Apple rearranges App Store, No Aggregate Categories

by Ben Wilson

Perhaps because the categories had become unwieldy with the huge number of application submissions, Apple has suddenly removed the aggregate categories that combined all subcategories: "See All iPhone apps" and "See All iPod Touch apps."

Per iPhone Atlas reader Craig Crossman:

"Without (these categories), now you really can't browse the entire library anymore, seeing what has just been added, upgraded, etc. Now you are being forced to look at the individual categories making it really easy to miss something. This makes it very hard to keep on top of everything. This is awful. WHY did they remove them?"

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Tags:: iphone,; News

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by shaneblyth September 28, 2008 11:10 PM PDT: This sucks!
Bring the option back please; Reply to this comment


by isights September 29, 2008 12:04 AM PDT: Come on Apple. Please return the App Store Categories "All iPhone Applications" to the iTunes App Store, or add a "Just Added" list. Either way, I have better things to do than attempt to browse twenty separate categories trying to determine what cool new program has just been added to the store.

And no, the "featured" New list doesn't cut it, as it doesn't do the same thing at all. Plenty of new applications never make the list, and it isn't updated frequently enough to boot.

One would think Apple is doing their best NOT to sell applications.; Reply to this comment


by mickdevlin September 29, 2008 12:55 AM PDT: Information on new and updated apps can be found by visiting http://www.igoapps.com/ . This is the reason that I've bookmarked that website.

I'm glad I did so now!; Reply to this comment


by CyStarkman September 29, 2008 4:50 AM PDT: Ah well,

I see that is a problem. If you use the iPhone version of Appstore like me, well you don't have the option anyway. Nor any of the sorting from Browse on desktop iTunes.; Reply to this comment


by macassist September 29, 2008 5:02 AM PDT: I second mickdevlin's comments on iGoApps - lots of subcategories, RSS feeds, full aggregate categories - I don't bother trying to track Apps on the App store any more.; Reply to this comment


by Paul M 97 September 29, 2008 6:14 AM PDT: What is most astonishing about the App Store is how weak search is. I mean, you have exactly one option -- one simple little text field. ***?

I happen to know that there is a fantastic app somewhere in the app store but I cannot find it. It pulls together all the settings that can affect battery life -- like 3G on/off, WiFi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, etc. in one place. So no more going to various different places and three or four levels deep in the native Settings app to control these things -- you just open the app and turn on or off what you want to turn on or off.

Unfortunately, while I remember seeing a post about this app on a blog somewhere (with screenshot) I cannot now find it in the app store! (And I can't find the post I saw either...)

If anyone could help me out I'd be grateful!

Thanks!; Reply to this comment


by becksted_dotmac September 29, 2008 8:12 AM PDT: There seems to be another problem too. The dates for apps aren't for the date they show up in the App Store. They may be the date submitted - no way to know. Will igoapps find new ones? I had two new updates this morning and the dates on them were from as far back as September 10th!

I really appreciate the continued clarity Apple is bringing to the Store.; Reply to this comment


by dannyt1 September 29, 2008 8:58 AM PDT: Unless they bring the option back, I will be buying fewer apps because I don't have time to go through each category. The advantage of the way it used to be was I could easily check the new apps each day.; Reply to this comment


by backupgeek September 29, 2008 9:34 AM PDT: Apple needs to bring back the old options. They have made it way too hard to see what is new in all categories at the same time. At the least, they should offer an RSS feed of changes to the app store.

Apple please fix this. Because it is harder to find new items, I will be spending less money in the App. store. Software developers should yell and scream about this.; Reply to this comment


by greenjbhsd September 29, 2008 9:55 AM PDT: In addition I think the categories need subcategories of their own. I look at the games approaching 1100 apps and think "couldn't they come up with a subcategory scheme?"; Reply to this comment


by trap00n September 29, 2008 12:14 PM PDT: Apptism still allows you to view a complete list of New and Updated apps:

http://www.apptism.com/

Most New and Updated app feeds, like Pinch Media's, stopped collecting new data since the change in the App Store. Apptism is the only one I found that is still getting new data in their feeds.; Reply to this comment


by evansls September 30, 2008 6:48 PM PDT: there's a nice alternative to this.

1. launch itunes
2. click app store
3. click 'browse' under quick links on the right.
4. select a category
5. right click/option click the toolbar where name, artist, album is displayed and select 'release date' and for an added bonus select 'popularity'.
6. now order the apps by release date or popularity.

the only thing you lose really is the application icon, but the 'popularity' option is nice. now when you browse all the applications, you should be able to much faster and get more detail out of them.

anyway... it works for me.; Reply to this comment


by br8thw8 September 30, 2008 11:37 PM PDT: C'mon Apple - I think you are smarter than this.
Add some ways to sort the Apps! Sort by Alpha, by date, size, etc!
Also need to add ways to jump through the list like in Contacts where you can tap along the right edge to jump to a specific letter!; Reply to this comment

(13 Comments)

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