While I was out in San Francisco for WWDC 2013, I had the pleasure of joining Leo Laporte, Russ Pitts, Trey Ratcliff, and Dieter Bohn to talk Google Loons, E3, and Apple.
Between the iOS App Store, BlackBerry World, Google Play, and Windows Phone Store, there are more than 1.7 million apps available for smartphone and tablet users to choose from. The explosion in apps has been fueled by an explosion in users, who to date have downloaded well over 100 billion apps.
With so many apps to choose from, taking the virtual step into an app store presents a bewildering selection. Does it really matter how many apps a platform has in its store, or should we be worrying about which apps there are and how good they are?
How are we supposed to sort the good apps from the bad? Are reviews the answer, or can a managed store make a difference? Search might dig up something - if you know what you're looking for. Big name developers might offer some predictability, yet independent developers are often where you can find the innovation. Then again, big and small developers alike aren't immune from pumping out poor quality material.
So how do we sort through that to find the good apps, the best apps, the apps that really work for what you need?
Slim, chic and durable, the Faxion case is an interfusion of soft and hard materials crafted into one form factor. Combining shock absorbing NGP material with a rigid Plextonium exterior, the Faxion’s form-fitting design offers superior protection for your iPhone 5. The gloss finish on the Faxion case gives a cutting-edge vibe to the design.
Sprint has announced a major expansion of its LTE rollout, adding coverage to 22 more cities today, bringing the number of markets with access to Sprints high-speed network up to 110. The new cities include Tampa, Florida, New Orleans, and Miami.
Skype has added the ability for iPhone, iPad, and Mac owners to record small video snippets and send them directly to contacts. Recording can be initiated from the little plus button, and if you mess up, you can easily re-shoot before sending Anyone receiving a video message can reply with their own video with the tap of a button.
The Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson has been with us for some time, but the publishers have now announced that it will be appearing in paperback form. Finally. To accompany the release of the book as a paperback, there will be a new cover photograph of a much younger Steve Jobs, along with a new afterword.
The iOS version of the highly rated XCOM: Enemy Unknown is set to hit the App Store this week on June 20. The turn-based, tactical RPG, alien-blasting extravaganza won't be coming cheap though; it's set to cost a whopping $19.99/£13.99. But, there won't be any in-app purchases, and it'll be an almost identical port of the console and Mac version of the game.
Facebook is throwing some kind of press event on June 20, and the latest rumors surfacing suggest that Instagram may be the focus. More specifically, that Instagram getting video capabilities could be the focus. Sources close to the subject have reportedly told TechCrunch just that:
