Apple snuffs iPhone app for too much Appleness

A longtime Mac developer has walked away from the iPhone App Store after Apple's app police spent three months deciding to reject the developer's application for using Apple images meant specifically for developers. The latest victim of Apple's capriciousness is Rogue Amoeba Software (tagline: "Strange Name. Great software …

[Lawrence 7]

Utterly Rediculous

Completely understand thier argument to prevent people taking the piss, but when its to give a coherent user experience, consistency and aid the user's mental model of the system you think apple would be right on it, and not care. ther is a difference between branding and referencing.

What, apart from a legal condition not being present, means they and mactracker can do it on OSX/PC? nothing.

Sort your shit out apple.

[unitron]

Want to irritate and annoy developers?

There's an app for that!

[h 6]

Rules

Follow the rules. Is it so hard to make your own icons that do not infringe copyright?

Good lord. Hire an icon designer if you can't design your own icons.

[Phil Endecott]

Ridiculous but well known

Yes, this is ridiculous. However, it is a rather well-known bit of ridiculousness that they should have steered clear of. Why they persisted quite so many times I can't imagine.

It always reminds me of the bit from the Life of Brian where the man is stoned for saying "Jehovah". Or, continuing the religious theme, maybe Apple consider it Idolotry for a mere mortal to make a graven image of their precious goods.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it is ok

... for Apple to say that Apple copyright stuff cannot be used by other entities.

They (that is Apple) could also provide developers with a range of images that can be used but such use must conform alternatively Apple might just say:

If you is a developer and want to use our copyright images then you must do wot evrione haz to do an rite in an ask

[windywoo]

@h6

Did you even read the article? Read it and then go punch yourself in the face until the fanboi urges leave you.

[AngusH]

Re: Rules

It's easy enough to get icons designed, but as I understand it

the airfoil app is downloading the icons from the remote mac (which is running airfoil desktop)

and that icon, which is downloaded onto the iphone, is provided by a system API call!

The developers aren't shipping any copies of the icons at all in the iphone version.

How asking a computer for an icon representing itself and then sending that icon to other machines, to use as a network resource icon, is against the rules is beyond me...

[James R Grinter]

to be clear about the image sources

@"h 6":

They are not images 'bundled' with the iPhone application, they are transmitted by the Mac OS X application to any remote speaker, be that the Speaker application (running on Windows, Mac, or Linux) on a desktop or on iPod touch and iPhone.

But they're not bundled with the Mac OS X application either. It gets them from a documented OS X library/Framework call.

(And, as to 'designing your own icons' - Apple's review process has rejected artwork that even *looks* like something that they deem theirs. Broken! I'll be reverting to version 1.0.0, as I don't encounter the bug they were fixing.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Richard

I must say it's a shame for this bad press on the developer-to-Apple relationship saga, as Rogue Amoeba have knocked up a series of really well pollished products which come across as complementing the Apple product set smoothly.

I've paid for a couple, for filling a gap so well (say Spotify to Airport Express) on the music streaming market, that I can only see that Apple are trying to implement their own equivalent solutions.

When the iPhone can stream its own content to another wifi target (Direct) then we'll be sorted. A shame Rogue Amoemba can't be given some cash along the way!

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Bootnote

this blog post on the mactracker site - http://mactracker.blogspot.com/2009/04/mactracker-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch.html - suggests that it is the case as well with them

[Anonymous Coward]

Tombo

Isn't one of the big reasons M$ won out is they catered to the developer community? It's a shame, I think Apple is a great innovator in an industry sorely lacking at the time. Looks like they are trying to shoot themselves in the foot.

[Anonymous Coward]

Clear and consistent policy

Apple gets to reject any app for any reason and all appeals will be sent straight to the trash bin. Those daring to complain will have subsequent submissions put on hold for an extra couple months until they learn their lesson.

Anonymous because my company is working on a iPhone game and the developer agreement probably gives them the right to come over and remove my left kidney with a rusty spoon if I make any negative comments about apple.

[Jeff Paffett]

Interesting

It's actually in iTunes Store now, dated 13/11...

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

This ain't the half of it.

Apple's DRM on the iphone _just_ needs to go.

Whatever you say about it, the iphone and ipod touch to my mind as far as I'm concerned is a computer and like any other computer you should have the freedom to run whatever you want on it, not be restricted to what Apple tells you and allows.

Would you stand for that on your mac? On your PC?

I for one will NOT buy an iphone because of this.

Make no mistake, I like cool stuff, but this kind of bollocks is just way too much.

[raving angry loony]

lost the plot

Apple: here are some images that you can use to enhance "appleness" of your app.

Developer: great. we'll use them.

Apple: sorry, you used the images WE PROVIDED in an app, in ways that WE SUGGESTED. So we're not going to approve the app.

Developer: WTF??

Apple really has completely lost the plot when it comes to the iPhone / iPodTouch. Completely. They have even managed to make me, an Apple fan since 1984, completely disgusted with the whole company. All because of their completely and utter disregard for me, their customer.

[Phil Endecott]

Reverting

@James R Grinter :

>I'll be reverting to version 1.0.0

Unfortunately there's no way to revert to an older version of an iPhone app.

And unlike the original story here, this is something to complain about: if an update introduces a bug, then you're screwed until the developer fixes it and the fix is approved by Apple (say 3 weeks). In contrast on any other platform you could just revert to the previous version immediately.

[James 55]

Break the mould

And put it on the Rock Store or Cydia.

That might get Apples attention.

(Rock and Cydia are app stores you can use if you jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch)

[Lozzyho]

This

... is why Apple deserves to fail. It treats its customers and developers like shit, and woe betide any member of the press who dares to criticise it. "That'll be no more review kit for you, then"

Apple are shits with good PR, Microsoft are (comparative) saints with bad PR.

As AC said, MS at least know how to treat their developers with some respect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really surprising

Less surprising still, there will still be halfwits queuing up for Apple to take their money, laugh at them then throw them swiftly under the bus before demanding more money to phone an ambulance.

When it comes to Apple there are two camps. Those who 'get' Apple and the rest of us who actively avoid them for precisely this sort of behaviour.

[Eddy Ito]

Nucking

Futs... what else is there to say?

[Charley 1]

Seen that idea somewhere else

Oh yes.

http://xkcd.com/662/

That is all.

[Anonymous Coward]

Impressive...

No, not the apple policies. It's impressive that there still are any developers around they haven't chased away from their overpriced, lipglossed, piece of junk.

Given the way Apple are treating those who develop for them, methinks it's time to make "developing for Apple hardware" a reason to be fetched in a long-sleeved shirt...

[Wrenchy]

@windywoo

>>Did you even read the article? Read it and then go punch yourself in the face until the fanboi urges leave you.

That was the funniest thing I heard all week!

[Anonymous Coward]

@raving angry loony

"Apple really has completely lost the plot when it comes to the iPhone / iPodTouch. Completely. They have even managed to make me, an Apple fan since 1984, completely disgusted with the whole company. All because of their completely and utter disregard for me, their customer."

But as a true Apple fan you are still a costumer right?

[Eradicate all BB entrants]

Charming.......

.........Seeing as Apple Inc are quite happy to use Microsoft Corporations BSOD image to show when you are connecting to a windows pc from OSX. Did MS supply it in a developer logo kit? Pot....kettle ...... black

[fifi]

diy?

Would it be so difficult to take a photo of a Mac and use that?

Paris: photos : nuff said

[Anonymous Coward]

RSS Player 2

A bit of Deja Vu

"We have received an email from the app review department at Apple. They have rejected the app due to an image of the iPhone that appeared on the Default splash screen. As you know, RSS Player's load screen features about 30 to 40 small images of podcasts covers and Apple didn't like 'The iPhone Spotlight' podcast image. We modified the image immediately and resubmitted the app. Now the ball is in Apples court again. The lesson to take away for all devs is don't put a picture of the iPhone anywhere in your app. "

http://rssplayer.blogspot.com/2009/11/rss-player-20-app-store-status.html

[Winkypop]

Hmmm..

They look more like persimmons to me.

[Ted Treen]

Rules

are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of idiots.

[Shonko Kid]

WTF?

haven't they also rejected stuff because it didn't fit in with the iPhone look & feel?

All this bad press they've been getting over the treatment of developers lately must surely be putting people of even bothering to target iPhone.

[Mark Serlin]

100,000 apps?

But at least 99,900 of them are complete and utter crap. The twonks who develop this rubbish deserve everything they get. Basically Apple want the revenue stream (of course) but DON'T want to seem to be endorsing (by having "their" images attached/displayed) the weird useless rubbish we are paying for (fart generators, "torch", et al) and can you blame them?

Just a shame that the few developers who are worthy of the name have to suffer the same nonsense.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Jeff Paffett

> It's actually in iTunes Store now, dated 13/11...

Read the article carefully. Yes, it's in the store now, but with said icons replaced with the logo of the EFF...

[Anonymous Coward]

serves them right

for writing apps for a shit company with shit software and shit ethics.

what exactly did they expect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Difference between UI kit and API images

If Apple rejected the app because of images it's own software (Mac OS X) served up - i.e. the developers didn't actually bundle the images or deep link to them, what is the difference between that and using the UI kit to display Apple images like buttons, sliders, etc? I would consider the UI kit images Apple images.

[muttley]

Serves Rogue Amoeba right...

For making a Windows app (Airfoil) which allows me to ditch iTunes and stream FLAC over wifi from my Airport Extreme to 3* Airport Expresses - from Foobar2000...