Articles about Apple App Store

In an effort to build up hype, and also gauge demand, developers can now make their future apps available for pre-order on the Apple App Store.

If you’re excitedly awaiting the arrival of a new app from your favorite developer, you can now buy it up to 90 days in advance, and it will be downloaded automatically once released.

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It has been a number of months since Google Earth received a makeover on Android and the web, and now the update is making its way to iOS. The latest version of the 3D world-exploration tool has been overhauled, bringing a number of new features to iPhone and iPad users.

These features include 360-degree videos, guided tours, and the interactive Voyager option for traveling virtually to major cities of the world.

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Microsoft Garage is the place where many cool little projects take off. Word Flow, the iOS version of the keyboard that ships with Windows on smartphones, is among the more popular experiments, receiving positive reviews since its launch, more than a year ago.

But, like with other Microsoft Garage endeavors, that is not always enough to keep it alive. The software giant has pulled Word Flow from the App Store, telling users to give its other, better-known keyboard a try.

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Apple has a selective approach towards cryptocurrency, which is why iOS users only have access to a handful of coins in the App Store. You can find players like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple, but most others are pushed aside.

There is no official position, but it is believed that Apple only accepts cryptocurrencies that are reputable. And Dash just rejoined that list. The sixth-largest cryptocurrency is back in the App Store, after being banned last year.

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Apple has offered PayPal as a payment option for quite some time now, but support and availability have been limited. That changes, starting today.

The big news comes for iPhone and iPad users, who will be able to add PayPal as a payment option directly from their device. That integration is rolling out now, with Canada and Mexico being the first markets to get it.

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If you're particularly fond of an app, you may feel like showing your appreciation to the developer by throwing a little money in their direction. Apple is now making this possible by permitting tipping from within apps using in-app purchases.

This is great news for developers who had previously found Apple cracking down on tipping, but it's also good news for Apple's finances. Updated App Store policies permit developers to enable in-app tipping, and Apple takes a 30 percent commission for this privilege.

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Apple has long made it clear that support for 32-bit apps will be phased out eventually. On the iPhone and iPad side, the final nail in the coffin comes with iOS 11. However, macOS developers have a bit more time left to prepare for a 64-bit only future.

Starting next year, Apple will no longer accept 32-bit macOS apps in the App Store, which means that any new titles must be 64-bit from January onwards. However, for existing apps and their upcoming updates there is a different deadline.

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Yesterday at WWDC 2017 Apple not only announced details of iOS 11, the company also unveiled a completely redesigned App Store. Central to the entire iOS experience, the change is due to arrive later in the year, and when we say it's a complete redesign, we mean it's a complete redesign.

It goes without saying that Apple refers to the redesign as "beautiful," and the extreme makeover is something that has been a long time coming. But while the look of the store is markedly different to its current incarnation, it is still somewhat familiar. It borrows style ideas from iOS 10's Music and News apps.

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It's Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week, and while we are very unlikely to hear anything about the iPhone 8, there's sure to be plenty of news to come. However, ahead of the start of the conference, it seems that Apple has accidentally let slip its iOS file manager.

A new, largely blank entry in the App Store was spotted by a developer. It shows a new app called, imaginatively enough, Files. The icon is Apple-y in style, would be appropriate for a file manager app, and the listing indicates that iOS 11 and up is needed.

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The app-economy competition is fierce. Facebook owns four out of the five most downloaded apps worldwide, but startups are still leaping into the fight to claim new and old markets. For these startups, Facebook is often the least of their worries as, according to research from Gartner, we only actually use between six and ten apps on average and end up neglecting or deleting the rest. It’s tough for app developers to break through the noise, let alone get into that top ten.

So what does this mean for startups trying to break into the space? You have to put your best foot forward to make sure users will not only find your app, but keep it.

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Uber broke Apple's rules by tagging and tracking iPhones even after users had uninstalled the taxi-hailing app. The New York Times reports that Tim Cook met with CEO Travis Kalanick and warned that the Uber app could be kicked out of the App Store for violating privacy guidelines.

It is said that Uber has been found "secretly identifying and tagging iPhones" not only after the app was uninstalled, but even after phones had been wiped. The "fingerprinting" technique was used -- it is alleged -- to identify individual iPhones, and measures were taken to hide the offending code from Apple.

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It has been a long time coming. A very long time coming. But -- finally -- there is an iPad-optimized version of the Google Calendar app available. Let joy be unbounded!

It has taken a full two years for Google developers to pull their fingers out and create a version of the app that is not designed just for iPhones. Google Calendar for iPad takes full advantage of the increased screen real estate, and supports Split View.

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With the launch of iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4, there was great excitement about the arrival of a new file system as well as improvements to performance -- even if they were only perceived improvements. Something that didn’t get a great deal of attention, however, is the introduction of replies to reviews.

Just as has been an option in Google Play for years, developers can now respond to the reviews that people leave about their apps and games. It's something that has been a very long time coming, and finally brings a dialog to the App Store, meaning that users and developers have a two-way channel of communication.

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Even though Apple released the first iOS device with a 64-bit processor three and a half years ago, there are still nearly 200,000 titles in the App Store that have not been optimized for those iPhones and iPads. And that will soon turn into a major problem for developers and users alike.

Starting with the next version of iOS, Apple plans to drop support for apps that are not updated to support 64-bit iPhones and iPads, a move which is expected to affect roughly 187,000 titles based on a Sensor Tower report.

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For far too many years the process of providing feedback in the App Store has been a one-way dialog. At long last Apple is opening things up so developers will be able to respond to reviews that are left by customers.

References to the new option is to be found in the documentation for iOS 10.3 beta, and Apple says that it will be available to developers when the final version of iOS 10.3 is released; it will also be available in the Mac App Store. Importantly, just as with Google Play, responses that are left will be visible to all and a new API will make it possible to leave feedback from within apps.

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