Ahead Of Memorial Day, App Store Gets Some Interesting Updates

Before most in the United States turn on the barbeque and celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend, the App Store has gotten a facelift of sorts. The site now includes a “Free App Of The Week,” plus other updates. Since Thursday, Apple has offered ZeptoLab’s Cut The Rope: Experiments for free for both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. This appears to be the first time Apple has given a paid app the “Free App Of The Week” treatment. Since Apple typically updates the App Store each Thursday, this promotion should run through May 31. It should be noted that Amazon has offered a “Free App Of The Day” to Android customers since their AppStore opened in 2011. Whether this is the reason behind Apple’s promotion is not known. In another change, the App Store is no longer offering an iPhone or iPad “App Of The Week.” Instead, Apple is spotlighting “Editor’s Choice” apps. For this week these include for iPhone the free Facebook Camera app and Extreme Skater ($0.99) game. For iPad, Apple is profiling SketchBook Ink ($1.99) and Air Mail game ($4.99.) Finally, in a step back, the App Store no longer includes a Staff Favorites section, which was almost as old as the App Store itself, which debuted in 2008. These changes to the App Store were first recognized by Jeff Scott on Twitter and first reported by TouchArcade. You can download these mentioned apps today in the App Store: Cut the Rope: Experiments, Cut the Rope: Experiments HD, Facebook Camera, Extreme Skater, SketchBook Ink, and Air Mail.