Linked List: December 12, 2008

Friday, 12 December 2008

Apple Wrongly Rejects iPhone App for Use of Private APIs ★

After waiting 33 days to hear from Apple after submitting their app Peeps to the App Store, Plausible Labs found out the app had been rejected. Here’s what Apple told them in the rejection notice:

Upon review of your application, Peeps cannot be posted to the App Store due to the usage of a non-public API. Usage of non-public APIs, as outlined in the iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.1, is prohibited:

“3.3.1 Applications may only use Published APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any unpublished or private APIs. “

The non-public API that is included in your application comes from the CoverFlow API set.

The problem? According to developer Landon Fuller, they didn’t use any private APIs — they created their own Cover Flow implementation using the public APIs.

So, Google can publicly admit that their iPhone app uses private APIs and that’s OK, but a small indie developer gets rejected for cleanly creating a feature that looks like Cover Flow.

Pastebud Privacy Bugs ★

Pastebud is a new solution for the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone. To get around the lack of centralized shared application storage space on the iPhone, it’s a server side storage system. It works in MobileSafari via bookmarklets, and “works” in MobileMail by asking you to forward messages from which you want to copy to Pastebud, which then turns the email into a web page you can select text from. Sounds (a) convoluted, and (b) like a potential privacy problem, right?

The privacy problem is apparently a disaster: Harry McCracken reports that his clipboard data contains the contents of text copied by other users, including complete copies of random Pastebud users’ email.

‘Pull My Finger’, iPhone Fart Joke App, Now in App Store ★

Developer Sam Magdalein:

The very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn’t want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this “genre” of apps were going to be handled. She told me they’d be lifting the restriction on them, and more apps will follow that may have been previously not allowed.

Classics for iPhone and iPod Touch (App Store Link) ★

My thanks to Classics for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Classics is a book reading app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, with content from classic public domain books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Time Machine, and more. As time goes on, they’re adding additional titles via free software updates. The UI is exquisitely crafted; paper actually curls when you swipe to turn pages, each book has a custom-designed cover, and the content of the books are formatted specifically for the iPhone screen.

Screenshots and animated examples from the UI are available at the Classics web site. It’s available in the App Store for just $1.

What Happens When You Drop a New MacBook Pro on Asphalt? ★

Do not try this at home, kids.

Flickr Hit by Yahoo Layoffs ★

Laying off talented web designers seems like the worst possible strategy for Yahoo.

Update: Good point from the Macalope.

Peter Cooper on the Popularity of 99 Cent iPhone Apps ★

Interesting data, but the presentation is atrocious — grouping all apps that cost more than 99 cents together spoils the whole thing.

Update: Now includes a better graph at the bottom, where the Y axis correlates to price.

Deck Ads in FeedDemon ★

Interesting discussion in the comments.