Apple’s iTunes App Store Reaches 15 Billion Downloads

Jul 082011
 

Apple has announced that it’s iTunes App Store has reached an amazing 15 billion downloads. The App Store currently offers more than 425,000 apps for iOS devices, including 100,000 native iPad apps.

In the press release document, Apple claims to have more than 200 million iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users worldwide. However, as pointed out by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, Apple claim to have sold over 200 million iOS devices. But the number of devices and users don’t correlate one-to-one as some users own multiple iOS devices.

According to MacTalk, that’s roughly about 75 apps per user or 833 million apps per month.

“In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen. Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Apple’s App Store has a huge lead over both Google’s Android Apps Market and Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace in terms of number of apps available. To put things into perspective, the Android Apps Market currently has over 200,000 apps available and the Windows Phone Marketplace recently just reached 25,000 apps.

Last month at this year’s WWDC, Apple revealed that 14 billion apps had been downloaded. This means that roughly a billion apps have been download in just a month. Staggering.

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$1 Billion+ Acquisition of Popcap Games?

Jun 232011
 

 

Once, there was a backyard lawn that grew a multitude of plants including, sweet peas, corn, walnuts and sunflowers. However, after an arcane ritual went wrong, causing a devastating plague to sweep over humanity, causing zombification, your plants mutated somehow providing you with a cure against the undead disease as well as becoming your first line of defense against your brain hungry neighbors. In other words, Plants vs Zombies.

The company behind Plants vs Zombies, Popcap Games has been reported by TechCrunch as being under an acquisition process, with offers reportedly reaching over a billion dollars, unfortunately, the possible buyer has not been named yet. Possible suitors by TechCrunch comment that Zynga could have been a possible buyer, but with the Facebook game company’s comparatively low market capitalization, it would certainly be a colossal purchase for them. EA has been hinted at as a possible suitor too, and with its recent purchase of Playfish, EA does seem to be a contender in the acquisition of Popcap Games.

But, with comparatively small market capitalization versus the asking price of $1 billion, it also seems unlikely that EA will pick up the company. That leaves the ‘big 3′ so to say, Microsoft, Google and Apple. Microsoft seems like the most likely purchaser, after all, the massive company already does own an entire console, and the operating system that most games run on. Purchasing Popcap would allow the company to take another step in its plan of gaming domination.

Apple certainly does have the money to purchase Popcap, but it seems slightly unlikely that they would have reason to purchase Popcap Games. Some of the companies products have been released in the App Store anyway, such as Plants vs Zombies anyway. Purchasing Popcap to use as an exclusive application developer seems excessive, considering the huge numbers of willing developers to contribute to the App Store.

And then there’s Google, with their Android devices. Like the other two big companies, money really isn’t an issue here. However, they could use Popcap games to create a ‘killer app’ of sorts, to attract more users to Android phones in general, and embrace the market place. But with the market share of Android phones growing rapidly, it seems that Google won’t feel the need to purchase Popcap games to bolster their already accessible lineup.

Popcap games has refused to comment on these ‘rumors’ at this point in time. But expect a big announcement from the indie games developer soon.

Watch TV on iPad and iPhone With Few Cool Apps

May 142011
 

Lots of people start watching  TV online and now that we have cool gadgets such as iPad , iPhone etc.., you can watch TV on iPad or iPhone with just few apps that are free to download from App Store.

watch live tv on iPad or iPhone

credit:gizmodo.com

Before I go into detail of individual apps where you can watch TV on iPad and iPhone, I would urge you to check into two gadgets that will allow you to watch your own TV channels just like you would be a front of TV from any remote location. My favorite and most popular is Sling Box, another one I like is Vulkano Box which is pretty much same as Sling Box but has bit more functions. To be honest ,it all comes down to how much you are willing to pay. The two Boxes above hook up to your TV or Cable/Dish Box and your router for internet connectivity. I have Sling Box for over 5 years now and I love it.

Now that you know about the TV box converters, let me introduce you to few apps I also used on my iDevices.

Watch TV on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch apps

ABC Player – great free app that allows you to watch full shows that recently aired, they also have clips and full schedule.

Filmon – Filmon is NOT an app is a website. It does have live streaming TV channels which are mostly from around the world, not to bad web app to kill time or get informed what other countries air.

TWCable TV – This app allows Time Warner subscribers watch almost all channels on iPad and iPhone.Comcast cable subscribers can watch tv via Xfinity app which is free too.

NetTV – Download the NetTV Lite app first, see if you like it  then if you like what you see than download netTV . App is priced at $2.99 for both iPad and iPhone. They have lots of  live tv channels to offer.

CBS – CBS website is fully designed for iPad and iPhone to watch clips etc, not to bad.

Crackle – Cool free App I recently downloaded, they have lots of movies and tv shows like Hulu Plus which you have to pay for monthly subscription.

As you can see there is really no good app that will allow you to watch live TV on iPad or iPhone, that’s why I said above:  Either get Sling Box or Vulkano Box that will convert your TV into streaming device. If you happen to know about some other cool app let us know.

Countdown to 10 Billion Apps Started, You Could Win $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

Jan 182011
 

No kidding, but iTunes is going to give away $10,000 iTunes gift card to one lucky user who downloads its ten billionth app from iTunes. Now this is amazing, and here is what Apple has to say about it,

“As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet.”

If you’ve got a chance to visit the announcement page these days, you would have seen that it is showing an animated countdown counter which reveals how fast the apps are being downloaded every second.

App Store Just Going to Hit Ten Billion Downloads, Your Chance to Win A $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

App Store Just Going to Hit Ten Billion Downloads, Your Chance to Win A $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

Let’s see who is the lucky winner who not only wins the $10,000 iTunes gift card but also becomes the historic person to download the ten billionth app! See the complete official rules to enter the sweepstakes here.

60 Apps Per iOS Device? Good Job iTunes and App Store Developers!

Jan 162011
 

iTunes became popular somewhere between 2004-2005 and since then it took off really quick, so quick that today iTunes might sold 12 Billion songs last year and almost 10 Billion Apps.

iTunes App store was instant hit back in 2007 when fist iPod Touch and iPhone came out well now with iOS (iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone) Apple might sell 60 apps to individual iOS device, nope I am not kidding nor Asymco who ran the whole statistics report.

itunes download apps vs songs

How many apps to you have on your mobile device?

Source: Asymco

Apple Mac Store is Live

Jan 062011
 

Long waited Apple Mac Store is now available for Mac Fans. Apple Mac store is available only for Snow Leopard or Mac OS X version 10.6.6. There is more than1000 applications ready for you to install.

Apple Mac Store

Steve Jobs said:

“We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps.”

Here is the press release, following with the link below to the Apple Mac Store:

CUPERTINO, California—January 6, 2011—Apple® today announced that the Mac® App Store℠ is now open for business with more than 1,000 free and paid apps. The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS® X v10.6.6.

“With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps.”

The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.

Entirely new apps, as well as current Mac favorites, are available from developers such as Autodesk, Ancestry.com and Boinx. iPhoto®, iMovie® and GarageBand® apps from Apple’s popular iLife® ‘11 suite are available individually in the Mac App Store for $14.99 each, and Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® apps from iWork® are available for $19.99 each. Aperture® 3, Apple’s powerful photo editing and management software, is available for $79.99.

“We’re delighted to bring our professional-grade paint and drawing app, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, to the Mac App Store on its first day of launch,” said Carl Bass, Autodesk’s CEO. “We’ve seen tremendous success on the Mac, iPhone and iPad with multiple apps. We’re excited to offer SketchBook Pro on the Mac App Store so artists can easily create everything from quick sketches to high-quality artwork right on their Macs.”

“By offering the Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker app on the Mac App Store, we’re making it even easier for people to discover and access their family history,” said Tim Sullivan, Ancestry.com’s CEO. “The Mac App Store will drive a new generation of innovation on the Mac platform.”

“We’re thrilled to have our award-winning animation, video production and photography software available on the new Mac App Store,” said Oliver Breidenbach, Boinx Software’s CEO. “The Mac App Store makes it easier than ever for consumers to access all the innovative software designed for the Mac.”

To get the Mac App Store, download the Mac OS X v10.6.6 Software Update or visit www.apple.com/mac/app-store. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Mac App Store Release Date: January 6th

Dec 162010
 

Apple this morning announced Mac App Store release date, which is going to be on January 6th. Basically with Mac App store you will be able to buy apps (Software) for your Mac’s. Mac App store is going to be available to 90 countries but they will expand the Mac store to other countries as well.

Here is the hot press release:

CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2010—Apple® today announced that the Mac® App Store℠ will open for business on Thursday, January 6. By bringing the revolutionary App Store experience to Mac OS® X, the Mac App Store makes discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. The Mac App Store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.

“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”

The Mac App Store lets you browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, view staff favorites, search categories and read customer ratings and reviews. Like on iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad™, you can purchase, download and install apps in just one click and start using them immediately. Purchased apps can run on all of your personal Macs and updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date. The Mac App Store is available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard® users as a free download through Software Update.

Mac developers set the price for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

No Takers For Apple Subscriptions Through iTunes

Dec 042010
 

There is news about two subscription based digital newspapers that will only be published via the Apple App Store.  A Virgin-Based magazine and “The Daily”, which is going to be published by News Corp.  These two companies have been talking about the new subscription system in the app store, but it seems that not many other companies are on board with this, at least yet.

"The Daily"

According to these reports, there were to be some deals in the works with Apple, but now they have come to some sort of a standstill.  Companies are not very confident in Apple to provide them with sufficient consumer data.  This comes to somewhat of a surprise to most because Apple has always been a well regarded company that can offer up just about anything.

Users would be able to opt-in to allow companies to access their data, but apparently this is not enough for publishers to come flocking to the subscription service.  The data provided would only include an email and physical address of the user, which isn’t all that much and with privacy becoming more of a big deal these days (ie. Facebook), you can bet most people will opt-out.

The publishers also would have to deal with Apple’s cut in the purchases of the subscriptions.  At this point it looks like that fee would be about 30%, which is a lot when it comes to payments that are coming in all month long.

There are other reports that publishers really want to see customers credit card data would is valuable to their marketing strategies, but Apple is not allowing this data to be given away on an opt-in basis.  Currently, there is an announcement planned for December 9th, which will detail the involvement of News Corp. and Apple.

The Daily has been pushed back for a bit, but what is the reason?  Are they thinking about not dealing with Apple at all, or is it some sort of production issue?

Apple to Launch iOS 4.3 Next Month

Nov 242010
 

Apparently, rolling out iOS is just like another day at the office for Apple.  The 4.2.1 is almost all rolled out this week and it appears that Apple is planning another update due to come out just before Christmas.  There are reports that the 4.3 update will be linked to the daily digital newspaper that News Corp is reportedly working on for the iPad for 2011.

image from thenextweb.com

The delay of the 4.2.1 is part of the reason the two updates are so close to one another.  The 4.3 update was always been scheduled for Monday, the 13th, and that is only a couple of days after News Corp. released their digital newspaper.  The 4.2.1 update already added features like wireless music streaming and printing.  The 4.3 is likely to have the subscription model update and be used in conjunction with The Daily and other subscription services.

I think the biggest feature is the subscription feature, which was annouced awhile ago and has kept developers waiting like hawks for its release.  Now you will be able to us the app to subscribe to various digital content like newspapers and magazine much like you would from home.  Only now, there is no paper waste and you don’t have to wait until the mail man arrives with your content.  The subscriptions to the daily seem very affordable and I would imagine that many other subscriptions will take on the same pricing model.

There are some additional bugs that will be fixed with the 4.3 update and performance updates, but don’t expect too much as 4.2.1 was loaded with many features already.  In fact, if you are not going to be subscribing to any content, then you might not be in such a hurry to update in the first place.

Let’s not forget that this is somewhat of a rumor, even though it seemed planned for December, I would guess there will be some form of announcement from Apple soon.

SlingPlayer Mobile App Has Arrived for iPad

Nov 242010
 

You already control your TV from your iPhone thanks to the Slingbox app for the iPhone.  And thanks to the newest mobile app to come from Sling, you can control your TV from your iPad.  Yes, the SlingPlayer mobile app for your Apple iPad is now available.  Besides being able to control the television you can check out your cable subscriptions, stream through your DVR, Apple TV or even check out your compatible home security cameras on your iPad.

image from Gamerant.com

What do you get with this app?  Well, first, full control over your TV.  Control your DVR as well, forward, back, pause and other programmable features.  You can access your box, music channels and video on demand, as well.  You can also access your TV for viewing over any 3G or Wi-Fi network connection.  In order to get the full access to all these great features you will need the SlingBox Solo or Pro-HD though.

There have been some upgrades since the iPhone like a “recent channels” feature and higher quality video.  Running your SlingBox from your iPhone or iPad is pretty sweet.  I think that more and more people are tuning into television through internet ready devices and these types of apps are right in line with that trend.

Basically if you have yourself an internet connection, you can view your SlingBox content on your iPad.  The screen is larger than an iPhone, so that makes viewing the material and little less stressful on your eyes.  If you want this app you are going to have to head over the Apple App Store and pay $29.99 for it.  If you already have the app for the iPhone, you will still have to pay again, as this app is not the same.

Skyfire Browser ‘Sold Out’, In Demand Due To Flash-Playing Feature

Nov 052010
 

It was an exciting news to hear that Flash video can be now played on my iPhone. It was learned that Skyfire browser supports the Flash content and it was on sale for only $2.99 in the App Store. I was excited, like many iPhone owners, and within five hours the report of the company comes that it has become the “top grossing app.” It also became the third highest paid app overall in the App Store and the top application in the Utilities category. Sad news came the next day. Skyfire pulled back its sales from the store. More sad news was that those who purchased the app could not use it. The app became the victim of its own success.

The process of watching the Flash content is a different one on the Skyfire browser. The flash video is first sent to the servers of Skyfire where it is converted into HTML5 format and then streamed back on our device. When too many people bought the app and almost everyone demanded to view the Flash content, the servers of the company were overloaded and it had to halt.

The main reason of getting Flash compatible browser is to watch porn and that is not available on the existing mobile-friendly services such as YouTube.

Well, whether the purpose was porn watching or cleaner content, the servers of the company has been clogged. The company’s spokesperson said that the service will be back soon as they are working in increasing the capacity of the servers.

One thing is understood with the huge success of Skyfire browser that plyaing Flash content is on great demand on iPhones. Moreover, Flash is the primary technology in the web world for video playing.

iOS is iPhones operating system and Apple had refused continuously of providing native support for Flash content.

White iPhone 4 Reservation Initiated Through Apple Store App

Oct 262010
 

Apple has taken initiation to update its Apple Store app for iOS, with v1.1 and this is currently available with iTunes. The new update brought special news about white iPhone 4 and indicated its release. The update app has the white iPhone 4 reservation option in it. Currently it is indicated 16GB and 32 GB models availability for this reservation along with regular black iPhone 4.

In fact, the option is available specifically for white iPhone 4, but this is not yet active unfortunately. It is prompting a message as “Because of high demand, we are not currently taking iPhone reservations”.

In fact, there was an announcement of White iPhone 4 along with the black iPhone, but delayed very badly and Apple responded for this with a blame over the manufacturing issues.

Source: Slashgear
Image: RedmondPie

Iphone 4 Gets Video-Out Support Through Netflix App Update

Oct 052010
 

Current Netflix app got an update and available through App store. This update will enable Video-Out support for the iPhone 4 and the 4th-generation iPod Touch, which was released early last month. Netflix basically a U.S. based company that offers DVD rentals by mail and video streaming. Its app recently made available for iPhone in Last August and before August it was an iPad-only app and available since April.

In the U.S. unlimited video streaming was arranged at the lowest price of $8.99 per month through Netflix. Recently this facility was made available in Canada too. Currently this app is available at free of cost from App Store. Get Netflix for iPad, iPhone and I Pod Touch and enjoy TV shows and Movies streaming instantly.

Voicemail Viewer and myWireless Mobile Updates from AT&T

Oct 042010
 

AT&T, the sole carrier for the iPhone in the United States got all the reasons to say I am busy. The carrier releases a new app voicemail viewer for the unified messaging and U-verse customers. Also, added new functionalities through update for the existing myWireless Mobile app. Now, the AT&T voicemail viewer available in two versions from App store as Home and Work. Also, myWirelss Mobile added many new features as global AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspot finder, A-List number management and many more through the latest update.

The new Voicemail Viewer app got an interface that is almost like the iPhone’s visual voicemail feature. Now, AT&T unified messaging and U-Verse customers can use the new app for all their voicemail messages and this app also can be used to view faxes too.

The myWireless Mobile app adorned with many new features as:

• Enroll in AutoPay to set up recurring Wireless bill payments.
• Schedule monthly one-time-only Wireless bill payments.
• Manage shared features for Wireless rate plans.
• Add or remove your favorite A-List numbers.
• In the More menu, there is a Support section that provides answers to FAQs for Wireless bill payments, usage and features
• Wi-Fi support with video tutorials on how to set up popular Smart Phones for Wi-Fi access and a Locator to find public Wi-Fi access worldwide.
• Application login screen now supports alpha-numeric entries.
All of these apps are available now for free.

IPad Gets GameCenter Through GameFly Updates

Oct 022010
 

GameFly, a video game rental service update now added to Game Center Games app and through this update Game Center will run successfully on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Now, the latest GameCenter app will have improved search and browsing by genres, allows sharing game information via FaceBook, Twitter and also avails full-screen HD videos.

Here, users should remember that the iOS 4’s Game Center feature is an Apple-built app and for this set of APIs designed to improve multiplayer games on iOS devices. Now, GameFly’s GameCenter offers news and reviews for more than 8,000 video games. Also, videos, screen shots, release dates and cheats will result as an assortment through this addition. In fact, GameCenter is not for the game play, but it will act as a library for gaming information and allows user to sort their “GameQ” to select which games they receive from GameFly.

GameCenter 1.2.7 comes at free of cost and runs on all iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads that are running on iOS 3.0 or later.

Via Macworld

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