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Mac App Store: Open for Business

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Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#171

Post by gaiusparx »

toddmorey wrote: post #91
ugh wrote: post #50

Arrrg! No way of uninstalling apps in one central location. Why, Apple, why? There is this nice list of installed apps, why doesn’t it have an uninstall button? It doesn’t make any sense. I guess you are expected to drag apps to the trash like before? That sucks.

I realized something that I think is even bigger than uninstalling: There's no software trial mechanism in the App Store. That's always been the spirit of shareware (and a lot of hosted services, too). You install it, kick the tires, and then decide on purchasing before the trial is done. But here, even programs available for trial on the actual developer sites seem only to be available for instant purchase. (The equ…

Apple has specifically mentioned that no trialware or Lite version of app is allowed on Mac App Store, and advise developer to host such version on their own. Good move by Apple.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#172

Post by J3L2404 »

elvirs wrote: post #146
elvirs wrote: post #27

Buy, download, and even redownload. its amazing how apple expected customers to pay for the same digital product over and over.

apple fanboys were offended by my observations, my apologies :) (but i still stick to my point)

Except that your point is factually wrong, which is why you tried to backtrack. You should have deleted your post while you had the chance.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#173

Post by tvon »

sjs wrote: post #93
pclark wrote: post #2

Is it just me or is the .app an abomination of a UI? Why does Apple now have three different window control styles? http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20635/Screenshots/r3da.png Why are there back buttons ("like a browser") but you can't click hold to get the contextual drop down? The navigation (Featured, Top Charts, etc) are so far away from the other controls (Back and Forward) its insanely awkward to use. It feels kind of .…

Better not look at Twitter for Mac (aka. Tweetie 2) ...

That thing seems pretty beta, it even has a zoom button that does nothing. The translucent sidebar needs to be at least colorable (I'd opt for the standard grey though), I had a very dark background that made it hard to see where the window ended on the left. It's also a bit strange to grab and move since it lacks a top window border and any empty space up there to click on.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#174

Post by zsouthboy »

Groxx wrote: post #156
J3L2404 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine the volume of junk without $99? Also it helps pay for the reviewing of apps, although they still take a loss on running the appstore, last I heard.

> Can you imagine the volume of junk without $99? No need to imagine: http://www.android.com/market/

Market costs $25 to submit to, as well.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#175

Post by J3L2404 »

axod wrote: post #148
roadnottaken wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it's a pretty complex program that does very sophisticated things behind the scenes. I used to hate it, and I still mostly do. But I notice that the only people that really hate it are powerusers. There are hundreds of millions of people out there that find it delightful and enabling. It probably says something good about your UX if you're only bothering powerusers.

I think there's a pretty compelling argument that iTunes has become a monolithic abomination trying to do a thousand things. Split it up into more programs that each do something simple and well.

Not to mention that it is coded in Carbon which I'm sure doesn't help performance. If apple isn't working on a new version then they are very shortsighted.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#176

Post by [deleted] »

seiha wrote: post #71
rimantas wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? I own several programs I bought before Mac App Store launched and store shows them as installed. I am pretty sure, that if you delete an app and then try to "buy" it again, you will get the same as in iOS App Store: a prompt that you already own this app and suggestion to redownload it.

I just deleted CoverSutra which I purchased this morning off the App Store and it went from "Installed" to "Reinstall" or "Not Installed" (I can't really remember which) and I was able to reinstall it with one click and it came flying back into my dock. Pretty darn easy if you ask me. However, I'm not sure if the purchases are stored locally in the app itself/cloud? Say, If I just got a brand new machine, would my ap…

[deleted]

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#177

Post by moopark »

tftfmacedo wrote: post #90
jonprins wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which, considering disk space is cheap, is a better way to do it than getting stuck in apt dependency hell.

It's also a security nightmare.

No. It is not. I'm really tired of this argument. It assumes other platforms are the same as Linux, and that's incorrect.

Here's why you're wrong:

Unlike Linux, Mac OS X ships with a standard, stable, and exceptionally complete set of libraries. Apple goes to great lengths to maintain binary and API compatibility, and this means a few things:

- Most applications will only require Apple-supplied libraries, as there's very little that isn't provided by the OS libraries.

- Apple keeps the OS libraries up-to-date.

This feature-complete ABI/API-stable environment is not free for Apple to provide -- it takes a lot of effort to provide a consistent API across libraries and maintain the API/ABI compatibility across releases, but the advantages are tremendous. Mac OS X has been able to skate by without package management for years because this approach allows for drag-install drag-uninstall application distribution.

UNIX derivatives, on the other hand, were faced with a lack of standardization of core application libraries, a huge number of incompatible libraries to fill in the gaps, and a software distribution model that involves splatting files all over the disk. The end result is that you need a packaging system to maintain security updates, manage all the files on disk, and upgrade the world in lockstep due to API/ABI compatibility issues across libraries shared by wildly disparate applications.

So -- tl;dr -- it's not a security 'nightmare' because the core libraries that everyone uses are already shared and updated by the OS vendor.

This is also what makes Mac OS X so much nicer to develop and distribute applications for as compared to platforms that require a centralized package manager authority to keep things sane.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#178

Post by tommi »

jeromeflipo wrote: post #169
tommi wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly disagree. Native apps can provide way more better integration to your desktop and therefore improve the user experience. E.g. showing a consistent (growl) popup for tweets is not possible as far as i know from the web version. And that's just a very simplified example.

Browsers could/can show consistent pop-ups too (cf. http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/WebNotifications/publish/ & http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/desktop-... ), and I hope the Web version of Twitter will support this soon.

It's a good step forward. The web standards and especially their implementation in browsers and on websites are unlikely to catch up operating system and application development. Therefore the native app is likely to be able to provide something that the browser can't. However, with such notification APIs and other technologies coming, they might be good enough.

I still like how I can switch between applications way more than I like switching between different sites or rather the tabs of one site. Any improvement on that area?

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#179

Post by dgroves »

My x-wife purchased a substantially number of songs from iTunes - we are talking a 5 digit investment. When I moved over seas to England; I was no longer able to partake in my music due to the DRM placed on it by Apple and my new "jurisdiction."

I am very deeply suspicious about the 'app-store' what if I purchase an application while I am here in the UK? Is it going to work when I get back to the USA - or will they force me to purchase it again the way they are attempting to do with my music?

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#180

Post by maxklein »

pavlov wrote: post #159

I'm impressed with the Mac App Store so far. Pretty bold of Apple to push it so prominently onto every Mac user's Dock as part of a point update to the operating system. My little landscape generator app, Turtledoveland , is currently at #5 on the Top Paid list for the Graphics & Design category. I'll be sure to let HN know what kind of sales numbers that actually means, once the numbers come in...

Put an email address or twitter in your profile, so we can follow you up on that...
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