Fake apps on Apple App Stores seeing a pre-holiday surge, purges ongoing: "A report by the New York Times points out that a rogue app producer going by the name of "Footlocke Sports" populated the app store with fake apps for Puma, Nike, Canada Goose, Celine, and others. The apps, when functional, were attempting to induce shoppers to buy products that would never arrive, with the scammers collecting user information and credit card data."

But your valid, innocuous app has been rejected due to violation of some meaningless clause in the app store guidelines.

Labels: app store

94% of App Store revenue goes to just 1% of publishers: "You’ve probably heard it’s hard to make money in the App Store, but not for a small few. Last quarter, a staggering 94 percent of App Store revenue generated in the U.S. went to just the top 1 percent of app publishers, according to new data."

Should be no surprise it's just like the economics of Wall Street, the world's overlords.

Labels: app store

Apple investigating major App Store search changes, mulling paid results, report says: "A report Thursday claims Apple has a 'secret team' working on major user-facing changes to App Store search results, including the possibility of charging developers to promote content. "

I'm looking forward to seeing the Microsoft brand at the top of every search category on the App Store(s). If Google isn't already the way you find relevant content in the App Store, it soon will be.

Labels: app store

How to install and run Mac apps that don't come from the Mac App Store: "Apple has introduced a number of features designed to protect users from malware in OS X, but these tools occasionally go too far when trying to save people from themselves."

Well, as long as the Mac can run really crappy ports of iPad shovel ware, why should anybody complain?

Labels: app store

Apple reportedly cracks down on antivirus apps from iOS App Store, many apps pulled | 9to5Mac: "One casualty of the removal is Intego’s VirusBarrier, which claims that this takedown was not specific to its product with Apple deciding the entire category of antivirus products is now off-limits."

I like the fact that Apple is fairly lax about editorializing App Store content, but it would be good if the app store became organized around search because otherwise in the long term, Google will be used to find apps in the store.

Labels: app security, app store

SanDisk launches portable storage drive with built-in Lightning connector: "The iXpand Flash Drive comes in capacities of 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes and is compatible with any iOS device with a Lightning port running iOS 7 or later. File transfers and backups are accomplished through the SanDisk iXpand Sync app available for free on the App Store."

I'm actually quite curious as to what entitlements this app is using.

Labels: app security, app store

Chinese Mac and iOS users targeted by new ‘WireLurker’ malware capable of infecting non-jailbroken devices | 9to5Mac: "The New York Times reports that a security firm called Palo Alto Networks has uncovered a new form of Apple-focused malware that is capable of infecting non-jailbroken iOS devices. Typically when such software pops up, as it does from time to time, one of the key factors that allows the malicious code to run on iOS is whether the device is jailbroken. The new ‘WireLurker’ malware, however, is installed on the mobile device over USB by an infected Mac."

Dang!

Labels: app security, app store

genkiyooka/MacRuntimeSandboxDetection
For CFPlugIn and AudioUnit developers - how to check Mac App Store sandbox capabilities at runtime.

If you write system components (i.e. CoreAudio AudioUnit), CFPlugIn bundles or loadable Cocoa frameworks which are shared among applications (like haxies), you may wish to detect the capabilities of the sandbox environment into which you've been loaded so you can gracefully disable features and so forth.

Naive implementations of such loadable code often dump huge volumes of system messages into the Console.log - not useful to anyone.

Labels: app store, c++, cocoa, mac runtime sandbox detection, sandbox, secure coding mac, security tools mac

The new release of Tighten Pro 1.0.11 is now available on the Mac App Store. This release includes a total rewrite of the Mac App Store receipt validation code generator including extensive checking of the security trust/certificate chain and new code to parse and validate in-app purchase receipts. The in-app purchase receipt validation code is 100% inline-able and as such can be used throughout your application code (ie. salted). Other new features include security code generation for DeveloperID/Gatekeeper applications and more. Tighten Pro represents a comprehensive solution for application developers dealing with the complexities of deploying to the Mac App Store and protecting their work from piracy.

Labels: app store, mac app store receipt validation, sandbox, tighten pro, validation

Apple Tweaks Design Of App Store Category Pages
In its weekly App Store refresh, it appears Apple has today tweaked the design of App Store categories to include the same design of the App Store’s home page.

Of interest to most Mac App Store developers.

Labels: app store

Sandbox of frustration: Apple's walled garden closes in on Mac developers | The Verge: "Sadly, not all apps can afford to abide by Apple's rules. Popular launcher and macro app Alfred 'works deep into the heart of your Mac,' and thus can't sandbox without losing several key features that take advantage of scripts in OS X. "

Soon there will be a solution for this problem… stay tuned!

Labels: app store, apple, sandbox

Just added a download link to the Free edition of Tighten: generates a customized implementation of Mac App Store Receipt Validation unique to your application. Better than using free code samples from the internet. Consider upgrading to Tighten Pro for a more secure implementation.

Labels: app store, codesign, receipt, validation

Apple turns on App Store Genius recommendations for developers: "Apple rolled out a revamped App Store for iOS 6 beta on Friday, though at the time it appeared to be a work in progress as Genius recommendations weren't yet activated and the 'Chomp-inspired' layout seen on the iPad version had yet to make its way to the iPhone. "

When the gorilla shuffles it's foot, thousands of ants die.

Labels: app store, chomp

Apple leverages 'unique identifier' to thwart in-app purchasing hack: "Developers reported on Wednesday that Apple is now attaching a unique identifier to in-app purchases in an attempt to stop a recently-discovered workaround which allowed the download of paid content for free."

iOS imitates MacOSX imitates iOS.

Labels: app store, hacking, ios, iphone

Apple pulls Russian malware from iOS App Store: "Hours after it was highlighted by a security firm, Russian-language malware on the iOS App Store was removed by Apple and is no longer available for download.

This would be an example of why the app sandbox is a good idea.

Labels: app store, malware, sandbox, security