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Something about green and white with communication apps.
Screenshot by Yoga Nandiwardhana
Gmail for iOS gets an update which links the app directly to other Google apps, keeping user navigations within the Google sandbox. There’s a reason why the iOS versions of Google’s apps are better on iOS than Android.
Google doesn’t need to get iOS users to switch to Android. Google needs to make its iOS apps really compelling, far better than competing apps to get iOS users to use them, and when that threshold has been crossed, link them all up to keep everything inside Google.
The embrace, extend, extinguish principle is well and truly in effect.
Google Now is finally available on iOS through Google app update, but it’s not yet available in Indonesia apparently.
Apple has forbidden developers to use unique device identifiers (UDID) to track the behaviors of iOS device owners starting from iOS5, and in its place, it implemented Advertising ID and Identification for Vendors. This post explains how these two new identifiers work in comparison to UDID and what Limit Ad Tracking in iOS6 means. Essentially these were designed to provide better privacy options for consumers but Nick Arnott says it’s not as clear cut.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt yesterday said to ask Apple about the availability of Google Now on iOS, citing Apple’s policy to review apps prior to publication on the App Store. Schmidt’s statement implies that the app is indeed waiting in review, when in fact Google hasn’t even submitted the app for review. Either Schmidt didn’t know that his company hasn’t sent the app to Apple or he was deflecting the question for obvious reasons. Both Apple and Google gave statements to CNet saying that Google Now has yet to be submitted to the App Store.
While Google now is tied to Search, according to Rene Ritchie of iMore, a source from Google informed him that the Google Search app for iOS and Google Now will be two separate apps as Google Now will not come as an update to the existing mobile app.
Apple’s Podcast app v. 1.2 brings a revamped interface that resembles the Music app and the App Store itself. No longer looks like an old tape player.
Starting 1 May, Apple will not be accepting apps that don’t support the tall screen orientation of iPhone 5 and the latest iPod touch. Apps that use UDID, the unique identifier commonly used to distinguish iOS devices in the past, will also be rejected from the App Store. In its place, Apple has implemented Advertising Identifier starting with iOS 6.
The requirement to support iPhone 5 means iOS app developers will have to use the software development kit for iOS 6 which no longer supports iOS 4.2, ending any ability to create apps that support iPhone 3G and cameraless iPod touch.
Apple’s iOS is the only mobile platform on which every popular mobile app exists (except maybe for BlackBerry Messenger). Apple does not make mobile apps for other mobile operating systems but all other major mobile platform owners make apps for iOS. The simple reason is because the others are almost pure play software people while Apple makes most of its money selling hardware. Selling its apps on other people’s platform will obviously undermine that.
Google and Microsoft on the other hand rely on wide adoption of its applications and services and Apple has sold over 500 million iOS devices as of January of this year with the majority of them having been sold in more recent years. Apple’s customers are crucial for companies like Google and Microsoft.
Apple debuts short URLs for apps on the App Store
Even when it didn’t place an ad in the Super Bowl, Apple managed to get itself in the Super Bowl headlines this morning when the trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness included a link to the App Store using the appstore.com address. Apple has been using the tw.appstore.com address for links to apps in its @appstore account on Twitter but it hasn’t given developers access to use them, until now.
As The Next Web’s Matthew Panzarino noted, there shouldn’t be any land grab for these short URLs as they have been assigned by Apple based on the names of the apps. Generic names however will go to search results instead of specific apps for fairness.
Developers don’t have to worry about a ‘land grab’ for AppStore.com URLs, as they’ve all been automatically assigned to current apps
— Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) February 4, 2013
When you develop an app, designing the app’s home screen icon is one of the most important aspects of the process. The icon will be your customers’ daily impression of your app. it represents your app, what it is or what it does, and whether people will identify the app correctly. It’s crucial that this process yields the intended result as the outcome will have a wide ranging effect. Master designer Louie Mantia shares his thoughts on icon design on his personal blog.
