The App Store now shows you when iOS apps work on Apple TV
The fourth-generation Apple TV already has over 2,600 apps, a significant number considering tvOS is such a young platform. Naturally, as more developers make their applications compatible with the new hardware, Apple wants users to easily find these. In order to do that, Apple’s iOS App Store now lets you know when its iPhone or iPad apps also have an Apple TV version, similar to what it does with the Watch.
Originally spotted by 9to5Mac, the label (pictured below) doesn’t appear to be fully baked at the moment: it displays as “SF.UniversalAppleTV,” rather than something cleaner like “Apple TV.” Of course, you could always just search the Apple TV for apps, but this gives you a different option to see which will or won’t work with your set-top box.
Source: 9to5Mac
Ford’s ‘Dynamic Shuttle’ tests out a competitor for Uber
While Uber just announced that it’s testing out some very familiar-looking group transportation options, its next competition could come from Ford. Today at an event in Dearborn, the carmaker showed off the Dynamic Shuttle service it’s testing for employees, that it says could make Ford a “mobility service provider.” On its campus, the Dynamic Shuttle people request a ride via the app, which determines an optimally located van to complete the trip. Reuters quotes VP of Research Ken Washington as saying “We see this as a business we want to be in,” especially in a future where people who previously needed cars could potentially opt for ride sharing service instead. Slideshow-347368
According to Ford it tries to increase occupancy and reduce the amount of single riders, while also considering weather and presence of other shuttles, while learning from traffic patterns and frequently requested destinations. Naturally, the “perfect” vehicle for the service is Ford’s Transit Van, carrying six to eight passengers while including amenities like USB charging ports and WiFi.
Describing what is fundamentally a smarter bus service, the developers noted many people are willing to walk to a neutral location for easier pickups. Ford is apparently considering expanding the program beyond its corporate campus, which probably can’t come a moment too soon. While researchers pulled in data from far-flung locations like Mumbai and São Paulo, they only need look around the Metro Detroit area for a region desperately in need of faster and more flexible transportation options.
GoPro brings Apple Watch control to its cameras
While it’s possible to control a GoPro camera using a smartphone or remote, the company just added a device option that might be simpler: the Apple Watch. You can now use the wearable to start and stop recording, review clips and add “HiLighted” moments to clips, as shown below. GoPro also updated its iOS and Android apps, helping you extract still photos more easily and filter media to display only photos, videos, tags or clips. All of that is a boon for folks who chronically share GoPro’s mini-movies on social media, and the Apple Watch feature will be particularly useful to one-man-band producers.
Starbucks full featured app makes coffee easy to order(App review)
I know almost all of you have heard of Starbucks. I love coffee and drink it on a regular basis, and one can argue that there are many coffee shops with better brew, but Starbucks is always there for you no matter where you go around the world. And its coffee is always reliable and its mixed drinks are second to none.
There have been 5,000,000-10,000,000 installs of the Starbucks app from the Google Play Store, but many people still don’t know the latest features in the app. Let’s check it out.
Starbucks Pay
Before Android Pay and Samsung Pay were released, Starbucks already had an easy way to pay using your smartphone. All you need to do is set up a credit card or PayPal account to fund your Starbucks account. Once sufficient funds are added to your account, you could just generate a barcode and place your device in front of a scanner after you place an order. You will hear a beep, and the record of your purchase would be logged in your history. It’s very simple to pay this way and you don’t need to bring an ID or wallet with you.
I happen to walk to my nearby Starbucks at night with my dog and grab a hot chocolate or eggnog latte for dessert. It’s really convenient not to have to carry my wallet around with me late at night.
Even though Starbucks doesn’t use Android Pay, I wish other places I frequent, like the grocery store, would allow me to make purchases the same way. Wallets are usually filled with back-up cards, reward cards, receipts, insurance cards, etc. It’s nice to leave my chunky wallet behind.
Mobile Order and Pay
From the Starbucks app you can look over the entire menu from your phone, and place an order before you pick it up. The menu at Starbucks is HUGE. Who knew you could order a strawberries & creme Frappuccino? There are teas, Refreshers, fresh juice, iced teas, iced coffees, espressos, Frappuccinos, hand-crafted sodas, smoothies, oh yeah, and fresh brewed coffee.
Rather than being rushed in line to pick what you want, you are free to take your time from the privacy of your own home or car to peruse the entire menu from the app. It’s worth looking over the entire menu because you might want to try something new. The strawberries & creme Frappuccino could be your new favorite drink that you never knew existed. Or if you’re in a rush and on a road trip, just place an order at a Starbucks on your route, run in and grab your order, and get back on your merry way.
Again, this is another feature I would love to see in more apps for other restaurants I frequent so I don’t have to wait in line.
Rewards – from the reward page
More than great drinks. Great rewards.
Enjoy all this and more with your membership to our Loyalty Program:
- Free drink or food rewards (some restrictions apply)
- Custom offers on items you enjoy when you opt in to receive My Starbucks Rewards email
- Early access to new products
- Easy payment with our mobile app
Here’s how it works
To enjoy free drink and food rewards, you’ll need to earn Stars. Get Stars when:
- You pay at a participating store with your registered Starbucks, Teavana or La Boulange Card or the mobile app
- You buy specially marked Starbucks products where you buy groceries
- You buy coffee or tea products at Starbucks Store online
Most of you frequent Starbucks already so why not take advantage of the free reward program? You can get free refills on coffee for a year just for earning five stars. If you earn 30 stars within 12 months you’re promoted to the Gold Level where you can earn a free drink or food item. You’ll also get a personalized Gold Card so your barista will know you are special.
App Usage
Using the app is as simple as it gets. Once you load credit onto your Starbucks app, ordering, paying and earning rewards are simple. Starbucks left out annoying advertisements, and click bait from within the app, and made a clean and simple user interface. Simplicity wins in this case. There’s nothing you don’t need to make the app more confusing than it really needs to be. You can even send gift cards through the app for your friends and family.
Summary
If you haven’t tried the Starbucks app yet, or if you haven’t used it in awhile, now is the time to download it again and start earning rewards. You don’t have to expose your credit/debit cards with the automated barcode generator within the app, and you don’t need your chunky wallet when you walk into the coffee shop. Better yet, you can order and pay in advance from the app so you can avoid waiting in line for your order.
The loyalty system is a great way to earn free food and coffee from Starbucks as well. I highly recommend the Starbucks app for you coffee lovers.
Download the Starbucks app at the Google Play Store.
The post Starbucks full featured app makes coffee easy to order(App review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Facebook shutters Slingshot and other Creative Labs apps
Facebook isn’t throwing in the towel when it comes to experimentation, but it has shuttered the project that sought to encourage it. Three apps born from its Creative Labs have been pulled from their respective app stores and the website for the initiative itself is no more. Creative Labs began as a way to encourage experimentation among the social network’s employees through hackathon-type sessions, and it led to the development of Slingshot, Rooms and Riff. Slingshot is perhaps the most recognizable of the three for its attempt to take on Snapchat in the realm of ephemeral messaging. Facebook says that since those apps launched, it has pulled features from each into its core Android and iOS app.
Source: CNET
Snap makes your Android widgets reachable from any app
Android’s widgets are certainly helpful, but you have to duck out to your home screen (where they also consume valuable real estate) to see them. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just take a quick glance? You can, with the right tools. Francisco Barroso’s Snap lets you stuff widgets into a notification bar drawer, where they’re accessible from any app. It’s a bit like iOS’ Today view, only more customizable — if you want a giant, always-available Flipboard widget, you can make it happen. Snap is free if you only need quick access to three widgets, and it’ll cost you a modest $2 to remove that cap.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Francisco Barroso Apps, Google Play
Popular Design App ‘Sketch’ Leaves Mac App Store Due to Poor Customer Experience
Bohemian Coding has announced that its popular design app Sketch is no longer available in the Mac App Store because, after a lengthy decision making process, the developers felt that directly licensing the software outside of Apple’s storefront will provide customers with a better experience.
In a blog post on its website, the Sketch team highlighted some of the Mac App Store’s limitations, including a lengthy app review process, sandboxing and no upgrade pricing. Sketch stresses this was not a knee-jerk reaction to the Mac App Store’s recent expired certificate problem, but that issue did compound the situation.
Sketch said the Mac App Store’s customer experience has not progressed like its iOS counterpart:
We’ve been considering our options for some time. Over the last year, as we’ve made great progress with Sketch, the customer experience on the Mac App Store hasn’t evolved like its iOS counterpart. We want to continue to be a responsive, approachable, and easily-reached company, and selling Sketch directly allows us to give you a better experience.
There are a number of reasons for Sketch leaving the Mac App Store—many of which in isolation wouldn’t cause us huge concern. However as with all gripes, when compounded they make it hard to justify staying: App Review continues to take at least a week, there are technical limitations imposed by the Mac App Store guidelines (sandboxing and so on) that limit some of the features we want to bring to Sketch, and upgrade pricing remains unavailable.
Sketch is among a growing number of apps that are no longer sold in the Mac App Store, including professional HTML and text editor BBEdit and web development tool Coda. By selling their apps directly, developers not only get around the Mac App Store’s technical limitations, but also do not have to split 30% of sales revenue with Apple.
Bohemian Coding has provided instructions for Mac App Store users to migrate to the directly licensed version of the app in a FAQ on its website, which is required for future software updates. The development team does not rule out a possible return to the Mac App Store “in the longer term” if the necessary changes have been made.
Moving to a direct version of Sketch does not require a re-purchase. Simply download the latest copy of Sketch here, replace the old version in your Applications folder, and we will issue you a license for Sketch absolutely free of charge. Just follow the steps in-app to complete the transfer. We will also migrate your presets and templates across, so you won’t lose any data in the process. We’ve made it as simple and painless as we possibly can.
Sketch is a professional design app for Mac for creating user interfaces, websites, icons and more. The software received an Apple Design Award in 2012 and was consistently a top ranked app on the Mac App Store. Sketch continues to sell for its regular price of $99 with a free trial available.
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Adobe Photoshop update brings custom toolbars and artboards
Before the sun sets on 2015, Adobe has another round of updates for its Creative Cloud software. The new features span a number of apps, but we’ll focus on Photoshop CC. To boost overall productivity, and to save you time and a few headaches, Adobe is giving the photo-editing software custom toolbars. This means that you’ll be able to add, delete and rearrange what appears in that set of tools on the left side of the interface. The new feature allows to you customize the layout of your workspace so that only the items you use are taking up valuable space. In theory, you’ll spend less time hunting for the tool you’re after, too. Slideshow-344396
Sending private Twitch messages on iOS gets a lot easier today
Source: Twitch
UN says dating apps helped foster a teen HIV epidemic
Dating apps certainly have their virtues, but a new UN study suggests that they could sometimes play a big role in spreading sexually transmitted diseases. The report finds that dating apps helped spread an HIV epidemic among teens in the Asia-Pacific region by facilitating more casual sex. Effectively, they created networks where infections could quickly spread — one HIV-positive person could easily ruin numerous lives.
Source: The Guardian
AIVAnet 