TOKYO (MacHouse) – It’s no insider information, but it’s quite obvious that Apple, Inc. is likely to release Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in a day or two. Speaking of our Mac software titles available at Mac App Store and here (through PayPal), many of them are compatible with Mountain Lion. More specifically, the following is a list of applications that have been tested and found compatible with OS X 10.8. Continue reading
TOKYO (MacHouse) – Apple, Inc. was scheduled to enforece Desktop Police Act last November. It was then postponed till this March. Today, the company has officially announced that they are going to postpone the sandboxing requirement till this Jone. That is, all software submissions to Apple’s Mac App Store be sandboxed after June 1st. Today’s e-mail letter from Mac Developer Program says
We have extended the deadline for sandboxing your apps on the Mac App Store from March 1st to June 1st to provide you with enough time to take advantage of new sandboxing entitlements available in OS X 10.7.3 and new APIs in Xcode 4.3.
Apple’s move in extending the deadline again is not surprising. Mac Developer Program has created a dedicated forum just for those who have trouble sandboxing their applications. And it’s been flooded with questions and worries. We won’t go in details since the contents of this forum are sealed with Apple’s Nondisclosure Agreement.
TOKYO (MacHouse) – Switching to a different software development environment isn’t easy for sure. Although Apple, Inc. has postponed enacting its Desktop Policing Act, Mac users and software developers will soon be forced to make an important decision – Stay with Mac OS or move to a different operating system. Personally, after exclusively using Mac OS and buying Apple computers for more than 20 years, I’ve finally had enough. Nonetheless, staying with Mac OS might not be such a bad idea except that you have to request Apple’s permission when you deploy a resource (If you unpack a zip archive that you’ve downloaded, for example, you will be prompted for confirmation.). When you use sandboxed applications, you will also require Apple’s permission to access files that you want to open and to save. Sandboxed applications including TextEdit and Preview can delay your desktop performance. If you have doubts, simply type up some text on a TextEdit document and press Command + S and see how long it will take TextEdit to open up the save dialog window. If you have never seen TextEdit hung up, you must be a very lucky guy.
If you are developing Mac software products, you may wonder how difficult it would be to switch to a different operating environment? Speaking of Windows OS, it’s not. In the meantime, Microsoft has acknowledged that their app store is on its way. And it probably won’t be available till next spring. So you still have some time to think about making an important decision. Windows app store can be your gold mine. Anyway, let’s see what it’s like developing Windows applications after spending years with Mac OS. Continue reading
TOKYO (MacHouse) – T-Styles is a simple Mac software title that allows the user to store text styles (text color, font, text size…). We released it at the end of May this year. And it’s currently for sale at Mac App Store. Furthermore, we submitted a software update for T-Styles a week ago.
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Today, Mac App Store rejected the latest software update for T-Styles. The following is what they say. “When the user attempts to enter a hex value in the color field, the entry is not recognized.” (See Screenshots 1 and 2.) This reviewer thinks that the application is designed such that it will automatically change the selected color when the user changes the hexadecimal value manually. If the application doesn’t work in their way, they just reject it by saying “That a software bug.” Well, we have never stated anywhere that’s how the application works. It appears that existing users will never get the latest software update.
TOKYO (MacHouse) – If you are a Mac user, you should have heard of a web site called MacUpdate. It’s a very popular web site where you can browse Mac software titles. This web site appears to be currently flooded by Chinese spam. If you enter the information page for a software title called ACLr8, you will see a suspicious site advertisement there. (See Screenshot 1.) This site advertisement is posted by someone who goes by the name of Xiao Mimjj. If you click on his or her icon, you will see the same site advertisement over at least ten applications. (See Screenshot 2.)
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The web site sponsoring this spam advertisement seems to be run by a Chinese vender. Their web site is located at www.netetrader.com. And its domain registration form suggests that they are from China.