subscriptions - page 2

The launch of Apple’s news magazine subscription service could be just weeks away.

Images found in the first iOS 12.2 beta appear to show that Apple is already in the testing phase of the magazine subscription service. Rumors have been circulating about its potential launch pretty much ever since Apple acquired Texture. Now it looks like the iPhone-maker is finally ready to capitalize by bundling it with other content.

Growing concerns about how much companies are spying on us tops our list of the most significant tech trends of 2018. Also on the list are some big changes in applications, a trend in phone design, and a new type of device that became nearly ubiquitous. 

As the new year begins, let’s take a look back at what changed for Apple and the tech world over the past 12 months.

Did you get a new iPhone or iPad for Christmas? Maybe you got all excited and signed up for a few subscriptions? And now, perhaps, you’re worried that when the free trial periods end, you’ll be stuck paying for them, and that they’ll be as impossible to cancel as an unused gym membership. No problem! Canceling subscriptions on iOS is almost as easy as signing up to them.

Apple is seeming cracking down on some of the dodgier subscription apps in the App Store, following reports highlighting the actions of certain unscrupulous apps and app-makers.

Out of the 17 apps mentioned in a recent Forbes report on these practices, 11 have now been removed from the App Store. Similarly, QR Code Reader and Weather Alarms — two problematic apps highlighted by TechCrunch — have also vanished.

Apple wants developers to stop selling iOS applications and start renting them instead. The reason is simple: this forces users to pay more for software.

Apple held a secret meeting in New York City last year to convince developers to give up charging users a one-time fee for apps, and go instead to reoccurring charges.

App subscriptions are great, mostly. Trial subscriptions let you try out all the app’s features for free, and if you like the app enough to keep using it, the developer gets an ongoing income that lets them keep improving the app. It’s a win-win.

But what if you signed up for a trial subscription, and you don’t like the app? Or maybe you subscribed to a monthly magazine, and those unread copies just keep piling up? Canceling a subscription is easy, whether it’s a fresh trial, or a years-long subscription you just don’t want any more. Here’s how.

Ulysses, one of the best writing apps on the Mac and iOS, just switched to subscription pricing. It’ll now cost you $5 per month, or $40 per year. This is fantastic news for Ulysses users. It means the app will generate enough income to support itself. And it minimizes the risk of the developers abandoning the app when the flow of new users dries to a trickle.

Yet despite this good news, the internet lost it mind after yesterday’s announcement of the pricing change. Currently the Ulysses blog is only serving a single post, the one detailing the change, because the traffic has been enough to collapse the servers. What happened?

Apple’s Mac App Store is broken. For developers and Mac users alike, the online store just isn’t working.

It’s too hard for buyers to find good software. And, thanks to Apple’s picky restrictions, the Mac App Store can make life difficult for developers.

Setapp, a Netflix-style subscription service for Mac apps, offers an innovative alternative. Instead of buying apps individually, you rent a bunch of them for $9.99 a month.

While it might sound unnerving to anyone accustomed to the idea of buying Mac apps outright, after using the service for two months, I found it liberating. Setup is dead-easy. And the selection is fantastic. Setapp serves up more than 60 Mac apps, all handpicked by MacPaw, the Mac development company that dreamed up the service.

Apple seeded a new beta build of tvOS 10.1 to developers today, bringing a number of bug fixes and performance improvements to the Apple TV.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren took shots at Apple, Google and Amazon during a speech in Washington today, claiming Silicon Valley’s big fish are making it impossible for the small fry to compete.

“The opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors,” said Warren. During her rant against Apple, the senator specifically mentioned the unfair advantages Apple Music enjoys against its competitors.

After the speech, Spotify rallied behind Warren with some Apple bashing of its own.

Slowly but surely, T-Mobile has been trying to not only become the leader of the prepaid cell phone market, but to totally corner it. It’s latest ultra-simple plan takes that mission even further, making pay-as-you-go as simple as $0.10 per minute or text, flat.

With less than a day to wait for the new Xbox One, Microsoft has announced that its new console will have an official YouTube app, after all. What’s more, you’ll be able to send videos to it from your Android and iOS devices.

One of the lesser talked-about features of the upcoming OS X Mavericks system is that of Mac App Store subscriptions. In iOS, developers are able to charge users on a recurring basis, like a subscription. Magazines in Newsstand do this fairly easily, and I have several subscriptions to magazines there.

This wasn’t available to OS X apps until the release of OS X Mavericks, and you can manage your subscriptions from the Mac App Store right now if you’re running the new Mavericks beta on your Mac right now. Here’s how.

The official Skype apps for iOS have been updated today to add free and unlimited video messaging, which previously required a $4.99 per month Skype Premium subscription. The updates also bring a number of other improvements to things like photo sharing and call stability.

Next Issue Media just became available for the iPad, making the jump from its Android roots. The app is a subscription-based magazine app that may redefine what you think of when you hear the words ‘magazine suscription.’

With Next Issue, you purchase a subscription to ALL the magazines in their service, for one fee. Techcrunch makes the obvious comparison to Netflix, for good reason, but we’ll try to avoid that here. Oops.

When Apple announced the terms for Newsstand and digital subscriptions, many publications felt that the company was being too hard on them. Apple’s requirement that publishers offer the same deals through the App Store that they do elsewhere while still taking its typical 30% cut of the income ruffled a lot of feathers in the publishing world. While there was a lot of angry discussion about the policy when Apple announced and implemented it, many publications decided to accept the policy – at least initially.

Since then, however, a handful of publications have decided to abandon their presence on iOS devices. Some are planning to build a web app as their only iOS or mobile presence. Others are looking to create deals with various news aggregators. Regardless of their plans, Apple’s terms are one of the key reasons that publishers are getting out of the App Store.

With the release of Apple’s own dedicated Podcasts app today, it’s clear that Apple is finally taking Podcasts seriously. When podcasts were first brought to iTunes in 2005, Apple made a strong push to promote what they felt was the future of broadcasting. Apple’s own Eddy Cue even said at the time: “We really think podcasting is the next generation of radio.”

Unfortunately, as time marched on, podcasts were pushed to the side and left pretty much unattended. iOS has always had minimal support for podcasts, and even iTunes itself offers no real compelling way to manage your subscriptions. What makes today’s announcement big is that it marks a new, renewed effort on Apple’s part to make podcasts a key part of their iTunes ecosystem.

A recent update to the iTunes Terms and Conditions adds an interesting clause regarding free trials for in-app subscriptions in the iOS App Store. Ever since the launch of the App Store in 2007, users have been clamoring for some kind of demoing system for paid apps. It looks like Apple may be slowly making strides towards that reality.

Publishers “may offer a free trial period” via in-app subscriptions in an iOS app, according to Apple.

Apple is allowing Big Fish Games to incorporate a subscription model for its iPad games in the App Store. According to Bloomberg, Big Fish will be the first game maker in the App Store to allow customers access to all of its titles for $4.99 per month initially.

Games from Big Fish will be streamed to users over Wi-Fi and a customer’s subscription is managed in a dedicated app for the iPad.

Adobe has announced that it will add support for the iOS 5 Newsstand to its Digital Publishing Suite. This will provide an easy way for publishers to take advantage of the delivery system that Apple has established in the Newsstand iOS 5 app.

Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite customers will be able to deliver high quality content optimized for iOS right to the virtual doorstep of Newsstand subscribers.

Apple’s In-App Subscriptions policy hasn’t always been favourable with magazine and newspaper publishers, forcing some to avoid the App Store altogether… but a recent change to the guidelines may lead to an influx of new content on our iOS devices.

The past week’s rumor cycle has consistently pegged early December as the date when Apple would simultaneously introduce iOS 4.3, iTunes in-app subscription support and News Corp’s new iPad-only magazine, The Daily… but according to sources, that date is very likely aggressive, and the actual rollout has been delayed until early 2011.

Using your iPad with AT&T? Good news: Ma Bell has just announced that you can now manage your iPad’s account and data plans from any computer with a web browser. Just go here.

That’s good news for people trying to cancel their 3G subscription after they’ve mislaid their iPad at a bar or train station: previously, you could only manage your 3G subscription through the “Cellular Data” settings. God forbid, but better safe than sorry.