AppleInsider Staff
A select number of featured apps on the iOS App Store are seeing a new section titled "App Store Notes," with the top box containing a short blurb in which Apple offers its take on the software.
While the new feature hasn't rolled out across the board, notes MacRumors, a few featured and top-rated apps now contain the App Store Notes section as part of the Details tab, making it one of the first things users see when browsing titles. Previously, screenshots of the app were located at the top of Details, followed by a developer description, patch notes and basic specification information.
An example of the change can be seen in the above screenshot of Apple's latest "Editor's Choice" app Vine, the Twitter-owned video clip-sharing service that launched on Thursday.
App Store Notes for Vine:
We can't decide what's more fun: shooting and sharing our own six-second splices of life or browsing the loopy video creations of others. Whatever the answer, our interest is piqued by this innovative combination of short-form video creation and social networking.
Interestingly, App Store Notes do not show up on a selected app's iTunes preview page or the desktop iTunes client, though this might change as the new feature continues its rollout in the following weeks.
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
7 Comments
This seems like bad (social) design to me. They have the App descriptions from the developers to tell you what the app is about, and the user reviews to tell you how good/bad it is. Both of these suck because most developers don't put anything close to a clear simple description of their product up and most reviews are trash like "Awesome!" or ""Sucks!" So instead of fixing those problems by forcing the app developers to properly describe the product, or making sure that only quality reviews get posted, they provide a third layer of description on top of the two original failed layers?! WTF? Just make the app designer describe the app in 300 characters or less, and force them to put it at the top of the page. Then eliminate all reviews less than a paragraph or containing junk and other foolishness, and you wouldn't have to "fix" it by adding the new layer on top.
Nice, Apple offers its take instead of using the developers description, that's pretty sneaky and gives Apple more control of their environment- which they tend to like =)
It has a lot of potential to let Apple clarify things and make picking apps easier for their users:
Google Maps- "A mapping app."
Apple Maps- "Inspired by Steve Jobs! Utilizes vector based maps and displays stunning images of the world! Find local points of interest, see real time traffic, and get turn by turn navigation directions!"
A fairly amazing invention actually, is a patent in the works?
I wonder if 'the inventor of SMS' Mr. Hillebrand will sue; I thought he had a patent on this [I]multimedia SMS[/I] thing http://www.hillebrand-partners.com
Also, the language/region filtering on reviews, especially on ratings, is badly broken if you are not from the US.
Many, if not most, apps are completely language agnostic, and if the ratings/reviews that are visible to you are severely restricted to your language/region, then they are nearly useless. Even though many people would greatly benefit from also having access to the English/language (or Spanish, or any widely spoken language).
If one belongs to a smaller language/region, one often sees statistically insignificant ratings (and only a few blatantly beside-the-point reviews), and is FORCED TO SWITCH to the US Apple Store to see relevant ratings/reviews.
Most irritatingly, if you switch stores, you lose your context. After finally having found a worthwhile app, switching back to your own store, you lose your context once again. I am sure a number of potential buyers are detracted in the process.
Apple, PLEASE, fix the language/region filtering on ratings/reviews. At least make it configurable so a user can at least include the English language/US data. I myself have no trouble reading English, French, Dutch, German and Spanish. All I can see on my own (Belgian) Apple Stores is a mixture of Belgian reviews in Dutch and French (not even the French reviews from France, nor the Dutch reviews from the Netherlands).