Apple Introduces New Peer Group Benchmarks for Developers→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple introduced new analytics for app developers designed to reveal how their apps are performing compared to peer apps. The developer site says that:

With data from the entire catalog of apps on the App Store, peer group benchmarks provide accurate, relevant, and privacy-preserving comparisons for apps across categories, business models, and download volumes. Learn how to take advantage of these insights to improve your app’s performance.

Apple defines an app’s peer group by its App Store category, business model, and download volume, providing metrics that shows where a developer’s app falls within the range of similar apps. Data is aggregated and uses differential privacy to ensure that the analytics do not reveal the identity of the apps against which a developer’s app is compared. The developer site also offers suggested actions that developers can take to improve their performance, including product page optimization tests, app events, pricing strategies, and more.

From the examples shared, the new tools look as though they will fit in nicely with existing analytics and other analytics available to developers. Providing insights into how an app is performing compared to its peers should help point developers in the direction of areas where adjustments can have the greatest impact on the success of their apps, saving them time and guesswork.

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Apple Frames 3.1: Extending Screenshot Automation with the New Apple Frames API

Apple Frames 3.1 comes with a lightweight Apple Frames API to extend its automation capabilities.

Apple Frames 3.1 comes with a lightweight Apple Frames API to extend its automation capabilities.

Update, March 3: Version 3.1.1 of Apple Frames has been released with support for a new passthrough output command. This post has been updated to reflect the changes. You can redownload the updated shortcut at the end of this post.

Today, I’m happy to introduce something I’ve been working on for the past couple of months: Apple Frames – my shortcut to put screenshots captured on Apple devices inside physical device frames – is getting a major upgrade to version 3.1 today. In addition to offering support for more devices that I missed in version 3.0 as well as some bug fixes, Apple Frames 3.1 brings a brand new API that lets you automate and extend the Apple Frames shortcut itself.

By making Apple Frames scriptable, I wanted to allow power users – such as designers and developers who rely on this shortcut to frame hundreds of images each week – to save valuable time without compromising the accessible nature of Apple Frames for other people. This is why all of the new advanced features of Apple Frames are optional and hidden until you go look for them specifically. Furthermore, even if you do want to use the Apple Frames API, you’ll see that I designed it in the spirit of Shortcuts: it does not require any code and it’s entirely powered by simple, visual ‘Text’ actions.

I’m incredibly excited about what Apple Frames can do in version 3.1, so let’s dive in.

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Last Week, on Club MacStories: A Lighter Approach to Focus Modes and the Apple Watch Ultra, an iPhone Home Screen, and Glass Onion

Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings:

MacStories Weekly: Issue 357

Club MacStories+ AV Club Town Hall

  • This month’s AV Club Town Hall in the Club MacStories+ Discord community featured the movie Glass Onion, directed by Rian Johnson.
  • Club MacStories+ and Club Premier members can listen to the event in the Town Hall podcast feed.

Kolide: That Ticking Noise is Your End Users’ Laptops [Sponsor]

Here’s an uncomfortable fact: at most companies, employees can download sensitive company data onto any device, keep it there forever, and never even know that they’re doing something wrong.

Kolide’s new report, The State of Sensitive Data, shines a light on an area of security that is often ignored, but is nevertheless a massive hole in many companies’ Zero Trust fortress.

These findings are particularly alarming given the overall state of device security. IT teams routinely struggle to enforce timely OS updates and patch management, meaning that end users are storing your most sensitive data–things like customer records, confidential IP, and plain-text access credentials–on devices that are vulnerable to attack.

This problem has gone unaddressed because until now there hasn’t been a good solution for it. MDM solutions are too blunt an instrument for dealing with sensitive data, and DLP tools are too extreme and invasive for most companies. After all, you’re not trying to ban downloads together, nor regard every download as suspicious. You’re just trying to make sure employees aren’t keeping data for longer than they need or keeping it on an unmanaged or unsecure device.

Kolide offers a more nuanced approach to setting and enforcing sensitive data policies.

Our premise is simple: if an employee’s device is out of compliance, it can’t access your apps.

Kolide lets admins run queries to detect sensitive data, flag devices that have violated policies, and enforce OS and browser updates so vulnerable devices aren’t accessing data.

Our unique approach makes device compliance part of the authentication process. If a device isn’t compliant, users can’t log in to their cloud apps until they’ve fixed the problem. But instead of creating more work for IT, Kolide provides instructions so users can get unblocked on their own.

To learn more and see our product in action, visit kolide.com.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

MacStories Unwind: Nope and GeForce NOW Paired with the Razer Kishi Controller

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps
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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

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John loves the horror/sci-fi movie Nope from Jordan Peele, and Federico discovers the joys of videogame streaming service GeForce NOW paired with the Razer Kishi iPhone controller.

John’s Pick:

Federico’s Pick:

Fitness App Gentler Streak Adds Wellness Tracking

Gentler Streak, the fitness app for the Apple Watch and iPhone that takes a holistic approach to training and recovery, has been updated to version 3.0 to incorporate additional health metrics, so users can get a broader picture of their overall wellbeing. I’ve had less than a day to test-drive the new features, but what I’ve seen so far looks promising.

Gentler Streak uses trend analysis to help guide your workouts. Your daily and 10-day activity trends are plotted within a band of intensity to help guide whether you should work harder or rest. The app also tracks individual workouts, your activity over time compared to previous periods, and includes insights and tips for maintaining a healthy life.

Gentler Streak tracks seven statistics drawn from Apple's Health app.

Gentler Streak tracks seven statistics drawn from Apple’s Health app.

With today’s update, Gentler Streak is adding a new tab to the iPhone that tracks seven health metrics: sleeping heart rate or resting heart rate when SHR is unavailable, sleep duration, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and wrist temperature. The app then uses that data to help guide your workout plans. For example, I didn’t get as much sleep as usual last night, so Gentler Streak suggested I take a break from working out today.

Each statistic in the Wellbeing tab is presented as a card-like widget that includes the current data, a 10-day trendline, and an indicator of whether the measurement is within normal ranges. Tapping on a card expands it for a bigger view that offers more information about what’s being measured and your results.

I’ve been using Gentler Streak for about a month and have found that its approach has kept me more motivated than closing my Fitness app Activity rings has. I still track those, too, but Gentler Streak is where I go to ensure I’m on track with my fitness goals while remembering to give myself a break now and then. It’s too soon to say what the Wellbeing tab will mean to my overall experience with the app, but I like what I’ve seen so far and plan to write more about Gentler Streak soon.

Gentler Streak is free to download from the App Store but requires a subscription to unlock some features.

Rovio Announces It’s Pulling Angry Birds Classic From Sale on Android and Hiding the Game on iOS

Angry Birds was a defining game of the first decade of the App Store, so fans and game preservationists applauded Rovio in 2021 when it announced that it was rebuilding the 2012 version of the game and relaunching it on the App Store and Android as Angry Birds Classic.

The game was relaunched last spring, after a three-year absence from the App Store with an emphasis on the game preservation angle:

“While we were rebuilding Angry Birds, we took great care to preserve the feeling of the original Angry Birds game,” says executive producer, Sami Ronkainen. “We know our fans are a discerning bunch and will be able to pick out even small differences. Matching the gameplay, and appearance of the game next to the original was crucial.”

Now less than a year later, it’s hard to read that as anything more than empty marketing copy in light of Rovio’s tweeted announcement yesterday in which it said:

We have reviewed the business case of Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, and due to the game’s impact on our wider games portfolio, we have decided that Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will be unlisted from the Google Play Store on Thursday, February 23. Additionally, the game will be renamed to Red’s First Flight in the App Store pending further review. Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will remain playable on devices on which the game has been downloaded, even after it has been unlisted.

We understand that this is sad news for many fans, as well as the team that has worked hard to make Rovio Classics: Angry Birds a reality. We are extremely grateful to the Angry Birds fans who have shown their love of the brand and this game from the beginning. We hope those fans can continue to bring that passion to our live Angry Birds slingshot games such as Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Friends, and Angry Birds Journey, where our goal every day is to craft the best possible experience for players.

It’s not clear what Rovio means by Angry Birds Classic’s impact on its other platforms. If I had to guess, though, I’d bet that the $0.99 price of Classic was cannibalizing sales of more recent versions built around In-App Purchases. But why not pull the iOS version completely instead of changing its name? By removing ‘Angry Birds’ from the name of the game, it will be harder to find on the App Store but remains available, which may have been deemed necessary politically given Rovio’s involvement with Apple Arcade. Speculation aside, though, it’s a shame to see a culturally important mobile game pulled from one platform and hidden on the other.