App Store

Nov 2 2011

Apple To Enforce Mac App Store Sandboxing March 1, 2012

Apple is sending the following message to developers.  Sandboxing has usually been done through web browsers to protect PC’s and Mac’s from viruses and bad scripts that can be found all over the Internet.  Apple appears to be enforcing this to all Apps that will be sold through the Mac App Store.  This makes sense as a security measure to protect users from rogue Apps that could make it through the App Store.  It’s a known issue that all stores face as Apple, Microsoft, or whoever puts forth a store gives the impression that those apps are secure.  It is in fact the opposite.

The best security against a bad app is to investigate it through Google and see if the publisher has a website.  They usually do, but it’s not a end all to find out if an app is corrupt.

 

Sandboxing your app is a great way to protect systems and users by limiting the resources apps can access and making it more difficult for malicious software to compromise users’ systems.
As of March 1, 2012 all apps submitted to the Mac App Store must implement sandboxing. Enabling the default sandbox environment is as simple as checking the Enable Entitlements checkbox in Xcode target settings, allowing you to begin sandboxing your app.
If your app requires access to sandboxed system resources you will need to include justification for using those entitlements as part of the submission to the Mac App Store. Apps that are being re-engineered to be sandbox compatible may request additional temporary entitlements. These entitlements are granted on a short-term basis and will be phased out over time.
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By Corey • App Store • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jul 11 2011

iOS 5 Beta 3 Seeded

It’s All Tech is reporting that IOS 5 Beta 3 has been released along with an updated version of iTunes.  Carrying build # 9A5259f

There are a lot of changes related to Location Based Services which can be turned off or selectively turned on.

Interestingly enough Apple seems immune to their rules, they have placed a link to the iTunes store in the Music App.  Classy.

 

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By Corey • App Store, iOS, iTunes • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Jul 7 2011

Growl Coming to Mac App Store

The author of Growl has announced that they are going to distribute the next version of Growl (An amazing notification system for OS X) via the Apple Mac App Store.  Read the announcement after the jump.

 

More →

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By Corey • App Store, Software • 0 • Tags: ,

Jul 7 2011

Judge Denies Apple Injunction Against Amazon App Store

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton did not grant Apple an injunction against Amazon’s App Store saying that while she did not think Apple’s App Store trademark was generic, she disagreed that Apple had shown any potential for consumer confusion in respect to the two different app stores.  The trial is scheduled to begin in October.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Amazon.com Inc, 11-1327.

Source: Yahoo (Reuters)

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By Corey • App Store • 0 • Tags:

Jun 30 2011

New App Store Rules Take Effect Tomorrow

Tomorrow could see several reader apps leaving the App Store due to Apple’s new rules banning linking to purchase content outside of the Apple App Store.  This may cause a lot of controversy for users because Amazon’s Kindle App is the most popular reader out there, selling more e-books than paper books lately.  Apple’s Reader App does not have as many books as Amazon as well, and you can not read books from Apple on non Apple devices which for me is a deal breaker.   Several companies such as Pandora have complained that Apple’s 30% cut model is not feasible because it leaves them with no profit.  When a company’s profit margin is in the single digits that does not leave them anything to be paying a 3rd party, and I do agree a 30% cut off the top vs a percentage of profits is really harsh to some.  Also Apple’s demand that you give App Store customers the same deals you give them on your website prevents app makers from passing the costs on to the consumer as well.

I think tomorrow we may see lawsuits filed from a group of companies that this impacts, the silence from Pandora, Amazon, and several others has been profound.  They made their dislike of this policy known several months ago and even after Apple changed some things about the policy after playing chicken with the Financial Times and losing, they still did not change things enough to please other app makers.

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By Corey • App Store, Apps • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Jun 24 2011

Free App Of The Week – Caffeine

Caffeine AppTired of your screen dimming or computer going to sleep while watching a movie or just reading a webpage for a lengthy period of time?  Caffeine the popular Windows program to keep your computer awake is not available on the Mac from the Mac App Store.  Just fire it up and it lives up in your menu bar and simulates a non used keystroke to keep your computer from snoozing when you do not want it to be.  It’s a free App and even if it cost 99 cents it would still be worth it.  You can get it by clicking here.

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By Corey • App Store, Free App Of The Week, Software • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jun 24 2011

Discovr – App to Find New Apps

iPhoneDownloadBlog has a good review of a new App called Discovr which before helped you find new music on your iPhone.  Now a new version released provides what I consider an interesting way to find Apps.  You can read up on it here.

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By Corey • App Store • 0 • Tags:

Jun 21 2011

NASA Releases Solar Weather App

Just read over at the Washington Post that NASA now has an App for checking space weather.  You can find the app by searching for SDO in the App store.  Original story can be found here.

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By Corey • App Store • 0 • Tags: ,

Jun 13 2011

Why no Facebook Deep Integration in iOS 5?

Don Reisinger over at Cnet offers a detailed look into why Facebook has been given the cold shoulder in iOS 5 while Twitter has seen much love from Apple.  A few things he points are that the companies are just too different.  Also maybe Apple knows that people have Facebook overload and would not appreciate it sticking its face in your face from every app.  Whatever the difference is, Apple has turned it’s back on one of the largest user bases in history of social networks.

By Corey • App Store, iOS • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jun 6 2011

OS X 10.7 Lion 29.99 4Gb Download from Mac App Store, Available July

Apple has just announced that OS X 10.7 Lion will be available in July for 29.99 price and you can upgrade through the Mac App Store.  It’s is a 4Gb download and for just 29.99 you can upgrade all Mac’s associated with the account.

By Corey • App Store, OS X • 0 • Tags: , ,

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