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Apple's iOS 10 Goes to Eleven

Apple on Monday kicked off its Worldwide Developers Conference with the biggest-ever release of its iOS mobile operating system.

CEO Tim Cook called iOS 10, coming this fall, "gigantic" and "the mother of all releases."

Among the new offerings in the upcoming version of iOS are more features in Messaging, all new designs for News, Music and Photos, and increased opportunities for developers to integrate their apps with Siri, Maps and Messages.

"Long term, the most interesting thing is the fact that Apple opened up Siri and Messaging and Maps to developers to add to those services," said conference attendee Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research.

"It reflects the way the world is moving. It's moving away from standalone apps and into integration with services," he told TechNewsWorld. "Apple is acknowledging that by opening these things up for other developers to provide add-on functionality for these services."

Apple to Boost App Store Money-Making Opportunities

Apple is planning a major overhaul of its App Store, including the introduction of a new subscription model for developers and the implementation of a paid search ad program, SVP Phil Schiller indicated in interviews with The Verge andThe Telegraph ahead of the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco next week.

The move may help to offset flagging iPhone sales.

To encourage developers to sell their apps on a subscription basis, Apple plans to change the current 70/30 revenue-sharing structure. If a customer keeps a subscription for more than a year, the company will reduce its current 30 percent take to 15 percent, increasing the developer's share.

In addition, Apple will operate a paid search program much like Google AdWords' auction model. Apple will feature an ad inside a blue box that is based on the type of search terms the user enters. Advertising fees will be charged on a per-click basis.

Apple announces app development accelerator in Bengaluru to start Tim Cook's India visit

As part of Apple CEO Time Cook's first visit to India, the company has announced that it will open a new iOS app design and development accelerator in India's Silicon Valley Bengaluru by early 2017. 

The new centre is a major step towards Apple's attempt to expands its share in the world's fastest-growing smartphone market. The new centre will attract and encourage the country's developers to make apps for iOS.  

“India is home to one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS development communities in the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With the opening of this new facility in Bengaluru, we’re giving developers access to tools which will help them create innovative apps for customers around the world.”

The centre will provide support to Indian developers in the form of weekly briefings by Apple experts and one-on-one app reviews. It will also offer guidance on Swift, Apple's programming language for developing apps for iOS, Apple TV, Mac OS and Apple Watch. Earlier this year Apple had announced an iOS app development centre in Naples, Italy.

During his maiden visit, Cook is also expected to focus on increasing Apple's revenues from India, after the company posted its first-ever decline in global iPhone sales in the last quarter. With slowing demand in the West and even China, India had acquired greater importance for the technology giant. While Apple has recorded brisk iPhone sales in the last year,  it still has only a 2% share in the country's price-sensitive smartphone market.

Facebook launched Development Kit for Apple TV – Salinas Tech Zone

Facebook Inc. has just announced support for Apple Inc.’s tvOS and the new software development kit (SDK) is the perfect tool for developers to create better social experiences on tvOS. The new SDK offers features like login support, share to Facebook, and Facebook Analytics for Apps. The new SDK from Facebook is one of the first efforts from a tech company to develop for tvOS.

The new SDK works similar to the login feature found in the Facebook app for iOS

Users won’t need to create multiple accounts to log into their devices. Facebook understands that typing on the TV remote would be a hassle, and thus has adopted a different authentication method to log in, such as a confirmation code. Social media giant says that it has developed an app that will deliver a more personalized user experience. It says users will have the option to get recommendations for movies and music based on their social experiences.

The new SDK is capable to log into third party apps like Spotify and Pandora, which makes the authentication process a breeze. However, apps like HBO Go, which require all the credentials via the remote, will use the same authentication method as Facebook to log in. The new SDK allows developers to have real time feedback on their apps through Facebook analytics, which can further help improve user experience. Developers also have the ability to share their posts via the tvOS app so that they can improve user experience while sharing posts.

Reviews for Apple’s fourth-generation Apple TV were generally positive, but many pointed out an apparent shortcoming in the way tvOS handles app logins. Also noted in AppleInsider’s review, tvOS does not support universal authentication, meaning users have to enter account credentials into non-Apple apps like Netflix, Hulu, HBO and more.

Apple’s Safari Technology Preview is a stable test platform for users and devs

Over the last two or three years, Apple has put an increasingly large amount of its software development out in the open. Early betas of OS X and iOS updates, once locked behind a developer paywall and a bunch of nondisclosure agreements, are now released for the public to download and try out. Swift, Apple's new programming language, is now open source. And today, the company is releasing the first of many Safari Technology Preview builds, a new development snapshot of the browser designed to show off more features while offering more reliability and stability than the nightly WebKit browser builds.