A number of apps that posted updates in the in the last couple of days are crashing upon launch. The issue appears to be affecting many apps, including popular ones such as and .
The first official word about the problem appears to be from Instapaper creator Marco Arment. In a he explains that after the latest Instapaper update went live on the evening of July 3, many users were complaining the app was crashing immediately upon launch, regardless of whether the user had merely updated the app, or started from scratch.
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Arment soon found the problem wasn't just with his app. Other developers and their users have been experiencing the same problem, including GoodReader for iPad and the free version of the popular game Angry Birds Space. Arment includes a list of the known corrupted apps in his post, all of which posted updates July 3-4.
Mashable confirmed the existence of the issue on Angry Birds and Pinball Maniacs. When you tap an corrupt app, it doesn't even finish launching -- instead it simply causes in the home screen to fade to black for a split second, then nothing. At least one of the apps Arment lists, Pair, installed and ran for us with no problems. As Arment notes, the problem may be limited to certain areas.
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All competent developers ensure their app is running smoothly before issuing an update, so the problem in all likelihood lies in whatever Apple does to an app once it's approved. That's led to suspect the problem may be rooted in Apple's FairPlay wrapper -- a piece of software the company adds to all apps for sale. FairPlay is Apple's Digital Rights Management (DRM) tech, which acts as copy protection for apps and media.
"Given the symptoms and messages we're seeing, this issue looks very likely to be related to FairPlay," Arment told Mashable in an email.
Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment, though Arment says Apple has issued a functional version of the Instapaper update since he queried them and brought up the issue on Twitter.
Once Apple resolves the issue with a particular app, users should delete the corrupt version and re-install the corrected one. With some apps, however, this might result in a loss of data, settings or files. The creators of Are you experiencing this problem with any iPhone or iPad apps? Which ones? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of , This story originally published on Mashable .