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Posts tagged with "macappstore"

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

Flight Control HD for Mac Coming Later This Month via Steam

Although Firemint already announced a Mac version of award-winning game Flight Control, dubbed Flight Control HD, will be released in the Mac App Store, Mac users will be able to download the game later this month via Steam.

From the official Firemint blog:

The Steam version of Flight Control HD will feature a brand-new, exclusive map. The new “Stunt Flying” map will introduce an exciting new gameplay element, where you can score extra points for flying through a course of stunt cones before landing. This adds a new challenge to the much-loved and insanely addictive gameplay first made famous by the worldwide iPhone hit that has now been downloaded more than 3 million times.
Flight Control HD for Steam will also feature Steam achievements and leaderboards, and will be available world-wide.

Mac gaming got a lot more interesting since the release of Steam, and it’s about to get even better with the Mac App Store. In case you haven’t yet, go check out Flight Control for iPhone and iPad here and here.

Rumor: iWork ‘11 Is Ready, Will Debut In The Mac App Store

According to AppleInsider, iWork ‘11 is basically ready, but Apple doesn’t want to let it out of the cage. They received information from “people familiar with the matter” that the productivity suite was ready to be announced at October’s Back to the Mac event, but it was scrapped at the last minute.

It appears that Apple might hold it back until the grand opening of the Mac App Store, which should happen sometime next January.

People familiar with the matter say development of iWork ‘11 wrapped up this fall and the software was initially slated for an introduction alongside iLife ‘11 last month, but was held back at the last minute for undisclosed reasons.

Apple’s revised plans currently call for the company to launch the new productivity suite alongside the forthcoming Mac App Store, these same people say. The applications included in the bundle – Pages, Numbers and Keynote – will be available for purchase individually when the Mac App Store debuts.

AppleInsider also speculates that Apple might remove the retail box option for iWork ‘11 and sell the suite solely on the Mac App Store as single applications priced at $19.99 – pretty much like they do for the iWork apps for iPad. With the promise of the Mac App Store as the best way to discover and install applications on a Mac, the option surely seems likely.

Apple started accepting submissions for the Mac App Store last week. Promo material for the Mac App Store showed individual iWork apps sold at $19.99 each.

Mac App Store Name Squatting? More Like A Bug In Apple’s System

Yesterday we reported many Mac developers lamented over the impossibility to register their Mac applications in iTunes Connect and submit them to the Mac App Store for Apple’s approval. Apparently, the problem lied in already registered bundle identifiers – the actual names of the apps.

We reported Tod Ditchendorf, developer of the popular Fluid for Mac, was unable to register the app, just like Realmac Software with Little Snapper and RapidWeaver or Isaiah Carew with Kiwi. That lead use to think name squatters were already targeting the Mac App Store.

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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.

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Mac App Store Name Squatters Already A Problem for Developers

Yesterday Apple opened app submissions for the Mac App Store, which as promised at the Back to the Mac event by Steve Jobs will be opening in less than 90 days – around February 2011. Developers can now submit their applications for Apple’s approval – something you want to do now as we still don’t know what policies Apple is going to adopt on the Mac.

When a developer submit an app for Apple’s approval, he has to pick up a name. But the App Store always had a problem with name reservations: developers were able to register a name, block it so no other developer could use it and never upload an actual application for approval. The name was there, frozen, but no app with that name was ever submitted. This practice is known as “name squatting”. After thousands of complaints by frustrated developers who had seen their app’s name “stolen” by suspicious individuals, Apple acknowledged the problem in mid-September and introduced a new policy: you can register an application name, but if you don’t upload anything in 90 days you’ll receive a notification informing you that in 30 days that name will no longer be assigned to you and it’ll be “unlocked” once again. With people sitting on unused names for 2 years, that was a quite welcome change. Read more

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.

John Gruber On The Idea of iPad Apps Running on Mac OS X→

John Gruber On The Idea of iPad Apps Running on Mac OS X

I can prove it, practically, that iPad apps aren’t going to run on the Mac as a standard feature. iOS apps do run on Mac OS X, today, in the iPhone/iPad emulator that ships with the iOS developer kit. Ends up they’re just not that pleasant to use on a Mac. Gestures that are natural and fun with direct touch are awkward and clumsy using a mouse or touchpad.

And we thought this idea of iOS apps running as “widgets” on the desktop had been buried in the darkest corners of the blogosphere. Turns out some people are still claiming it’d be a “great addition to OS X”. Too bad Apple is not Adobe, and they don’t care about “cross-platform interoperability” as much as they care about “single-platform excellence”.

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Running iPad Apps On The Mac→

Running iPad Apps On The Mac

Dave Winer:

Why didn’t I see this? One of my first wishes when I got my iPad was that this software would run on a Mac. I forgot that, and Uncle Steve said it the other way. The store is coming to the Mac. The store is coming to the Mac. That’s the sleight of hand. What he really meant to say is that IOS software is coming to the Mac. Or maybe it’s the IOS hardware I’m writing this on is running Mac software, kind of the way Carbon ran old lifeless legacy Mac apps. Which one is the “real” OS and which one is running in a compatibility box? I have a funny feeling that right now, as I type this on an AirBook, I’m using the compatibility box. Right?

The iPad can run apps from another iOS device, the iPhone. Will the Mac be able to run apps coming from iOS, even if the Mac is a machine running OS X? We don’t know. The thing is, if iOS is actually OS X coming back to the Mac after 3 years of mobile adventures (and if Lion is “OS X meets iPad”), then Winer’s option could make sense. Developers could adapt iPad apps to bigger screens with relative ease, though I don’t know how you’d be supposed to run apps requiring tilt controls on a desktop computer.

In the end, it’d be a cool feature – as long as you don’t pay attention to the trade-off.  Mobile apps don’t make any sense on the desktop, not as we think. Perhaps Apple will prove us wrong. The way I see it, Jobs simply wants to reinvent the way Mac software is discovered and distributed; a Mac App Store doesn’t necessarily mean the App Store is coming to the Mac.

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