
Steve Jobs intervenes, approves Knocking streaming video app - johns
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/12/steve-jobs-intervenes-approves-knocking-streaming-video-app.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
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larsberg
Having had an application approved and then later rejected for use of private
APIs (WiFinder), this really pisses me off. Inconsistency sucks, as I told the
AppStore reviewer I talked to on the phone. I'm fine with either nobody or
everybody being able to use private APIs.

But maybe I'm just not hipster enough - I'm certainly not a "life-long user of
all Apple products."

~~~
potatolicious
This triumph of the developer over Evil Apple would be a lot more compelling
if the app can get past the splash screen without crashing.

~~~
weaksauce
It does that to me too. My guess is that the app is trying to connect to
their(knocking vid's) "master" server to setup a session and the app was not
coded to gracefully handle the situation of getting arstechnica'd and it is
unable to respond to the requests in a timely fashion and some killswitch gets
triggered. Now they have to wait another 2 weeks and (maybe) another email to
steve to fix it or wait until the equilibrium point is met where there are
enough dissatisfied people quitting that will allow the other people on.

Or they just programmed it too bloated and it chewed through too much memory
in the outset and the iPhone killed the process.

Who knows.

~~~
dangrover
Every iPhone developer has to deal with emails and reviews of this exact
nature.

The Apple apps/background processes eat tons of memory up over time and the
phone can get in a state where it has an absurdly small amount left to run
apps. Restarting fixes this.

Try restarting your phone, and if that doesn't fix it, then yeah, the app
sucks.

~~~
ryanpetrich
You can also kill Safari, Mail and Phone by activating the app, holding Power
until the shutdown screen shows, then holding home until the app quits.

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philwelch
In the Mac community, emailing Steve Jobs is widely understood as an effective
way to resolve the most grievous of grievances with Apple. I'm not sure if it
has ever been the harbinger of company-wide process change though.

~~~
Hexstream
Weird, I had assumed he'd be almost impossible to reach unless you're
Somebody(tm).

~~~
philwelch
Nope, you just have to know his email address, which is kind of common folk
knowledge. I sent him a fanboyish email when I was like 13 or 14 or so talking
about how much I was looking forward to Mac OS X and he was like, "Thanks for
the feedback".

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tialys
What sucks is... they'll probably NEVER be able to push an update since it's
still going to ring all the private API bells every time it's published.
Here's to hoping things start changing soon...

~~~
jcl
It would surprise me if updates get rejected. I'd hate to be the reviewer who
rejected the _one app_ for which Steve Jobs personally said the API rules
don't apply, forcing the developer to write a second e-mail.

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elblanco
Quick question, why does the iPhone dev environment seem to have so many
"private" APIs? Wouldn't it just be better to make them "non-private"? It
sounds like, given the kinds of apps I've heard rejected over this problem,
that they seem to offer a significant set of capabilities to app developers.

~~~
mcav
The moment Apple makes an API method public, they make a commitment that the
API will be supported, unchanged, and maintained in the future. Any API
creator must make careful decisions in that regard. You don't want to support
something that you might want to change.

Other factors that might affect such a decision:

\- Is the API method potentially volatile, from a hardware usage standpoint?
Will it appropriately use the system's resources? (Or the cell network's?)

\- Is this method hackish? Is "this" the way we want to expose such an
interface to developers for years to come?

And, of course, Apple probably wants to keep the magic to themselves for some
tasks. They want the upper hand, and generally speaking, there's nothing
legally wrong with that.

Someone once wondered, "Why doesn't Apple just let us use private APIs with
the understanding that they might change?" For one, apps might break. And then
Apple would have to decide whether they want to continue selling a broken app
in the store, or instead keep the API and the potential burdens/other issues
associated with it.

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incomethax
Is it just me or does this seem part of the famed reality-distortion field?

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drewcrawford
I wish SJ would intervene with me. I've had two BS rejections in the last few
months--one where the reviewers flat-out LIED about my application behavior,
one where I wasn't even notified / given a reason.

I knew when I started that both apps would be kinda sketchy from Apple's end
(nothing illegal, no private APIs, nothing against the contract, just
something Apple wouldn't like). I walked into it knowing I ran a significant
risk of rejection, but the apps were so cool I simply couldn't resist building
them.

Needless to say, I've been focusing on contract work lately. I'm done bearing
any sort of risk for the immediate future.

~~~
EvilTrout
I am in a similar boat. I built an app that is somewhat "cheeky." It breaks no
rules, no private APIs, etc. It's been in the review queue for 5 weeks now!

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memetichazard
Kind of funny when you compare it against this rejection, also done by Steve
Jobs: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=950735>

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alaskamiller
This is just going to be used for porn.

~~~
dkarl
And pornographic pranking.

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leej
is this situation good or bad?

