App Store

Senator John McCain praises Apple's new auto-updating apps feature in iOS 7

By Richard Devine, Monday, Jun 10, 2013 a 5:01 pm

One person for sure who will be delighted by one of iOS 7's new features is one Senator John McCain. Famously, during the Senate hearing attended by Tim Cook, McCain asked why he has to update things all the time. Fast forward to WWDC, and what should Apple announce as part of iOS 7? Auto-updating apps. So, taking to Twitter, the Senator has congratulated Apple on a job well done:

The App Store five years later: 50 billion apps and over 575 million registered iTunes accounts

By Allyson Kazmucha, Monday, Jun 10, 2013 a 1:22 pm

The App Store will celebrate its fifth birthday this year and Tim Cook has just announced some pretty amazing numbers from WWDC 2013. Not only did Apple recently surpass 50 billion app downloads, they've also paid developers a staggering $10 billion, with $5 billion of that being this year alone.

Apple announces 50 billion app downloads. For real.

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, May 16, 2013 a 11:55 am

Apple has released a statement concerning their recent 50 billion app downloads, and in it, they completely bury the lede. From Apple PR

50 billion unique downloads excluding re-downloads and updates.

The App Store officially reaches 50 billion downloads, did you win the $10,000 gift voucher?

By Richard Devine, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 a 5:19 pm

In just under two weeks since first announcing they were approaching the milestone, the Apple App Store has officially ticked over its 50 billionth download. Coincidentally the milestone was reached during the first few hours of Google I/O, where Google themselves were shouting about their own download numbers. In reaching 50 billion, that now means one lucky iOS user is set to receive a $10,000 App Store gift card, with 50 billion and one through to 50 each receiving $500 vouchers.

I spent $1800 on iOS and Mac App Store apps in 2012

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Apr 17, 2013 a 8:29 pm

One of the very few highlight of an otherwise arduous tax season is adding up all the iTunes receipts in my inbox and finding out how much I spent on iOS and Mac App Store apps the previous year. For 2012, that number turned out to be something just north of $1800.

App Store makes age ratings easier to see, even if they're still awkward for apps with built-in browsers

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Apr 4, 2013 a 8:40 am

Apple has moved age ratings in the App Store to a higher, more prominent position, right at the top between the app and developer name, and the star rating. Like the previous change, which added a clear, highly visible label to apps offering in-app purchase, it seems designed to make important information easier to see, and hopefully better inform customers of what they're downloading before they download it...

...except, of course, for age ratings on the App Store are still confusing.

How to price your apps, sell them, and earn a living

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Apr 1, 2013 a 11:02 am

Former developer tools evangelist at Apple, Michael Jurewitz has been going flat out on the writing circuit this past week, topped off by a an insane final lap consisting of a 5-part series on understanding App Store pricing.

Apple sued by Chinese animation studio over pirated materials in apps

By Joseph Keller, Friday, Mar 29, 2013 a 12:16 pm

Apple is being sued by a state-run animation studio in China over apps that contain unlicensed material from the studio. Shanghai Animation Film Studio is seeking total damages of 3.3 million yuan, or $530,000.

Apple adds ‘Offers In-App Purchases’ warning to the iTunes App Store (updated)

By chrisoldroyd, Saturday, Mar 23, 2013 a 3:57 am

Apple has added a new warning label to apps in the iTunes App Store that contain in-app purchase options. You can now see at a glance if a particular app you are considering buying has in-app purchases. This new feature will hopefully help you make good decisions when buying apps that appear to be free but then later encourage you to upgrade them within the app; sometimes at really high costs.

Apple turns on HTTPS for the App Store, closes numerous security vulnerabilities

By Nick Arnott, Monday, Mar 11, 2013 a 6:04 pm

Some great work by Google researcher Dr. Elie Brusztein has led to Apple increasing security on its iOS App Store. Last July, Elie reported a number of vulnerabilities in the App Store to Apple. As of January, they have been fixed. It appears that certain areas of the App Store were not using HTTPS, and as a result, it was possible for attackers to execute a number of different exploits on users.