Hasta La Gadget!

It may be hard to believe, but at one point, there was no app store to accompany the iPhone. In fact, a whole year went by when original iPhone owners didn’t have an app store to download the latest apps for their device, but just a day before the iPhone 3G’s launch, the iTunes App Store was officially born.

Here we are five years later, downloading apps like nobody’s business. It didn’t take long for iPhone and iPod touch owners to reach an insane amount of downloads. In just nine months, the iTunes App Store garnered 1 billion app downloads. The number of downloads grew exponentially, thanks to the quick widespread adoption of Apple’s smartphone.

Besides launching alongside the new iPhone 3G, the iTunes App Store also debuted right beside the launch of iPhone OS 2.0 and iTunes 7.7. At the time, there were only 500 apps available to download for the iPhone, but that number quickly shot up to over 7,500 in just a few of months, and the number of app downloads skyrocketed to 10 million in just the first month.

Today, the iTunes App Store has well over a million apps and games to choose from, both free and paid variety. Most recently, Apple announced during WWDC 2013 last month that the App Store reached a total of 50 billion downloads, just five months after announcing the 40 billion download milestone, meaning that Apple is averaging two billion app downloads per month this year so far.

App developers are getting a lot out of the experience as well. Apple also announced at WWDC that they have paid out over $10 billion to developers so far since the App Store’s launch five years ago. The 30% fee that Apple charges to developers in the App Store has been a hard pill to swallow, but it hasn’t been a huge problem for developers, especially since they still receive 70% of the earnings, which is a good split in any circumstance.

However, while the iTunes App Store has made great strides in just five short years, we can’t forget about Android’s app store, Google Play. As of May 2013, Google Play has around 800,000 apps that have been downloaded 48 billion times. It’s just slightly behind the iTunes App Store, but it’ll only be a matter of time before Google Play begins to overtake the iTunes App Store. In fact, it’s predicted that Google Play will overtake iTunes in October if current trends continue.

What will the next five years hold for the iTunes App Store? Will we see 100 billion downloads by that time? Maybe we’ll see that number even sooner. One thing’s for sure, though: the number of apps available in the App Store and the number of downloads will most likely never stop growing — we’ll always see new ideas and reinvented apps arrive in the limelight for as long as the App Store exists.

iTunes App Store turns 5: A look back on 50 billion downloads is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Chill out with your Mac out.

(Credit: Scott Stefan)

Retro is cool. Old Macs are cool. A retro vintage Mac-looking cooler is cooler still. The MaCool on Kickstarter is exactly what it sounds like, a cooler that looks like an old Macintosh computer, complete with classic beige color.

Your typical beach bunnies and sand studs probably won’t pay this cooler much mind, but it should elicit excitement from the people you actually want to impress: your fellow geeks. If you’re really lucky, they’ll wonder why you hauled your classic Mac to the beach. Then they’ll “ooh” and “aah” as you pop off the top and pull out a cool, refreshing can of your beverage of choice.

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MaCool is running a fast 14-day Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising $65,000 to produce the coolers. Early birds can get in at $39, with the regular pledge price set at $59. The cooler is 13 inches wide and can hold eight cans with ice.

There are a … [Read more]

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"Hullo, you don't know me, but…"

(Credit: ABC News Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

When someone steals something from you, you want your something back.

But, if you’re a well-adjusted human, you also want justice.

Please imagine, then, the feelings of Eliza Webb as she got into her car and felt something wasn’t quite right.

Where were her shades? Where were her running shoes? Yes, she lives in Seattle, but these things are still useful there. And the car was a mess. Surely her husband hadn’t done this.

Then, as ABC News reports, she noticed a black cell phone on the driver’s seat.

With a touch of lateral thinking, she imagined this phone belonged to the alleged thief.

It can’t have had a passcode, as Webb said she examined the phone and found “mom” on speed dial.

Perhaps because she herself works with teens, she thought a call to this “mom” might be more effective than a call to her local police.

“I said, ‘This is a very uncomfortable phone call to make. I have your son’s phone and I’m missing some things out of my car and I think they might be two related items,” she told ABC News Seattle affiliate, KOMO.

Unfortunately your browser does not support… [Read more]

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Hightail is the new name for YouSendIt.

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A leaked photo of Motorola’s 2013 Droid family range was spotted.

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