Articles tagged Store.

Demo or trial software is a great way for users to try out the software before buying it. It may not be a big deal for software that costs less than $5, but it is for software that costs more. Shareware software has been doing this for more than a decade. Trial software would also greatly clean up Apple’s Mac and iOS App Store that has multiple versions of the same software.

Apple could clean up the Mac and iOS App Stores by offering users a trial version of each software application. It could be built into the App Store and could have a 5 or 15 day trial period, much like renting movies on iTunes. Users would also benefit from such a feature by letting them try out the software before they buy it. Developers would not have to build multiple versions to convince users to purchase their software. Will Apple add trial software to the App Stores?

Amazon’s MP3 Music Store has been around since January 2008. It was the first store to go DRM free across all music, as Apple made the move a year later. It has provided an alternative to Apple’s iTunes for purchasing music online.

Apple still provides the easiest and fastest way to purchase music. Their one click to download and be done process is as easy as it can get. For Apple users, does Amazon provide a good alternative to the iTunes music purchasing experience?

Apple changed the way users purchased Mac applications when they created the Mac App Store at the beginning of the year. Even though it still does not have all the biggest software titles for the Mac, it still is the first place to look for new applications. Can anyone else compete with it?

Amazon is set to find out by creating their own app store for the Mac called Mac Software Downloads. Is there enough room for two stores and can they compete? Lets take a look at the Amazon store experience and see how it compares with the Mac App Store.

Based on BGR's claims, it appears Apple will actually be revealing pre-announcement information to a select group of Apple retail staff 12 – 24 hours ahead of a major announcement. This would be a first for Apple, and a bold move from the Cupertino machine. But this may be an Apple litmus test, and if successful may lay the groundwork for how future product launches roll out.

It appears Apple corporate does not trust their retail employees (smart move), in that BRG's source claims the 10-15 employees that will be pulling an all-night-er in the stores, must not only sign an NDA, but also lock their cell phones in the managerial office.

Circa 1996, Boyz II Men, Happy Gilmore and Doc Martin's were the pop culture of the day. Nordstrom, The Gap and Eddie Bauer were mall favorites and techies were in short supply when it came to the Macy's crowd. But the character and purpose of "Let's go to the mall" was on the precipice of massive change.

Fast forward to May, 2001. Gateway's retail venture had peaked and Sony's radical Matreon in the heart of San Francisco was proving to be a colossal failure. Tech and trend-cool retail just could not co-exist. There was one more small-ish event took place on May 15, 2001. Steve Jobs rounded up some media folk, and introduced them to the first-ever Apple retail store in Tysons Corner mall in Virginia. The mall as we knew it was forever changed.

The Macintosh operating system comes with it's own screen capture tool called Grab. It's flaws will be very visible if used for any length of time. One of those flaws is the fact is it only saves images in a TIFF file format. Since TIFFs are big and rarely used, every screen grab requires at least a two step process. One step is to capture your screen and the second is to convert the file in another format like JPEG. There is a better way.

LittleSnapper by Realmac software is a must for any screen grabbing user with many advanced features. It makes Apple's Grab look like a high school project. Lets take look at some of the key features of Little Snapper now:

 While Google should be happy with Android's success so far, they are showing signs to the contrary. Since Google gives Android away for free, they can only make money on selling ads on the Android platform. They don't talk about how much they make from these ads either.

Even though Android is increasing in market share, that does not mean Google is making money on all that market share. Since Android is open source and device makers can remove Google from the devices, this could be a danger for Android's future development if Google can't make enough money.

The Mac App Store is leveling the playing field for developers. It does not matter if you are big or small, anyone can get on the front page of the Mac Store. No longer do developers need to pay big money for distribution partners and sales agents. While the Mac App Store continues to grow, so will those who have their applications in its store.

Applications now will compete on price, quality and feature set instead of back room deals and marketing agreements. Developers will still need to get the word out about their applications, but this will vary depending on how big the developer is.

Apple's app store is pulling away from the rest of the app stores as the place to introduce new applications to the world. Only if the application is successful, will it be ported to another platforms. The App Store not only makes it easy for users to find the best apps, it also gives developers a unified platform to build and sell their apps.

While Android begins to dominate the smart-phone market-share, it has no clear app store. Google Android Market is the official app store for Android, but there are as many app stores for Android as there are phones running it. Most device manufacturers have opened up stores for their own devices to increase their revenue. Amazon has created their own App Store for Android to compete with Google. With all these app stores, which one do you choose?

Apple's upcoming Mac App Store will open for business the first week of January 2010. This new Mac OS X feature was announced by Steve Jobs on October 20th and was said to be released within 90 days. Apple is keeping its promise.

"The Mac OS X App Store will be a huge boon for smaller developers," says Steve Barham — CEO of Urban Anomaly. "The Mac OS X App Store makes it so we can now port our applications to the Mac and not have to worry about costly, physical distribution. We can continue to focus on making great apps," added Barham.