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TestFlight Acquired By Burstly, Launches TestFlight Live

TestFlight, a popular over-the-air testing platform for developers, has been acquired by app monetization service Burstly, the company wrote in a blog post today. Based off Apple’s OTA install technology for beta applications and iOS’ certificate system, TestFlight has been used by thousands of developers in the past year to provide an easy and intuitive way to their users to install beta versions of iPhone and iPad apps without going into the manual process of managing .ipa files with iTunes on a Mac or PC. With a web app that works on desktop computers and mobile devices, TestFlight has powered ”over 70,000 developers sharing more than 130,000 apps with a group of 280,000 testers”. The acquisition, explained here, is meant to extend TestFlight’s capabilities as a platform to enable developers to offer beta apps, track revenue and monetization with Burstly, and collect other sets of data and user engagement with a new product launched today, TestFlight Live.

We always planned on launching a production version of TestFlight, but we wanted to push ourselves to start solving production problems and not simply copy the beta feature set. Along with help from the Burstly team, we think we have taken a great first step with TestFlight Live. Our goal with TestFlight Live is to provide a real-time dashboard that displays actions, symbolicated crash reports, and revenue. For the first time, developers will have a single dashboard that provides enough information to derive insights into Revenue Per User (RPU) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to better understand your app business. Previously, this level of information would be from multiple sources and there was no easy way to collect it.

Burstly was the key contributor to the revenue portion of TestFlight Live, in addition to the concept they actually developed the APIs that make it possible. The revenue source options in TestFlight Live enable developers to include app sales data, in-app purchase data, and ad network revenue from multiple partners. You do not need to work with Burstly to pull in any of this data. If you do not want the revenue segment in your dashboard, we have provided a way for you to hide it.

The real-time, mobile-friendly TestFlight Live can be checked out here, and, apparently, developers willing to implement it in their App Store apps will simply have to add one line of code to their existing software to start getting reports from TestFlight Live, which is a free service. TestFlight Live can track things such as crash reports – allowing developers to instantly understand what’s causing an app to crash, thus enabling them to start working on a fix right away – and user engagement in the form of “checkpoints” (milestones that users unlock using an app, such as “launched the Settings screen”), in-app purchases, device types, and OS versions. This system works in real-time, any minute of any day, as long as a TestFlight-enabled app can connect to the Internet. TestFlight Live has a separate dashboard from regular TestFlight, which will continue to be available as a free service to manage over-the-air beta apps.

Burstly integration, on the other hand, opens the door to a bunch of different functionalities, most of them aimed at data gathering in relation to ads and monetization. Burstly can mediate ads from different networks, cross-promote and track installs, provide ads of different shapes and sizes, and offer “criteria” to developers to control what kind of ads are displayed on screen. The service comes with a series of features that are being used by partners such as Rovio, EA, and Zynga. More details are available here.

TestFlight, meanwhile, says that their products and Burstly will remain separate. TestFlight services will remain free, but the developers are looking at paid options for the future. New features on the roadmap (and on track for a March launch) include better performances, a desktop app for developers, and a new UI.

TestFlight, which launched an enhanced SDK back in September, has become one of the most popular options available to developers to manage apps in their testing stages without forcing users to manually install them with a Mac or PC. Another similar service is HockeyApp, which we covered in May of last year (and has improved a lot since). To read more TestFlight’s new owners and the new services, check out the company’s blog post.

Gallery: Amsterdam Apple Store Grand Opening

On Saturday, Apple officially opened its first retail store in Amsterdam. Located at Hirschgebouw, Leidseplein 25, the first store in the city blends historical architectural elements with Apple’s unique style and approach to retail presentation. Gary Allen of ifoAppleStore has a great recount of the opening day:

In typical Apple fashion, construction of the interior was a labor of love, taken from history. Everything is a recreation, although it is impossible to tell even from a close examination. The employees are still in awe of the store, since they had their first view of the interior just nine days ago. Steve Jobs signed off on the project before the project before he died last year, and Apple has taken great care within the company to credit the artisans, craftsman and construction team who created the store.

The superlatives are many: most number of Apple products on display of any store in the chain, second-largest store in square-footage, and largest volume of any store in the chain. But those are just numbers, when a store should really be judged by its appearance.

Whilst you’ll be able to find more information about the store on Apple’s dedicated retail webpage, we wanted to share a series of photos our friend Jack Amick took last Saturday and sent us. You can find them after the break. Also make sure to check out Jack’s Flickr photostream for some full-size shots, and a video.

Update: We’ve posted a full-size version of the photo showing Senior Director of International Retail Steve Cano at the Amsterdam Apple Store.

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Apple Reveals The 25 Billionth App Downloaded & Winner Of $10,000 iTunes Gift Card

Apple has just issued a press release noting that the App Store hit 25 billion downloads (on Saturday) with the 25 billionth app downloaded being Where’s My Water? Free. The app was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China - that lucky person has won a $10,000 iTunes gift card for being the person who downloaded the 25 billionth app.

“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

View the full press release here or below the break. Be sure to also read our run-down of the apps that Apple have featured in the new “all-time top” section and the trends they show.

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Square Wants To Get Rid Of Old POS Systems With Its New Square Register App

Mobile payments company Square has today stepped up its game of disrupting payment services with its new Square Register app and service. Directly targeted at retailers, merchants and small business owners, this new iPad app is aimed at replacing the old clunky registers and point-of-sale (POS) systems with the infinitely more flexible and appealing iPad accompanied with the Square reader.

“I truly believe POS, as you know it today, is dead,” says Megan Quinn, director of products at Square. “This will bring Square to an entirely new, small-market audience (bricks-and-mortar stores).”

Integrating support for their existing Card Case app, Square Register can recognise when customers arrive at their store, as well as send the Card Case app information about the business for new customers who haven’t been before. The actual app itself has a main transaction screen that lists “favourite” items (this is completely customisable), but if there are thousands of items, that isn’t a problem either because there is also a list view available. The app has support for loyalty programs to reward loyal customers and customers don’t necessarily have to pay by card, with the app also supporting some cash drawers that can be connected up.

For the business owner or manager, Square Register can require a PIN for staff to access certain functions and custom permissions can be given to staff. The service also offers powerful analytical tools with interactive charts so you can view when the store is busiest and what days may be under performing. Square Register is available for free, with the standard 2.75% processing fee for all card transactions processed through Square, just the same as their existing apps.

[via TechCrunch, USA Today]

Apple Reveals New “All-Time Top Apps” Following 25 Billion Downloads

Last night, Apple reached the expected milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded from the App Store since the official opening in 2008. Whilst we’re waiting for the company to announce the winner of a $10,000 App Store gift card, Apple has updated its App Store page that lists the all-time top paid and free apps to reflect the changes occurred in the past 12 months. You may remember Apple posted a similar page in January of last year ahead of 10 billion downloads, and has been tweaking the entries ever since, keeping track of overall downloads in the App Store. We’ve compiled the charts (which include 25 apps each) below. Read more

Apple: 25 Billion Apps Have Been Downloaded From The App Store

Apple announced a short time ago that 25 billions apps have been downloaded from the App Store since it launched in mid-2008. Apple has updated their homepage with the above graphic and slogan of  ”A billion thanks. 25 times over” and the App Store Twitter and Facebook accounts have also publicised the milestone. Interestingly, the graphic used by Apple varies depending on whether you are viewing an international version of Apple.com (such as Japan) or whether you see the standard US website.

Apple will announce within a few days, who the lucky winner of a $10,000 iTunes voucher will be. Users could enter the competition by either simply downloading an app or filling out a form on Apple’s website - the winner will be the person who downloaded the 25th billion app or the person who first filled out the form after the 24,999,999th app had been downloaded but before the 25th billion app.

In Apple’s previous App Store and iTunes competitions, Eddy Cue (Senior Vice President, Internet and Software Services) has called the winner and congratulated them on winning. Shortly after this has happened Apple releases a press statement announcing the download milestone and who the winner was. When Apple ran the competition to mark 10 billion apps downloaded, the winner initially hung up on Cue, thinking it was a scam call.

Apple Contributes a Half Million Jobs to the U.S.→

Apple Contributes a Half Million Jobs to the U.S.

As reported by AllThingsD, Apple has a new webpage depicting its substantial contribution to the U.S. workforce. Apple claims that according to a recent study by Analysis Group, the company had created roughly  304,000 U.S. jobs in a variety of fields across the entire United States. Apple also estimates a total of 210,000 iOS related jobs generated from the flourishing economy surrounding the App Store. Other U.S. occupations highlighted were Apple’s primarily full-time retail sales-force as well as the U.S. based Customer Support call centers. Follow the link for even more details and statistics about Apple’s successful job creation efforts.

We’ve created or supported more than 500,000 jobs for U.S. workers: from the engineer who helped invent the iPad to the delivery person who brings it to your door.

[Apple via AllThingsD]

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Apple Preps Yerba Buena For Next Week’s iPad 3 Event

Apple has begun preparations at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts ahead of next week’s media event, where the next-generation iPad is rumored to be announced. Earlier this week, Apple sent invitations to the press for the event they will hold in San Francisco on March 7th, starting at 10 AM PST.

We are updating this post with more photos of Apple’s banners at the Yerba Buena Center – these banners are typically of little indication of what the company will announce, but they’re still cool enough to check out, if only for the design alone. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the white Apple logo on top of splashes of color is reminiscent of Apple’s banner for the original iPad event in 2010.

More below. We’d like to thank Read It Later’s Steve Streza for providing the photos. Read more

Flipboard 1.8 Brings Cover Stories to iPad

When Flipboard introduced its long awaited iPhone version back in December, the company rolled out a new functionality called “Cover Stories” that allowed iPhone owners to quickly catch up on the most interesting news, photos, and status updates shared by their friends and people they followed with a brand new, easy to use interface that took advantage of the iPhone’s smaller display and unique design of Flipboard. In the past months, Flipboard’s Cover Stories have become a fantastic way to get a quick overview of what’s happening online, with “curated results” that take into account a link’s popularity based on the number of retweets, comments, and social engagement. Cover Stories weren’t enabled on the iPad version of Flipboard – admittedly still superior to the iPhone app as a lean-back experience for relaxed reading and discovery – but this is changing today with version 1.8 of the app, which brings Cover Stories to the iPad, alongside a number of other improvements and new international content guides.

The new Cover Stories tile in the Flipboard start page doesn’t need an introduction – it’s really just a bigger version of the iPhone’s counterpart, beautifully laid out on the iPad’s screen. Whilst it’s unclear what kind of algorithm and process Flipboard uses to aggregate and build this personalized feed, the section undoubtedly works in fetching interesting stories based on the content that is being shared with you. The iPad edition of Cover Stories collects both articles and status updates, which are neatly organized in a column on the right.

With new typography, and improved photo layout and a third page of tiles, Flipboard for iPad now allows for more content, displayed in a more elegant way. The new International Content Guides are becoming to the go-to place to get started with Flipboard and great content, but I’d recommend adding sources like Instagram and 500px first to get an overview of the new photo layout – this will surely contribute to enhancing the “visual” aspect of Flipboard, which was already pretty remarkable.

For the past months, I’ve been using Zite to let “news come to me” thanks to the service’s fantastic discovery-based functionalities and system that learns from my reading habits and tastes over time. Flipboard’s Cover Stories seem like a great opportunity for the company to strengthen their offerings in smart news discovery and in surfacing relevant content for their users, and I’ll make sure to give the feature a try on a daily basis now that it’s available on the iPad.

You can get Flipboard 1.8 on the App Store. Read more