New and featured apps easier to scroll through

Apple has silently updated the App Store to make it easier for iPad users to scroll through the latest "featured apps" and "new and noteworthy" additions on both the main page of the App Store and in each category section, Apple'n'Apps reports. The change, while small, makes the pages more touch-friendly by removing small arrows on each end of the featured boxes and instead making the grid swipe-driven.

The move should make it more convenient for users to peruse the featured apps with a more natural mechanism for discovery on iPads. The featured apps now span the entire screen in either portrait or landscape orientation, with small indicators below them to show how many "pages" each box has with additional apps on them.

Previously, the apps were contained within two boxes, each with arrow indicators on all four corners allowing users to tap them to go forward or back. The swiping motion is more of an "expected" behavior on iOS devices, and speeds up the transition from one set to another, which is now virtually instant. [via Apple'n'Apps]

by MacNN Staff