Category Archives: iOS

iOS 14 – New Features & Observations

By on July 27, 2020 | iOS, Mobile App Development | No Comments
Apple recently announced at this year’s WWDC (World-Wide Developers Conference) the iOS 14 beta, which is due to be released to the public sometime in September 2020. While there are dozens of updates that mobile app users will enjoy, we are particularly focused on the updated development tools and the new app features and enhancements that can deliver value to our client’s mobile applications and their end users. The new features in iOS 14 that have us excited are: App Widgets, App Clips, and the upcoming Privacy Updates.
iOS 14 Feature Summary


App Clips

With App Clips, Apple has created a fast way to link users to a rich application experience that works like a standard web link. So instead of directing users to the app store to download, install and load your app (which can be time consuming), users can bring up the lightweight feature immediately and quickly perform a key app function. 
ios 14 app clips
Apple offered a few examples of the functionality that this new tool could be perfect for, including “A museum could have visitors scan visual codes on labels next to displayed works to launch an app clip that reveals augmented reality content or provides audio commentary” or “A rental bike could come with an NFC tag that people scan to launch an app clip that lets them rent the bike.”

Other examples might be: Adding yourself to a reservation wait list or checking yourself in upon arrival for a restaurant/retail app, perform a quick pay action using Apple Pay, credit card or even loyalty points, or accessing pushed content that shows up as an alert.

App Clips are launchable directly by scanning a QR Code or NFC tags, and easily integrated with Apple Pay.  We expect to see a lot of real world integrations to take advantage of app clips and are excited to see how our clients will put them to use.
App Clips Overview
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App Widgets
ios 14 app widgets
While Android devices have been able to use widgets on their mobile phones for years, iPhone and iPad users join the party with iOS 14. This feature has us the most excited for our clients as the possibilities are truly endless to offer bite size content to users without requiring them to fully open the application. Think of these as dynamic app icons, in 3 different available sizes on your home screen.

For example: weather apps can now show the current temperature, a loyalty/rewards app can show your available points and membership status, a health app can show the calories burned for the day, your smart car app can show you whether or not your doors are locked or the battery charge level….all while avoiding the delay and clicks needed to launch the app and navigate to the desired information.

Beyond simply displaying data, app widgets can be a very useful tool to encourage re-engagement with your application. A game or health-club app can show you your current spot on the leaderboards, a news-reader app can tease new content, or a loyalty app can show the “deal of the day” and indicate today is a double rewards points day.
App Widgets Overview

App Privacy Updates

With rumors of mobile applications “spying” on users, Apple has released privacy updates to give users more control and visibility if/when their personal data is collected. This will include requirements for posting privacy practices in the app stores and updates to key features.
ios 14 privacy declarations
Approximate Location Permissions

Prior to iOS 14 an app could request “When in Use” or “Always On” location permissions. Once granted an app could monitor the location of a user down to 1 meter in accuracy. Now users will be able to deny app developers their precise location. Instead, you can grant an approximate location for the user. If your application requires accurate location data (for mileage capture, or presenting nearby locations or services) this could cause issues with the functionality of your app and we recommend investigating and testing your application to get ahead of this change.

Microphone and Camera Indicators

Once released, Apple will give you clear visible notifications when the camera or microphone are capturing data. When your phone’s mic is on, an orange dot appears on the top right side of the screen. The dot shows up green when an app is using your camera.  While we hope or expect that your app isn’t capturing sound or video without your user’s knowledge, this upcoming change is a reminder to confirm your app isn’t recording your user’s actions in this manner.

App Tracking Transparency Permissions

Apple is now making it more difficult to associate data collected within one app, across multiple websites or other mobile applications. While we don’t anticipate this affecting our clients directly, we expect to continue monitoring this feature, as many common Analytics and Advertising SDKs may run afoul of Apple’s new guidelines and restrictions, even if the App is not using those built in features directly. We anticipate the Google Analytics SDK and the Facebook SDK will likely need to be updated in your apps to avoid your users being prompted that they are being tracked.
App Privacy Overview

Big Time Changes Coming to the Apple App Store

By on June 10, 2016 | iOS, Mobile App Development, Uncategorized | No Comments

If you happen to be launching new apps or updating apps in the Apple App Store on a daily basis like we are, you may have noticed a significant improvement in App Store Review Times over the past few months.  Reviews that used to take a week or two are now down to a couple of days!  Well, apparently this is not a random anomaly.  Rather, it is part of Apple’s intentional goals to further enhance the App Store experience for developers.  And it’s not just tactical review times that are improving…

Apple is also expected to roll out much broader and more comprehensive improvements to the App Store including a new subscription model to incentivize a recurring revenue business model and also the introduction of paid search ads within the App Store. It appears that Apple’s goal is to allow app developers to generate more revenue while creating greater value to the Apple platform so Apple can further monetize the gigantic installed base. Industry analysts are estimating that App Store revenues may double within three years if subscriptions increase as part of the mix.

While some subscription-based apps already exist, the Subscription Based Model is not currently available on all app categories.   In fact, as it stands today, app revenues are dominated by one-time purchases and only a few type of apps (news, dating, audio streaming) can offer users subscription pricing.  Further, developers who are able to keep a subscriber for more than a year will see their share of subscription revenue increase from 70% to 85% in year 2, which will create a significant multiplying effect over time and will surely be celebrated by many an app owner.  

App Store Paid Search also has the potential to have a material financial impact for Apple and open a realm of new possibilities for app developers.  For context, last year paid search in the US alone added up to more than $29 Billion (across desktop and mobile) with Google taking the lion’s share.  With so many captive App Store users, App Store Paid Search will surely be a financially boon for Apple while also giving developers the ability to pay to have their apps show up at the top of the result list when users search on certain keywords, which almost certainly will allow them to directly impact download volumes.  A play out of Google’s playbook or a step in the right direction toward improving Apple’s App Store discovery challenge?  For sure!  A win-win all the way around?  You bet.

Stay tuned for forthcoming details from Apple over the coming months.  Hopefully, we will get more scoop at the Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) next week.

In the meantime, if you are currently contemplating the app subscription model for your app, let us know if we can help.

Fodor’s City Guides Ranked In Apple’s “Best New Apps”

By on January 18, 2016 | iOS, Travel | No Comments

Congratulations go out to Fodor’s Travel for being included in Apple’s “Best New Apps” category following the recent launch of the iOS9-optimized City Guides app.

FODORS BestNewApps ipad_blurred_and_fadedFodor’s City Guides provides 22 unique travel guides for your iPhone and iPad.   So whether you are visiting Boston or Barcelona you can find information, book hotels, make restaurants reservations, or get a guided tour all from the comfort of the app.  It doesn’t matter if it’s last minute or months ahead, this app has you covered.

Simplify your travel planning with features that are 100% curated and never crowd sourced:
– Insider tips and recommendations for the best sights, restaurants, hotels, and more
– Maps to discover what is nearby
– Booking tools to set your itinerary
– Trusted recommendations searchable by destination, price range, or category of interest.

Download the App

Red Foundry Ranked as a Top Chicago App Developer

By on June 30, 2015 | Android, iOS, Mobile App Development, Quotes, UI/UX Design | No Comments

Recently, Red Foundry was named a Top Chicago App Developer by research firm Clutch, based in Washington, DC.  Clutch is known for offering both objective and extensive research coverage on mobile app development companies in various geographies.

Red Foundry is excited to be positioned so highly among the other companies in the Chicagoland area.  In fact, over twenty app development companies were included in the study with Red Foundry topping the list.

Clutch analyzed Red Foundry’s previous work, client base, and overall ability to deliver on development projects, to map us against the other Chicago-based firms on their Leaders Matrix.

Clutch Leaders Matrix

However, the most rewarding outcome of this study were the client interviews that Clutch conducted with five of our clients.  One of the quotes that particularly stands out came from a current client of ours, FanAngel:

FanAngelClient-Quote

We’re always excited to be recognized externally for our work but really enjoy being able to take our years of experience in building amazing mobile apps and package it into solutions for clients like FanAngel while lowering the complexity and risk of building killer custom native mobile apps.

To learn more about how we were evaluated by Clutch check out the Clutch Methodology or browse through the overwhelmingly positive Red Foundry Reviews as provided by our clients.

Are you ready for Apple Pay?

By on October 20, 2014 | iOS, Mobile App Development | No Comments

Apple Pay has been getting a lot of press recently and, generally speaking, there is a lot of confusion about what it means to consumers and, just as importantly, to app owners. Most articles and news segments describe Apple Pay as the latest way to pay at the check-out counter. Simply wave your phone in front of new Apple Pay readers and instantly – transaction complete. While this new feature of the phones is cool it is only part of a bigger story…. essentially, how Apple is positioning to revolutionize online commerce through mobile apps.

Entering credit card information for purchases has always been and still is a huge barrier for consumers using mobile phones to shop. Buying airline tickets requires entering your name, address, card number, expiration date, cvv, and more – all on a tiny screen. If users needed to do that every time they wanted to buy a new level in candy crush, or coins in farmville – they wouldn’t do it and companies like Zynga wouldn’t be worth billions of dollars. Apple knew that and years ago invented in-app purchasing for digital goods. Enter one password (or now just swipe your thumb) and complete your purchase in an app in one simple, painless step.

Similar to the way in-app purchases revolutionized the way we buy and sell digital goods on mobile phones, today Apple is about to change the way we buy and sell other types of goods using our phones. Study after study has proven the simpler it is to complete an order, the more money consumers will spend online and in mobile apps. Now, the promise is that out online check-outs will be simple and will happen with a single touch. No longer will you need to manually fill out lengthy forms or repeatedly type in shipping/billing information. Further, your actual card number will kept private and not shared with the online merchants.

applepay

See a new pair of shoes in the Nordstrom app – swipe your thumb and complete your purchase. Want to buy those tickets for an upcoming concert in the StubHub app, add them to your cart and swipe your thumb. Want to subscribe to a magazine subscription, swipe your thumb.

At Red Foundry we’re truly excited about the possibilities, and if you accept credit cards for anything in your business, adding Apple Pay and Touch ID to your app should be your number 1 priority to get ready for this major shift in commerce and take advantage of the increased sales due to ease of checkout.

If this sounds more like revolution than evolution, you might ask yourself…. Is your app ready?

eBooks: Disruptive Publishing

By on May 1, 2014 | Android, iOS, Mobile App Development | No Comments

Mills & Boon, the undisputed UK market leader in romance fiction publishing (think Harlequin romance novels), has decided to become disruptive by developing its own app that allows their fans to read eBooks on the go.

Digital supermarkets run by companies like Apple, Amazon and Kobo currently dominate the eBook market, taking a big slice of the profits-pie each time a book is downloaded.

In an effort to streamline the publisher-to-reader process, Mills & Boon has created their own app reader that users can easily download to their iOS or Android mobile device. The company is hoping that, since more people are reading eBooks on their smartphones and tablets, their big gamble will pay off.

The app lets users read eBooks from their own eBookshelf on the Mills & Boon website, as well as ePub and PDF books from retailers and libraries around the world. Electronic publishing has allowed Mills & Boon to double its output. It now releases more than 100 eBooks per month, more than in print, and sells more e-books than physical books. According to Tim Cooper, digital and marketing director for the publisher, “digital lends itself to the habitual nature of our content. Our readers finish reading one and they can download the next.” Author Sharon Kendrick’s opinion is similar: “[Mills & Boon] are an intense reading experience, and they can be read quickly. People read four to five in a few days so that’s a lot of books to carry around.”

But will they be successful and will other publishers follow suit? Tune in tomorrow…

 

Fodor’s City Guides App Honored As Best Travel App

By on October 22, 2013 | iOS, Mobile App Development, UI/UX Design | No Comments

Red Foundry is proud to announce that the Fodor’s City Guides app is a winner in the 2013 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, taking the gold in the ­­­­Travel App category.

The annual competition, honoring outstanding print, online, and multimedia work, travel photography, and audio and video broadcasts, is sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. Winners of the awards, the most prestigious in the field of travel journalism, were announced across 25 categories Oct. 21 at the SATW convention in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Fodors Splash

The 29th Lowell Thomas competition drew 1,257 entries, which were judged by members of the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

In honoring Fodor’s work, the judges said: “This app is the perfect companion for every aspect of a trip. It helps users plan the logistics by suggesting interesting places to stay and visit and allowing them to book it right in the app [and] contributes location-specific information that enhances the in-person experience. The app is everything you would expect from a Fodor’s guidebook in a great interactive experience.”

The Foundation distributes nearly $20,000 in prize money to individual winners. Generous donations by this year’s Underwriters, the Tourist Office for Flanders-Brussels and Travel Guard, help make the prizes possible.

The Fodor’s City Guides app can be downloaded here…  cheers!

Solution Accelerators… More Elements!

By on July 20, 2013 | iOS, Mobile App Development | No Comments

As the mobile technology landscape continuously evolves…  so must our client’s apps.  We make that possible by incorporating the best Red Foundry community submissions into our Solution Accelerators and standard libraries in Studio. Here’s an overview of some of the best of the best that we’ve added recently.

• Tumblr Post – Get your blog on.
• Flickr Image Upload – Upload images to everyone’s favorite vowel-dropping photo service.
• Google Place Search – Search Google’s well-maintained and crowdsourced database of locations!
• Data Dictionary – Need to save an array of information? Tired of writing the same JavaScript over and over again? Use the Data Dictionary Element!
• LinkedIn Sharing – Post links to the world’s most professional social network!
• Google Analytics – Red Foundry’s analytics are great, but if you’re already deep in the land of Google, you can easily use their analytics with this new featured Element!
• App Rating Request Prompt – Get more ratings from your most engaged users!
• Facebook Friends Selector – Picking teams? Want to see who makes the virtual cut? Retrieve a logged-in Facebook user’s friend list, and let them select!
• Slider – Use the slider widget to allow the user to pick between a range of values!
• Font Size Selector – Make your UI easily customizable for those of us who need to have larger text!
• Date and Time Picker – Pick a date, any date!
• UrbanAirship – Now the world’s most-customizable Push Notification service comes to Red Foundry! Use the UrbanAirship Element to register your users for highly-specific Push targets. Check out their service at www.urbanairship.com.

Keep your eyes peeled for new Elements!

Recent App Launches

By on July 15, 2013 | Android, iOS, Mobile App Development | No Comments

At Red Foundry, we see hundreds of apps using our platform technology get published every month. Here are a couple that we’re really excited about!

Panasonic Healthcare Division

A full digital sales tool, including product data, comparisons, and custom quoting for the iPad. Increasing productivity and sales, using Red Foundry.

Wine Enthusiast Magazine

The long awaited update to Wine Enthusiast magazine, with an all-new beautiful design, is coming soon! And it’s not just for wines anymore – you can read the latest reviews for spirits and beers as well. Also, you can win badges and discounts on wine and accessories just by recording your thoughts on what you’ve tasted lately. Drinking, gamified? Nuff said.

iOS 7 Support is here!

By on July 15, 2013 | iOS, Mobile App Development | No Comments

Like everyone, we’re excited about Apple’s upcoming iOS 7. We’ve been working with the Beta here in our shadowy lair since Day One. The prognosis is great – all of your Red Foundry apps that currently run on iOS 6 will run just as well on iOS 7, with no updates and no re-compile required!

Additionally, we’ve added a couple new features to the platform that will allow you to better bring your UI into sync with the clean, sparse look-and-feel that Apple has established with iOS 7. We’ll talk more about that in the next section.

Bitnami