Apple has today announced that the App Store has surpassed a whopping 40 billion downloads, with almost 20 million seen in 2012 alone. A record-breaking December, helped by another successful Christmas, boosted this year’s figures, with more than two billion downloads during the month.
Flipboard’s already one of the best ways to read and discover web content on the iPad and iPhone, and now they’re taking that to the next level, integrating e-book discovery by tapping right into the Apple iBookstore. It’s like browsing in a virtual e-book shop.
Many of the writers here at Cult of Mac use Flipboard to read news, and we know many of you do too. That’s why we’re proud to unveil our new and improved Flipboard page!
We’ve been working closely with Flipboard for the past several months on a special design that fits our style here at Cult of Mac. Our Flipboard page has been tweaked and optimized to mesh with our site layout, and now Flipboard is an even better way to read Cult of Mac on the iPhone and iPad.
As a great man once sang, there’s 57 channels and nothing on). But that was before iOS and apps came along. Now you don’t need channels. You need something like Vodio.
Flipboard started out as an iPad app, then an Android app. Now the two-year old news app is fast becoming the go-to app to beat on all platforms with its clever re-do of cluttered blog layouts into silky smooth print-like pages that just beg to be read on a mobile tablet.
Finding stuff on the web is pretty easy. Finding stuff you don’t already know about, surprising stuff, is hard. That’s what the developers behind Trapit are trying to fix.
Trapit for iPad allows you to discover things you’re already interested in as well as stuff you may not even know you’re looking for using algorithms that run in the app behind the scenes. What that means is that once you start using Trapit, it will learn what you’re into, and start finding stuff that might be of interest to you, based on what you’re already checking out as well as new stuff that might be cool for you to see.
The app also curates its own content into a Featured Traps section, which will help you discover even more content for that surprise factor.
A recent Reynolds Journalism Institute study indicates that the iPad is becoming a primary vehicle for many users to consume (read, listen to, or watch) daily local, national, and world news and that it is leading a revolution in terms of how frequently people read news as well as how much news they read on a daily or weekly basis.
The survey noted that the iPad is the preferred large media tablet on the market with news consumers surveyed with an 88% share of that market. The Kindle Fire was the top pick among small media tablets with 68% of the news consumer market. The iPhone was the overall preferred smartphone with 39% of the news consumer market.
It also noted that the iPad (and other large tablet devices) seem to be encouraging news reading among all demographics including young adults. Among young adults (18 – 24 years old), 67% read news on one or more mobile devices and averaged five hours of news reading/consumption per week. Among young adults with iPads, 84% read news on their device(s) for an average of 7.3 hours per week.
If you’re a New York Times subscriber, you’ll be pleased to know that you can now enjoy full access your favorite content via Flipboard, one of the best news readers available on iOS. Even those who don’t subscribe still get a little treat: free access to the publication’s “Top News” section.
Google’s VP of Product Management, Bradley Horowitz, announced that Google has partnered with Flipboard to integrate Google+ streams into the popular magazine-styled reader. Google+ will join Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a host of other social services available on Flipboard thanks to new extended APIs. This new integration is a great step forward for users, especially those who enjoy accessing all of their social content from a single app such as Flipboard.
Leading this week’s must-have apps roundup is a terrific photography app called StillShot, which allows you to extract full-resolution still images from your videos. It breaks your clips down into frames and allows you to save the best ones — all for less than a dollar.
We’ve also got a great note-taking app that claims to be the “word-processor for visual thinking,” an app that will ensure you never forget your grocery shopping list again, plus terrific updates to Flipboard and The Weather Channel.
Flipboard for iOS has received another major update this morning, introducing a number of new features like SoundCloud and Readability integration, a new category dedicated to audio feeds, Accessibility options for the visually impaired, and lots more.
First Temple Run, then Instagram, and now Flipboard.
Continuing the trend of high-profile iPhone apps making their way to the Android platform, popular reading app Flipboard has unveiled its exclusive partnership window with Samsung for the just-announced Galaxy S III. This is the first time Flipboard has ventured away from iOS, and its Android app will be available exclusively for the Galaxy S III for an undisclosed amount of time. The app will then be available for all Android handsets in Google’s Play store.
Apple’s Newsstand feature wasn’t without controversy as the company rolled it out. Issues around Apple’s control of subscriptions as well as the company’s 30% cut of content sales were hotly debated last year. However, with Newsstand a hit, publishers (and Apple) are reaping $70,000 a day from it.
And, if publishing execs everywhere agree with The Economist’s CEO Andrew Rashbass, that controversy is dead and buried – and it’s other iOS digital distribution models that pose a threat to publishers.
Read It Later, the most popular way for users to save content they find on the web, has just received a new name, stacks of new features, and lost its price tag in a major update released today. Now called Pocket, the new app is free across Android and iOS devices, and delivers a new user interface, video and image filters, favorites, and much, much more.
2011’s been the best year yet to be an Apple fan, absolutely flush with exciting new apps, products and accessories. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been letting you vote on the best Apple-related games, apps, accessories and products of the year, and we’ve come up with some truly fantastic finalists. Now it’s time to declare the best of each category: best Mac App, best iOS game, best iOS app, best jailbreak tweak, best Apple product accessory and best Apple product. As we all know from Highlander, there can be only one… but did your favorite app or product of the year get beheaded in our finalist rounds? Find out Cult of Mac’s picks for the best of Apple for 2011, after the jump.
Last week, we asked you to vote for your choice of the best iOS apps of 2011. Big thanks to everyone who contributed. Here are the results.
Let’s go through the list in detail; at the end, we’d like you to vote on the best app of the year, for inclusion in Cult of Mac’s annual Best of 2011 list. Let’s go!
News aggregators designed to give you maximum reading pleasure on the iPad’s 9-inch screen are scaling down for iPhones. Case in point: Zite just launched a version providing all the news that’s fit to scroll on your iPhone.
Flipboard released its official iPhone app last night. Many users were frustrated initially with error messages during installation and adding services.
The initial surge in traffic caused Flipboard’s servers to buckle under the strain, but the app came back online for most people this morning and it’s been working fine for me since. After playing with Flipboard on the iPhone, I love the way that it aggregates my news and social network feeds into a personalized magazine. The future of media consumption is here, and it’s all about curation.
Flipboard has launched its official iPhone app with a gorgeous design and the new “Cover Stories” layout, or “the feed to check when you’re in line at the coffee shop, commuting on the train or just hanging out at home.”
Riding the coattails of a phenomenal iPad app, Flipboard is looking to be the best place for reading the internet on your iPhone.
The popular Flipboard app was updated on Wednesday, adding Instagram support and search across social networks. But it also included a surprise for users with jailbroken iPads.