This photoshop tutorial has some great tips on how to make your app screenshots look more dynamic and engaging. There are also photoshop files for you to download and use.

Don’t worry if you are unfamiliar with the software – this uses very basic skills. The best part is that it takes just about five minutes to take your app from the boring straight-on view to something more visually appealing and professional.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with Apple’s App Store Marketing Guidelines for design criteria. (Via Blue Cloud Solutions)

The iPhone 5 accounted for 68 percent of total iPhone sales at launch, according to a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). While this is a big number it is much less than Apple saw with the iPhone 4S, which grabbed 90 percent of all iPhone sales the first month that it was available for sale.

The report also found that Apple has sold less of the 64GB iPhone 5 models, the highest priced of the devices.The 64GB models represented only 9% of iPhone 5s sold during the first month at retail. The 64GB model of the iPhone 4S, on the other hand, made up 23% of those devices sold when that model was introduced.

iPhone 5 shoppers were more likely to buy from Apple than were those shoppers at the launch of the iPhone 4S. Twenty-nine percent of iPhone 5 shoppers bought from an Apple store or Apple.com at launch, while only 13 percent of shoppers bought their device directly from Apple at the launch of the iPhone 4S. (Via AllThingsD).

Do you have troubles meeting your daily writing quota? Are you among the thousands of writers taking the National Novel Writing Month challenge this November?

The free iPhone WriteChain app will help you keep track of your ongoing word count. Created by How Not To Write blogger Jamie Grove, the tool tracks your daily word count and monitors how close you are to your goals.

Check it out:

Created by a writer for other writers, WriteChain is a word count tracking tool designed to remind you to maintain your writing practice. If you’re serious about writing, you know that dedicated practice is the only way to improve and succeed. WriteChain helps you by storing word counts for each writing session and tracking your total word count. The app also goes a step further by counting consecutive daily sessions to measure your “writing chain”. If you skip a session, you break the chain and WriteChain lets you know about it.

When most people saw the concept video from Aatma Studios which showed an iPhone with a holographic keyboard, they sighed with longing. Florian Kräutli, on the other hand, was inspired to come up with his own virtual keyboard app for the iPhone. His app, which he named Vibrative, runs on jailbroken iPhones and is really more of a work in progress than an app which could could be sold in iTunes.

Read more

Eighty-eight percent of iPhone owners in the U.S. say they will buy their next smartphone from Apple, down from the 93 percent of iPhone owners who said they’d get their next phone from Apple, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. This is the first time since Apple launched the device in 2007, that purchase intent for the iPhone has declined.

According to the report, 75 percent of iPhone owners in Western Europe say they are likely to buy their next phone from Apple, which is down from 88 percent in 2011.

“There is no doubt that Apple is continuing its success in retaining existing user base while attracting new customers,” said Paul Brown, director at strategy analytics’ User Experience Practice in a statement.  ”However, negative press prompted by a perceived lack of recent innovation by Apple has meant we are starting to see some growth in the number of previously highly loyal consumers who are now reconsidering whether or not they will purchase a new iPhone for their next device.” (Via Mashable).

When Felix Baumgartner jumped off a helium balloon at 128,100 feet (video embedded above), he could have used the new Vidometer app for the iPhone to videotape his world-record-breaking skydive.

Made by the company behind the hardshell and waterproof smartphone Hitcase, the new app will overlay speed, altitude, horizon level, tilt and G-force meters on your HD iPhone video. We’ve embedded a screenshot below–is this something you can use in your life?

Check it out: “When you are out Mountain Biking, Skiing, Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Hiking, Sky Diving, Cruising, Running, Dirt Biking, or whatever – don’t forget to take Vidometer along for the ride! Vidometer can be used as a dashcam, HUD, a companion for your GoPro footage, and much more. Vidometer uses the iPhone’s built in sensors such as the accelerometer, GPS, and gyroscope to build a custom and accurate graphical overlay.”

Read more

Thirty-two percent of consumers said that they are likely to buy an iPhone 5, according to a new report from ChangeWave Research. The report found that nineteen percent of respondents are “very likely” to buy the iPhone 5, which is up from the 10 percent of respondents who said they were “very likely” to buy an iPhone 4 back when it launched.

Despite all of the headlines about Apple’s bad Maps app, the report found that ninety percent of iPhone 5 owners reported it was “no problem at all” or that they “haven’t experienced any problem.” The report found that only  3 percent of respondents said it was a “very big problem” and 6 percent said it was “somewhat of a problem.”

Apple has sold a bajillion iPads and according to one analyst many of them are being bought by or for teens.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster released a report this week which details the rise of tablet and iPhone ownership in the US. According to a recent survey, 40% of American teens now own an iPhone, and 44% own a tablet of some kind. Those numbers are up significantly since Spring of this year.

We believe it is a positive sign for the power of the iPhone among younger users that Apple was able to expand its market share with teens despite no new product launches between our Spring and Fall 2012 surveys. Read more

Steve Jobs may have had issues with Google for allegedly copying some of the design of the iPhone, but apparently the feeling is not mutual.

One Reddit user noticed earlier this week that the the Gmail app listing page in iTunes is showing a tribute to Steve Jobs.  As you can see in the screen shot at right, the email displayed in the screen shot contains a Steve Jobs quote. That same quote can be seem in both the iPad and iPhone screenshots.

While conflict may make good press, the reality is that many people at Google respect Apple and Steve Jobs, and I’m sure the reverse is true as well. This screenshot proves that the respect exists.

iTunes via Reddit

Right now the iPad Mini is the hottest device which no one has ever seen, and it is so popular that I’m sure you’re going to want to see this video. GeekBeat.tv decided to tweak the noses of all the bloggers who have been speculating about the iPad Mini so they made this video which satirically unveils the iPad Mini with a 4″ screen – just like the iPhone 5.