App Store

Apple on Thursday began reminding developers of another change coming to the App Store in the European Union. This one, however, has been considered quite controversial. As of October, developers considered “traders” will have to provide updated address and phone number data, which will now appear to everyone in the EU App Store.

Apple is pushing Tencent and ByteDance to “close loopholes” that currently allow their apps to skirt the App Store’s in-app purchase system, according to a new report from Bloomberg. In new quotes this week, Tencent acknowledged its talks with Apple for the first time, saying it wants terms that it thinks are “economically sustainable” and “fair.”

Apple is coming under fire for its decision to charge a 30% commission on Patreon subscriptions, which will either see creators receive less or supporters charged more.

John Gruber said that Apple was degrading its brand, while Macworld accuses the company of charging for providing negative value …

For years, Apple has prevented developers from distributing any kind of emulators for iOS on the App Store. However, as the company faces pressure from the European Union with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation, iPhone and iPad emulators are now allowed. Thanks to this, iDOS 3 is now available on the App Store.

For years, Patreon has been exempt from Apple’s 30% App Store cut for reasons that weren’t entirely clear. But that era is about to end. The popular crowdfunding platform has announced to creators that supporters will need to start using Apple’s in-app payment system soon.

Following the EU ruling in June that said Apple’s App Store anti-steering policies are officially in breach of the Digital Markets Act, Apple is announcing changes. Specifically, these changes address the rules around app developers linking out to the web to inform users about alternative payment methods.

The new rules remove many of the restrictions Apple previously imposed about how developers were allowed to link out. At the same time, it introduces yet another fee structure, specifically for App Store Link Out uses cases.

We recently reported on how multiple pirate streaming apps for iOS managed to get approved on the App Store by tricking the review process. Although we briefly mentioned some of the techniques used by these developers, 9to5Mac has now taken a deep dive into how these apps are engineered to trick Apple.

A few weeks ago, 9to5Mac reported on a pirate streaming app that tricked the App Store Review into getting approved by Apple. Following the publication of our article, Apple removed the app. However, it seems that the developers have once again tricked the company into approving not just one, but multiple pirate streaming apps on the App Store.

Update: An Apple spokesperson told 9to5Mac that the apps have been removed from the App Store, but no details have been provided about the company’s measures to prevent other apps like this from getting approved again.

Spain’s National Commission of Markets and Competition, or CNMC for short, has started an investigation into Apple’s App Store. The investigation regards potential anti-competitive behavior on Apple’s platforms.

Apple has many guidelines that developers need to follow when they want to distribute an app through the App Store, and there is an App Store Review team that checks whether apps comply with the rules. However, it’s not rare to see apps tricking Apple in order to get approved, and this happened recently with a pirate streaming app.

Update: Following the publication of this article, Apple removed the app from the App Store. You can read the original story below.

Apple has reversed course and approved UTM SE, the first PC emulator for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. The app lets you emulate old versions of Windows, macOS, and much more on your iPhone or iPad.

Apple’s antitrust woes are continuing to spread around the globe, as evidenced by a new report. Following the path tread by the EU, India is the latest nation to take issue with Apple’s App Store practices, as the first results of a years-long investigation have now revealed.

Epic Games has accused Apple of deliberately delaying its attempt to launch its own iOS games store in Europe, and has raised it as a potential antitrust issue with the EU.

The Fortnite developer said that Apple was rejecting its app because the iPhone maker considered the Install and In-app Purchases labels and buttons too similar to those used in its own App Store …

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation came into effect earlier this year and has already forced Apple to make some deep changes to the App Store, including allowing developers to offer alternative payment options in their apps. As Apple Vision Pro is coming to Europe, Apple has now confirmed that alternative payment options will also be available on the visionOS App Store.

Since the launch of the iPhone 15 Pro with A17 Pro, Apple’s first chip with hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, Apple has been trying to convince major game developers to bring their titles to iOS. AAA Games like Resident Evil Village and Assassin’s Creed Mirage are now available on the App Store, but a new report shows that they’re not exactly a hit with iPhone and iPad users.

As we’ve been covering this month, macOS Sequoia brings a lot of new features for Mac users, including iPhone Mirroring and a new Passwords app. But there’s also a discreet but important change coming with the update. That’s because the new version of macOS eases the free storage requirements for downloading apps from the Mac App Store.

Some users may not be familiar with this, but Apple sets size limits for iOS and tvOS apps, so that a single app can’t take up too much space. However, as apps and especially games get more advanced, they also get larger and require more storage. Because of this, Apple is increasing the size limits for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV apps.

Back in April, we learned that the EU would force Apple to bring the same App Store changes to iPad that previously arrived for iPhone. Those include app sideloading, alternative app payment, alternative browser engine support, and more. Now the second iPadOS 18 beta brings the ability to test those EU changes on iPad for the first time.

Apple this year announced a series of changes when it comes to the App Store in the EU, as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation came into force in March. However, the European Commission doesn’t seem satisfied with the changes Apple has made. For the EU, Apple has some “very serious” issues with not being fully compliant with the new legislation.

Apple’s decision to block iPhone PC emulators has been criticized by developers, who have variously said that it is confusing, inconsistent, and probably illegal.

One even said that not even Apple’s own app reviewers appear to understand the company’s policy, because they took two months to reach a decision …

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Curious about what services you’re subscribed to through Apple’s App Store? Or maybe you want to cancel a trial right after signing up so you don’t forget? Read along for how to track and manage your Apple and App Store subscriptions.

Apple has made it seamless to subscribe to services through your Apple ID. But the flipside is it’s easy to forget what you’re paying for, what’s on a trial, monthly, or yearly subscription.