14 DAY TRIAL // In what is a very strange move on behalf of Apple, the company has decided to eliminate the aggregate categories of App Store titles, leaving just two of them standing - “See All iPhone apps” and “See All iPod Touch apps,” reports iPhone Atlas. Also, Apple has recently changed its review policy. Not everyone with an Apple ID can just review an app anymore.
First things first, though - Apple has rearranged the categories in its iTunes App Store, casting aside aggregate categories (which gave more meaning to all sub-categories). As they access the App Store, users can only start browsing by “All apps,” whether they're iPhone material, or iPod touch titles. According to the above-mentioned source, one disappointed user wrote:
“Without (these categories), now you really can’t browse the entire library anymore, seeing what has just been added, upgraded, etc. Now you are being forced to look at the individual categories making it really easy to miss something. This makes it very hard to keep on top of everything. This is awful. WHY did they remove them?”
In all fairness, why DID Apple do this? One of the downsides is, of course, not being able to check out which app has been recently updated, or what's new in a certain category. Non fans of some categories will now have to browse the entire iPhone / iPod touch library of apps to see what's new. Maybe not everyone's into “Health & Fitness,” right? (although we should)
Other App Store news says that Apple has quietly (no surprise there) changed its application review policy, allowing only the users of a certain app to post a review. After all, you can't review an app until you've tried it, so it seems more than fair towards everyone. According to TUAW, some even went and reviewed an app negatively just because they couldn't afford to buy it. This is truly not fair towards the developers, or even the customers who might have eventually purchased one of these apps, had they confirmation they were any good.
How are you adjusting to the changes?