The Download Blog

Apple has won a patent for the look and feel of its iTunes Store.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published patent 8,161,411 related to a "graphical user interface for browsing, searching, and presenting media items." Apple filed for the patent back in 2004, when the online retail venue was still known as the iTunes Music Store.

The patent appears to be quite broad, but focuses solely on the graphical user interface, and not the way in which people might buy songs on the platform or its general functionality. That said, the patent abstract … Read more

Former Microsoft employees who worked on the ill-fated Courier dual-screen tablet and started their own mobile-development house have found some early success.

Developer FiftyThree announced on its blog yesterday that its sketchpad and ideas app Paper has hit 1.5 million downloads in its first two weeks of availability. In addition, the company said a total of 7 million pages have been created so far with the app.

"To say the response has been overwhelming would be an understatement," FiftyThree wrote on its blog. "For a tool that we made for ourselves, we're thrilled to find … Read more

Adidas' miCoach service, which is essentially its answer to Nike+, will be playing a major role in the Major League Soccer All-Star Game in July.

According to the company, the MLS game will be the world's "first smart soccer match," allowing coaches to track player performance on the pitch. Adidas hasn't revealed too many details on how the service will work, but it appears that coaches will be able to access real-time player statistics, including speed, acceleration, and power output, from a tablet. The software also provides alerts coaches might need to consider.

Although Adidas calls its player-tracking software the "next step in player performance analysis technology," it might make some sport purists take a step back. The kind of information to be made available to the MLS All-Star Game coaches is unlike anything they've had before. And that kind of data could make the game more reliant upon raw data than instinctual decision-making -- a key aspect of soccer since its inception.… Read more

The perpetual running game genre that works so well on touch devices doesn't seem to be winding down anytime soon -- and I, for one, am very glad it keeps getting refreshed with new and unique games.

Running games are perfect for when you need to kill a little time because you can go for your high score a couple of times while waiting in line at the DMV or perhaps while riding the train, but they're not so involved that you can't put them down at a moment's notice. There are plenty of classics to explore in this category, such as Hook Worlds, Monster Dash, and many others, but I thought I would run a little comparison of old vs. new to see where the genre is headed.… Read more

A new interface designed to emphasize creators and book discoverability arrived today in Comixology's Comics app (download).

Comics 3.0 brings to Android the changes that people with iPhones and iPads got last fall. Chief among these is a redesign that allows Comixology to make the app more usable, but in fact the app has been entirely re-coded.

The new layout, download speeds, and searchability are a key part of Comixology's "download once, read anywhere" strategy, co-founder and CEO David Steinberger said in a statement. The app loads noticeably faster than before, offers expanded categories for … Read more

One of the first apps that showed off the power of early iPhones was Shazam, the app that let you hold up your iPhone to "listen" to music playing and could identify the artist and offer you options to buy that music.

Today, Shazam Entertainment announced a new update with Shazam 5.0 that makes the app even better than before. The company says the app now launches a second faster to let you identify media much more quickly. It also can take as little as 1 second to identify media once you touch the button, and even starts "listening" the second you open the app in case you're trying to identify media in a hurry.… Read more

Despite Apple's ostensibly strict rules that prevent inappropriate content from its App Store, DC Entertainment, publisher of such upstanding heroes as Superman and Wonder Woman, is about to sneak through its first dedicated MAD Magazine app.

Not available until Sunday, which is known to watercooler comedians as both April Fools' Day and the birthday of MAD mascot Alfred E. Neuman, the MAD app might surprise you: it's not a waste of time.

Guarantees against it insulting your intelligence, however, have yet to be made.

The app itself will be free and offer some free content, although full issues … Read more

Comixology continues to dominate the mobile comics-reading app market with new features for its iOS app, including high-definition comics that take advantage of the new iPad's Retina Display.

Updated earlier this week, Comixology's Comics 3.1 (download) lets you read comics on the new iPad with double the resolution of comics on previous models. It also supports sharing your comments on comics via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail; and offers a Read Now button which lets you begin reading a comic before a comic has fully downloaded.

Support for the Retina Display almost didn't make it into Comixology 3.1, said Chip Mosher, the company's vice president of marketing. "Our developers turned around HD support in about five days. That's a testament to how dedicated they are."

The difference in resolution is apparent when holding a new iPad next to an iPad 2 and looking at the same comic. If you've downloaded a comic for the iPad 2, Comixology will let you download it again in HD at no extra cost.… Read more

A Marvel digital-comics sale in January came with an unusual perk: a $5 coupon for a print comic book. As a lead-in to its Avengers versus X-Men story starting in April, Marvel is giving the coupon a second chance to power up both digital and print comics sales via its iOS (download) and Android (download) comics apps.

"The coupon bumped [digital comic] sales about 25 percent," David Gabriel, senior vice-president of sales for Marvel, said in a phone interview yesterday. Peter Phillips, the general manager and senior vice-president of the Marvel Digital Media Group, added that it was &… Read more