iCloud and the Mac App Store
My real worry is that programs like those will stop being made. My secondary worry is that more and more features of the OS will require being a signed application by Apple. i.e. only work from the MAS. Consider iCloud. It’s completely understandable why Apple may wish to have applications go through the approval process to use iCloud. (Apple apparently hasn’t decided on policy here yet – at least not in any official statement) Suddenly that means that no application can send arbitrary Applescript and access iCloud. I think it is safe to say that more and more features may start requiring the limits that the app store imposes.
John Gruber also notes the uncertainty:
My gut feeling/semi-informed hunch is that yes, it will be restricted to App Store apps, so that Apple can approve all iCloud storage use cases in advance, and easily pull the plug on any app that proves to be abusive in the wild. Put another way, my bet is that if your app isn’t signed by Apple, it won’t be able to write to an iCloud container.
iCloud and the application sandbox were probably the two biggest Mac announcements at WWDC in June. Now they’re deployed on customers’ Macs, and Apple still hasn’t clarified the policies for using them.
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One thing - iCloud WWDC presentation specifically notes that 'document'(not Key-Value) part of iCloud WILL be available on Windows 'later this year' and will use some 'OS-native' APIs. So at least there will be some way to access iCloud container. But may be not on Mac.
Also, it's interesting why just not use iCloud Documents storage in 'Dropbox-way', looks like right now iCloud does not validate information in Library/MobileDocuments as recent MacWorld article shows. So if we can make it use for manual sync using Finder...why not do it even more. Non-MAS apps don't need to be sandboxed after all.
@Vikarti I don’t think it’s a good idea to trust your data to undocumented and probably untested sync features.
@Michael, possibility exists, for somebody who wants it. And it is possible way for non-mac os x apps.
I personally have both dropbox and ability to use iCloud in documented way on my devices.
as for MAS, I for now found another issue. my program which will be in MAS(in development) is recording audiofiles, and there are plan to keep collection of them. and in MAS you must under Music/Downloads and no way to keep it in user folder. our customer is a little...annoyed by this issue.
I've seen confirmation that only Mac apps sold through the App Store are allowed to access an iCloud container. Ie- it's exclusive to MAS apps. (I wish I could point you to a public url for this, but you'll just have to take my word on it)