Screenshots of Mac App Store reveal parental controls and more

With Apple’s Mac App Store due to launch within weeks, it makes sense that some details would start to leak out. It seems that’s exactly what’s happened as 9To5Mac has published screenshots that offer a little insight into how the store shapes up.

The shots reveal a few things we didn’t know before:

• You appear to be able to sign in to the Store with your Apple Account, iTunes account, or MobileMe account to download apps.
• Parental controls will be built into the store, allowing you to block games for set age groups: over four, over nine, over twelve, or over seventeen.
• While the Mac App Store will be the app you use to browse for, buy and download apps, another app called “Store Helper” will work in the background, presumably to manage downloads and payments.

Set to open for business on 6 January 2011, the Mac App Store will bring Apple’s successful iOS App Store model to the desktop. It’s a move that’s likely to reinvigorate the Mac app development scene, allowing all developers’ apps (providing they meet Apple’s approval) to be browsed and downloaded in one place for the first time, opening up a potential goldmine for indie developers.