Developers

Apple announces WWDC 2013 for June 10-14, confirms iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 previews

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Having posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday, Apple this morning officially announced that its annual developers conference will take place at Moscone West in San Francisco from Monday, June 10 until Friday, June 14. I know what you must be wondering: will the five-day conference serve as a launchpad for a next major revision to Apple's iOS and OS X operating systems, right?

According to Apple's marketing honcho Phil Schiller, that's in fact in the cards. “Our developers have had the most prolific and profitable year ever, and we’re excited to show them the latest advances in software technologies and developer tools to help them create innovative new apps," he was quoted as saying in a press release...

Apple asks devs to localize apps, launches Chinese Support forum

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Apple appears to want its apps to lose the 'outsider' label. In an email communication to its registered developers sent earlier this week, the App Store owner encouraged programmers to localize their applications because it's "never been more important." Also, in the latest round of moves aimed at Chinese consumers, the iPhone maker updated its online support forums to handle the native language...

Apple says its iOS app economy created 80,000 US jobs last year

Cody Lee ∙ April 3, 2013

Apple has come under heavy fire in recent years by critics for outsourcing its manufacturing jobs to Asia. Folks don't like the fact that while the US struggles with unemployment, it pays Chinese factory workers to build its products just to save a few dollars.

In response to the criticism, Apple posted a new page on its website last year touting the more than 500,000 jobs it's either created or supported in the US with its business. In fact, according to its records, its app economy alone created 80,000 jobs last year...

Apple to stop approving apps that use UDIDs or don’t support iPhone 5

Cody Lee ∙ March 21, 2013

After more than a year of warnings, it looks like Apple's finally putting the kibosh on the use of Unique Device Identifiers. An announcement was posted to the iOS developer portal this afternoon that starting May 1, apps using UDIDs will not be approved.

But that's not all. In addition to the UDID deadline, Apple has also informed developers that after May 1, all new apps and app updates must be built for iOS devices with Retina displays and iPhone apps must support the 4-inch display on iPhone 5...

Very early iOS device prototype surfaces

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 11, 2013

The monster 2012 Apple v. Samsung trial was a treasure trove of various iPhone prototypes that we had never seen previously. These not only gave us a glimpse into Apple's creative process, we also got to see the various bodies Apple had been exploring for its then still work-in-progress iPhone. But this is something entirely different from everything so far.

For the first time, at least to my knowledge, we are offered a look into an extremely early iOS device prototype. The thing looks like something engineers would duct-tape together after a brainstorming session in Apple's kitchen. As you can see, it has a bunch of chips, tacked-on ports and a massive screen measuring five by seven inches. A former Apple employee said that "at the time, it was really impressive seeing basically a version of OS X running on it"...

PayPal button coming to your favorite apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2013

If you're a heavy PayPal user, good news: the company last Friday at SXSW 2013 announced a software development kit for Apple's registered iOS developers to integrate PayPal's mobile payment solutions into their apps for iPhones, iPods and iPads. As a result, those developers who choose to implement the new PayPal SDK will be able to provide a PayPal button for frictionless payments. And if a user wishes to use her or his credit card, they will be able to scan it in-app to make the payment...

Conditions weather app also takes creative approach in dealing with pirates

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Yesterday, we told you about Tapbots' entertaining way it deals with folks who pirate its popular Tweetbot app. If you download the Twitter client without paying for it, it will auto-insert an embarrassing phrase into its Tweet sheet.

But the guys on the Tapbots team aren't the only ones having fun with pirates. Jake Marsh, creator of the new Conditions weather app, also takes a creative approach in dealing with people who steal his work. Check it out...

Facebook improves iOS SDK with enhanced APIs and better mobile analytics

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 23, 2018

Mark Zuckerberg's social networking company last July released a software development kit (SDK) for programmers to make it easier to write apps that take full advantage of Apple’s deep Facebook integration in iOS 6. It's been updated a few times since and today Facebook announced that it is enhancing the SDK with better APIs and other improvements. This update also includes bug fixes that improve stability, is backwards compatible and can be downloaded now direct from Facebook...

Apple releases iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ February 21, 2013

Believe it or not, Apple has seeded a beta for another iOS update to developers today. The company has already issue two software updates, 6.1.1 and 6.1.2, in as many weeks, and only released iOS 6.1 three weeks ago.

Today's developer software is marked as iOS 6.1.3 beta 2. The first beta was actually sent out earlier this month, known as iOS 6.1.1 beta 1, but it's been renamed to iOS 6.1.3 due to the recent iOS bug-fixing updates...

Google Maps SDK for iOS updated, now available to all developers

Cody Lee ∙ February 21, 2013

When Google released its standalone Maps app for iOS back in December of last year, it also seeded an SDK to select developers. The software development kit allows developers to integrate Google's mapping data into their apps.

Today, Google has lifted the limitation, opening up its Maps SDK to all developers. The announcement comes alongside a nice little update to the dev kit, which now features ground overlays, and other new mapping tools...

Apple seeds iOS 6.1.1 beta to developers

Cody Lee ∙ February 6, 2013

It's only been a week since Apple released iOS 6.1 to the public, and it's already hard at work on the software's next update. The iPhone-maker has seeded the first beta of iOS 6.1.1 to developers this morning, bringing the build to version 10B311.

It's also worth noting that today's beta arrives just 48 hours after the iOS 6.x evasi0n jailbreak was released. So obviously, those of you who are jailbroken that have access to today's software update will want to avoid it until it's investigated...

Apple introduces new short AppStore.com URLs

Cody Lee ∙ February 4, 2013

Apple last week posted an announcement to its developer portal, informing app-makers that they can now use short (or 'vanity') URLs to send out links to their App Store apps. For instance, a link to the iWork app would be appstore.com/iwork.

Typically, links to Apple-hosted software are comprised of lengthy URLs with ID numbers—nearly impossible for anyone to remember. But Apple is hoping that these new short URLs will make it easier for developers to market their apps...