Spotify Promotion Offers 3-Month Premium Subscription for $0.99 to New Customers [iOS Blog]

Spotify is trying to boost its subscriber numbers with a holiday promotion that lets customers test drive the service at a minimal monthly cost. The new holiday promotion is available now and offers three months of Spotify Premium for just 99 cents.



Spotify Premium is the company's top-tier plan that allows users to download music for offline use, stream while on their mobile devices, and listen without the interruption of advertisements. With Spotify Premium regularly priced at $9.99 per month, the promotion significantly drops the price for new and existing users who have never subscribed to the Premium plan or previously used a free trial. Customers can sign up for the promotion through December 31, allowing holiday gift recipients to take advantage of this offer.



Spotify is a leading streaming music service with more than 12.5 million paying subscribers and 50 million active users. The music service joins Pandora as the top two music apps in the iOS App Store by revenue, beating out Apple's Beats Music, which slips into the third spot. To boost its position, Apple reportedly is planning to overhaul the Beats Music service early next year with a fresh new look integrating into iTunes branding and reduced pricing that may cut the cost of the service in half to as little as $5 per month.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, December 04

Forget ‘Bendgate’ – does the iPhone 6 have a major problem with scratched screens?

Just when the hoopla around bent iPhone 6 Plus models was starting to die down, AppleInsider brings us word that some iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users are finding that their phones' screens scratch much more easily than earlier iPhones.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, November 25

Android Slips as Apple Gains Enterprise Market Share in Q3 2014 [iOS Blog]

Reversing a trend of quarterly declines, Apple's iOS mobile operating system gained market share this past quarter as it continued to dominate in the enterprise market. Apple's expansion came at Android's expense, which lost ground, according to Good Technology's latest Mobility Index Report (via VentureBeat ).





In Q3 2014, iOS device activations in the enterprise sector grew two percentage points, expanding from 67 to 69 percent. Android, concomitantly, slipped 2 percent, accounting for 29 percent of net device activations. Windows Phone remained a very distant third with only 1 percent of activations, a figure that has remained flat for the past six quarters.





Much of Apple's quarterly gain can be attributed to the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which caused a surge in iOS device activations in September.

Good Technology says “The release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus accounted for all of this gain.” More specifically, iOS was down to 66 percent of activations in July and August, but comprised 73 percent of September activations thanks to sales of the new devices.

In the tablet enterprise market, Apple also remained the dominant tablet manufacturer with its iPad models, but faced an increasing challenge from Android tablets. In the just-ended quarter, Android increased its market share, climbing slightly to grab 11 percent of tablet device activations as compared to the iPad's 89 percent share.



Apple increasingly has been focused on the mobile enterprise market, updating its enterprise-level mobile device management tools earlier this year and recently partnering with IBM to develop new business apps and services for Apple's iOS devices. As part of the Apple-IBM collaboration, IBM will provide iOS-optimized cloud services, develop industry-specific apps, and begin selling iOS devices to its corporate clients.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, November 10

Here’s how much HBO may charge for its streaming-only service

HBO wants to compete with Netflix in a lot of ways, but one of those ways probably won't be pricing. The Information's sources claim that HBO will charge at least $15 per month for its standalone streaming service, which will match what subscribers pay per month to get HBO as part of their cable bundles.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, October 17

Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 Build 13F14 to Developers [Mac Blog]

Apple today seeded Mavericks 10.9.5 build 13F14 to developers, just over a week after seeding the second OS X 10.9.5 beta, build 13F12, and more than a month after releasing OS X 10.9.4 to the public.



The beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Mac Developer Center.





It is unclear what improvements the 10.9.5 update will bring to Mavericks, but it is likely to include bug fixes and stability enhancements. Apple is asking developers to focus on USB, USB Smart Cards, Graphics, Safari, and Thunderbolt.



Along with working on improvements to Mavericks, Apple is also beta testing OS X Yosemite, which is due to be released in the fall. The last Mavericks update, 10.9.4, added several Wi-Fi fixes and improved wake from sleep reliability.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, August 13

App Store Listings Gain Family Sharing Info Ahead of iOS 8 Launch

Apps in the iOS and Mac App Stores have begun displaying details on Family Sharing, letting users know whether or not the feature is enabled for specific apps ahead of the launch of iOS 8 and Yosemite.



A new Family Sharing listing has appeared in the Information section for each app, as noted by German site iFun.de [Google Translate]. For developers that have turned on Family Sharing, the section displays a "Yes" under the Family Sharing heading, while apps from developers that have opted not to allow Family Sharing or have yet to turn the setting on display "Not Available."



Certain apps, like Sketchbook Mobile display a "Yes" for purchases after a set date, indicating that developers have the option to only allow Family Sharing for new purchases.





First announced during June's Worldwide Developers Conference, Family Sharing for iOS 8 and Yosemite lets families of up to six people share content like apps, iBooks, music, movies, and more, across all of their iOS devices, provided their iTunes accounts use the same credit card. Family Sharing also lets families share photos, videos, a calendar, reminders, and more, to keep everyone in the family connected.



Though Family Sharing is not yet fully functional, Apple has made steps towards implementing the service throughout the iOS 8 and Yosemite beta testing period. Shortly after WWDC, Apple began asking developers to enable the feature in their apps. Family Sharing works on a per-app opt-in basis, with Apple letting developers decide whether the feature is available for sharing.



Early iOS 8 betas saw the addition of Family Sharing in the iCloud section of the settings app, and iOS 8 beta 2 and an Apple TV beta laid significant groundwork for Family Sharing, adding a new section for "Family Purchases" to the iOS App Store's purchased tab and a new iCloud Family setting for the Apple TV.



Family Sharing is expected to be implemented and fully functional ahead of the public release of iOS 8, which will be available in September after the upcoming iPhone event.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, August 08

Ford Transitioning From BlackBerries to iPhones for Employees

Ford Motor Company is planning to transition its corporate employees from BlackBerry to Apple, providing approximately 3,300 workers with iPhones by the end of the year, reports Bloomberg . According to Ford spokesperson Sara Tatchio, Ford is also aiming to get iPhones into the hands of an additional 6,000 corporate employees over the course of the next two years as they transition from flip phones.



To oversee the switch to iOS devices, Ford will hire a mobile technology analyst, with one facet of the job involving the "global deployment of corporate iPhones." In her statement to Bloomberg, Tatchio highlighted the iPhone's ability to meet both the personal and secure business needs of Ford's employees as a reason for the switch.

"We are going to get everyone on iPhones," Tatchio said. "It meets the overall needs of the employees because it is able to serve both our business needs in a secure way and the needs we have in our personal lives with a single device."



Having all employees on the same smartphone will improve security and simplify information technology management, Tatchio said. Ford is making "no extra investment" to convert to iPhones, other than the cost of replacing the devices, she said.

While the iPhone and the iPad are already used by more than 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies, Apple is aiming to make significant strides in the enterprise market in the coming months to bolster its penetration numbers, and Ford is likely to be just one of many companies transitioning to Apple devices in the near future.



The Cupertino company has recently formed a partnership with IBM to "transform enterprise mobility" through a series of new business apps and services for iOS devices, and the deal will also see IBM selling Apple devices to its corporate customers, which is bad news for BlackBerry.



During Apple's most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook suggested the company was aiming to get iPhones, iPads, and Macs into the hands of more people, with enterprise marking a "huge opportunity" for growth.

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Posted in 2014 at 05:55PM, July 29