Kids React is one of my favorite YouTube shows. It’s always interesting to see how new generations react to old products and technologies, commenting on aspects that they now take for granted but that actually took years of evolution and cultural changes to happen.
Their latest video is about kids reacting to the first iPod. There are many great moments in the video, but the part about touching the screen really shows how tech has changed since 2001. You can watch it below.
Craig Hockenberry on the many limitations of the Mac App Store when compared to its iOS counterpart:
I think the thing that bothers me most about this situation is the inequality. Mac developers aren’t getting the same value from the App Store as their counterparts on iOS. We all pay Apple 30% of our earnings to reach our customers, we should all get the same functionality for that fee.
It’s not fair to developers to keep the Mac App Store like this. Developers should be able to test and track performance of Mac apps just like they can on iOS. Instead of improving the Mac App Store for developers, things are only getting worse the more it’s neglected – this isn’t right, and it should be fixed.
This week Federico and Myke talk about Her Story, Pokemon set in the Unreal Engine and Year Walk for Wii U.
On Virtual this week, we discussed the excellent iOS game Her Story. Lots of spoilers ahead, so make sure to see the ending before you listen here.
Sponsored by:
This week, the Connected gang talk about the iOS 9 beta, new iPods and what the future may hold for the iPad.
On this week’s Connected, we elaborated on Apple blocking App Store reviews on the iOS 9 beta and Stephen’s usage of iPods in 2015. You can listen here.
Sponsored by:
Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:
Apple is today launching its Back to School promotion for 2015. This year, it will give away a free pair of Beats Solo2 headphones with the purchase of an eligible Mac. Customers must either purchase an iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or Mac Pro with education pricing to qualify, including build-to-order configurations. The Mac mini does not participate in the deal.
Somewhat curious that Apple isn’t including iPad purchases in this year’s promotion (they have in previous years). An iPad is, in theory, a great device for students and education purposes. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of a push next year after new iPads and iOS 9, and the cheapest Mac starts at $899, not $299 like an iPad mini 2. Beats headphones are a pretty good deal.
When I used to work from a Mac every day, Keyboard Maestro was one of my most used apps. Nowadays, my automation needs are satisfied by a combination of Workflow, Editorial, and Pythonista on iOS, but I still have a deep appreciation for the power and versatility of Keyboard Maestro on OS X.
Keyboard Maestro 7.0 has been released today with over 100 new features and improvements. My friend Gabe has a good first look at the new version and the Keyboard Maestro website explains in detail the new options for contextual menus for actions, new triggers, themed palette styles (nice), and more.
If you need to automate tasks on a Mac, you can’t go wrong with Keyboard Maestro. You can download the new version and check out the upgrade options here.
Former Apple designer Linda Dong has a fascinating post on how iAd Producer can also be used to prototype iOS apps:
iAd Producer is a favorite of mine (I actually worked on its design for awhile at Apple) it’s a little-known but extremely powerful tool from Apple. Think of it as “advanced Keynote”, or “actually accessible Interface Builder”. Alas the app is meant for not-so-popular content like iAds and iBooks widgets, but it can easily be repurposed to prototype iOS and Mac apps. It handles UI elements, screen flow, and animation really well. Better yet, an iAd project is based in HTML5, CSS3, and javascript which a lot of designers are already familiar with.
Interesting use case for an app that’s advertised as an iAd content creation tool.
From Jason Snell’s transcript of Tim Cook during the company’s Q3 2015 earnings call:
I am still bullish on iPad, with iOS 9 there’s some incredible productivity enhancements coming in with Split View and Slide Over and Picture in Picture, these things are incredible features. The enterprise business is picking up and more and more companies are either contracting for or writing apps themselves.
And I believe that the iPad consumer upgrade cycle will eventually occur, because as we look at the usage statistics on iPad, it remains unbelievably great. I mean, the next closest usage of the next competitor, we’re six times greater. And so these are extraordinary numbers. It’s not like people have forgotten iPad or anything, it’s a fantastic product.
I’ve said it right after the first beta of iOS 9 and I can only reiterate this after four betas and now that I’m playing with some iPad apps with new features: iOS 9 is a game changer on the iPad. There are several touches on iOS 9 for iPad that feel like Apple is truly optimizing for this device now. It’ll be interesting to see the effect of new iPad software and hardware on sales next year.
The free version of popular puzzle game Threes has doubled its developers’ profits, as reported by Eurogamer and as Threes developer Asher Vollmer shared in a series of tweets (full collection here).
We released a free version of @ThreesGame one month ago and here’s how it’s doing: It has doubled our daily income. Thanks for playing :)
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
It was not a very glamorous game release, but it was a good business decision. Excited to make bigger games now!
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
Graphs (with matching y-axises)! On the left: paid profits On the right: ad profits pic.twitter.com/hLv1n1vCo8
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
.@NimbleDave a bunch! pic.twitter.com/Q8okZPIG1b
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
@danielben Roughly the same actually! So our total profits doubled.
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
It’s interesting to look at the stats for the platform split of iOS vs. Android. The majority of free users also comes from iOS.
Making a free version of a paid game with ads may not be the most elegant decision, but it’s a practical one when you want to attract an audience that doesn’t have disposable income to spend on games.
