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Posts tagged with "app store"

Digital Magazines for iPad: An Example Of Bulkiness→

Digital Magazines for iPad: An Example Of Bulkiness

Nick Bilton, reporting for The New York Times:

This morning I decide to try a little experiment: I opened up my iPad, clicked on the little Wired icon and purchased the magazine’s latest digital issue. After I agreed to fork over $4, it began downloading. For the next phase of the experiment, I grabbed my car keys, left my apartment and drove about 12 blocks to a local magazine store in Brooklyn, where I also purchased the latest issue of Wired magazine, this time in print.

I didn’t run any red lights, or speed, or park illegally during my shopping expedition. Yet when I returned home with the glossy paper product in hand, the digital iPad version still hadn’t finished downloading to my iPad. Anybody who reads Wired would call this an Epic Fail.

I couldn’t agree more. Having to download hundreds of megabytes, and having to wait several minutes (hours, for many) for the download and install processes to finish doesn’t simply make sense. Especially when the digital magazine you’ve purchased is nothing but a series of static images with no interaction at all. Digital magazines need to be more than this.

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The iPad, Perfect for Coffee Table Apps

In a new App Store section that went live last night, Apple is featuring a series of apps the company thinks are well-suited for the iPad, specifically when placed on a coffee table. These apps, organized in “The Classic Coffee Table” and “The New Coffee Table” sub-categories, include gems like Flipboard, Trickle, Fotopedia Heritage, Ions and Aweditorium. Apple’s own iBooks software is featured as well, together with the art-related apps Van Gogh HD and The Monet Album.

Coffee Table Apps is an interesting section because it groups applications coming from a variety of categories in the App Store, not strictly related to each other. There are particle visualizers like Uzu, newspapers and magazines like The New York Times and LIFE, educational apps like Elements and Solar System for iPad.

Check out “Coffe Table Apps” in the App Store here.

Finally: Previous Purchases Coming To iOS App Store

Apple is updating its iOS App Store tonight. After search filters, Apple added a much requested feature: apps already purchased get an “Install” button instead of the usual “Buy” one. Why is this a big deal? Because having the “Buy” button was confusing, as it wasn’t easy to remember which apps you had already bought. Now, if you’re trying to install an app you have already bought one, it’s much easier.

Sure, it’s not as useful as the “Purchases” tab in the Mac App Store (which lets you see all your app purchase history at once), but we think this is a great (and much needed) first step nonetheless. The new feature is only enabled on the iPad App Store right now, but it shouldn’t be a problem for Apple to add it to the iPhone and iPod touch as well (unlike filters, which require some screen space).

Thanks, App Store team.

New In The iPad App Store: Search Filters

Looks like Apple rolled out a new neat little feature in the iPad App Store: search filters. When you browse the App Store from your iPad (mine is running iOS 4.3 beta, but I guess the change is live for everyone) and start searching for an app, five filters will appear under the top bar: category, release date, rating, price and device. Filters can be adjusted from a popover, and there’s also a button to clear all filters.

The feature is quite useful if you’re into searching for apps through your device’s App Store, so go check it out. More screenshots below. [Thanks, Shane!] Read more

Report Says 26% of Mobile Apps Are Only Run Once

Analyst firm Localytics decided to investigate how many apps are downloaded and then used only once, never to be touched again. What they discovered was that a surprisingly high percentage of 26% of all apps downloaded were only ever used once.

The research Localytics did involved thousands of apps from every major mobile platform and over a period of a year. In fact interestingly throughout 2010 the number of apps that were only run once increased from 22% in the first quarter to 28% by the fourth quarter.

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iPad ‘Real Positive’ for USA Today’s Future

The Telegraph reported yesterday that Gannett, publisher of USA Today has been enthused by the iPad’s impact on their business, despite having to initiate cost-cutting measures in other aspects of their business. Their free iPad App, available worldwide, has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times since launching April last year.

Gannett, like many other Newspaper organizations had to cut 130 jobs in August at USA Today and lost 6% advertising revenue worth $722m in the last quarter. Yet Gannett’s chief operating officer, Gracia Martore said that “The iPad has been a real positive for USA Today, we expect this will translate into much more significant improvement.”

At this stage USA Today remains free and it’s revenue comes from generating ad revenue from within the app. Gannett’s Chief Executive however couldn’t rule out charging users in the future, saying “We’re looking across the board at this.” Gannett and other newspaper publishers will no doubt be watching closely at tomorrow’s announcement of News Corp’s The Daily and this month’s pay-wall that the New York Times is implementing.

[Via The Telegraph]

From Russia With Love: Old Films Become Illegal Apps

For as much as Apple wants to curate the content of its App Store, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the app review team at Cupertino to filter apps based on illegal content with no copyrights from the genuine ones. A new report on the BBC points to several apps being sold in the App Store with no consent from the Russian company that has rights on the content of these apps. The apps, in fact, are based on old Russian films like Gentlemen of Fortune, Assa, The Diamond Arm, Kin-dza-dza and Cheburashka.

The films and cartoons, as noted by the BBC, are still protected by copyright. Russian film studio Mosfilm and the Joint State Film Collection confirmed that they didn’t approve the release of those apps in Apple’s App Store:

It is illegal to present our films as applications either in iTunes or on any other internet site. It is permitted only on our own Mosfilm site”, Svetlana Pyleva, Mosfilm’s deputy director-general, said in an interview with bbcrussian.com.

“The only official internet site where you can watch legal Mosfilm content is the Mosfilm site.,” she said. “There are no third parties which we have permitted to use our content.

An Apple spokesperson told the Russian BBC that the company “understands the importance of protecting intellectual property”, so it won’t be a surprise to see the apps pulled soon. After all, this is not an isolated case of apps sold without consent of the original copyright owners: just open the App Store and look for clones of Nintendo’s Super Mario, Angry Birds or other 1980’s hits. The truth is most companies don’t care about the rip-offs, and some file complaints to get the apps removed. Overall, the App Store is a crowded place with more than 350,000 apps and it’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for Apple to check on every copyright agreement ahead of the app’s approval. At least it’s fairly easy to contact the iTunes team and claim copyright infringement.

Cubetastic, A Superb Puzzler Now On The Mac & iPad App Stores

Which one of you was the jerk who’d take a Rubik’s Cube, mix it all up, and make it almost impossible for the average human being to solve? I have terrible memories of those things – spending hours trying to figure out what it would take my senior high buddy about five minutes. Of course, fate would have it that some awesome group of developers would take the Rubik’s Cube and completely base it on one of the most twisted brain teasers ever. When we say twisted, we literally mean these puzzles take a few turns to solve.

The folks from doPanic have created a multidimensional puzzle game that focuses on getting a glowing orb (your light) to a goal. It sounds pretty easy, and skilled players will solve puzzles in as few moves as possible, but once you start spinning the cube…things get a little Cubetastic.

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AppShopper.com Now Mac App Store Friendly

All of us at MacStories love AppShopper.com, I use it every day, along with MacAppDeals.com, to help grab the best deals for our #MacStoriesDeals posts. Although it’s not been officially announced, I noticed this evening that there have been a few exciting changes for us app hunters. First, there is a new set of buttons on the far left, “iOS / Mac”. You guessed it, AppShopper is now listing Mac App Store apps into their stream! Also, they have slightly changed their OS category descriptions. They now separate into “Mac OS, and iOS iPhone, iOS iPad or iOS Universal.” Subtle but greatly improved. Read more