Apple Rolls Out New App Store Look

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/11/apple-rolls-out-new-app-store-look/)

Apple is rolling out a new look to their App Store individual app pages tonight which brings it in line with the rest of the iTunes 9 design that was revealed a few months ago. The changes will be of primary interest to App Store developers who rely on the App Store pages to drive sales.


http://images.macrumors.com/article/2009/12/11/205713-doodle_500.jpg

Changes that may impact developers include:

- Much larger icon is shown
- Multiple screenshots are more obvious to viewer
- App description is truncated to the first 2 lines by default. While users can expand to see the rest of the description, many will likely not. This places much more importance on the first two lines of the App's description
- More apps by the same developer are listed automatically

In general, there seems to be a bigger focus on the icon/screenshots on first glance of the page. The changes seem to be propagating to the App Store tonight so not all pages have been affected.

Article Link: Apple Rolls Out New App Store Look (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/11/apple-rolls-out-new-app-store-look/)

Old look attached below:

[Willis]

Very nice Apple... took long enough!

[Mr. Gates]

Cool, but still, ..........I would rather they focus on fixing the ugly white background in iTunes . Used to be cool, now its ugly. But ....this is good too, ......I guess.. screw:apple:

[NathanCH]

Cool, but still, ..........I would rather they focus on fixing the ugly white background in iTunes . Used to be cool, now its ugly. But ....this is good too, ......I guess.. screw:apple:

Grey would be far far worse.

[fef714]

Didn't they just come out with one?

I actually kinda liked it, but whatever, this could be good. :p

I would need to see it in the store though

[t0mat0]

Are the pictures multitouch? Seems like they should be. Tablet friendly. Are we getting to the stage where you can use iTunes, Apple.com without any need for a mouse? (Just maybe an onscreen or physical keyboard?)

[fef714]

Are the pictures multitouch? Seems like they should be. Tablet friendly. Are we getting to the stage where you can use iTunes, Apple.com without any need for a mouse? (Just maybe an onscreen or physical keyboard?)

wishful thinking much?

lol, were all doing that ;)

[ravenvii]

The description being truncated is a good thing - reduces all those developers putting

********************************
NEW GAME AVAILABLE! BUY XXX PRO!
********************************

on top of their pages.

[Jayomat]

gimmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!(){
super.rumors();
// beer
}

[t0mat0]

wishful thinking much?

lol, were all doing that ;)

Well - yes, but also - If you look at how they've started spacing things out on the Apple.com site, making pictures either multitouch rows, or coverflow etc - it is friendlier to a multitouch trackpad at the very least.

Put another way, wouldn't Apple want to make their line of products more accessible to using a tablet? If they were thinking of having a tablet, you'd likely see changes to get ready for one. Maybe there are better examples :)

MBP is fine for me, but i'm just thinking. Heck, we have no idea what OS 4 for iPhone looks like, let alone Tablet.

[macduke]

Haha, I just browsed the app store. Lol @ the huge pixelated icons.

Apple could have at least sent out a memo to developers letting them know that they should upload hi-res icons and redo their pages. Some pages have hi-res icons, like Discovery and Shazam. Others don't, like Labyrinth 2 and Bejeweled 2.

For instance, what about the devs that have custom page artwork? I looked up Super Monkey Ball, The Sims 3, and Yelp, and they're still the old style with custom artwork that is still in place. Has anyone found a newly formatted page that has custom background artwork??

[laxlaxlax]

with the new layout you can now add apps to your wish list. about time!

[macduke]

gimmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!(){
// beer
}

So if I'm reading your code right, you want comments about beer? Sorry, this is an Apple only site. Unless you go to the Community Discussion section of the forum.

Otherwise, I think you want this:

while (stomach < full){
beer++;
}

Of course I didn't declare the stomach and full variables...I'll leave those up to personal preference.

[Vandam500]

with the new layout you can now add apps to your wish list. about time!

Yes!! Finally a wish list! Now make the wish list compatible on the iPhone too and even better :)

[PeterQVenkman]

They should just straight up copy amazon.com. People who bought this also bought, etc. The store is still a mess, though. Kinda slow.

[Eric5h5]

Apple could have at least sent out a memo to developers letting them know that they should upload hi-res icons and redo their pages.

Developers have had to upload 512x512 icons since the App Store began. This is nothing new. If some devs stretched low-res icons up to full-size, well, they were told not to do that. And now we see why.

My icon (click for full size): http://www.starscenesoftware.com/stuff/pics/RealMazeiPhoneIcon.png, and here it is on the App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=310897051&mt=8).

--Eric

[Cerender]

Anyone else seeing the FC_[ ] errors?

[Kristenn]

Cool, but still, ..........I would rather they focus on fixing the ugly white background in iTunes . Used to be cool, now its ugly. But ....this is good too, ......I guess.. screw:apple:

You can change it to black yourself in the preferences. That's what I did.

[celticpride678]

Anyone else seeing the FC_[ ] errors?

I've got the same thing too. I'll give Apple a couple hours before anything.

[Cerender]

I've got the same thing too. I'll give Apple a couple hours before anything.

Thanks, I'm glad it's on their end and not mine. :)

[macbookairman]

For instance, what about the devs that have custom page artwork? I looked up Super Monkey Ball, The Sims 3, and Yelp, and they're still the old style with custom artwork that is still in place. Has anyone found a newly formatted page that has custom background artwork??

The original x-plane app had custom page artwork. That page has gone to the new style and the custom background artwork has disappeared. Just the normal white background now.

with the new layout you can now add apps to your wish list. about time!

Wow, thanks for posting that. I wouldn't have noticed. I have always used the wish list / shopping cart, and have long wanted it to work with apps. Though I've gotten quite accustomed to using Appshopper's wish list...

[sushi]

Nice to see the app store change.

Developers have had to upload 512x512 icons since the App Store began. This is nothing new. If some devs stretched low-res icons up to full-size, well, they were told not to do that. And now we see why.
Looks nice. Decided to give it a try. :)

[pullfocus]

It looks nice. Now if they could only fix the problem that it still shows I have an app update even after I've already updated the app.

Superflous, but annoying as all get out.

[Doctor Q]

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

Apple is taking advantage of that by emphasizing the images, and expanding on it by reducing the number of words.

[celticpride678]

It looks nice. Now if they could only fix the problem that it still shows I have an app update even after I've already updated the app.

Superflous, but annoying as all get out.

I had that issue a couple of months ago, they fixed it and now it is back again. :(

[Vandam500]

I had that issue a couple of months ago, they fixed it and now it is back again. :(

It's even worse now! I have to update 4-5 times. Same thing in iTunes...sigh

[Sbrocket]

Glad to know Apple let us know ahead of time that our descriptions would be automatically cut down to the first 2 lines (read: let us know next time ahead of time, kthx) - that's nothing for the vast majority of app descriptions on the store, and you just know that no one is going to click the itty-bitty tiny "...More" text hidden over in the corner.

:-/

[pavelbure]

what this store needs is video footage of each app. leave it up to the developer to provide it, but clicking a little box and seeing a 30 second preview could help also.

[spillproof]

I liked having all the information about the app in the sidebar, but I guess this is better to stop the useless blabber before you find out what the app even does. My vote 4.5/5.

[nagromme]

I like that the “Whats New In This Version” section is now very prominent. It used to be tucked below the long main description, with a black heading hiding amongst all the black text.

Even for apps I don’t already own, I like that change: it means you can immediately see if something reviewers moan about below has just been fixed.

[solipsism]

what this store needs is video footage of each app. leave it up to the developer to provide it, but clicking a little box and seeing a 30 second preview could help also.
That is a great idea. Let the dev have a video instead of an image, if they choose.

Off topic, I hope that they eventually implement a trial period for apps. Let the developer set a certain time frame for apps. Apple already has this with their exploding DRM for movie rentals. There are plenty of apps that I just buy but expensive ones, like TomTom, i tested with a jailbroken phone. I think this could be convenient enough to counter some stealing with jailbroken devices.


I like that the “Whats New In This Version” section is now very prominent. It used to be tucked below the long main description, with a black heading hiding amongst all the black text.

Even for apps I don’t already own, I like that change: it means you can immediately see if something reviewers moan about below has just been fixed.
Me too.

[Vandam500]

what this store needs is video footage of each app. leave it up to the developer to provide it, but clicking a little box and seeing a 30 second preview could help also.

Never thought of that! It would be awesomeeee :)

[agentkow]

I like the new store, but what has really blown me away tonight is that Apple added a "Preview All" button for albums so you can listen to every clip without having to go back and forth from iTunes and keep clicking the next song!

I used to have a piece of software that would do that (iTunes Music Store Player) but it stopped working when iTunes redid their store in the fall with the more web-based system.

Very happy camper over here.

[wesleyh]

An obvious improvement. Has anyone ever seen the wii (game console) online store? It's just so basic, I don't know what these guys are thinking not to update that thing in all the years the wii has been out. They're leaving a lot of money on the table.

[Becordial]

I really didn't like it when they changed the way songs and that are presented in itunes. This change will make it all more consistent, but the music change they did a few months looks a bit amateurish to the point where I thought it was temporary. Maybe its just that the background behind album review text etc used to be dark and easy to read, whereas it now its all bright and it looks a bit cheesy (eg the individual play button on tracks looks like its been lifted from Windows!)

[adder7712]

Looks pretty good and pretty touch friendly if it's on the iTablet.

Too bad I can't buy anything (no iTouch or iPhone). :(

[Marx55]

A MUCH BETTER search engine is much needed for both iTunes in general and App Store in particular. As well as Spotlight. Bring back the great search engine of Mac OS 9 and the former Mac OS X versions!!!

[CQd44]

Grey would be far far worse.

I wonder why they don't let you customize the look of iTunes, much like foobar lets users do (only with a much less complicated approach).

[AAPLaday]

Good move, looks far better Apple

[Mr. Zorg]

Haha, I just browsed the app store. Lol @ the huge pixelated icons. Apple could have at least sent out a memo to developers letting them know that they should upload hi-res icons and redo their pages.

When you upload an app, you are required to provide a 512x512 icon. That's plenty large enough to look good. Problem is, I think a lot of developers designed their icons as bitmaps instead of vector and used the phone size while drawing it. Then the just scaled the icon up to 512 resulting in pixelation. :(

My icon looks good at the larger size. :)

[Craigy]

Not happy - since iTunes 9 the sales of our apps has dropped about 25% - mainly due to the fact that the appstore categories are not clearly displayed. Bad, bad. bad UI design Apple - shame on you. Lots of other developers noticing exactly the same thing.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2009/09/itunes-9s-new-interface-causing-app-sales-to-drop/

[Balooba]

I cannot for my life find a way to browse the content of the new App Store. The possibility to for example browse by category etc is now gone it seems. How will I find apps that are not "Hot", "Featured" or advertised in other ways?

[vvebsta]

is it just me or is itunes feeling allot more cluttered these days? the icons and graphics are almost too large... i feel like everything is fighting for my attention but isn't actually giving me a true picture of the products

i prefer the iphones app store much better

[star-affinity]

One small but annoying thing in the iTunes 9 and the new ”store look” that I think Apple should fix – the cursor doesn't always update properly i.e. it doesn't always change from the ”drag left right” cursor (see linked movie to see what I mean):

http://home.mac.se/star-affinity/wrong_cursor_icon_in_itunes.mov

I think this is still a relatively frequent issue in Mac OS X overall – one get the wrong mouse cursor icon depending on what's underneath (mostly the text select cursor icons when over buttons).

[pubwvj]

First two lines = Good - so many developers waste the text with garbage.

Multiple screenshots = I liked the old way with flipping through the screenshots as it was an elegant solution.

Bigger icon = No improvement.

[Compile 'em all]

Not happy - since iTunes 9 the sales of our apps has dropped about 25% - mainly due to the fact that the appstore categories are not clearly displayed. Bad, bad. bad UI design Apple - shame on you. Lots of other developers noticing exactly the same thing.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2009/09/itunes-9s-new-interface-causing-app-sales-to-drop/

What does this have to do with the current news article and change?

[Ed91]

So if I'm reading your code right, you want comments about beer? Sorry, this is an Apple only site. Unless you go to the Community Discussion section of the forum.

Otherwise, I think you want this:

while (stomach < full){
beer++;
}

Of course I didn't declare the stomach and full variables...I'll leave those up to personal preference.

You just created and infinite loop of beer drinking. Not like that's a bad thing, though.

[soosy]

Things look better but generally usability has decreased a lot with iTunes 9 Store.

My biggest pet peeve is the stupid truncating of text. I HATE hitting "...More" to be greeted with 1-2 more lines of text or at times even a single word (the Grinchmas app even has this problem in the ratings sidebar... do I really need to hit more to see "rights reserved."?). They need a more intelligent algorithm that just shows the whole thing if it's 90% there anyway. No point in hiding the end and making me hit More.

Apps generally have a lot more text, but I think only showing 2 lines is way too little. At least show 4-6. Don't make me have to click just to get a decent description. Also there is no way to collapse the text again for when it is really long. The two column format they had before was better. A resizable text box might be ideal.

Things are better than when they first launched. I don't recall being able to sort albums by date when iTunes 9 first launched. The main problem is they're trying show everything at once by truncating everything (song lists, etc) and they end up showing nothing. Hey I have a big screen! It's much easier to scroll than to hit "more" and "show all" constantly.

[guzhogi]

So if I'm reading your code right, you want comments about beer? Sorry, this is an Apple only site. Unless you go to the Community Discussion section of the forum.

Otherwise, I think you want this:

while (stomach < full){
beer++;
}

Of course I didn't declare the stomach and full variables...I'll leave those up to personal preference.

Don't you mean while (stomach != full)? Just a thought.

Anyways, looks cool. I don't buy too many apps. Plus, I find that I tend to buy them on my iPhone, not through iTunes.

[jessica.]

what this store needs is video footage of each app. leave it up to the developer to provide it, but clicking a little box and seeing a 30 second preview could help also.

I totally agree. The few I have bought that have a video have been tremendously helpful.

[Wayfarer]

You can change it to black yourself in the preferences. That's what I did.

You're absoulutely right! I didn't know that before...

Thanks for the find. :)

[TraceyS/FL]

Not happy - since iTunes 9 the sales of our apps has dropped about 25% - mainly due to the fact that the appstore categories are not clearly displayed. Bad, bad. bad UI design Apple - shame on you. Lots of other developers noticing exactly the same thing.

I"m sad to hear this, but also not surprised. The new layout might work for some, but i HATE IT. Guess it's time to go leave Apple feedback on that point. It is not user friendly to me, so how can i find apps i want to buy?

I cannot for my life find a way to browse the content of the new App Store. The possibility to for example browse by category etc is now gone it seems. How will I find apps that are not "Hot", "Featured" or advertised in other ways?
There is a triangle that appears NEXT TO the words "app store", that gives you the categories. NOt user friendly at all....

is it just me or is itunes feeling allot more cluttered these days? the icons and graphics are almost too large... i feel like everything is fighting for my attention but isn't actually giving me a true picture of the products

i prefer the iphones app store much better

It's not just you. This is a step back in a variety of ways. It looks cheesy - not classy. I'm not running Snow Leopard so i have no idea if this "look" comes from that, but i just feel like i'm stuck in some 1/2 baked "windows" thing. I was happy the App side hadn't updated - i don't browse music any longer, now i guess i'm done browsing the app side.

You're absoulutely right! I didn't know that before...

Thanks for the find. :)
That doesn't change where i want it to be not white. Mine has been set to dark since the change. I want the iTunes store side to not be glaring white. Yuck.

[amiganut]

Looks are one thing, browsing is another. There are over 1400 APPS in the Entertainment category. Looking for a certain type? Forget it. There are enough "FART" APPS for a sub-category. They can do it for Games. I don't even bother to browse Entertainment. There might be some fine APPS there, but unless you have nothing else to do, great waste of time for that one APP you might buy.

[g3signal]

There's always someone who has issues way beyond the current subject.

Cool, but still, ..........I would rather they focus on fixing the ugly white background in iTunes . Used to be cool, now its ugly. But ....this is good too, ......I guess.. screw:apple:

[cublah]

THe 'More by developer' link shows the 3 most popular apps from that developer which is nearly always going to be lite versions if you have them, only way to the developers other apps is click on the name at the top where it says 'App Store > Games > developer'.

I can see this being a problem for developers as most users won't click on the name.

[KALLT]

I hate the new screenshot horizontal scrolling, like the front page has. I'm using two finger scrolling on my MacBook at I can't scroll down smoothly anymore without stopping at the screenshot. Thanks, Apple.

[rich2000]

It looks nice. Now if they could only fix the problem that it still shows I have an app update even after I've already updated the app.

Superflous, but annoying as all get out.

It's an iTunes bug, when apps are approved it takes around 3 hours for the binary to be ready for download, however Apple are showing the update almost immediately after approval so you actually end up downloading the old one instead.

After around 3 hours you'll find it's actually the new version you'll get

[ilogic]

Well - yes, but also - If you look at how they've started spacing things out on the Apple.com site, making pictures either multitouch rows, or coverflow etc - it is friendlier to a multitouch trackpad at the very least.

Put another way, wouldn't Apple want to make their line of products more accessible to using a tablet? If they were thinking of having a tablet, you'd likely see changes to get ready for one. Maybe there are better examples :)

MBP is fine for me, but i'm just thinking. Heck, we have no idea what OS 4 for iPhone looks like, let alone Tablet.

I've written to Apple that the navigation style and quality of Apple.com should be like navigating the awesome iTunes LP pages - it would make it accessible to multitouch as you noted, but it may start to pave the way for real browsing of the internet on say... an Apple TV as well, if Apple keeps going this path we can finally see a successful convergence of navigation between the web, multitouch devices, and computer based web browsing... :D

[ilogic]

One small but annoying thing in the iTunes 9 and the new ”store look” that I think Apple should fix – the cursor doesn't always update properly i.e. it doesn't always change from the ”drag left right” cursor (see linked movie to see what I mean):

http://home.mac.se/star-affinity/wrong_cursor_icon_in_itunes.mov

I think this is still a relatively frequent issue in Mac OS X overall – one get the wrong mouse cursor icon depending on what's underneath (mostly the text select cursor icons when over buttons).

I wasn't able to reproduce this bug on my computer but it's weird how it happens..

I for one love the new store, my favorite is the aluminum selection color on the menus. I'm not really a fan of the bright blue in the dock menu option...

One bug which I've written to apple about is that iTunes does not properly resize itself when switching resolutions. I use my Macbook on my TV and therefore expand the window size, but when I take my Macbook on the go the iTunes window resizes just outside my ability to resize it properly. My iTunes is stuck on my screen that way until I plug it back to my TV. It's quite annoying, and the zoom button is no use because of all programs this one switches to miniplayer... :mad:

[kasei]

Yep the update changed the look of the Ghosts Attack (http://j.mp/6yLmjK) page. I like the new look. It really puts the emphasis on the screenshots. It does require developers to adjust their first few lines to make sure they show up properly.

Hopefully it won't take the store all day to make updates to the descriptions if they need to be changed.

[anjinha]

It's quite annoying, and the zoom button is no use because of all programs this one switches to miniplayer... :mad:

Option + click the zoom button.

[Truffy]

...yet my undergarments remain unsoiled :|

[FanboyE]

I think it looks much better!:D

[star-affinity]

I wasn't able to reproduce this bug on my computer but it's weird how it happens..

How can you not be able to reproduce it?

Just go to any app/album and hover the mouse cursor over the gray line that separates the Library, Store, Shared, Genius pane etc. from the store contents. You will get the ”resize left/right” cursor icon. If you then move the cursor to the right into the area of the album/app description it won't update to another cursor *except* if you move the cursor onto the album's/app's icon (upper left) or a link.

[MadeTheSwitch]

I'm torn. Overall, I prefer the old layout for Apps. However, I'm totally digging the bigger screenshots. The bar to scroll them is more logical then those little dots to change photos the old version had. That wasn't intuitive at all, and I am sure a lot of people missed what they even did.

But the best change of all is the wishlist. I've been missing that option for sometime now. It was frustrating that music had it but apps did not. So I am glad that has been changed and that I can finally bookmark all the apps I want cause sometimes you just can't buy them all at the same time!!!

[fifthworld]

I think it looks nice, clean and more organized; but, I'm not going to be impressed by any changes in the App Store until Apple gives us the ability to use apps for a limited time before to buy them, and in the process to get rid off all these light versions.

[peterdevries]

Apple could have at least sent out a memo to developers letting them know that they should upload hi-res icons and redo their pages.

Maybe they did... How would you know?

[Delirium39]

Maybe they did... How would you know?

I assure you, they told us nothing. We found out about the layout changes the same time you did. Developers have been frantically rewriting descriptions, and then waiting 1-6 hours for the changes to take effect.

However, high resolution icons have been a requirement from the beginning. We're required to upload a 512x512 icon, as that is what has always been used on iTunes.

[paulsalter]

I am glad I buy my apps from my iPhone.

The new iTunes store look is awful on a small screen.

eg the scroll bars for screenshots now make it look a mess, scrolling before was much better

Buying apps from the store has taken a step for the worse, just like buying music does now

[Suzuku]

They should have developers make backgrounds to go in place of that white backdrop. That would look so much better.

[holmesf]

Ugh, horizontal scroll bars? Seriously? I prefer the old design.

[Ubuntu]

So if I'm reading your code right, you want comments about beer? Sorry, this is an Apple only site. Unless you go to the Community Discussion section of the forum.

Otherwise, I think you want this:

while (stomach < full){
beer++;
}

Of course I didn't declare the stomach and full variables...I'll leave those up to personal preference.

I was just about to correct him, damn you.:D

[twoodcc]

seems pretty good to me. good job apple