Tech Trends: Engadget’s take on Mac App Store Guidelines

2.1 Apps that crash will be rejected and 2.2 Apps that exhibit bugs will be rejected. Well, here we go: the immediate question here is whether infamously glitchy apps like Photoshop and Word will be rejected for being too buggy. We'd sort of love to see that, actually.
2.6 Apps that are "beta", "demo", "trial", or "test" versions will be rejected. This is the rule that has many up in arms, but we don't think it's so bad -- general end users probably shouldn't be running beta code, and more advanced users can just hit the web and grab the betas they want anyway.
2.14 Apps must be packaged and submitted using Apple's packaging technologies included in Xcode - no third party installers allowed. Again, we're thinking about Adobe's apps here -- they use weird custom installers that no one's ever loved. Will this be the push that makes them go native?
2.19 Apps that require license keys or implement their own copy protection will be rejected. Lots of questions around this one, as even Apple's own Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro currently require serial numbers to install. Will Apple wrap Mac apps from the Store in FairPlay DRM? If not, what kind of officially-sanctioned copy protection will be available? Apple said Mac App Store apps will be licensed to run on all of a user's personal machines -- does that mean apps will be tied to an Apple ID? How will that work for families with different computers -- will apps be shareable through Home Sharing like iOS apps? There's a lot to sort out here -- we'll have to see what's what when the Store actually launches, though.
2.20 Apps that present a license screen at launch will be rejected. We actually laughed when we saw this one. Why? Because of all the apps on our Mac, there's one that pops up a license screen the most consistently. Sucks for you, iTunes.

2.21 Apps may not use update mechanisms outside of the App Store. Not the worst thing in the world, since the App Store provides a centralized update service, but there are lot of Sparkle-based apps out there that'll need to be tweaked.
2.24 Apps that use deprecated or optionally installed technologies (e.g., Java, Rosetta) will be rejected. This is an interesting one -- Apple actually updated Java for Mac OS X last night, but said it's now deprecated and won't be updated beyond this version's lifecycle. That pretty much spells the end for Java on OS X, unless Oracle steps in and provides a port.
6.2 Apps that look similar to Apple Products or apps bundled on the Mac, including the Finder, iChat, iTunes, and Dashboard, will be rejected. This one's quite odd, as there are lots and lots of Mac apps that look like Apple's own apps -- DoubleTwist looks like iTunes, for example, and almost every FTP app looks like the Finder in some way. And what about an app like Delicious Library, which actually inspired Apple apps like iBooks and iPhoto 11's new books interface? This one's going to be hard to enforce in a reasonable way.
6.3 Apps that do not use system provided items, such as buttons and icons, correctly and as described in the Apple Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines will be rejected. Again, we're looking at the Adobe Creative Suite here -- this one would be grounds for instant rejection.
7.4 Apps containing "rental" content or services that expire after a limited time will be rejected. Well, it's not like we were expecting any iTunes competitors to be welcomed into the Mac App Store anyway.
7.6 In general, the more expensive your app, the more thoroughly we will review it. Seriously, we can't wait to see what happens when Adobe and Microsoft submit their application suites to this store.
9.2 Apps that rapidly drain a products battery or generate excessive heat will be rejected. Games? Video rendering apps? We'll see how this one's interpreted.