approval posts

One step closer, iPhone gets approval in South Korea

by John Burke (RSS feed) on Sep 23rd, 2009

It looks like the iPhone is one step closer to being sold in South Korea. Apple has been trying to increase sales of the iPhone in the Asian market and has met some degree of difficulty along the way. After initially showing interest back in December, the South Korean telecommunications regulation board has finally granted Apple permission to sell the iPhone in the South Korean market.

The device was approved at a meeting of the board yesterday (September 22, 2009), but while the iPhone can now legally be sold there, Apple has not yet made any official decision as to their plans in the region. Both KT Corp. and SK Telecom, two big players in South Korean cell phone service, have both said they have spoken with Apple and claim they will have the iPhone soon.

[via iLounge]

Tags: approval, iPhone, south korea, SouthKorea, telecommunications

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store

C64 emulator un-approved again

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 8th, 2009

The first thing I thought when I saw that the C64 emulator we posted about the other day still had the BASIC interpreter hidden in it was, "Well that won't last." And unfortunately for fans of software emulation on the iPhone, I was right: the software got pulled from the App Store but quick. You can't really blame Apple here -- they've made it pretty clear that they don't actually want people running unlicensed, emulated code on the iPhone, so it's not hard to see why, when it was discovered you could still activate the interpreter, they cleared it out of the store.

The good news is that the emulator has been updated to delete the interpreter completely, and the owners of the software have resubmitted it yet again to the App Store. But as much as I enjoy seeing emulators on the iPhone (I've made it very clear I'd love to see an official NES arcade app), I can't say I'd blame Apple for just passing on this one outright. They've had to go through this app at least twice now, and especially since app approval is already taking so long, that's pretty much a waste of time. ~~Mistakes like leaving the BASIC in the app~~ (Edit: My mistake -- they intentionally left it in and hidden, with the expectation that Apple would later allow it. Doesn't seem very likely.) are making it much easier at this point for Apple to just say "no emulators, period," and move on. Hopefully this app will get re-approved, and that'll be the end of it.

Tags: app, app-store-approval, apple, approval, basic, c64, code, emulator, iphone

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store

Apple approved Gmail app for iPhone. Has hell frozen over?

by Mel Martin (RSS feed) on Aug 10th, 2009

TechCrunch is reporting today that an iPhone App that utilizes the Apple Push Notification system to let you know you have new Gmail is about to hit the app store. The app, called GPush, is developed by Tiverias Apps, and gives Gmail users an instant notification that new mail has arrived. iPhone users will still have to read their mail, either in a browser or the Apple Mail client, but the notifications will be essentially instant.

It's an interesting development, given how badly other Google-related apps have fared of late on the iPhone. The developers of the app say it has been sitting unapproved for a month, and they are wondering about the timing of it suddenly being blessed.

Of course this app was not likely to get AT&T all hot and bothered, so it is not a perfect test of a seismic shift in the attitudes around Apple, but any change in the way the App Store works will be interesting to watch.

GPush will be US$0.99 for a week, then will be sold for $1.99 after.

via: TechCrunch

Tags: app store, Apple, approval, Gmail, Google, GPush, notifications, push notification, PushNotification

Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store

Apple adds queue time, contact info to iPhone developer pages

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Aug 1st, 2009

Small steps: reports from several iPhone developers indicate that Apple has showcased two key features on the Dev Center website that may improve the mood and attitude of anxious app submitters.

Feature #1 is a queue status graphic (seen here), letting everyone know how long the approval wait should be -- like the line signs at Walt Disney World, only far geekier.

Feature #2 is the presence of a new 'all issues' escalation email address, so developers with urgent bug fixes that need to be prioritized can get their questions answered -- something that the Iconfactory's Craig Hockenberry specifically asked for in his wrapup of the 1st-anniversary state of the store. This email channel has apparently been open for a week or two, but is now being publicized on the front page.

Several other tips & suggestions posts have also been updated in the past 24 hours, including notes on the keywording/tagging options and walkthroughs on changing your app name and assigning/adjusting the app's rating. If you're a registered developer, swing over to the Dev Center and take a look.

[via the delightful Nik Fletcher]

Tags: app store, approval, AppStore, dev center, DevCenter, developers, improvements, iphone, queue

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bad Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Tweetie 1.3 rejected for displaying "offensive language"

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (RSS feed) on Mar 10th, 2009

Update: Cooler heads appear to have prevailed, and Loren reports that Tweetie 1.3 has cleared the App Store bluenose barrier and should be showing up later tonight.

We saw this hit the fan early today, hot on the tail of the AMBER Alert post. Apparently the 1.3 update to Tweetie, a popular Twitter client for iPhone we've covered before, has been denied release in the App Store because the app could potentially show "offensive language."

As you may know, blatantly offensive apps (like really "adult" content) are verboten on Apple's store. Unfortunately, that rule was probably intended to keep X-rated content (maybe hard R as well) off the store, not inadvertently prevent an update to a popular Twitter client. In this case, the offensive material could pop up in Twitter trend searches -- never mind that you can find much worse using Google's search app or mobile Safari itself.

This latest episode plus the Amber Alert app's delay and many other examples continue to shine a light on what is clearly a broken approval process. As Engadget's Nilay Patel says, "It's time to drop the seemingly-random black-box approach... and actually work with innovative developers like Tweetie's Loren Brichter to push your platform forward in the face of newly-stiff competition."

That last point is important, because hardware companies are working hard to avoid an iPod-like market lead for the iPhone. Last night's demo of the Palm Pre had my eyebrows raised, to be sure. If Apple can't quit shooting the feet of some of the best developers out there, it'll be all too easy for them to switch to a platform that provides less restrictions, less doubt and less uncertainty.

[Via The iPhone Blog]

Tags: app store, approval, AppStore, iphone

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Internet, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

AMBER Alert appmaker not happy with submission process

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Mar 10th, 2009

Jonathan Zdziarski, who has appeared on this pages before for other iPhone-related hijinx, has written an open letter to Apple about the AMBER Alert iPhone app he's written. Apparently he's worked in conjunction with government agencies to set up an iPhone app that can easily and quickly send sighting reports of children gone missing in the United States. And he's unhappy with Apple, because they haven't yet approved it.

His letter, which you can read in full over here, complains that we've got tons of fart apps already approved on the store, but his app still sits in approval purgatory. He actually sounds kind of selfish in the letter to me -- he says he doesn't care about how the App Store works, and that he just wants someone to "pick up the phone" and push his app, which could save children's lives, through.

We've got nothing against the AMBER Alert system, of course, and if it's true that this app can get more reports in and possibly help kids who are in danger, then great. But do we really want Apple picking and choosing which apps get kicked to the front of the line?

Update: looks like the app has been approved. The question remains: what was the holdup?

Continue reading “AMBER Alert appmaker not happy with submission process”

Tags: amber-alert, app-store, app-store-approval, apple, approval, iphone, iphone-app, jonathan-zdziarski, process

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Software, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, App Store

App Store on track to do a billion items by 2009

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 15th, 2008

You read that right -- it took the iTunes Store a few years, but as Roughly Drafted has calculated, Apple's App Store is on track, even if growth stops right now, to hit a billion apps served up by 2009. Obviously not all of those are paid apps, but by any count, that's a ton of applications dumped onto iPhones and iPod touches around the world.

That said, the App Store is far from perfect -- Apple's approval process has come under fire lately for a lack of transparency, among other issues, and of course the iTunes Store didn't have the benefit of most of its content being free. Of course the App Store is working to get apps on phones, but there are lots of kinks to be worked out, including just how "open" Apple is letting the store be, questions of quality over the software that does make it in, and just whether it's worth developers' time to deliver these applications anyway.

Just as the iFund guys noted, however, we're only in the first few steps of a marathon here. There's a long way to go, but already, in terms of an iPhone software distribution system, the App Store is a huge success.

[via Ars]

Tags: 1-billion, app-store, apple, apples, approval, apps, billion, ifund, iphone, ipod-touch, roughly-drafted

Filed under: Odds and ends, Internet

US house Reps approve net nutrality bill, reveal semblance of sanity

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 26th, 2006

We aren't out of the woods yet, but a U.S. House of Representatives panel has approved the net neutrality bill, a controversial proposal that would prohibit broadband providers from restricting access and impairing the speed of their competitors' content. Many feel this bill is crucial for market competitiveness and preserving the democratic nature of the internet.

But instead of inciting a debate here at TUAW about a bill that is already setting media outlets everywhere ablaze, I'll just point you to a few resources to learn more about the issues, such as the Network neutrality Wikipedia entry, a Wired article and Macworld's report of the recent bill approval.

Tags: approval, approve, bill, broadband, congress, house, net, network, neutral, neutrality, representatives, senate

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.

Learn More

TUAW flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Featured Galleries

TUAW bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Steven Sande	44	3
2	Dave Caolo	35	4
3	Mel Martin	31	0
4	Mike Schramm	28	0
5	Michael Rose	18	26
6	Josh Carr	18	24
7	Victor Agreda, Jr.	17	6
8	TJ Luoma	15	27
9	Joachim Bean	12	3
10	Erica Sadun	11	1
11	Sang Tang	10	0
12	Ken Ray	10	2
13	Aron Trimble	9	3
14	David Winograd	9	4
15	Chris Rawson	8	0
16	Megan Lavey	7	9
17	John Burke	6	3
18	Lauren Hirsch	4	0
19	Brett Terpstra	4	5
20	Kent Pribbernow	3	0

More Apple Analysis

AAPL on BloggingStocks The Apple category feed from BloggingStocks.com
AAPL Quote, News & Summary The AAPL financials page from AOL Money and Finance
iPhone analysis from BloggingStocks iPhone tag feed from BloggingStocks
Macintosh news and reviews on Download Squad The Macintosh category feed from Download Squad

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)