Last night Apple released an update to its TestFlight app on iOS, bringing the version number up to 1.5. Louis D’hauwe, developer of Pixure, shared some of the positive impacts that last night’s update brought.

Apple confirmed today that iTunes Connect will be unavailable for a five-day period lasting from December 23 to 27. The pre-announced shut down is part of Apple’s annual time off period for app reviewers at the company.

Apple today updated its iTunes Connect iOS app, the dashboard developers use to manage their content submitted to iTunes and the App Store, providing users with the ability to access the service’s Resolution Center feature.

According to a variety of users on Twitter, iTunes Connect is down at the moment. Users report that they are unable to access any aspect of the service. It’s important to note that this is iTunes Connect, not Apple Music Connect. iTunes Connect is used by developers to access information about their apps and other store content. Last year, the service was down for upwards of four days for some.

Apple has posted the dates of the usual holiday shutdown of iTunes Connect, running for eight days from 22 to 29 December inclusive. During this time, developers will not be able to submit either new apps or updates to existing ones.

Developers can still schedule apps for release during these dates, but they will need to be submitted and approved beforehand. Other iTunes Connect functionality, such as access to analytics data, will remain available.

In the post on its developer website, Apple notes the record downloads, revenue and active customers for the App Store.

Because of your incredible apps, the App Store crossed 100 billion cumulative downloads. Revenue from the App Store increased 25% year over year, and the number of transacting customers grew 18%, setting a new all-time record. We want to thank you for all your hard work and dedication to our platforms.

Apple announced at the start of the year that developers have now collectively earned more than $10B from the App Store.

iTunes Connect is down for many. Attempting to connect here, it is giving a Gateway Timeout error. It’s only a little more than a week after many developers experienced a multi-day outage.

Apple’s system status page is not showing any issues at the time of writing, but commonly remains all-green for extended periods after outages are first experienced … 

A noticeably large number of users are reporting issues logging into iTunes Connect, Apple’s developer portal for managing and distributing apps and other content to the App Store and iTunes. The outage appears to only be affecting a subset of users (we’ve had success logging in, for instance), but a growing number of developers have publicly voiced complaints online. Some users report not being able to access the service for going on four days:

Apple currently has yet to report any issues for iTunes Connect on its System Status page that tracks and reports downtime for its developer services.

Some users have reported success logging in after tweaking VPN settings, while another user posted the following workaround fix that others have used to patch what appears to be a Javascript issue at least temporarily until Apple officially addresses it:

We’ve reached out to Apple about the downtime, and we’ll update here if we hear back.

Apple’s TestFlight-based App Analytics service is now available to all registered iOS developers through the iTunes Connect interface. Apple recently made App Analytics available to select developers upon request (which were fulfilled in a short amount of time), but starting today all developers can access the service without the need for requesting access.

Ahead of next week’s iPhone 6 announcement, Apple has finally debuted the new design for its iTunes Connect web app that was initially shown off during the WWDC Platforms State of the Union. The new design features a more iOS-like look, similar to that of iCloud.com, and now gives developers even more information about their apps. Analytics feature have also been added for helping users track App Store page views and more.

The new iTunes Connect features will automatically be enabled in iOS apps with no necessary input from developers, as Apple noted during the original announcement. You can take the revamped system for a spin over on the iTunes Connect website.

This weekend, Apple has notified App Store developers that the South African App Store will see app price changes due to the country’s new 14% Value Added Tax rate. Apple commonly makes these changes to align with tax changes in certain regions. It’s likely that these price changes will spread to other Apple web properties such as the iTunes Store and iBookstore. Expect to see these changes within the next 24 hours. A new pricing matrix can be accessed by developers in iTunes Connect.

iTunes Connect has gone back online today after a short hiatus due to the holidays. This is not unexpected as Apple told developers the website would be closed between December 21st and December 27th. iTunes Connect is the online portal for developers to manage, upload, and make changes to their applications on the iOS App Store. This means developers can now make price or content changes and means customers will be able to get the latest changes.

Apple has sent out an email to developers (via iMore) informing them that iTunes Connect will once again be closed for the holidays. During that time, no new apps or updates will be released, app prices won’t be able to be changed, Newsstand updates won’t be processed, and any price changes scheduled for that week will result in the app becoming completely unavailable until the 27th. Even statisitics and sales reports for developers will be delayed during that time.

The full email is below:

iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Saturday, December 21, to Friday, December 27, 2013.

During that time, iTunes Connect will not be accessible and you will not be able to submit any apps or In-App Purchases. Processing of any Newsstand Atom feeds will be delayed until after December 27. Sales and Trends reports via the Autoingestion tool will be available but may also be delayed.

Also, you should not schedule any pricing changes or apps to go live between those dates. Pricing changes scheduled to take effect in that date range will cause the app to become unavailable for purchase until after December 27. Similarly, apps scheduled to go live during that range will not be released until after December 27.

If you have any additional questions, use the Contact Us module on iTunes Connect.

If you take your iOS games seriously enough to make it to the top of the Game Center Leaderboard, it can be annoying to see someone cheat their way past you with a Leaderboard hack. Previously, all developers could do about it was ask Apple to deal with the issue – but new features in iOS 7 make it possible for developers combat cheaters themselves.  We previously told you about all these new anti-cheater features for developers, but today Apple reminds devs in an update that they now have the ability to delete fake scores and block known cheaters altogether.

You can now view and manage the top 100 scores and usernames for all of your Game Center leaderboards. Protect your legitimate players by signing in to iTunes Connect to delete fake scores or block players that post fake scores. You can also restore scores and players within the same time period.

iOS 7 introduced a number of new developer tools to help block Leaderboard spam, including the ability to set realistic maximum scores and reject unsigned submissions. This latest addition goes one step further in allowing developers to directly zap fake scores after the event. Apple this week added a description of exactly how developers can combat fraud on leaderboards in its developer documentation:

After you have apps available in the App Store or Mac App Store, iTunes Connect gives you access to 30 days of scores posted to your apps’ leaderboards. If you determine that players are able to generate fraudulent scores, you can remove these scores from a leaderboard or even block individual players from posting scores. You can manage active leaderboards as follows:

• View the top 100 scores for a given leaderboard or grouped game leaderboard.
• Delete a specific leaderboard score from a leaderboard.
• Restore a specific score to a leaderboard.
• Block a player from posting scores to a given leaderboard. This deletes all scores on the leaderboard for that player.
• Restore a player and the player’s most recent score posted before being blocked.

iTunes Connect maintains 30 days of leaderboard entries for your review: scores older than 30 days cannot be removed from a leaderboard; scores removed or players blocked cannot be restored more than 30 days after they are removed.

For instructions on how to do this, Apple refers developers to the Managing Game Center Leaderboard Activity section in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.