Big Bucks Elusive for App Store Developers

Restrictions lifted, guidelines published

(NEWSER) - Apple has done a U-turn and scrapped restrictions introduced earlier this year on what tools developers can use to build applications for the iPhone and iPad. Developers will now be allowed to use tools based on Adobe's Flash, and restrictions on other programming languages have been lifted, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shares in Adobe jumped after the news, though iPhone and iPad users still won't be able to access Flash-based content on the Internet. More»

Developer-only category could mean restricted App Store area in future

(NEWSER) - Just days after Apple drew the wrath of the blogosphere for booting racy apps from its App Store, iPhone developers report a new “Explicit” category in its place. The move could mean the company is carving out a future place for some of the more than 5,000 programs it ditched, which, Mashable notes, was widely seen as a bid to soothe parents ahead of the iPad release. “Explicit” is not a category on the user side of the store yet, but could be an 18-and-over niche down the line. More»

Evidence of systemwide effort to rid App Store of explicit material

(NEWSER) - Apple appears to be cracking down on sexually explicit applications for sale in its App Store as one and then another racy app becomes unavailable. TechCrunch has what a developer says is an email describing the decision to pull his program. “We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.” The company says it has received complaints and “changed our guidelines appropriately.” More»

Molinker apparently paid for good reviews in App Store

(NEWSER) - Apple has delivered swift corporal punishment to iPhone app developer Molinker for scamming the App Store ratings system, banning the company and removing more than a 1000 applications. Though this particular move seems just, Wired notes, it highlights the cutthroat stakes of the user ratings game in a marketplace where few trial versions exist. The expelled Chinese developer was apparently paying for good ratings with free versions of its applications—mostly cheap knockoffs. More»

(NEWSER) - Apple has rejected Google’s application to distribute its Voice application through the App Store, and that shows that Apple is dead-set against innovation, Adam Pash writes on Lifehacker. The official line is that Google Voice “duplicates features already on the iPhone—namely the Phone and Messages app,” but that’s malarkey. “The real problem,” Pash writes, “is that Google Voice, and all it offers, is actually much better than what AT&T offers.” More»