Tag: Changes »

Being at 148Apps these past 2 years has been an awesome experience that has taught me a great deal, and working with such a great team has been a privilege. Thank you to Rob Rich, and to both Rob LeFebvre and Jeff Scott before him, for helping me to grow as a writer and for giving me the opportunity to write about what I love: playing innovative mobile games and utilising the most revolutionary apps on the most quickly evolving gaming platform that is iOS.

Yes, there are a sea of copycats and awful Tap Tap clones that no one should ever bother with, but every so often iOS games and apps do the unbelievable - and that's what keeps me wading through that sea in search of a genuine pearl. Since it’s so often the independent developers that establish themselves as the David against the free-to-play Goliaths of the world, I'm proud to have worked for a site that puts indie games right up there with the big releases.

I'll be working over at App Trigger from this point on, so feel free to stop by anytime or follow me on Twitter (@El_Hamlet_). Whether you do either of those things or neither, it's been my pleasure to write stuff down for you to read with your eyes and for your brain to compute very soon after. I hope you stick with 148Apps until iPhones cease to exist and we have SIM cards in our heads and every game is Augmented Reality-based. Although, I hope that doesn’t happen for a while yet.

Oh, and I admit I might have been wrong about A Dark Room. I hold my hands up there. My bad.

Hugs and kisses,

Lee

Original Image Source: galleryhip

As you might have noticed, 148Apps is looking a little different today. Well that's because we've been kicking the idea of a redesign around for quite some time now, and it was finally time to follow through with it. You also might notice that the new look is a bit more in-line with AppSpy and Pocket Gamer. Which makes sense because we've all been a part of the same network for a while.

Another less immediately obvious but far bigger change is that 148Apps itself is restructuring. Starting in April, we'll begin changing a few things up editorially with new types of reviews, more guides, more opinions for us all to argue about, and all sorts of other exciting stuff. But don't worry, our mission will still be the same as it always was: to be the best darn iOS review site around.

Unfortunately this restructuring also means we'll have to bid farewell some of the amazing folks we've had writing for us over the years. Those who wish to will be saying their goodbyes throughout the week (you know who you are), and we'd greatly appreciate it if you took a moment to see what they have to say and give them a proper sendoff.

It's difficult to handle a whole lot of change all at once, and it's even more difficult when it involves losing those we've worked alongside for so long, but sometimes all we can do is press on. To the people who will be leaving: it was a privelidge working with you and you're far too talented to have to worry about what happens next for very long - if at all.

Image Source: galleryhip

With the release of iOS 8 (finally), Apple has made some noticeable changes on the App Store - bundles, videos, and Testflight integration, to name a few. Many of these additions will make things friendlier for App Store shoppers, but how has it been affecting developers? I asked George Ko (Quantum Sheep), Brandon Pollet (F5 Games), and Nadav B (NAFNA) what they thought of Apple’s changes to the developer submission process, and their answers were rather illuminating.

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Surprise! The Rules Have Changed!

With all the changes to the App Store that had been announced back in June when Apple officially revealed iOS 8, it’s not all that shocking to think that there might be a few more boxes to check off when submitting a new app. However, it seems as though there wasn’t a whole lot of forewarning.

According to Pollet, “I didn’t have any real warning about the submission changes. I’m sure the information was out there but I just happened to log into iTunes Connect last week and the entire interface was different.” Nadav had a similar story, and said, “we have been given access to iOS beta 2 as of June 20, yet, as to submission guidelines, I can find no info.”

“I think that, while Apple transitions from the old system it had, there will be some mistakes and oversights made,” Ko offered, “This is understandable, but it kinda sucks to be uncertain about things when trying to get a game out!”

Many of the changes to the App Store on iOS devices has updated the visual look of the apps, better exposing a wider variety of apps to the user. While the changes taken individually seem small, taken together they represent a possible big change in how we will find apps in the App Store.

Take exposing the top paid, free, and grossing apps at the same time on the landing page of the Top Apps list, for instance. It seems like a small change, but it promotes free apps to the front of the page and lowers the exposure of the top paid apps past the first three. Michael Zaletel of i4software notes, "This gives MUCH MORE prominence to the Top Free Apps and so I predict Free apps and Freemium apps will see a big boost after today."

Top 25 - iOS 5 (left) vs. iOS 6 (right)

Another big change has been the app detail page. That page places much greater emphasis on the first screenshot and reduces the importance of the description. When landing on an app, the user will see a larger icon than before, the rating, and the first screen shot. Scrolling down they will see the truncated description and a few more details. Previously they user would see a small icon, the rating, and the top section of the description.

These changes on the whole place much greater emphasis on the icon and the name of the app. These must be compelling as they are--in most areas of the App Store--the only thing the user will see. Ratings, developer name, and description have all been hidden from initial view in multiple places in the store.

What this will mean to app sales, we'll have to wait to see. While it seems as though the changes are all for the better for the user, developers may need to prioritize their icon, name, and first screenshot much more than in the past.