Cute Smiling Birds Big, colorful, happy birds are fitting for summertime. Combine the birds with the speech bubbles that are also part of this sticker pack to make it even easier to get your point across. mind me up! Who would have thought that you could create so many stickers from a character based...
App Store Earnings for Developers Exceed $70 Billion→
Apple announced today that since it launched in 2008, developers have earned over $70 billion from the App Store.
People everywhere love apps and our customers are downloading them in record numbers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Seventy billion dollars earned by developers is simply mind-blowing. We are amazed at all of the great new apps our developers create and can’t wait to see them again next week at our Worldwide Developers Conference.”
According to Apple’s press release, subscriptions saw a 58% increase year over year, fueled by their availability in all 25 app categories. Games and Entertainment are the App Store’s top grossing categories, Lifestyle and Health and Fitness apps have experienced 70% growth, and the Photo and Video category is up over 90%. Apple’s press release also highlights the addition of iMessage apps and stickers with iOS 10.
The timing of Apple’s press release is interesting coming just days before WWDC, its annual developer conference. Developer earnings have historically been covered as part of the WWDC opening-day keynote. One possibility is that this is a sign that the usual keynote updates are being compressed this year to make room for more product and operating system announcements than usual.
My Space
I built a desk. Logic made me do it. No, not carefully reasoned rationality – Logic Pro X. Since I began writing at MacStories, I’ve worked on a combination of my iPad Pro and a MacBook Pro. Last December I updated my MacBook Pro to the latest 13-inch model. I love my MacBook, but...
Twitter Adds Filtering of Direct Messages From People You Don’t Know
If you have opened your Twitter direct messages to receive messages from anyone, Twitter now separates them into two buckets: an Inbox and Requests. Your Inbox collects DMs from people you follow, while Requests are DMs from people you don’t follow. You can review Requests without the sender knowing you’ve reviewed their message until you accept it. If you accept a request, that person’s direct messages will be delivered to your Inbox in the future.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/869608493548011520
Based on some preliminary testing by The Verge, it appears that the new direct message handling functionality is slowly rolling out to users across Twitter’s apps and website.
Carpool Karaoke Will Be Released Every Tuesday Starting August 8th→
Apple announced that Carpool Karaoke: The Series will debut for Apple Music subscribers on August 8th. According to Apple’s press release, the show, based on James Corden’s popular segment from The Late Late Show with James Corden:
…will welcome a different group of superstars every Tuesday, with new episodes available exclusively to Apple Music subscribers in more than 100 countries. Celebrity pairings include Will Smith and James Corden; Miley, Noah, Billy Ray and the entire Cyrus family; Shakira and Trevor Noah; Game of Thrones stars Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams; Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith; John Legend, Alicia Keys and Taraji P. Henson; LeBron James and James Corden; and many more.
Originally anticipated to be released earlier, Apple pushed the debut of Carpool Karaoke back last month.
WWDC App Updated with New Design and Features
Apple has updated the WWDC app ahead of its annual developer conference that begins June 5, 2017 in San Jose, California. The app has an all-new design this year. In 2016, the UI was dominated by dark tones causing speculation that it was a precursor to a system-wide dark mode that didn’t materialize. This year’s update shares some of the same design language as the Apple Music and News apps.
In addition to the refreshed design, Apple has added curated video playlists focused on themes like Developing for iPad, interactive maps of the WWDC venue and surrounding area, for the first time, the ability to use of all of the app’s features without signing into a developer account, and a new ‘Venue’ tab. Apple is also making a podcast studio available as part of WWDC for attendees who need a space to record shows.
Though not mentioned in the release notes, the WWDC app has a little surprise in store in the form of iMessage stickers. The set includes 17 colorful cartoon-style images with an assortment of classic Apple iconography, logos for Metal and Swift, and more.
The WWDC app is a free download on the App Store.
You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2017 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2017 RSS feed.
Trails is Your GPS Tracker and Logbook for iPhone & Apple Watch [Sponsor]
When you start your next outdoor adventure, make sure you bring along Trails. Trails is a GPS tracker and logbook that gathers statistics like altitude, ascent and descent, speed, pace, and duration. It also includes topographic maps available for offline use when you have no data connection. Soon, Trails will add a dashboard display with summary statistics and graphs of your activities using a customizable date range and with optional filtering by tags.
Trails takes advantage of the latest Apple hardware and features like 3D Touch, Spotlight search for tracks and waypoints, Siri to start and end a trip, a Today Widget, and AirDrop sharing. In addition, with a Series 2 Apple Watch, you can start recordings, use it as a second screen to display live statistics, and gather heart rate and calorie data.
Trails features a wide array of ways to export and share the data you collect like integration with Apple’s Health app, GPX export, the ability to upload to Trails.io to share your trips, like the hike through San Francisco embedded above, local WiFi sharing, and full database backups. You’re in full control of your data. You don’t have to signup for anything to get started, your data isn’t uploaded anywhere without your permission, and there are no ads to get in the way.
Trails has a special promotion for MacStories readers. Trail is giving away 10 one-year subscriptions to Trails Pro. Just enter your email address here by 9:00 pm US Eastern time on June 4, 2017. Winners will be selected randomly and be given a code that they can redeem for the one-year subscription by contacting the Trails team.
Our thanks to Trails for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Tip Jars with Benefits
Federico
Game Day: Steredenn
I live near a huge arcade called the Galloping Ghost that’s packed with classic arcade games. I visit once or twice a year and am always struck by how hard some of the early space shooters, like Defender, are. I got the same feeling the moment I launched Steredenn, a fast-paced, insanely difficult space shooter from French indie game studio Pixelnest that is equal parts addictive and fun.