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WhatsApp says it has 250 million users
Mobile messaging app WhatsApp has hit a huge total of 250 million users, the company has told the Wall Street Journal. A couple of million users these days is no big deal, considering how big the smartphone audience has become, but 250 million users is significant. In fact, it's on par with Twitter or LinkedIn, and nearly the size of Skype. WhatsApp is one of a series of apps that allow users to send text messages back and forth to any device for free. Essentially, it's a "text-over-IP" type of service. That may not sound all that interesting (and again, there are a number of apps that do this, going all the way back to AOL's own Instant Messenger), but sending messages without paying an individual charge is obviously very appealing to a large audience, and WhatsApp has put a lot of those people together on its network. WhatsApp is also notable for charging a US$0.99 premium cost right up front, without any other in-app purchases or hidden fees. With a simple-to-understand, easy-to-use and one-time-pay messaging service, maybe it's easy to see just why WhatsApp is so popular. [via Mashable]
Memorial Day brings lots of great sales on iOS games
Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Here in the US, most of us are celebrating a three-day weekend that also serves as the start of summer, which means BBQs, poolside hangouts and lots and lots of time in the sun. Oh, and it means one more thing these days: iOS game sales (all prices USD)! Card game maker Playdek has an awesome sale on, including Ascension (and its IAP), Nightfall (and its IAP), Penny Arcade: The Card Game and Fluxx all for just 99 cents each. You should definitely pick up one or all of those -- Nightfall is complicated, but it's probably my favorite. Puzzlejuice is on sale for 99 cents; it's a really brilliantly designed word puzzle game. EA Mobile has a huge sale on, featuring more than 55 games either 99 cents or free. Some choice picks: Tetris Blitz, The Sims 3 for 99 cents, Need for Speed: Most Wanted for 99 cents, and NBA Jam also for just under a buck. Plague Inc is down to just 99 cents. High Voltage's great Zoombies: Animales de la Muerte just recently appeared on the App Store, but it's already on sale for 99 cents. The great board game adaptation Small World for iPad is down to just $2.99. This is an especially good deal, because the game's about to get a big update for free. WELDER is on sale for free. So is Pocket Heroes and Angry Birds Space. I didn't think AVP Evolution was that great a game, but it's only 99 cents right now. Penumbear is an excellent and beautiful platformer that's only 99 cents as well. Adventure Bar Story, which is a bar simulator set in a fantasy RPG world, is on sale for free. The excellent puzzle game Sporos is free. There's plenty of games for you to play, and we'll probably see even more sales go on over the rest of this weekend. Stay tuned for more updates on app and game sales, and you can always follow us on Twitter at @TUAW for up-to-the-minute sale tips!
Carmageddon free, The Incident and more on sale
Just in time for the weekend, here's a few apps that have dropped their (already cheap) prices even lower, meaning that you've got plenty to play here for just a few bucks' worth (all prices USD). The PC classic turned iOS port Carmageddon has gone completely free for today only. The Incident is on sale for 99 cents. The Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders flight-simulation title has dropped down to just a buck. Just a few weeks after release, Sega's dropped The House of the Dead: Overkill to just $2.99. The game's not fantastic, but it does have a really innovative shooting mechanic built for iOS. Crazy Taxi is also on sale for 99 cents. Zach Gage's Halcyon is currently completely free to download. Chillingo has dropped Tiny Troopers 2: Special Ops down to free as well. Velocispider is on sale for 99 cents. NetherRealm's impressive Batman: Arkham City Lockdown is just under a dollar, too. Excellent price to try that one out at if you haven't. Cavern is a roguelike RPG with some good buzz that's on sale for $1.99. Big Fish Games' cute and polished point-and-click adventure title Fetch is only $2.99. That's just a buck off the usual price, but the game's well worth it. Finally, the retro arcade space shooter Plasma Sky is also available for free right now. Personally, I'm still enjoying Firaxis' free Haunted Hollow, but I'm loading up a few of these on my iPad as well. Enjoy!
EA launches its big holiday sale, more cheap apps as well
You knew this was coming. We've seen big App Store sales all week, and of course EA had to get in on the deals at some time. The company that essentially started the trend of big holiday sales is back, featuring tons of high profile apps for just a buck. Basically, if there's anything EA you want, go grab it now. Highlights include Mass Effect Infiltrator, Tetris for iPad, Plants vs. Zombies, Fifa Soccer 13, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and more (ooh, NBA Jam too). EA says it has 99 games available for US$0.99, so there's probably something in there worth spending a buck on. Elsewhere, the excellent Arc Squadron is free thanks to Touch Arcade's Free Play program. Real Boxing is also down to a buck, Infinity Blade is 99 cents and the sequel is $2.99. And while this one isn't an app, it's worth mentioning that the to-do list Clear is also on sale for a buck. Stay tuned. The App Store freeze starts on Friday, and the main goal for most of these developers is to get their apps listed in the top charts when the freeze goes into effect. So we've got one more full day to see big sales like this and the resulting boost for these apps.
Daily iPhone App: Sleepwalker's Journey
Sleepwalker's Journey is a game that arrived a few months ago from 11 Bit Studios, the creators of the popular Anomaly: Warzone Earth (that's set for a sequel very soon). But while that game is a reverse tower defense title with military stylings and lots of gunfire and explosions, Sleepwalker's Journey is very different. It's a physics puzzle game, of sorts, with a cute, sleepy character and some gorgeous storybook picture graphics. The idea is that the sleepwalker is traveling along a 2D stage, and it's your job to lift up platforms and pull down switches as it goes, allowing him to grab stars and moons to be collected for points. The game is actually very similar to Anomaly, in that you don't have any direct control over the players, but instead you put various things in or out of their path to guide them. Sleepwalker's Journey is fun, but the aesthetic is the real draw here -- the graphics and the music are really top-notch. I think the upcoming Anomaly Korea will be very impressive as well, but if you want a taste of 11 Bit's work before that one arrives, Sleepwalker's Journey is available right now for US$0.99.
Lots of apps on sale for Valentine's Day: Dungeon Defenders, Quarrel, more
Yes, it's Valentine's Day, but even if you're lonely and forlorn without love, there's good news: A bunch of iOS developers have put their apps on sale! The great Quarrel Deluxe is available for only 99 cents. Don't pass this one up if you haven't grabbed it yet -- it's a really quality word game with a lot of polish and great design. Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave is on sale for just a buck as well. Return7 is having a sale on the App Store, with both Debt Minder and Bill Minder on sale for up to 50% off. High end shooter Warm Gun is just $1.99 today. Hypership Out of Control is completely free today. Race of Champions is just a buck. Psychoban HD is also on sale for a dollar. The great 2D pirating adventure Plunderland is free for download. Dungeon Hunter Alliance for Mac is just 99 cents on the Mac App Store. Trainz for iPad is still on sale for 99 cents. BattleLand has gone free. iPad zombie shooter End Night has gone on sale for 99 cents. Interesting music title Frederic: Resurrection of Music is also just a buck. So there's quite a few apps to keep you busy this evening, even if you don't happen to have a date to go out with.
iOS deals begin, App Store freeze coming Thursday
And so it begins -- the App Store has its busiest time of the year over the Christmas holiday, when iPhones and iPads and iTunes gift cards are unwrapped under the Christmas tree, and millions of people take to the App Store to pick up some great apps. There are lots of sales coming out this week. We'll have more posts each day, and stay tuned to our Twitter account for even more. Velocispider is free right now. ComicBook! is down to just 99 cents. Sesame Street's Monster at the End of this Book (starring Grover, of course) is only 99 cents right now as well. 1Password for iPad is on sale for $5.99, well worth it according to fans of the app. The micro version of Sword and Sworcery is just 99 cents, while the universal version is $1.99. EA's mobile sale continues -- Trenches 2 is currently on sale for just a buck, along with more than a hundred other EA titles. Odds are that if EA makes it, you can get it for cheap this week. Sega also has a big 99 cent sale going on, with Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Gunstar Heroes, and many other titles available for just a buck. Gameloft's also got a nice library of titles on sale, including the Gameloft Action Pack of games. And so does Square Enix, but those games have only dropped a few bucks to around $4.99 to $11.99, rather than down to 99 cents. Still, Final Fantasy Tactics for $11.99 is not a bad deal if you've been waiting for it to drop. Firemint (through EA) has Spy Mouse on sale for a buck. You've bought that one already, right? Readdle's got a sale going on its apps, including ReaddleDocs for iPad on sale tomorrow for $2.99. Happy Hills has gone free for a limited time. Big Fish Games is having a huge sale on most of its titles starting tomorrow -- there's a lot of good stuff in there, including Drawn: The Painted Tower for cheap, and Azada HD as well. In Case of Fire is free through the holidays. That's just the beginning -- stay tuned all through the week for more deals on lots of different apps and games around the App Store. Everything will likely be sorted by Thursday (as that's when developers become unable to make any more price or app changes), but before then, we'll see lots and lots of apps on sale, no doubt.
Daily iPhone App: Pigs in Trees
If you're anything like me, you probably overlooked Pigs in Trees when it came out a little while ago, thinking it was more of an Angry Birds knockoff than anything else. And you'd be forgiven for thinking that -- it indeed features cute pigs fighting attacking birds, with lots of silly music and sounds. Clearly the developers were influenced by Rovio's hit, if not actually trying to rip it off. That's unfortunate, to a certain extent, because Pigs in Trees is actually a very different game. It's a line drawing real-time strategy title, which has you guiding planes (with, yes, pigs in them) after targets that are incoming to an airfield. I almost wish the creators had been a little more creative with their art and style, because the game is much more original and even interesting than it looks. Like Flight Control, you're guiding multiple planes around by line drawing on the screen, but unlike Flight Control, the pigs will fire on incoming birds when they get close. Things start slow, but soon you're running a pretty intense battle around the map, using power-ups to try and hold off the invading hordes. It's fun, and even a bit challenging, especially if you really try to min/max the combo system. Full Game Center integration keeps the game playing even after you've cleared all 60 levels, and the devs are including new content as quickly as they can. You may have missed Pigs in Trees last month on arrival, but if it sounds interesting, you should give it another chance at the US 99 cent price. This definitely isn't Angry Birds, even if the icon and art style makes it look so.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Haunted Manor: Lord of Mirrors
We've posted about Big Fish Games before. It's a casual gaming company that has produced a ton of titles for the PC already, and it's in the process of both bringing those over to iOS and creating an original library of titles for Apple's mobile devices. This weekend, Big Fish is having a sale on the App Store, with nearly all of its titles dropping down to just 99 cents on the iPhone and US$1.99 on the iPad. So now's the time to pick any of these up if you haven't yet. If you're not sure which one to get, Haunted Manor is a good choice. Like a lot of the games, it's sort of a puzzle/adventure title, using casual interactions like hidden item and mix and match puzzles to move through a very well-rendered environment. The game's never too tough, but if you get stuck, there's a forgiving hint system to help push you along. Game Center integration is a nice bonus as well. If you haven't heard of these games or haven't wanted to jump in and try them just yet, here's your chance.
Lots of App Store sales going on this weekend
I can't think of anything really special about this weekend (though GDC is coming up next week), but quite a few app developers have put their apps on sale for some reason. Here are some of the deals in Apple's App Stores this weekend: 148Apps has a list of free apps, including an interesting card game called Shadow Era. Gameloft has put its whole library on sale, more or less, for just 99 cents each. iSlash is completely free over the weekend. The great Lemmings-like Spirits (and its iPad counterpart) are on sale for 99 cents as well. The minimalist writing app, WriteRoom, is on sale on the Mac App Store for just $4.99. It's usually $24.99, but this sale is a great deal, designed for those who already have a WriteRoom license to transfer their purchase over to the MAS. An app called FX Photo Studio has dropped its price to 99 cents, and Translation Fire, which will do a variety of translations for you, is free for the next few days. Finally, Grokion, which does a pretty good impression of a Metroid game on iOS, has also gone free for GDC. Here's one more late arrival: Battleheart is on sale for the amazing price of 99 cents. That's a must-buy at that price -- here's why. Some great deals in there for sure. As always, stay tuned to our Twitter and Facebook pages, as we tweet and share great App Store sales and deals all the time.
Valentine's Day specials coming to the App Store
Ah, Valentine's Day, when Spring is just around the corner, love is in the air, and ... iOS games are on sale for 99 cents? Apparently -- since the holiday is largely made up by gift card retailers anyway, a bunch of big iOS developers are putting their games on sale for just a buck over the weekend. If you've been waiting to pick up games by Electronic Arts or Gameloft, this coming weekend will be your chance. There are actually multiple reasons for this -- not only is it Valentine's Day, but a lot of folks are receiving their new Verizon iPhones this weekend, so there's a lot of incentive to sell some games and break into the top paid and free app charts. We can probably expect to hear about more sales as the week goes on. Some games are also updating for Valentine's Day -- both Angry Birds and Cut the Rope have updates planned or shipping already, and we'll probably see a few more of those as well. Flower Garden is also going free starting Thursday for the holiday. Just be careful -- if your Valentine catches you playing any of this new content during your date next Monday, the rest of February might be a little more lonely for you.
Sega puts titles on sale for back-to-school, releases Phantasy Star II on iOS
Just in time for the days of, well, skipping out on video games and getting back to the books, Sega has decided to try and tempt you away from that schoolwork by dropping prices across the board on its iOS games. Golden Axe, Shining Force, Streets of Rage and Ecco the Dolphin are all on sale for just US$0.99, and the Super Monkey Ball and Sonic the Hedgehog games are on sale for just a few bucks as well. Phantasy Star II is worth mentioning on its own. Sega just released the game on iOS today, and for my money (only $2.99 during this sale!), there's no better Genesis-era RPG. Seriously, if you are a fan of the console RPG genre at all, this one's a must buy. The story's fun, the gameplay is excellent, and having the title on the App Store is a real treat. Shining Force is a great game, and Streets of Rage is a fun title to have around for just a buck, but if you buy one game during this sale (which lasts through September 1st -- thanks, Sega!), I'd recommend Phantasy Star II.
TUAW's Daily App: Corkbin
I've been trying (pretty unsuccessfully) to become a smarter wine drinker for a while now, and Corkbin might just push me over the top. This elegantly designed app is set up to help you track and chart the wines that you drink, learn how to classify them, and share reviews with friends and fellow iPhone users around you. The idea is that every time you try a new wine, you snap a picture of the label and leave a short note about what you had it with, how it tasted, or where you got it. Then, later on, at the liquor store or when out at a restaurant, you can pull up "that wine we tried last week," and you'll know exactly what it was. It's simple, but it's perfect for people like me who aren't wine experts and need a little help remembering exactly what that last bottle was called. Unfortunately, the app isn't perfect; I don't like that you must log in on startup, and there are quite a few features (like a wine database or the ability to browse friends' wines rather than just "nearby" check-ins) that seem like they would be awesome but are still missing from the app. The basic functionality of tracking your own wines is well worth the 99 cent price, though. Maybe this will finally give me the method I need to start developing a more refined wine palate.
Developers on avoiding the 99 cent App Store price
I've become a big fan of game developer Capy (formerly Capybara) in the past few months -- their releases of Critter Crunch on iPhone [iTunes link] and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS have won me over quickly. But I'm not sure I agree completely with their co-founder, Nathan Vella, about what he says in this Gamasutra interview. His opinion is that the push towards the 99 cent price on the App Store is "the single most frustrating and terrible thing about App Store pricing." He says the dollar price point is stifling, and he praises developers like Canabalt's Adam Saltsman for sticking with a higher price point even when their games are simple. I do agree with Vella on one thing: no developer should sell an app for less than it is worth, and dropping to 99 cents to increase sales doesn't work anyway. But certainly there's a place for 99 cent apps on the store, and I know personally that a 99 cent price point will open me up to try apps I'm not sure about, especially apps that I might be interested in but that don't offer a free trial. Clive Downie of ngmoco says as much later in the article: it's about the balance between providing choice for your customer and supporting yourself as a developer. In the end, Vella knows what he's doing: he doesn't say that 99 cents is always the wrong price, but that you should always stick to your guns and ask your customers to pay the right price. If a game is worth $4.99, or $6.99, or even $9.99, developers will find that customers who care about the quality are willing to pay for it. [via IGN]
How to sell an iPhone app for $9.99
Marco over on the Instapaper blog (which, of course, is the blog of the app Instapaper), posted a really interesting commentary recently on a subject we've been following since the beginning: App Store pricing. As we've said before, it's a strange thing -- developers want higher prices so that they can put more effort into making iPhone apps better. But customers have a perception already that anything above $5 in the App Store just isn't worth it.So Marco offers his take: he's been selling an app in the store for $9.99, and it's going just fine. He has tips for how developers can sell their own apps for a higher price, and he settles on some good compromises for everybody: deliver a real value with your app (as economists know, an app is worth what people are wiling to pay for it, so if you produce an app that is worth $10, people will happily spend that much). Respect yourself as a developer, and don't cower to cheapskates (some people won't be happy with anything, even when it's free). And perhaps most importantly: offer a free version.That last one may be the key -- our own Michael Rose was sold on Instapaper only when he tried it out. More and more, I'm thinking that it was a major mistake on Apple's part not to allow developers to easily offer demos and upgrades in the same app -- people are willing to spend money on an app that's worth it, but not if they aren't sure, and trying it goes a long way to making sure. I'm not in favor of app store developers banding together to raise prices, but Marco is right: if you make an app that's worth $10 and put it on the App Store for $9.99 (with an easy way to demo it out), people will come and buy it.
Apple officially cuts DRM-free track prices to $.99
In a move which can only be described as unsurprising, Apple has officially announced plans to lower the price of its iTunes Plus offerings (AKA iTunes sans-DRM) to $.99, instead of the higher-priced premium of $1.29. Old Jobsy claims that the decision was made due to the popularity of the unlocked, higher quality tracks with customers, saying, "It's been very popular with our customers, and we're making it even more affordable." Of course, it also seems likely that iTunes and Apple are feeling the burn from the new wave of DRM-free music providers, like Amazon, and the persistent rumors / news of former playmate Universal amassing an "anti-iTunes" which could seriously compete with the Cupertino monolith's business. Sure, it's the third-largest retailer of music in the US, but there's always someone creeping up from behind -- just ask Irv Gotti.Update: Apple press release makes it really, really, super duper official.
The 99 cent iPhone (and the $99 Nano)
Wanna buy an iPhone for 99 cents? You probably missed your chance. Apparently 99 Cent Only stores in California are having a big 25th anniversary party, and this morning, at their store in Westchester, CA, they sold 9 iPhones to the first 9 customers for only 99 cents each.That can't quite be legal, considering that Apple and AT&T have paid a lot of money to make sure you get the iPhone from them, but of course it's just a fun contest to promote the store's anniversary. Unfortunately, if you missed your chance this morning, the prizes go downhill fast-- a Friends VHS set and cordless powered scissors are among the options for Friday. Wait a minute, "cordless powered scissors"? That sounds pretty cool, actually.Of course, the 99 cent store isn't the only place you can find good deals-- Adam dropped us a heads up that Nanos are being sold in Apple's refurbished store for only 99... ok, well, dollars. But a 2gb Nano for 99 bucks is as cheap as you'll find it.Thanks, Matt and Adam!
