Apple Again Encouraging Mac Developers to Sign Up for Developer ID Ahead of OS X Mountain Lion

Apple today sent out an email encouraging Mac developers to sign up for the company's Developer ID program so that their apps can be properly signed ahead of the launch of OS X Mountain Lion later this year. Mountain Lion's Gatekeeper feature gives users the ability to set limits on app installation, with the new "Developer ID" program providing a middle ground of security by which developers can certify that they are the developer behind a given application package.

developer id gatekeeper email
Should the developer be found to behave maliciously, Apple will be able to revoke the Developer ID associated with that developer, preventing applications signed with the ID from running and causing further harm to users.

The Mac App Store is the safest place for users to get software for their Mac, but we also want to protect users when they get applications from other places. Gatekeeper is a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion that helps protect users from downloading and installing malicious software. Signing your applications, plug-ins, and installer packages with a Developer ID certificate lets Gatekeeper verify that they are not known malware and have not been tampered with.

This marks the second such mass emailing to encourage adoption of Developer ID among the Mac developer community, as Apple sent out a similar mailing back in late February following its announcement of OS X Mountain Lion. The next major operating system is due for public launch in "late summer" and will undoubtedly be a featured topic at Apple's sold-out Worldwide Developers Conference in early June.

Popular Stories

cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iPhone Fold Vertical Feature

Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Has No Visible Display Crease – Report

Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices. According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
trump iphone dictation issue

Apple Fixing 'Trump' Dictation Processing Bug

Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist." In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
airtag orange

AirTag 2 Rumored to Launch in May or June With These New Features

Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe. Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2: With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
ios 18 4 carplay

iOS 18.4 Includes a Small But Useful Change for CarPlay

Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay. As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...

Top Rated Comments

Tinyluph Avatar
168 months ago
Gate keeper? Seems eerily like some MS product.



What I thought of when I saw that graphic...
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RoboCop001 Avatar
168 months ago
Image (http://img2.findthebest.com/sites/default/files/259/media/images/Microsoft_Security_Essentials_2012_Anti-Virus_Software.jpg)

What I thought of when I saw that graphic...
Except that Apple's makes more sense from a castle design perspective. They didn't have windows covering the front enterance back then! :D
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GenesisST Avatar
168 months ago
We all know that this will come as a huge surprised to some developers when ML is released, won't it?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Flitzy Avatar
168 months ago
Nope. You are either missing the point, or simply spinning the Apple talking points.

It is in fact very likely that Gatekeeper is another step in creating an iOS walled garden on our desktops, where only apps approved by Apple will be allowed on our "stock" Macs.

And this is NOT a good thing.

I actually jumped to Android precisely because I got tired of jailbreaking my iPhones so that I can tether, or use them on TMobile (once I realized how much better/cheaper it is than AT&T).

Sounds like you've been using the "jump to conclusion" mat again.

It is not one step closer, Mac is not iOS.
You can still install any apps.
Stop jumping to absurd conclusions.

And congratulations on going to an inferior phone/mobile operating system.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Negritude Avatar
168 months ago
I fully support this, but I have one MAJOR concern:

Will developers be able to sign apps with a free developer account?

My main concern is that signing will be limited to paid developer accounts, and this will create an unfair class structure where many small, independent developers, who create some of the best tools on OS X, many of them free or donationware, will have to keep forking over money just so they can become a part of the new, more secure OS X ecosystem.

I sincerely hope that is not what happens.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pdjudd Avatar
168 months ago
PS : Feel free to post a link to where Apple provide a cast iron guarantee about this not happening.

I never said anything about a cast iron guarantee. I nearly stated that they have said several times that the MAS is not going to be the only method to get apps. And really, in real life there is no cast iron guarantee. Apple can promise whatever they want and violate it tomorrow. I just know that they aren’t that dumb to do that in this instance.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)