Jobs jumps in to free private APIs

Steve Jobs personally intervened to approve a video streaming application for the iPhone, leading to approval for other applications that also make use of private APIs. P2P video-streaming application Knocking Video was rejected by Apple on the grounds that it uses an undocumented "private" API to scrape the screen, which is …

[Bill B]

Private APIs

"So somewhere inside Cupertino is a list of developers who'll have to be tipped the wink if changes are made to the private APIs used"

I'm sorry, why does Apple have to tip them a wink? If someone uses private APIs they do so at their own risk. Why should Apple have to bear the cost of someone using an undocumented feature?

[Ted]

The problem is...

You can't have private APIs since as underlying OS changes inevitably happen... you could have that App fail and have unhappy customers pointing at Apple, not the developer. Everything in the Apple ecosystem has to run well and be unified as much as possible. This event is curious, but probably means it will be included with iPhone OS 4.0, so Steve gave the Okay.

So it's not at their "own risk", it's really at "Apple's risk" of a customer having a poor future experience.

[Martin Gregorie]

So somewhere inside Cupertino....

.... is a list of developers....

I don't see how you arrive at that.

To me "During our review of your application we found it is using a private API, which is in violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement section 3.3.1... While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate to resolve this issue in your next update." doesn't Mean "Wink, wink nudge, nudge you're on the list, know what I mean?". Its more likely to mean "We'll let you off with a caution this time, but your next release had better not be using that private API".

[Craig 12]

The problem

Knocking Video is rubbish.

There is no sound, no sort of interface once the video starts, and the video itself is very jerky. I guess one good thing is the 'push' stuff, so people can start the video without you being in the app.

It has less features than Qik, which has been on 'broken iphones for a while now (and on other makes of phone that actually allow you control on the software you install)

App developers need to be let loose on this video API, so it can be integrated into better apps, like palringo etc. Oh, and a forward facing camera please apple, so it works with Skype. Then i might stop moaning how my 3 year old SE could do more than my latest/greatest iphone.

[Pirate Dave]

Change your API

Not that big of a deal.

[Phil Endecott]

Other apps?

First para says: "... leading to approval for other applications that also make use of private APIs."

Where does this idea come from? It looks to me like a one-off.