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Well, well. Look what we have here. We’ve been hearing rumors all week about the Mac App Store launching soon, we found out that the upcoming store won’t allow Mac developers to generate promo codes and won’t feature in-app purchases and Game Center integration, Apple clarified its position on demos and trials.
Now Jay Freeman, a.k.a. Saurik, creator of popular alternative store Cydia for jailbroken devices, told the attendees of 360|MacDev that Cydia is coming to the Mac. Read more
TIME magazine has listed 50 Top 10 lists on their web site this year - 50! Surely an Apple product made it into at least one of these lists, right? Of course, we wouldn’t have posted this unless there was. Silly question.
Time’s Top 10 Gadgets (for 2010) listed not one, but four, Apple products in this category. The iPad took top honors (of course!), the newly-revamped 11-in. MacBook Air took third place, the iPhone 4 took sixth place and the new Apple TV took seventh (with a much improved form factor, capacity and functions). That’s much respect to Apple, and well deserved. You can see the entire list below. Read more
Looks like the Mac App Store is going to be quite different from the iOS model we’ve gotten used to in these past two years. Yesterday we broke the news that developers won’t be able to generate promo codes for Mac apps sold though the new Store (even if they’ve gone international for all users), today 9to5mac reports that in-app purchases and Game Center won’t find their way to Jobs’ latest reinvention of the Mac software environment, either.
Mark Gurman notes:
Apple has informed App Store developers that two major iOS app store features will not make their way ‘back to the mac.’
Note: In app purchases are not available for Mac OS X apps.
Note: Game Center is not available for Mac OS X apps.
As we wrote yesterday, Apple is clearly aiming at a simple purchase experience similar to the iOS App Store, but with less features than the mobile counterpart. Perhaps they don’t want Mac users to feel overwhelmed with new functionalities such as in-app purchases? Maybe they didn’t have time to implement them by the 2011 opening?
Still, we think Game Center on the desktop would be great. And terrible for our productivity.
Today Apple released a minor update to Aperture 3, which reaches version 3.1.1 and adds a number of fixes and overall performance improvements.
This update fixes an issue with iMovie ‘11 becoming unresponsive while scanning Aperture’s library for videos, incompatibilities with the media browser, issues with cameras causing the app to quit unexpectedly.
Aperture 3.1.1 also contains fixes for web publishing, slideshows and upgrades. More information about the update can be found here. Check out the full changelog below.
[Thanks, Bea!] Read more
At the Back to the Mac event in October, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would open in 90 days – thus giving it a January 2011 release date. According to rumors surfaced a few days ago, though, it seemed like there was the possibility of an early launch next week.
Well, Jim Darlymple over at The Loop reports:
Please note that Darlymple’s sources are usually spot-on and correct. Those rumors never really made sense to me either, considering Apple didn’t notify developers about an early launch.
So there you have it: the Mac App Store is indeed coming in January.
The good news today is that promo codes for iOS apps are no longer limited to the U.S. App Store, but it looks like the upcoming Mac App Store (set to launch in January 2011, even though someone says it may open as early as next week) will be based on a different system. In fact, it appears that developers won’t have the possibility to generate promo codes for Mac apps sold through the Mac App Store.
In the iTunes Connect Developer Guide (version 6.2, last updated on November 1, 2010 - PDF) Apple mentions that promo codes are exclusive to iOS and won’t be available for Mac apps:
Promo Codes button (for iOS apps only). See the Requesting Promo Codes section to learn about promotional codes)
Promotional codes are not available for Mac OS X apps.
Like it or not, Apple is going back to the Mac. The regular Mac user, fan, fanboy – whatever you’d like to call someone who showed a deep affection to Apple’s desktop operating system for the past decade – should like the fact that Steve Jobs confirmed Apple is still committed to making the best personal computers, based on OS X. The same regular Mac user, though, is immensely scared by the concept underlying Jobs’ statements: Apple is going back to the Mac, taking the good things learned in 3 years of iOS development with them. OS X turned into iPhone OS. iPhone OS became iOS for iPhone and iPad. Now, everything’s going back to where it all started: the Mac.
We have heard this story before. In fact, we all commented on Apple’s October 20th event by saying that, with the right approach, the Mac App Store and some iOS elements coming to the Mac might be the best thing that ever happened to the platform in years. Read more
The latest bundle offering from MacUpdate looks like an absolute must-have for Mac users: 12 top-notch Mac apps, available at $49.99 instead of $534. The apps are: 1Password, MacFamilyTree, DEVONthink, Flux, Default Folder X, Art Text + Fonts, Swift Publisher, Chronories, Interarchy and Typinator. First 10,000 buyers also get Mail Stationery and Stars Wars Jedi Night II for free.
Gems like AgileWeb’s 1Password (a staff favorite here at MacStories), DEVONthink, Interarchy and Typinator are definitely well worth the bundle price.
Do yourself a favor for Christmas and go buy the bundle here.
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.
