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Eucalyptus for iPhone gets a new lease on life

by Mel Martin May 24th 2009 at 1:15PM

Eucalyptus [App Store] has been finally allowed to appear in the App Store after being rejected by Apple. The e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod touch was rejected because a person could get sexually oriented books like the Kama Sutra, even though the book is in the public domain and freely available on the web.

The program author let us know the US$9.99 app was approved late last night. He said, "Earlier today I received a phone call from an Apple representative. He was very complimentary about Eucalyptus. We talked about the confusion surrounding its App Store rejections, which I am happy to say is now fully resolved. He invited me to re-build and submit a version of Eucalyptus with no filters for immediate approval, and that full version is now available on the iPhone App Store."

"Since my previous post, I've been so pleased with the overwhelmingly positive articles, blog posts, comments and tweets - and also the emails from those of you who felt so strongly about the issue you wanted to contact me directly. They were all much appreciated. Thanks for all the support. It's been a roller coaster of a weekend!"

The controversy over this app once again points out how crazy the Apple standards for applications are. Dozens of fart apps are fine (not to mention apps that thoroughly infringe other companies' IP or steal their graphics) but an e-book reader that simply loads public domain books was verboten. It doesn't make any sense, and further, the situation doesn't seem to be improving. Developers are left to try and get publicity to embarrass Apple into being a bit more sensible.

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Eucalyptus [App Store] has been finally allowed to appear in the App Store after being rejected by Apple. The e-book reader for the iPhone...
 

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Stephen Lang

I would pay $10 for a premium ebook reader with features like Eucalyptus has. But I really want to be able to upload my own files, even if only just plain text files.

May 26 2009 at 2:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jash Sayani

How's this better than Kindle for iPhone ??

May 26 2009 at 4:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
matt

Really happy this got approved, as it gives some hope to the rest of us. Here's my rejection story - I built the app to showcase 1,000 (yes, one thousand!) illustrations by a friend of mine:

http://www.flipflopflyin.com/g/2009/05/app-update.html
http://www.flipflopflyin.com/g/2009/05/minipops-app-rejected-again.html

May 25 2009 at 6:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nev

Can't work out if I can or cannot read the Kama Sutra on my iPhone now. Anyways, this is far too expensive. Sticking with Stanza.

May 25 2009 at 1:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mentok

Funny, all the freetards come out against this app without going to the website and looking it over.

So you got Classics. You read Jungle Book. How're you gonna read Jungle Book 2? Tarzan? Pellucidar?

For the price of a couple paperbacks, or a couple Starbucks, this author has made something as elegant as Classics. For ALL of the Gutenburg texts.

What this app DOES with the texts with the formatting is NOT EASY. Trust me, I dabble in programming and it's quite a feat. This is NOT a cheap app, but an elegant piece of ware that you should pay for.

Yeah, I have Stanza too, and it's NOT that good. Jumbled/ gibberish text, mediocre user interface, I tried reading some Gutenburg texts on it but... it was tedious.

Pay for good programming and UI. Or be a freetard. The choice is yours.

May 25 2009 at 1:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Mentok's comment
PKtm

Um, thanks for calling me a "freetard". And yes, I did go to the website and look it over. My comments pertained to simple market economics. MP3s or AAC files aren't as good as CDs, yet they took the market by storm because they were "good enough". People who charge premium prices have to have a *vastly* superior product. Since Apple doesn't have a "try it out" mode for apps, we can't test drive Eucalyptus and see the potential advantages for ourselves; I don't see anything (yes, on the website) that will move me to take a $10 gamble for what looks like Yet Another Gutenberg reader with a couple of snazzy special effects. I guess I'm just a freetard.

May 25 2009 at 1:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
George

I have to agree with @PK -- while Eucalyptus does indeed look like they put some serious work into the app, reading a bunch of classics gets old real quick. I am a voracious reader and rarely touch Stanza just due to the limited content. Paying $10 to do so (with some style) is not for everyone.

Is it worth $10? Maybe/probably. Will the bulk of potential customers buy this app for $10? I doubt it. If we could test drive, or there was a "lite" version, maybe I would be swayed. But with the limited selection of content paired with a relatively (to the App Store) expensive price point, I think this app is a niche product. Add BYO text/docs/books to the mix and perhaps the snazzy UI might make it compelling, but in the meantime it's a pricey proof-of-concept app.

My guess? The dev hopes to be bought out by Amazon for the Kindle iPhone app. And I hope that happens.

May 25 2009 at 2:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kakapo

It's $12.99 here in Oz and all of the pages are upside down!
I do like it better than Stanza, so I will give it a go.

I mean let's look at reality - 20,000 books for $12.99 - not a bad deal!
Plus all the freebie coupons..

And it is two double-doubles with fries... So, you will saving your heart, too.

Cheers, Mates!

May 25 2009 at 12:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
PKtm

I'm glad it was approved; the rejection made Apple look ridiculous and petty and really just plain stupid.

That said, the app certainly seems to be priced outside of market bounds (i.e., comparable apps). I have eReader and Stanza already and so I won't even consider purchasing Eucalyptus. If it were $1 or $2, I might. Will they obtain a tenth of the purchases they'd get if the app were $1? I doubt it. Relatively few apps overall cost as much as $10. Marketing 101, folks...

May 25 2009 at 12:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rudy

this isnt about being cheap, this is about being practical. that app is soooo not worth $10.

May 24 2009 at 10:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Rudy's comment
Scott R

You may well be right. In the end, though, it's just your opinion -- which is of no value if you haven't actually used the app.

May 25 2009 at 12:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Peter Payne

Warning: while this looks good, it does not read PDFs. So fail for now.

May 24 2009 at 9:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ed

Apple will make some announcement on this mess at WWDC. They'll be announcing parental controls for the iPhone so hopefully these will come with clear guidelines of what is acceptable for each type of content, which should hopefully resolve most of the rejections due to 'objectionable' content. The only issue I can see is that if Apple don't allow 'adult' (or almost adult) apps, it will still be unclear where the ultimate limit is.

May 24 2009 at 9:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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