At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Steve Ballmer announced Microsoft would ship the Kinect for Windows on February 1st. The company has delivered on its promise and on Wednesday, version 1.0 of the Kinect for Windows SDK and runtime were made available for download. The software giant’s distribution partners across the globe have also begun to ship Kinect for Windows hardware. The device will retail for $249, with a special discounted academic price of $149 for “Qualified Educational Users” that will come later this year.

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Apple’s Mac App Store hasn’t changed the industry quite like its iOS App Store did three years ago, but the Cupertino-based company on Monday announced that it has now served more than 100 million downloads from its desktop software store. ”In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. “With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.” Apple also said that its iOS App Store now holds more than 500,000 apps that have been collectively downloaded more than 18 billion times. The comapny’s full press release follows below.

Apple’s Mac App Store Downloads Top 100 Million

CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec 12, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Apple(R) today announced that over 100 million apps have been downloaded from the Mac(R) App Store(TM) in less than one year. With thousands of free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes(R) account, and download and install them in just one step. Apple revolutionized the app industry with the App Store, which now has more than 500,000 apps and where customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps and continue to download more than 1 billion apps per month.

“In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.”

“With Autodesk products in both the App Store and Mac App Store, we can reach hundreds of millions of Apple users around the world,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president of Platform Solutions and Emerging Business at Autodesk. “With our free AutoCAD WS and the more powerful professional drafting tools of AutoCAD LT, we’re using the Mac App Store to deliver new products and reach a growing base of new Mac customers.”

“The Mac App Store has unparalleled reach and has completely transformed our distribution and development cycle,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “Offering Pixelmator 2.0 exclusively on the Mac App Store allows us to streamline updates to our image editing software and stay ahead of the competition.”

“In less than one year we’ve shifted the distribution of djay for Mac exclusively to the Mac App Store,” said Karim Morsy, CEO of algoriddim. “With just a few clicks, djay for Mac is available to customers in 123 countries worldwide. We could never have that reach through traditional channels.”

The Mac App Store offers thousands of apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is included with Mac OS(R) X Lion and is available as a software update for any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard(R). For more information visit, www.apple.com/mac/app-store .

Mac developers set the prices for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit, developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Apple on Wednesday made good on its promise to push out the release build of iOS 5 to consumers around the world. The new software is available for download immediately, and iTunes 10.5 is required in order to install the update. Owners of Apple’s iPhone 4 (GSM and CDMA), iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad and third and fourth-generation iPod touch handhelds have access to the new build, while owners of earlier devices will not be able to install the update. iOS 5 includes more than 200 new features such as a revamped notifications system, iMessage, built-in Twitter integration, Newsstand and more. Apple also released OS X 10.7.2 with iCloud support and two new iOS apps on Wednesday: Find My Friends, which can be downloaded by visiting iCloud.com on your iOS device, and AirPort Utility.

Mozilla on Tuesday pushed out a new version of its popular Firefox web browser for Windows and Mac computers. Mozilla released Firefox 6 on August 16th, just over one month ago, and version 7 is already upon us, reaffirming Mozilla’s commitment to the world’s second most popular web browser. Firefox 7 brings with it a host of changes, the most notable of which is perhaps “drastically improved memory handling” and other speed related improvements. As of August, Net Applications shows Firefox’s global browser share as 22.57%, behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (55.31%) and ahead of Chrome (15.51%) Safari (4.64%) and the Opera browser (1.68%). Firefox 7 is available for download immediately from Mozilla’s website, which is linked below.

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When Apple originally announced its new iTunes Match service, which was launched to developers yesterday inside iTunes 10.5 beta 6.1, the Cupertino-based company said the service would allow users to download previously purchased music. At the time, it appeared the benefit for iTunes Match was that it would allow users to pull down any track from iCloud to an iOS device without being near a computer. The setback to downloading tracks, however, is that your iOS device storage will still likely be clogged with music. According to Insanely Great Mac, it appears that iTunes Match actually supports streaming and not just downloading, which could make the service’s $25 annual fee much more competitive with products such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Drive. Insanely Great Mac’s video, which we’ve provided after the break, shows that users can download a song by tapping the iCloud logo, or just stream it by tapping the song title itself. According to AllThingsD, which cites an anonymous Apple executive, users will only be able to listen to a song as it downloads and iTunes Match will not support true streaming when it launches this fall. Hit the read link for the video in question.

Read [Insanely Great Mac] Read [AllThingsD]

On Wednesday, Walmart subsidiary VUDU launched a new iPad-accessible web app that allows iPad users to stream more than 20,000 movies and television shows directly from the Web. iPad owners don’t have to use iTunes and simply need to navigate to http://VUDU.com for access to rentals and purchases. “VUDU’s launch on the iPad plays into that vision as we’re committed to offering the VUDU experience on as many devices as possible so customers can shop for and access their favorite movies and TV shows however they want, whenever they want,” general manager of VUDU Edward Lichty said. Customers can add a VUDU web app to their home screen by clicking the “Add to Home Screen” button once they have accessed the website. Read on for the full press release. 

Walmart Brings VUDU’s Movie Streaming Service to iPad

More than 20,000 blockbusters, Hollywood classics and independent films can be instantly streamed through VUDU.com on iPad

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and BENTONVILLE, Ark., Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Walmart announced today the launch of VUDU for the iPad. VUDU, a leading subscription-free, video-on-demand movie service and wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart stores, has optimized the navigation experience of VUDU.com to enable millions of iPad owners to rent or buy entertainment content and then stream it easily through any iPad browser.

Beginning today, iPad users can go to VUDU.com and browse through VUDU’s entertainment content library, which includes more than 20,000 blockbusters, Hollywood classics, independent films and TV episodes, then rent or purchase and watch them instantly. For one touch access to VUDU, customers can add a VUDU icon to their iPad desktops by clicking the “Add to Home Screen” button when on VUDU.com.

“At Walmart, one of our key priorities is to provide one continuous experience for our customers to interact with our brand — whether that is in stores, online or from their mobile devices,” said Edward Lichty, general manager, VUDU. “VUDU’s launch on the iPad plays into that vision as we’re committed to offering the VUDU experience on as many devices as possible so customers can shop for and access their favorite movies and TV shows however they want, whenever they want.”

Movies purchased and/or rented on the iPad can also be viewed on Walmart.com/VUDU, VUDU.com or on any VUDU-enabled consumer electronics device. VUDU is currently available on more than 300 consumer electronics devices including Internet-capable HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc players and the PlayStation 3 — more than any other pay-per-view service.

GameFly announced on Wednesday it will soon offer a new service called “Unlimited PC Play” that will allow gamers to download an unlimited amount of games to their Windows or Mac computer. Much like Netflix’s business model, GameFly will provide instant access to more than 8,000 rental discs or more than 1,500 instant downloads for a monthly fee. The service will require a desktop client that will include news, a feed of HD trailers and screen shots of the latest games. GameFly also said there will be a social component that will allow gamers to interact with one another in real-time. A closed beta will begin on September 8th for current GameFly subscribers and a public launch will occur during the holiday season. Read on for the full press release.

GameFly Subscribers Will Have Access to Free PC Games

Digital Client Will Be The One-Stop Shop for Casual and Hardcore Gamers Alike

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — GameFly, Inc., the #1 online video game rental subscription service will be launching a new digital client, the one-stop shop for gamers, this holiday season. The biggest bonus for active GameFly subscribers will be the addition of free “Unlimited PC Play” which allows them to download and play as many Windows/Mac games as they want, from a large and ever-growing collection of titles. Gamers will have unprecedented flexibility in how they want to consume games, whether it is renting discs by mail from a library of over 8,000 titles, downloading any of the more than 1,500 Windows/Mac games for sale, pre-ordering new console and PC releases or buying used games – all managed via the desktop client. Casual to hardcore gamers can get all of their gaming information with up-to-the-minute news, a live feed and archive of HD trailers, videos, and screenshots, and a robust social component for real-time discussions of what’s hot and what’s not. In addition, users will be able to manage their entire library of games across all gaming platforms, as well as create custom libraries to share.

“We’re thrilled to bring digital to the gaming consumer in a meaningful way, as no other service or retailer brings physical and digital gaming together like GameFly,” said Sean Spector, GameFly co-founder and SVP of Business Development and Content. “With a library of over 9,500 titles from over 300 first- and third-party publishers, GameFly members have the ultimate choice of how, what, when and where they game.”

GameFly will launch their closed beta at a Los Angeles event on September 8, 2011, exclusively for GameFly members. All attendees will walk away with beta codes for themselves and a friend. Gaming enthusiasts not in the Los Angeles area who want to gain access to the private beta can visit www.gamefly.com/beta. The digital client will launch publicly during the holidays, but for a sneak peak now, see the teaser trailer here –www.youtube.com/gamefly.

Apple made Lion, its eighth major OS X release, available to Mac computer users on July 20th, and the Cupertino-based tech giant noted in the first sentence of its press release that Lion includes “more than 250 new features.” Unfortunately for a seemingly large group of users — this editor included — the only new features that really mattered were the numerous annoyances that came to light after just a few minutes of usage. The new autocorrect, the annoying new event behavior in iCal, the lack of key repeat, the bizarre defaults set throughout the OS… we could go on for quite a while. Some love these new features while others seriously considered rolling back to Snow Leopard. While unhappy users will have adjust to much of the new behavior if they wish to continue using Lion, there is now an answer for several common gripes: Lion Tweaks. Developed by “Fredrik W,” Lion Tweaks allows users to dial back some of the improvements that are common sources of agony, including the new spelling correction feature, a bunch of annoying animations and more. Lion Tweaks is at version 1.2 right now, and it looks like the app is being actively developed, so we can hopefully expect new capabilities soon. Hit the break to download the utility from the developer’s site.

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Apple’s upcoming “iTunes Replay” service is indeed in the works, but the company has yet to sign “cloud agreements” with at least four of the top-six film studios in Hollywood that are necessary in order to launch the service, CNET News reports. As such, the site calls earlier reports that suggested an imminent launch premature. Apple is reportedly working on a service that will allow iTunes users to stream and re-download movies purchased through iTunes. Such a service would require Apple to sign new licensing agreements with motion picture studios in order to secure the appropriate rights that would allow Apple to serve content from the cloud and to multiple devices. According to CNET News, negotiations for these rights could “drag on for months.” The report also mentions a possible hurdle for Apple: HBO. HBO has agreements in place that grant it exclusive digital distribution rights to new movies from three of the six major film studios — 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. — for a certain period of time. HBO’s deals have caused problems for streaming services in the past, and it looks like Apple could be the latest victim.

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Apple is preparing to launch a new service that will allow iTunes users to re-download previously purchased music, movies and TV shows for free, AppAdvice reports. The service may also support some streaming functionality according to the report, though such functionality may be limited. In the past, iTunes users who lose content from their libraries were forced to either purchase the content again or essentially beg and plead with Apple customer service until they agreed to assist with free content restoration. This ridiculous practice is now in the process of coming to an end. AppAdvice claims to have confirmed the imminent launch of the iTunes Reply service with multiple sources, and such an offering has rumored to have been in the works from Apple for quite some time. According to the report, we can expect iTunes Replay to “go public in the coming weeks.”

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Research In Motion on Tuesday announced a major milestone for its on-device software portal BlackBerry App World: 1 billion downloads served. ”The BlackBerry App World storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps,” RIM’s Alex Kinsella wrote on the company’s blog. “BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads per day, and we recently crossed the 1 billion app download milestone!” While the achievement is still impressive, RIM did confirm to BGR that the 1 billion figure includes application updates, however, and not just initial application downloads.

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We were one of the first publications with a dedicated iPhone app years back, but since then the app has become a little… stale. Well, we’re back with a brand new BGR app for the iPhone and it’s completely redone from the ground up. For starters, you’re able to view the most important stories right on the first tab, in addition to all recent articles as well. We have full gallery viewing built-in, along with the ability to just view your favorite category so you only see the news you want. There’s also support for sharing via Twitter, Facebook and email, and best of all — push notifications for breaking news alerts. We made the app in partnership with Sourcebits, one of our favorite mobile development companies. The app is live in the App Store now as a free update for iPhone and iPod touch devices, and we’re working on an iPad version in addition to an Android app. Hit us with feedback in the comments so you can help shape the next update of BGR for iPhone; we promise the next update won’t take so long.

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According to a new report from research firm IDC, annual mobile app downloads are expected to jump from just 10.7 billion in 2010 to 182.7 billion in 2015. The company noted that that developers should keep a close eye on in-app purchases as the primary focus for monetizing applications – a far different approach than the standard method of relying on the initial app purchase. “This shift is most evident in the free app category, where in-app purchases allow users to buy a more functional version of the app or to turn on additional features,” the report said. “In this instance, the mobile apps space is largely emulating the success of mobile games that have long incorporated in-game purchases of additional levels, features, and functionalities as a key revenue source.” IDC argued that ad-supported applications and those that offer in-app purchase options must continue to keep users attracted over time. “The user sustainability trifecta of social networking, location, and the cloud are now increasingly being supported by the business model financial trifecta of application store purchases, in-app purchasing, and in-app advertising,” said Scott Ellison, vice president of mobile and connected consumer platforms at IDC.  Read on for the full release.

IDC Forecasts Nearly 183 Billion Annual Mobile App Downloads by 2015: Monetization Challenges Driving Business Model Evolution

28 Jun 2011

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., June 28, 2011 – Mobile app downloads are forecast to soar from 10.7 billion in 2010 to 182.7 billion in 2015, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC). While this number is impressive, the even bigger story behind the numbers is an impending shift away from the current, near-total reliance upon initial app download purchases as the primary focus of app monetization to a rapidly growing focus on in-app purchasing to fund business models.

This shift is most evident in the free app category, where in-app purchases allow users to buy a more functional version of the app or to turn on additional features. In this instance, the mobile apps space is largely emulating the success of mobile games that have long incorporated in-game purchases of additional levels, features, and functionalities as a key revenue source. This shift became very evident in January with the Appcelerator/IDC 1Q11 Mobile App Developer Survey Report, in which developers reported dramatically increased plans to incorporate in-app purchasing, mobile advertising, and mobile commerce in their apps.

“App developers are not only focusing on ways to ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds, they are now focusing on longer term sustainability issues,” noted Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile and Connected Consumer Platforms. “The user sustainability trifecta of social networking, location, and the cloud are now increasingly being supported by the business model financial trifecta of application store purchases, in-app purchasing, and in-app advertising.”

Business models that seek to include in-app purchasing and in-app advertising must, by definition, further engage users, both within the app itself and over time. Together these dynamics are driving significant shifts in how apps are conceptualized, the integration of additional services and features like social networking and location to more deeply engage users, and how apps are actually developed in terms of incorporating in-app purchasing.

The IDC study, Worldwide and U.S. Mobile Applications, Storefronts, Developer, and In-App Advertising 2011-2015 Forecast: Emergence of Postdownload Business Models (IDC #228221), provides IDC’s current and best estimates for the rapidly evolving mobile applications market. The report includes a forecast of annual downloads and revenues for mobile applications, OS-affiliated storefronts, and independent distributors both worldwide and in the United States. Mobile application developer revenue projections are further divided into app unit sales, in-app purchasing, and in-app advertising. IDC’s outlook on this market is informed by continuous conversations with a wide variety of players in the mobile app marketplace.. Other sources of information include company financial and product announcements, and the Appcelerator/IDC Mobile Developer Report, a quarterly survey of Appcelerator’s 70,000+ mobile app developer base.

Mozilla on Tuesday finally issued the new public release version of its wildly popular Web browser, Firefox. Version 5 of Firefox wasn’t met with quite the same fanfare as Firefox 4, but the update is a major one nonetheless. Mozilla bills its new browser as being faster than ever with “even more awesomeness,” and we can’t say we disagree. Firefox 5 has received massive improvements aimed at providing speedier performance, and the UI has been redesigned and improved as well. Firefox’s “do not track” feature also works across mobile and desktop platforms now, and Mozilla has improved support for MathML, HTML 5, XHR, and SMIL as well. Other areas targeted by the new build include CSS animation and JavaScript support, and Mozilla has promised more frequent updates so more new features shouldn’t be far off. According to Net Applications, Mozilla’s Firefox browser was used by 21.71% of the global market in May, second only to Internet Explorer’s 54.27% share. Chrome, Safari and Opera rounded out the top-5 with 12.52%, 7.28% and 2.03%, respectively.

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Windows developers around the world had cause for excitement Thursday afternoon as Microsoft finally released a beta version of its Kinect for Windows software development kit. As the name might imply, this new SDK will allow developers to build Windows software that makes use of Microsoft’s popular motion-based controller as a peripheral. The SDK obviously opens the door for Kinect-controlled Windows PC games, but we’re sure Windows developers will find plenty of creative ways to make use of the great technology. Developers can download the SDK beta immediately via the read link below.

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