TheAppleBlog

With the introduction of Push Notification Services, I envisaged a world of iPhone apps that would deliver countless valuable updates as they occurred. Of course, that’s precisely what hasn’t happened. Few of the apps available in the App Store actually make use of PNS, and those that do are of dubious value. (For example, Ambiance [...]

Going behind-the-scenes of a real iPhone app’s development, the latest installment takes a candid look at the economics of the App Store.
In my previous entry for the App Developer Diary, I was lost behind a mountain of paper-work. Since then, the rapidly growing mountain of tasks hasn’t changed too much — I’m still working on [...]

I love reading interviews with developers, finding out some of the behind-the-scenes information on the makings of their products — even more so when they’re my favorite products, the ones I use every day. Being able to put a personal face behind an end-user application puts a human story on the technology that I find [...]

No, I’m not kidding. This actually happened. I had a 30-second “interview” with Jonathan Ive.
On the way out of the Moscone Center this morning, as streams of people are leaving to get some fresh air and digest all of the announcements from the WWDC 2009 keynote address, I see a familiar face walking towards me. [...]

For this installment of the App Store Roundtable, we talked to developers about analytics. On the web we’re spoiled when it comes to analytics. Simple plug-ins allow us to track where visitors come from, and what they look at. We can also use this information to track purchases and referrals over many months. It’s a different [...]

In this installment of the App Store Roundtable, I talked to a few developers about issues with supporting their apps after a sale has been made. Many developers are concerned at the difficulty of providing any form of after sales support to customers. Minor problems with an app often lead to a bad review and a [...]

For our next installment of the App Store Roundtable, we talked with developers about an issue that comes up time and again: the application approval system and the overall transparency of the inner workings of the App Store. When developers submit their products to Apple, we have to cross our fingers and hope they’ll be allowed [...]

For our next installment of the App Store Roundtable, we asked developers what they liked and/or disliked about the iTunes review system. It should be noted that the review system for the App Store has seen a few updates since these comments were made, but concerns voiced by these developers are still valid.
For me there’s a [...]

Welcome to the first App Store Roundtable. The iPhone and the App Store are always hot news, and for good reason. It’s a fantastic marketplace for developers, and there’s always something exciting happening somewhere for the press to report on. But sometimes the issues faced by everyday developers working on the platform get left in [...]

With all the big announcements from Apple’s iPhone briefing yesterday, the web has been abuzz with talk about the impact this will have on the iPhone. I managed to corner a few iPhone developers that have paid releases out in the app store now to get their first reaction to the news.
Smule
The team at Smule, [...]

Admittedly, not everyone needs a Mac-based application to manage pictures taken by a microscope. If you’re a scientist, though, you probably won’t find an app that’s as useful and well-designed as Macnification. More than just an image organizer, this app lets users edit and analyze pictures from digital microscopes, attach important metadata , and even [...]

When French student Axel Peju wanted to use his Mac to track his finances and manage a budget, he couldn’t find an application to meet his needs, so he created his own. He developed Squirrel, a personal finance program for the Mac (and soon, the iPhone). It’s full of features to help you save and [...]

12seconds.tv is a boot-strapped startup that has been a labor of love for the three founders, Sol Lipman, Jacob Knobel, and David Beach. A host of other characters have helped along the way, influenced by promises of burritos, but the small group hasn’t taken any outside money.
The project was conceived in January, launched in July, [...]

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Haddock, President of the Haddock Corporation, an Apple reseller that has been in the Mac business seriously since there have been Macs.
I first found Haddock a couple of years ago when, in a panic over accidentally wiping out my hard drive in some kind of strange Linux [...]

App Cubby is an Application Development shop out of San Marcos, Texas, that jumped into the fray of iPhone programming back in March of this year. Focusing their attentions squarely on the iPhone-toting worker on the run. Their first offering, Trip Cubby, easily handles expensible mileage, and the already announced Cash Cubby will handle [...]

With more and more web applications being built by Mac-addicted developers, I thought I’d have a chat with Stephen Caudill over at FatJam. Stephen not only codes his creations on Apple hardware but also relies on it to serve up the applications to the public.
Travis Vocino for The Apple Blog: Hey there Stephen! [...]

Today I’m talking to a longtime friend of mine and my favorite hipster tech girl, Sara Robertson. I asked Sara to share some of her day-to-day Mac experiences at Warner Bros. Records, the workflow for her personal projects and in the greater entertainment industry.
Travis Vocino for The Apple Blog: Hello there Sara. We’ve [...]

Following up on part 1 of my interview with the creative minds behind AppleGeeks.com, here’s what Ananth Panagariya had to say about his role in writing AppleGeeks.
TAB: I’m not sure which one of you came up with the idea, but where did the idea of AppleGeeks come from?
Ananth: Hawk’s older brother Mohammad had the domain [...]

Anyone who is into Mac shareware applications has heard of MacUpdate, for the uninitiated, it’s basically a giant catalog of every Mac app, getting updated by-the-minute with new software updates. I recently had a chance to virtually sit down with Joel Mueller, the founder and head honcho of MacUpdate, for some questions about his site.

I know you should never start a blog post with a cliche, but the first time I saw an AppleGeeks comic it was love at first sight. Any comic with clever satires, lovable characters, and amazing artwork is bound to turn some heads. But a comic with an Apple theme? Now that’s [...]