Mac App Store

It's Apple's Q2 2015 and one category stands out to me above all others: Services. While the iPhone has had a 40% growth over this time last year and the Mac has had 10% growth year over year, it's the Services category that I'm most interested in. Why? Because it contains Apple Pay and all of Apple's software stores. Because its growth has been far more tempered than any other category on Apple's basic Product Summary list, and because it's about to break past two categories for the first time in a long time: iPad and Mac.

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Apple's App Store and iTunes have sprung back into life, after technical issues brought the download stores offline in the early hours of this morning. Downloads of apps, music, and video resumed at approximately 1:30pm Pactific today, after what Apple described as a DNS issue left users not only unable to get to the App Store and iTunes on their iPhones and iPads, but temporarily killed the Mac App Store and iBooks Store too. In total, the services were offline for more than ten hours.

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The desktop version of popular third-party Twitter client Tweetbot has disappeared from the Mac App Store, and the cause is believed to be because of the limit on API tokens that Twitter imposes on developers. In a nutshell, Twitter gives app developers a limited number of tokens, which allow users to sign in and use the social network through the chosen app. Without any more tokens, the app becomes useless to new buyers.

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If you head into the App Store for either iOS or OS X (Mac App Store, obviously), you might notice a slight change. If you go to download an app, there is no longer a “Free” option. Now, you’ll either be presented with a price, or “Get”. The change is causing a bit of confusion with some, but it shouldn’t. Apps are still free, unless they cost something. Or will cost something later. Or might cost something at some point. You know what, we’re complicating this. Let’s talk it out.

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In releasing their quarterly earnings, Apple also made available their device sales figures. As you might have guessed, iPhone sales were up over last quarter on the heels of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. They were also up over last year, showing a solid trajectory. The rest of Apple’s product lineup did equally well as a whole, but iPad sales continue to slide. That trend may only continue in the face of the iPhone 6 Plus, which will naturally eat at iPad mini sales.

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The team behind Tumblr’s success are very, very smart. They know good and well what it takes to run the hype machine and keep it running full-speed. Because of this, they’ve decided to release a Tumblr desktop app today. They’ve decided to release this app for OS X Yosemite exclusively. That’s OS X 10.10 only. They’ve done this because they know there’ll be massive amounts of people looking for new an exciting ways to use their brand new operating system this afternoon.

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Yes, the App Store has been down and out for a bit this morning and you’re not the only one to experience this oddity. Starting in the evening of October 2nd, 2014, the App Store for both of Apple’s main platforms, iOS and OS X, were sporadically out to dinner - then breakfast.

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If you’ve used a previous iteration of GarageBand for OS X, the update to version 10 of the software for OS X Mavericks shouldn’t require too much convincing. It’s essentially a new iteration of the same high-powered set of features with additional features to boot. But what about those users who want to pay the cash to grab this app from the Mac App Store for the full price - those that haven’t purchased a piece of OS X hardware in the past couple of months (and from this point forward) that haven’t had the GarageBand experience? For those of you there, there’s this.

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If you've seen the likes of the Apple Volume Purchase Program in the past, you're likely part of an Education or Enterprise-based organization, and you've likely wished they had the same program for Mac Apps as well. While this program had only worked with iOS-based apps and books in volume in the past, Apple has issued a note to developers today letting them know about a Mac-aimed program appearing soon. This Mac Apps for education and enterprise program will work with the same sort of setup - purchasing apps in bulk for a discount then distributing them to students, administrators, teachers, and employees.

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Just yesterday the 2013 Super Bowl revealed the very first glimpse most of the world had at Apple's URL-shortening "AppStore.com" in the Star Trek Into Darkness teaser - and lucky you, you're already signed up! The AppStore.com structure is not one where there will be a massive "land grab" as often is the case with these sorts of things, instead Apple has opted for a more automatic sort of push, with URLs like http://appstore.com/slashgear being active automatically. That particular address will bring you straight to the iTunes App Store listing of the SlashGear app - easy as pie!

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The OS X version of Evernote 5 has been released out of its Beta state now for the public, available for all to download in the Mac App Store. This version of the app is ready to bring on "100+ new features" including shortcuts, easy access to recent notes, notebook expansion, and tag lists. This version also has easier browsing with a fully updated user interface and works with a lovely new notes list for simple usability all around.

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Though the price might be a bit of a turn-off for those of you not familiar with the power of the environment, Tweetbot has hit the Apple desktop environment today in a big way. This Twitter app is up for $19.99 USD, and for that price they've brought on one whole heck of a lot of features in this final first release (that being non-Beta, as it were). With this brand new universe for the Twitter king you'll get Retina Mac Support, integration with your Notification Center, and even syncing with iCloud - of course you'll need 10.8 Mountain Lion for that.

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