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Old Man’s Journey, Google Assistant, and other awesome apps of the week

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Awesome Apps
'Appy weekend!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A gorgeously illustrated, story-driven game with an utterly unique gameplay mechanic is just one of the titles we’ve picked out for this week’s “Awesome Apps” roundup.

We’ve also got Google’s AI assistant, a classic Capcom game finally landed in the App Store after almost 30 years, and a third party keyboard that’s gotten even better. Check out our picks below.

Apple tells Chinese app makers to cut tips or pay up

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What’s it like to have your startup bought by Apple? Stressful
Apple wants to take its cut of the money Chinese app users send as tips to content creators.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has risked upsetting customers in China by revealing plans to take a percentage of donations that are sent to content creators on social media, via the “tip” function of local apps like WeChat.

Apple previously told developers to disable the feature, but it has since reconsidered and decided that this represents an opportunity to make some money. Since they are considered in-app purchases, Apple wants to take its usual 30 percent cut of payments.

The Loog is a retrotastic three-string guitar with its own app

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loog guitar pro
The Loog is the perfect beginner guitar, and looks awesome too.
Photo: Loog

This is the Loog Pro, a three-string guitar suitable for kids, and also for awesome adults. The Pro, along with the new Loog Mini, are the sequels to existing Loogs, and bring a whole bunch of neat upgrades. Why are we writing about it here on Cult of Mac? Because it also comes with a free app to help you learn to play.

Tynker, rvlvr and other awesome apps of the week

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Awesome Apps
'Appy weekend everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Awesome Apps

Don’t want to spend your weekend catching up on paperwork or mowing the lawn? No problem: Cult of Mac is here to help you.

We’ve combed through the various apps which landed in the App Store over the past seven days, and picked out what we think is the cream of the crop. From Hulu’s new Live TV subscription service to a hypnotically fun puzzle game, here’s everything you (may have) missed this week.

iOS 10 bug lets you freeze any iPhone with 3 taps

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Qualcomm patents
Watch out for this bug.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A newly discovered bug in iOS 10 is wreaking havoc on iPhone owners by making Control Center more unstable than ever.

With just three taps, the bug allows anyone to crash an iPhone in seconds. Once the trick is executed, the only way to unfreeze an affected iPhone is with a hard reboot.

Here’s how to do the dirty:

Apple slashes commissions for App Store referrals

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App Store
Apple is cut affiliates' pay.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has decided to lower the amount of money it pays affiliate who funnel customers to buy apps and in-app purchases from the iOS App Store.

In an email update sent out today to members of its affiliates program, Apple says its cutting commission rates by more than half, leaving companies and websites with less money from what can be a valuable revenue stream.

Android squeaks past Windows to become internet’s most popular OS

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Android rules the Internet.
Android rules the Internet.
Photo: Google

Windows can no longer claim the crown as the most popular operating system on the internet thanks to the rise of smartphones.

During the month of March, Microsoft finally saw its share of worldwide OS internet get eclipsed by Google’s Android operating system, marking the first time a mobile OS is more popular than the software powering PCs.

Total Android app revenue could surpass iOS this year

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The Apple brand is the big difference.
Numbers are tipping in Android's direction. Kind of.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The iOS App Store is expected to remain the most lucrative app store around for at least the next five years, but according to a new report Google Play and various third-party Android stores are likely to overtake it in total revenue as early as this year.

The insight comes from app analysis company App Annie, which suggests that total worldwide mobile app store downloads will exceed 352 billion in 2021, while gross consumer spend across all app stores will surpass $139 billion.

Apple’s new Clips app muscles in on fun social video sharing

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clips
Clips will launch in early April.
Photo: Apple

Apple has announced the upcoming launch of a new app designed to make it fun and easy for people to create and share “expressive videos” on their iPhone and iPads.

Called Clips, the social app will work by combining video clips, photos and music into videos that can be shared with friends through the Messages app, or using Instagram, Facebook and other popular social networks.

Developers lose interest in iMessage apps

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Messages iOS 10
iMessage got some huge upgrades in iOS 10.
Photo: Apple

The popularity of iMessage apps is already starting to diminish, less than a year after their debut.

iMessage apps have been the hottest new feature on iPhones since iOS 10 introduced them last year. But new data from analytics firm Sensor Tower shows that excitement for the new apps is already starting to fade among developers.

iOS 11 might make 200,000 apps obsolete

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iPhone 7 in hand
Some of your favorite old games might get booted from iOS.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s decision to drop support for 32-bit apps in iOS 11 later this year could kill about 187,000 apps, based on a new report that shows some old apps have been slow to catch up.

Analytics firm Sensor Tower estimates about 8% of all apps on the App Store will become obsolete. That small percentage may sound insignificant, but old games might be impacted the most.

iPhone users spend more than ever on apps

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iPhone 7
App spending is on the rise.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

When it comes to buying apps, iPhone users aren’t afraid to bust out their wallets for good software.

Spending on iOS apps increased during 2016, according to the latest data from app analytics firm SensorTower which claims the average iPhone user spends $27 a year just on games.

Apple’s ban hammer comes down on Iranian iOS apps

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DigiKala-iPhone
DigiKala's iPhone app is one of the casualties.
Photo: DigiKala

Apple appears to be pulling iOS apps from Iranian developers despite making the App Store available in Iran last September.

Several titles from Iranian startups have disappeared in recent days, but it’s not clear why Apple has suddenly begun bringing down the ban hammer.

Quadro, Dungeon Defense, and awesome apps of the week

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Awesome Apps
'Appy weekend, everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

It’s the final day of the weekend, which means it’s time for us to share our picks for the week’s most important apps and app updates.

From a nifty Touch Bar-style app for iOS and Mac to a terrific retro-styled dungeon actioner, we’re confident we’ve got something you’ll enjoy. Check out our choices below.

Subscription service lets you binge on 60-plus Mac apps

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Setapp lets you binge on macOS apps.
Setapp is like Netflix for Mac apps.
Photo: MacPaw

The way Mac users get apps is about to become a lot more like Netflix, thanks to a service launching today called Setapp.

Created by the folks at MacPaw, Setapp is a new app subscription service that provides Mac users with an alternative way to try and buy apps instead of going through the Mac App Store.

Its not filled with loads of crap either. Top apps like Ulysses, Blogo, CleanMyMac, iMazing, Pixa, Polarr and Flume are all included. Instead of buying apps individually though, Setapp lets users pay a flat fee for access to hundreds of popular apps.

Apple TV apps can now be up to 20x bigger

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apple tv and siri remote
Apple TV apps can now be 4GB right from the start.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s plan to make the modern TV experience all about apps has just gotten a big boost, with Apple upping the size limit of tvOS apps from 200MB to 4GB.

For those keeping track at home, it’s a whopping 20x the original size limit — and means that Apple TV apps can now be as big as the ones developers can submit for iOS.

This is the iPod-style UI originally built for iPhone

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Good thing Apple didn't ship this.
Good thing Apple didn't ship this.
Photo: Sonny Dickson

The original iPhone nearly came with a digital click wheel that mimicked the iPod’s interface, according to video of an alleged prototype running the software that has not previously been made public.

Former Apple engineers confirmed in the past that Apple created a click-wheel-based solution for the iPhone’s software during the early stages of development, but until now, no one outside Apple had seen what it looked like.

Surprise! Facebook is the year’s most popular mobile app

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Screen Shot 2016-12-30 at 14.57.26
Nielsen's sample of the year's most popular apps.
Photo: Nielsen

With 2016 coming to a close, Nielsen has ranked the year’s most popular mobile apps in the U.S. and — wouldn’t you know it! — Facebook takes the top two spots with its Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps.

Despite the growth of other social media services, Facebook saw growth of 14 percent from last year, with more than 146 million average unique users each month. Facebook Messenger also picked up over 129 million unique users every month.