AppStore Development

We have had a number of applications rejected over the past few months, since we started posting apps to appstore.  Here are some of the letters we have recieved, some explaination and some expression of our irritation and frustration!

From: devprograms@apple.com
Date: 25 October 2008 18:13:42 BDT
To: help@cyandesign.co.uk
Subject: iWarnU: Application Submission Feedback


Dear CyanMedia,

 Thank you for submitting iWarnU to the App Store. We've reviewed
 iWarnU and determined that we cannot post this version of your Phone
 application to the App Store because it contains objectionable content
 (flatulence and eructation) and is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from
 the iPhone SDK Agreement which
 states:

 "Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or
 defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images,
 photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's
 reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod
 touch users."
 In addition, your application makes use of iPhone proprietary
 ringtones. Use of these ringtones outside of the context of a phone
 call could lead to user confusion. Please use other sounds as alerts
 to warn the user that the phone has been moved.

 If you believe that you can make the necessary changes so that iWarnU
 does not violate the iPhone SDK Agreement we encourage you to do so
 and resubmit it for review.

 Sincerely

 iPhone Developer Program

This was from our first attempt at posting an app - it took them 6weeks to get back to us. 

So what we learned from this was:

1. No FART noises....but now its fine apparently because there are loads of fart apps out there.  Could have made a killing- this was back in Oct 08 - and whoopie cushion was one of the main ideas for use of this app.  So, yeah, thanks apple!  We still havnt got around to re-adding the fart sound.

2. Cant play the apple ringtones - because it might confuse people.  So apple has a high regard for the intellect of their customers obviously.  We may try to re-add this functionality to see if it gets though on another submission.

This was not a good start to our appstore experience...

/CyanDev

Date: 13 January 2009 19:07:17 GMT
To: help@cyandesign.co.uk
Subject: iWarnU: Application Submission Feedback

Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.

Follow-up:  64613865

Dear iWarnU Developer,

Your application, iWarnU, cannot be submitted to the App Store because of a Table View
issue.  Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in
iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.5.

According to the Table Views, Text Views, and Web Views section of the iPhone Human
Interface Guidelines:

"Table views provide feedback when users select list items. Specifically, when an item
can be selected, the row containing the item highlights briefly when a user selects it
to show that the selection has been received.  Then, an immediate action occurs: Either
a new view is revealed or the row displays a checkmark to indicate that the item has
been selected. The row never remains highlighted, because table views do not display
persistent selected state."

In your application, tapping on an item in the Table View results in the item becoming
highlighted.  There is no new information displayed, and the item remains highlighted.
It would be appropriate to provide the proper feedback to the user instead.

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve this
issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

This we thought was probably fair enough - this is regarding the blue highlighting in a table view.  When an item was selected it stayed highlighted...when fixed app was accepted (though they missed this in earlier releases, it was not a new issue).

/CyanDev

From: devprograms@apple.com
Date: 6 February 2009 01:06:38 GMT
To: help@cyandesign.co.uk
Subject: iBaby Monitor Free: Application Submission Feedback

Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.

Follow-up:  66771186

Hello Cyan Media Developer,

iBaby Monitor Free cannot be posted because it is a beta or feature-limited version.   
Any reference to evaluation, demo or beta needs to be removed from the binary and
metadata.  Free or "Lite" versions are acceptable, however the application must be a
fully functional app and cannot reference features that are not implemented.

Please upload a new binary and correct metadata using iTunes Connect
<http://itunesconnect.apple.com/>.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

We did a free feature limited version of iBaby - that only was active for 10 mins or something (at the end of the time, it called you).  Apple obviously didnt like that...

where IS all this information?  Why do we have to wait to submit something, wait around 3weeks to be told  "thanks but no".  FUCK!

We got the same message for a feature limited version of VCA - so we released a totaly seperate app WCA instead.

/CyanMediaDev

Date:       Mon, 2 Mar 2009 12:36:22 -0800 (PST) [02/03/09 20:36:22 UTC]
From:     devprograms@apple.com
To:     help@cyandesign.co.uk
Subject:     iHearU: Application Submission Feedback
Headers:  Show All Headers

Dear CyanMedia,

Your application iHearU is requiring unexpected additional time for review.   We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

Thanks for the heads up - worry about something else for a while!

We finally (~2 months later) got a PHONE CALL requesting that "covert" needed to be removed from the "blurb" - a previous version of the app itself had been on appstore for a month - with the same blub.  Apple just seem to be getting stricter each time...

Also, and more annoyingly (beacuse we had been working on it for about a month) bang goes an idea for another app - that was almost entirely based around the concept of covert! 

/CyanMediaDev

Date:       Mon, 2 Mar 2009 17:07:57 -0800 (PST) [03/03/09 01:07:57 UTC]
From:     devprograms@apple.com
To:     help@cyandesign.co.uk
Subject:     Wakeup Call Alarm: Application Submission Feedback

Dear CyanMedia,

At this time, Wakeup Call Alarm cannot be posted to the App Store because it is crashing on iPhone OS 2.2.1 and Mac OS X 10.5.6.

The application crashes after the alarm goes off. Call is never placed.

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Should you require more assistance with resolving this issue, Apple Developer Technical Support is available to provide direct one-on-one support for discrete code-level questions.  Please be sure to include any crash logs, screenshots or steps to reproduce this issue in your request.

Developer Technical Support
<idp-dts@apple.com>

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program


OK, nobody's perfect!  We didnt actually reproduce this problem on our development hardware...so initially we swore and shouted...but eventally found the issue (due to an NString assignment rather than a copy - schoolboy error - so if the memory was overwritten - curtains).

/CyanMediaDev

Date:       Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:37:41 -0700 (PDT) [22/04/09 09:37:41 UTC]
From:     iPhone Developer Program <appreview@apple.com>
To:     help@cyandesign.co.uk
Subject:     iHearU 1.0.7: Application Submission Feedback

Hello Cyan Media,

Your application, iHearU, cannot be posted to the App Store at this time because it does not achieve the core functionality described in your marketing materials, or release notes.  Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.5.

In the release notes, you state there is a "Warning if phone number is not understood by device".  However, having made multiple attempts with *****1234 and 1800MYAPPLE, no call was placed and there was no error message presented to the user.

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Should you require more assistance with resolving this issue, Apple Developer Technical Support is available to provide direct one-on-one support for discrete code-level questions.  Please be sure to include any crash logs, screenshots or steps to reproduce this issue in your request.

Developer Technical Support
<idp-dts@apple.com>

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

I suppose this is a reasonable test.  We cannot reproduce the issue with 1800MYAPPLE - we display an error message with any aphabetic characters in the number.  We fixed it for ****.  We also re worded our release notes to state that the error test was not exhaustive.

/CyanMediaDev

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:42:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: iPhone Developer Program <appreview@apple.com>
Reply-To: iPhone Developer Program <appreview@apple.com>
Subject: Voice Controlled Alarm 2.1: Application Submission Feedback
   To: help@cyandesign.co.uk, hello@cyandesign.co.uk

Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.

Follow-up:  72487538

Dear Cyan Media,

Your application Voice Controlled Alarm 2.1 is requiring unexpected additional time
for review.   We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as
soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,
iPhone Developer Program

Still not approved...WCA 2.1 (which was identical bar voice functionality), and WCA 2.2 have been approved OK.  Apple, we are at your mercy! 

2.1 was finally approved yesterday.  We had a phone call from richard the week before requesting that we:

1. Change our release notes to remove mention of OS 3.0
2. To change wording of one of our error messages
     - if user tries to make a call but there is no functionality, we state - the device does not understand this number.  Richard asked to change it to "ipod touch cannot make a call".


Got notification that All apps now have to work in OS3.0.  OpenURL has changed in OS3.0 so calls now need user interaction before they are set up...not good news for ANY of our current apps.

I wonder if we can get VCA version 2.2 approved without this functionality working, and not being allowed to mention OS 3.0 in our blurb!

We have emailed Richard again...

/CyanMediaDev

Another app rejected

"Dear Cyan Media,

Your application, iSnitch 1.0, cannot be posted to the App Store because it violates
section 3.3.6 of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement:

"Any form of user or device data collection, or image, picture or voice capture or
recording performed by the Application (collectively “Recordings”), and any form of
user data, content or information processing, maintenance, uploading, syncing, or
transmission performed by the Application (collectively "Transmissions") must comply
with all applicable privacy laws and regulations as well as any Apple program
requirements related to such aspects, including but not limited to any notice or
consent requirements. In particular, a reasonably conspicuous audio, visual, or
other indicator must be displayed to the user as part of the Application to indicate
that a Recording is taking place."

Your application records sound without presenting any message and it works when the
device is locked.

Please make it clear to the user that their personal user data is being uploaded to
your server, and obtain their consent before submission.

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve
this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program
"