Search Ads come to the Apple App Store in Canada

Apple announced today that Search Ads are now available to the App Store in Canada, Mexico and Switzerland, raising the total to seven countries.

Canadian developers today can create campaigns to promote their apps at the top of search results on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Ads go live in these new markets on October 17 from 1:00 p.m. EST/ 10:00 a.m. PDT, and first time advertisers can try Search Ads for free with a $100 USD credit.

Search ads are an efficient and easy for developers of all sizes to help users discover their app on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. We launched search ads a year ago in the U.S. App Store, creating another point of discovery for developers of all sizes, while complementing a user’s search experience

Apple is still most valuable brand according to Interbrand

The Apple Store in Barcelona, Spain shows a thriving Apple product and services economy - Photo By Gadjo Sevilla

Apple is the Most Valuable Brand as per Interbrand's annual report. The iPhone-maker retains the top spot for the fifth consecutive year over rivals Google and Microsoft. 

The top ten brands are rounded out by Coca Cola, Amazon, Samsung, Toyota, Facebook, Mercedes Benz and IBM.

Interbrand assesses the all-in value of a brand by analysing three factors …

• The financial performance of the branded products and services
• The role the brand plays in influencing customer choice
• The strength the brand has to command a premium price or secure earnings for the company

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Apple drops Bing search in Siri and Spotlight in favour of Google

Bing is no longer the default search service used by Siri on iOS and Spotlight in macOS. Apple has moved to Google search as the go-to service.

"Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” Apple told TechCrunch in a statement.

This means that if Siri does not have the answer to a user's query, then the system with just pull up Google results. 

Investment firm Bernstein estimates Google currently pays Apple around $3bn for this deal, based on the fact Google paid around $1bn for the same deal in 2014 according to The Telegraph.

Source: TechCrunch

Apple acknowledges Apple Watch Series 3 LTE issues before launch

The Apple Watch Series 3 which comes with its own cellular connection was launched last week and even demoed by enabling a phone call to a user paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe. Early reviews of the new Watch, however, seem to have uncovered some serious issues with its LTE connectivity.

Checking out the review of Lauren Goode of The Verge showed the reviewer having a difficult time getting Siri to work on cellular as well as not being able to make calls on the Watch which often had one bar of signal.

Not good for a product that promises to work independently from the iPhone and is specifically targeting runners and surfers who may not want to take their phones with them. LTE has other issues, including battery drain and (down to 30% by noon).

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