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SignMyPad faces Apple's ban hammer over iCloud integration
The App Store has always been Apple's playground -- you get to play there if you adhere to the rules. Sometimes the rules are straight forward; other times the rules are malleable and determined by Apple on a seemingly case-by-case basis. The latest rejection controversy involving Autriv and its SignMyPad app definitely falls into the latter scenario. SignMyPad was recently updated to version 5 and added iCloud so users could sync their PDF files across iOS devices. Apple rejected this latest version because it will not allow iOS applications to use iCloud to sync "non-user-generated" data between devices. Even though the app adds a signature to a document and saves it as a new file, Apple does not consider this to be user-generated content. The developers pleaded their case with Apple, and the company would not budge. Apple's answer to the team was to drop iCloud and use a third-party service instead. Though it seems unreasonable to push developers away from its own service, there may be justification for Apple's rejection that lay outside this "user-generated" clause. First, iCloud is a limited resource that users have to pay to use. Yes, you get 5 GB of free storage space, but your allotment could quickly fill up with beefy PDF files uploaded by single-purpose apps like SignMyPad that add only a signature to the document. One little signature on a handful of these documents, and a user is calling Apple to complain that their iCloud storage is full. They don't understand why they are maxed out because they only added a signature, how could that take up so much space? Other apps like PDFpen use iCloud, but PDFPen is a full-scale editor that lets you annotate, correct and sign PDF files. Apple may be looking at an app like PDFpen and giving it the thumbs up because of its broad editing capabilities, while rejecting SignMyPad because it only adds a signature. This signature is apparently not significant enough to be considered user-generated content by Apple. Plus, iCloud has been experiencing significant growing pains since it launched, and there are other services like Dropbox or even email that are better equipped to share large files.
SignMyPad Android / iPhone app enables digital signatures, form completion (app review)
If you've found yourself caught up in the rat race, you know all too well the process: receive PDF, print PDF, collect PDF, reprint PDF from a printer with ink in it, recollect PDF, fill out PDF, scan PDF, resize PDF, take a restroom break, and finally -- struggle with your company's lackluster internet connection in a bid to send the dreaded thing back. It's hard enough to do in ideal circumstances, but try filling out an emailed document and returning it whilst on the road or during vacation. We're told that some businesspeople rank the whole ordeal up there with root canals and meeting the in-laws, but thanks to the wonders of mobile telephony (and more specifically, mobile computing), the tried-and-failed process can be one of the past. Or, so says Autriv Software Development. The NYC-based app startup has just introduced the most notable rival yet to EasySign, and while SignMyPad is hardly the only one of its kind, it's one of the few that's compatible with both iOS and Android, and offers more than just a signature stamp. Care to hear more? Head on past the break. %Gallery-129962%
$99 iPad app dinged by Wired, drops price 90% for the day
We love a good App Store pricing story, and this one has a happy ending (mostly). Yesterday Wired picked up the scent of Autriv's SignMyPad Pro, which has a rather breathtaking price tag of $99. Since the non-pro version of the PDF-signing app -- which shares almost all its features -- is only $4, why should the Pro version cost more than 20x as much? Not to mention that the PDF signing genre on the iPad, while not as crowded as some other sectors, still has a healthy suite of available apps ranging in price from $10 down to free. Autriv's jefe, Justin Esgar, may be familiar to TUAW readers as the former face/voice of our Ask TUAW videos, so we checked in with him to get the developer's side of the story. It turns out that the key improvement between the $4 standard and $99 pro versions of SignMyPad is the ability to embed the iPad's GPS location and timestamp into the PDF metadata along with the signature; Autriv developed this feature specifically to support a request from a major financial industry client. While in theory the custom version could have been delivered through enterprise distribution instead of the App Store, apparently it was easier and quicker simply to mark up the price of the GPS-aware version and let the corporate client buy the copies it needed. The app remained in the store at the $99 price point from then on. Obviously, not everyone wants to geo-tag signed PDFs, but for those professionals that do need the capability (real estate brokers, lawyers, architects, etc.) it could be worth the investment. As far as we can tell, there isn't another tool, iPad or desktop, that includes this feature, so SignMyPad Pro has a case to make for its value in the market. Value propositions aside, however, Autriv isn't taking the Wired story lying down. Justin has posted a rabble-rousing video on the company's site, and at the same time lowered the price of both SignMyPad versions for today. The standard version has dropped down to 99 cents, and the Pro C-note version will cost you just $9.99. If you're eager to sign your PDFs with the added power of geotagging, today would be the day to pick it up.
