iPhone
Rogue Amoeba drops iPhone development, cites App Store approval process
By Peter CohenNovember 13, 2009, 2:52 pm PT
Veteran Mac software developers Rogue Amoeba also dabble in the iPhone OS space – at least they have until now. The company’s CEO has joined the slowly growing ranks of iPhone OS developers who are spurning the platform unless Apple makes significant changes to the App Store application approval process.
Posting to the company’s official blog, Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis describes the trouble his company has had getting a bug fix to Airfoil Speakers Touch posted to the App Store.
Airfoil Speakers Touch is designed to work with Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil app for Mac OS X and Windows. It enables you to send audio streaming from your computer to your iPhone or iPod touch, enabling the portable device to “work just like a mobile AirPort Express receiver.”
Kafasis noted that Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0.1 is finally available for download from the App store – a bug fix for the original release that’s taken three and a half months to work its way through the App Store’s approval system.
Kafasis explained that the initial two rejections occurred based on an apparent assumption from someone in the App Store review process pipeline that Airfoil Speakers Touch uses artwork copyrighted by Apple – specifically, graphics of Apple hardware and the source application icon.
In fact, the application does not infringe on Apple’s copyrights by containing such imagery. The software relies on publicly exposed functions built in to Mac OS X that identify the system and software in use – that artwork is something that’s on the Mac, not something built into the iPhone application. Airfoil Speakers Touch simply shows the user the icon, sent from the host computer, to help them identify the source.
“It’s a nice little bit of polish, but it’s also functional – it lets the user verify what machine they’re receiving from, what source application, and what that source application is doing,” said Kafasis.
Kafasis noted that Apple had approved Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0, which displays the exact same behavior. 1.0.1 was merely a bug fix that didn’t affect this visual display of information. What’s more, 1.0 remained available for download in the store throughout this lengthy approval process.
Ultimately, Rogue Amoeba acquiesced, making the requested change to the application. As a result, Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0.1 is now available for download from the App Store, but it isn’t as pretty as it used to be.
“In the future, we hope that developers will be allowed to ship software without needing Apple’s approval at all, the same way we do on Mac OS X. We hope the App Store will get better, review times will be shorter, reviews will be more intelligent, and that we can all focus on making great software. Right now, however, the platform is a mess,” said Kafasis.
Kafasis added that Rogue Amoeba will not develop any new iPhone apps, and updates to existing apps will be rare.
“The iPhone platform had great promise, but that promise is not enough, so we’re focusing on the Mac,” Kafasis concluded.
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Rogue Amoeba drops iPhone development, cites App Store approval process
By Peter CohenNovember 13, 2009, 2:52 pm PT
Veteran Mac software developers Rogue Amoeba also dabble in the iPhone OS space – at least they have until now. The company’s CEO has joined the slowly growing ranks of iPhone OS developers who are spurning the platform unless Apple makes significant changes to the App Store application approval process.
Posting to the company’s official blog, Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis describes the trouble his company has had getting a bug fix to Airfoil Speakers Touch posted to the App Store.
Airfoil Speakers Touch is designed to work with Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil app for Mac OS X and Windows. It enables you to send audio streaming from your computer to your iPhone or iPod touch, enabling the portable device to “work just like a mobile AirPort Express receiver.”
Kafasis noted that Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0.1 is finally available for download from the App store – a bug fix for the original release that’s taken three and a half months to work its way through the App Store’s approval system.
Kafasis explained that the initial two rejections occurred based on an apparent assumption from someone in the App Store review process pipeline that Airfoil Speakers Touch uses artwork copyrighted by Apple – specifically, graphics of Apple hardware and the source application icon.
In fact, the application does not infringe on Apple’s copyrights by containing such imagery. The software relies on publicly exposed functions built in to Mac OS X that identify the system and software in use – that artwork is something that’s on the Mac, not something built into the iPhone application. Airfoil Speakers Touch simply shows the user the icon, sent from the host computer, to help them identify the source.
“It’s a nice little bit of polish, but it’s also functional – it lets the user verify what machine they’re receiving from, what source application, and what that source application is doing,” said Kafasis.
Kafasis noted that Apple had approved Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0, which displays the exact same behavior. 1.0.1 was merely a bug fix that didn’t affect this visual display of information. What’s more, 1.0 remained available for download in the store throughout this lengthy approval process.
Ultimately, Rogue Amoeba acquiesced, making the requested change to the application. As a result, Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0.1 is now available for download from the App Store, but it isn’t as pretty as it used to be.
“In the future, we hope that developers will be allowed to ship software without needing Apple’s approval at all, the same way we do on Mac OS X. We hope the App Store will get better, review times will be shorter, reviews will be more intelligent, and that we can all focus on making great software. Right now, however, the platform is a mess,” said Kafasis.
Kafasis added that Rogue Amoeba will not develop any new iPhone apps, and updates to existing apps will be rare.
“The iPhone platform had great promise, but that promise is not enough, so we’re focusing on the Mac,” Kafasis concluded.
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While I’m sure Kafasis has legitimate cause for frustration, his response to this problem seems to overshadow anything Apple has done wrong here. Kafasis comes off as the kid in the sandbox that pouts when he doesn’t get his way, so he takes his toys and runs home.
On some level, I do sympathize with his cause. However, his tantrums would be better directed toward Apple itself rather than raising a $h!tstorm in the blogosphere. As a consumer, why would I ever purchase his product that admittedly would rarely if ever be updated again? I’m glad he’s focusing on the Mac platform again (as other developers should), but with such an attitude, I’m not sure I’d want to support his company’s efforts going forward.
I would certainly agree that the app store has issues from a developer’s perspective. He’s not the first to raise such issues. However, having a gate keeper control the type and quality of software delivered isn’t necessarily a bad thing. From a security perspective, jailbroken phones have already proven to be more at risk. Kafasis argues that any developer should be allowed to make any program available, however, he ignores the fact that Apple likely has a contractual obligation to protect the integrity of the carrier’s network.
Kafasis needs to calm down, mature a little bit and consider what’s best for his company from a practical perspective rather than from the emotional perspective which is clearly driving his decisions right now. He also needs to consider the value of public relations and understand that such public tantrums will likely hurt his business in the long run.
I can see both sides of the argument, but I think the previous poster is being a little unfair implying that Kafasis is being immature or hot-headed. Clearly, this is something that Rogue amoeba have *already* tried to solve through the appropriate, normal channels – it’s not as though they came up against this problem last week. Therefore, one could also see that from their point of view, this is an action of last resort, as opposed to some sort of spotaneous “rattle out of the pram” moment.