Map Kit Outside of the Mac App Store
OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2 Release Notes:
MapKit APIs can now be used by developers in apps that are distributed outside of the App Store.
Which public OS X APIs are still restricted to Mac App Store apps? GameKit, iCloud/CloudKit, Remote Push Notifications, what else?
Good news, although it won’t help those deploying on earlier versions of Mac OS X. I hope that apps like Fantastical and Lightroom will continue to offer integrated Google Maps, which I find to be more accurate and easier to read.
Update (2015-06-25): Marcel Weiher:
I am at a complete loss … I think it’s the first time since introduction of the stores that the screws have been loosened.
Update (2015-07-09): Daniel Jalkut:
FYI the provision about MapKit outside the Mac App Store is no longer in the beta 3 release notes :-\
At least in practice I have confirmed the relaxation is still working in beta 3. Hopefully just an oversight.
Fantastical uses @Mapbox, not Google, FWIW.
2 Comments RSS · Twitter
Seems "MapKit for everyone" did not make it into the final release. I have rewritten to map module in HoudahGeo to allow a choice between Apple Maps and MapBox. It all works so nicely … until I export and sign the application with Developer ID. It gets killed on launch for unauthorized use of the com.apple.developer.maps entitlement.
[…] I say “almost” because iCloud key-value storage and Core Data are not mentioned in the document, although my impression from the WWDC session is that they will be included. Of course, this assumes that Apple does not renege on this, as it did with Map Kit and El Capitan. […]
