Edible Apple

Apple earlier this week made some welcome changes to how user reviews are tabulated on the iTunes App Store.  Instead of blanket reviews for all versions of an application, user reviews are now distinguished by what version of the application they were originally intended for.  As an example, assume that an application released in January received 100 crappy reviews.  Now, assume that the developers of the application subsequently added some new features and removed some bugs, and introduced an updated version of the app in February.  And now assume that the newest version of the app has received 50 glowing reviews.  Under the old system, the old reviews would carry the same weight as the new reviews, even though the old reviews might not be applicable anymore.  Under the new review system, however, users now have the option of checking out reviews made solely under the new version of an application, or of viewing an aggregate of all user submitted reviews.  In addition, iTunes now displays a bar graph that breaks down a programs average star rating by number of votes per star.  But enough rambling, check out the picture below to see what all the fuss is about.

In case you’re curious, the above ratings are for everyone’s favorite iPhone drinking app, iBeer.