Why it’s taking so long for apps to add Dark Mode

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Has your favorite app embraced the dark side yet?
Has your favorite app embraced the dark side yet?
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

This week, I finally got around to adding Dark Mode support to Reps & Sets, the iPhone bodybuilding app I develop as a side hustle. That’s almost a year after Apple first announced the feature at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

What took me so long? Supporting Dark Mode is not as simple as it seems. It’s not just indie devs like me who have struggled with it, either. WhatsApp only recently added Dark Mode support, and Facebook is still beta-testing it.

So if you’re waiting for your favorite app to switch to the dark side, here’s why it might be taking so long.

Developers think Apple Arcade is disruptive — for better or worse

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Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade has plenty of promise -- but poses some big challenges, too.
Photo: Apple

Will Apple Arcade turn out to be the game changer that developers are hoping for? According to a new report… maybe.

Speaking to a slew of developers, a news report found that many are cautiously optimistic about what Apple Arcade could mean. In particular, it could help break the stronghold of freemium titles in the App Store. But there are still potential challenges.

Software localization isn’t an annoying chore, it’s a crucial opportunity

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Attention, devs: If you haven't localized your apps, you're missing out.
Attention, devs: If you haven't localized your apps, you're missing out.
Photo: slon_dot_pics/Pexels CC

This post is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of Mac app subscription service Setapp.

One of the amazing benefits of selling software on the internet is that you can reach customers from all over the world. So why would you cut out a huge potential market just by assuming everyone who wants to use your product speaks English?

In fact, ignoring other markets can be one of the biggest marketing oversights software companies make.

How indie developers can use video to market their apps

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Video app promotion: Making a killer video could be the best way to promote your app.
Making a killer video could be the best way to promote your killer app.
Photo: Terje Sollie/Pexels CC

This post is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of Setapp.

As indie developers, we can get too caught up in how things work — what features our product has, what users can do with it. It often seems like if we can just explain how our product works, everyone will become a devoted user.

We spend lots of time pulling together onboarding videos and tutorials. But there’s a whole other front in the battle of promotion and conversion: making an emotional connection between a potential user and your product and brand.

Apple gets new dev tools with Buddybuild acquisition

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iOS 11
Do you have problems with iOS 11?
Photo: Apple

Apple is adding another big tool for developers to its arsenal thanks to the acquisition of Vancouver-based startup Buddybuild.

The small 40-person company created a mobile iteration platform that allows devs to streamline their workflow and push app updates out through GitHub, GitLab and the like. Now Apple plans to take those tools and integrate them natively into Xcode.

App: The Human Story is an antidote to Planet of the Apps

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app documentary
What does it take to make a successful app?
Photo: App: The Human Story

What does it feel like pinning your hopes and livelihood to one of Apple’s most important creations? Fascinating new documentary App: The Human Story takes an unflinching look at the world of app developers in an attempt to answer that question.

It showcases devs’ big wins — and infuriating struggles — as they try to survive and thrive in the massive app economy Apple created. It’s basically the show Apple should have made instead of its ridiculous and annoying Planet of the Apps.

Leading developer says we should be angry at ‘parasitic’ app stores

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Epic's Infinite Blade
The Infinity Blade franchise was a big hit for Epic Games.
Photo: Epic Games

App stores that take a 30 percent chunk of developers’ earnings are parasites, according to Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games.

“The system is pretty unfair at the moment,” Sweeney said during a keynote speech on the future of graphics and games development in the U.K. “These app stores take 30 percent of your revenue for distribution … That’s strange because MasterCard, Visa and other companies that handle transactions take 2 percent or 3 percent of the revenue…. So they’re pocketing a huge amount of profit from your order – and they aren’t really doing much to help us anymore.”

Time tracking is made painless and easy with Timing 2 app [Review]

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Timing 2 time tracking Mac app
Timing 2 makes time tracking on your Mac easy, not a chore.
Photo: Screenshot: Timing / Daniel Alm

I recently switched back to freelancing full-time, and whilst I am lucky enough to have clients who don’t ask for precise hourly breakdowns, I have always been intrigued to know how much time I was spending on work tasks, especially those tasks that I didn’t directly bill for.

Many time trackers rely on you explicitly setting the task you are tracking and remembering to switch to another task when it’s time to track that. This is easy to forget, and for someone like me who switches tasks frequently, it’s hard to always know when one task finishes and another begins.

Timing 2 takes a different perspective. Instead of tracking by task, it tracks by application usage and uses a set of rules to assign activities in those applications to certain projects and tasks. The premise is that after a learning process, you can leave the application running behind the scenes and it’ll track everything for you automatically. You only need audit the results.

Devs reveal the good, bad and ugly about Mac App Store

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Mac App Store
The email app BlueMail finds itself on the outside of the "closed garden."
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

For users, the Mac App Store makes finding, purchasing, and downloading new software a breeze. But is the experience as enjoyable for the developers behind that software?

Setapp surveyed over 700 macOS developers to find out what they really think of Apple’s marketplace. The results give us an interesting insight into the challenges they face when choosing the Mac App Store, whether life is better without it, and how Apple has improved.

I can’t wait to reply to App Store reviews in iOS 10.3

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App Store reviews can make or break an app
App Store reviews can make or break an app. Soon, developers will get a chance to answer their critics.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

I’m not so thin-skinned that I can’t handle the occasional criticism. But there’s something about App Store reviews that really bugs me.

Like most indie developers, I put blood, sweat and tears into my app, Reps & Sets, which I develop with my partner. It’s our baby, and we love and cherish it. So when some random dude posts an inaccurate one-star review, I’ll be honest: It hurts. That’s why I’m so excited that Apple will be giving developers the chance to reply to reviews in iOS 10.3.

How indie devs at Smile won 100,000 happy customers

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Greg Scown, CEO of Smile
Smile CEO Greg Scown leads the team that created popular Mac apps TextExpander and PDFpen.
Photo courtesy Smile

Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

Smile, the indie development team behind super-popular productivity apps TextExpander and PDFpen, cut its teeth writing software for technology that barely exists anymore. But thanks to a user-focused attitude and a wholehearted embrace of the third-party tools that power modern offices, the company has been able to keep ahead of the curve as technology changes.

Why selling your app as a subscription makes sense

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Why selling Mac app subscriptions makes sense
If you develop Mac software, selling app subscriptions could be your smartest path to success.
Image: MacPaw

Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

When you’re developing Mac apps, success can sometimes seem self-defeating. The better job you do, the less your customers need to buy subsequent versions of your app. Your job then shifts to marketing and an endless quest to acquire new customers in order to keep cash flowing in. Meanwhile, those who use a subscription business model for their software can easily enjoy that sweet, sweet recurring revenue.

The Mac App Store is rubbish! Rent apps instead with Setapp [Reviews]

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The Setapp folder full of applications
Setapp currently offers more than 60 apps, with plans to expand.
Image: Setapp

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.

Pro tips for improving your app reviews

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App Store reviews
Here's how to harness the power of app reviews (even bad ones).
Image: MacPaw

Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

Getting a bad app review is a definite bummer. When some faceless user trashes your labor of love in the App Store or some other public venue, it can really sting. But if you’re smart about it, you can turn negative reviews into positive opportunities for improving your app and winning committed customers.

Here’s how to spin bad app reviews into developer gold.

This company built an AI for helping customer service teams

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This powerful artificial intelligence tool can help customer service agents, or converse with customers directly.
This powerful artificial intelligence tool can help customer service agents, or converse with customers directly.
Photo: Agent.ai

This post is brought to you by Agent.ai.

Not all businesses can afford a full-time staff of phone operators. And let’s be honest: Frustration with automated systems can leave customers looking for another place to do business.

Agent.ai has created something that bridges the gap — a customer relationship management (CRM) system that’s powered by machine learning. It comes in two forms: Co-Pilot and Auto-Pilot.

Mac app licensing is the headache you don’t want to DIY

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app licensing
For Mac developers, handling app licensing can be a huge hassle.
Image: MacPaw

Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

For independent Mac developers, one of the big, daunting tasks that the Mac App Store efficiently handles is app licensing. You just submit your app, then the store manages the actual app license through its user accounts. But this unquestionable convenience comes with a few critical downsides.

DigiDNA devs make apps that rock by thinking like a band

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The indie developers at DigiDNA scored their first hit with iMazing for Mac.
The indie developers at DigiDNA scored their first hit with iMazing for Mac.
Photo: DigiDNA

Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

Sometimes you’ve got to think small to hit it big. For DigiDNA, a Swiss development team that makes popular software for managing iOS devices, that means functioning more like a tight rock ‘n’ roll band than a sprawling orchestra.

Why freemium apps suck for everyone (and how Apple is killing paid apps)

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Only one of the top 200 grossing apps is a paid app
Paid apps are an endangered species: Only one of the 200 top-grossing apps on the App Store is a paid download.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

I work on an iPhone app called Reps & Sets as a hobby project in my spare time. This week, my partner and I came to the conclusion that there is no future for our app as a paid download, so we have reluctantly decided to make it free.

This was an incredibly tough call, because we have invested literally thousands of hours in developing our app over the years. Giving all that hard work away for free is heartbreaking. But we didn’t feel we had much choice.

The arms race to protect apps from cracking

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Protect apps from crackers
Protecting apps from crackers can be a daunting task for developers.
Image: MacPaw

Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

App developers put a lot of time and effort into preventing their apps from being cracked or pirated. But for every coder taking a step toward making an app more secure, there’s someone on the march to crack it. The integrity of any app is subject to an ongoing arms race.

The most popular and useful apps are the most likely to release the cracken (I’m so sorry), so finding out that a bunch of people have downloaded your app illegally can be worn as something of a badge of pride. But that’s cold comfort when you’re losing customers, so let’s take a look at a couple of the most likely app-cracking approaches developers should protect against.

How much does in-house app development really cost?

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How much does in-house app development really cost?
Putting a price tag on in-house app development can be tricky.
Photo: MacPaw

Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

If you’re developing a Mac app, you’re faced with a major either/or decision: whether to distribute inside or outside of the Mac App Store (MAS). Sticking to the MAS means you’ve got access to tools for licensing, hosting, crash reporting and other necessary tasks. However, Apple’s tools may not be what’s best for your app.

How to launch a Mac app and succeed

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MacPaw DevMate
You need a game plan if you want to successfully launch your Mac app.
Image: MacPaw

Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

So you’re going to launch an app for Mac. Congrats! Now you’ve got to figure out an app marketing strategy that will get it to the widest audience possible.

There are many ways to approach the birth of a new product, but even in a field as fast-growing and dynamic as the world of apps, experience has yielded accepted wisdom about the best ways to start and maintain a successful campaign. Here are great rules of thumb for maximizing impact and customers for your app.

10 reasons to release your apps outside the Mac App Store

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DevMate
The Mac App Store isn't the only way you should distribute your apps.
Image: MacPaw

Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

Like death and taxes, distributing your new app through the Mac App Store can seem inevitable. It’s widely considered the easiest way to get the widest exposure for an app, a centralized marketplace for software with a captive audience of buyers.

But ever more developers are looking beyond the Mac App Store (MAS) for distribution options that best serve their app. MacPaw, maker of DevMate, performed an interesting survey of developers to ask if they prefer MAS or another app store alternative, and why.