App Store loses "All Free Apps" link

Apple's made some strange changes to the App Store lately. While the reviews change was a good one, this latest update is just confusing: they removed all of the "See all" links from the sidebar of the main App Store page, including the much-visited "All Free Apps" that many of our readers used to browse the new free stuff in there.

Now, all that's there is a bunch of category links. You can still search for apps, obviously, and you can click on the Top Paid and Free apps to see those, and you can even click on the "See all" near "New," "What's Hot" and "Staff Favorites." But if you want to browse all the new Free apps in the store completely unfiltered, you're out of luck.

Why would this be? Depends on who's guessing -- if you're angry at Apple (perhaps one of many developers who haven't seen their apps in the store yet), you might claim that it's because Apple wants to keep a firm grip on just what new free apps get seen on the homepage. If you're so-so on the issue, it might be because you think Apple wanted to streamline the process and keep you from the hassle of browsing all the free trash yourself. And if you're what our kind commenters call a "fanboy," you might claim that Apple is just having problems with their store, or that they're actually trying to help developers by raising app prices.

Personally, I'm going for option D: someone working on the iTunes page didn't realize how popular the link was, and after a little outcry, it'll be back soon. In the meantime, there are still a few RSS feeds around that will help you keep tabs on what's showing up in the store.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Source: http://itunes.com/

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Analysis / Opinion Freeware Apple iPhone

Apple's made some strange changes to the App Store lately. While the reviews change was a good one, this latest update is just confusing:...

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iGenuis

SPREAD THE WORD!

How to view all free app store apps

1. In quick links, click power search.

2. Under the power search click all applications.

3. Title and developer fields can be left blank.

4. Categories, all. Compatibility, your device.

5. Check the "Search for free applications" box.

6. Then click search.

November 30 2008 at 3:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jesse Rohland

Jesse from Pinch Media here, the recent appstore changes did break our feeds but I spent some time today and got them working again. At least until Apple changes the store on us again.

Sorry for the disruption in updates, we're kinda at Apple's mercy here when it comes to providing these feeds.

September 30 2008 at 3:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Todd

Boo to that kind of crap. Apple's brilliance is so often dimmed by these tiny, cruel cuts. This is the kind of thinking that led to the removal of ical event editing in the first ipod touch release.

September 30 2008 at 2:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

TonyRockyHorror

i ONLY ever looked at apps in the app store via the "list all applicaitons" link and then sort by date, to see what was new, free or ortherwise. this definitely pisses me off.

September 30 2008 at 1:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Josh

Yeah, I was very disappointed with Apple's decision on this one. I'm hoping you're right... they didn't know it was popular, but I'm kinda skeptical. Apple keeps track of every single click in the iTunes store. Maybe it was only popular for the hard core iPhone App people. Who knows. I'm also not a big fan of the "New Apps Only" feature. I can't easily know when apps get updated now. I have downloaded way too many apps to keep them all in my iTunes Library... now I HAVE to because Apple decided that new apps were more important than updates. They need to stop getting rid of features and add more. If they want to seriously list "New Apps" great. But they should also list "Recent App Updates." And give me back my "All iPhone Apps." ARG! Anyone found an easy way to duplicate the functionality we had before? Read more below.

http://www.cocoatouchapps.com/

September 30 2008 at 11:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Miguel

This sucks, bring it back!

September 30 2008 at 10:35 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

agk

i love my iphone and custom apps for my apps, but frankly i think anyone w/ half a brain could think of a better way to browse apps than apple's horrible system.

September 30 2008 at 9:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

skinnabub

Another thing I'm missing at the mo is the removal of 'update all apps' on the iPhone 2.1 App Store.

Having to update them one at a time is an ars*

September 30 2008 at 8:06 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Galley

Don't forget http://www.AppStoreFeed.com

September 30 2008 at 7:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Henri

I used to click show all iPhone apps and then put them in release date order. That way it was quick to see what had changed or what new ones they had when you visited the site every day or two.

This new browsing by type is much worse and I would prefer the old one.

September 30 2008 at 7:18 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply