News tagged ‘App Store’

According to Bloomberg, Apple has sued Amazon over the use of the name “App Store”.  Apple, in a complaint filed March 18, accused Amazon.com of trademark infringement and unfair competition and asks for a court order to prevent the company from using the “App Store” name. Amazon is planning to launch its own “Amazon Appstore” for Android devices, a marketplace to distribute and download apps. Apple claims to have contacted Amazon three times demanding that they change their name, but Amazon has yet to provide a "substantive response".

“Amazon has begun improperly using Apple's App Store mark in connection with Amazon's mobile software developer program," Apple said in the complaint. “We’ve asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will confuse and mislead customers.”

Apple has seeded a new 8th version of Mac OS X 10.6.7, termed Build 10J869, to developers for testing. According to those familiar with the new build, Apple doesn’t list known issues keeps asking developers to focus their testing on Safari, Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers. Very little change in file size leads us to think the final release of the OS update is nearing completion.

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Apple announced alongside new MacBook Pros the first developer preview of OS X 10.7 Lion, first demoed last October.

Apple today released a developer preview of Mac OS X Lion, which takes some of the best ideas from iPad and brings them back to the Mac for the eighth major release of the world's most advanced operating system. The Lion preview is available to Mac Developer Program members through the Mac App Store, and the final version of Lion will ship to customers this summer.

Apple also outlines a number of features to be found in Lion:

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Along with new Macbook Pros yesterday Apple also released FaceTime for Mac.

Its latest beta-version became available back in October and allowed users who entered their Apple ID to chat with other users of Macs, iPhone 4 or iPod 4G.

The new version of application now supports 720p video, which can be made with the FaceTime HD camera in fresh MacBook Pros. The standard-definition camera on most other Apple devices can offer VGA-quality for Mac-to-Mac video calls.

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Apple today released a fifth beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 to developers for testing. This time Safary was added to the list of focus area to concentrate on, joining Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers that had been included in previous builds. No known issues are listed in the documentation again. Fourth beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 was released on February 11. An estimated target date for public release of Mac OS X 10.6.7 is still unclear.

Yesterday Apple has unveiled its new App Store subscription service, which allows publishers to offer recurring billing.

When The Daily was presented last month, the same digital billing service was launched along with it, but then Eddy Cue, who is an Apple's iTunes chief, said that more details on the subscription service will be revealed in the near future, and that is finally happened.

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Last week Apple launched the first Mac App Store section: Personal Projects, in which it displays apps for a specific creative audience. There are apps for musicians, designers, photographers and video editors to organize their projects and ideas at home. Now there are only five apps featured in each of four categories (covering things from design to music and photography). It looks like Apple had trouble finding enough quality apps to fill the space.

Cult of Mac reports that Apple is working on a new notification system for iOS.

Apple’s pop-up notification system for new text messages, voicemails and the like has often been criticized as one of the weakest parts of the iOS. Notifications are intrusive, modal and often cryptic. It’s a mess.

And to build new technology into the operating system, the company is going to acquire a small iOS development firm that currently offers a notification system in the App Store. Cult of Mac suggests that it might be Boxcar, which offers an iOS application providing push notifications for a variety of services.

Today Mike Abramsky, who is an analyst from investment firm RBC Capital Markets, released a note to investors, where he said that Apple and Verizon will sell more than 1 million iPhones in a week after its launch. He also forecasted that in the first quarter of device availability both companies will sell approximately from 3 to 4 million handsets.

He also took available inventory and estimated pre-order numbers and found out that Apple, Best Buy and Verizon may stock out completely as soon as in the first week after the launch of the device. The analyst believes that Apple has 1-1,5 million units for the launch in its channel inventory.

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Apple recently added a small but useful tweak to the Mac App Store. Now when you are going to purchase any application, there will appear a window asking you to confirm your decision. Helpful thing for those who might already spend some money accidentally purchased an app. Now the Mac App Store doesn’t allow you to toggle the purchase confirmation off, as in the iOS App Store.

MacRumors has reported that Apple is planning to eliminate boxed software, which only takes up retail space that could be used for higher profit items such as iPad or iPhone accessories. Apple is going to distribute their software through the Mac App Store, strongly believing that the future of software sales will be digital distribution. But how Apple will deal with software which is not available through the Mac App Store? It's not clear now. Though, the idea of total elimination of boxed software also sounds unreal. Perhaps Apple will replace such software with USB software installers.  It may make more sense; nevertheless, such replacement doesn’t appear to be quick.

Apple yesterday added a new feature in the iPad App Store. The new search filters appear as a toolbar at the top of search results pages. The filters allow users to search by category, release date, customer rating, price, and device compatibility. These filters also aren't yet available on the desktop version of the App Store, so right now the iPad seems like the best way to search for apps. The second change shows the previously-purchased applications. Typically, results have been displayed with a button showing the price of the app.  Now the results for apps already installed on the device are displayed with an inactive button simply saying "installed".

Apple finally has allowed Mac developers to generate promo codes for their applications in the Mac App Store:

You can now generate promo codes for your Mac applications in iTunes Connect. These promo codes can be redeemed in any Mac App Store worldwide. For each version of your application, you can request up to 50 promo codes.

Promo codes allow developers to give out free copies of their App Store applications for review and giveaway purposes. This feature until today was only available for the iOS App Store.

Recently Apple seeded a new version of Mac OS X 10.6.7, termed Build 10J850, to developers for testing. This time Apple is asking developers to focus their testing on Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers. No known issues are listed in the attached documentation. An estimated date of public release of Mac OS X 10.6.7, as usual, stays unclear. Apple likes making surprises.