Category: Apple iPad

Apple has posted an update to developers of iOS that requires them to use the iOS 11 SDK and to support the display of the iPhone X.  The policy change goes into effect in July and any apps submitted or app updates submitted must comply with the new policy or they will be rejected.

The requirement for using the iOS 11 SDK is not a surprise.  It has been available since September of last year and Apple likes to make sure that apps, just like iPhones and iPads, are up-to-date.  Part of that SDK is supporting the Super Retina Display of the iPhone X, including its notch.  That is now required too.

Apple is upping its game with Apple News according to a report in Digiday.  According to the report, Apple is signing deals with content providers to provide exclusive content to users of the app on their iPhones and iPads.  That content could prove to be only available for Apple News or, as with BuzzFeed News last month, will be exclusive and first on Apple’s service temporarily.

Last month, BuzzFeed News released a three-part series Future History: 1968 with the company confirming that Apple paid to have the exclusive rights to have first views of that series on their news app.

The short of it is, Apple Podcasts are doing well.  The service, which launched way back in 2005 as a part of iTunes, has slowly been building both content and users of the now independent app for iPhone and iOS.  Now, according to a report from Fast Company, the Cupertino company has now seen some 50 billion all time downloads on the service.

In all, there are some 18.5 million podcast episodes available for download in Apple Podcasts with over 100 languages supported in those episodes.  It is a staggering number on the whole and is a proof point that Apple has positioned itself well as being the go-to place to find a podcast on virtually any subject out there.

On the Apple Developer site, the Cupertino company has released the latest update of iOS distribution figures and it is pretty astounding.  For the report which is dated April 22, 2018, 76% of all iPhones and iPads coming to the App Store were running a variant of iOS 11, the latest version of the mobile platform.  A further 19% were running iOS 10, meaning that stunning 95% of all devices are running the last two major updates to the platform.

The numbers stand in stark comparison to Android Oreo, the latest version of Android from Google.  There, you will find just 4.6% of Android devices coming to the Google Play Store.  In fact, if you add up Oreo and Nougat, the version prior, you only get to 35.4%.  While it is easy to point the finger at Google, the reality is that the blame for the lack of updates to the majority of devices in the Android ecosystem lies with manufactures, a problem Apple clearly doesn’t have with iPhones and iPads.