“Popular video playback application MplayerX is no longer being updated on the Mac App Store,” Electronista reports. “Citing Apple’s sandboxing rules, the developer is claiming that the step is coming only after ‘arguing with Apple over three months’ trying to make the newest version of the application function under the new Apple guidelines.”
“MplayerX features affected by the sandboxing rules include the automatic loading of subtitles for videos and the ability to play the next episode of a TV show in a folder,” Electronista reports. “Many applications will never be able to be sold on the Mac App Store due to close integration with the kernel of the OS violating the sandboxing requirement, such as most of the Rogue Amoeba line of audio enhancements, with the exception of audio-capture tool Piezo.”
Electronista reports, “The MplayerX developer isn’t alone in abandoning the Mac App Store. Codebase version control app SourceTree’s developers announced that after March 1 that they would not be updating the application because of Apple’s addition of the sandboxing requirement... Apple has implemented a more extensive system-wide security feature in conjunction with sandboxing, called Gatekeeper in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. By default, Gatekeeper only allows applications downloaded from the Mac App Store, and apps that are digitally signed with an Apple Developer ID... At this time, and for the foreseeable future, despite no credible, persistent malware threat to OS X, all new applications and updates on the Mac App Store are expected to comply with the sandboxing requirement.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is a problem because, over time, the number of Mac users who know to go outside the Mac App Store for apps will dwindle to the point of not being able to support developers whose apps offer to do things the Mac App Store does not allow. It’s a conundrum for which we see no easy fix.
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