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Posts tagged with "app store"

Apple Confirms Devs Can Use The Same App Name Across iOS and Mac App Store, Provides Other Tips

Three weeks ago we reported Apple updated its Mac App Store submission FAQ for developers to inform developers that it was possible to submit apps with identical names to the iPhone, iPad and Mac App Store. Today they’re making it official by posting the news on the Developer News website:

You can now submit a Mac OS X version of your app to the Mac App Store with the identical name as your iOS app on the App Store. Having the same name for your app on both the App Store and Mac App Store allows you to maintain the consistency of your brand and makes your app easily recognizable to customers.

Earlier today Apple also posted a series of tips regarding in-app purchases and app metadata. Apple reminds developers that “there is certain metadata which cannot be edited, such as keywords and the name of your app” and suggests in-app purchases should come with accurate screenshots and predictions.

According to a rumor surfaced yesterday, Apple may be a targeting an early Mac App Store opening for next week. We haven’t been able to verify this rumor with the developers we contacted, though, as no one apparently got notified from Apple about the change of schedule.

BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What’s In Your Pocket?→

BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What’s In Your Pocket?

Apple says the iPhone is more than a mere appliance for sending e-mail. The device, with its sleek touch screen and ability to run hundreds of thousands of Web-connected applications, games and utilities, can be used for nearly any purpose, business or personal, a line that Apple hopes to blur out of existence.

“Most people now want to use a single device to handle both their personal and professional lives,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. “That’s what Apple’s really good at — and now RIM is playing catch-up.”

I guess the question is: can they even catch up at this point? 275,000 apps is no small difference. [via]

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Steve Jobs is a Ninja!

UPDATE: Ninja Steve was approved and is live in the App Store for $.99 -> LINK

The gameplay is very simple, Ninja Steve is all about fast reflexes and accuracy. The ‘Smartbots’ fly around until they get close enough to zap you. Touch an enemy to fire a shuriken. After a while you will build up a RDF, which is like an electromagnetic shock, shake your iDevice to activate it. There are three different stages and four different ‘Smartbots’. There are 15 main levels, plus 2 extra levels.

It’s a really simple game with a few Apple-like references but it gets a little stale and repetitive after a while but for $.99, Apple fanboys can kick ‘Smartbot’ ass ninja-style!

Remember when Steve Jobs couldn’t take his ninja stars aboard his private plane back in September? Maybe he should have used a smoke bomb to get them aboard.

Anyway, Woltz Media is developing an iOS game called Ninja Steve. It’s about a CEO named ‘Steve’ (no official affiliation with Jobs or Apple) that is also a trained ninja assassin.

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Mac App Store To Launch Next Week?

According to a rumor posted by Appletell, Apple may launch the Mac App Store as early as next week:

An inside source has just told us that Apple is targeting a Monday, December 13th launch of the Mac App Store. The company apparently told developers to have their software prepared for a launch as early as Monday the 6th of this month, but our contact would be shocked if that happened at this point. Apple has made no official announcements regarding this, and delays could always happen, but there’s a push to be launched before Christmas, well ahead of the previously estimated January release. Guess from where this push has come.

The website claims that Apple is ahead of its schedule for the new store opening, and Steve Jobs wanted a December 6th launch, but it didn’t happen. We didn’t hear anything from developers about a December 6th release, we just know that there’s a deadline for apps to be submitted that should end sometimes later this month.

At the Back to the Mac event on October 20th, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would launch in 90 days – which made us think of a late January 2011 opening. Last week, Apple seeded a new build of OS X 10.6.6 to developers to ensure Mac App Store compatibility and even clarified its position on the availability of trials and beta apps in the new Store.

[via MacRumors]

Will Mac App Store Users Really Miss Demos? Probably Not.

The big news this morning is that Apple clarified its position on demos and trials in the upcoming Mac App Store and confirmed what we thought would happen all along: developers can’t have demo versions of their apps in the Mac App Store. Only full-featured retail versions will be accepted. Clearly, Apple doesn’t want to offer limited-time or “half baked” apps in its new Store, and it’s forcing Mac developers to go the iOS way with either free or paid apps.

That is going to cause a few problems and headaches for many, many OS X developers. For years, they have been trained to release demo / trail versions of applications, with a paid version to purchase immediately or after the trial runs out. And indeed Apple suggests just that: keep hosting trial versions on your website, because you’ll be able to insert a link to it in the App Store description page of the app. Just as it’s possible now in the iPhone and iPad App Store. Read more

How Much Money Does A News App Make?→

How Much Money Does A News App Make?

According to the top grossing stats Writer and WIRED generate a similar amount of revenue in the US app store. Which is around $1,200-2,000 or 300-500 downloads per day. It’s hard to say how that translates into global sales, but according to our own stats the US is by far the strongest revenue market (about 75% of Writer’s sales) and as such a good indicator.

Now, what if, as some might argue, the real economical value of iPad apps comes from the ads you can plug into a news app? (Which is the classic anti-paywall position). Well, if so, why not publish the app for free, so you can reach much more readers and become a truly attractive ad platform?

Oliver Reichenstein makes a good argument. For an indie developer, $2000 per day isn’t too bad. But for someone like Wired? Perhaps advertisement is the only option, but with a free app.

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Apple Now Featuring “Holiday Apps & Games” In The App Store Homepage

With Christmas just around the corner, Apple decided it was about time to start featuring holiday-related apps and games in the App Store. After all, they’ve been doing this for music and movies in the iTunes Store for a few weeks now, promoting apps sounded like the next most obvious step. So here they are, grouped together in a nice section Apple is featuring with a simple and elegant in the iPhone and iPad App Store homepages.

This is a direct link to the new section. As of right now, apps such as Angry Birds Seasons, Christmas Sudoku HD and Talking Santa for iPad are included.

We’re pretty sure more will come in the next weeks, and we think it’s a very nice way to put apps parents and kids will find interesting in this time of the year under Apple’s spotlight.

Shocker: Apple Rejects Magazine App About Android→

Shocker: Apple Rejects Magazine App About Android

A Danish magazine publisher called Mediaprovider submitted an iOS app to the Apple App Store recently – with probably a pretty good idea that it wouldn’t get approved. Why? Because the app was a digital magazine all about Android called ‘Android Magasinet’.

Straight from Apple’s Review Guidelines for iOS apps:

Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected.

Why even bother developing one?

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Single-Station Radio Apps Are The New Fart Apps: Banned

Remember the App Store Review Guidelines Apple published a few months ago? They’re available for you to read here, although an Apple Developer account is needed. Basically, Apple opened up to many more kinds of apps and frameworks with the publicly available Review Guidelines, but took a clear position on some kinds of apps as well. Namely, fart apps:

We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.

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