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Apple

If you've ever developed an app for the iPhone or iPad, you've had to deal with Apple's App Store Review Guidelines. The lengthy list of rules encompasses many different areas, and Apple has just published a new page to explain what rules are broken the most often—and what developers can do to avoid rejection.

Apple's graph (which reports app rejections for the week leading up to August 28) shows that "incomplete information" is the most frequent reason for rejection—this includes providing demo account credentials for apps that require an account, failure to adequately explain any special settings needed for evaluation, and failure to provide an accompanying demo video for apps that only work under specific circumstances (when attached to a particular piece of hardware, for example). In short, tell Apple what it needs to know to evaluate your app, because the company isn't going to take extra time to do research if your app isn't self-explanatory.

Bugginess is another big reason for app rejections, as is failure to comply with Apple's Developer Program License Agreement. A fuzzier problem that takes down six percent of apps is a "complex or less than very good" user interface, which could mean that the interface is too cramped or not finger-friendly—Apple provides many UI explainers to developers, and failure to take them into account can get your app thrown out even if it's otherwise useful. The chart above and the page itself explains how to comply to these guidelines as well as the others on the list, though they won't help you much if your app was one of the 42 percent rejected for "other reasons."

Aurich Lawson

Android 4.4, KitKat was released on October 31, 2013, or at least, that's what you can say about one device: the Nexus 5. For the rest of the ecosystem, the date you got KitKat—if you got KitKat—varied wildly depending on your device, OEM, and carrier.

For every Android update, Google's release of code to OEMs starts an industry-wide race to get the new enhancements out to customers. So how did everyone do this year? Who was the first with KitKat, and who was the last? What effect does your carrier have on updates? How has the speed of Android updates changed compared to earlier years?

Given all those variables, we wanted to check in on the specifics of Android in 2014. There are lots of slightly different ways to go about measuring something like this, so first, a word about our methodology. All of these charts measure KitKat's update lag time in months. For our start date, we're picking October 31, 2013, the day KitKat was released on the Nexus 5. For our finish time for each device, we're going with the US release of an update via either OTA or downloadable system image. OTAs are done on a staggered release schedule, so it's hard to tell exactly when they start and finish—we just went with the earliest news of an update.

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By Ellis Hamburger and Ben Popper

There’s something special about the mall. The smell. The squeaky-clean floors. The blinding light and ethereal music that seems to emanate from the air itself. The suburban mall has always been an essential communal watering hole, a place to see and be seen, and a place to window shop. But — the golden age of the mall is over, it seems. During the 2013 holiday season, US stores got half the foot traffic they did three years ago, says The Wall Street Journal.

Instead, we’re shopping online and shifting our attention towards new watering holes — apps like Instagram, Pinterest, and Wanelo — places to show off our new designer jeans and designer vacations. It is estimated that by the end of 2014, nearly a...

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