Apple Lightening Up on Devs?

[Paul Daniel Ash]

The issue of App Store rejection has been a sore one for developers for some time. Many have criticized Apple's demanding policies which require apps to be reviewed and approved before releasing them for sale, as well as the lack of transparency and the long delays experienced by some developers. Could Apple finally be responding to all the frustration?

AppleInsider reported today on a company whose app was approved by Apple even though it was in violation of the licensing agreement. The app, iSimulate, used a non-public API which has been used by Apple in the past as a reason to reject applications. But rather than just shoot the dev down, Apple gave its approval with a polite note requesting that they fix it for their next release of the app.

Thank you for submitting your update to iSimulate to the App Store. 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; "3.3.1 Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs." While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate to resolve this issue in your next update.

Apple also recently approved the video-streaming apps Knocking Live Video and Ustream Live Broadcaster even though both also violated the restriction on non-public APIs.

The company had made its first gesture of conciliation and openness towards devs when it expanded its Resource Center for developers, detailing how the approval process works and provides tutorials. In November, Apple also added a feature to the Dev Center that allows developers to view the approval status of submitted apps.

image via uberthings.com

[tudtran]

Nice

[Avalanchenut]

Well it's about time.

[one1]

Sounds like a legal move. IF they cannot furnish a set of rules in stone previous to submitting the app, they must allow the app to pass under distress with the exception it be fixed. So Apple was given the choice by their lawyers to publish their requirements or allow a fix and they chose the fix.

In other words. we're still not giving you a set requirement for rejections or approval, we'd rather just let you in and not be sued.

[aekhamsouk]

bout time they got their heads out of their @$$eS!!

[battlecrushr]

thats good

[romeo_herman]

Sweet.....

[matthew1111]

Huh...yeah they dont want to publish set rules, but still pretty good move here

[StealthBravo]

Yep CYA

[rhekt]

good things are looking a little less tense

[awesomeSlayer]

Finally...

[hollow0]

Possible lightening up on Devs = better products FTW!

[-Blue-]

it looks like it.. even playboy has an app now lol

[one1]

Whatever is going on in this thread kept me from even being able to load the page yesterday. It locked safari up every time I tried to go into the thread.

[TooSlo]

Whatever is going on in this thread kept me from even being able to load the page yesterday. It locked safari up every time I tried to go into the thread.

It's the user androidicandrew. I've come across two separate instances of his posts including this same applet. I've reported the other post that included this applet, but it's somewhat frightening that a user can just run HTML like that.

Attached is a screenshot of the page source. Hopefully the mods will do something about the posts. If I get bored or have the time later, I might try to look into it, right now just isn't a good time for me.

Update: Just wanted to do a quick search, the second attachment shows something quite interesting. Querying the last posts by the above user shows that this applet is in the 6 most recent posts by them.

[one1]

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