Apple is cutting App Store commission rates in China from 30% to 25%, with smaller developers paying just 12%. The move follows discussions with Chinese regulators—and it sharply contrasts with Apple’s confrontational stance on EU regulations.
Apple has quietly launched a unified App Store website that brings together all its platform stores into a single responsive, searchable interface—though downloading still requires native apps.
After a TidBITS reader encountered security warnings on an obituary site, Adam Engst investigated: both the site and the warnings were fake, aiming to trick people into downloading system cleaner or VPN apps. Learn how to identify such scams.
Adam Engst shows how you can access your Apple purchase history to uncover when and for how much you purchased apps and content, providing insights into your past Apple transactions.
The European Commission has fined Apple about $2 billion for preventing app developers from telling iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription options outside their apps. Apple is appealing.
Apple is making major changes to how it distributes iOS apps in the EU due to the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act, but the company is making it clear that it’s only doing so under duress.
The Epic vs. Apple antitrust lawsuit is finally over. Although Apple won on most counts, the judge ruled it had to allow developers to link to external payment systems rather than using in-app purchases. That may start happening soon.
It pays to speak up. After being introduced to the ckbk cookbook service, Adam Engst expressed his disappointment in the app asking to track and was rewarded a few weeks later with an update that resolved the issue.
You can look forward to App Store prices containing different numbers now that Apple has introduced 700 more price points—from $0.29 to $10,000—from which developers can select.
Apple’s App Store helped make iPads and iPhones the most secure consumer-focused computers ever created. But Apple’s opaque policy enforcement and payment restrictions are now motivating regulators and courts to get involved, which will likely force changes that will damage consumer safety.
In Epic Games v. Apple, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has come down strongly in favor of Apple, rejecting nearly all of Epic’s claims and fining the company millions of dollars. But Apple suffered a blow too, with the judge determining that Apple’s in-app purchasing policies are anticompetitive.
Apple has dug in its heels against the clamor for changes to its App Store rules, but a couple of recent settlements show that the company is susceptible to pressure.
A new law in South Korea will force Apple and Google to let developers offer alternative payment methods in their apps.
Apple says that the dangers of allowing customers to load arbitrary apps are too severe and that the iOS App Store is a bulwark against ransomware, device hijacking, the invasion of children’s privacy, and other problems common on Android.
We don’t know how the legal fight between Epic Games and Apple over App Store policies will end, but it has made public reams of formerly classified internal documents from both companies. The Verge highlighted some of the most interesting bits.