Apple offers free apps ahead of App Store 5th anniversary, save up to $20

By Trevor Mogg July 9, 2013

Apple’s App Store turns five this week, and to celebrate, the Cupertino company is this week offering 10 popular apps for the princely sum of nothing.

Highlighted on the Featured page of the App Store, the free titles include the impressive Barefoot World Atlas for children (though adults will have plenty of fun with it, too), award-winning action game Infinity Blade II, and music-mixing app Traktor DJ, usual price $20.

Recommended Videos

The App Store launched in 62 countries in 2008 with a measly 500 apps, though now offers in excess of 900,000. In May this year App Store downloads hit the 50 billion milestone, averaging a mind-boggling 800 downloads per second.

“It’s been a remarkably prolific five years for the App Store,” the company said. “To celebrate, we’re giving everyone five landmark games and five groundbreaking apps for a limited time.”

Here’s the complete list:

Apps:

Barefoot World Atlas – a fabulous interactive world atlas with a ton of features

Day One (Journal/Diary) – an intuitive journal for recording your daily life

How to Cook Everything – over 2,000 gourmet recipes for budding chefs

Over – add custom captions, logos and stylish doodles to your photos

Traktor DJ – “mix like a pro” with this feature-rich app for DJs

Games:

Badland – this one picked up an award from Apple for design

Infinity Blade II – an entertaining action game, winner of many of awards

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery – an action adventure game incorporating touch-based puzzles

Tiny Wings HD – a fun game that was chosen as iPhone Game of the Year in App Store Rewind 2011

Where’s My Water – can you solve the physics-based puzzles?

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Mobile

Apple may do the unthinkable — allow third-party iPhone app stores

App Store displayed on an iPhone 14 Pro against a pink background

Ever since 2008, Apple has only allowed its own App Store on the iPhone. In the past, if you wanted alternative digital storefronts, you’d have to jailbreak your device. But in response to impending regulations from the European Union, Apple may be allowing alternative app stores on the iPhone and iPad in the near future — potentially as soon as iOS 17 in 2023.

According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, this will be the very first time that Apple will allow third-party app stores on the iPhone. It seems that Apple is already dedicating a “significant amount of resources to the companywide endeavor.”

Mobile

This EU law could force Apple to open up iMessage and the App Store

Someone holding an iPhone 14 with the display turned on.

The EU's Digital Markets Act (or DMA) has gone into force today. It could force Apple to open up the iPhone's iMessage and app-buying platforms to third-party apps and services. Companies that fall afoul of the act could be fined up to 20% of global turnover. Apple has previously criticized the DMA for being a "blunt instrument."

The DMA aims to allow smaller services to compete more equitably with larger ones. This means that companies with a certain number of users, labeled as gatekeepers, would have to make their platforms interoperable with smaller ones. Large platforms like Facebook or iMessage, for example, would be required to open up, while something like Signal could scrape by.

Mobile

Google’s Android monopoly finds its biggest challenge, and Apple might be next

Apps screen on the Google Pixel 7.

The Competition Commission of India slapped Google with two hefty fines over anti-competitive strategies that have allowed it to dominate the mobile ecosystem in India. Totaling over $250 million, the penalties reprimand Google for forcing smartphone makers to avoid Android forks, prefer Google’s web search service, and pre-install popular cash cows like YouTube on phones.

Google was also disciplined for forcing its own billing system on developers that allowed the giant to take up to a 30% share of all in-app purchases for applications listed on the app store. Google is not really a stranger to titanic penalties; The EU handed Google a record-breaking fine of approximately $5 billion in 2018 for abusing its dominant market position — a penalty that was upheld in September this year following Google’s appeal.