Simon Willison's Weblog: appstore

Python 3.12 change results in Apple App Store rejection

2024-06-27T23:17:15+00:00

Python 3.12 change results in Apple App Store rejection

Such a frustrating demonstration of the very worst of Apple's opaque App Store review process. The Python 3.12 standard library urllib package includes the string itms-services, and after much investigation Eric Froemling managed to determine that Apple use a scanner and reject any app that has that string mentioned anywhere within their bundle.

Russell Keith-Magee has a thread on the Python forum discussing solutions. He doesn't think attempts to collaborate with Apple are likely to help:

That definitely sounds appealing as an approach - but in this case, it’s going to be screaming into the void. There’s barely even an appeals process for app rejection on Apple’s App Store. We definitely don’t have any sort of channel to raise a complaint that we could reasonably believe would result in a change of policy.

Via LWN

Tags: apple, appstore, python, russell-keith-magee

iSH: The Linux shell for iOS

2023-12-31T04:20:00+00:00

iSH: The Linux shell for iOS

Installing this iOS app gives you a full Linux shell environment running on your phone, using a “usermode x86 emulator”. You can even install packages: “apk add python3” gave me a working Python 3.9 interpreter, installed from the apk.ish.app repository.

I didn’t think this kind of thing was allowed by the App Store, but that’s not been the case for a few years now: Section 4.5.2 of the App Store guidelines clarifies that “Educational apps designed to teach, develop, or allow students to test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes.”

Via Hacker News

Tags: appstore, emulator, linux, python, ios

Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

2021-06-06T22:13:12+00:00

Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

I’m quoted in an article in the Washington Post today (linked at the top of the homepage!) explaining how I got scammed on the App Store and spent $19 on a TV remote app with a similar name to the official Samsung app. I mistakenly assumed that the App Store review process wouldn’t allow an app called “Smart Things” to show up in search when I was looking for SmartThings, the official name—and assumed that Samsung were nickel-and-diming their customers rather than expecting the App Store review process to have failed so obviously.

Tags: appstore, scams, washington-post, press-quotes

Quoting John Gruber

2020-06-20T05:48:35+00:00

Without touching upon the question of who’s right and who’s wrong in the specific case of Basecamp’s Hey app, or the broader questions of what, if anything, ought to change in Apple’s App Store policies, an undeniable and important undercurrent to this story is that the business model policies of the App Store have resulted in a tremendous amount of resentment. This spans the entire gamut from one-person indies all the way up to the handful of large corporations that can be considered Apple’s peers or near-peers.

— John Gruber

Tags: apple, appstore, basecamp, john-gruber

I submitted a PWA to 3 app stores. Here's what I learned

2018-04-19T21:06:46+00:00

I submitted a PWA to 3 app stores. Here's what I learned

Useful real-world experience shipping a progressive web app to the iOS, Android and Windows app stores.

Via Hacker News

Tags: appstore, webapp

Quoting Rafe Colburn

2010-04-10T18:42:31+00:00

We all think of Java as a boring server-side language now, but the initial idea behind Java was that software developers could write applications in Java rather than writing them for Windows, and that those applications would work everywhere, thus defanging Microsoft’s desktop OS monopoly. Microsoft took various steps to prevent that from happening, but they lacked a tool like App Store that would enable them to just ban Java. Apple has that card to play, so they’re playing it.

— Rafe Colburn

Tags: apple, appstore, iphone, java, microsoft, rafe-colburn

Fake Reviews. Now now kids, play nice...

2009-05-22T00:49:34+00:00

Fake Reviews. Now now kids, play nice...

Not at all surprised to hear this—nefarious iPhone app developers (in this case the team behind “London Tube”, an inferior version of Malcolm Barclay’s marvellous “Tube Deluxe”) have been caught leaving fake negative reviews on rival applications in the App Store. This is an excellent argument for adding friends/followers or importing an existing social graph—I’d much rather see reviews from people in my social network than strangers who may turn out to be sock puppets.

Tags: apple, appstore, iphone, londontube, malcolm-barclay, social-graph, social-networks, sockpuppets, tubedeluxe

Quoting Garrett Murray

2009-04-22T12:17:17+00:00

Perhaps it's just frustration speaking here, but when Apple ties my hands behind my back and lets users punch me publicly in the face without allowing me to at least respond back, it’s hard to get excited about building an app.

— Garrett Murray

Tags: apple, appstore, garrett-murray, iphone

Quoting Marc Hedlund

2009-04-12T13:49:44+00:00

The App Store has an inscrutable, time-consuming, whim-dependent approval process. The App Store newsgroup postings are full of angry claims that this is a bug, but I bet it's a feature. If you can't get an app approved until it's working perfectly, and you have to wait a week or two -- or more -- between approval rounds, you're much more likely to put a lot more effort in up front to get it right.

— Marc Hedlund

Tags: apple, appstore, iphone, marchedlund

Quoting Steven Frank

2008-08-17T23:15:25+00:00

I can't question that [the App Store] is probably the best mobile application distribution method yet created, but every time I use it, a little piece of my soul dies.

— Steven Frank

Tags: apple, appstore, iphone, mobile, steven-frank

Reviews of the Pownce app on the iPhone app store on Flickr

2008-08-12T11:05:45+00:00

Reviews of the Pownce app on the iPhone app store on Flickr

I had to stitch together a screenshot because you can’t actually link to content in the App Store (unless you don’t care that people without iTunes won’t be able to follow your link). Three out of the four reviews complain about the OAuth browser authentication step, which is frustrating because Pownce have implemented it so well.

Tags: appstore, flickr, iphone, itunes, oauth, phishing, pownce, security, usability