For a number of hours yesterday afternoon the Apple Store was down for everybody. At first the we were excited, this usually a sign heralding a new product, possibly the latest Apple TV gadget with 1080p HD. But when the familiar “We’ll be Back” message disappeared speculation turned a bit darker. A number of sources were quick to report hacking, and when the site actually did return with no indication of any new product added to the iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macs and MacBooks – what were we all to believe?
It seems the widespread panic over the Apple Store outage may have bit been unnecessary after all.
No – There’s not anything new to get excited about in regards to a new Apple product, but there is a minor adjustment to some of the items listings, and if you weren’t told you’d miss it, like many did (including us). It seems the total blackout was due to Apple installing a social sharing feature below its Mac Pro range, allowing you to share the Apple Store item details with pals on Facebook and Twitter.
Beneath each choice of Mac Pro, is now a very vague “Select” option with a down arrow, you’d never work out what it was for unless you clicked on that arrow and then it clearly reads “Share on Facebook” and “Share on Twitter” (or unless you’re an iTunes user, in which this button features for the same social sharing reason).
It’s been reported that this is a Google/Safari/Firefox only feature, however, once pointed in the right direction we could see and use the social linking button through IE9 with no problems.
With a number of high profile outages throughout the day, on Facebook, Twitter and a number of other sites, as well as the constant threat from online hacking groups, maybe it was justified that many were quick to point the finger at types such as Anonymous and LulzSec.
Rest easy, Apple fans. No new products to report, but at least red alert is over – for now!
Send us your thoughts via tweet to the Official Gadget Helpline Twitter or drop us a comment on our Official Facebook page!