Apple’s App Store is changing, starting with subscriptions
At next week’s WWDC, Apple is set to unveil some major changes to the way developers and users interact with the App Store. According to Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing (and perennial WWDC keynote presence) Phil Schiller, Apple is working to improve everything from the app review experience to the discovery process. But the most notable change is a shift in the business models to allow for subscriptions from any kind of app.
As The Verge reports today, the 70/30 revenue split between developers and Apple will stay in place, but apps that keep a user subscribed for more than a year will see that split shift in their favor to 85/15. “Now we’re going to open up to all categories,” Schiller told The Verge, “and that includes games, which is a huge category.”
According to LoopInsight, developers will be able to choose “one of over 200 subscription price points” and will be able to create region-specific pricing. If a developer chooses to raise a subscription price, users will have to re-authorize the price increase. The new system will also effect current subscription-based apps.
The shift looks enticing for developers, who will now be able to offer their apps and games for a monthly fee rather than a single price up front. And with iPhone sales finally on the decline, the arrangement also allows Apple to turn existing users into even more lucrative revenue streams.
Also per Schiller, Apple will be introducing display ads into the iOS App Store search results for the first time. Although Apple has previously stated that Featured positioning in the App Store is “not for sale,” Schiller now feels confident they’ve built a system that will work for everyone. The auction system behind the ads, Schiller said, will be “fair to developers and fair for indie developers, too.”
As for the app review process, Schiller says that the turnaround time has dropped to the point where a full half of the apps submitted to Apple are reviewed in the first 24 hours and 90 percent are reviewed within two days.
Finally, Schiller is looking to drive even more traffic to the App Store, to the point where it becomes a daily visit for most users. One of the ways Apple plans to do that is to add a “Share” button to every app’s 3D Touch menu on the home screen. As you might expect, tapping the share button allows you to shoot off a download link on your social network of choice.
Google’s Project Fi gets more coverage through US Cellular
Ever since Google launched Project Fi, you’ve had to hop between just two networks: Sprint and T-Mobile. But what if you’re in an area where one or neither is particularly great? You might have an easier time of things after today. US Cellular has signed up as Project Fi’s third partner, giving you both better overall coverage and a greater chance of staying on speedy LTE data. You should see it reach your phone sometime in the “coming weeks.” It’s probably not the additional network you were hoping for (AT&T or Verizon, anyone?), but it could mean the difference between a rock-solid connection and having to wait for WiFi.
Source: Android Official Blog
Chrome 51 on Android brings tabs back
Now that Google has officially released Chrome 51 on Android, it’s reversed a change that came with Lollipop in 2014. That release of Android brought in the option to “Merge tabs and apps” which put open tabs in the app switcher instead of all in one process and was on by default. The only problem was that we disliked it from the start, and so did many others, who quickly disabled it. Now the option is gone altogether, and the old tab selecting option is back by default. As we noted in our Lollipop review, it’s just an easier way to keep track of tabs, and also makes it easier to scroll through any recently opened apps. If you don’t have the new version already, check Google Play for an update.
Source: Google Chrome Releases, Google Play
Apple’s App Store is changing, starting with subscriptions
At next week’s WWDC, Apple is set to unveil some major changes to the way developers and users interact with the App Store. According to Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing (and perennial WWDC keynote presence) Phil Schiller, Apple is working to improve everything from the app review experience to the discovery process. But the most notable change is a shift in the business models to allow for subscriptions from any kind of app.
As The Verge reports today, the 70/30 revenue split between developers and Apple will stay in place, but apps that keep a user subscribed for more than a year will see that split shift in their favor to 85/15. “Now we’re going to open up to all categories,” Schiller told The Verge, “and that includes games, which is a huge category.”
According to LoopInsight, developers will be able to choose “one of over 200 subscription price points” and will be able to create region-specific pricing. If a developer chooses to raise a subscription price, users will have to re-authorize the price increase. The new system will also effect current subscription-based apps.
The shift looks enticing for developers, who will now be able to offer their apps and games for a monthly fee rather than a single price up front. And with iPhone sales finally on the decline, the arrangement also allows Apple to turn existing users into even more lucrative revenue streams.
Also per Schiller, Apple will be introducing display ads into the iOS App Store search results for the first time. Although Apple has previously stated that Featured positioning in the App Store is “not for sale,” Schiller now feels confident they’ve built a system that will work for everyone. The auction system behind the ads, Schiller said, will be “fair to developers and fair for indie developers, too.”
As for the app review process, Schiller says that the turnaround time has dropped to the point where a full half of the apps submitted to Apple are reviewed in the first 24 hours and 90 percent are reviewed within two days.
Finally, Schiller is looking to drive even more traffic to the App Store, to the point where it becomes a daily visit for most users. One of the ways Apple plans to do that is to add a “Share” button to every app’s 3D Touch menu on the home screen. As you might expect, tapping the share button allows you to shoot off a download link on your social network of choice.
Google’s Project Fi gets more coverage through US Cellular
Ever since Google launched Project Fi, you’ve had to hop between just two networks: Sprint and T-Mobile. But what if you’re in an area where one or neither is particularly great? You might have an easier time of things after today. US Cellular has signed up as Project Fi’s third partner, giving you both better overall coverage and a greater chance of staying on speedy LTE data. You should see it reach your phone sometime in the “coming weeks.” It’s probably not the additional network you were hoping for (AT&T or Verizon, anyone?), but it could mean the difference between a rock-solid connection and having to wait for WiFi.
Source: Android Official Blog
Slack finally opens up work calls to everyone
After testing voice calls for the past few months, Slack is now opening up the feature to all of its workaholic users. It works as you’d expect: you can initiate calls with a new telephone icon in Slack’s desktop offerings, or by clicking through a dropdown menu on its iOS and Android apps. Then you can chat with coworkers using your voice, just like olden times. Any Slack user will be able to make individual calls, and teams who pay for the service can also initiate group calls for any Slack channel or group chat.
Sure, it’s a feature Slack competitors like Hipchat have had for years, but it’s still nice to see it finally showing up. You’ll also be able to throw up emojis during work chats, which is surely something someone, somewhere, has wanted for a while.
Run Android on an iPhone – with some heavy engineering and caveats
Familiar with cramming one operating system into somewhere it doesn’t belong, developers at Tendigi have just created a homemade iPhone case that lets you run Android on your iOS smartphone. (Well, kind of). Fortunately, because of the Android Open Source Project, it gave Nick Lee the freedom to clone the mobile OS and build his own local hardware. Before he went that far, Lee decided to test the concept — streaming Android across to an iPhone through a cable — with a Nexus 5. He needed tools that could communicate with iOS, as well as services that let USB cables play nice with an iPhone. Lee also crafted software that transmitted what was happening on the Android devices’ screen to the iPhone, while also send touch-input back. The next challenge: cramming it all into an iPhone “case”. See it working after the break.
He then made his own tiny Android development board (all the technical specifics are here), linking it to the soon-to-be franken-iPhone and its own power supply, prototyping and 3D-printing an enclosure to house it all and attach to the iPhone. It’s not the prettiest case, and really you’re ‘streaming’ Android to your iPhone screen, but it’s the man-hours thought that counts, right?
Source: Tendigi
Microsoft now offering Surface Membership Plans
Microsoft has quietly introduced a Surface Membership Plan that allows small businesses to keep up with the latest Surface hardware and buy the devices on a monthly payment plan. Starting at $32.99 per month, business users get “the latest Surface devices, accessories, support, and training.” The membership plan includes the current generation Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, and Surface 3, but it also comes with free upgrades when newer models become available.
As Thurrott.com points out, the membership program follows the iPhone Upgrade program that Apple introduced last year. The Surface memberships also include setup, personal training, in-store tech support, an extended service plan and Accidental Damage Protection. The monthly costs vary, depending on the model and whether you stretch out the payments over 18, 24 or 30 months, but the cheapest is a basic Surface Pro 3 for $33 per month over 30 months. The most expensive will run you about $221 per month for a tricked-out Surface Book with a 1TB hard drive, 16 GB RAM, Intel i7 processor and dual GPUs.
That also means, at the end of the installments, you’ll have shelled out about $3,978 for that Surface Book, versus $3,448 for the same machine with just a two-year service plan and no other bundled deals (or $3,199 if you live on the edge and skip the service plan). For the budget Surface 3, the membership plan works out to $990 total over two and a half years, versus $600 for the device with no extras.
One other thing to note here: the plans are meant for business customers and not individuals, although you can still sign up to order only a single device, rather than a whole fleet. Also, in order to be approved for the membership plan, you’ll have to go through Microsoft’s financing partner LiftForward to handle all the monthly payments and credit applications.
Google’s new iOS app turns Live Photos into GIFs
Cinemagraphs — those artsy hybrids of animated gifs and film stills — used to require a good deal of work to set up and create. That changes today with Google’s latest iOS app Motion Stills, which uses Apple’s Live Photos feature along with Google’s own video stabilization to freeze the background of your photos and create dramatic looping gifs or video snippets.
The Motion Stills app combines a couple pieces of technology Google already featured in Photos, like video stabilization and auto-creating gifs from bursts of photos. According to Google, the new Motion Stills algorithm “uses linear programming to compute a virtual camera path that is optimized to recast videos and bursts as if they were filmed using stabilization equipment, yielding a still background or creating cinematic pans to remove shakiness.” In other words: you’ve got a virtual tripod or steadicam rig built right in.
In addition to keeping your shots steady, the algorithm does a lot of heavy lifting to identify moving objects in the foreground to keep them isolated from movement in the background. And for a handy bonus, it will also pick an optimal loop point to cut off those embarrassing moments when your video ends with you putting your phone back in your pocket.
The app works its magic on your phone, so you won’t need a data connection to create your latest masterpiece, but you will, of course, need a signal to share it to your social network of choice. Motion Stills is available on the App Store.
Marshmallow is now on 10 percent of Android devices
The latest version of Android just hit a big, big milestone. Google’s early June developer stats have revealed that Marshmallow is now on just over 10 percent of Android devices, representing a huge jump from just 2.3 percent in March. Notably, only some of that surge can be credited to people upgrading from Lollipop. While the not-quite-current version’s adoption did go down (to 35.4 percent), the biggest declines in usage were for Jelly Bean and KitKat. In essence: many of those moving to Marshmallow may well have been replacing devices that were 3 or more years old.
The timing isn’t coincidental, as you might have gathered. In the three months since we last looked back, numerous smartphone makers have delivered Marshmallow phones in force. The Galaxy S7 is the big kahuna, but you can also point to phones like the HTC 10, LG G5 and Sony’s newer Xperias as factors. If you bought a brand new device this spring, especially if it was reasonably high-end, it might have been hard to avoid Marshmallow.
To us, the big unknown is how well Marshmallow will fare by the time its successor rolls around in a few months, around Marshmallow’s first anniversary. Lollipop took a year and a half to become the dominant Android flavor. Although Marshmallow isn’t necessarily going to repeat history, its year-one figures should give you a good idea as to whether or not it’s doing as well as its predecessor.
Source: Android Developers
AIVAnet 