snapshots of the Universe:
– Spin planets in orbit with your own solar system
– Drop objects with Galileo to learn about gravity
– Let Einstein feel some G-force in outer space
– Search for black holes in the constellation of Leo
– Discover Einstein’s warped worldview
– Plus more…
Each section has an app allowing children to carry out virtual experiments, see further visual explanations in video clips and then read up on the topic in more detail. The app is described as suitable for children aged 9+.
Earlier this year Apple finally allowed apps in the Games category to appear on the South African App Store. Today the company has sent out an email to developers notifying them that the same change has been made in Costa Rica and Qatar. App developers don’t have to do anything to enable their apps for sale in those stores as long as the apps have been cleared for sale in those countries.
If developers have not set their apps to be available in those countries, they’ll need to make that change before their games are available in those stores.
During its press event held in New York City today, Instagram announced a new sharing feature called Instagram Direct that will allow users to share images and videos to other users privately.
The new sharing model will require users to follow each other to send photos and messages privately to individuals or groups of up to 15 people. A pending requests inbox will catch photos and messages from users who are not mutually connected.
Instagram also noted its growth from 80 million users to 150 million users worldwide from the start of 2013 to today. Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, boasted that over half of Instagram’s users use the service daily…
Chalk up another Google Drive update for iOS as Google just announced a new sorting feature for files. Google’s iOS version of Google Drive has received quite a few updates in recent months to bring it in line with its Android counterpart. The new sorting feature should prove useful to just about every Google Drive user as it’s a much-needed and important feature.
Castro is a brand new podcasting app for the iPhone (available in the App Store for $2.99). It’s not an update to an existing podcast client. It’s a new app. It doesn’t have any legacy to anchor it down because it really is a fresh start.
A few days after Fiksu showed how much better iOS is than Android when it comes to allowing older devices to upgrade to to the latest operating system, and most analytics companies were reporting iOS 7 penetration of around three-quarters of devices, Apple has updated its developer site to show that iOS 7 penetration is at 74 percent.
Apple’s data is likely the most reliable, based on visits to the App Store during a 7-day period ending on 1st December. iOS 7 adoption was incredibly fast, helped by record opening weekend sales of the new iPhones, and has grown a further 10 percent in the past two months.
Google this afternoon announced an update to its Search apps on both Android and iOS that includes voice search support for three addition languages. In a blog post, the company announced that the app can now understand French, German, and Japanese. In addition to being able understand the new languages and give text results, the Search app can also now give spoken answers back in those languages.
To try it out, simply tap the microphone in the search box and ask for anything you’re looking for. If you need some coffee in Munich, just say “Wo bekomme ich Kaffee in München?” to get a list of local options. Wondering what the height of the Eiffel tower is? Get a quick answer by asking, “Quelle est la hauteur de la Tour Eiffel?”. Maybe you need to know who invented the transistor ? Try asking in Japanese for “トランジスタを発明したのはだれ？”
Google says it will continue to work on adding even more languages to its Search app and that this is just the beginning of its efforts.
As we’ve previously reported, Apple began giving away select paid apps in its Apple Store app recently as an added incentive to download and check out the app.
This week in particular Apple has replaced the free app with free music from iTunes instead. The playlist is appropriately holiday themed and features songs such as Silent Night by Kelly Clarkson and The First Noel by Mary J Blige. Expand Expanding Close
I love it when an app developer takes one of my minor grumbles and comes up with a simple solution. PopCalc is one of those.
There are times when I have a few sums to do, and the standard calculator app is a bit too dumb, while creating a spreadsheet in Numbers feels like overkill. What I really want is a cross between the two: the simplicity of a calculator, but some of the functionality of a spreadsheet. And that’s exactly what PopCalc aims to deliver … Expand Expanding Close
