Over the last couple years, tons of iOS apps switched from one-time purchases to monthly or annual subscriptions. As a user, this can seem frustrating — or annoying even — but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The rise of app subscriptions brings benefits to users, developers and the app ecosystem as a whole. Whether you’re subscribing to your favorite weather app, task manager or podcast player, the subscription model offers perks that never existed in the one-time-purchase world of apps.
Apple is increasingly moving toward subscription-based Services as a major source of income. However, it’s also doing the right thing by making sure that users actually want the subscriptions they’re purchasing — and aren’t just subscribing by accident.
To help cement this, it has added a new step into the App Store subscription process. Before subscribing to an app, users must now confirm a “Confirm Subscription” popup.
The first Apple event of 2019 is nearly here. Tim Cook and friends are set to take the stage at the Steve Jobs Theater on March 25 to unveil the company’s newest goodies, only instead of unveiling some shiny new gadgets you can buy, Apple is supposedly going to bust out some services you can subscribe to.
The Apple rumor mill has been working in overdrive leading up the event, so we have a pretty solid idea of what we’ll see.
If you hate Apple keynote spoilers, stop reading now.
Apple is giving iOS, macOS, and tvOS developers the ability to offer discounted subscriptions in an effort to win back past subscribers.
A new article posted to App Store Connect details the change and explains the three options developers will have to choose from — including a free trial period like those offered to new customers.
Apple has added a shortcut to the latest versions of iOS 12 to make managing app subscriptions easier. Previously, you had to dig deep into your Apple ID settings to find the control panel for your subs. Now, it’s just a couple of taps away. On the surface, this looks like a simple tweak to make things easier for the user, but it’s more than that.
By making subscriptions easier for the user to cancel, it’s also making it more likely that people will sign up for them in the first place. That’s good for users, for developers, and for quality apps in general.
Unlike some companies, Apple doesn’t want to sucker you into subscriptions by making it really hard to cancel them.
In fact, the latest iOS update makes it easier than ever to manage your recurring app subscriptions. Here’s how to dive in and take control of your iOS subscriptions.
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.
![Top 5 tech trends of 2018 [Year in Review]](https://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/D090F70F-2A5C-4E45-830B-65E9EBAF266F-780x390.jpeg "Top 5 tech trends of 2018 [Year in Review]")
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.
