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Posts tagged with "developers"

Steve Jobs: “AirPrint Has Not Been Pulled”

Last night we reported some developers on Apple’s forums noticed information about AirPrint through shared printers on Macs and PCs has been mysteriously removed from Apple’s online printing documentation. According to those developers, Apple Tech Support chimed in as well claiming that AirPrint through shared printers had been cancelled from the upcoming 10.6.5.

So it’s not that AirPrint has been pulled. Rumor has it Apple may have cancelled or delayed the functionality through a printer shared on Mac or Windows. Read more

Apple Confirms iTunes Connect Will Be Closed December 23-28

With a brief note on the iOS developer center, Apple informed developers that iTunes Connect won’t be available starting December 23rd through the 28th:

iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Thursday, December 23 through Tuesday, December 28 for the winter holidays. iTunes Connect access will be back online for use on December 29. If you choose to set an available date for your app to go live during the scheduled holiday shutdown, your app will not go live on the App Store until iTunes Connect resumes for business on December 29. Please plan your releases accordingly.

Previous rumors reported that Apple was planning an additional “lockdown” for the Thanksgiving week. Nope, that won’t happen. Developers, get your apps ready before Christmas.

Color Snatcher: Simple Safari Extension To Grab Colors Off Webpages

This one’s a Safari extension designers and developers alike are going to like a lot: with just two clicks, Color Snatcher for Safari allows you to grab colors off any webpage and copy it to your clipboard from a dialogue box that will appear on screen.

The extension, due to Apple’s restrictions, can’t automatically copy a color’s HEX or RGB code to the clipboard – you’ll have to manually copy it from a secondary tiny window. The extension, however, delivers on what the developer promised: a simple tool to grab pixel colors. That’s it.

Color Snatcher is, of course, free and the developer is already working on a better way to copy color codes. Very nice. Go download it.

Mac App Store Name Squatting? More Like A Bug In Apple’s System

Yesterday we reported many Mac developers lamented over the impossibility to register their Mac applications in iTunes Connect and submit them to the Mac App Store for Apple’s approval. Apparently, the problem lied in already registered bundle identifiers – the actual names of the apps.

We reported Tod Ditchendorf, developer of the popular Fluid for Mac, was unable to register the app, just like Realmac Software with Little Snapper and RapidWeaver or Isaiah Carew with Kiwi. That lead use to think name squatters were already targeting the Mac App Store.

Read more

Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.6 To Developers, 10.6.5 Coming Any Day Now

As noted by 9to5mac, Apple just seeded Mac OS X 10.6.6 (build 10J521) to registered Mac developers. 10.6.6, another version of Snow Leopard – we thought the upcoming 10.6.5 would be the last before Lion.

The only information provided in the changelog:

- Contains developer support for fetching and renewing App Store receipts. See “Validating App Store Receipts” for more details.

The release of a first 10.6.6 seed means the 10.6.5 version we’ve been talking about for months could be coming later today, tomorrow – any day. It’s ready, just waiting to be released publicly.

Mac App Store Name Squatters Already A Problem for Developers

Yesterday Apple opened app submissions for the Mac App Store, which as promised at the Back to the Mac event by Steve Jobs will be opening in less than 90 days – around February 2011. Developers can now submit their applications for Apple’s approval – something you want to do now as we still don’t know what policies Apple is going to adopt on the Mac.

When a developer submit an app for Apple’s approval, he has to pick up a name. But the App Store always had a problem with name reservations: developers were able to register a name, block it so no other developer could use it and never upload an actual application for approval. The name was there, frozen, but no app with that name was ever submitted. This practice is known as “name squatting”. After thousands of complaints by frustrated developers who had seen their app’s name “stolen” by suspicious individuals, Apple acknowledged the problem in mid-September and introduced a new policy: you can register an application name, but if you don’t upload anything in 90 days you’ll receive a notification informing you that in 30 days that name will no longer be assigned to you and it’ll be “unlocked” once again. With people sitting on unused names for 2 years, that was a quite welcome change. Read more

Developers, Start Submitting Your Mac Apps Today

Apple is now accepting submissions for the Mac App Store. With an email sent to registered Mac developers earlier today, Apple confirmed that Mac apps can now be sent to Apple for approval.

We don’t know which developers are jumping on this today and whether Apple has refined its review guidelines following the many doubts arisen in the past weeks, but we know it’s going to be huge – right?

The Mac App Store is set to open in less than 90 days. We can’t wait.

The Value Of “Pro”→

The Value Of “Pro”

I say ‘Pro’ makes more sense only if you develop an app that has two versions, one free and one paid and the free version is made to be a scaled down version that can stand on its own (meaning you don’t run out of “levels” as you would in a game). You are in effect giving away a full version of your app for free, and selling a version with more features as a ‘Pro’ level which is in line with what the consumer mind expects.

Either route you go I doubt you will get rid of the rude comments that plague the App Store.

Game developers won’t stop using the “Lite” tag. But I also can’t picture an “OmniFocus Pro”. The Mac App Store is going to be an interesting subject.

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“The Mac App Store Isn’t For Today’s Mac Developers”→

“The Mac App Store Isn’t For Today’s Mac Developers”

But a huge new market is about to open next door. And yes, it’ll probably be dominated by Angry Birds and other inexpensive, often trivial apps. When this happens, a lot of traditional Mac developers are going to look down on it. But those with a bit of free time to develop their own inexpensive, often trivial apps might have a different viewpoint entirely when they see their sales numbers.

Marco Arment nails it.

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