Apple’s June 1 deadline for OS X app developers is here, and that means new apps submitted to the Mac App Store must comply with the company’s new sandboxing rules. The deadline was originally set at March 1, but was pushed back to the beginning of June to give developers more time to get their apps up to date.
Apple starts enforcing app sandboxing rules
Sandboxing on the Mac, just as on the iPhone and iPad, prevents apps from performing any functions outside of their own memory space. The practice helps make OS X more secure, although that security comes with at a price in that it limits app functionality.
Apps that are already available through Apple’s Mac App Store, but aren’t updated for sandboxing, can stay in the store and developers can continue to provide bug fixes. New apps, however, will have to comply with Apple’s sandboxing rules.
Apps sold outside of the Mac App Store aren’t required to comply with the sandboxing rules.
For now, the new rules won’t have much of an impact on end users. As new apps roll out, however, developers will have to decide whether or not supporting sandboxing is worth it to get their titles on the Mac App Store, and users will have to decide if they want to look beyond the Mac App Store for the apps they need.
[Some image parts courtesy Shutterstock]