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Apple Prevents App Store Reviews From Users on iOS 9 Betas

Within the last 12 hours Apple has modified the App Store to prevent users running “prerelease” software from leaving app reviews on the App Store. Now when a user running a beta version of iOS 9 tries to leave an app review, they will get the following error message:

This feature isn’t available.
You can’t write reviews while using a pre-release version of iOS.

However it appears that the change only applies to iOS 9, because users running OS X El Capitan can still post reviews on the Mac App Store.

The change should help end the annual frustration experienced by app developers when users running beta versions of iOS discovered a third party app wasn’t compatible with the beta software and then left a 1-star rating on the App Store. Poor reviews on the App Store can hurt sales, and developers often can’t do anything to fix the problem because they can’t submit software built for the new versions of iOS whilst it remains in beta, and the bug could be one for Apple to fix, not the developer.

As Federico wrote earlier this month:

In this day and age of high competition and over 1.5 million apps available, having negative reviews displayed on the app’s product page is a problem for developers. But it gets worse when those negative reviews cite problems that developers can’t fix yet. At that point, developers feel that it’s not fair to receive a negative review for something that’s completely out of their control. And when the livelihood of independent app markers is at stake, it’s hard to argue aganst their sentiment of frustration and disappointment. There’s nothing they can do to fix their app issues on betas of iOS and OS X and they can’t respond directly to reviews on the App Store – and yet they’re taking all the blame. This, every year, repeatedly for every beta of iOS and OS X, and it’s possibly becoming more of a problem now that Apple has two public betas.

The problem of permitting app reviews from users on beta software was always a problem, but it risked being a much bigger issue this year because it is the first year that Apple has begun offering public betas of a major iOS release.

Apple Q3 2015: Tim Cook on iPad→

From Jason Snell’s transcript of Tim Cook during the company’s Q3 2015 earnings call:

I am still bullish on iPad, with iOS 9 there’s some incredible productivity enhancements coming in with Split View and Slide Over and Picture in Picture, these things are incredible features. The enterprise business is picking up and more and more companies are either contracting for or writing apps themselves.

And I believe that the iPad consumer upgrade cycle will eventually occur, because as we look at the usage statistics on iPad, it remains unbelievably great. I mean, the next closest usage of the next competitor, we’re six times greater. And so these are extraordinary numbers. It’s not like people have forgotten iPad or anything, it’s a fantastic product.

I’ve said it right after the first beta of iOS 9 and I can only reiterate this after four betas and now that I’m playing with some iPad apps with new features: iOS 9 is a game changer on the iPad. There are several touches on iOS 9 for iPad that feel like Apple is truly optimizing for this device now. It’ll be interesting to see the effect of new iPad software and hardware on sales next year.

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Apple Q3 2015 Results: $49.6 Billion Revenue, 47.5 Million iPhones, 10.9 Million iPads Sold

Apple has published their Q3 2015 financial results for the quarter that spanned from April to June 2015. The company posted revenue of $49.6 billion. The company sold 10.9 million iPads, 47.5 million iPhones, and 4.8 million Macs, earning a quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion.

“We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The excitement for Apple Music has been incredible, and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.”

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Threes’ Free Version Doubles Developers’ Profits→

The free version of popular puzzle game Threes has doubled its developers’ profits, as reported by Eurogamer and as Threes developer Asher Vollmer shared in a series of tweets (full collection here).

It’s interesting to look at the stats for the platform split of iOS vs. Android. The majority of free users also comes from iOS.

Making a free version of a paid game with ads may not be the most elegant decision, but it’s a practical one when you want to attract an audience that doesn’t have disposable income to spend on games.

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Podcast Listening and iOS→

According to a research report by Clammr (via RAIN News), podcasting is an increasingly mobile phenomenon with 82% of mobile listening happening on iOS. According to the report, Apple’s Podcasts app is also, by far, the most popular choice among users:

That means that of every 100 mobile podcast plays, 82 are on Apple devices, and 64 are in the Podcasts app, which is a carve-out of the Podcasts section in iTunes.

While I don’t doubt the overall accuracy of the report – by virtue of being a default choice on iOS, Apple’s Podcasts app is more than enough for most people – keep in mind that this report is based on a sample of RawVoice clients. These numbers are not, I assume, entirely representative of independent realities like Relay FM or shows such as The Talk Show and ATP, where the choice of clients tends to be more skewed towards alternatives such as Overcast.

Still, it makes sense for mobile podcast listening to be closely tied to iOS – Apple’s dominance with the iTunes directory and pre-installed Podcasts app must be playing a big role in that.

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Beats 1 to Exclusively Announce MTV VMA Nominees Tomorrow→

Apple is continuing to put a big focus on Beats 1 as a platform to connect music fans and artists. Today, the company announced Beats 1 will exclusively announce the MTV VMA nominees tomorrow. Jordan Kahn writes at 9to5Mac:

The proof of that comes in the form of an announcement today that the station will exclusively reveal nominees for the upcoming Video Music Awards. Clearly Apple has partnered with MTV in order to be first to make the announcements, and it’s obvious from the effort that Apple hopes Beats 1 won’t just be the venue for new music, but also a source for music fans when it comes to news and other industry related events.

And on Twitter:

Just two weeks ago, we were talking about Apple Music as the new MTV. Pretty close as a start.

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Igloo: An Intranet You’ll Actually Like [Sponsor]

Igloo is a social intranet. It’s built with easy-to-use apps, like shared calendars, task management, file sharing and more. It’s everything you need to work better together, in one very configurable cloud platform.

With Igloo’s responsive design, your intranet already handles a range of devices, it will even work on your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus right from the start. It’s customizable, responsive, and lets teams work better together. Sharing files, coordinating calendars, providing status updates, and managing projects — almost everything you can do on your desktop, you can do on your phone.

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Try Igloo for free with up to ten of your favorite coworkers. Igloo, an intranet you’ll actually like.

Our thanks to Igloo for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Spotify Launches ‘Discover Weekly’ Personalized Playlists→

The personalized playlist game is heating up after the launch of Apple Music. Spotify has announced Discover Weekly today, a personalized playlist that will be sent to users every Monday morning with a selection of deep cuts and new discoveries based on listening history and other users’ listening sessions.

From the press release:

For the first time ever, we’re combining your personal taste in music with what similar fans are enjoying right now. This means every song in Discover Weekly is based both on your own listening as well as what others are playlisting and listening to around the songs you love - making your playlist completely unique and full of deep cuts and new discoveries.

It’s like having your best friend make you a personalized mixtape every single week.

As your music taste evolves, so will Discover Weekly. In fact, the more you listen, the better it gets. And because it’s a playlist you can access and listen to it across all your platforms and devices. Plus, sharing it with friends or making it available offline for your Monday commute is super easy.

Dan Seifert was able to try Discover Weekly for The Verge:

I had a chance to check out the Discover Weekly playlist ahead of launch. It served up 30 tracks totaling almost two and a half hours of music that ranged from dad rock, to sad rock, to hipper chillwave tracks. Some of the artists were ones that I’m closely familiar with, while others were complete unknowns to me. But all of the songs were new to me, either completely so or different versions of songs I’d heard before. From my experience, Discover Weekly fulfilled its mission of delivering songs I hadn’t heard before, but would likely enjoy.

This seems like a good idea from Spotify given their tech and expertise in algorithmic recommendations, especially because it doesn’t try to compete with Apple Music’s combined human-algorithmic approach of the For You section yet.

It’ll be interesting to see if Spotify will eventually expand editorial staff to deliver human-made picks and playlists, but until then they’re going to use algorithms and users to build personalized playlists. Not surprising and likely not as unique as Apple’s For You (my favorite part of the service), but probably a good option for Spotify right now.

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Apple Posts New iPhone Advert: “Amazing Apps”

Apple’s third advert featuring the new “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” tagline was today posted online. The new advert, “Amazing Apps”, focuses on highlighting the huge amount of apps (“over one and a half million”) available on the App Store, and the notion that apps on the iPhone are “hand-picked” and “awe-inspiring”.

This is an iPhone, and it comes with something amazing. An App Store with over one and a half million of the best apps available. That’s over one and a half million, hand-picked, awe-inspiring, just plain surprising, who knew a phone could do that, apps. If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.

You can watch the new advert below the break, or on YouTube.

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