Posts in Linked

The Iconfactory Goes All Out for Halloween→

The Iconfactory announced a series of iMessage sticker packs today to celebrate Halloween:

There are a couple unique features to the Iconfactory’s Halloween sticker packs. First, each comes with a Halloween-themed wallpaper that can be accessed by tapping the name of the sticker pack at the bottom of the Messages drawer. Second, each sticker pack is available for a limited time only. When Halloween is over, the sticker packs will vanish like a ghost in the mist.

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Lessons From Phoneys’ Brief Life in the iMessage App Store→

Shortly after we spotlighted Phoneys as a fun sticker pack in Club MacStories Weekly #50, the developer revealed that Apple had contacted him and said that if he wanted Phoneys to remain in the iMessage App Store, changes would have to be made. Adam Howell, Phoneys’ creator, says that he was told by Apple that:

The stickers couldn’t be blue or green, they couldn’t use San Francisco as the typeface, and the app could no longer be marketed as a “prank” app, because Apple doesn’t approve prank apps…

Howell was given until this Thursday to change his stickers. Howell decided not to change them and the stickers were pulled from sale.

Today, Howell published a follow-up that provides interesting insights into the early iMessage App Store from the perspective of an app that sat in the #1 paid spot for eight days in a row. Phoneys, which cost $0.99, netted $23,206 in the eleven days it was available and drew nearly two million impressions. The high number of impressions were driven by Phoneys’ spot in the Top Paid chart, but conversion rates were highest from customers who tapped a link to Phoneys from Howell’s and other websites, highlighting importance of marketing outside the App Store.

Howell makes a number of other interesting observations about selling stickers in the iMessage App Store including that:

  • Right now, depending on the day of the week, 1,000–1,500 sales a day will make your app #1 Top Paid in the iMessage App Store.
  • Around $2,500-$3,000 dollars in sales a day will make your app #1 Top Grossing in the iMessage App Store.
  • Being featured on the iMessage App Store home screen will get your app around 150,000-200,000 impressions a day, but unless you’re on the top paid or top free chart, it won’t drive very many conversions (I’ve talked to several folks whose stickers are currently being featured that back this up).

Howell’s data reflects the performance of just one sticker pack that was available for less than two weeks, but given its success during that brief period, Phoneys is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the early iMessage App Store. I highly recommend reading Howell’s full post.

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Unofficial Remixes From Dubset Arrive on Apple Music and Spotify→

Josh Constine, writing for TechCrunch:

The first unofficial single-track remixes just went live on Spotify and Apple Music thanks to their partnerships with music rights management service Dubset.

Apple struck a deal with Dubset in March, and Spotify did in May, BPMSupreme reported. But the remixes are finally beginning to stream today, starting with this DJ Jazzy Jeff remix of Anderson .Paak.

This sounds like good news for users, DJs, content owners as well as Apple and Spotify. Dubset will scan a mix uploaded to its service and use the Gracenote audio fingerprinting database to detect which songs were used in the mix. Royalties paid by Apple and Spotify will be distributed to the original rights holders.

Stephen White [Dubset CEO] says 700 million people listen to mixed content a month, making it a big opportunity. But record labels have historically fought against unofficial mixes because they considered them piracy since they weren’t getting paid. Dubset gives them a fair share, so they’ll permit remixes and mix sets to stream on the major platforms. Royalty revenue from the platform is shared with rights holders while Dubset gets a cut.

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Prisma Filters Extended to Video→

Prisma is a popular free photo app with bold filters in the style of famous artists. With an update today, Prisma filters can also be applied to video. According to BuzzFeed:

Prisma uses AI to “repaint” still images in the styles of famous painters. It debuted in June and already has 70 million users, according to co-founder Aram Airapetyan.

Check out BuzzFeed’s article for some great examples, like this one, of what Prisma can do with video:

(via BuzzFeed)

(via BuzzFeed)

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Recode’s Compilation of Steve Jobs’ Best D: All Things Digital Moments→

Steve Jobs didn’t grant many interviews after his return to Apple in 1997. However, he did make several appearances at the D: All Things Digital conference from 2003 to 2010 that was hosted by Wall Street Journal reporters Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. On the fifth anniversary of Jobs’ death, Recode, which was co-founded by Mossberg and Swisher, has complied a selection of the most memorable moments from those interviews into a short video.

The full interviews are available as a podcast in iTunes.

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Shazam Adds iMessage App→

Mitchel Broussard, writing for MacRumors:

Popular music-detecting app Shazam today rolled out an update that adds support for the service within Messages, so users can send new artist and song discoveries directly to friends and family members.
[…]
The only user interface option within the Messages app for Shazam is “Touch to Shazam,” so whenever a song is playing nearby, allow the app to listen and once it does it’ll create a card to send to the current contact. The created message can be tapped on to jump into Shazam, buy the track on iTunes, or listen to it on Apple Music.

This is clever: if you’re in iMessage and want to share a song you’re listening to, you don’t have to go look for the Shazam app. Between iMessage and interactive notifications, I like what Shazam is doing with iOS 10.

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Where Will Google Assistant Live?→

Google held an event earlier today where they announced a new line of Android phones, a smart speaker called Google Home, a Daydream VR headset, and more. MacRumors has a good recap of all the news.

As an Apple user, what grabbed my attention was the multi-platform nature of Google Assistant, the company’s take on Siri powered by advanced AI and third-party service integrations. As explained by Jacob Kastrenakes at The Verge, Google Assistant will be available in three places, with some initial differences:

Google is almost certainly going to combine the different forms of its Assistant eventually so that they’re all more-or-less equal in terms of features (save for, you know, stuff like screen search on a speaker). But for now, it’ll be occasionally limiting of what you can do.

And if you’re wondering how Google Now factors into all of this, well, join the club. Google says some of the stuff in Now that makes sense to be in an assistant will migrate over there — but how and when that will happen is anyone’s guess.

These inconsistencies may be part of why Google is keeping Assistant exclusive to just a few of its own products for the time being. It’s a core feature of those products, but it’s still in early stages, with mixed up features and ways to use it.

Obviously, Google Assistant is never going to be as prominent on iOS as it is on Android and other Google hardware, but I hope Google will update their iOS apps to bring Assistant’s features to iPhone and iPad users.

Right now, Assistant can be accessed in a conversational form inside Allo, Google’s messaging app that I only keep installed because of its Assistant support. The Google app is limited to Google Now (which I enjoy because of its time to leave and package tracking updates), but I’d expect it to gain Assistant in the future, simulating a Siri-like interface like Microsoft did with Cortana on iOS. Or perhaps Google could launch a full-fledged Assistant app on iOS, bundling text interactions (which Siri doesn’t have) and voice activation in a single utility. I’m curious to see how (and when) Google brings more of its Assistant to Apple’s devices.

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2Do Is Going Free (with In-App Purchases)→

Fahad Gilani, developer of 2Do (one of my favorite task managers on iOS), has decided to adopt a ‘free with In-App Purchases’ model after years of a traditional ‘paid upfront with free updates’ app. He writes:

It’s about choices, or the lack thereof. I’m disappointed to say this, but after having to continually support and develop 2Do on various platforms for over 8 years, the free updates model has begun to lose its lustre. Folks that know me (and there aren’t too many of those in the wild), know how I really feel about subscriptions, in-app purchases and anything that nags the user for more money than they’ve originally paid.

Past several years what I’ve truly been waiting for is a solution that’s in-between in-app purchases, subscriptions and paid upgrades. Instead, what we got out from this year’s WWDC was “Subscriptions for all!”. I don’t know about you, and your opinion on this may differ, but I’d personally hate to see the 10+ apps I use frequently to turn into a $2.99+ monthly subscription. I appreciate that there’s a difference between a Service and an App, but nowadays everyone’s begun to portray their app as a service. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not comfortable with that thought; even as a developer.

And here’s how it’s going to work, starting with Android and moving to other platforms:

In short, even after the trial expires, the app will continue to offer all of its features, except for Sync, Backups and Alert Notifications (i.e. turn into a dumb, but useful to do list). In order to enable those, the user could upgrade to the full version by paying once.

Nothing changes for folks that have already purchased the app. You won’t have to pay again (on Android there isn’t currently a way to determine if you’ve already paid for the app, however I’ll figure something out so it remains free). The app will still be priced the same, only the model changes a bit to allow it to be previewed for free.

This comes a week after The Omni Group has announced that all their apps will become free downloads with trials and unlocks handled by one-time In-App Purchases. I sense a trend consolidating for developers of productivity software on iOS; I hope Apple is okay with this use of In-App Purchases and that it’ll scale in practice. If this allows developers of pro iOS apps to build better sustainable businesses for years to come, I’m all for it.

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