Apple offering iPhone app previews

5 February 2010 11:21 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Apple has changed its iTunes weblinks for the App Store so that they no longer require iTunes to be installed and running. They now open in a browser window instead, making it a whole lot easier to browse applications before you decide to download.

Last month, Apple introduced the same functionality for music tracks. While you'll still need to open up iTunes to download and install the applications, you can now safely browse the App Store without having to run a bit of software that has been widely referred to as overly bloated.

The web pages offer pretty much the same content you'll find in the software-based App Store - publisher, category, version numbers, requirements, similar apps, release date, and a few customer reviews. There's also screengrabs and links to relevant websites.

The next step will be web-enabling the whole process - releasing a plugin that lets you do everything from within your browser - or which pings your iPhone and lets everything happen on that device instead. What's your ideal app-install procedure? Let us know in the comments.

Via: macworld.co.uk

Full tags

Software, iPhone apps, Apple, iTunes, Websites