TIM B’S TECH TALK
  • Home
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • Phone
  • Blog

Use Art to Expand Your Digital Palette

4/14/2020

0 Comments

 
In the era of COVID-19, art is omnipresent, providing ample opportunity to expand your digital palette. This can be done by using apps interchangeably. By using multiple apps, you can heighten your creativity by producing a variety of original and sometimes unexpected results.
Picture
In this example, I chose to begin with a digital version of El Greco's painting of St. Peter in the National Museum in Oslo. To initiate the creative process, I imported the image into Inkwork by Code Organa. Inkwork enables you to choose from a variety of styles in black and white that resemble ink drawings and linocuts. 
​
Through the use of an app, I initiated the creative process by changing a painting to a graphic, print-like image. This may seem odd, but historically prints were often made of paintings to widen their distribution, so others could appreciate them.
Picture
Next, I imported the work I created with Inkwork to Pixelmator by the Pixelmator Team. Pixelmator has a quick selection tool that lets you select specific areas in a way that is more intuitive than your typical wand tool. Gradually, I removed the white areas and replaced them with colors in the original painting. The result is an image that looks like a linocut with multiple layers of color. I could have stopped there, but I continued by adding the original painting as a layer and using blend modes to synthesize the two images.

Of course, you can continue this process forever. The creative process leads you to explore endless variations by either using other apps or changing your image manually with your finger or stylus. Either way, art serves as the inspiration and catalyst for heightening your creativity to greatly expand your digital palette.
Picture
0 Comments

The Social Value of Flipboard

2/17/2020

0 Comments

 
by Timothy Brown

​[Transcription]


Hi Everyone:
Welcome back to Tim Bs Tech Talk. Today, I want to talk about Flipboard.

Flipboard is arguably the most popular newsreader available today. Originally released in July 2010 for the iPad, Flipboard was eventually made available for the iPhone, other mobile platforms, and desktop computers. Flipboard essentially aggregates news from a variety of sources and invites users to become active contributors. News readers are ubiquitous, but somehow Flipboard managed to make them social. Before I explore this aspect in more detail, let’s first take a brief look at news readers.

​News readers enable you to access news feeds by choosing from a range of pre-selected topics or by using a built-in search function to find specific areas of interest. In many ways, mews t eaders supersede "save-it-for-later" apps like Instapaper and Pocket because they serve both as a vehicle for finding news as well as a place for storing articles away. Flipboard represents the best of this genre, but other apps have been important contributors. USA Today and NPR were some of the first established news sources to enter the market, yet other apps like Flud, Pulse (eventually Linkedin Pulse), SkyGrid, Zite, News360, Feedly, Early Edition 2, Paper by Facebook, Pulp, and Google+ were key to making news readers a success. Most notably, Early Edition offered the best example of skeuomorphic design, a digital replication of a traditional newspaper (that is, before Apple flattened everything out), Zite enhanced personalization, Feedly offered greater speed and fluidity (and options for Google customers to migrate their feeds after the app went defunct), and Paper by Facebook superbly integrated Facebook feeds into a news reader format. Pulse, however, was the first app to make the news reader experience accessible through a browser, encouraging Flipboard to elevate its game. Apple News entered the market much later, buildi ng on the success of these  earlier news readers, but taking a more top-down approach by introducing curation and subscriptions to increase revenue streams.

​News reader apps have greatly transformed how we access news today , but Flipboard figured out a way to make them social. Flipboard has been known for its tile-flipping interface, but the most significant development came when the company introduced 'My Magazines." While "Smart Magazines" provide top-down curation (articles generated for you by topic), My Magazines consist of stories YOU collect and assemble in accordance with the theme or topic YOU choose. Essentially, you curate your own collection of articles and assemble them into your own magazines. There are no other news readers that provide that level of user-generated curation.

What Makes Flipboard Magazines Social?

My Magazines are inherently social because they can easily be viewed by other Flipboard users. The process is simple: 1. Start a new magazine. 2. Give it a title and a description (optional). 3. Check the option to make it public (so everyone can see it). Once your magazines are made public, people can subscribe to them, flip articles into their own magazines, or share them online. On a more intimate scale, magazine owners can invite others to contribute articles to a magazine.

Who Can Benefit from Flipboard?

Businesses, single professionals, or bloggers can benefit from Flipboard Magazines because articles posted on proprietary sites via Wordpress, etc. can be flipped into a Flipboard Magazine, inviting the world-wide web to have access to their content. Why should anyone limit themsleves by posting articles on a dedicated site that only a handful of people will read? By setting up a Flipboard magazine to correspond with your blog posts online, you can greatly increase your online presence. Furthermore, you invite people to actively collect and share your articles in ways you could never do internally through paid memberships and exclusive followers.
​
Top down models are useful when the intent is to make your context exclusive. On the other hand, if your goal is to reach broader audiences, Flipboard provides the perfect vehicle for doing so.
0 Comments

The App Subscription Model: Who Benefits?

10/15/2017

1 Comment

 
Timothy Brown, Host of My Apple Podcast
​​In 2016 during the days leading up to WWDC, Phil Schiller, Vice President of World Wide Marketing at Apple, introduced a new subscription model for developers. Under the new plan, developers were to receive 70 percent of revenue and 30 percent went to Apple. If customers remained faithful subscribers for one year, the share of the revenue changed to 85 percent for developers and 15 percent for Apple. This model still exists, but with some updated guidelines for pricing and other regulatory measures.

Apple has been quite successful in its pursuit of profits, announcing during their quarterly earnings report in July 2017 revenue of 42.4 billion “and earnings per diluted share of $1.42 in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.” This success is largely attributed to its four operating systems, iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, and the services that undergird their success, namely, the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud Drive. The services provided by Apple are key to its business model because it ensures longevity in terms of maintaining consumer allegiance, while seeking new revenue streams. Paying for services rather than products has become a standard model in terms of how we consume media, paying for music streaming rather buying CDs or renting movies rather than buying DVDs.

The services model which ensures a long term commitment from consumers, supported by automatic renewals, is now operating in full force with Apple’s aggressive push to promote the App Subscription model. With app subscriptions, developers can offer a wider menu of options, in which apps are used, not as products that consumers own, but as services they rent for a specific periods of time (e.g. weekly, monthly, or yearly). The zealous push to promote the subscription model has been viewed for some as an inevitable move by Apple. Writing for the Verge, Vlad Savov makes note of this emerging development:
​

“Apple is one of those rare few companies that can take an ongoing evolution and focus and distill it into a revolutionary change. That’s the immodest thinking behind the company’s ambitious "Subscriptions 2.0" plan for the App Store, which aims to convert iOS users from one-off app purchasers into loyal subscribers. It’s nothing new in and of itself, but Apple’s wholehearted embrace validates and underlines it: subscriptions are going to play a huge role in the future of software.”

The Subscription 2.0 model is described in more detail by Lauren Goode in her article titled App Store 2.0 which poses the question “Can Apple Do It Again?” In other words, can Apple build on the App Store’s success by introducing a new business model that will forever change how we consume apps? In the article, Goode quotes Phil Schiller whose enthusiasm for the subscription model is evident in his pronouncement to make it available to “all categories.” One glance at Apple’s newly designed App Store and you will most certainly notice an obvious change: App subscriptions have increased astronomically. Developers (and Apple) will definitely earn considerable profits from this new model but one question remains:

Is this model good for consumers?

After reviewing twenty of the “top paid” applications in the App Store (Sunday, October 15, 2017), I discovered that none of them required subscriptions. Out of that group, fifteen of them fell under the category “Education,” two under ‘Productivity,” two under “Entertainment,” and one in the Photo/Video” category. The prices varied, but they consistently avoided in-app purchases (with the exception of one). The apps listed included the following:
​
  1. Minds on Physics by Physics Classroom, $0.99 - Education
  2. Toca Life: Office by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  3. Procreate by Savage Interactive Pty Ltd, $9.99 - Entertainment
  4. Toca Boo, by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  5. Toca Life: Hospital by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  6. Notability by Ginger Labs, $9.99 - Productivity
  7. Total Life: Hair Salon 3 by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  8. XtraMath by XtraMath, $4.99 - Education
  9. Toca Kitchen 2 by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  10. Total Life: Vacation by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  11. Toca Lab: Elements by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Entertainment
  12. Goodnotes 4 by Time Base Technology Limited, $7.99 - Productivity
  13. Toca Life: City by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  14. Toca Life: Stable by Toca Boca, $2.99 - Education
  15. Pixelmator by Pixelmator Team, $4.99 - Photo/Video
  16. Stage Fright by Nerd Communications, $0.99 (includes three monsters, others require in-app purchases) - Education
  17. Toca Life: School by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  18. Stack the States by Freecloud Design, Inc (five games for one price)- Education
  19. Toca Life: Farm by Toca Boca AB, $2.99 - Education
  20. Dr. Panda Restaurant 2 by Dr. Panda Ltd, $2.99 (with a bundle pack of $9.99 for five apps) - Education

Based on this initial review, consumers appear to prefer “Education” apps that do not include subscription fees or in-app purchases. This one example is largely attributed to the success of Toca Boca, a developer who believes in creating apps for education that embody “the spirit of play,” placing greater emphasis on the non-market value of their apps. The other most notable aspect of these apps is that most of them target children. It seems highly unlikely that parents would prefer paying subscriptions to enhance their child’s educational development. There may even be something ethically wrong with such a model, if subscriptions were forced on consumers for the sake of earning higher profits. Even Apple appears to support this view of education, especially in regards to the free training sessions hosted at Apple Stores throughout the country, and also podcasts, which have remained free to the public since their inception. Apps that appear in the other categories, notably, Pixelmator and Procreate, are not all that different from the education apps; they both offer advanced features that provide great value to the consumer and they don’t come with subscription fees or in-app purchases.

Since these top paid apps are successful, monetarily, what is the motivation for offering subscription fees?

One can argue that the motivation is greed or it may be the stage of development that developers arrive at when striving for innovation. Lightricks Ltd, for example, are developers who have designed top selling applications like “Facetune,” “Enlight,” and most recently “Enlight Videoleap.” Their first apps, Facetune and Enlight enjoyed tremendous success, resulting in huge profits, but who decided that this is not enough. As co-founder, Itai Tsiddon, told Recode, “There is only so much innovation you can cram inside a one-time purchase… In order to create serious software companies on mobile, recurrent monetization is really a must.” Yet, Lightricks indicated that its revenue for Facetune and Enlight reached 10 million per year, not including Apple’s percentage. Lightricks argues that subscription fees will more than warrant what users get in return.

In March 2013, Facetune was available in the App Store for $1.99 for the iPhone and $3.99 for the iPad version. Today, Facetune 2 is offered at the subscription rate of $4.99 for one month, $14.99 for twelve months and for the one-time purchase of $39.99. Comparatively, Enlight, a photo editor, debuted in 2015 at $3.99 and the most recent video editing app, VideoLeap, is offered at the subscription rate of $3.99 for one month, $1.67 for twelve months, and $39.99 for a one-time purchase. Essentially, consumers are paying 10 times the amount to own Facetune 2 and VideoLeap when compared to the one-time price of its previous models or 4 times the amount to lease them monthly. With Videoleap, the incentive to purchase the cheaper yearly subscription is designed to cultivate a longer term relationship, ultimately netting a higher percentage (85/15 split after one year). If Lightricks made 10 million before the subscription model, they can potentially earn 100 million or tens times the profit.
Picture
Picture
I don’t think that anyone can argue that Lightricks produces applications of the highest quality. However, is the consumer really paying for innovation or higher profits for developers (and Apple)?

Applications that fall in the category of Photo/Video offer competitive prices, so consumers will be able to decide what apps (or services) work best for them. For example, Lightricks Videoleap app comes with a beautiful user interface with great features that are ideally suited for a mobile platform. There may very well be an argument to support the innovation that they bring to the mobile platform. However, Lumafusion by Lumatouch offers features that are arguably just as advanced, if not more so, and offered at the market rate of $19.99 to purchase the app outright, without subscription fees and in-app purchases. Also, Videoshop is another advanced video editor which has been at the top of the ratings for the past several years (currently rated among the top forty paid apps) and is currently available for $1.99 and comes with a plethora of features, with minor in-app purchases and no subscriptions.
Picture
Picture
Ultimately, consumers will have to decide if they are ready financially to plunge into the subscription universe. They may need to decide very soon because this model has begun to make great headway in the App Store, specifically in markets that target adult audiences. The most pervasive evidence of apps offering subscription models are adult coloring books and health apps ranging from exercise to meditation. Below are examples of some apps that fall into those categories, although I’ve identified at minimum fifty apps in each category that offer similar subscription models.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The subscription model may very well be the wave of the future and Apple has proven to be an effective force in shaping consumer expectations. However, if the top paid apps offer any insight, consumers may ultimately determine what works best.
1 Comment

App Subscriptions Put a Hole in Your Wallet

7/22/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Every year Apple organizes WWDC, its annual conference for developers. The event serves two main purposes: 1)Apple introduces developers to all the new features associated with the latest operating systems and 2) Developers discover new ways to use those systems to promote the Apple brand and establish new business opportunities. Combined, their efforts help to enhance the consumer experience.

iOS 11 and the New App Store

This year during WWDC 2017, Apple introduced iOS 11, including a brand new redesign of the App Store. After reviewing the beta version, I was impressed by the way Apple chose to promote featured apps, while improving navigation (Games are now a main menu tab along the bottom). It’s nice to see Apple put forth a concerted effort to promote developers, but there is a rising development that warrants some concerns for consumers: Subscriptions. 

APP DECEPTIONS

As a long time consumer of the App Store and someone who has spent the last eight years reviewing apps for iOS and the Mac, I have become quite familiar with the range of prices that are available for apps and how divergent they can be relative to the services they provide. For example, one developer may sell a photo editor that highlights one feature (e.g. erasing backgrounds) while another developer will offer the same feature, plus 20 additional features at the same price. In other instances, developers will offer their apps for free (as a test run) but as soon as you access a feature (apply a filter to a photo), you are prompted to make in-app purchases for $1.99 per feature (sometimes more). This process may continue ad nauseam.

Deceptive in-App purchases are defined by Apple as “consumable” purchases or one-time purchases. These types of purchases are introduced as IAPs that require you to reach higher levels of achievement and satisfaction (an addiction model that is popular in games). Non-consumable in-App purchases occur in the form of pro versions - upgrades to “pro” provide access to additional features, remove ads, etc. In the early history of the App Store, developers adopted a strategy to lower App prices in order to increase sales (what some have called “a race to the bottom”). Contrary to this approach, developers today are engaged in “a race to the top,” an approach more popularly known today as the “subscription model.”

The Dangers of the Subscription Model

The subscription model is less insidious than hidden in-App purchases, but nonetheless a burden to the consumer with exorbitant costs. Subscription models place an emphasis on “services” rather than “products.” Similar to Apple Music or iCloud Drive, subscriptions may be offered as weekly, monthly, or yearly subscriptions. Once the service ends, your experience ends as well. The services model is unavoidable in today’s tech economy, but once it becomes ubiquitous (as in the case of app purchases) the financial burden to the consumer becomes a dangerous proposition.

The “race to the bottom” approach to enticing consumers was more balanced and acceptable because it gave developers wider exposure, while giving consumers more options. If consumers became unhappy or dissatisfied with an app, they could try another app without incurring much of a financial lost. The subscription model includes much higher costs (e.g. a consumer may pay $9.99 for a monthly subscription fee, compared to $3.99 to purchase a pro version of an app with all the features). The difference in price can be astronomical.

The subscription model started out as an exception rather the rule, but recent trends suggest that this will become the norm. Up until this point, the exceptions have included high-end products by Adobe, Microsoft (and Apple) whose dependence on cloud-based services have become the premiere way to access applications, and hence the services they provide. Today, developers, large and small, prominent or obscure, are more apt to offer subscription models.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
There are many examples of this phenomena, including the rising popularity of adult coloring book apps. If you search Apple’s App Store, you will find between 50 and 75 apps devoted exclusively to digital coloring books (see my list below). What is most notable is that a large percentage of these apps require subscription fees. The fees range from $3.99 a week and $7.99 a month to $59.99 and $99.99 a year.

For example, Pigment by Pixite LLC offers a service charge of $7.99 a month or $39.99 a year and Recolor by Sumoing Ltd charges a service fee of $9.99 a month to $59.99 a year.

Prior to the age of the subscription model, an app with the same features would cost the consumer $3.99 to $6.99 to own everything outright. This model was reasonable because of the abundance of apps available to the consumer. In contrast, the consumer pays the same amount every month, and the consumer is only able to “rent” the app for services rendered without ever “owning” the app. When seen in this light, the subscription model can be viewed as “obscene,” to say the least.

Unfortunately for the consumer, the subscription model is becoming the "new normal." Recently, the developers who gave us the wonderful photo editor “Enlight,” which can be purchased for $3.99, introduced a new app called “Enlight Photofox.” Photofox offers two subscription models, $3.99 a month or $19.99 a year. These prices are cheaper than what the adult coloring books are charging, but it’s still 5 times or 12 times the amount paid to own the original Enlight app outright. Photofox, however, can be owned for the one-time price of $39.99, which is still a lot higher than $3.99.

What Lies Ahead

The Dangers of the Subscription Model raises several important questions. Is the subscription model sustainable in a market where there are so many apps to choose from? Will this model ultimately place a limit on what consumers can experience? Will this model unfairly impact the consumer’s wallet, especially in a world where the disparity of wealth increases by the year?

Date: July 22, 2017
Author: Timothy Brown, Senior Editor, My Apple Podcast

COLORING BOOK APPS FOR IOS


  1. Coloring Book for Adults by www.hobbyapps.com, FREE with ads
  2. Color Therapy Adult Coloring Book for Adults by Miinu Limited, Full access $7.99 a month, $39.99 a year
  3. Pigment - Coloring Book for Adults by Pixite LLC, 7.99 a month or 39.99 yearly
  4. Colory: Coloring Book for Adults by Lotogram
  5. Colorfy: Coloring Book for Adults by Fun Games for Free
  6. PrismaJoy Coloring Books for Adults - Art Therapy by Joy Renee, $2.99 for full access (best deal)
  7. Recolor - Coloring Book by Sumoing Ltd, $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year
  8. Coloring Book - coloring book for adults by Farhana Kabir
  9. ColorArt: Coloring Book For Adults by Critical Hit Software, LLC
  10. Coloring Book for Me - Coloring Pages for Adults by Apalon Apps, 39.99 a year
  11. Fashion Coloring Books for Adults with Girls Games by Roman Safronov
  12. Coloring Pages for Adults with Animals Color Books by Roman Safronov
  13. Nature Coloring Books Monkey Lion Pages for Adults by Roman Safronov
  14. Coloring Books for Adults - Mandala, Ornament, Anti-Stress, Art Therapy
  15. Stress Anxiety Relief Coloring by Roman Safronov
  16. Adult Coloring Book - Anti Stress Therapy Pages by Dmitriy Yudin
  17. Adult Coloring Book Pages for Me, Adults, and Kids by Endless Loop Apps Inc.
  18. Paint Sparkles Draw - My First Coloring Book HD! by TabTale LTD
  19. My Coloring Book Free by Jeff Pedersen
  20. Adult Coloring Book - Coloring Book for Adults by Adult Coloring Book Apps LLC
  21. Adult Coloring Book Premium - Free Color Pages by Yingjie Dong
  22. Coloring Book for Adults - Color Me Coloring Pages by Apps Lab, Free with Ads
  23. Colorfly: Coloring Book for Adults - Free Games by Joy Castle, FREE
  24. Adult Coloring Books with Fun Games for Adults by Roman Safronov
  25. Coloring Book for Adults with Fun Christmas Games by Roman Safronov
  26. Princess Coloring Book - Draw, Paint & Color Games by TabTale LTD
  27. Drawing Desk - Draw, Paint, Doodle & Sketch board by 4 Axis Solutions (Pvt) Ltd
  28. Coloring Book: Coloring Book for Adults - Free by MD Mokammal Hossain
  29. Coloring Book for Adults - Adult Coloring Book by Irina Schens
  30. Coloring Pages for Adults - Secret Garden by App Labs
  31. Magic Pony Coloring Book for Adults My Little Art by Roman Safronov
  32. Mandala Coloring Book - Game for Adults by Vladislav Fedoseev
  33. Zen Coloring Book for Adults by Adult Coloring Book Apps, LLC
  34. Kids Coloring Book - Doodle Pad 2 in 1 by Bejoy Mobile
  35. Chroma - Coloring Book for Adults by Sprite Labs
  36. Cat Kitty Kitten Coloring Pages - Free Girl Games by Irina Schens
  37. Manda.s Color.ing Book.s Page.s For Adults by Amit Patel
  38. 100 Pics Coloring - Free color in book game app by Poptaacular Ltd
  39. Coloring book: games for kids boys & girls free 1+
  40. Lake: De-Stress Therapy with Art Coloring Pages by Lake Coloring
  41. Toonia Colorbook - Educational Coloring Game for Kids & Toddlers by 3fs
  42. Coloring Book for Adults - Colorama by Apperto Ltd
  43. Adults Coloring Book Stress Relief for Mandala by Ryan Bertrow
  44. Toddler Games Coloring Shapes and Numbers - EduPaint by Cubic Frogs Apps
  45. Fancy Coloring Books for Adults - Color Book Apps by NestedApps Limited
  46. Flowers Coloring Pages for Adult with Rose Mandala by Roman Safronov
  47. Princess Fairy Coloring Book - Kids Coloring Doodle Pad by Bejoy Mobile
  48. Use Coloring Book to Draw something - Evercolor by Fotoable, Inc, $12.99 a month, $5.99 a month for a year
  49. Coloring Book for Adults - Stress Free Coloring App by Ahmad Rakib Uddin
  50. Adult Coloring Book in Color Therapy for Adults by Roman Safronov
  51. Adult Coloring Books Anti Stress Cats Pages Games by Roman Safronov
  52. Coloring Book for Kids: Animal by Joy Mobile
  53. Coloring for Grown Ups by Penguin Group USA
  54. Secret Coloring - Free Anxiety Stress Relief & Color Therapy Pages for Adult
  55. Secret Coloring Book - Free Anxiety Stress Relief & Color Therapy Pages for Adult by lei zhang
  56. Owl Coloring Book - Color Pages for Stress Relief by Milojkovic Mirija
  57. Butterfly Coloring Pages for Adults by Peaksel
  58. Animal Coloring Pages for adults by Peaksel
  59. ColorinGo - Coloring Book App for Adults by Heather Wallace
  60. Tayasui Color, a relaxing coloring book for adults by tayasui.com
  61. Tayasui Coloring Books by Tayasui.com
  62. Colorme Coloring Book for Adults by Wei Lijun, upgrade $1.99
  63. Coloring Book for Adults by Spider Solitaire, $3.99 a week, $11.99 a month, $99.99 a year
  64. My Color: Coloring Book for Adults by Chunying Wu, upgrade to $1.99 shortly after downloading ​




1 Comment

    Archives

    February 2021
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    July 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Timothy Brown

    Host of My Apple Podcast.

    Categories

    All
    Apple
    Apps
    App Store
    Creativity
    Disk Utility
    ICloud
    ICloud Drive
    IMovie
    Inkwork
    Ios
    IPad
    IPhone
    Keynote
    Layouts
    Mac
    Music
    News
    Partition
    Photo Editing
    Pinnacle Studio
    Pixelmator
    Shapes
    Subscriptions
    Technoogy
    USB
    Video
    Video Editing
    Videoleap
    Weebly

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • Phone
  • Blog