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The Stolen App has been Removed from the App Store

The app that has been causing so much controversy has been finally closed down.

The Stolen app has been removed from the App Store, after many people have complained that it was endangering their privacy. This app allowed the users to steal accounts from Twitter. The accounts were turned into cards and the users were able to trade them.

After it was launched, many controversies have risen mainly because the owners of the Twitter accounts were not consulted if they wanted their accounts to be used by the app. Once a card was stolen by a user, the user was able to write anything he or she wanted on the profile of the card. In the first days after it was launched, Stolen already had 40,000 actively using it. According to Fortune, this was an effort towards creating an app as famous as Heyday, both created by Hey, Inc. The Heyday app had approximately 1 million downloads.

Many Twitter users were worried that this could lead to abuse and privacy violation so after a lot of criticism, the company decided to pull the app from the App Store. Just days after the app started to gain popularity, the company used Twitter to announce that the app will no longer be available to purchase due to the many concerns it rose. If you already bought currency with real money when you used the app, don’t worry because you will receive your money back. The app allowed you to steal more users if you had more fake money.

The controversial youtuber, Sam Pepper clearly didn’t agree with this decision, as he wrote on Twitter that the company should have just removed the edit the profile feature. This feature was extremely controversial, as users were allowed to write on other people’s profiles which could have led to people believing that the information was written by the owner of the account, not by some random person. Sam Pepper was not the only one bothered by the app closing down, as Fortune called the app addictive. Many people still enjoyed the app, especially as it allowed them to steal the accounts of their favorite celebrities as well.

The critics believe that the whole idea of the app could have easily violated their privacy, as the identities of people were stolen without their consent. Katherine Clark, a US Representative wrote letters to Jack Dorsey from Twitter and to Tim Cook from Apple, in which she expressed her concern about how the app can easily steal identities, abuse and harass people. After many complaints that this was negatively affecting a lot of people, the Stolen app has been removed from the App Store.

Image Source: www.pixabay.com

Users Spent $1.1 Billion on App Store During the Holidays

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users paid $20 billion on apps in 2015

According to an Apple report, users spent $1.1 billion on App Store during the holiday’s season. This is the total sum spent during a period of two weeks ending Jan. 3.

Of all the days, users spent the most during the New Year’s Day when they purchased apps costing a total of $144 million in just 24 hours. The second single-day record was set only a week before, on Christmas Day.

According to Apple’s senior V.P. Philip Schiller who leads the App Store, users spent over $20 billion on apps during 2015, a figure that is more than double compared to 2013. Schiller said he is grateful to all the amazing developers who have created the exciting and innovative apps for the customers.

Since 2008 App Store has brought developers almost $40 billion of which more than one third has been generated during the last year.

App Store’s success has created almost 2 million jobs just in the United States. About three quarters of them (more than 1.4 million jobs) are app creators, entrepreneurs and software engineers creating apps and also non-IT jobs created and sustained by the app economy.

Besides the United States, Apple’s app economy has created about 1.4 million jobs in China and about 1.2 million jobs throughout Europe.

The most popular categories of apps in 2015 were Gaming, Entertainment and Networking. Of the gaming category the most popular games were Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Heads Up!, Monster Strike, Clash of Clans and Trivia Crack. The most famous social network apps were Facebook Messenfer, Snapchat and WeChat.

This year has been full of innovations for Apple, who has also launched Apple Watch and Apple TV which offered users completely new experiences and changed the way people were used to consume TV content. Apple TV has been launched in October and since then the most popular of its apps are HBO Now, Beat Sports and Rayman Adventures.

When it comes to the Apple watch, users preferred fitness apps such as Lifesum and Nike + Running but the travel category worked just fine with popular apps like Citymapper and iTranslate.

Schiller is excited about last year’s sales and looks forward into the future hoping that this year is going to be at least as better as the one that just passed. Apple products, from iPhone, iPad and Mac to Apple TV and Apple Watch will probably continue to lead the market.

Image source: pixabay

Mozilla’s New App Won’t Work With Firefox

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Focus is the new content blocker released by Mozilla

Mozilla launched Focus, its content-blocking app for iOS today. But what comes as a surprise is that Mozilla’s new app won’t work with Firefox because of an Apple decision.

Apple decided to keep private the application programming interface (API) of content blocking so that Mozilla’s new Focus app will only work with Safary. However, the company hopes that Apple will open the API and Focus will also work with Firefox for iOS.

Focus blocks content in a similar way in which their new Tracking Protection for Firefox 42 does. It is not quite an ad blocker but decides to block content from a black list. This list of barred content has been developed in collaboration with Disconnect.me, a company which focuses on online privacy.

The black list will be open sourced, as most of Mozilla’s software, so it can be modified and users will be able to complain and share their thoughts about it.

Besides blocking different dangerous or annoying content like ad banners or even background running analytics services, users will be able to set Focus to block content such as certain fonts or other things that slow down the browser. This will personalize the experience of web browsing, making it more enjoyable.

Focus lets users block different types of contents that use trackers, fron ad trackers to analytics and social trackers. As a result, ads that are not tracking users will be allowed by Focus, still making it possible for companies to make money out of internet marketing.

Focus app is free to download from the App Store starting from today. The application comes as a result of Apple’s decision of making ad blockers easier to build with iOS 9. Since its release, billions of users have downloaded ad blocking apps and Mozilla hopes that Focus will have the same success.

Ad blockers do more than just blocking annoying ads, they also remove the danger of malvertising, through which malware tries to force itself into the terminal’s system.

On the other side, they also affect the profit of those who make money from online advertising and this is the reason why Mozilla did not release a full ad blocker.

Mark Mayo, Firefox VP says that an Android version of Focus will be launched in the future but he did not announced any date.

Image source: pixabay.com

Automatic App Store Features Car Track Data

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Want to post expense mileage for work, keep an eye on your teen driver or access real-time vehicle performance stats? There’s a car app for that.

The new Automatic App Gallery has on offer more than 20 third-party services which can connect you and your smartphone to your vehicle.

“The opportunities to improve the car ownership experience were so broad and deep that we knew not to try to tackle them all on our own. There’s one way to do it right, a way everybody’s already familiar with: an app store, but for your car,” CEO Thejo Kote explained in a blog post.

All you need is the new Automatic adapter, a miniature gadget that plugs into the majority of vehicles built after 1996 and comes together with the app which is uploaded to your smartphone. The first version came two years ago, but Automatic unveiled Tuesday a second-generation version for $99.95, a package that includes support for dual Bluetooth streams. The new service also has the ability to observe a car’s immediate and raw performance data in real-time and it also supports built-in GPS. The new Automatic car tracker has an improved connector in order to fit better in more smaller vehicles.

Automatic can be currently run on three real-time data application for iPhone and iPad. They are called Harry’s LapTimer DashCommand, and OBD Fusion. According to the company, Automatic should arrive on Android very soon.

“We founded Automatic on the belief that our cars weren’t living up to their potential. We hold the entire Internet in our pockets now, so why is car ownership still stuck in the past? Without question, what we’re most excited about from this new adapter is the streaming apps available today and all the new ones coming soon,” Kote added in his blog post.

App makers can get contribute to the developing of the service via the Automatic Developer Platform. There, tech specialists can rely on the REST API for trip logs, which measures mileage, start/end location, routes and times. Also, they can use Webhooks and Websockets designed for driving events, such as ignition on/off, real-time location updates and check engine light status. Developers are also wanted to improve the Data streaming SDK for iOS, which is real-time stream of speed, air intake, RPM and data from other sensors.

Image Source: Engadget

Invitation Email Requirement Could Cause Inbox to Be a Bust

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Earlier this week, Google launched its new smartphone alternative to emailing: Inbox. Currently, the app is available by invitation only and its goal is pretty straightforward. Google wanted users to be able to organize, sync, group and bring together all the important content that the user requires in any given day. And such an idea is uniquely appealing to many people, especially since the email is considered to be the old horse that just keeps on galloping. Anyone from small business owners to self-employed, multi-taskers or just casual email users can benefit from Google’s apparent spectacular new app.

There is a twist, however, to this seemingly perfect Google story. Many of those quite enthusiastic to try out Google inbox have already begun to question the legitimacy of the tech giant’s initiative because of the mandatory invitation. Inbox requires an invitation to join, regardless of the fact that it is already available in App Store and in the Play Store.

As such, some wonder whether Google has lost touch with what is important to its users. And while they may not know precisely what you particularly want, they have a general concept about what the average email user desires. Google believes that the goal is organizing rather than prioritizing (despite the fact that marketing of the app has been unclear in that regard, letting many believe that Google and the Inbox app will eventually believe to make choices for the user).

But the fact is that all Google attempted to do was to employ its Google Now technologies into a user-friendly email application that would modernize the email experience and synergize various types of features.

The goal of the app wasn’t to replace Gmail, but to rather put a modern spin on the modern man’s necessity, the email, and transform it into an app that could also meet his changing needs.

Jack Gold, an independent analyst, studied Google’s app and believes that this may actually be a slippery slope for the tech giant, if Inbox fails to keep up with its end of the bargain and efficiently organize.

“The issue is, how does an overseer sort through all the communications and accurately predict what’s important to the user? It’s not an easy task.”

Gold said on Thursday.

There have been some to argue that Inbox will learn the behavior of the user, but that speaks to what Google Now is already about.

“It will learn which contacts are important to you and which topics you tend to actually read and respond to rather than delete.”

Rob Enderle, an analyst for the Enderle Group said.

Regardless, only time will tell if users will appreciate the process of requesting to be brought into the app via App Store or Play Store and then having to request to join via email.

Most U.S. Smartphone Users Download Zero Apps Each Month

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There are thousands and thousands of apps for any OS made for mobile devices. Download numbers are impressive, but we tend to overstate the enthusiasm people have for these software pieces.

The first app store was launched by Apple in 2008. In June, the company announced that more than 75 billion apps have been downloaded at the moment. Moreover, the next month was Apple Store’s best month in history in terms of revenue, Quartz notes. So finding out that most smartphone users download zero apps per month is surprising.

Comscore released a report shedding more light onto app downloading and usage among U.S mobile users. The results are based on data from the whole second quarter of 2014 and involved only users of 18+ years old. The most intriguing result is that almost two thirds of smartphone users do not download any app during. Eight percent of the surveyed users downloaded one app per month and almost 9 percent – 2 apps. Percentages drop further on.

The results clearly convey that app stores and app developers thrive due to a minority of app enthusiasts. The top 7 percent of users download half of all the apps from app stores during one month.

The most used app by U.S. smartphone owners (you know which one) intends to monetize user data in every possible way.

Most smartphone users download zero apps but the rest counterbalance

According to Comscore, users spend 52 percent of their time with digital media, a consistent, albeit non-dramatic, increase from around 40 percent in 2013. Almost every smartphone owner uses apps, but many have clear preferences. A “staggering 42% of all app time spent on smartphones occurs on the individual’s single most used app,” comScore reports. About 57 percent of the surveyed smartphone owners used apps daily.

“While the meteoric growth of apps transpired quickly, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise,” comScore said. “After all, apps are the fuel that is driving mobile’s growth and where most of the devices’ utility comes from,” the report adds according to PCmag.

There are 83.8 million Android users in the U.S. and only 67.4 million who use Apple smartphones. As expected, Apple users are wealthier on average than Android users.

Most smartphone users download zero apps probably because they are content with the stock apps. Looking at the most used apps, we can see that smartphone users took their desktop preferences to their mobiles. The mobile Facebook app was used by 115.4 million unique visitors, clearly ahead of the Youtube, accessed by 83.4 million users, followed closely by Google Play, Google Search and Pandora Radio.

The djay Update Lets You Play with the Entire Spotify Song Catalog

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Always wanted to be a DJ, but you lacked the skill, the tools and the working materials? Not a problem anymore. Let’s listen to the fresh news which came this very morning:

The revered Mac and iOS app djay released an update which allows you to simultaneously stream and mix any two tracks at the same time, using Spotify’s streaming service, without any lag. The feature will be available to premium Spotify subscribers, a service that costs $10 per month. Anyone who is both a premium Spotify subscriber and an owner of the app (made by Algoriddim) will have a large library of material to choose from when creating, scratching, rewinding, fast-forwarding, and mixing sets.

If you used the djay app before to throw that awesome frat party or to get some paid gigs at weddings and anniversaries, you know you could only benefit from the songs in your iTune library, which was pretty bad. But now the djay update lets you play with the entire Spotify song catalog. Moreover, the djay update also comes with the holy grail for all DJs on the planet: it sports a learning algorithm that allows the DJ to find songs with similar beats as the ones he is playing. So you want to mix Metallica with Lady Gaga? The algorithm will provide you with a list of possible matching songs, based on the genre and the beats of the songs and your past listening habits. So maybe Metallica and Lady Gaga won’t work as scheduled, but you can have hundreds of combinations available to make your own music.

Does this mean that from now on everybody can become a DJ? Does this mean that technology trumps skills and talents and every “artist” with a cell phone would be able to call himself an “entertainer”?

The people behind djay say that technology helps art to evolve and not to crush it down. They say technology allows now people to make things they couldn’t have made before, allowing them to go as crazy and imaginative as they want.

As for using the djay update, things are quite simple: if you already have the djay app downloaded to your iPhone or iPad, you can simply update it and use the new features for free. If you don’t have the djay, you can purchase the iPhone app version for $.99. This is the discounted price and the offer lasts a week, so you’d better hurry up if you want to become the DJ of your pack.

Weed Firm Got Out of the App Store

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If you didn’t get to grow your virtual marijuana field and become the next best Walter White in the pot industry, unfortunately, the very successful game Weed Firm got out of the App Store.

Actually, Apple decided to remove it altogether, even if the game held the No. 1 spot in the United States’ free app category for two days. The game was rated 4.5 stars out of five and had about 5000 reviews, almost all of them positive, so the question is… why?

We can talk about ethics and morals, but truth be told, marijuana is legal in Washington and Colorado, medical marijuana is alright in the book of many states and many other countries outside the U.S., so the question is legit: why would Apple have this game eliminated from its store?

It is about the drugs, isn’t it? It is about the fact that Apple doesn’t want to associate its name with any type of illegal practices, be them virtual. But wait! According to Alyssa Bereznak from Yahoo Tech, the App Store crawls with apps and games which are drug – related. Some of them actually teach people how to differentiate among various types of marijuana.

If we are to listen to the game creators, the only fault of the Weed Firm was its raising popularity. In an official post on the Manitoba Games website, the game creators stateed that

As you might have noticed the game is no longer available on the Apple App Store. This was entirely Apple’s decision, not ours. We guess the problem was that the game was just too good and got to number one in All Categories, since there are certainly a great number of weed based apps still available, as well as games promoting other so-called ‘illegal activities’ such as shooting people, crashing cars and throwing birds at buildings.

Now that is frustrated language to display in public, to say the least, but we are not here to judge. Apple is known for having issues with some so – called objectionable content before, but it also has a history of changing its mind once the storm has passed. For now, Weed Firm got out of the App Store but don’t fret: it’s going to come back some day. The game creators promised they would not let this one slip, would find a new publisher and would prevail, because they didn’t dig hypocrisy and censorship. If you are in the mood for some colorful language and want to see people virtually lashing out back at Apple, read the entire post before it gets censored too!

Review of Two Flappy Bird Replacements

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You could fill barrels with the tears of those who have cried because Flappy Bird was pulled off the market. Although Flappy Bird creator says he could put his highly addictive game back on the market, he’s not making any promises, so game developers are beginning to put out Flappy Bird replacements just to keep up with the demand. We’re going to take a look at three games which copy Flappy Bird and tell you if they’re worth downloading.

The Two Flappy Bird Replacements

1. Fly Birdie

Fly Birdie works just like Flappy Bird, you need to tap the screen to advance your bird up and navigate it through the tubes. Stop tapping and the bird falls. Simple. The really great thing about it, which makes it one of the best, if not the best Flappy Bird replacements on the market is that it is very similar to Flappy Bird, so if you’re truly looking for a replacement, this is the one to get. It’s currently number one in Apple’s App Store, so those many people can’t all be wrong. What sets Fly Birdie from Flappy Bird is that in the first one you are given three lives, which you are going to waste faster than you can say Flappy Bird.

2. Flappy Plane

You have to tap the screen to guide a little plane forward. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not meant to be that. Instead of the pipes in Flappy Bird, you’ve got a bunch of floating bars you need to avoid. When you advance, you’re shown the miles you’ve traveled. The great thing about this game is that you’re able to choose a difficulty level, unlike Flappy Bird, which is pretty neat. But the design is really bad and it truly does seem like it’s the worst Flappy Bird replacements on the market. If you’re a Flappy Bird addict, this game could satisfy your appetite, but not for long.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Do you miss Flappy Bird so much, that you’re going to download these Flappy Bird replacements? Which one looks more appealing to you? If you’ve played any of the reviewed games, leave us your review in the comment section below. We’d love to hear about it!