Apple today informed developers that it is making new App Store marketing tools available for use, providing developers with a simple way to create short links, embeddable code with app icon and product page, QR codes, and more.
Take advantage of new marketing resources to promote your apps around the world. You can now generate short links or embeddable code that lead to your App Store product page and display your app icon, a QR code, or an App Store badge. Download localized App Store badges, your app icon, and more.
Developers can enter the URL for their app on the marketing page, with Apple then providing tools to generate the aforementioned links and badges. QR codes in particular may be of interest to developers as these can be used to quickly find an app with a scan with an iPhone camera, and QR codes are also used for the App Clips feature introduced in iOS 14.
QR codes can be generated with different colors and with each app's icon for a unique, personalized look that takes seconds to create.
Wednesday February 5, 2025 7:15 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 was released last month, so the first iOS 18.4 beta should be coming soon. iOS 18.4 is expected to be a more substantial update for the iPhone, with several new features and changes related to Apple Intelligence and beyond.
Apple's website suggests that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, following beta testing. Below, we outline what to expect from the update so far.
Apple...
Tuesday February 4, 2025 8:00 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today announced the launch of a new app called "Invites," which is designed to allow users to plan events like birthday parties, graduations, vacations, baby showers, and more.
"With Apple Invites, an event comes to life from the moment the invitation is created, and users can share lasting memories even after they get together," said Brent Chiu-Watson, Apple's senior director of...
Monday February 3, 2025 1:15 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple does not approve of the "Hot Tub" pornography app that was released for the iPhone in the EU using alternative app distribution, Apple said in a statement to MacRumors. Further, Apple is concerned about the potential user safety risks with a pornography app, and says that it undermines consumer trust in the Apple ecosystem.
We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore...
Wednesday February 5, 2025 10:17 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple hasn't refreshed the Apple TV since 2022, but rumors suggest that we're finally going to get an update in 2025. We don't have a full picture of what to expect yet, but we have some hints on what's coming.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Updated A-Series Chip
The current Apple TV 4K uses the A15 Bionic chip that was in the iPhone 13 lineup, and it's time for...
Tuesday February 4, 2025 9:35 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple this week increased the prices for its monthly AppleCare+ subscription prices for the iPhone, raising the cost by 50 cents for all models in the United States.
Standard AppleCare+ for the iPhone 16 models is now priced at $10.49 per month, for example, up from the prior $9.99 per month price. The 50 cent price increase applies to all available AppleCare+ plans for Apple's current...
Thursday February 6, 2025 7:31 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is internally testing iOS 18.3.1 for iPhones, according to our website's analytics logs, which have been a consistently reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The software update should be released within the next few weeks.
iOS 18.3.1 should be a minor update that addresses software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. Apple Intelligence notification summaries for news and...
Tuesday February 4, 2025 7:11 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Update: The new Apple Invites app has officially been announced.
The main iCloud.com page has seemingly confirmed Apple's rumored invites tool, which has yet to be officially announced by the company.
The page says "Apple Invites" will be an iCloud+ feature:Upgrade to iCloud+ to get more storage, plan events with Apple Invites, and have peace of mind with privacy features like iCloud...
Wednesday February 5, 2025 3:34 pm PST by Juli Clover
Disney+ lost 700,000 subscribers worldwide in recent months, according to Disney's earnings results for the first quarter of 2025.
Disney said it now has 124.6 million Disney+ subscribers, a decrease of 0.7 million compared to its subscriber numbers in the fourth quarter of 2024. The drop in subscribers comes after Disney+ prices increased in the fall. Disney+ with Ads went from $7.99 to...
Sure! At least 0.000001% of it, anyway. In any case, developers can use QR codes or not, it’s optional ?♂️
Re: the 15 or 30% revenue share, here’s a partial list of what it pays for:
a secure, customer-trusted payment system; app hosting; APIs, libraries, compilers and other development tools; testing, interface libraries; simulators; security features; developer services, including customer support; and cloud services, including 1 petabyte of CloudKit storage.
Those are some of the things Epic thinks Apple should provide for free ?
btw, it’s worth mentioning that more than 80% of all app downloads pay nothing. Not 30%, not 15%—0%. Apple gets $0.00. Not a single penny.
If everyone did what Epic did and Apple App Store revenue went to zero, Apple would replace the ~15 billion they received somewhere else. Like add another $75—the “Epic tax”—onto the price of iPhones. ($100 in a couple years, and it would keep going up every year).
But that way Epic and other devs could get 100% of the revenue instead of only 70 or 85%. Epic might reduce the price of dances and outfits, maybe not.
I’d love to see a progressive model, where for indie developers that are just getting started Apple takes a reduced cut (say 10%) until a certain paid volume is hit. IE 150 app sales or something. Gives newbs a chance to launch something and try to earn their first year Apple Developer fee back.