I sincerely hope that a part of Apple’s WWDC iPhone announcement plans involves a complete overhaul of the application reviewing process. Because right now, quite frankly, it absolutely sucks. I’ve harped on this for a while, across multiple sites, but the fact remains that the process by which an app can live or die is completely random based solely on the app reviewer themselves. I’m not necessarily saying those people are bad at their jobs, but I’m saying they’re overworked, and Apple needs to alleviate the problem — pronto.
The latest incident is one of the most ridiculous. Apple has rejected the Eucalyptus eBook reader app because you can find the Kama Sutra on it. Are you kidding me? Not only can you easily find the sexually provocative book pretty much anywhere on the web in general — because it’s been around for hundreds of years — but if any kid walks into any book store across this country, they can find it and read it there.
Yes, the material includes explicit references, but you can already view it from apps like Stanza, Amazon’s Kindle app and yes, even mobile Safari. It’s so utterly ridiculous that Apple would ban one app on these grounds but allow all others to pass. The developer has been going back and forth with Apple over the past two weeks, trying to get the app approved, but they refuse. So I’m going to add to an already raging fire and attempt to get them to reconsider.
Apple: The goddamn book in question is a part of Project Guttenberg, which Eucalyptus scours for many of its other books. If you really expect the app to remove that one book from the entire project, you’re insane. Instead, you need to let this app pass, just as you have for the multiple other apps that can access this book in various ways and go about your day finding apps that are actually malicious in their intent.
At one point in the entire long back and forth with the developer, Apple suggests resubmitting the app once the parental controls are in place with the iPhone 3.0 software. Well that’s great. Why not make all developers who have been working their asses off to contribute to the huge success of the App Store wait a few months (likely until July) to be able to profit from their work? That makes a lot more sense than just fixing the idiotic process by which apps are approved.
Seriously, fix this Apple. While you may have not foreseen such problems, if you truly want to dominate this space, you need to adapt and do what is right by the developers. This does not include rejecting apps because they access publically available books that refer to rubbing a woman’s “yoni.” And if you really have a problem with that, ban all the apps that can access such material — including your own Safari app. Stop being such ridiculous prudes.
It will be fixed within 24 hours… Watch
http://www.wannadevelop.com
How do you know?
in Sanskrit.
yoni = vagina in Sanskrit
they censor it here on TC, why not in app store
lingam = penis
Amen
Oh, well, if it’s morally offensive it’s ok (see Baby shaker app), but if it’s just sex…pfft forget it.
Perhaps next some Simpsons app will be denied because it teaches beer drinking and doughnut eating or something heh.
Exactly. The unevenness is the most baffling thing.
You were FAR to kind worded in your article. This is the STUPIDEST thing I’ve heard in a long while. Apple should be ashamed of themselves.
Why would Apple want to teach morality to everyone now? Better if they keep it to themselves and start valuing apps by their quality. The shake-your-baby-to-death was one of the best/worst apps and that was approved! Wonder what is going wrong with Apple apps reviewers!
Maybe they’ll reject Eucalyptus eBook reader app again if they find the Dick Tracy book in there, cos it contains Dick!
Maybe they’ll even reject anything that contains Tom, Dick and Harry…
Maybe the app was rejected not because of the book, maybe something else. Have you contacted any one inside Apple who can comment on this issue. How does the app help the end users enjoy their entertainment flavors actually?
My lingam is enlarged.
Careful, Apple may be reading.
MG – I work in the record industry. Until mid ‘08, iTunes had ONE individual as the point person for over 700 independent record labels.
Now they have three!
This is moronic…
i still think the kamasutra pic is unnecessary
obvious question: do you work for Apple?
I still think you’re a cretin.
I just got fired for looking at it.
interesting article…:)
So this is the secret to enlarge your lingam.. now where are those bristles?
Soon to be available on the 3.0 AppStore with parental controls.
Apple will fix it soom
I just got a rejection notice from Apple this morning for a crucial patch to my EyeTV remote ( http://www.poke-eye.com/ ). It was rejected for not having a screen telling the user the app requires a network (although a dialog pops up). Fair enough, but the point is that my patch was literally one line of code and had nothing to do with that whatsoever. The 1.0.0 version in the AppStore right now acts in exactly the same way.
So basically the AppStore process is robbing certain users (those with EyeTV on PowerPC machines) of an essential bugfix, without which they cannot use Poke Eye. There really ought to be some way to differentiate between important patches and new features, as this is a nuisance.
(For the record I already submitted an altered version, with the required change, but it’s another several days before they review it
)
We got that exact same response last week. I don’t even want to mention what they missed, but it will be interesting to watch round two!
kama suthra is a hindi story … its not contains prone type of content
Y iphone recomend it and y its uploaded …
evolution is something that just happened to other people for you, isn’t it?
Apple has to draw the line somewhere and there is a thin line between whats porn and what is just sexually offensive. Of course this varies from person to person.
The problem isn’t that the stance on the content is wrong (although I believe it is wrong). The problem is that they’re rejecting an app for access to content that several other apps can also access, and which have not been rejected.
Forget that I just found out an app named “meeting Nazi” got approved. Http://themeetingnazi.com
I definitely have more problems with that than with the Kama Sutra.
I’ve never understood the point of iphone app developers complaining about stuff like this. The fact of the matter is they’re still going to have to suck it up just like abused housewives.
So, suck it up
>wait a few months (likely until July) to be able to >profit from their work
You don’t actually profit until you actually paid…so it will be more than a few months.
Apple also rejected our little kamasutra app because to them the content was obscene. Check it here: http://ikamasutramobile.com
This is why competition is good for the Jobso The Hutt cartel.
By that logic Apple should reject Safari in the iPhone since I was able to open sexually offensive websites through it! Right!
Can’t they just give it an age rating if they are worried. There seems to be a disturbing trend of corporations applying censorship in recent months. With Google about to dominate the online distribution of ebooks these are worrying times for free speech and democracy.
Where are all of the articles about the Android app store rejections??
Where are all the Android apps?
Seriously, I look forward to Android leveling the field, but that isn’t happening until 3.0 at the earliest. There are so many issues. Creating games is going to be an enormous problem until the graphics issues are wrung out…
This is ridiculous and stupid. This is considered one of the classic books of literature no matter how you may feel about. What’s next? Somebody comes out with an art app and Apple rejects it because it shows nude Greek sculptures?
The sad part about it is whoever the reviewer was, looked for that book specifically. It’s like Apple is being run by the radical Christian right. This is not only an issue of app store rejection but of censorship. I am an Apple fan but it is about time they faced lawsuits over this.
Things will not get better with 3.0. Are you telling me that you have to be over a certain age to purchase this app? The funny thing is that It’s ok to have gun apps in the store and games where you kill people but you cannot allow sex, which is a natural biological human
function. It just goes to show how twisted society is.
The worst part is that this is a really great app. Potentially the best in it’s category.
It will get better only because of parental controls. Lovely, but we have to survive until then.
Will books be for adults only? The web?
The current app approval process sucks lingams.
Fix it Apple!
Apple has never been good at supporting their developer community. I’m not sure why anyone thought that would be different for iPhone developers.
Apple doesn’t care about your software business. They care about selling their hardware.
If you build a company that’s dependent on Apple you are a fool.
I’m just impressed that MG wrote a non-twitter related article. It’s one small step on the road to recovery.
They misspelt “Sucker” in that book passage
They just denied our app because when they tried to post to twitter using the Username/Password of Test/Test we returned a message saying the username was invalid, and to them that means our app is broken. Quote “your application cannot be posted to the App Store at this time because because it does not achieve the core functionality described in your marketing materials, or release notes” – apparently the apps twitter functionality is broken.
Among many others, one word for Apple’s conduct in this regard is “amateurish”.
I’m still steamed about my FML app getting rejected when there are 4 other FML apps already on the app store (one of which was the #3 overall free app in the US).
Great advertising for Project Guttenberg.
I don’t know why people are being so harsh on Apple’s reviewing policies. Do you think that all the other platforms App stores are going to be perfect? Every choice that they make will work 100%. You don’t think they’ll get sued or be targets of activists. I personally don’t think that it’s that easy to write a perfect rule book for apps. Many say that the policies are inconsistent and maybe they are, but if Apple decides to change a policy for a particular app then that’s their judgment call. There are thousands of apps and developers are angry because the approval process isn’t fast enough. So if Apple makes a quick judgment call, they’re angry at that too. Most of you don’t even know the process involved and are just guessing as to why these rejections are happening. We have the right to speculate, but the main party at risk is Apple. For the Cartier incident, the developer wasn’t the target for the lawsuit, it was Apple. So Cartier was overzealous, and admitted so, but Apple has to be cautious. You should realize that the App Store is huge and is getting bigger by the day beyond most people’s expectations and yet Apple is getting chastised if it makes some mistakes. Surely the App Store is setting precedents on the number of apps submitted to any store before it in such a short time. I’m sure a very low percentage developer’s apps are getting rejected so I don’t understand why the outcry of bloggers for Apple trying to formulate some rules. I’m certain when Apple sets up an age restriction rule in the store that eReader will be allowed. Apple isn’t stupid, so there must have been some reason for doing what it did. Apple will straighten this situation out in time.
I suppose Apple is learning. They first passed apps that gave access to Kama Sutra, but then someone at Apple got around to reading that book and a new directive was circulated, to watch out for that book.
The good thing is, at this rate, Apple will take years and years to learn all the ‘bad stuff’ it should block!
Rejecting Eucalyptus is like Apple rejecting their own Safari Browser app. Safari’s an app that can access inappropriate and obscene content. isn’t that a double standard?
“Project Guttenberg”? The project is named after Gutenberg, the inventor of the modern printing press, not one of the main protagonists in the Police Academy film series!
The biggest irony is that you got the link right but the linktext wrong… Please oh PLEASE proofread your future articles harder.
Apple isn’t in the market of serving those creating the apps. (Get over yourself!) They are in the business of serving those buying their phones, and keeping their phones and site easy to use. As a customer, nothing steams me more than getting an app that turns out to be hard to operate or completely useless. Except, maybe, searching for an app and having to weed through 200 useless ones to find one worth my money.
But my largest point is… why would I even buy Eucalyptus if I can alreay access the book from too many other apps and sources? Perhaps the creators should go back to th drawing board and make something that isn’t already widely accessible.
Personally I think the app gatekeepers should be more strict in what they let into the store. I think Apple should block apps that are repeats of other apps they offer. Why does the site need to offer 5 FML apps and 250 book readers? To some extent they need to edit out the programs that repeat apps that are already available and aren’t engaging or progressive.
Finally, do you really need to curse in your writing? Are you 15?
google apps work fine. it’s not Office, but what can you pretend for a service that costs 5% of Office? moreover, the Gmail tagging system is so great…
hops, wrong article
I guess brian wants to squash competition and create small monopolies within the app store. say good-bye to innovation!
Since online advertising alone does not appear to offer enough revenue to support the cost of running and creating quality content, clearly there is a problem. ,