The Mac App Store is now live. It lets you buy and download apps directly on your Mac desktop or laptop, much like the iPhone app store.
Some apps are free, for example Twitter for Mac, but the majority are paid-for. There are currently about 1,000 apps in the store and you use your Apple ID to sign in.
The Mac App Store is part of an update to MacOS X Snow Leopard. It'll bring your version of the operating system to 10.6.6.
The App Store icon is added to your Dock and also appears in your Applications folder. the interface will be familiar to most - it's almost identical to iTunes.Within minutes of the store's worldwide release, the game Angry Birds went to No1 position in the Top Paid-For Apps chart. Top free app is Twitter for Mac.
As examples of pricing in the store, Apple's boxed iWorks suite of office apps costs $79. In the App Store, each of the three apps - Pages, Keynote and Numbers - costs $20, making a saving of $19.
Apple is selling its photography software Aperture 3 in the app store for £49.99/$80. The boxed version costs £173/$199.
And there are plans for a jailbreak app store for Macs. Jay Freeman, who's behind the Cydia store on jailbroken iPhones, iPads and iPods, has said he will be launching a Cydia For Mac, which, he says, could be released fairly soon.
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