Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

(more…)

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Flipboard has today launched three new localized ‘Content Guides’ in Australia, Canada and the UK and Ireland. Users in these countries will now be shown recommendations that match their location. For example, Australian Flipboard users will now see The Australian, ABC News and the SMH prominently displayed in the News section of the content guide and UK users will be recommended the BBC, The Guardian and The Telegraph amongst others.

The localised recommendations aren’t just for the News section but the other categories such as Business and Tech & Science too. Similarly, it doesn’t mean that no international publications are recommended anymore, it just means that local publications are now recommended more prominently. Flipboard now has six Content Guides for countries outside the US with France, Taiwan and Hong Kong previously receiving localised Content Guides. Flipboard also has a dedicated app for the Chinese market which also has its own Content Guide.

Users in these countries needn’t do anything to receive the new content guides – they are automatically loaded based on the Region Format of the iPad (you can change yours in Settings > General). The Flipboard team does note that they are working on a way to easily change regions from within the app so you can look at recommendations for other regions.

[Flipboard Blog via The Next Web]

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Square looks set to play a big part in the 2012 US Presidential race, with both the Obama and Romney camps announcing this week that they will be adopting the tool to give their grassroots fundraising efforts a boost. The mobile payments company uses a small accessory that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPad or Android phone and works with a companion app to accept payments from credit cards.

The Obama re-election campaign will begin using Square straight away, initially with campaign staffers and “some approved volunteers”. But the ultimate goal is to develop their own Obama Square app that they can distribute on the App Store – allowing anyone to get the app and Square attachment and go around collecting donations. To comply with the Federal Election Commission’s (F.E.C.) rules, the app will need to collect the name, address, city, state, ZIP code, occupation and employer of the contributor, along with contribution size and collection date.

If the Square rollout is successful, and others follow, campaigns could send out armies of volunteers brandishing the Square credit card reader and collecting millions of dollars in micro-payments from political supporters.

The Romney campaign similarly announced today that they will also be trialling Square and likely developing their own, Romney-themed Square app. They will conduct a “beta-test” of the Square app and accessory on Tuesday night’s Florida primary election.

Daniel Rubin, strategic partnerships manager at Square, who works with political campaigns and major nonprofit organizations, said Square was partnering with a number of campaigns to make 2012 the year mobile payments change the way donations are collected on the ground. “It’s now easier than ever to give to campaigns of any political stripe,” Mr. Rubin said. “At a campaign, or any political event, donors will be able to give on the spot. They won’t have to run home and get a check or fill out long paper forms.”

[via The New York Times]

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Earlier this week Apple released its Q1 2012 financial results and it was a blockbuster quarter, Apple’s best ever with $46.33 billion in revenue. One of the key factors that drove this sky-high figure was the sale of 37 million iPhones at an average selling price (ASP) of $660 — iPhone sales actually contributed to 53% of Apple’s revenue for the quarter.

Significantly, this was the first full quarter where Apple offered a “free” iPhone in the US to customers going on contract — the iPhone 3GS. Previously Apple had offered the 3GS alongside the iPhone 4 at a reduced price, but with the 4S the iPhone 4 fell to $99 and the 3GS became free. One would have presumed that the iPhone ASP would thus fall with the addition of another lower-priced iPhone model but in fact the ASP increased from the previous quarter and at $660 the iPhone ASP is near the highest it has ever been.

How has the ASP risen despite the presence of the “free” 3GS?

There are a few reasons as to why the ASP has increased and a big reason is that in addition to the new lower-priced 3GS ($345), Apple also introduced the 64GB iPhone 4S that is at a higher price-point ($849) than the previously most-expensive iPhone. This new higher-priced model would seem to have offset any reduction in the ASP that the iPhone 3GS would have caused – particularly given Q1 2012 was the 4S launch quarter and demand was very high for the new iPhone model.

Whilst Apple didn’t give out details on what the breakdown was of sales between the iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS, an estimate from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners suggests that in the last quarter the iPhone 4S represented 89% of all iPhone purchases in the US. The report showed that only 4% of iPhone purchases last quarter were for the 3GS and 7% for the iPhone 4. This backs up the notion that the higher-priced iPhone 4S 64GB model (estimated to be 21% of iPhone 4S purchases) actually offset any decrease in the ASP and probably drove the increase in ASP to $660.

How will the iPhone ASP fare in the following quarters?

As Horace Dediu of Asymco points out, there is usually a slight uptick in the iPhone ASP during a launch and holiday season. This would suggest that in the following quarters the ASP may decrease a little as the high launch demand for the 4S subsides a little. It is unlikely to drop that much though, with the iPhone ASP typically hovering somewhere between $620 and $660. Dediu also investigated the historical ASPs for the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac and found that “Apple does not change pricing but rather stakes out a specific price point as resonating with consumers given their positioning”. The above chart demonstrates this point quite well.

[Sources: MacRumors, Asymco, AllThingsD]

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

(more…)

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

(more…)

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

(more…)

iTunes Match has today gone live in 19 more countries across South America and Europe, taking the total number of countries that now have iTunes Match to 37. iTunes Match first launched in the US just over two months ago, followed by Brazil and then Canada, Australia and some European countries in December. Today’s launch brings iTunes Match to the following countries:

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.

Most of these countries already had support for iTunes in the Cloud (the ability to re-download iTunes Music purchases for free), but Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Netherlands did not until today.

Apple is making quick work of finalising licensing agreements for iTunes Match, the service is certainly rolling out faster internationally than some of their previous efforts. The iBookstore or even the availability of TV Shows (which is still only available in a small selection of international iTunes Stores) come to mind as examples of Apple taking a long time to seal agreements internationally.

[Via MacRumors]