Articles Comments

Social Network Background Check » Entries tagged with "App Store"

Facebook improves mobile app install ads, makes downloads seamless for iOS users

December 18th, 2012 | Add a Comment

Facebook today made its mobile app install ads infinitely more attractive to app makers who want to pay to increase their downloads. The social network announced that members on iOS 6 can now download advertised applications from the mobile News Feed without ever leaving Facebook. Mobile app install ads, formally launched in October, let iOS and Android developers buy prominent exposure for their applications inside Facebook’s mobile News Feed. Until now, the in-stream units directed members to Apple’s App Store or the Google Play marketplace to download the sponsored apps. Today, Facebook eliminated the extra step of leaving its social network, but only for people on iOS 6 devices. “When they click on an ad, the App Store will appear in another dialog box. After installing the app, they will be able … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

Apple’s iPhone App of the Year Is a Joke, Right?

December 13th, 2012 | Add a Comment

… Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network Privacy

Shatoetry: An iPhone app for crafting custom William Shatner phrases

November 3rd, 2012 | Add a Comment

Believe it or not, there are some instances where mankind has produced some truly disgusting uses of technology — disgustingly awesome, that is. The most recent example is the new Shatoetry iPhone app from the greatest performer who ever lived, William Shatner. Shatoetry is indeed a play on words, combining both Shatner and poetry, to perfectly describe what the app’s purpose. The famous actor is often known for delivering lines with unnecessary pauses intended to add a dramatic tone to a performance. And Shatoetry lets you put words into his mouth — sort of like a talking pet monkey, but more awesome and Canadian. The app essentially gives you a huge soundboard of words spoken by Shatner. You can drag words to the screen and arrange them into a sentence, adding pauses … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

Google finally catches up to Apple with 700K apps

October 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment

The Google Play Store now has 700,000 Android apps, finally catching up to roughly the same number of programs in Apple’s App Store. A Google spokesperson confirmed the new numbers to VentureBeat, but it has not yet made a formal announcement. Back in September, Apple announced that it had hit 700,000 apps in the App Store, while Google said it had 600,000 apps back in June. Apple likely still has the lead still, but now we can say that both companies have around the same number of apps. Hopefully we can all agree that 700,000 is more than enough apps for a mobile platform and now there needs to be an emphasis on quality control and being able to find the best apps. Apple has tried to do this with the latest version … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

News.me pulls app from App Store, makes Twitter the scapegoat

October 25th, 2012 | Add a Comment

News.me, the socially infused zine for iOS users, is no more. The Betaworks-built entity, which was eventually spun out as an independent company, announced Wednesday that it’s shutting down its digital presses to focus on other things — mainly remaking Digg into a desirable destination for news. Launched in early 2011, News.me started its life as a New York Times R&D product that grew into an iPad application for reading the news bits flowing out of other people’s Twitter streams. With its release on iPhone earlier this year, the News.me application expanded in purpose and set out to become more of a social network for news. The problem with that mission, however, is that it put News.me in competition with Twitter’s discover tab, which also aims to point out relevant articles from the … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

Apple chomps Chomp (and other app-discovery engines may follow)

October 1st, 2012 | Add a Comment

Presumably, app discovery on iPhone and iPad is now solved, according to Apple. Mobile app search service Chomp’s website simply redirects to Apple.com, and the Chomp app no long shows up in iOS app searches. In addition, according to MacRumors, existing users of Chomp who open the app are finding a message from Apple that Chomp is discontinued as of yesterday. In February, Apple acquired Chomp. Apple kept the web and iOS search capabilities, but it quickly shut down the Android search. Now that iOS 6 is out and shows evidence of Chomp’s fewer-results-more-pictures user interface, Chomp is kaput. But that may be just the beginning. As PocketGamer notes, Apple seems to be clamping down on app-discovery engines in general. Apple has updated its developer guidelines, alerting developers that “apps that display apps other than your … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

Apple’s Back to School Offer Stinks Again This Year [Apple]

June 11th, 2012 | Add a Comment

… Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network Privacy

How cloud computing is revolutionizing tablet apps

June 7th, 2012 | Add a Comment

This story is brought to you by Sourcebits, a Global leader in Strategy, User Experience & Engineering for Mobile & Cloud. Follow Sourcebits on Twitter for recent news and updates. Although today the words “tablet computer” instantly conjure images of the ubiquitous iPad, the tablet itself goes back much, much farther than that; the first patent for an electronic tablet used for handwriting was granted in 1888. Fast forward to 2002, when tablets running a modified version of Windows XP debuted — and immediately flopped. Early tablets never really quite caught on. They were heavy, there were issues getting desktop software to run smoothly on the hardware, and, perhaps most importantly, there were very few applications available. When Apple overhauled the concept by releasing the iPad, it had already had an … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

Facebook buys Glancee, another app to beef up its mobile side

May 6th, 2012 | Add a Comment

We’re guessing the pricetag on this deal was slightly less than the $1 billion it paid for Instagram, but Facebook has indeed bought up Italian startup Glancee. Glancee is an iPhone and Android app that “helps you discover and connect with new interesting people around you.” The concept may sound like the sea of sameness that mobile/social apps are these days, but the app itself was quite pretty, as you can see below. Unfortunately for the app’s users, this was a talent grab. It looks like Facebook is shutting Glancee down; users are being offered the chance to download their data, and the app has been yanked from the App Store and Google Play’s Android apps section. The app hadn’t seen too much traction but had garnered some favorable mentions from Silicon … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

Funzio scores big with third million-plus hit on the iPhone

May 1st, 2012 | Add a Comment

Funzio is three for three on the iPhone. The social-mobile game maker’s latest release, Kingdom Age, had more than 1 million downloads in its first five days on the Apple iTunes App Store. Kingdom Age is a “high fantasy” title where you can battle monsters and beef up your skills in a single-player mode. Or, you can compete against your friends in multiplayer combat. Since the game launched on April 19, players have trained more than 5 million troops. And players have fought more than 20 million battles, said Jamil Moledina, vice president of business development at the San Francisco, Calif.-based Funzio. “In five days, more than 93 years of total time was spent playing the game,” Moledina said.”The amount of time people spend in the game is much higher than our previous … Read entire article »

Filed under: Social Network News

« Previous Page
Next Page »