Speaking of tiny, incremental improvements, Erica Sadun over at TUAW highlight a new addition some developers are seeing when entering iTunes Connect — a submission history:

Appearing near recently reviewed items, this option opens a detail table showing how your application has worked its way through the App Store review process, and on to the shelf. Stormont details this update on his site.

Sadun also states that the amber status bubbles are slightly more verbose now, adding “waiting for review” for the freshest uploads.

If you’re a developer and you’re seeing these, or any other changes in iTunes Connect, let us know, and let us know what you think about them, and what else you’d like to see.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes Connect Adds “Submission History” for Developers

Apple Insider is reporting that iPhone developers have been contacted by Apple and asked:

enter up to 255 characters worth of keywords, separated by commas, which will be used for search in the App Store on the iPhone and iPod touch.

They’re told this must be completed via iTunes Connect “as soon as possible so your application can continue to be successfully located on the App Store”. What, if any measures are in place to prevent more ethically challenged developers from misappropriating key words (i.e. using names of competing products or unrelated yet popular terms) remains to be revealed.

Additionally, Apple Insider says search results have improved in general, a query for “EA” now returning 18 results for Electronic Arts games rather than previous results that included unrelated games using an abbreviation for “each”.

Baby. Steps.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Improves iTunes App Store Search, Asks Developers for Keywords

When iTunes 8.2 debuted in prerelease form (for developers running the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware), one of the more exciting features from the back-end perspective was crash logs being made available via iTunes Connect.

Well, Hassan from Inside Redbox Mobile reminded us that, with iTunes 8.2 going into general availability — and into the hands of consumers — developers now have access to the full range of crash logs from their full base of installed customers. Bug. Fixing. Goldmine. (See the Inside Redbox Mobile crash log report, above.)

From the consumer standpoint, the information looks to be as anonymized as anything else sent from iTunes to Apple — Genius info, for example — and in exchange for sharing, users will likely get more stable apps.

Sounds good to us!

[Thanks Hassan!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes 8.2 Release = Consumer Crash Log Boom to Developers

Ars Technica reports, with some very nice commentary and screen caps from Equivalence (iTunes link) for iPhone, that:

One of the most requested features from developers, automated crash reports, can now be submitted by users via iTunes 8.2. Developers can access the reports via iTunes Connect.

No code is ever perfect, but anything that helps developers make their apps more solid for more users is certainly appreciated.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes Connects Developers With Crash Logs

The Situation: Developers who signed up for Apple’s iPhone SDK Beta and iTunes Connect program last year are coming up on their 1 year renewal deadline.

The Problem: Apple has no mechanism in place to handle such renewals.

The solution: Er… there is none — yet. But in the meantime, Ars Technica’s Erica Sadun reports:

Apple has now e-mailed iPhone developers to extend their memberships until July 11, 2009. A short-term solution to the problem is good, but it shows that Apple is still working out the longer-term details.

Here’s hoping them details get worked out soon rather than later.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone SDK Beta/iTunes Connect Contracts Extended to July 11

Almost a year ago, Apple held their iPhone SDK Roadmap Event and unleashed the App Store concept on the world. Developers signed up for iTunes Connect contracts, and now their first year is almost up and they need to renew.

One problem: Apple doesn’t yet have a renewal process in place.

Wha-wha-wha-what? Erica Sadun over at Ars Technica (following an article in Apple Insider) looked into it and found the right side of the Apple didn’t seem to know from the left:

When we explained that we were looking both to renew ADC memberships and to update iTunes Connect contracts, the representative instructed us to send a query to devcontracts@apple.com. [...] We did in fact contact the iTunes Connect e-mail address, who wrote back to us saying, “Please refer to the Contact Us links at the bottom of iTunes Connect. devprograms should be able to assist you.” Apparently 1 Infinite Loop does not just refer to a corporate street address.

Yikes! Hopefully — for the sake of developers and those of us who want to continue seeing apps in the App Store — Apple will sort this right quick.

Any developers manage to get a better answer from Apple?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Store Devs: Renew Your Contracts… When Apple’s Good and Ready to Let Ya!