Apple continues to meld their iOS Store and the new Mac App Store. Not on the desktop end this time, but on the iPad. They have introduced some welcome new features that will make your shopping experience for apps even better. If you haven’t visited the App Store from your iPad, you might be wondering, “What in the world is he talking about?” Well I’ll tell you, and it’s pretty cool.
The one new feature that I love in the Mac App Store is now featured in the App Store on the iPad. It’s the button labeled “Installed.” This button replaces the button next to the app that would show the price or the word Free. This way, you know that you have the app, and you don’t need to search you iTunes library before downloading the app. Another helpful feature Apple has implemented is the button labeled “Install.” This will let you know that you have already purchased this app; however, you do not have it installed on your iPad. At this point, if you want the app you can re-download it without having to connect your iPad to you computer.
Moreover, Apple has introduced new filters which include Category, Release Date, Customer Rating, Price, and Device, as well as a Reset Filters option. These filters are an excellent way for you to sort through the app results from your search. For example, I did a search for Twitter, and it displayed my search results like it normally does. But, this is where everything changes. As I mentioned before, you now have the “Installed” and “Install” buttons available to you. The first search result was Twitter, and it showed that it is installed on my iPad. The other search result shown for iPhone apps was TwitBird Pro for Twitter, which shows the “Install” button. Now I have the option to install TwitBird Pro for Twitter on my iPad without having to re-purchase it, or dock the iPad with my Mac and sync it with iTunes.
Another new feature I would like to touch on is the “Release Date.” I think this is a great idea to have the release date show next to the app. This way you know if the app has just been released, or if it’s been around for a while.
Why is this important you might be thinking? Well, some people might like to wait for an app to receive a few updates before purchasing it. It goes back to the whole idea of “I’ll what for a few revisions of a device before I buy it.” However, for those that can’t wait, or this way of thinking is foreign for them, it’s nice to see when the app was released to the App Store.
It’s great to see Apple continuing to make updates and changes to both their iOS devices as well as the Mac platform. So, go on and play with all of these new features in the App Store on your iPad and have fun with them. When you’re done, we would love to hear what you think about these new features. Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Article Via TiPb
