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TinyGrab declines to sell subscriptions through the App Store
Add another name to the list of developers who are choosing to opt-out of Apple's subscription restrictions lately. Rhapsody and Readability were the first two we posted about, although Readability didn't so much opt-out as get rejected and decide not to play the subscription game. Now, a service called TinyGrab has posted that it won't be developing for the App Store because of "Apple's new greedy model." The company says that it was looking forward to providing its premium subscription-based file sharing service through the iOS and Mac App Store platforms, but Apple's restrictions on sharing user data and accounts that expire after a certain time are untenable for their business. The company is willing to pay the 30 percent cut, but unwilling to deal with Apple's terms that disallow any paid upgrades or features added to the app via outside subscriptions. The company still plans to develop for the Mac and, in fact, is about to release a new version of its software this week. But TinyGrab says that Apple has effectively "locked us out" of the App Stores by asking far too much in terms of the restrictions. Granted, none of these companies publicly fighting the restrictions are all that big, and we've already heard of plenty of companies who feel the rules are perfectly reasonable (and indeed, have already started making subscriptions available). Despite TinyGrab's objections, Apple is completely within its rights to make these requirements as long as they don't violate any antitrust laws. Still, there's definitely a growing number of developers unhappy with the deal they're being offered on in-app subscription purchases. Perhaps if Apple lowered the percent cut for services that happen to have content as a functional component of the service (as opposed to pure content plays like Kindle, Netflix, PopSci, The Daily, etc.) they would be more amenable to Apple's terms? TinyGrab will, at least, still be available as a standalone Mac application.
The loot from the recent MacHeist
As Kevin pointed out on Wednesday, MacHeist has a new bundle for us at the moment -- but this one is what they consider a "nanoBundle" and it's free. I can't speak for everyone here at TUAW, but when I see the word "free" next to software, I horde it. They've decided to just give away this bundle of apps in what appears to be a move to encourage their users to come back for more. 6 great mac apps for zero dollars. That's my kind of deal. There are only 6 more days to download this bundle, so go grab it after checking out the loot: Shove Box -- An awesome reminder, organization, gotta-get-it-done application that sits in your menu bar. You can then drag things like text, URLs, images... possibly anything to the menu bar app and it'll save it for later. When you get some free time, you can go back through and see what you have. There's an iPhone companion app as well. WriteRoom -- A simple writing application that removes all of the typical distractions from your writing sessions. It makes the text window full screen, completely cutting off the rest of the world from your mind -- if you so choose. It still has simple tools like word count, background/text color adjustments... but definitely keeps you focused. We've covered it quite a bit. Twitterrific -- One of my favorite apps on my iPhone as of late. The desktop version is similarly simple. Set up your Twitter account and tweet away with the easiest solution imaginable. TinyGrab -- Is a screen capture maniac's dream. It allows you to use the standard command-shift-4 and select part of your screen or hit spacebar to capture a specific window. The kicker: it uploads it directly to your own FTP server and puts the URL in your clipboard so you can paste it in Facebook, Twitter, email, IM... whatever your pleasure. Hordes of Orcs -- I'll admit, this is the real reason I'm downloading the bundle. I've heard nothing but great reviews about this game even from our own Mike Schramm. It's one of the most innovative desktop tower defense games I've seen. Everything is in 3D, there are 6 different game variations and let's not forget tower defense. Mariner Write -- This is a word processor with features you need but none of the "bloat" found in other applications *cough* Microsoft *cough.* Of course, it will open and save Word documents, as well as other formats. While I was writing this, the download total went up 5,000 downloads but it'll take 500,000 for all of us to get the full benefit. MacHeist says that Mariner Write is the unlockable application, so I'm hoping to get a serial and really try it out. Head over to Macheist, and download your nanoBundle. For the first time, I'll be using all of the apps in it -- and it's free!
