App Store - page 5

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: If the EU does indeed force Apple to open up the iPhone to allow alternative app stores, is that a bad thing? Some people think sideloading apps will be fantastic.

Also on The CultCast:

• Cool new stuff to try in iOS 16.2.
• Why web browsing might be in for radical changes on iOS devices.
• How to get Apple TV+ for free so you can watch Severance, our favorite show of the year.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

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Apple has launched a major project to allow alternative app stores on iPhones and iPads by 2024. The effort is meant to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, which comes fully into force then, and other possible national or regional laws that will make Apple allow sideloading of apps, according to new report Tuesday.

The end result should see Apple allowing people to download third-party software to iPhones and iPads from somewhere other than the App Store for the first time.

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Apple said Tuesday the App Store is undergoing “the most comprehensive upgrade to pricing capabilities” since its launch, allowing prices to be set as low as 29 cents and as high as $10,000.

It will start offering developers 700 new price points to apply to the apps they sell, plus new tools to make international selling easier to manage.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday walked back his claim that Apple was threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store.

This comes after Musk said he engaged in a “good conversation” with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple crowned 16 apps and games as winners of its 2022 App Store Awards for “making a profound cultural impact.” The App Store’s editorial team honored apps and games on five platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

This time around, the company also selected five “Cultural Impact winners that have made a lasting impact on people’s lives and influenced culture,” Apple said in a press release Tuesday.

In an unexpected development, SwiftKey is back on the App Store just a month after Microsoft removed the virtual keyboard app.

The move comes following customer feedback about the discontinuation of SwiftKey for iOS.

A class-action lawsuit filed in California alleges that, “Apple’s assurances and promises regarding privacy are utterly false.”

The lawsuit is based on the work of a security researcher who claims that many of Apple’s own applications send detailed analytics information to the developer even after users ask them to stop.

Apple has announced that it will increase the prices of apps and in-app purchases on the App Store in Europe and some other countries. The changes come into effect starting October 5, 2022.

The weakening Euro has forced the Cupertino giant to make this move.

The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly moved closer to filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The DOJ has investigated the iPhone-maker over the past several years and begun to actually write a potential suit.

The government agency has looked into many aspects of Apple’s business and there’s no clear word on whether the complaint will be about the App Store or something else.

Apple will reportedly start showing ads inside Apple Maps on iPhone starting next year. The company is looking to generate more revenue from its ad business in the coming years.

Apple currently displays ads inside the App Store and certain apps like Apple News and Stocks.

Apple is going further into the ad business. Soon, a paid advertisment will be added to the Today tab of the App Store. And a paid link will be added to the product pages for individual applications.

These will join the Search Ads that are already included in the App Store.

Apple acting as an advertising broker is likely to be controversial because the company has taken a strong stance on targeted ads provided by Google, Facebook and others.

A letter from progressive members of the U.S. House of Representatives this week urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to call for votes soon on a pair of antitrust bills that would rein in the power of tech giants like Apple and Google in an attempt to open up competition from more companies.

Without votes “in the next few weeks,” lawmakers’ upcoming months-long recess could delay action considerably.

Russia plans to levy fines against Apple for allegedly using the App Store in an uncompetitive way.

This is the second time Russia has accused the iPhone-maker of breaking its laws in recent weeks.

The European Parliament passed the landmark Digital Markets Act on Tuesday. The legislation aims to outlaw many common practices of Big Tech companies, especially Apple, Google and Amazon.

For iPhone users, the DMA would force Apple to allow rival app stores and sideloaded applications. And these are only two of many significant changes in the act.

There are still further steps the the EU government must go through before the DMA goes into effect, but that’s expected to happen before the end of 2022.

Apple now allows App Store developers in South Korea to use third-party payment systems. The option is limited to apps distributed in the country.

The Cupertino giant is allowing alternative payment processors in the South Korean App Store to comply with the amended Telecommunications Business Act.

Apple bans apps like emulators and clipboard history on your iPhone, but there’s a clever way to sideload these apps without jailbreaking.

The official App Store is the only way Apple wants you to get apps on the iPhone. If there’s an app that doesn’t fit Apple’s strict rules, it doesn’t get on the App Store at all.

Apple strictly forbids a few categories of apps. Emulators — apps that play games from old consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System and GameBoy — are prohibited. Porn is not allowed either. System-wide features like clipboard managers — which are very popular and even downloadable on the Mac App Store — are not allowed on the iPhone. (My favorite is Maccy.)

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get these types of apps, though. You can install an alternative App Store for iPhone called AltStore right now with the help of a Mac or PC. With AltStore, you can install verboten apps like emulators and clipboard history without jailbreaking your iPhone.

June 10, 2013: Apple passes a major milestone in iOS history, as payments to app developers top $10 billion on the App Store’s fifth birthday.

Speaking at WWDC 2013, Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals that the company paid out half of this money in the previous year. He also notes that this outrageous total is three times more than all other app store platforms combined. With 575 million user accounts registered, Apple has more credit cards on file than any other company on the internet.

People have downloaded 50 billion apps in total out of a collection of 900,000 available, Cook says, with 93% of the apps downloaded at least once every month.

New data from a couple of analytics firms shows that it’s harder now than ever to get an app to the top of App Store rankings, thanks to stiffer competition.

But the data shows that gaming apps have an easier time of it than other types of apps.

Apple distributed a new set of fraud analysis data Wednesday. It indicated the App Store prevented 1.6 million “risky” and “untrustworthy” apps from defrauding users in 2021, stopping “nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions.”

As with other recent data compilations, Cupertino released the news at a time when the App Store’s strict policies have come under fire.

Apple’s bid to have Cydia creator Jay Freeman’s lawsuit dismissed was denied Thursday in California federal court.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple maintains an illegal App Store monopoly over app distribution on iPhones and iPads.

A bill aimed at regulating Big Tech is reportedly losing support in the U.S. Senate. The fate of the American Choice and Innovation Online Act is now in question.

It is a Democratic proposal but some Senate Democrats are leery about voting for it in an election year.

Games played on iPhone and Android represents 61% of the overall gaming market, according to two market analysis firms. And mobile’s lead over PC and console gaming is growing.

The total gaming market is set to hit $222 billion in 2022. For comparison, global film revenue for 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year) was $42.5 billion.

App Store revenue for smaller developers increased by 113% over the past two years – more than double the growth of large developers, according to a study financed by Apple.

And the iPhone app economy supported more than 2.2 million jobs in the U.S. in 2021.

Ahead of the June 30, 2022 deadline, Apple has reminded developers that if they offer users an option to create new accounts from their app, they must also provide a way to delete them.

Apple first announced this change in June last year, with the rule initially set to go into force by January 31, 2022. However, due to the complexity involved, the company delayed its implementation by five months to give developers additional time.

Apple has sent out emails to its customers in India informing them that it won’t be accepting credit and debit cards for payments on the App Store and other Apple services starting June 1, 2022.

The announcement comes ahead of the new regulations from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) going live.