The latest App Report from research firm Appthority has found that free apps downloaded onto iOS devices are more likely to collect your personal data than free apps downloaded on Android, with 60% of the top ten App Store downloads sharing data with advertising and analytics networks.
The report suggests that due to the volume of titles in the App Store, iOS developers are more likely to collect your data and pass it on as an alternative revenue stream.
One of the more intriguing and, in our minds, controversial comments Tim Cook made during his interview at Goldman Sach’s conference:
“The innovation has moved away from PC development to the tablets and smartphones. Who is making PC apps now? No one, except the usual suspects.”
That’s a bold thing to say. When Cook refers to “PC development” the context of this question makes it clear the’s also referring to Mac development. That’s a strange comment to make when one of the legs on Apple’s stool of businesses is the Mac App Store, which is a lucrative business in its own right for Apple.
But is Tim Cook right? Have Mac and PC developers stopped innovating? Are all the innovators working on iPhone and iPad apps now? Take part in our poll, then please feel free to give us your thoughts in the comments.
Apple has seeded yet another OS X 10.8.3 beta in the Mac Dev Center. This specific build has no known issues, and Apple asks third-party developers to focus on testing a few more areas of the OS.
The first beta seed of 10.8.3 was released back in November, and Apple has updated the beta software no less than 10 times in 3 months. Still no official word on when 10.8.3 will be available to the public, but we’ll keep you posted.
Just over 100 years ago, Ford, one of America’s oldest car companies, was selling the model T; my, how far we’ve come.
Back to 2013, Ford has announced they’re opening up their AppLink service to all the iOS and Android app developers of the world, essentially creating an ecosystem full of apps that will make their cars even better. They’re calling their new initiative the Ford Developer Program, and I think it’s pretty cool.
When you’re designing an app for iOS, you need to take into account what specific devices you’re building for, whether it be just the iPhone, iPad, or both. There are several Retina and non-Retina screen resolutions to remember, and then there are other nerdy elements like PPI and color temperature.
User interface designer Ivo Mynttinen has published an updated version of his handy iOS Design Cheat Sheet, “a collection of useful data about iOS devices and things you have to keep in mind when designing something for iOS.”
Whether you’re a novice iOS dev or a seasoned pro, this cheat sheet is a handy thing to bookmark for future reference. There’s a clean chart for all of the iOS device resolutions, display stats, icons, and common design elements.
Before Apple had their very own Internet browser, Mac users had to depend on Internet Explorer for Mac to surf the web. Part of Steve Jobs plan to resurrect the popularity of the Mac was to create its very own web browser – Safari.
Apple being Apple, the entire project was top secret. Even Apple employees weren’t allowed to know that Apple was cooking up its own browser. The secrecy of the project made things difficult because Apple needed to test the browser as they built it, but server logs would identify Safari before it was announced and Apple’s secret would be blown.
Rather than risk someone discovering Safari via their server logs, Apple cleverly hid Safari’s true identity by pretending it was Mozilla, and it actually worked. Here’s the story according to former Apple employee Don Melton who was in charge of the Safari team:
For the last few decades, developers have always flocked to Microsoft’s operating system while Apple’s Mac OS X has been an afterthought. In the post-PC world though the tables have turned.
Apple’s App Store has the highest quality apps for iPhones and iPads while Microsoft has been struggling to get developers to come over and make apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. In an effort to sway the tide of the battle, Microsoft is now trying to woo popular iOS developers over to Microsoft.
Apple has just released the third beta build of iOS 6.1. Anyone with a developer account can install the latest iOS 6.1 beta 3 on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch by either downloading the update directly from the developer portal, or checking for a software update from the Settings app in iOS.
We’ll let you know if we find any new goodies in the beta once we’ve installed it on our devices and ran our fingers through it.
For developers, distributing promo codes can be a pain in the neck. Apple gives its third-party devs the ability to share an app with a limited number of users—a feature that is often used to give bloggers like myself early access to software before it comes out. That way we can test and get familiar with a certain app in order to provide helpful feedback and possibly write a review.
A new Mac app called Tokens offers developers a drastically improved method for generating and distributing their app promo codes.
Even though they’re not leading in marketshare, Apple’s iOS devices account for more than 60% of all mobile web consumption. Because of this, many websites provide custom layouts for multiple devices so that users can enjoy an optimized experience regardless of whether they’re viewing a website from their iPad, iPhone or MacBook.
However, with the new iPad mini Apple has made it impossible for developers to deliver an optimized experience for the device, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
