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A quick, easy guide to making links for Apple's new iTunes Affiliate program
Apple recently announced it would be making some major changes to its Apple Affiliate Program. As of August 19, the program is under the Performance Horizon Group (PHG) network, giving affiliates access to more countries and better reporting tools. Thanks to the update, the program will be able to monetize web traffic from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East, Africa and a large number of countries in Asia. There's just one hitch. Members of the Affiliate Program need to set up a new account and update all of their existing links by October 1, 2013. Thankfully, iOS and Mac developer David Smith has written a delightful walkthrough of the new process for making links for Apple's new program, including how to track your link's performance. The process is simple, and involves simply adding your affiliate token number to the end of your iTunes link, taking something that looks like this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scribblenauts-remix/id444844790?mt=8 And making it look like this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scribblenauts-remix/id444844790?mt=8&at=InsertTokenNumberHere Head over to David's blog for his full run down. Apple has provided their own FAQ about the new process on their site.
Users take to iOS 5.1 surprisingly quickly
Developer David Smith has posted upgrade stats for his users in terms of their adoption to iOS 5.1, and as you can see above, the curve is pretty steep. iOS upgrading has always been sort of an issue for Apple -- in the past, users (I mean outside of the elite readers and staff of TUAW, of course) haven't been quite so willing to upgrade so quickly, and Apple is always trying to push users towards the newest iOS versions for developers' sake. But clearly iOS 5.1 has made a big splash, especially since it's the first big update that's available to download right over the air onto your device, rather than requiring a link up to iTunes on a computer. And outside of the Apple ecosystem, this is still pretty phenomenal: Smith says that in 15 days, the latest version of iOS has just as many users as any single version of Android. That's the fragmentation that developers are trying to avoid with iOS, and that Android is suffering from. The more you can unite your users onto the same platform and operating system, the better chance you have of supporting them all with whatever resources you have. [via MacRumors]
RIM confirms PlayBook OS 2.0 delayed until February, still no BBM in sight
Well, we hope you weren't expecting to have PlayBook 2.0 up and running on your BlackBerry tablet any time soon, cause it's been officially delayed till at least February. Word has come straight from the mouth (well, keyboard) of David Smith, senior vice president for the PlayBook project. In a blog post Smith announced that RIM would be holding back on the release to ensure many of the new features, including native email and enterprise app deployment, work as advertised. The OS update will be getting a decently long beta test, with it rolling out to some in the Early Adopter Program "shortly." Sadly, it seems that some features have fallen by the wayside with the focus on polish -- namely, BBM. Since the messaging service relies on a one-device per-PIN model, getting it on the tablet has proved troublesome. For now users will have to rely on BlackBerry Bridge and their RIM handsets to get their BBM fix. Considering the company's track record, we wouldn't be shocked if the OS update slips even further into the future -- remember an email client was promised within 60 days of launch... that was back in April.
Planet's smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video)
New Jersey's own David Smith is enjoying his 15 minutes right about now, as the world is finally talking about his model train set. You see, this model train set isn't just any model train set. No -- it's probably the world's smallest, most ridiculous and most awesome all at once (all at once). The so-called James River Branch community has been in the works for months on end, and the $11 working locomotive is 35,200 times smaller than a real one. Of course, the moving trains are really just attached to the top of a rotating tube, but you can certainly pretend you never heard that spoiler if you'd like. Check the video after the break -- the kid in you will thank us.
