End-to-end Encryption Reaches Line Messaging App
Line, the Japanese chat app well known for it’s cute stickers and bubbly mascot characters, has just adopted a more serious feature: end-to-end encryption. 211 Million people use the app currently, but with only about 10 million users in the United States it’s fair to say adoption outside their target audience in Asia (54 million […]
Postmates Launches 15-Minute Delivery Service
Popular delivery service Postmates has launched a new service specifically for users in the South of Market Street (SoMa) area of San Francisco that promises to deliver lunch items within a blazing-fast 15 minutes. Users interact with the new service, called “Pop,” via a branded icon within the regular Postmates app, choosing from selections of items pre-stocked […]
Fighting Churn: Localytics Solves Problem for App Industry
Getting users to download an app is notoriously difficult for San Francisco mobile app developers. Getting them to stick around for the long haul is even trickier. Even an enthusiastic user has dozens of other apps competing for their digital attention span, and the average app loses around 80 percent of signups. The “churn” in […]
“Been Choice” brings Ad Blocking to Native Apps and iTunes
Ad blockers rejoiced while advertisers cringed last week with the release of Been Choice, the first ad blocking app targeting native iPhone apps. The controversial tool uses a combination of Safari content blocking and VPN service, allowing users to filter out advertisements in both web applications and native apps including Facebook, Pinterest, and Yahoo. While […]
Spotify Beats Out Apple Music for Top Grossing IPhone App
Apple may be having a heyday with the impressive subscriber numbers for their Apple Music service, but Spotify has surprised the app community by securing the elusive No. 1 spot for top grossing apps in the U.S. While Spotify has managed to reach this status before in the U.K., their previous record in the U.S. […]
Twitter Adding 8 New Services to Fabric Platform
Since Twitter launched Fabric in fall of 2014, the platform has grown to reach over 225,000 developers and over a billion devices. Needless to say, the announcement of eight new services caused quite a stir among mobile app developers in San Francisco. Developers at Fabric commented that they’ve been “blown away” by the response to Fabric by […]
Facebook Launches Instant Articles to IOS
iPhone users getting their news through the Facebook mobile app will start to see more lightning bolt icons alongside their reading options — the icon signifies “instant articles,” Facebook’s push to boost loading time for articles on mobile by allowing select publishing partners to post articles using a highly optimized format that will make them […]
Apple Now Accepting Apps for Apple TV Platform
Apple TV, Apple’s new television device, is a hot item this year — so IOS developers will be pleased to hear that the company is now accepting app submissions for the new platform. Apparently they don’t want consumers to have to wait for a thriving app ecosystem, so anybody with an idea for a game […]
Security Remains Primary Concern Effecting Widespread Adoption of IoT Devices
Security has been a focus for Internet of Things app developers throughout the growth of the trend, and particularly now as industrial and medical applications become more prevalent. The effects of a hacker on your smart vacuum cleaner or cloud-connected thermostat may be negligible or annoying, but the situation obviously becomes more serious when considering […]
Major Update brings iWork Apps for iCloud out of Beta
Apple has just rolled the iWork suite out of beta and added some major upgrades to all three core mac apps in OS X, iOS, and iCloud. Included in the updates are some highly-anticipated features that put the apps on-par with major competitors in the cloud-based productivity suite market like Google Drive apps and Microsoft […]