StackSocial Offers ‘Pay What You Want’ Bundle for 10 Popular Mac Apps
StackSocial has launched a new “Pay What You Want” Mac software bundle, offering a selection of 10 apps to users who match or exceed the average payment price. Currently, the average price is at $5.56, significantly less than the $383 retail price for the apps, but it will go up as the sale goes on.
A payment higher than the average price earns users access to all apps, while smaller donations will unlock fewer apps. 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale will go to non-profit organization Creative Commons. A full list of apps included in the bundle is below:
– CrossOver 14 Mac ($59.95) – Lets Windows apps be run on the Mac.
– RapidWeaver 6 ($89.99) – Theme-based website development software.
– BusyCal ($49.99) – Calendar app for the Mac that replaces the default app.
– WinZip 4 Mac ($29.95) – Zips and unzips files.
– WALTR ($29.95) – Transfers and converts media files in any format to a format playavle on iOS devices.
– RoboForm Everwhere: 1-Year Subscription ($19.95) – Cross-platform password management service.
– Scapple ($14.99) – Freeform mind-mapping software for jotting down ideas and finding connections.
– Stuffit Deluxe 16 for Mac ($49.99) – Compresses files to shrink size.
– Screens ($29.99) – Virtual network client (VNC) and screen sharing app that gives remote access to multiple computers.
– Find Any File ($7.99) – Spotlight alternative for searching through files.
To encourage higher purchase prices, StackSocial is giving away an iPad Air 2 in a random drawing. Entries are earned by paying a high enough price to make it onto the price leaderboard at any time during the sale. The top payment thus far is $45.
StackSocial’s “Pay What You Want” bundle will be available for purchase until September 5.
MacRumors is an affiliate partner of StackSocial.
Apple Seeds Fifth WatchOS 2 Beta to Developers
Apple today seeded the fifth watchOS 2 beta to developers for testing purposes, more than two weeks after seeding the fourth watchOS 2 beta and nearly two months after announcing the new operating system update at its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.
watchOS 2 requires the iOS 9 beta to be installed and can be downloaded over-the-air using the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General –> Software Update. Caution should be used when installing this beta, as downgrading the software on the Apple Watch is not possible.
watchOS 2 is the first major update to watchOS, the software that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 2 introduces several new features that developers can use to improve their Apple Watch apps, including native apps that run on the watch itself instead of the iPhone. The software also allows developers to access the Taptic Engine and other sensors like the heart rate monitor, the microphone, and the accelerometer for the first time.
With the new tools for developers, Apple Watch apps will be more complex and full-featured. Other features in watchOS 2 include new watch faces (photo albums and time-lapse), third-party Complications, Time Travel, and a Nightstand mode that’s activated when the watch is charging, displaying the time.
watchOS 2 is currently only available to registered developers who have also installed iOS 9 on their iPhones. Apple plans to release the software to the public in the fall.
Apple Seeds Fifth iOS 9 Beta to Developers
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of iOS 9 to developers for testing purposes, more than two weeks after releasing the fourth beta and two months after unveiling the new operating system at the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.
The update is available through Apple’s over-the-air update system on iOS devices and can also be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center. Apple has also seeded Xcode 7 beta 5.
It is not yet known what updates today’s beta will bring, but each of the prior beta updates have introduced some significant new features and tweaks as Apple works to refine the operating system ahead of its launch. We’ll update this post to add new features as they’re found.
iOS 9 beta 4 brought the return of Home Sharing for music and it fixed a bug that had prevented the iPhone’s volume buttons from being used as a camera shutter. It also introduced a new look for Handoff in the app switching interface.
In addition to providing developers with five betas, Apple has also seeded two iOS 9 betas to public beta testers. The company plans to release iOS 9 to the public in the fall, likely alongside new iPhones.
Jimmy Iovine Talks Apple Music, Competing Services, and Apple’s Reaction to Taylor Swift’s Letter
In a new interview with Evening Standard, Apple Music executive and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine sat down to talk about everything from the launch of Apple Music to the company’s dramatic reversal of its free trial royalties policy following Taylor Swift’s public dismissal of the service in an open letter.
Iovine depicts a conversation between himself, Eddy Cue and Apple CEO Tim Cook that ultimately resulted in the support of Taylor Swift’s — and many musicians backing the pop star — opinions on the service.
“Eddy [Cue, Apple senior VP] woke up on Sunday morning,” says Iovine. “He called me and said, ‘This is a drag’. I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe there’s some stuff she doesn’t understand’. He said, ‘Why don’t you give Scott [Borchetta, Swift’s label boss] a call? I called Scott, I called Eddy back, Eddy and Tim [Cook, Apple CEO] called me back and we said, ‘Hey, you know what, we want this system to be right and we want artists to be comfortable, let’s do it’.”
Later in the interview, Iovine mentions an aim for more personality in the Apple Music experience, attempting to avoid the use of numbers and algorithms curating music for its users, and hiring experts for the job of building the playlists that fill out each Apple Music user’s personalized “For You” section. Still, the Apple Music executive mentions a “numbing” amount of music streaming services available to customers — from Spotify to Rdio and the newly-launched Tidal — as a definite hurdle for the new streaming service to clear.
“There’s a lot of [them],” he says, disdainfully. “Music deserves elegance and the distribution right now is not great. It’s all over the place and there are a bunch of utilities. That’s the best you can find. It’s basically a really narrow, small, inelegant way to have music delivered. So it’s sterile, programmed by algorithms and numbing.”
As Iovine says: “Algorithms don’t understand the subtlety and the mixing of genres. So we hired the best people we know. Hired hundreds of them.”
The entirety of Evening Standard‘s interview with Iovine is worth a read, as it touches more on his background with Steve Jobs, his early-industry struggles with competitors like Napster, and the difficulties of hiring Zane Lowe away from the BBC and into Apple Music’s 24/7 Beats 1 DJ position.
‘The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs’ Opera Set to Premiere in 2017
The Santa Fe Opera yesterday announced a new opera coming from composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell in 2017, set to detail the complicated personal and professional life of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs (via LA Times). Titled “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” the opera is planned to include characters not only from Jobs’ work life, but his personal life as well, including his father, wife, and even detail the troubled relationship with his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
This September the opera will be workshopped in San Francisco, with the Santa Fe Opera partnering with Cal Performances at UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to put on the first show. Since his death in 2011, Jobs’ personal and professional life has been the subject of multiple books, documentaries, and films. The most recent of which — Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs film — is set for a release on October 9 after premiering a week earlier at the 53rd Annual New York Film Festival.
Microsoft Launches ‘Outlook’ App for Apple Watch
Microsoft this morning launched an official Apple Watch app for its email client Outlook, offering users of the service the ability to read emails and even respond to messages on their Apple Watch. Before today’s app, Outlook users with an Apple Watch received basic notification messages on the wearable device with no real way for interactivity, but now notification pop-ups will show more of the email body and let users jump directly into the app from the Apple Watch’s notification center.
Once in the app, users will be able to read their emails and even respond thanks to a few quick reply messages and the ability to dictate their response in a speech-to-text option. The Outlook app also comes with its own glance for quick looks at new emails in an inbox and upcoming calendar appointments. The watch app is out now for users with the iOS app already installed, and should download instantly for those with the Apple Watch’s automatic download feature turned on. Those interested who have yet to download the Microsoft Outlook iOS app from the App Store can do so for free [Direct Link].
Apple Music recruits 11 million trial users in six weeks
Over 11 million people are now using Apple Music following the June 30th launch. “We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,” Apple senior VP Eddy Cue told USA Today. The service is in a free trial phase until September, so nobody has paid for it yet. The number of users is actually higher, though, as Apple said that 2 million of those folks are on the family plan, which allows six people to use it at once. Still, is 11 million free subscribers a lot? Everyone who updated an iPhone or iPad to iOS 8.4 was nagged to sign up, and it remains to be seen how many will opt out once they have to pay.
The brief time period makes the feat pretty impressive, though. It took Spotify around six and a half years to get to 20 million paid subscribers (as of June), with 75 million active users total — though it picked up half of those users in just the last year. Meanwhile, Apple is rumored to be seeking 100 million subscribers, which would be over twice the number of users that have paid subscriptions with all the other streaming services put together.
Cue acknowledges teething problems with Apple Music, especially for folks migrating their music collection. “We’re aware that some users have experienced some issues, and we hate letting them down, but we’re releasing updates as fast as we can to address those issues,” he said. Once the trial period nears an end, Apple will roll out a huge Music marketing campaign. Beats Music’s Jimmy Iovine said “for many people outside of the US, you still have to explain what it is and how it works,” adding “there’s still the issue of winning over millennials, who never pay for music.”
On another note, Cue said July was a record month for the App Store, with $1.7 billion in transactions. He chalked up the feat to “particular momentum” for Apple in China.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Software, Apple
Source:
USA Today
Tags: 11 million, app store, apple, Apple Music, Eddy Cue, subscribers, trial
Apple avoids class action lawsuit over iMessage failures
Apple has avoided a class action lawsuit regarding a flaw with its iMessage technology, following a ruling by Judge Lucy Koh, who has been overseeing similar cases such as Apple verses Samsung.
In the original complaint, former iPhone users claimed that Apple’s iMessage system interfered with the delivery of their text messages after switching to an Android phone. iMessage retained text messages sent from other Apple users, which some claim caused them to miss out on important messages.
See also: Android switcher taking Apple to court over undelivered text messages
According to Koh, there is insufficient reason to believe that enough customers were affected by the iMessage issue. Furthermore, it is unlikely that all of those that were affected would have missed out on important conversations that would entitle them to compensation.
(even if iMessage has) “systematic flaws that could result in the disruption of text messaging services, that determination does not assist the court in determining whether iMessage actually caused the proposed class members to suffer any interference,” – Judge Lucy Koh
However, this is not the end of the dispute. Individuals are still free to pursue Apple for compensation based on their own circumstances. Although, this ruling will greatly reduce Apple’s potential penalties and makes it unlikely that the company will have to reach a substantial out of court settlement.
Since the complaints, Apple has made it easier for ex-customers to de-list themselves from iMessage and to recover any messages that may have been lost. The courts will have to decide if Apple has done enough to avoid further action.
Samsung and LG now make up for 78% of all USA Android sales
Apple’s iOS sales continue to drop in the USA as a couple Android manufacturers take control over the market. Yes, you heard that right – a couple. We say this because Samsung is no longer the only big Android player in the USA; in fact, their numbers have been dropping. On the other hand, “Life is Good” for LG, which has been growing by massive proportions.
According to the latest sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the USA market is not as varied as Europe’s and Asia’s. Two Android manufacturers rule here (Samsung and LG), owning about 78% of all Android mobile sales during Q2 of 2015.
This may not be a huge accomplishment for Samsung, but it is for the other Korean phone maker. LG’s sales have doubled… again. Today also marks a special milestone in LG’s road, as they managed to get more first-time smartphone buyers than Samsung.
“While the Android ecosystem in Europe and China continues to offer several brands to choose from, Android in the U.S. is undergoing its strongest consolidation yet, with Samsung and LG now accounting for 78% of all Android sales. LG is the real success story of the quarter. Not only did it double its share of the U.S. smartphone market once again, but it was also able, for the first time, to acquire more first-time smartphone buyers than Samsung.” -Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
Obviously, the report will seem like great news for LG, Samsung and Android fans in the USA, but we have to step back and look at what’s going on in our market. We have a duopoly going on in the Android ecosystem, at least in the USA. Choice doesn’t look so varied once you look at other major markets. Manufacturers like Apple, Huawei and Meizu have been growing elsewhere. In fact, Meizu grew a stunning 700% when compared to Q2 of 2014!
Of course, Meizu, Xiaomi, Huawei and OnePlus are only brands you will see in Asia for now (at least at larger scales), but they are coming, guys. We have put together a neat list of up-and-coming manufacturers that we believe will change our world once (and if) they enter the US market. We need a change, as well as more variety, and I believe it’s coming from these Asian “small timers”. Would you agree?
Eddy Cue ‘Thrilled With the Numbers’ as Apple Music Hits 11 Million Users
In an interview with USA Today, Apple’s Eddy Cue reveals that Apple Music currently has 11 million users taking advantage of the initial three-month trial period, with two million of those taking advantage of the family plan that will cost $14.99 per month once the trial ends. A single-user membership will be priced at $9.99 per month.
“We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, adding that of that sum 2 million have opted for the more lucrative family plan at $14.99 a month for up to six people.
The officially announced milestone of 11 million users is roughly in line with the rumored ten million users shared by HITS Daily Double last week.
Cue notes Apple is “releasing updates as fast as we can” to address bugs and other issues with Apple Music amid duplication and mislabeling complaints. Jimmy Iovine also contributed to the interview, highlighting some of the challenges of reaching users in certain countries and age demographics while noting Apple believes it can use its leverage to bring many of those users on board for a subscription music service.
On a separate note, Cue shared some new App Store numbers, noting that July set a record with $1.7 billion in App Store transactions thanks to strong performance in China. Apple has now paid out $33 billion to developers since the App Store debuted in 2008.
AIVAnet 