Monday, September 15, 2025

The Mac App Flea Market

Jim Nielsen (via Hacker News):

Have you ever searched for “AI chat” in the Mac App Store?

I have. It’s like strolling through one of those counterfeit, replica markets where all the goods look legit at first glance. But then when you look closer, you realize something is off.

For the query “AI chat”, there are so many ChatGPT-like app icons the results are comical.

[…]

The funny thing is: the official ChatGPT desktop app from OpenAI is not even in the Mac App Store. It’s only available from their website, so it won’t show up in the “AI chat” results.

827a:

The odd thing about the Mac App Store is how needlessly embarrassing this is for Apple. The Mac App Store doesn’t need to exist, but because it does Apple is lending its authority to these apps, and every day its customers, who come to Apple expecting a level of safety and authenticity, are fooled by them.

Previously:

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I've noticed that the Mac App Store has stopped updating my apps, and apps don't even show that an update is available unless I go to the app's page in the store.

Also, for some reason the Mac App Store isn't even showing most of the Mac apps I've downloaded or purchased from there. The list of iOS apps it shows is much more complete. Maybe that's because I'm on Apple Silicon now, I don't know.

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