Putting the price in the name of an item is just one way companies try to lure in potential customers, but app developers making their products available in Apple’s App Store will no longer have that option: The tech giant has begun barring developers from promoting the price of their apps in names or screenshots. [More]
app store
Apple Must Face Lawsuit Claiming It Ran App Store Monopoly
By 1.13.17
A federal appeals court has breathed new life into six-year-old lawsuit over Apple’s alleged monopoly control of its App Store. [More]
iPhone Users Storm App Store Reviews, Angry At $10 ‘Super Mario Run’ Price Tag
By 12.19.16 — Updated: 12.20.16
During the same event where it announced the iPhone 7, Apple announced that it would be the platform for Nintendo’s first mobile game, Super Mario Run. Here’s the problem: the game lets you play three levels for free, and then the game costs $10. The game’s reviews are mixed, largely because people find that $10 price tag scandalous. [More]
Apple’s App Store Now Features Ads
By 10.6.16
Next time you search for that gotta-have-it app on Apple’s App Store, you might have to sort through more options than you had anticipated, as the tech company now plans to include ads in search results on its iOS App Store. [More]
Apple’s App Store Is Having Some Serious Issues Finding Popular Apps Right Now
By 5.5.16
UPDATE: As of about noon on the east coast, the App Store seems to have sorted itself out. I was able to search for Tidal and actually get the music app, instead of an app to track the tide. [More]
Apple, Google Pull Unofficial Instagram App That Harvests Usernames And Passwords
By 11.11.15
In yet another example of why unofficial apps aren’t always to be trusted, Apple and Google have yanked an app from their app stores that was supposed to let users know who was viewing their profiles. That’s not a thing, and a developer says that the app instead acted as malware, secretly collecting usernames and passwords and using them to post spam to users’ accounts. [More]
Apple Bans More Than 250 Apps From App Store For Accessing Users’ Information
By 10.19.15
When you play a game on your phone, use an application to play music or order food for delivery, you probably assume the app is working in a pretty straightforward manner — it’s letting you crush candy or add extra tahini sauce to your order. That wasn’t the case for more than 250 apps previously available in the App Store, which have been banned by Apple for secretly collecting and storing users’ personal information. [More]
Apple Pulls Malware-Infected Apps After App Store Suffers Its First Major Breach
By 9.21.15
Hackers have finally taken a bite out of Apple’s App Store: the company confirmed that attackers were able to infect some of the apps it offers with malware, by copying and modifying a tool used by software developers. Apple says it has now removed the affected apps from the App Store. [More]
Apple Bans Time-Telling Apps From Apple Watch
By 4.29.15
When it comes to telling the time with an Apple Watch, there’s only one king of the roost so far as the company is concerned, which means any other developers trying to enter the App Store with watch apps for the Apple Watch will get roundly rejected. [More]
iTunes And App Stores Down Worldwide, Other Apple Sites Also Reported Down
By 3.11.15
It’s easy to laugh at the idea of an iTunes-related emergency, but such a thing is possible. If you’re having trouble reaching services from Apple like the mobile and desktop App Stores, iTunes Store, and iBooks store, the company confirms that those are down for everyone, not just you. There are intermittent reports that other services are down, but Apple has not confirmed those. [More]
Apple No Longer Labeling Apps As “Free” In The App Store, Though They’re Still Free
By 11.20.14
A successful marketer knows that part of the big sell to customers is all in the language — and it seems Apple doesn’t want to use that dirty “F” word in its App Store to push apps anymore. Customers started noticing recently that on most applications that don’t cost a penny, the button to download them has changed from “FREE” to “GET.” [More]
Amazon Fighting FTC On In-App Purchases By Kids
By 10.7.14
While its competitors in mobile apps Apple and Google have reached settlements with the Federal Trade Commission, Amazon has decided that it will not roll over. No, the tech company is going to fight the FTC’s lawsuit against it rather than settle, and filed a brief last week making the case that this is all the darn parents’ fault. Sort of. [More]
Amazon Willing To Pick Fight With Feds On In-App Purchases
By 7.2.14
Earlier this year, Apple agreed to refund $32.5 million to customers of its App Store in order to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that the computer company did little to protect users from inadvertent in-app purchases. The FTC is looking to reach a similar deal with Amazon over its app store, but the online giant has said the government will probably have to make its case in court. [More]
RoadNinja Wants Only Five-Star Reviews, Isn’t Subtle About It
By 6.27.14
Ray likes Roadninja, a free mobile app that tells users what amenities and gas prices are available at the next highway exit. He doesn’t think it’s perfect, though. That’s why he was kind of annoyed when it prompted him to leave a review…and his options were limited. [More]
San Francisco Sends Cease-And-Desist Letter To App That Auctions Off Public Parking Spaces
By 6.23.14
Selling off the parking spot you’re about to vacate sounds like a win-win — you get some money and someone else gets a place to put a car. Oh but the thing is? It’s probably not legal if that’s a public spot, like in San Francisco, where the city attorney has warned a mobile app that it can’t help people auction off such spots. [More]
Most Apps Mobile Users Purchase Are Free
By 3.24.14
This piece of news will surprise absolutely no one: most smartphone and tablet applications that consumers purchase are free to download. Not free to use, necessarily, thanks to in-app purchases and upgrades, but free to download. Analysis by Statista for the Wall Street Journal shows that the consumers who spend the most on apps are iPad users, who shell out an average of fifty cents each for apps.
“Kid-Friendly” Plastic Surgery Apps Pop Up On Apple, Google Stores
By 1.16.14
Because there’s nothing children love more than animated fat-shaming and liposuction, a supposedly youngster-friendly plastic surgery app has popped up in various forms (and has also been taken down) on both Google Play Store the and Apple App Store. [More]
Our Long National Nightmare Is Over: Apple, Amazon Halt War Over “App Store” Name
By 7.10.13
More than two years ago, Apple launched a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the online retailer was violating Apple’s trademark by selling smartphone and tablet apps under via its Appstore, which sounds an awful lot like Apple’s App Store. Now, after years of bloodshed and families torn asunder by this nasty dispute, both sides have agreed to lay down their arms and agree to peace terms. [More]
