How Apple Annoys Developers, Makes the Rest of us Laugh
There are three stories about how Apple annoys devs that you need to know about. Even if you’re not a developer yourself, they still make for an interesting read. So read on.
The developers of Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab entered the app in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge – and the app was a finalist. Then they decided to submit Flash of Genius to the App Store. The team mentioned the finalist in the dev challenge part, because they felt this would raise interest in the application. Sadly though, they found out this is “inappropriate or irrelevant platform information.” Apple sent an email to the team explaining that the Android reference needs to be removed from the Application Description and/or Release Notes sections.
“While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate to remove “Finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge!” from the Application Description,” said Apple in the email they sent the Flash of Genius team. You can view the entire email here. And if you’re wondering what happened, here’s the lowdown: the offending part was removed, what else.
Moving on, here’s the second story. Apple asked all developers that come up with location-aware apps to use the iPhone owner’s location to provide useful information to said owner. Personally I find this a good idea. Apps that take your location into consideration should provide something a bit more useful than just location-based ads. Here’s what Apple said:
“If you build your application with features based on a user's location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”
Ready for the third and final story? Here goes: Apple is reportedly sending out invitations asking devs to take a satisfaction survey (should take about 15 minutes to complete). The survey is meant to find out how happy developers are with the App Store, the app approval process. Devs can answer with “Very dissatisfied,” “Somewhat dissatisfied,” “Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied,” “Somewhat satisfied,” “Very satisfied,” or “Don’t know.” Wonder how many will go for the “very satisfied" option. The survey also asks devs what Apple could do to make the iPhone Developer Program better. A text box where they can type in their answer is provided.
The developers of Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab entered the app in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge – and the app was a finalist. Then they decided to submit Flash of Genius to the App Store. The team mentioned the finalist in the dev challenge part, because they felt this would raise interest in the application. Sadly though, they found out this is “inappropriate or irrelevant platform information.” Apple sent an email to the team explaining that the Android reference needs to be removed from the Application Description and/or Release Notes sections.
“While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate to remove “Finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge!” from the Application Description,” said Apple in the email they sent the Flash of Genius team. You can view the entire email here. And if you’re wondering what happened, here’s the lowdown: the offending part was removed, what else.
Moving on, here’s the second story. Apple asked all developers that come up with location-aware apps to use the iPhone owner’s location to provide useful information to said owner. Personally I find this a good idea. Apps that take your location into consideration should provide something a bit more useful than just location-based ads. Here’s what Apple said:
“If you build your application with features based on a user's location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”
Ready for the third and final story? Here goes: Apple is reportedly sending out invitations asking devs to take a satisfaction survey (should take about 15 minutes to complete). The survey is meant to find out how happy developers are with the App Store, the app approval process. Devs can answer with “Very dissatisfied,” “Somewhat dissatisfied,” “Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied,” “Somewhat satisfied,” “Very satisfied,” or “Don’t know.” Wonder how many will go for the “very satisfied" option. The survey also asks devs what Apple could do to make the iPhone Developer Program better. A text box where they can type in their answer is provided.
