Six months ago, we launched Talkshow in the App Store, with the goal of giving people an easy way to have simple, uncluttered conversations in public. Today we have some tough news: on Thursday December 1, we’re shutting down the Talkshow app and website. While we have enjoyed the conversations that have happened on Talkshow, and are grateful for the community that has formed around the product, we don’t see it getting big enough to have the impact we had hoped for. We’re sorry, and we’re going to try to handle this transition in the right way.
Category: Apps
Instapaper Goes All Free ⇢
Today we’re making Instapaper Premium available to all Instapaper users, free of charge. Instapaper Premium is the best way to experience all that Instapaper has to offer, and we’re excited to open it up to everyone.
This means that all users will get what was used to be reserved for paying customers:
- An ad-free Instapaper website
- Full-text search for all articles
- Unlimited Notes
- Text-to-speech playlists
- Unlimited speed reading
- “Send to Kindle” via bookmarklet and mobile apps
- Kindle Digests of up to 50 articles
I’ve been paying for Instapaper Premium for years. I’ve seen some concern from users that this is a bad sign that the service is going to be integrated into Pinterest at some point. I sure hope that doesn’t happen; I love Instapaper as much today as I did five years ago.
On Annotable ⇢
Joe Caiati, writing for The Sweet Setup:
A markup app can be used in many different ways, like showing design changes, pointing out something funny to your friends, or using it as an educational tool.1
With Apple integrating markup even further within its mobile operating system, it’s clear that this is an essential tool to have available. We’ve tested a folder full of options and it became clear that Annotable is the best markup app for iOS.
Relay FM for iOS v1.5 ⇢
This morning, we published an update to the Relay FM iOS app that packs some fun goodies:
When considering the next update to our app, we didn’t have to look any further than Myke’s sticker-covered laptop and iPads.
You can now cover your iMessage conversations with artwork inspired by your favorite Relay FM podcasts.
It’s all powered by Tapjet, an amazing (perhaps even magical) platform for building and updating the content within iOS apps. Major thanks to them for getting this going for us.
Evernote for Mac Bug Leads to Data Loss For Some Users ⇢
Dropbox for iOS Gets Big Update ⇢
This morning, Dropbox announced big changes for its iOS app.
Improvements include the ability to sign PDFs, share files with other via a new Messages app, Picture in Picture support, a lock screen widget and more.
As someone who uses Dropbox as their filing system, I’m happy with these updates. There’s just one pain point left:
And in the coming weeks, we’ll be launching split-screen support that lets you work seamlessly within Dropbox and other apps at the same time—without having to toggle back and forth.
Apple Responds to Dash Removal Story ⇢
Jim Dalrymple at the Loop, following-up on the controversy surrounding Dash:
Apple’s anti-fraud team has apparently been working with the developer for some time to stop fraudulent positive reviews, and negative reviews on competitors accounts. According to Apple, all attempts to work with the developer have failed, resulting in the account being terminated.
“Almost 1,000 fraudulent reviews were detected across two accounts and 25 apps for this developer so we removed their apps and accounts from the App Store,” Apple spokesperson, Tom Newmayr, said in a statement provided to The Loop on Monday. “Warning was given in advance of the termination and attempts were made to resolve the issue with the developer but they were unsuccessful. We will terminate developer accounts for ratings and review fraud, including actions designed to hurt other developers. This is a responsibility that we take very seriously, on behalf of all of our customers and developers.”
Apple Removes Dash From App Store ⇢
Bogdan Popescu, writing about his app Dash:
Yesterday I sent Apple a request to migrate my account from an individual one to a company one. Once I verified my company with its D-U-N-S Number, they notified me that some features in iTunes Connect won’t be available during account migration.
A while later my iTunes Connect account started showing as “CLOSED” and my apps were removed from sale. I thought this was normal and part of the migration.
macOS Sierra Fixes Disk Utility’s Typos
Forget Siri, iCloud and whatever has you excited about macOS Sierra. With this version of macOS, Apple has corrected the typos I found in Disk Utility.
The Erase Disk sheet used to read:
Erasing “DISK NAME” will destroy of all the data stored on it. Enter a name, choose a format.
The sheet now says:
Erasing “DISK NAME” will delete all data stored on it, and cannot be undone. Provide a name and format, and click Erase to proceed.
nvALT Updated to Support Sierra ⇢
Everyone’s favorite text-editing, magic-making app has been updated for macOS Sierra. Here’s Brett Terpstra with some additional news:
In the meantime, we’re getting close to a BitWriter beta. This will be the replacement for nvALT, rewritten from the ground up and using modern code that will be easier to maintain moving forward. Keep your eyes peeled on this blog and Twitter, both @ttscoff and @nvALTApp will have beta signup and release news.
iOS 10 Adds macOS Server Account Setup ⇢
Apple released iOS 10 today. This update brings all sorts of upgrades and features. There is one particular that is quite useful if you are running a Mac server to host your mail, notes, calendars and other features in macOS Server.
In past versions of iOS, you can easily setup with services like iCloud, Exchange, and Yahoo. Logging in will let you activate all their services like calendar and mail. With iOS 10 you can do this same thing with macOS server. Thanks to The Brooks Review for finding this new option.
On App Store Business Models ⇢
On November 8th it will have been eight years since my first app went live in the App Store. Back when I started I would have been gobsmacked to hear that eight years later I’d still be making my living solely from apps.
The App Store ecosystem today is wildly different from what it was back then. I launched my first app into a store of around 90k apps, today we have well over 2 million. Back then we didn’t have advertising networks, in-app purchases or subscriptions. You were free or paid, and if you wanted to make a living you pretty much had to be paid.