AppApproval
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Apple warns developers to expect app approval delays
After being taken offline earlier this month by a security breach, Apple's developer portal is back up and running -- at least in a limited capacity -- but the effects of the downtime will continue to be felt for some time. ReadWrite reports that Apple has begun a rollout of notices to developers stating that the approval process for new apps will take longer than usual, presumably due to the backlog created by the Developer Center woes. On July 21, Apple acknowledged that its developer site was hacked on July 18, spending the next several days rebuilding and updating its database and servers. A few days after the incident a security researcher from the UK named Ibrahim Balic claimed credit for the breach, stating that he did it to show Apple the flaws that exist within the company's online security measures. [via MacNN]
No Comment: Apple pulls Bluetooth OnOff switch app from the App Store, blogger overreacts
Apple has pulled an app that allows iPhone users to turn Bluetooth on and off with a single tap, and that's not sitting right with ZDNet blogger Jason O'Grady. According to O'Grady, that one app removal "demonstrates how (Apple) has become lethargic and how iOS innovation has slowed to a crawl." If a lethargic company can turn in a US$39.2 billion quarter, I'd love to see what an "innovative" company could do. So Jason, innovation in the iOS field has definitely slowed to a crawl?. Yeah, there are only 600,000 apps available in the App Store, so the removal of one app -- the $0.99 Bluetooth OnOff -- that used private APIs specifically forbidden by Apple is obvious proof that Apple has become lethargic and that there's no innovation. Was this post supposed to run on April 1st and got delayed to today by mistake? Sure, it takes five or more steps to turn off Bluetooth in iOS, and it's not a top level on-off button in Settings. While that is a pain, how often do you really need to turn off Bluetooth? According to O'Grady, "Bluetooth uses battery capacity so it's better to turn it off while not in use." What? I have Bluetooth turned on all the time on my iPhone 4S and I don't see it sucking my battery dry. Of course, I don't use a Bluetooth headset or speakers most of the time, but I get amazing battery life with Bluetooth constantly turned on for instant connections when I need them. I'd be willing to bet that most iPhone users couldn't even tell you if Bluetooth is on or off at any particular time. We all get frustrated with Apple at some point or another for some niggling point, but I'd have to conjecture that the overall level of frustration is pretty incredibly low for the company to continue to turn in quarter after quarter of outstanding financial results. This is one ZDNet post that needs to go back to the whine cellar to mature.
PlayOn finally gets its iPhone app approved, HTML5 lets out a sigh of resignation
We're loving this new, slightly more liberal wave of App Store approvals (aren't we easily pleased?), and it looks like PlayOn drew the lucky number today. After waiting in vain for an app approval, PlayOn actually developed a fairly sufficient HTML5 solution to its streaming-web-video-to-your-device problem, but there's nothing quite like the sheen and polish of a bonafide app. Unfortunately, PlayOn's desktop software, which is required to make this Netflix / Amazon / Hulu / ESPN / CBS / etc.-beaming possible, is still PC only. [Thanks, Corey]
iPhone devsugar: App Store approval in...one hour?
Approximately one hour after uploading his new application update to iTunes Connect, Bristol-based iPhone developer Rob Jonson of Hobbyist software got the surprise of his week: an official Apple green light. His latest update to his VLC Remote application had been approved and was ready for sale. VLC Remote allows you to control a Mac- or Windows-based VideoLAN playback client from your iPhone, basically duplicating many of the features you'd get from a standard Apple Remote. His update wasn't complicated. "It was a simple problem," he told me over the phone this morning. "One of the buttons stopped working because of a stupid error. I missed a break in a case statement." So he uploaded his bugfix at about 11 PM local United Kingdom time. Just before midnight, he checked his e-mail before heading off to bed. The Apple approval was sitting in his in-box. A recent update, submitted last week, had taken only a day to receive approval. "With 24 hours, I was very impressed. But one hour? I couldn't believe it. Clearly Apple has changed the game." Update: This picture speaks a thousand words. Courtesy of Tom Harris of InsiderApps. This is a different app from Jonson's
Apple lets devs bite their nails in real time as iPhone apps navigate approval process
Apple's App Store approval process is one of the great black boxes in the mobile industry, a bizarre place ruled by emotion, erratic logic, and an uneven application of censorship that has driven some developers to the very brink of insanity since the day of iPhone OS 2.0's release. Well, folks, here's the bone just thrown your way from Cupertino: a new dashboard where you can watch closely as your pride and joy makes its way through the bureaucratic assembly line. Before, all you could do was submit, pray, and wait indefinitely for your app to get accepted or rejected, so consider this an almost imperceptible step in the right direction. Next on our list: emulators. You know you want to, Apple.
Third-party Google Voice client hits the webOS App Catalog
It looks like it isn't just bluster from Palm when it comes to thinking differently about its app approval policy. Besides taking a pretty healthy stance on applications that deviate from its current standards, today 10 new titles have shown up for download... a Google Voice app being one of them. gDial Pro, a piece of software which started its life as a homebrew application, is now an official part of the beta store. The program lets you access Google Voice's full feature set (including a dialer), and no one seems very bothered by it. Here's hoping Palm keeps up the flow of new software to the Catalog (they're eating for two now) and they keep a healthy distance from rejection letters. [Via PreThinking]
Spotify for iPhone gets thumbs up from Apple, subscription music with offline playlists is a go
Streaming and subscription music services are a dime a dozen on iPhone, and they seem to get past Apple's app store approval hurdles with relative ease. But Spotify was one whose fate wasn't so clear cut, given its offline playlist function -- which as the name suggests downloads songs ahead of time for you to listen to when there's no WiFi or phone service to stream from -- could very easily fall into the category of "duplication of core iPhone functionality" and get deep-sixed at the drop of a hat. Turns out that's not the case here, as an Apple spokesperson has told paidContent UK that the app's been given the metaphorical stamp of approval and would be hitting the store "very soon." A premium subscription will run about £9.99 ($16.20) per month, with an option to pay annually coming at a later date. Of course, there's a catch, as Spotify's service is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain for now. The company expects to invade America sometime later this year, but that means another round of app store approvals -- and with Apple's track record on consistency, there's no telling how that'll turn out.
Apple's new low: censoring a dictionary
You know guys, you're not really doing yourself any favors at this point. We've seen plenty of stories thus far detailing the company's absurd, reactionary, and typically confusing application rejections or changes for its App Store, but the treatment given to dictionary app Ninjawords seems particularly telling. In essence, the program, a simple and fast reference tool -- a straight-up dictionary -- has omitted a handful of common words seen as objectionable by the Star Chamber of application reviewers at Apple HQ. What kind of words, you ask? Well, namely the same kind of words which you can find in any standard dictionary in just about any classroom in this country. John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame succinctly calls out what is patently obvious: Apple censored an English dictionary. A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms. But it's far worse than that.
iPhone OS 3.0's parental controls to assuage some app submission woes?
Here's something that should help Trent reach a level of moderate contentment. Although we already knew that Apple was expanding its parental controls with iPhone OS 3.0 into the realm of TV shows, movies and App Store apps, a report today about the rejection of Makayama's Newspaper(s) app provides a good example at the ramifications of such alterations. According to iLounge, it was rejected due to a picture of a topless woman under the section for UK-based tabloid The Sun. The accompanying letter suggested a resubmission once 3.0 (and subsequently the parental controls) go public, which we take to mean that the questionable content will suddenly be okay for the App Store once it's behind the appropriate age gate. We won't know for sure until everything falls into place, but sounds like this is one part of the submission approval process that'll soon end up much less frustrating for developers. [Via 9 to 5 Mac]
