Posts tagged with "developers"

Apple To Developers: You Can Now Submit Lion Apps

Following the release of the Xcode 4.1 Golden Master seed and with OS X Lion rumored to be nearing its public release, Apple has just informed registered Mac developers that they can now submit apps built for Lion to the Mac App Store.

OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, will soon be available to millions of Mac users around the world. Submit your Lion apps for review now so they can be on the Mac App Store when Lion ships this month.

In the past weeks, in spite of various developer previews of Xcode 4.1 for Lion available on the Dev Center, developers were unable to submit apps built specifically for the new OS. In OS X Lion, developers can take advantage of hundreds of new APIs to enable features like full-screen mode, push notifications for apps, new Aqua controls including iPad-inspired popovers, auto-save and versions, as well as sandboxing and multi-touch gestures.

Lion is rumored to hit this week, alongside new MacBook Airs with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt, and new Mac Pros. The GM build of Lion was seeded on July 1, leading to speculation that, after two weeks and with no major bugs found, the final version is ready to become available on the Mac App Store at $29 any day now. Several developers we polled in the past week told us they were ready to submit their new apps, but Apple (and Xcode) wouldn’t let them. With the release of Xcode 4.1 GM today, Apple flipped the switch on Lion submissions, but it’s unclear how many apps the Review Team could manage to approve before the rumored Lion launch. Clearly Apple wants some Lion-ready apps to be ready for Lion’s debut, so it’ll be interesting to see how this will play out in the next 48 hours.

Apple announced Lion would come out sometime in July as Mac App Store exclusive. In the past, Apple began accepting iOS 4 submissions on June 11 (roughly 10 days ahead of iOS 4’s release) and Mac App Store submissions in November, whilst the Mac App Store went public on January 6.

Apple Releases iOS 5 Beta 3

Apple just posted the third beta of iOS 5 on the Dev Center. Build number is 9A5259f. As with previous iOS 5 betas, the build targets the iPad 2, iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen. iOS 5 beta 3 for the Apple TV has also been released. The second beta of iOS 5 was posted three weeks ago, on June 24. iOS 5 is expected to be released publicly this fall, with many suggesting the usual September media event will be the stage this year for a formal iOS 5 announcement, as well as the unveiling of the next-generation iPhone.

Alongside the new iOS 5 beta, Apple also uploaded a new iCloud for Lion beta (reaching version 4), iTunes 10.5 beta 3 and Xcode 4.2 Developer Preview 3. On the Mac Dev Center, Xcode 4.1 GM for Lion has been seeded to developers. Read more

Apple Reveals Over 15 Billion Apps Have Been Downloaded From The App Store

Apple just issued a press release that reveals over 15 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store. Apple notes that it has more 425,000 apps, including 100,000 native iPad apps. It comes just six months after the App Store hit 10 billion downloads in January this year.

More than 15 billion apps have been downloaded from the revolutionary App Store and more than 425,000 apps are available, including more than 100,000 native iPad apps, to consumers in 90 countries. Users of the more than 200 million iOS devices around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, education, sports, health, reference and travel. Apple has paid developers over $2.5 billion to date.

In the press release, a few people who run some of the most popular apps are quoted singing the praises of the App Store and the opportunities it has allowed, including Ge Wang from Smule, Mark Rein of Epic Games and Nicholas Callaway of Callaway Digital Arts. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing says in the press release:

In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen. Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.

As Business Insider points out, these statistics reveal that, averaged out, each iOS device owner has download 75 apps - any way you cut it, that is an impressive figure. Similarly, AllThingsD notes that just last month at WWDC, Apple revealed that 14 billion apps had been downloaded, meaning roughly a billion apps have been download in just a month.

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OS X Lion GM Now Available

Apple has just released the GM seed for OS X Lion. It’s available now for registered developers in the Mac Dev Center. Build number is 11A511, and Lion is expected to be released publicly later this month. A GM seed is usually seeded to developers a few weeks ahead of the final release. At the WWDC ‘11, Apple announced that the upcoming version of OS X would be released exclusively on the Mac App Store as a digital download priced at $29.99. The company said Lion would come out in July, without specifying an exact release date. With over 250 new features including the Launchpad – a new way to launch and manage apps in iOS-style – Mission Control, new Mail and extensive usage of multitouch gestures, Lion is set to refine the desktop OS adding elements and user interactions heavily borrowed from Apple’s success on the iPhone and iPad.

Apple has already detailed the Lion upgrade process for businesses and education, and confirmed that new Macs bought after June 6 will be capable of getting Lion for free through a request within 30 days of Lion’s release.

In addition to the OS X Lion Golden Master, Apple has also released Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 7 and OS X Lion Server GM seed. Both GM seeds of Lion need to be redeemed in the Mac App Store with a redemption code – previously, Apple had made available builds both through the Dev Center and Software Update for minor changes to the developer preview code. Read more

The iPad: Now With 100,000 Apps Available

At the end of March we ran a story on the iPad App Store reaching the 75,000 apps milestone in less than 365 days since the original iPad came out in April 2010. Considering the competition the iPad had to face in the past year (though some people say there really isn’t a tablet market) and the options given to developers when it came to choosing which platform to develop for, seeing iPad users gaining access to almost 100,000 apps in roughly 12 months was a surprise – looking back at those statements from tech pundits who claimed the iPad was “dead in the water”, the 75,000 milestone surely helped putting things in perspective.

Yet Apple and third-party developers have set a new record: in 453 days since the original iPad came out on April 3, 2010, the App Store has more than 100,000 iPad-exclusive apps available. Either specifically targeting the tablet, or released as universal updates to existing iPhone apps, at the moment of writing this there are 100,161 iPad apps in the Store. How do I know? The App Store app itself on my iPad shows that.

Obviously, one could argue that the iPad’s development scene was “helped” by the success of the iPhone in the previous years. The original iPhone came out with no SDK in 2007, and developers were told to create web apps for it. Apple listened, and months later they released the first developer tools to create native apps for the iPhone. With the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008, Apple also launched the App Store, a unified marketplace to browse and download apps. The rest is history: a few graphical enhancements, sections, and 10 billion downloads later, the App Store is Apple’s crown jewel as far as digital downloads go. A success that has inspired the company to create an OS X version and name it Mac App Store which, unsurprisingly, is once again helping developers sustain their business because of the ease of use of the whole process. On the other hand, users love discovering and buying apps from the App Store because it’s simple, it’s full of apps, and it’s regularly updated. It’s a win-win scenario for Apple (who keeps a 30% cut off every transaction), the developers, and the users.

What’s next for the App Store and, more specifically, apps for the iPad? 100,000 is an important milestone, but don’t expect things to change dramatically in a short period of time. Considering how Apple rolls, the App Store will be slightly tweaked to accomodate new sections as it’s always been, more apps will be released in the next weeks, and users will keep buying apps and games. Don’t expect a revolution because Apple has reached 100,000 apps for the iPad. But that’s not to say the result isn’t remarkable or that new things aren’t coming: with iCloud going public this fall and Automatic Downloads already set in place, Apple wants to make the process of buying and syncing apps to iOS devices even simpler. With Lion approaching its public launch on the Mac App Store in July, it’s clear Apple is betting on the App Store brand as the de-facto solution for downloading software for iOS and OS X devices.

Congratulations, developers. Now onto 200,000 apps.

Don’t Be Stupid: Keep App Reviews To Yourself While Using an iOS Beta

These past few weeks of iOS 5 testing and casual talking with my fellow writers and Twitter followers had me thinking about the fact that some people really don’t get the difference between “public previews” and “developer-only betas”. I’m talking about those people who are leaving negative reviews in iTunes for apps that are allegedly “broken” under iOS 5, which reached the beta 2 status last Friday.

There’s an important difference between previews and developer betas. With previews, like iTunes in the Cloud, Apple feels confident enough to release a new piece of software with new features to the public and let everyone enjoy it until the final version (with more features) comes out. Example: automatic downloads and past purchases. In spite of Apple calling it a “beta”, this is in fact a public preview (that requires iTunes 10.3, also public) of the new iTunes in the Cloud system that will gain the additional Match functionality this Fall. So why is Apple letting regular users mess with a beta? Because it’s not really a “beta”, not in the sense we geeks are used to when seeing the beta label on Apple’s various Dev Centers. iTunes in the Cloud is a public preview of something that will grow even bigger in a matter of a few months. The company knows it’s stable enough for everyone to play with. All the systems are in place. No third-party support is required. All users can benefit from it now, and will get to use more functionalities once the faux beta label goes away. It’s a good deal. Read more

redsn0w Tethered Jailbreak Now Available For iOS 5 Beta 1

This week’s developer release of iOS 5 has brought hundreds of new features for iPhone and iPad owners, but jailbreakers haven’t wasted any time trying to figure out a way to get the old tweaks and hacks from Cydia working on the devices running the new OS. As tweeted by Musclenerd two hours ago, a new beta of popular jailbreaking tool redsn0w is available, bringing compatibility with devices on iOS 5 beta but exclusively meant for developers willing to beta test the software. As iOS 5 beta is developer-only and consumers shouldn’t get their hands on it, the Dev Team is asking developers of jailbroken apps to test their tweaks against the OS Apple will release this Fall.

Compatible devices:

  • iPod touch 3G
  • iPod touch 4G
  • iPad 1
  • iPhone3GS
  • iPhone4 (GSM)
  • iPhone4 (CDMA)

Furthermore, iSpazio reports a first list of compatible and not working tweaks on iOS 5 beta 1:

Working

  • iFile
  • CyDelete
  • OpenSSH
  • iSHSHit

Not Working

  • MobileSubstrate
  • Springtomize
  • PhotoMail
  • ActionMenu
  • Celeste
  • BiteSMS
  • WinterBoard

The new beta is Mac-only, and if you’re a developer interested in checking out whether your Cydia app is working on iOS 5 beta, you can download it here.

 

iOS 5: 8 Other Features We Love

Since Apple’s official presentation of iOS 5 at the WWDC keynote on Monday and the release of the first beta to developers, lots of things have been said about Apple’s new modus operandi based on watching the community, seeing what developers and jailbreakers are building to improve the OS and answer the needs of hardcore iOS users, and going back to the drawing board to take inspiration from what the ecosystem has created to offer a native solution, designed from Apple, in most cases better than the competition or third-party solutions. If you followed our keynote coverage and WWDC ‘11 roundup, you know what’s new in iOS 5 and what we’re referring to: the new notification system is heavily inspired by jailbreak tweaks like LockInfo and Mobile Notifier (which were inspired by Android’s notifications); the new Reminders app will likely eliminate the need of simple to-do list application from the App Store (but not complex GTD software like OmniFocus); the iMessage solution built by Apple sounds like RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger, it’s exclusive to iOS 5 users and keeps your messages in sync with iCloud.

With hundreds of new features, there’s a lot to discover in iOS 5, and more will come with future betas and the final release this Fall, we’re sure. The way I see it, Apple didn’t “kill” anything as several pundits are claiming: it’s called progress. Whilst the term “killing” implies a voluntary action of willing to do something against someone, with iOS 5 Apple doesn’t want to “kill” Remember the Milk, Dropbox, or Boxcar. Apple sees where the platform is going and skates to where to puck is going to be. I agree with our editor Cody when he says it’s not really about copying, as much as it’s about improving existing solutions to provide a better experience for everyone. Nothing’s really new nowadays, but there’s still room for innovation. It’s a subtle difference.

So with iOS 5, we have lots of innovations, new features, improvements, and all of the above. You’ve probably already read everything about the most important functionalities in our roundup, so here’s what we’re going to do next: rather than assembling a list of every single screenshot of what’s new in iOS 5 beta 1, we’ve collected the 10 best new things (some of which you may not have seen yet) we’ve found in iOS 5 beta. Read more

The Best of the Best: Apple Design Awards 2011 Winners Announced

The Apple Design Awards “recognize outstanding achievement and excellence” in apps made specifically for Apple platforms and devices. For the first time, this year’s ADAs (which will be announced tonight at the WWDC 2011 in San Francisco) will award developers of applications for all iOS devices and Macs: whilst last year’s edition skipped the Mac to focus on iOS, 2011 is back at full speed to celebrate great, usable, and well-designed apps available in the Mac and iOS App Stores. For the full list of 2010 ADAs winner, check out our previous coverage here.

So what’s in for tonight? As you may be aware of we’re not in San Francisco to attend WWDC (let’s leave that to developers), but we’ll be following the events as they unfold on Twitter, also thanks to a few developer friends who are actually there to enjoy the show. We will update this story with the fresh names of winning apps and devs as soon as we get them, as well as Apple’s official statements about this year’s ADAs once the official page gets updated later today or tomorrow.

So follow us on Twitter as @macstoriesnet, come back to this post in around 10 minutes from now, and let’s wait and see who’s going to grab the prizes this year at WWDC.

You can check out the full list of winners after the break.

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