iTunes links mysteriously began disappearing from Google search results earlier this month, and Google was quick to confirm that a technical issue was the cause — and not that it was pulling them intentionally. As it turns out, the problem may have actually been Apple’s fault.
According to a report from search engine experts SISTRIX, Apple may have been blocking Google’s crawlers accidentally.
Apparently, junior minister for digital economy Fluer Pellerin thinks that Apple shouldn’t have rejected AppGratis from the App Store last week. Her remarks to the French media make it clear that she feels the tech company isn’t behaving ethically in its dealings with AppGratis, a French startup, or others like it, calling the move “an issue of fairness,” and “extremely brutal.”
Not only that, but Pellerin feels that European regulators might want to think about taking action against Apple for the rejection.
EA just released the first update to Real Racing 3 on iOS, and it adds a whole bunch of new content for you to enjoy. In addition to two new Chevrolets, you can also look forward to more than 100 new events, a new game mode, cloud save syncing, and new social features.
Readdle Documents has today been updated with support for the iPhone, following its launch on the iPad back in January. Documents isn’t just a file manager, but also a document editor, a web browser, and a media player. So whether you’re editing a letter, organizing some photos, or you just want to kick back and watch that movie you downloaded, Documents will let you do it all — and for free.
Foursquare has just updated its popular iOS app to version 6.0, and as a point-oh release, it radically ups the ante when it comes to exploring the cityscape around you and finding you cool stuff in your area.
When AppGratis was yanked from the App Store last week, it didn’t take a genius to work out why. The app violates an App Store guideline that was introduced last October banning iOS apps from promoting other iOS apps from different developers. It also used push notifications to deliver marketing messages by recommending apps with a once-daily notification, which is also not allowed.
What is confusing is why AppGratis was pulled — just days after its iPad app was approved — when there are plenty of similar services that remain in the App Store. But according to sources familiar with Apple’s plans, its ban was the first of many the Cupertino company is about to dish out.
The official Foursquare app for iPhone has been updated today to make it easier to see Explore recommendations when you’re out and about. The Explore feature now has its own page within the app, which provides you with a list of nearby places you may wish to visit.
AppGratis is a popular App Store app that’s used by more than 12 million iOS users. The company consists of 45 employees and recently raised $13.5 million in funding. AppGratis offers promotions and discounts for popular paid iOS apps in conjunction with third-party developers, and the company has continued to thrive over the last few years.
Everything was going great until Apple threw down the hammer over this past weekend. Without much warning, AppGratis was suddenly pulled from the App Store for violating some developer guidelines. Poof. Gone. Now it’s a matter of working with Apple to try and fix what caused the problem. The app’s removal came as a shock to AppGratis and has left the CEO wondering how the App Store review team “could have possibly changed their minds overnight.”
Another publisher is feigning surprise about Apple’s App Store policies today, claiming that Cupertino has “banned” an upcoming issue of a digital combic book from being sold in any iOS app due to “two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex.”
Google has been stepping up its game with app curation in Google Play. TechCrunch has discovered that a record 60,000 apps were pulled from the store in February alone. Coincidentally, Google just launched a major redesign of Play today that focuses on highlighting great Android apps.
While not all of the bad apps are being pulled by Google directly, many of the deletions are related to spamming and other Google Play terms of service violations. You don’t normally think of Google when you hear about an app being pulled, but Apple isn’t the only one who regulates its app store—the two companies just do things differently.
Google Chrome is the best third-party browser for iOS, and it just received a healthy update that features a number of new improvements that makes it even more of a crime that Apple won’t let any other browser but Safari act as default browser under iOS.
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The Starbucks Pick of the Week promotion has finally gone digital, allowing you to download free apps and books on your iOS devices without a card or redemption code. All you need now is the Starbucks app, which will allow you to download the latest giveaway when connected to an in-store Wi-Fi network.
The HBO Go app for iOS has today been updated to add some great new features, including support for AirPlay multitasking. Game of Thrones fans will also be able to enjoy enhancements to the interactive experience on iPad.
Earlier today we reported that Apple mysteriously decided to pull the app discovery service AppGratis from the App Store over the weekend.
Apple confirmed that they have pulled the app from the App Store after it was decided AppGratis violates the App Store guidelines in two major ways.
The App Store and Google Play continued to drive mobile app downloads during the first quarter of 2013, while BlackBerry World and the Windows Phone Store remain “distant challengers.”
That’s according to the latest figures from Canalys, which say a whopping 13.4 billion apps were downloaded across these four stores over the last three months, raking in $2.2 billion in app sales, in-app purchases, and subscriptions.
If you use Google Drive for iOS, you’ve probably discovered the lack of landscape support when editing a document on your iPhone. Fortunately, that’s no longer an issue, thanks to the app’s latest update — which is available in the App Store now.
Apple mysteriously pulled app discovery service AppGratis from the App Store over the weekend. AppGratis is yet to confirm the reason for the decision, but it’s thought the app could have been in violation of a new rule Apple introduced last October banning iOS apps that feature or promote other apps.
Evernote Hello, the iPhone app that makes it easy to remember the people you meet, has been updated with a number of new features. The app now has a passcode lock option, making it more secure, and a number of improvements have been made to business card scanning, including the ability to control your camera’s flash.
Apple has made a small change to the way in which App Store age ratings are displayed to make them a little easier to find. They’re now displayed alongside app icons on iOS devices — just under the name of the developer — so they’re not so easy to miss when you’re downloading new apps.
Duke Nukem II, the side-scrolling shoot ’em up first developed for PC, is back to celebrate its 20th anniversary on iOS. This is original Duke Nukem at its finest — only it’s been optimized and improved for touchscreen devices.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is one of my favorite Sega games on iOS, and it’s making its way to the Mac thanks to Feral Interactive. The game will be available to download from the Mac App Store tomorrow, April 4, with support for Game Center and iCloud game syncing.
App Store links mysteriously disappeared from Google search this week, making it more difficult to find iOS apps with a simple web search. Some suspected Google may have killed them intentionally, but it turns out that a technical issue is to blame for the glitch.
Google says it’s now working with “the team” to get it fixed.
A common method for finding apps in the iTunes App Store is to do a quick search in Google. Searching the App Store for “Tweetbot” can take a lot longer than Googling “Tweetbot App Store” in a browser.
Links to iTunes have always been near the top of the first page when you search for an app, but iTunes results have recently started appearing lower in Google’s search results with no explanation.
With Google Reader set to close up shop on June 3oth there have been a number of apps competing to replace the dying RSS service. Digg and Reeder have emerged as popular replacements, but Feedly has seen tremendous growth thanks to Google Reader’s death.
Since Google’s announcement that it’s killing Google Reader, Feedly has seen more than 3 million new users joined the service. To make things even better, Feedly just released a big app update for iOS that includes a new discovery engine, better sharing, and a must read section. With the new update and the development of a Google Reader API clone called Normandy, Feedly is looking like it will be one of the best replacements for Google Reader.
Here are the release notes on what’s new in Feedly version 14: