Apple tweaks App Store before launch

The iPad-optimized version of the App Store has been leaked almost in its entirety late Friday and has revealed a distinctly different approach than either in the iPhone or iTunes versions. Besides taking advantage of the larger areas with a Cover Flow display at the top, the site will distinguish between iPad-only and universal apps with a toggle between the two, including in searches. Most iPad apps are now known by AppAdvice to be overall more expensive than their smaller iPhone counterparts.

Some iPad apps are already on the store, but most are still iPhone apps. Apple's deadline for iPad app submission is this afternoon and could see many more titles surface by the time the iPad ships on April 3rd.

A separate but related slip has also appeared that suggests Apple will be reviving the explicit section it had briefly added and then pulled from developers' submission tools. Unpopulated categories now exist for Top Explicit Paid Software and Top Explicit iPad Software that suggest Apple will finally start allowing certain sexual and violent content on the App Store as long as it goes into a certain category. Earlier this year, Apple abruptly pulled most intentionally sexualized apps from the store but appeared to be concerned more with preventing easy access to the content before it can be put into an adult-only area.

by MacNN Staff