Apple App Store turns 10 with 500 mn weekly visitors in 155 countries

Subscriptions are up 95 per cent from 2017, and as of June 2018, developers have earned over $100 billion from the App Store

Customers in 155 countries are visiting Apple App Store more often, staying longer and downloading and using more apps than ever before, the Cupertino-based iPhone giant has said.

App Store, that will turn 10 on July 10, now sees 500 million weekly visitors and hundreds of stories on the "Today" tab that have been read by more than 1 million people.

"When Apple introduced the App Store on July 10, 2008, with 500 apps, it ignited a cultural, social and economic phenomenon that changed how people work, play, meet, travel and so much more," Apple said in a statement on Friday.

With the introduction of in-app purchase (IAP) in 2009, customers could download an app and then pay to unlock different levels and functionality.

By June 2010, $1 billion were paid out to developers from IAP and paid apps.

Subscriptions are up 95 per cent from 2017, and as of June 2018, developers have earned over $100 billion from the App Store, the company informed.

"In its first decade, the App Store has surpassed all of our wildest expectations. We could not be more proud of what developers have created and what the next 10 years have in store," said Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Apple.

According to Marco Arment, a long-time iOS developer, App Store has been by far the easiest way for developers to reach the most people with his apps.

"It eliminated the friction and overhead of setting up our own distribution and payment systems, making development far more accessible to everyone and letting us focus on our true passion: making the best apps we can," he said.

Later, start-ups including Instagram, Calm, Uber and Instacart embraced features like the iPhone camera, Apple Pay, GPS and Location Services to deliver on-demand and personalised experiences -- with many creating billion-dollar businesses that started with apps in the App Store.

"At the same time, both traditional companies and those that started as websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Yelp, Airbnb and Amazon, began building apps to meet changing customer behaviour," Apple said.

The App Store brought gaming mainstream owing to the Multi-Touch technology on iPhone and iPad and the convenience of playing on the go.

Article Source : BS

Vodafone offers free Netflix for a year: Here is how to avail of the scheme

Here is how you can claim the free Netflix gift if you are a Vodafone RED subscriber

Company News : Now, Vodafone customers can avail up to one year of free Netflix subscription. Exciting, right? Tapping on the popularity of Netflix in India, the telecom service provider, over the weekend, announced an all-new Netflix subscription benefit for its RED postpaid customers in India. However, the plan is not for everyone. The company has also added the condition that postpaid subscribers on Vodafone RED plans of Rs 1,299 or higher value are eligible to get a free up to one-year Netflix subscription as a free gift, according to NDTV.

Here is how you can avail free Netflix subscription with Vodafone RED plans

— If you are a Vodafone RED subscriber, you can claim the Netflix gift by visiting the official website - https://shop.vodafone.in/shop/po....

— Vodafone customers can also SMS ‘Netflix’ to 199 to activate the eligible plan.

Vodafone Red customers who can avail this Netflix free subscription are: Vodafone's Rs 1,299 RED postpaid plan, Rs 1,699 RED postpaid plan, RED 1,999 Unlimited and RED 2,999 Unlimited plan.

Vodafone Red

Vodafone RED is the company’s special postpaid plan under which it offers users a combination of low call rates, SMS, and data. The RED plans start at Rs 499 and go up to Rs 2,999.

Vodafone keeps refreshing its new offers to woo customers to opt for the RED postpaid plan. Last month, the company announced 'Vodafone RED Shield' initiative for its RED postpaid customers where it provided insurance cover of up to Rs 50,000 on newly purchased smartphones as well as those that were purchased till six months back. The insurance cover covered various scenarios such as theft cover, claimed by the company to be the only service that offered it, apart from basic handset damage cover.

Cannes gets an added dose of drama as Netflix makes its festival debut

Opening the 2017 Festival is French director Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts

The red carpet has been rolled out and the stars are taking their photo calls as the aristocracy of the film industry gathers at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes for the 70th annual film festival. From Afghanistan to Zambia, film makers, buyers, screenwriters, distributors, critics, academics and cineastes bunker down together for 12 days of communal cinematic consumption in dark rooms interspersed with heady business and critical discussion in the glare of the Mediterranean sunlight.

Opening the 2017 Festival is French director Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts, which is screening out of competition and kicks off a line up that includes 49 films from 29 countries, 12 of them by female directors.

Also Read : Deepika shines bright like a diamond at Day 2 of Cannes

The festival groups its selection (invited from more than 1,000 submitted films) into a number of strands: “the Competition”; “Un Certain Regard”; “Director’s Fortnight” and “Critic’s Week” all of which have their own programme of films. Complementing these strands are special events such as “Midnight Screenings”, “Cannes at 70” screenings, “Cannes Classics” and “Out of Competition” screenings – including, this year, a new thriller from Roman Polanski.

Thierry Frémaux, the Festival’s artistic director, is in charge of selection – and this year his choice is characterised by a lower number of Hollywood films than usual. He has also gone for a more pronounced political tone in the films, on themes such as migration, sex trafficking and the refugee crisis. Another feature of this year’s selection is the screening of films financed by media streaming platforms, including Netflix and Amazon, and the inclusion of “cinematic” television dramas. Read more

Xiaomi Mi 5: A flagship at half the price

When I first heard the price of the Xiaomi Mi 5, I was intrigued. A China-based handset maker, known for offering decent hardware at extremely low prices, moving into the mid-range segment? What were they smoking?

Don't get me wrong. I've owned a Mi 3 and my regular phone is a Redmi 2, but this defied logic. I got the answer a few days later when I got my hands on a review sample of the Mi 5.

The white handset with its chamfered edges and glass back has a premium look, though I daresay, is slippery to hold. Blame it on the very thin edges and the non-existent bezel on the sides of the 5.15-inch screen, which seems to seamlessly merge into the back. In a first, the Mi 5 sports a physical home button below the screen, which does double duty as a fingerprint scanner.

Setting up is fairly simple, especially the fingerprint scanner. Since I already had a Mi account, I could restore the apps from my Redmi 2. The Mi 5 runs Miui 7, which is based on Android Marshmallow, though some unique features of the stock OS seem to be absent. Suffice to say anyone who's used Miui earlier will feel right at home.

Since the phone sports the latest Snapdragon 820 processor paired with 3GB of RAM, I downloaded Riptide GP 2 and Asphalt 8: Airborne. Thankfully, after a five-hour stint of the above two games, along with NFS: Most Wanted, the phone was pretty warm but not scalding hot. But since the speakers are on the bottom edge, I ended up muffling the sound most of my playing time. The battery, too, took a hit

Next, after charging the phone fully in around 90 minutes (when the phone warmed up again), I stepped out. Since it supports Sunlight Display like the Mi4i, I didn't need to squint to read emails. This phone supports voice over LTE (or VoLTE), the next big thing for users.

I then fired up the Chrome browser, opened some six-seven tabs, and played NFS. No sweat at all. Then I watched Master of None on Netflix. The good thing is, the Airtel 4G network stayed true and there was no stuttering or buffering, despite the apps running in the background.

The camera didn't disappoint. I got quite a few shots of trucks rushing by, which otherwise would have been blurred. There are also a lot of options and filters in the camera app. I especially liked the voice trigger and the ability to pick microphones while shooting 4K videos. The four-axis image stabiliser helped immensely. And yes, this is possibly among the best video cameras I've seen on a phone.

But low-light shots were full of noise. I also had some fun with the selfie cam, which tries guessing your age; it was way off the mark while the snaps were okay. Battery life, too, was fairly decent, and I got through a day with heavy email usage calling, messaging a little bit of games and videos and some photography.

At Rs 24,999, the Xiaomi Mi 5 has a lot going as a flagship; the only things missing are expandable storage; water-proofing and a quad HD screen, available on phones double its price. But it will face stiff competition from the Lenovo Vibe X3, OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2, which might have older hardware, but are very good phones nonetheless.

Netflix blocks India access to global content

When Netflix announced its India launch, audiences were delighted thinking that they would get access to its mammoth library of global content. The US-based company priced its services in line with global strategy at $7.99, or the equivalent in Indian rupee. The services in India are available under tiered pricing - Rs 500, Rs 650 and Rs 800 a month.

Most Indian users were disappointed when the online video services provider restricted their access to a very small portion of its library. The company says copyright issues prevent it from giving Indian consumers access to international content. The users, however, figured an easy way out. They continued to access Netflix's US content through virtual private network (VPN), which allowed them to imitate the internet protocol (IP) address of users based in the US. This effectively meant dodging the Netflix firewall without much effort.

However, the company has now started blocking the VPNs and Indian users are being redirected to the Indian site. "Using VPNs or proxies to virtually cross borders violates Netflix's terms of use because of licensing restrictions on TV shows and movies," Netflix said in an emailed response.

But it seems VPNs have figured out a way to beat the new Netflix blocker as well. "NordVPN did have a number of servers blocked, but (it) has found a number of workaround options that are working thus far... Users can connect directly to Netflix server or they can connect to a few dedicated Netflix servers manually. We are also preparing backup workaround options in case Netflix decides to intensify their VPN crackdown. We have received a number of inquiries from other VPN providers checking to see if our service was still working. It is sad to see that some users are being forced to choose between online security and streaming," said Marty P Kamden, CMO, NordVPN, a Panama-based company, in an emailed response.

Netflix, however, said it would keep finding ways to block the international content despite the price differential on content versus costs. "Netflix uses a variety of technologies to properly geo-locate members and to avoid attempts to circumvent proper geo-location," stated the company.

This, experts believe, will hit Netflix more than it expects. Users, who were ready to pay for content, will find ways to illegally access it via torrents or unsafe streaming websites, impacting the company's India revenue stream.

Even Netflix accepts that blocking the users would lead to problems, at least in the near future. "People will always try and find ways to get the content they want no matter (what) the technological barriers (are)," it said.