Panic Blog

Like Minecraft? Then surely you’ll love Mooncraft!

Except, well, you really won’t. Really:

What happened here? It’s pretty simple.

1. Scammer makes an extremely simple iOS app and submits it to Apple.

2. Once it’s approved, they change the screenshots, description, and name — things you can edit at any time.  Piggyback off a popular game!

3. Buy hundreds of fake ★★★★★ reviews, somehow.

4. Sit back and relax as you slowly and gently travel towards hell.

This isn’t Apple’s fault, of course — it’s bait-and-switch, the classic inch/mile situation that scammers rely on. How can Apple fix this? Being able to adjust screenshots/descriptions after submitting is important, and we don’t want that to go away. And it’d be unreasonable for Apple to manually review all screenshot changes.

How about this: after an app hits the store, if it has nothing but 1-star reviews (that include text!), and those reviews mention keywords like “scam” a lot, flag it for further inspection?

I bet there’s an algorithm out there that could find these apps pretty quickly.

Either way, Quang Nguyen (which might be a fake name, of course): you’re a terrible person. (Thanks to Steve for missing the tiny popup button and clicking “Buy App” by accident.)

UPDATE 12/10/2012: For a while, Mooncraft was pulled from the store. But, of course, it’s back.

UPDATE 1/10/2013: Apple has announced a new policy that screenshots can only be updated when they accompany a new application binary submitted for review. Hopefully that will put a stop to this particular type of trickery.

A while back, I became obsessed with getting an “Extended Validation” certificate for our website, just so that we can have a little green “Panic Inc” sitting in the address bar.

You know exactly what I’m talking about:

Getting that green rectangle was, put simply, Le Pain Royale. I suppose that’s the point. It also wasn’t cheap.

After hearing me repeatedly complain about the frustrations of getting our Extended Validation certificate, our own Mike Merrill made me a compelling offer.

For the same amount of money I’d spend on an Extended Validation certificate, Mike could provide our customers with a significantly more secure and immutable validation seal, one that would provide true “trust beyond pixels”.

With this idea, VTAC was born.

Art project? Groundbreaking new level of web security? Prank? Your call.

Should you have any doubts about panic.com security, please visit our office and ask to see Mike’s arm.

VTAC seals are now available for qualified third parties. Click here to learn more or request a quote.

Music courtesy 8-Bit Operators. Thanks!

A quick update on CandyBar!

Updated for 10.8.

First, we’ve updated CandyBar for Mac OS X 10.8! You can now customize the 10.8 system icons. Just launch the app and click the big “Update” button to get the latest IconData.

But there’s a catch, or two: in Mountain Lion, Apple changed how the Dock is rendered, so it’s no longer possible to customize the Dock’s look. (You can still customize the indicator lights!) Also, CandyBar still can’t change the internal icons of Mac App Store apps, due to code signing.

CandyBar, although simply changing files on disk, has always fallen into a slightly-uncomfortable-for-us grey area of existence. It seems clear to us that there will undoubtedly come a time (soon?) when CandyBar can no longer customize system icons at all. So, what do we do?

Now free, and unsupported.

Since we’re unsure about the long-term future of changing system icons, we’re not comfortable charging money for CandyBar, and we’re also not comfortable simply making it disappear, instead we’re going to make the current CandyBar free — but unsupported.

That said, being CandyBar fans, we’ll strive to keep CandyBar up-to-date with minor 10.8 releases, so you can keep using it for the foreseeable future! But, if something major changes, on the level of the Dock changes in 10.8, we can’t guarantee compatibility.

First, here’s the latest build of the app:

Then, here’s a serial number everyone can use:

PPQA-YAMA-E3KP-VHXG-B6AL-L

Even if technically unsupported, CandyBar is still super cool. We hope you enjoy it.

(Also, if you bought CandyBar from us in July or so, we will refund you. If interested, e-mail the Iconfactory.)

Finally, CandyBar heads to The Iconfactory.

So where does CandyBar go from here? Well, there’s the other half of the app: the convenient icon organizer, and Quick Drop icon changer, that many of us use often. We’re handing the reins of CandyBar over to our friends at The Iconfactory. They’ve got some thoughts on CandyBar’s future, and where they might take it from here. If you bought CandyBar from us, you will of course be considered if something new shows up. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, please contact support@iconfactory.com.

TL;DR: CandyBar updated for 10.8, but changing system icons won’t work forever, so CandyBar is now free and unsupported — and may turn into something new at The Iconfactory later.