In a somewhat odd move, Apple has hired away the Toronto Blue Jays' assistant manager Jay Sartori for a position on its App Store team. I mean, the company frequently snags top talent from silicon valley, but the MLB?
Apparently, Sartori will be taking over as the manager of the 'sports and entertainment' category in the App Store for the Cupertino company—a major departure from his contract and bargaining duties with the Blue Jays...
Yesterday, we told you about an unexpected improvement of the App Store backend which results in customers being able to grab older versions of apps. This is especially useful to those who may be browsing the App Store using an older device with one of the older iOS versions.
For those people, attempting to download, say, the latest version of an app would produce a prompt offering the last compatible version available for their legacy hardware, provided the app at some point supported their hardware.
Thursday, we received a word that Apple now allows developers to use the iTunes Connect portal to specify which apps and what versions should be made available to owners of legacy software through the App Store...
Following the advent of iOS 7 earlier today, Apple appears to be busy making small but useful changes to its App Store. First up, the company's added a new 'Designed for iOS 7' App Store section, basically a curated selection of third-party apps which are designed with the iOS 7 user interface and technologies in mind.
That's not all.
It's now come to light they've as well bumped the existing 50MB per-app ceiling, doubling it to a hundred megabytes. That means users are now free to download any app over their cellular network that's up to hundred megabytes in size. As per usual, attempting to download an app over the limit prompts you to connect to a Wi-Fi network...
Following The Great Flattening earlier today, Apple has added a new section to its App Store designed to highlight apps that are optimized for the iOS 7 appearance and technologies that make this OS update arguably the most important in Apple's history.
The all-new 'Designed for iOS 7' section advertises apps like Evernote, OmniFocus 2, NBC, OpenTable, Perfect Weather and other third-party software featuring the iOS 7 style design. Jump past the fold for the full breakdown...
Apple has updated the App Store backend to allow for legacy app downloads, per tips we received this morning and this Reddit thread.
Starting today, trying to grab an app on the App Store from one of the unsupported iOS devices now presents users with a prompt offering to download the last compatible version available for their legacy hardware.
Previously, a developer posting a new app build would render older versions unavailable on the App Store. This improvement should be especially useful after iOS 7 arrives on Wednesday as owners of unsupported devices are now permitted to access the last compatible build on their outdated device...
Like a prisoner on Death Row, Apple has delayed its penalty for weeks, offering up objection after objection to a proposed Department of Justice ebook antitrust settlement. Friday, federal judge Denise Cote issued an injunction, giving federal lawyers much of what they wanted.
Among the prohibitions against Apple: a five-year ban on so-called 'most-favored-nation' clauses in publisher contracts that would prevent ebook sellers from using rival services, such as Amazon. Also part of the penalty package was a requirement that Apple stagger contract negotiations with the five publishers that had already settled...
Apple seems to have succeeded in keeping government watchdogs from roaming the corridors of its Cupertino, California headquarters. A proposal by the Department of Justice (DoJ) to install an external antitrust monitor to oversee Apple activities was greatly curtailed Tuesday. Instead, New York federal judge Denis Cote ruled that any monitor would be limited to overseeing Apple's antitrust policies and employee training.
A proposal by the DoJ to watch over all of Apple's distribution efforts for potential antitrust action was also trimmed, the judge saying she doesn't want government investigators interfering in the iPhone maker's "flexibility to innovate"...
Ever since Apple in February 2012 bought Chomp, an app discovery engine, and subsequently killed both its Android and iOS apps, the rumor-mill has been abuzz with the supposed improvements to the App Store discovery stemming from the acqui-hire.
Disregarding the occasional tweaks to the App Store search algorithm here and there, the experience of discovering popular software beyond the apps Apple exposes on the main App Store pages remains a very tedious affair.
To put it perfectly bluntly, it often feels like finding a needle in the haystack. But according to a new report out Friday, things could soon improve as the company's apparently been experimenting with new algorithms for iTunes and App Store rankings...
Android's growing popularity in Asia, particularly in Japan and South Korea, has helped Google's Play store for Android record a revenue jump of 67 percent over the past six months. By comparison, Apple's App store revenue has climbed just fifteen percent during the same timeframe, according to analytics firm Distimo.
The impressive numbers for Android apps belie the fact that Apple's App Store continues to be the largest with more than two times the revenue as Google Play. In April, we commented on a report from competing analytics company App Annie showing relative parity with downloads but Apple having 2.6 times the revenue...
Nintendo released their most recent financial results last week, and the numbers didn't look good. As suspected, the Wii U is selling quite poorly (the company only sold 160,000 during the quarter) and overall sales are down 1.9% year-over-year.
So with sales of its 9-month-old console already slipping, and no new hardware on the horizon, industry watchers are again calling for Nintendo to consider porting its library of games to, and developing new games for, other consoles and platforms.
But president Satoru Iwata reiterates that won't happen while he's in charge...
If you're having trouble downloading music, or otherwise accessing the iTunes Store, you're not alone. A number of users have taken to Twitter to report that the digital content front is down, and Apple itself has now acknowledged the problem.
As of about 11:30 am this morning, Apple's system status page shows that the iTunes Store is down, with the issue affecting 'some users.' A detailed timeline on the page shows the outage has lasted over an hour and is affecting iTunes purchases...
In today's app rejection news, Apple has shown the door to a free game called Send Me To Heaven by Carrot Pop as it promotes smartphone recklessness. The game taps the iPhone's accelerometer sensor to track how high it flies when thrown up in the air.
Apple's App Store review team rejected the software on the basis of “encouraging behavior that could result in damage to the user’s device,” in spite of an appropriate disclaimer showing up prominently upon launching the app. Indeed, what was Carrot Pop thinking?