Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier this morning, reports started circulating that the App Store was pushing corrupt binaries to iOS and Mac users, resulting in constant crashes of the affected apps. Marco Arment, of Instapaper fame, was one of the first to notice and very vocal — bringing the issue to the attention of many in the media and at Apple. The list of affected apps is pretty staggering, including such high profile titles as Angry Birds Space, Yahoo! Search, Google Reader and, of course, Instapaper. The number of developers affected now tops 115, so we’d hold off on those updates. For the first several hours Apple was mum on the issue, but it has finally acknowledged the problem in the support forums and even reached out to developers via email. Suspicions seem to be that the FairPlay DRM is at the root, but until we have official word from Apple we’ll refrain from laying the blame at its feet. Cupertino is working (we assume tirelessly) on a fix, which will hopefully be delivered sooner, rather than later.

Update: Apple has confirmed to AllThingsD that the problem was due to a “server that generated DRM code” and has been fixed. Affected end users are advised to delete the corrupted apps and redownload them.

Apple aware of corrupt apps issue, working on a fix (Update: Fixed!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has over 650,000 apps on its App Store. That’s a lot of applications compared to Google’s 600,000 apps on Google Play and Microsoft’s 100,000 apps in its Windows Phone Marketplace. But if your favorite apps such as Instapaper and Angry Birds Space HD Free have been crashing lately, then you must know that corrupt apps are reportedly thriving in the App Store. This was first observed by Instapaper creator Marco Arment. In a blog post, Arment said that a seemingly corrupt update being distributed by the App Store in many or possibly all regions is to be blamed.

“Last night, within minutes of Apple approving the Instapaper 4.2.3 update, I was deluged by support email and Twitter messages from customers saying that it crashed immediately on launch, even with a clean install. This didn’t make sense – obviously, Apple had reviewed it, and it worked for them. My submitted archive from Xcode worked perfectly. But every time I downloaded the update from the App Store, clean or not, it crashed instantly,” the Instapaper founder wrote. Some developers are also saying that the problem might be caused by Apple’s FairPlay wrapper, a piece of software the company adds to all apps for sale. Check out the full report by Arment here.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Jailbreak app Display Recorder available in the App Store, Apple warns developers about manipulating App Store chart rankings,

Marco Arment is reporting that Apple’s trusty App Store is offering up corrupt apps for download, supplying updates that are buggy and tend to crash as soon as they’re launched. More »

Navigon’s hitting those holiday roads a day early, releasing version 2.1 of its iPhone app. The free update adds Google Street View, which pops up as you approach a destination, along with a Cockpit display, which includes G-force, speed and compass information for an additional $6. There’s also a new Manual Route Blocking feature, enabling you to force the app to offer an alternate path after identifying a section of road that you’d prefer to skip, along with improved start-up and map rendering performance, and Retina iPad compatibility. The USA version of the app is available for $30 (a $20 discount), while the North America version is also 20 bucks off, at $40, and regional flavors will be available for $20 ($10 off). In-app purchases are also discounted, including FreshMaps USA for $15 (normally $40), FreshMaps North America for $10 (down from $20), FreshMaps MyRegion for $20 (instead of $50) and the aforementioned Cockpit for $4 (regularly $6). All of the discounts run through July 16th, so hit up the App Store and get your download on now.

Continue reading Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th

Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an effort to generate a new audience for the countless podcasts that live on iTunes today, Apple has decided to launch a new app that gives users instant and seamless access to this content. The Podcasts app pulls it all out of iTunes and gives users direct, seamless access to everything from guys recording weekly diatribes in their basement to the official podcasts from big names like ESPN and CBS.

Although it sometimes gets marred as being outdated, the podcasting medium remains as relevant as ever. Previously, the process of downloading or subscribing to a podcast required users to log into iTunes from a computer and find the show they wanted. This new app works for both the iPhone and iPad to bring that content to the wide world of consumers who own an iDevice but don’t really access Apple content from their PC.

In addition, because it’s now a standalone app, Apple has decided to throw in a couple nifty features. For example, there’s a Sleep Timer function for those who like to drift off to sleep with the soothing sounds of a podcast. Enabling this will automatically stop playback after a set amount of time. Users can also stream episodes online, or download them locally to listen on a plane or the subway. Incidentally, it does also offer iTunes syncing if you do happen to prefer that platform.

[via The Next Web]

Apple Podcasts app cuts out the iTunes middleman is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
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