Apple picker Apple blocked the account of a successful developer, 2Do will soon be free with microtransactions, Facebook launched encrypted communication in Messenger, Duolingo is flirting with artificial intelligence, and Google Maps, Prisma, Shazam, Telegram and WhatsApp have received significant updates. Read already the 40th week of applications.
News from the world of applications
Apple deleted the popular developer application Dash from the App Store (October 5)
Dash is an API documentation viewer and code snippet manager. It has a wide user base and has received many positive reviews, both from users and the tech media. The app's developer, Bogdan Popescu, wanted to a few days ago convert your individual account to a business account. After some confusion, he was told that the account had been transferred successfully. Not long after, however, he received an email informing him of the irreversible termination of his account due to "fraudulent conduct". Popesco was later told that evidence had been found of an attempt to manipulate App Store ratings. According to his own words, Popescu has never committed anything similar.
Due to the app's status, there have been many comments and reports related to the practices of the App Store. Phil Schiller, head of Apple's App Store and marketing, also commented on the matter: “I was told that this app was deleted due to repeated fraudulent behavior. We frequently suspend developer accounts for rating cheating and activities intended to harm other developers. We take this responsibility very seriously for the sake of our customers and developers.”
So Dash is not available for iOS now. It is still available for macOS, but only from developer's website. In response to this event, many developers expressed their support for the application, whose developer is said to have no need to manipulate the rating.
Source: MacRumors
The 2Do app adapts to a free model with the possibility of microtransactions (4.)
2Do, a tool for effective task management, is starting to take inspiration from the growing trend of free-to-use with in-app purchases. The Omni Group, the company behind OmniFocus, is also promoting the same model.
In its free form, the application will offer the same functions as before, but outside of the three key aspects, which are synchronization (Sync), backups (Backups) and notifications (Alert Notifications). To use these functions, you will have to pay once. For users who have already purchased 2Do, nothing changes. New users will be able to purchase the full functionality of the application for a one-time fee, which will be the same as the previous price of the application. So the main purpose of the change is to allow the application to expand among more users who often do not want to pay directly for the "rabbit in the bag".
Source: Mac Stories
Facebook has rolled out end-to-end encryption in Messenger. More or less (4/10)
Recently we are at Jablíčkára wrote about the security of mobile communicators. Messenger was mentioned among them, for which Facebook has been testing end-to-end encryption since this July and has now launched it in a sharp version. However, if we criticized Google Allo in that article for not having end-to-end encryption enabled automatically, Messenger deserves the same criticism. Encryption must first be enabled in the settings (Me tab -> Secret Conversations) and then initiated for each contact individually by tapping on their name and then on the "Secret Conversation" item. In addition, there is no such option at all for group conversations, just like on Facebook on the web.
Source: Apple Insider
Important update
In Duolingo, you can now chat with artificial intelligence in a foreign language
Duolingo is an app for learning a new language that was, among others, Apple In 2013 named the best iPhone application in the App Store. Now she has taken another big step towards streamlining learning. It has added artificial intelligence with which the user can have a conversation in written form (voice is also planned). The director and founder of Duolingo, Luis von Ahn, commented on the news as follows:
“One of the main reasons people learn new languages is to have conversations in them. Students in Duolingo gain vocabulary and the ability to understand meanings, but speaking in real conversations is still a problem. Bots bring a sophisticated and effective solution to it.”
For now, users of the application can talk to the shoes in French, German and Spanish, other languages will be added gradually.
Google Maps got an iOS 10 widget and more detailed location data
With the latest update, Google Maps caught up with Apple's system Maps in the form of its widget. On a special screen that has been greatly improved in iOS 10, the user can now find clear information about public transport departures from the nearest station and arrival times at home and work.
Information about points of interest and places of interest has also been refined. Place reviews can now include pictures, and information about the business can now also include information about the atmosphere, amenities, and the like.
The Prisma application now also works with video
The popular application Prisma, which specializes in editing photos with the help of attractive artistic filters, offers users with a new update for iOS the possibility to edit videos of up to 15 seconds in length. The developers also let us know that this new feature will be available for the Android operating system in the near future. In addition, work with GIFs should also come in the future.
Shazam has also arrived in the iOS app "News"
Another interesting iOS "Messages" app has also been added this week. This time it's linked to the Shazam app and service, which is primarily used to identify music. New integration into "Messages" makes sharing search results and new music discoveries even easier. Just tap "Touch to Shazam" while writing a message and the service will recognize the music you hear and create a card with information to send.
Telegram now supports playing mini-games inside the app
Telegram, a popular chat platform, has taken inspiration from its competitors (Messenger, iMessage) and comes with mini-game support within its internal interface. The selected game is delivered by the "@GameBot" command and can be played alone or with multiple players or friends. There are three very simple games available so far – Corsairs, MathBattle, Lumberjacks.
It is also interesting that the supplier of such games is the Czech studio Cleevio through its game platform Gamee.
With the new update, WhatsApp allows you to draw on photos and videos taken
The popular communicator WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, has added a new feature to its portfolio, but it has been integrated into Snapchat for a long time. The user has the option to draw or add emoji or colored text to the photos or videos taken.
In addition to this function, however, the camera within the application has moved forward, primarily in terms of taking brighter photos or videos based on the built-in display backlight. It is also possible to zoom using stretching gestures.
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I will also add something for babies from a Czech/Sk developer :-)
https://appsto.re/sk/vIFofb.i