
PhoneGap AppStore Approval - nreece
http://blogs.nitobi.com/jesse/2009/11/20/phonegapp-store-approval/
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brianjherman
I guess all they care about is blocking the flash to iPhone compiler.

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runevault
Apparently, since their own header site talks about cross platform compatible
code. This makes somewhere between 0 and negative sense, considering Jobs
basically said "read Gruber" and Gruber said all kinds of things about why
cross platform platforms were bad for apple.

I...I... I'm really damn confused by this.

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lygaret
Nothing in PhoneGap is against the TOS. It's a wrapper around HTML and JS,
providing in _WebKit's javascript engine_ access to system services. In that
sense, it's not against the part of the TOS which says specifically you can
use Webkit.

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allertonm
"providing in WebKit's javascript engine access to system services"

Yes, it's almost as if it were some kind of "intermediary" or "translation
layer".

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n8agrin
Right. One written in Objective-C, likely using the native iPhone UIWebView
container and thus able to run Javascript, all supported languages.

~~~
allertonm
We'll have to see how this pans out. The language in 3.3.1 puts Javascript and
the Cs into two separate categories with regard to access to "the documented
APIs" and _taken at face value_ would appear to rule out Phonegap.

(and yes, I have looked at their source and know how it works.)

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stevenwei
Prediction: Lua and Unity3d are allowed too...MonoTouch and Flash stay banned.

~~~
timdorr
Why MonoTouch?

Also, it would be interesting to not only get a list of Unity3D apps together,
but ones on other translation/framework platforms as well. Anyone working on
this?

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blasdel
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1259988>

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pierrefar
I hope Appcelerator's Titanium gets this approval too. Superficially it seems
similar enough to PhoneGap in how it works, with the added advantage of native
UI widgets on mobiles.

~~~
jpcx01
Seems very different. Titanium translates code into native widgets. PhoneGap
just wraps everything in a webkit, and provides the scripts to power the apps
using web ui components.

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samps
I wonder if the PhoneGap people just cold asked Apple if their framework was
okay. If so, have any other iPhone developers done this? Maybe someone who
isn't even trying for cross-platformness, like someone using Lua in a harmless
way. There's a lot of mystery surrounding this; wouldn't it be a thing if some
of it could be cleared up by just asking?

Not that anyone should feel safe.

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rmoriz
I doubt this will ever happen.

If Apple clarifies that only Flash is evil through an offical statement of
acceptance for other technologies, they make themselves vulnerable to
antitrust and free-market jurisdiction, at least in Europe.

IANAL.

But I have the nagging feeling that the best PhoneGap users can hope to
archive — is a silent allowance.

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mclin
I wrote my first app with phonegap. I loved it at first but moved to Titanium
because PhoneGap (UIWebView) is really slow. Now doing native. Can someone
point out a phonegap app that isn't trivial/doesn't suck?

Also, it's a lot of work to do even simple things like, say, have your search
field stay at the top when you scroll. <http://cubiq.org/scrolling-div-for-
mobile-webkit-turns-3/16>

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gio
What about titanium, any news?

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jpcx01
No news. I'm sure HN will be the first to know.

This is a good sign, no doubt. But I'm still pessimistic about Titanium on
iPhone. I've stopped all development until I know for sure my apps will
allowed on the AppStore.

I may continue dev anyways though since Android support is pretty nice. But
iPhone was the focus and now its very much up in the air.

~~~
ryanhuff
I am also pessimistic about Titanium on the iPhone, as the seems to be in the
same boat as Adobe, etc.

I am following your same path with using obj c for iPhone development, but
using Titanium for Android, and Blackberry when support for it is release this
summer.

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petercooper
Not a surprise. PhoneGap is written in Objective C, and Apple has no beef with
Web technologies, otherwise they wouldn't make the UIWebView control available
to iPhone developers. Indeed, there are many formatting situations that demand
you use it.

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davidedicillo
Of course, PhoneGap just give an easy access to developers to the WebView
component, but it's still a native Obj-C application.

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minalecs
doesn't the new tos only effect os4 sdk applications ?

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apphacker
I don't mean to be the grumpy sceptic, but how do we know that's a credible
claim? There are no names mentioned, no specifics, no emails presented. On the
other hand, if you were to be the skeptical kind, Nitobi, fearing the
unthinkable - abandonment of their hard work - could have fibbed a little,
they'd have every incentive to do so.

Some confirmation would be nice, just saying.

I have no reason to think they fibbed, I have no reason to believe they would
do something like that, I'm just saying there's a claim, would be nice to get
specifics. Making an app takes a lot of time and effort, reassurances are nice
to have.

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radley
Is it not Flash? Then it's probably ok.

What!? We all know whats going on...

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KingOfB
Interesting that Jobs complained 'sub-standard apps', and then allows
PhoneGap? I think PhoneGap is a great tool and should be allowed, but look at
some apps made with it. They feel chintzy to me. Navigation bars and toolbars
don't stay on screen when you scroll for instance.

I don't think that's really a big deal, but the logic doesn't work if that's
your reason for 3.3.1 and blocking flash.

