Eucalyptus for iPhone gets a new lease on life
[App Store] has been finally allowed to appear in the App Store after being rejected by Apple. The e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod touch was rejected because a person could get sexually oriented books like the Kama Sutra, even though the book is in the public domain and freely available on the web.
The program author let us know the US$9.99 app was approved late last night. He said, "Earlier today I received a phone call from an Apple representative. He was very complimentary about Eucalyptus. We talked about the confusion surrounding its App Store rejections, which I am happy to say is now fully resolved. He invited me to re-build and submit a version of Eucalyptus with no filters for immediate approval, and that full version is now available on the iPhone App Store."
"Since my previous post, I've been so pleased with the overwhelmingly positive articles, blog posts, comments and tweets - and also the emails from those of you who felt so strongly about the issue you wanted to contact me directly. They were all much appreciated. Thanks for all the support. It's been a roller coaster of a weekend!"
The controversy over this app once again points out how crazy the Apple standards for applications are. Dozens of fart apps are fine (not to mention apps that thoroughly infringe other companies' IP or steal their graphics) but an e-book reader that simply loads public domain books was verboten. It doesn't make any sense, and further, the situation doesn't seem to be improving. Developers are left to try and get publicity to embarrass Apple into being a bit more sensible.
