The App Store is Like Playing the Lottery !!!

When you hear stories about independent App Store developers becoming extremely successful, you might think that the App Store is a viable business and something that can easily provide you with extra income. But, according to a recent survey by marketing firm App Promo, it is actually quite difficult to release apps that become successful.

The survey shows that “59 percent of apps don’t break even, and 80 percent of developers can’t sustain a business on their apps alone.” The fact that there is over 600,000 apps available on the App Store could be a contributing reason for the difficulties that developers face, since there is limited visibility for the apps that they release. That is, of course, unless they are dedicated to an  extensive — and expensive — marketing pitch.

“Over the years I have seen visibility of applications I’ve worked on greatly reduced,” developer Pat McCarron told Ars. “Right now your app is likely not going to be found if you never break the Top 100 or Top 200 lists. Users won’t navigate forever down the list of top apps to find yours sitting lonely at the bottom.”

Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis agreed that the App Store has become more of a lottery, and less a chance for small developers to succeed along with well-established companies.

“The App Store is very much like the lottery, and very few companies are topping the charts,” Kafasis told Ars. “It’s a hit-based business. Much like music or book sales, there are a few huge winners, a bigger handful of minor successes, and a whole lot of failures.”

To release an app to the App Store, you must be an official registered developer with Apple, a program that costs $100 to enroll in. Have you ever released, or considered developing, an App Store app?

Spotify Finally Comes to the iPad !!!

The widely popular music streaming service Spotify has finally brought their service to the iPad with a native app and the full Retina display experience. Instead of a separate “HD” app like some services release, Spotify has updated their iPhone app to become universal, now including access to 18 million songs in a beautiful way on your iPad.

The Spotify iPad app is here!

Listen to the world’s music collection on your iPad. Enjoy millions of songs in an instant. Love, discover and share music like never before with the Spotify iPad app.

• Simple to browse and explore the Spotify catalogue
• Retina graphics for iPad and high-definition album art
• Search for playlists, users and music – all from the same view
• Discover what’s hot, and find trending playlists & songs among your friends
• Inbox grouped by user for easy searching
• Perfect as your living room stereo – full-screen view and AirPlay integration This iPad app reminds me a lot of Twitter’s with its swipe gesture-heavy interface that involves lots of swiping left to right in order to get from one screen to another. That’s not a bad thing, but I would have hoped to see something a bit more original — maybe a really well-designed app like Rdio for iOS.

Spotify itself is pretty reliable, though they do require that you have a Facebook account to use the service which is kind of annoying. Other than that, there’s a big war between them and Rdio. If you want music, then go with Spotify because they have a far better collection. If you want a better design and far better apps, then I’d personally recommend Rdio any day. But hey, it’s probably best to use whatever your friends do since you’re probably looking to discover some music.

If you already own Spotify for iPhone, then just go update it to version 0.5.0, which brings gapless playback and cross fading to this version, along with two bug fixes. If you don’t own it, then consider trying out Spotify on your iPad. There is a 48-hour trial of the $9.99 per month Premium service, so go discover some music and tell us what you think!

Additional fixes and improvements:
• New: Gapless playback and cross fading.
• Fixed: Offline synced playlists can no longer be removed by the system.
• Fixed: Crashes related to updating playlists or starring tracks.

The ‘End of Android is Approaching’ Thanks to Apple !!!

The end of Android could be approaching, suggests Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt. As noted by Forbes, McCourt estimates that Apple held a 59% grip on the smartphone market in the first quarter of 2012, compared to just 39% in the year-ago quarter. The iPhone continues to be a dominant force in the United States, with 4.3 million handsets activated on AT&T in the first quarter in addition to 3.2 million units on Verizon and 1.5 million units on Sprint in the same time period.

With the launch of the so-called “iPhone 5″ on the horizon, the momentum that Apple is experiencing is going to continue. McCourt believes that Google’s share of the smartphone market might have peaked, which means that it is likely to now continue declining. In his research note, McCourt says that Apple has “won the game,” at least in the American market, with the iPhone. Read on for his full opinion.

So, here’s a thought. Could it be the case that Google’s share of the smartphone market has peaked? That the phone-buying public simply is more inclined to choose Apple’s vertically integrated approach over the cacophony of the Android market?

Could it, in fact, be the case that, while Google and Microsoft can innovate and find niche markets for their mobile OS offerings, that Apple has basically won the game, at least for the U.S. market? There’s no question that Android-based devices are crushing the likes of Nokia and Research in Motion at the low-end of the market, rapidly killing off the feature phone market. But at the top of the heap, Apple is crushing it. And iPhone 5 is just months away.

Do you think that what McCourt is saying is true? Could the so-called “end of Android” really be approaching because of the iPhone’s dominance in the United States?

Just How Green is the iPad? This Awesome Infographic Shows You !!!

If you are curious about how environmentally friendly the iPad is, the extremely long infographic just ahead will answer all of your questions. The infographic also provides information about the impact that iTunes and iCloud have on the environment, Apple’s working conditions at its overseas supply chains, recycling options for the iPad, and more. Check it out just ahead.

OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3 Seeded to Developers !!!

Apple this afternoon seeded a new developer preview of their upcoming OS X Mountain Lion release to developers. This new build is at version 12A178q (previously 12A154q) and there aren’t any major changes that anyone has noticed just yet. However, Apple has included a large list of known issues in this build, which may include most, but not all, of what you can experience after installing it.

OS X Mountain Lion is scheduled for release sometime this summer, according to Apple. Mac refreshes have been rumored to come with it, but there’s no official word on that just yet. In fact, some have claimed that Apple will release a new MacBook Air later this month.

To acquire OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3, you must be a registered Apple developer. If you are, then head to the Apple Developer Member Center and grab this new build while it’s still hot. Let us know if you find any major — or even minor — changes!

For now, here’s the list of known issues that you should keep in mind when testing things out:

– On systems with FileVault enabled, canceling the restart to the Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3 Installer may leave your system unable to present a password dialog at boot time. You can repair the problem by holding down command-R to boot to the Recovery OS and then using Disk Utility to unlock and Repair your volume.
– Installing OS X 10.8 over 10.7.2 or earlier with FileVault turned on may fail
– Pre-Lion FileVault user accounts are not supported in this Developer Preview
– Some Apple menu items such as Restart may not work when a sandboxed app is in the foreground
– iTunes no longer syncs Notes
– Mail’s photo browser cannot access the iPhoto library
– Back to My Mac doesn’t work for the first 5 minutes after rebooting
– DVD Player may not launch after inserting a DVD on some systems
– Most help topics are unavailable in this Developer Preview
– In the Recovery HD:
– Some icons may be missing
– Network Utility’s Lookup pane does not work
– Time Machine restoration via a AFP share does not work
– Restoring from a Time Machine backup via AFP does not work
– Migration from a Time Machine backup that excludes paths such as /System may yield an unusable system
– Brightness settings may change unexpectedly after reboot
– Display brightness may be dim after sleep or reboot
– If Mail is hidden at logout time, it may not be correctly relaunched during a subsequent login but will appear to be running
– Java applets may not work in Safari
– QuickTime screen recordings may produce corrupted videos or cause an exception when run on machines with NVDIA graphics

 

Apple 3D !!!

• Multi-view stereo and 3D reconstruction
• Inpainting of occluded geometry and texture data
• SLAM
• Mesh texturing techniques
• Large scale bundle adjustment
• Cameras and surfaces in a 3D environment

Apple is looking for a Computer Vision specialist to strengthen its multi-view stereo research group. As a member of this team you should have a genuine interest in technology and be a skilled developer with knowledge and experience in Computer Vision, Image Analysis and 3D geometry. To qualify for this position you should have a Ph.D. degree in a Computer Vision related field such as Mathematics, Physics or Computer Science. You should be a confident and experienced C programmer
.

 

Apple Store Geniuses Advised to Replace Certain White iPhone 4 Models with 4S !!!

In a peculiar move, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is instructing Genius Bars at their retail stores to replace white iPhone 4 16 GB models that have issues with refurbished iPhone 4S models — provided the store doesn’t have any of the actual iPhone 4s in stock. This means that if you’re iPhone has an issue and the genius concludes it needs to be replaced, you’ll get a free upgrade to the iPhone 4S, which was recently released in October of 2011.

 

Apple is apparently telling their Genius Bars to do this unusual exchange because of supply constraints on the white iPhone 4 16 GB. Either that particular model is extremely popular, or Apple is having some sort of difficulty producing the exact model. In any case, now may be the time to bring in your phone if it’s been having any major issue and you’ve been procrastinating about it. Do understand that your local store may not be out of stock, so you’d be taking a chance.

 

Electric Chapel on Instagram !!!

USER NAME : ElectricChapelBlog

Follow us on Instagram !!!

Apple iPad with 7.85 inch ?!?

First look at the assembly process of an iPad at Foxconn factory !!!

Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz is the second reporter ever to get an inside look at Foxconn, the manufacturing plant where Apple’s products are made. Today, Schmitz posted a video showing our first-ever look at the assembly process of an iPad as it goes down the assembly line at the Foxconn plant in Shanghai, China. It is interesting to look at how machines streamline some of the process. Schmitz also noted a few other interesting points, such as workers switching positions every few days while making $14 a day when first starting.