Video game company Ubisoft has sued both Apple and Google, accusing the two of selling a game that’s a “near carbon copy” of its popular game “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege.” Ubisoft alleges that both companies are infringing on its copyrights by selling the game in the App Store and Play Store.
Update 5/11: After over 2 months, the Shadow app is back on the App Store. The update removes the “Quick Launch” feature and now abides by Apple’s guidelines.
Shadow, one of several cloud gaming services to gain popularity recently, has had its iOS app removed from the App Store today. The company made the announcement on Reddit, saying that Apple removed the app because of a violation of App Store guidelines.
We’re set to learn about Apple’s March quarter performance in detail and just ahead of the company’s earnings call, data shared by SensorTower estimates that iPad app downloads have seen solid growth amid the pandemic. That comes after they saw a steady decline for four years. Along with the uptick in downloads, iPad app Q1 revenue has crossed the $2B mark for the first time.
A group of major app developers have set up their own association, seemingly geared to doing the same job as The App Association, an existing group sponsored by Apple and other tech giants.
They have formed the App Coalition, which seeks to lobby Congress on behalf of app developers, especially during the coronavirus crisis …
Apple’s App Store Search Ads have now arrived in Russia for developers to promote their apps to a wider audience.
We already know that Apple can be hard to work with when it comes to launching new apps on the App Store. From the beginning, several developers have complained about the company’s strict rules, and it was no different with Martin Otyeka, an independent developer who tried to launch his first iOS app this year — unfortunately without success.
Martin wrote an article about how frustrating it was to create a new idea for a messaging app and then see it rejected by Apple, as the company said he should try to develop an app like “every other messaging app.”
Many schools around the world base their IT deployments on Google services. As schools were forced to shut down as a result of the coronavirus quarantine rules, many institutions have flocked to Google Classroom to keep up the curriculum for students and send out homework. It turns out that the students are less pleased with this arrangement.
A number of autism apps have been highlighted by Apple on World Autism Awareness Day, an annual event intended to educate people about those with autistic spectrum disorders. It is part of the company’s extensive commitment to accessibility.
The United Nations has drawn attention to the specific challenges faced by people with autism during the coronavirus outbreak…
Apple is rolling out a new detailed financial report option to App Store Connect for developers this month. The company made the announcement in a post on its Developer blog this afternoon.
Apple had originally set a deadline of April 30 for requiring apps for iPhone and iPad be built with the iOS 13 SDK. In a new developer blog post today, however, Apple has extended that deadline and many others.
With coronavirus misinformation common, either through deliberate hoaxes or honest misunderstandings, Apple is doing its bit to help. The company is currently giving top UK App Store billing to an official government health app.
The National Health Service (NHS) app opens with a symptom-checker and a highlighted link to COVID-19 info …
In a post on its developer website this afternoon, Apple has announced that the App Store is launching in 20 new countries this year. Apple hasn’t yet said which countries are included in this expansion. [Update: View the list below]
With many students out of school and lots of companies having employees work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, we’re seeing business and education app downloads grow almost 300%. Meanwhile, Apple is now offering a 10% bonus when you add money to your Apple ID for the iTunes and App Store.
Apple is responding to the COVID-19 virus in real time as the global pandemic worsens, and the latest coronavirus response is a new App Store effort to ensure the credibility of health and safety information.
Starting now, Apple is expediting approval for specific apps from reputable sources related to COVID-19. The App Store is also waiving the annual membership fee for distributing free apps for select groups. Apple will not approve apps that use COVID-19 themes for entertainment and games to limit apps that take advantage of the current health crisis.
Apple is taking a firm stance against coronavirus applications that aren’t from “recognized institutions,” a new report from CNBC says. According to the report, Apple is trying to prevent the spread of misinformation with this policy.
The removal of a game from Apple’s Chinese App Store has revealed that the Cupertino company has been failing to enforce government licensing laws introduced back in 2016 …
Apple held its annual shareholders meeting earlier today, which included votes on six different proposals, comments from Tim Cook, and a question and answer session. One of the proposals was specifically critical of Apple’s cooperation with requests from the Chinese government to remove certain apps from the App Store.
The Streisand Effect has predictably kicked in after Apple attempted to prevent the distribution of a new Apple book written by former German App Store manager Tom Sadowski. App Store Confidential is now number two on Amazon’s bestseller list in Germany, and the book is into its second print run.
Despite Apple’s claim that the book reveals company secrets, reviewers indicate that the material in it is bland and obvious …
A Bloomberg report says Apple is considering allowing iPhone and iPad users to choose third-party default iOS apps for things like email and web-browsing.
Currently, you can use third-party apps, of course, but as we explained earlier, you can’t set them as the defaults.
It is not possible for the user to tell iOS that it prefers the third-party browser over Safari; any tapped links will open in Safari every single time. Similarly, there are many competing email apps in the App Store but shortcuts to composing a new email will only ever show the system Mail compose sheet …
Apple has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the author and publisher of a new book App Store Confidential, claiming that the former Apple manager reveals business secrets.
Apple says that Tom Sadowski is in breach of his employment contract by revealing “business secrets […] of considerable economic value”…
YouTube TV will become the latest subscription service to drop support for Apple’s in-app billing system. CNET reports that starting in March, YouTube TV will no longer support billing via Apple and that users should switch their billing settings before then.
Apple has added a new toggle to the top of the Subscriptions page on iPhone and iPad. By toggling the switch, users can choose not to receive email notifications every time a recurring In-App Purchase is charged.
It’s a small feature addition, but may be welcomed by Apple users who have a lot of subscriptions.
Apple has expanded the ability for eligible organizations to apply for developer account fee waivers today to eight more countries, bringing the total to 13 that have the opportunity to get free developer memberships.
To comply with US sanctions, Apple removed some Iranian apps from its App Store back in 2017 and one of them was Snapp, a popular ride sharing service in the country. However, at some point, the developers snuck it back in the App Store hidden within a music app called RadickRadio…