Apple’s Newsstand app helped increase readership, Popular Science sees growth of over 13% in the first week itself

Some of you iOS users might think that the Newsstand app on your homescreen is absolutely useless but certain publications, particularly Popular Science and all its new readers will want to disagree with you.

According to the chart above, courtesy of Mag+, a division of Popular Science’s publisher Bonnier Corporation, you can see that sales of the magazine suddenly shot up in the second week of October this year, with a growth of over 13% in that week alone and also an increase in the growth of the magazine after that period.

If you remember, iOS 5, which introduced the Newsstand app was launched during the same week, on October 12, to be precise. This makes it clear that Newsstand is directly responsible for the boost in sales that Popular Science is enjoying at the moment. For now it is the only publication that has revealed its numbers but I’m sure other publications must have noticed the increase in sales too.

Can Apple pull an iTunes with the Newststand app? It remains to be seen but there is no denying the fact that it has got a lot more people into reading electronically distributed magazines, which can only be good news for the publishers.

Apple App Store faces issues with the interface on iOS 3.1.3 devices, fixes itself automatically

Last week people started reporting a strange problem with the Apple App Store program installed on their iPhone and iPod touches. This made it nearly unusable because it would hide the buttons to download the apps, along with the screenshot and other app information.

The interesting thing about this issue though was that only those running iOS 3.1.3 were reporting it and as you may know that was the latest update that the first generation iPhone and iPod touch is capable of running. However, it seems now though that the issue has been fixed.

Engadget is reporting that things are now back to normal, with the App Store program working just fine. Whether it was a temporary glitch or something Apple remotely fixed is not yet known. From the user-end though you don’t have to do anything as it sorts itself out on its own.

The screenshot above shows a slightly different texture to the top and bottom bar, which is unlike the glossy finish you usually see. Perhaps Apple was in the process of revamping the interface of the App Store when this happened, although it still does not explain why it only affected devices running iOS 3.1.3.