Apple picker The App Store is an increasingly lucrative business, Trello is opening up to third-party developers, Exploding Kittens has arrived in the App Store, Airmail has received an update on OS X and will soon arrive on iOS, and Microsoft's office applications have also received many improvements. Read that and much more in this year's 3rd Application Week.
News from the world of applications
Trello opens up its platform to all developers and adds new features (19/1)
The popular cloud service, which is designed for project management and virtual offices, is opening its application to all developers. Through the open API, developers can create their own integration enhancements or new gadgets for better task and project management. Trello is popular not only among ordinary users, but also in various collectives and work teams, which use it for faster and clearer management of all tasks and complete organization in the team.
Trello developers have added several improvements to their application thanks to partners behind applications such as Zendesk, Giphy or SurveyMonkey.
Among other things, the app also boasts that it has more than twelve million users and is constantly growing as a business.
Source: The Next Web
Google Play wins in number of downloads, but the App Store wins financially (January 21)
Google and its Android beat iOS in the number of devices sold and in the number of downloaded applications. But Apple eats up the vast majority of profits with its system, which is based on App Anie's regular news nothing changed even in 2015.
Google Play's dominance in the mail of downloaded applications continued last year, and the Google store could boast twice as many downloaded applications compared to the App Store. Developing markets such as India, Mexico and Turkey helped Android to grow. Unprecedented, Google was also successful in the distribution of applications in the United States.
However, Apple's App Store still took in 75% more money for apps, thanks to in-app purchases and subscriptions to various services (Spotify, Netflix, etc.). China was extremely important for Apple last year, which generated twice as much money for Apple compared to 2014. At the same time, the increase in the number of downloaded applications in China was "only" twenty percent.
Source: The Verge
New applications
The popular card game Exploding Kittens has been released in an iPhone version
Card and board games are still in vogue and very popular among people. The proof is the card game Exploding Kittens, which, thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign, also made it to the App Store. The authors of the card design describe their game as a strategic version of Russian roulette with kittens.
Of course, the version for iOS copies its real model and, just like in the card game, the main principle here is to avoid cards with cats that explode. During the game, players draw random cards from the deck in different ways, and each card has some characteristics or abilities that allow the player to dodge or otherwise move against the exploding kittens. The game also includes disarming an exploding cat. The player who chooses an exploding cat is logically out of the game.
The game itself works primarily thanks to local multiplayer using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology. Exploding Kittens does not support online play with random players. Two to five players can play at the same time, and the developers also announce that there are special cards in the game that are not in the original design. You can download Exploding Kittens on the App Store, and for a solid €1,99, while the game is compatible with all iOS devices.
Important update
Airmail for Mac has undergone a significant update, developers are also testing a version for iOS
The popular Airmail email client for Mac has undergone a significant update. Users who actively use this application can now enjoy several major improvements. The developers have reworked Airmail not only in terms of redesigning the main menu, but also added several new functions and improvements that will make working with e-mail a little easier again.
In Airmail for Mac, among other things, you will find, for example, the snooze function, a tool that can change the size of the sent attachment, and many other improvements combined with bug fixes to achieve overall stability.
The developers are also still working on the iOS version of Airmail. They recently launched beta testing as well, with the app working exactly the same as the desktop version. Airmail can work and synchronize several mail clients at the same time. The iPhone application also includes various extensions for third-party GTD applications, including 2Do, Evernote, Clear, Omnifocus, Pocket and Things. There is also support for all important cloud storages.
Quick action buttons, gesture control or synchronization with calendars will please you. In general, it can be stated that Airmail on the iPhone looks very elegant, simple and, above all, functional. The application will be especially appreciated by users who use several e-mail clients or download mail using the IMAP and POP3 protocols. It is not yet clear when Airmail for iOS will launch publicly. The beta version undergoes new updates and improvements almost every day, and among the new features is an application for the Apple Watch.
Facebook brings wider 3D Touch support to selected users
Facebook released an update to its iOS app this week, which has enriched it with new features. As usual, the update description does not describe any specific news and changes, but it is clear that wider 3D Touch support has been added. Owners of the latest iPhone 6s and 6s Plus can therefore rejoice.
The 3D Touch function can be used from the icon on the main screen, from where it shortens the way to your profile, to take or upload a photo and to write a post. Most of the shortcuts have been available since October, but the ability to quickly view your own profile has only now been added. However, the possibility of using 3D Touch inside the application, in the form of peek and pop, is completely new. Peek and pop works with web links as well as links to profiles, pages, groups, events, photos, profile photos and cover photos.
So the news is certainly good. But it all has one major catch. The update brought the described 3D Touch support only to "a small group of users" and others will receive the news only in the "next months". Even so, download the update, maybe with it you will get Live Photos support, which, although it was announced earlier, is also gradually reaching users.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iOS bring 3D Touch and support for iPad Pro with Apple Pencil
Microsoft has released updates for its Word, Excel and PowerPoint office applications. Among the new features, we can find 3D Touch support with quick shortcuts to create a new document and to the last used documents. But there is also support for the iPad Pro and its special Apple Pencil. All three applications have also learned to use search through the system Spotlight.
Apple Pencil support comes along with a new feature that allows drawing annotations. So users can use the brand new "Draw" tab and with the help of Apple Pencil, any other stylus and even their own finger, they will be able to draw, underline or highlight in their documents. The latest interesting innovation in Microsoft office applications is the ability to download additional fonts from the cloud.
OneDrive came with iPad Pro support and is pressure sensitive
The update of the official OneDrive application for accessing Microsoft's web storage is also worth a brief mention. OneDrive also comes optimized for the large iPad Pro display and 3D Touch support for the latest iPhones.
On the iPad Pro, you can also use the option to annotate documents when working with PDF. You will be pleased with the sensitivity of the display to pressure, thanks to which you will be able to write and draw thinner lines with lighter touches and, on the other hand, apply thicker lines when you apply pressure. In addition, the electronic pencil Apple Pencil received better optimization.
iMovie on OS X fixes YouTube upload bug
Apple's iMovie for Mac has also been updated. It brought corrections to a number of errors, the most pressing of which related to uploading videos to YouTube. Some users using multiple Google accounts have faced this error. The error is now fixed.
Further from the world of applications:
- App of the Week - Lifeline
- WhatsApp is now free, it earns money by connecting users with companies
- Apple released Music Memos for quickly capturing musical ideas and updated GarageBand
- Chrome is about to get a lot faster
- The first European center for iOS developers is growing in Italy
- Logic Pro X as an essential element in the creation of Adele's new album
- The future of television is apps, says Apple's new ad
- Apple offers the best productivity apps for iOS and Mac at a discount
Discounts
You can always find current discounts in the right sidebar and on our special Twitter channel @JablickarDiscounts.
jj the last update to airmail was fine .. now it's different and better.)
So I don't know what to think about it. In the very first sentence, I learn that "the App Store is an increasingly lucrative business". A few weeks ago, on the other hand, that the App Store is hell and developers are downloading their applications from there... (yes, I mean the team around Sketch and similar well-established groups whose business practices I have my own opinion on and it is certainly not related to the benefit of the client as they often and gladly declare)
There is a huge difference between the App Store (iOS application store) and the Mac App Store (Mac software store).
True, I accept this argument.