New 'Food & Drink' category goes live on Apple's App Store

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
After notifying developers about an upcoming "Food & Drink" designation in the App Store, Apple has launched the new category with thousands of iPhone and iPad apps.

MacStories reported in early July that Apple had sent out emails to relevant developers that their apps would be switched over to the new category. On Thursday, MacRumors noticed that the App Store section was now active.

The category currently has 2,824 paid and 4,040 free iPhone apps and 1,121 paid and 1,039 free iPad apps. It is reportedly meant to include software related to cooking and baking, mixing drinks, recipes, restaurants and bars, and social food recommendation. According to MacStories, "diet, grocery shopping, coupon clipping and food-related game apps" won't be counted.

Apple has been steadily making minor improvements and changes to the App Store in recent months. In May, Apple added an Editor's Choice section to the App Store and began free App of the Week promotions. In March, the company introduced a "Catalogs" category to the store.

Food and Drink category


Even as it works to improve the digital storefront, the iPhone maker is enjoying the rapid expansion of the so-called "app economy." During its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple revealed that there are over 650,000 apps available in the App Store. Total downloads have surpassed 30 billion and more than $5 billion has been paid out to developers. After expanding to 32 new countries last month, the App Store is now available in 155 countries.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    I've said it before, and I'll say it until they do it:

    We need subcategories of subcategories of subcategories.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    A food and drink category? Maybe iDevices are all about consumption. ????
  • Reply 3 of 15
    festerfeetfesterfeet Posts: 108member


    So true, as a consumer it is frustrating, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a developer to get their programme found by enough people.

  • Reply 4 of 15
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    I never browse the App Store. If I hear of an interesting app I might decide to download/buy it but I never go looking for new apps. I already have pretty much everything I need. I don't have any games. We'll I did buy one. It was some EA Sports car racing game a couple years ago when I got iPad 1 but I deleted it a long time ago. I suck at games like that anyway.

  • Reply 5 of 15
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    festerfeet wrote: »
    So true, as a consumer it is frustrating, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a developer to get their programme found by enough people.

    I can't imagine it'll get better. iTunes, the app, is still very poor for organizing data. Some examples off the top of my head...

    Under books you don't have Title and author in Info you have Name and Artist. Technically correct, but not very useful. You also have all the other stuff that only relates to music.

    Another example — and one that really bothers me — is the ability to have multiple artist names for a a track. A lot of my music has multiple artists but I need to keep all additional artists as "(ft/ name_one, name_two)" format in the track name. Having them in the Artist name makes it harder to choose a track by an artist via voice commands. There should be a virtually unlimited number of artists you can append to a track so that for organization you only have one artist in your iTunes library, not many listings with an ampersand separating names and adding multiple listings. It's sloppy.

    Don't even get me started on classical music.

    Anyway, I digress, if they haven't resolved those issues don't expect them to be able to make the App Store better organized.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    k2directork2director Posts: 194member


    Apple: please stop showing me apps in languages I don't read. Seems like most app searches I do turn up apps in Chinese or some other language. 

  • Reply 7 of 15

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    I never browse the App Store. If I hear of an interesting app I might decide to download/buy it but I never go looking for new apps. I already have pretty much everything I think I need. 



     


    Fixed that for you. I am amazed over and over how app developers come up with great apps that I could have never guessed I need. The ingenuity of the developers is orders of magnitude beyond my imagination. 

  • Reply 8 of 15

    Quote:


    I am amazed over and over how app developers come up with great apps that I could have never guessed I need. The ingenuity of the developers is orders of magnitude beyond my imagination. 



    I couldn't agree more, there is a reason why smartphones and iPads have become popular and that is because they have been made both useful and interesting by how they can now be used.


     


    Things have changed so much in the last 4 years.

  • Reply 9 of 15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by k2director View Post


    Apple: please stop showing me apps in languages I don't read. Seems like most app searches I do turn up apps in Chinese or some other language. 

     


    Wrong board-forum I reckon. See _http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html
  • Reply 10 of 15
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,153member


    Another appStore problem is getting wider mention the past day or so. Seems that there's a hack going around that allows in-app purchases to be had at no charge, and jail-breaking isn't necessary.


     


    Today we (9to5) received some disturbing tips that a Russian developer has published a method of obtaining in-app purchases from iOS apps for free. First noticed by Russian blog i-ekb.ru, the “in-app proxy”method does not require a jailbreak, can be completed by novices in three steps using just an iOS device, and allows users to install in-app content for free. The hack also works on all devices running iOS 3.0 to 6.0 We have confirmed the method works (at least temporarily), and the published instructions are starting to get attention, so we decided to publish this story as a warning to the Apple developer community.

  • Reply 11 of 15

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I can't imagine it'll get better. iTunes, the app, is still very poor for organizing data. Some examples off the top of my head...

    Under books you don't have Title and author in Info you have Name and Artist. Technically correct, but not very useful. You also have all the other stuff that only relates to music.

    Another example — and one that really bothers me — is the ability to have multiple artist names for a a track. A lot of my music has multiple artists but I need to keep all additional artists as "(ft/ name_one, name_two)" format in the track name. Having them in the Artist name makes it harder to choose a track by an artist via voice commands. There should be a virtually unlimited number of artists you can append to a track so that for organization you only have one artist in your iTunes library, not many listings with an ampersand separating names and adding multiple listings. It's sloppy.

    Don't even get me started on classical music.

    Anyway, I digress, if they haven't resolved those issues don't expect them to be able to make the App Store better organized.


     


    Does Album Artist not accomplish this for most of your music? I'm pretty meticulous about my music too. To get around the issue you mention, I typically put featured artists ("feat. so-n-so") in the Comments section of the track. But more often than not, the Album Artist field helps me keep organized, especially with scores and soundtracks (which I've broken out as separate genres for TV, movies, and video games anyway).

  • Reply 12 of 15
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Does Album Artist not accomplish this for most of your music? I'm pretty meticulous about my music too. To get around the issue you mention, I typically put featured artists ("feat. so-n-so") in the Comments section of the track. But more often than not, the Album Artist field helps me keep organized, especially with scores and soundtracks (which I've broken out as separate genres for TV, movies, and video games anyway).

    I'm under the impression that makes the Album Artist the default. This only helps when you have multiple Artists for a track but want it to show up as a single entry.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


     


    Fixed that for you. I am amazed over and over how app developers come up with great apps that I could have never guessed I need. The ingenuity of the developers is orders of magnitude beyond my imagination. 



    If they are genuinely awesome that's when I usually hear about them. I don't find them, they find me.

  • Reply 14 of 15
    tony1tony1 Posts: 259member


    After re-reading the heading, I realized the they weren't now offering food and drinks at the Apple store as I originally thought.... :(  An Apple pizza sounds yummy though.

  • Reply 15 of 15

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tony1 View Post


    After re-reading the heading, I realized the they weren't now offering food and drinks at the Apple store as I originally thought.... :(  An Apple pizza sounds yummy though.



    I have the same initial reaction. I thought they were selling food and delivery goods via itunes now. the prices would be 30% more than usual. LOL

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