After years of beta releases, Nuance has released Swype Keyboard on Google Play. It’s currently available for $0.99 cents, with no additional in-app purchases.

Swype became famous as one of the first touchscreen keyboards to allow input by sliding your finger across the letters of the word, opposed to tapping for each individual letter, space  and punctuation mark. Swype has seen numerous competitors release keyboard apps with similar features, but Swype’s extensive language list, customization options, smart autocorrect, and number of gestures, have allowed Swype to stand out from its competition. When first opened, Swype will walk users through its basic functions, set up customization, and download any requested language packs. From there, it’s all a matter of choosing the preferred input method and getting acclimated to the system.

Swype has quite a few input methods, but the one that stands out is swiping. Presented with a standard QWERTY keyboard, users will place their finger on the first letter of a word, and then drag across each following letter. When the word is complete, users will lift their finger to indicate a space and begin swiping the next word. Punctuation and capitalization can be done by tapping the appropriate keys or by swiping the appropriate gestures. Gestures are frequently used to make up for the areas where Swype may become confused, such as capitalizing proper nouns or ending a sentence. Some gestures are quick and simple, like swiping from “x” to the space key, which creates an exclamation point. Other gestures take a bit more time, and may require selecting an option from the predictive text menu. (more…)

Swedish independent game developer Mojang today announced that Minecraft – Pocket Edition surpassed the 10 million sales mark as of yesterday.

“We are very thankful to all the support that we have gotten and people playing and talking about our game,” says Daniel Kaplan, business developer at Mojang, in a blog post today.

Minecraft – Pocket Edition is the mobile version of the sandbox indie title that first launched in 2009. The premium-priced mobile game app. which is priced at $6.99 and features no in-app purchases, has remained in the top 25 on the top grossing iOS and Android apps charts for months, despite competing against the slew of free-to-play games like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans that take up a majority of the top spots on the charts.

Pocket Edition released in late 2011 and is currently available for iOS and Android, and has remained at the same price point since launch.

At the beginning of 2013, Mojang released download figures for its sandbox building game on PC, Mac, Xbox Live Arcade and mobile. Downloads for Minecraft – Pocket Edition exceeded 280,000 on Christmas Day alone, 700,000 during Christmas week and 5.8 million in all of 2012. Assuming the title sold at $6.99 at all times in 2012, Mojang generated more than $41 million in gross revenue (before the app stores standard 30 percent cut).

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Minecraft – Pocket Edition for iOS is the No. 4 ranked app on both the iPhone and iPad top paid apps charts, and ranked No. 4 on the top grossing iPad apps chart and No. 18 on the top grossing iPhone apps chart. For Android, Pocket Edition landed at the No. 4 spot on the top paid Android apps chart and the No. 24 position on the top grossing Android apps chart.

Handy Photo is a new iOS app from Adva Soft. It’s available now as a $1.99 download from the App Store, with no additional in-app purchases.

Handy Photo positions itself as a semi-professional photo-editing solution for iOS, and the difference between this and the numerous low-quality, cheaply-produced, ad-supported free photography apps is apparent almost as soon as you start using it. This is a powerful piece of software, and with everything it’s capable of, $1.99 is a very reasonable price indeed.

Handy Photo caters to a wide variety of skill levels ranging from the Instagram enthusiast who just wants to apply grungy filters to their photos, to those who have experience with fine-tuning their images using an array of common adjustments. While Handy Photo does not provide the level of depth that, say, Photoshop does, its tools are powerful enough to have a very pronounced and positive effect on one’s image.

Using Handy Photo requires that the user first either take a picture with the camera or import an image. Depending on what hardware they are using, the software supports images of up to 36 megapixel resolution — this is only possible on the very latest iOS devices (i.e. iPhone 5, iPad 3 and iPad 4), however. Previous-generation hardware still fares respectably in the resolution stakes, however — the iPhone 4, 4S and 5th-generation iPod touch can handle images up to 10MP in size; the iPad 2 and iPad mini can work with images up to 15MP in size; and even the 3GS, 4th-generation iPod touch and first-generation iPad are catered to with support for resolutions up to 5MP.

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Editor’s Note: Earlier this week, Apple booted out app discovery service AppGratis, which promotes paid apps by offering one for free everyday, from the Apple App Store for violating clause 2.25 of Apple’s App Review Guidelines, which states that “Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.” The app also violated clause 5.6, which states that “Apps cannot use Push Notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind.” VentureBeat reported that Apple reached out to AppGratis last Friday, informing the company that it was welcome to change its app and resubmit it. AppGratis CEO Simon Dawlat said in a company blog post that there were no discussions between Apple and AppGratis in advance of the Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered corporation removing the app. Dawlat (who also explained the full story of how AppGratis got pulled) said he did eventually speak with an Apple employee over the phone and does want to speak further with Apple.

With all that said, in today’s guest post from Noya Polliack, marketing director at Side-Kick Games, a developer of family and mid-core games, says that despite discoverability being a huge issue for app developers in the crowded mobile app market, AppGratis is the latest example of Apple being keen on clamping down on any apps that violate its policies.

Six months after adding clause 2.25 to Apple’s App Review Guidelines, AppGratis finds itself outside of the best store in town – Apple’s App Store.

AppGratis is the second app banned from the App Store due to the new guidelines which restrict apps from providing pure app promotion services. These Apps usually function as app recommendation services and/or alert users when discounts are available. Among this type of apps are FreeAppADay, Appoday, Daily App Dream, Appsfire and more. Earlier in December, the popular AppShopper app was removed from the Apple App Store.

Both AppGratis and AppShopper offered developers burst campaigns — massive traffic in a short period of time. The result of these campaigns is usually high ranking in the Apple App Store for a few days. This method of app promotion is used by many developers in order to overcome the number one problem in the crowded app market today — discoverability.

At the moment there are still plenty of other discovery apps, which offer third-party promotions. While Apple’s next move is unknown, it’s definitely an issue that app developers should address.

Is Apple acting in the users’ best interest?

One of the reasons the new clause was added is that by attracting millions of users, third-party aggregators like AppGratis allow a way for developers to spend their way to the top 25, violating the Apple App Store’s purity. However, big game development studios that can afford to create a marketing buzz before they launch their app can be accused of doing just the same. While these well known studios get the media’s attention and use their apps portfolio to cross promote their new app, indie developers with a low marketing budget and a single app stay behind. Sadly, the outcome is that many new great apps are not visible to iOS users.

It’s also important to remember that burst campaigns can be executed using different user acquisition tactics such as web-based affiliate networks, ad networks and user acquisition networks. Since all of these sources use in-app ads to promote other apps, we can expect to see the mobile ads market growing faster than expected.

As Apple’s ranking algorithm remains a mystery, it’s known that the number of downloads plays a key factor in Apple’s app store ranking. Since app installs can be acquired one way or another, it only seems fair that users’ experience and rating will have a much stronger influence on apps’ ranking.

Looking at Apple’s latest moves — adding clause 2.25, clamping down on incentivized apps downloads, changing the Apple App Store’s look and the unknown magic formula of how to get featured — it’s clear that Apple is keen to stay “hands on” picking the “right” apps for its users.

Bokeh Photo FX is a new iOS app from independent developer Kai Qian Chen. It’s available now as a free ad-supported download from the App Store, and also has a premium paid version available for $1.99.

Bokeh Photo FX is a simple photo manipulation app that allows users to apply various “bokeh” and “light-painting” effects to their images, then share them via social media. The free version carries 60 different effects, while the paid “Pro” version has over 200.

Using Bokeh Photo FX is a simple matter of choosing to either start by taking a photo with the device’s camera or load an image from the photo library. Once this is done, the user is presented with all of the available effects and may then begin applying them one at a time by tapping them. Upon tapping an effect, it appears in the middle of the image at a default size, and can then be adjusted in several ways. Moving the effect can be achieved by dragging it with a single finger, while resizing is accomplished by pinching. The individual effect may be deleted by tapping a cross button at the top of the screen, or all effects may be deleted by tapping a similar cross button at the bottom of the screen. Multiple effects may be layered and reordered using the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and individual effects’ saturation and opacity can be adjusted with an “edit” button at the top of the screen. There is no “masking” function to selectively apply parts of particular effects — images are simply layered atop the original image.

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Weathercube is an iOS app from Appsuperb. It’s been available since late last year, but has since been updated several times and is currently enjoying a feature spot as Apple’s App of the Week, which means it is temporarily free at the time of writing. It’s available now as a Universal download from the App Store.

Weathercube describes itself as a “gestural weather” app and has clearly been taking some rather heavy cues from Realmac Software’s excellent minimalist task manager Clear. The whole aesthetic of the app — not to mention the gestural control system and the high degree of audio-visual polish despite the simplistic presentation — is strongly reminiscent of Clear, but since Clear was widely lauded for the way it looked and felt to use, this isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, the gestural controls and minimalist presentation work extremely well with Weathercube — for the most part, anyway.

Upon opening Weathercube for the first time, the user is given an initial tutorial of the app’s main features, where they are introduced to the various controls and different screens which can be accessed. Following this, they are taken to the app’s main screen, where they can see a summary of the day’s weather in their current location. Individual segments of the screen can be tapped on to view additional information such as what the weather is expected to be like at various times of day, the city name at the top may be swiped left or right to switch between different cities the user has set up in the app, and swiping elsewhere on the screen allows forecasts for other days to be viewed. There appears to be a bug in this feature; rotating the cube to view the information for “now” occasionally causes the screen to black out instead of displaying the information. This did not happen consistently, however; closing and restarting the app stopped it from happening again.

Rotating the cube downwards by swiping from top to bottom changes the display to a six-day forecast; rotating it in the other direction shows a more detailed daily forecast with specific times, conditions, temperatures and expected rainfall. Using two fingers to “open” the cube vertically (or tapping in the center of the screen) allows the user to access the settings menu, while using two fingers to “open” it horizontally allows weather conditions to be shared on Facebook or Twitter as an image.

The settings menu allows users to choose what cities they would like to track the weather for, change the visual theme to one of several different colors, adjust units used for temperatures and other measurements and tweak a number of other settings. A “Tips & Tricks” section also reminds users of important aspects of the app — and also heavily implies that there are a number of hidden secret features in the app. This is another idea borrowed from Clear, which unlocked new visual themes according to the user fulfilling various conditions ranging from completing tasks at certain hours of the day to having other apps installed on their phone.

Weathercube is a good app, but a couple of infrequent bugs mar the experience a little. Aside from the aforementioned “black screen” issue mentioned above, occasionally pinching to close the settings menu doesn’t work properly, instead displaying the animation of the cube closing and then flicking straight back to the settings menu. This can usually be bypassed by rotating the cube rather than pinching it closed, but this is a different gesture to that used for opening the settings menu, so is less intuitive. If these little niggles can be fixed, Weathercube will serve as both an excellent replacement for the default iOS weather app and a great addition to the growing library of “minimalist” apps available on the platform. It’s definitely worth a download while it’s still free, but some of the more glaring bugs need to be fixed before it’s really worth paying money for.

Weathercube is currently ranked at No. 43 in Top Free Apps, No. 16 in Top Free iPad Apps, No. 2 in Top Free Weather Apps and No. 2 in Top Free iPad Weather Apps. Follow its progress with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.

DataMan Pro is an iOS app from XVision. Its latest revision is available now as a $4.99 download from the App Store alongside its slightly less-featured counterpart DataMan Next, which costs $1.99.

DataMan Pro is an app designed to help users take control of their device’s data usage and prevent them going over their monthly data allowance. Upon starting the app for the first time, the user must provide their billing date, their monthly allowance and how much data they have already used that month, and this is then used by the app to calculate usage on an ongoing basis.

The main screen of the app is very simple. It notes how long until the next billing cycle, how much of the user’s allowance has been used as a percentage, and color-codes the screen according to a forecast of whether or not they will be over their limit before the end of the cycle. Green means “safe,” orange means “caution,” and red means “danger.” It also tracks how much data has been used over Wi-Fi in the same period, though this information does not have the same granularity as the mobile data usage statistics.

By default, the app simply tracks cellular and Wi-Fi usage, but by switching into “Advanced mode” the user has the option for greater detail in their reports. In Advanced mode, mobile data usage is broken down on a per-app basis, allowing users to quickly root out which apps are chewing through their data allowance most quickly. Services that make use of data (such as the push, sync and Game Center facilities) are also reported, but in some cases the specific amount of data they have used is not retrieved. Advanced mode also tracks their data usage by location, so they can see, for example, if there are particular locations in which patchy Wi-Fi signal causes them to make more heavy use of cellular data. This feature also allows users to keep track of how much data they have used when abroad — useful for keeping tabs on roaming charges.

The downside of this location-aware mode is that it requires the phone’s GPS system to be constantly active in the background, which is a big drain on battery resources. It’s also not at all clear how to turn it off — quitting the app from the iOS multitasking bar doesn’t appear to achieve this, and there is seemingly no options menu either within the app or the iOS settings menu. In fact, to access the app’s options menu, the user must swipe from right to left on the main screen — something which is not at all obvious.

The options menu provides a variety of settings. If the user’s data plan changes, they may amend the details they initially provided. They can also set up usage alerts at various boundaries, turn Advanced mode on or off, toggle the display of both sent and received data or just received, or reset the app’s statistics altogether.

DataMan Pro is a solid app that performs its function well, and its ease of use means that for heavy data users it will doubtless pay for itself before very long. The only concern with it is that if App Store reviewers are to be believed, the app undergoes frequent revamps that significantly change its functionality — and the most recent of these has actually stripped out a selection of features which many users found to be useful such as weekly, monthly and hourly reports. That said, in its current form it appears to do a good job of accurate data tracking, and is easy enough to set up and use that even technophobes can be up and running in a matter of minutes.

You can follow DataMan Pro’s progress with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.

UPDATE: XVision has provided clarification on a few of the points we mention in our review:

• By design, users can see the usage for each app but not for iOS services. This is an Apple-restriction workaround. You can subtract the apps’ usage from the total usage to get the usage by the iOS services.
•  Users can turn off Advanced Mode inside DataMan’s Settings to stop location tracking. DataMan Pro uses the low-power location services provided by iOS and should not drain the battery.
• App tracking does not require location services. Users can turn off Advanced Mode and location services and still get app stats. XVision is working on revising the help text shown in the Advanced screen.
• The latest DataMan Pro version 6.3 was released after the previous version was removed by Apple. XVision had to remove daily and weekly reporting for this update to bring back DataMan Pro. XVision is working on more updates to address the concerns of users who upgraded.

Write is a new iOS app from independent developer Tanmay Sonawane. It’s currently highlighted in the New section of the App Store’s Productivity category, and is available now for $0.99, though the app’s description suggests the price will be rising soon.

Write is a simple text editor app for iOS that is designed to integrate tightly with the popular Dropbox cloud storage service. It allows users to create text files — optionally using Markdown for formatting — and then save them online.

The app’s interface is simple but elegant, and well-designed for the small screen of the iPhone. As well as the keyboard, a toolbar offers quick access to commonly-used punctuation marks — which are also frequently-used in Markdown syntax — and can be “slid” across the screen to reveal additional formatting options, including both, italic, underline and heading settings along with the ability to add links, quotes and images. The latter may include images imported from a direct URL or the user’s photo library. There is also the option to use the camera to immediately take a new image and add it to the note. The app does not automatically “close” Markdown tags; users must remember to put the appropriate markings in place to stop text being, say, bold.

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Messagegram is a new iOS app from MobileTrends Inc. It’s available now in two formats — a feature-limited, ad-supported free version and a $0.99 Pro version.

Messagegram’s purpose is to allow its users to post “graphical texts” to the popular photo-based mobile-social network Instagram. Using the app, it’s possible to compose a message of up to 140 characters, choose a background and then share it online.

Opening the app prompts users to tap on a button to begin composing. A window appears on screen with a character count (and a banner ad if using the free version). On the next screen, the user is able to preview how their message will look using a variety of different templates, though only a limited selection of these are available in the free version. If the user taps on a “locked” template in the free version, they will be taken to a five-page ad for the Pro version outlining its benefits, and can tap a button to upgrade. Upgrading does not occur via in-app purchase, however — it simply takes the user to the App Store listing of the Pro version and as such the user must start composing their text again when the new version is installed.

Once the user has chosen their template, they see a full-size preview of it as it will appear on Instagram, and then have two options — sharing it to Instagram (which actually simply opens a standard iOS Open With… menu to open the Instagram app, assuming it is installed) or editing it. Editing is a feature limited to Pro users — again, those using the free version of the app will see the five-page ad if they tap on the Edit button.

Editing allows users to customize their message in several ways. The font of the message can be changed from the template’s default, frames can be added, colors customized and graphical stickers added. The Pro version boasts more than 60 backgrounds, 50 fonts, 15 frames and 50 stickers for users to try out; the free version only offers 14 non-customizable templates to use. It would perhaps have been better for the free version of the app to give users a limited taste of how the customization facilities work rather than locking them out altogether — as it stands, it’s not entirely clear what they’re paying for by upgrading to the Pro version. Granted, it is only a $0.99 outlay to find out, but it’s likely that many users would appreciate the opportunity to test-drive these features before paying for them.

The whole Messagegram app is riddled with aspects that could have been made much better with just a little extra thinking through. There’s no real reason that the app should only be able to share to Instagram, for example — posting quotes and motivational messages on attractive graphical backgrounds is particularly popular on networks such as Facebook and Pinterest, so it’s curious as to why these networks are not supported. That said, the app doesn’t even directly interface with the Instagram API — it simply passes the image on to the Instagram app, which must be installed beforehand. There’s also no facility to save images to the device’s camera roll directly from within the app, either, so users without an Instagram account are out of luck if they want to share their creations online.

On the whole, Messagegram is a competent app for those who primarily want to share their creations on Instagram, but limited in its usefulness and very inflexible. It would be better with a wider variety of supported social networks rather than the focus solely on Instagram, and the free version would also benefit from a few additional features to give users a taste of Pro functionality. As it stands, it’s not a bad app as such, but neither is it an essential download.

You can follow the progress of the two versions of MessageGram with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.

Minecraft developer and publisher Mojang recently released download figures for their sandbox building game on PC and Mac, Xbox Live Arcade and mobile version — Pocket Edition — on iOS and Android.

Mojang saw a massive spike in downloads on all platforms during Christmas week, with 283,939 downloads for Minecraft: Pocket Edition on Christmas Day and 706,419 downloads during Christmas week. The mobile version of Minecraft, which is priced at $6.99, saw 5,899,727 total downloads in 2012.

Volume-wise for downloads on Christmas Day, Pocket Edition led all platforms (PC and Mac, Xbox and mobile), with a 62 percent share. For 2012 as a whole, the mobile version of Minecraft also had the largest share at 39 percent.

As for gross revenue on Christmas Day, Minecraft on mobile pulled in $1,984,734 and $41,239,092 million for all of 2012, assuming the title sold at $6.99 for the entire year. Keep in mind that these gross revenue figures for mobile don’t include Apple and Android’s standard 30 percent cut of mobile sales.

Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, has a lot to be happy about right now. According to our traffic tracking service AppData, on iOS Minecraft is the No. 3 ranked top paid iPhone app, the No. 2 ranked top paid iPad app, the No. 3 top grossing iPhone app and the No. 8 ranked top grossing iPad app. On Google’s platform, Pocket Edition landed at the No. 5 spot on the top paid Android apps chart and No. 10 on the top grossing chart.