Archive for September 28, 2011

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Drift Rejected From the App Store

Devin Chalmers (via Manton Reece):

Eventually it became clear that, from the reviewers' perspective, there was a problem with that, at all: it wasn't the (already redacted) signup links that we were being rejected for, but any GitHub link. At all.

This is the situation that I outlined in February, with a third-party client for a service. It’s OK to make a Twitter client because Twitter is free, but GitHub has both free and paid plans, so you can’t make a GitHub app unless you support in-app purchase. And that’s only possible for an app developed by GitHub itself, not for a third-party developer using its API.

It’s a shame that Apple won’t allow these apps to exist except in crippled form. And it’s also a shame that they won’t come out and say that that’s their policy. The reviewers and appeals board tossed Chalmers around for two months, despite the fact that, as I linked to here, Steve Jobs himself said that the in-app purchase requirement was for content, not software as a service (SaaS).

Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire

Very impressive announcements from Amazon today. I’m actually most interested in the new $79 Kindle. It’s the perfect size and weight for reading, and a good compromise of features. I have a Wi-Fi Kindle 3 and have never wanted 3G and only rarely used the keyboard. I actually prefer the hardware page-changing buttons to touch. They feel natural and don’t lead to fingerprints on the screen.

Update (2011-09-29): Lukas Mathis explains more about why page-turning buttons are good.

Update (2011-10-04): Stephen M. Hackett reviews the $79 Kindle.