There are dozens of apps in the App Store that promise to revolutionize the way you discover apps. Sort of meta, but this seems to be Silicon Valley’s latest dream: to simplify the way users find interesting apps they might like. Too bad basing the old App Store navigation system on poor Facebook and Twitter integration won’t make the process any simpler: indeed, it’ll just add an extra useless layer that most users will get tired of in a matter of minutes. Read more
Posts tagged with "app store"
AppShopper 1.3 Is The Best App Discovery Tool for iOS. Period.
Developers Can Now Submit Apps With Identical Names in the iOS and Mac App Store
Two weeks ago we reported several developers were facing issues with Mac App Store submissions, as they weren’t able to register their app’s name in iTunes Connect. At that time it looked like “name squatters” were sitting on popular app names to force developers to pick different ones, but it turned out that a major issue was lying in Apple’s system itself.
Two weeks ago, in fact, developers who had already submitted an app to the iOS App Store with a certain name weren’t able to use that same name in the Mac App Store registering process. Imagine the frustration of developers who already had iPhone apps in the App Store and wanted to submit Mac counterparts to the upcoming store. Read more
“Everyone Has A Scam”→
“Everyone Has A Scam”
Dave Winer on iPhone apps that silently grab your data:
It’s like spammers took over technology, like the pet food guys did in 1999. Everyone has a scam. This year the scam is to grab all the user’s data and resell it. It’s gotten to the point where it’s a risky proposition to try out a new iPhone product.
Perhaps a little bit tragic, but I get his point: how do you gain trust in a sea of 300,000 apps?
The Power Of In-App Purchases→
The Power Of In-App Purchases
The common-sense approach to make money on the App Store used to be to do anything to get on the top charts. In-app purchases changed all of that. Good in-app purchases can make your app profitable without being anywhere on the charts, and are the best hope for the independent developer. Come to this session to learn why IAPs can be so effective and how to leverage them effectively: what makes a good IAP, how to increase your user involvement, how to present IAPs in an attractive way, what things attract users, and what things turn them away. We’ll go through lots of detailed real-world data from Flower Garden and other games with strong IAPs.
Recommended read for developers.
Why Developers Create Apps for iOS→
Why Developers Create Apps for iOS
Marco Arment:
The problem is that hardware manufacturers and tech journalists assume that the hardware just needs to exist, and developers will flock to it because it’s possible to write software for it. But that’s not why we’re making iPhone and iPad software, yet those are the basis for the theory.
We’re making iPhone software primarily for three reasons:
Dogfooding: We use iPhones ourselves.
Installed base: A ton of other people already have iPhones.
Profitability: There’s potentially a lot of money in iPhone apps.
With this in mind, think about the installed based of Macs.
Apple Showcases Cooking Apps Ahead of Holiday Season
Just like every Friday, today Apple launched new sections and new games / apps of the week in the App Store. We already noticed the App Store Hall of Fame which showcases the 50 best apps of all time. Together with that section, Apple is also featuring the best cooking apps users can download aheda of the holiday season.
The section is organized in 5 sub-sections: Recipes, Chefs & Cooks, Drinks, Shopping and Tools & Basics. Free and paid apps for iPhone and iPad are featured, with notable examples such as Epicurious, The Photo CookBook and 20 Minutes Meals.
You can check out “Holiday Cooking” here.
Apple Launches App Store Hall of Fame
The App Store was launched exactly 848 days ago in July 2008. Today, Apple launched a new section in the App Store called “App Store Essentials: Hall of Fame” which is aimed at presenting the “very best of the best” and contains 50 apps for iPhone and iPad, both paid and free.
Among the apps, there are true gems such as Angry Birds, Hipstamatic, Instapaper, Reeder for iPhone, Siri (which was acquired by Apple), Zen Bound 2, Facebook and Photogene. Surprisingly enough, the official Twitter app didn’t make the list, nor did other clients such as Twitterrific or Weet. The list will likely grow during the weekend and the holiday season, so perhaps more apps will be added.
You can check out the Hall of Fame by following this link in iTunes.
Developers, Start Submitting Your Mac Apps Today
Apple is now accepting submissions for the Mac App Store. With an email sent to registered Mac developers earlier today, Apple confirmed that Mac apps can now be sent to Apple for approval.
We don’t know which developers are jumping on this today and whether Apple has refined its review guidelines following the many doubts arisen in the past weeks, but we know it’s going to be huge – right?
The Mac App Store is set to open in less than 90 days. We can’t wait.
VLC for iOS May Soon Be Gone From the App Store Due To Videolan’s Complaint
VLC, the popular media player for Windows, Mac and Linux that landed on the iPad in September and on the iPhone last week, may soon be gone from the App Store. Rémi Denis-Courmont, one of the primary developers of VLC, explained that Videolan sent a formal notification of copyright infringement to Apple regarding the way VLC for iOS is distributed in the App Store. VLC for iOS is developed by French 3rd party studio Applidium.
Basically, here’s the problem: VLC is an open source program distributed under the GNU General Public License (also known as “GPL”) while VLC for iOS is, as you may guess, distributed under Apple’s iTunes Terms and Conditions, which don’t allow users to install both free and paid apps on more than 5 devices. This restriction is also known as “DRM” which stands for Digital Rights Management. So even if VLC for iOS is free, Videolan can’t accept the fact that Apple’s DRM goes against the original GNU license VLC’s code is based on. Read more