Archive for June 27, 2016

Monday, June 27, 2016

Thoughts on the New Official Apple App Icon Template

Michael Flarup (via Nick Heer):

I think it’s great that Apple wants to provide templates for the design resources they’re asking developers to deliver, but the ones they’ve put out is not only a lot less practical than the 3rd party resources available, they’re also factually wrong — using bitmap roundrects instead of the platform standard squircle. Until Apple feels like dedicating more time to helping developers deliver better assets, it looks like there’ll be plenty of reasons why we still have 3rd party resources around.

AppleScript “Standard Libraries” Project

Hamish Sanderson:

As you may recall, back at the start of this year I was bitching about the [AppleScript] team adding a native library loader to AppleScript in 10.9 yet bizarrely forgetting to provide any general-purpose libraries along with it, after which I decided to go write the damn things myself just so AS users would at least have something decent to use. The result was a set of seven ‘standard libraries’ (plus one support and one code testing library) providing commands for a wide range of everyday tasks[…]

[…]

Anyway, long story short, I got it about 98% done before running out of both time and motivation - the implementation is feature-complete and generally pretty polished and bombproof, but there’s still some holes to fill in test coverage and user documentation.

[…]

So, if the AppleScript community would like a chance to help itself then here it is: I want someone experienced in AppleScript and [AppleScriptObjC], and preferably with some actual programming skills as well (cos this is not just toy code), to step up and officially take the whole project over from me over the next couple of weeks. That’s full ownership, BTW: all copyright, choice of license, project management, etc.

Here’s the GitHub project.

Homescreen Sharing App Rejected From App Store

Préshit Deorukhkar:

Apple executives explained to us that we cannot showcase a homescreen springboard image within the app — stating that the springboard was Apple’s IP and it was against Apple’s Brand guidelines.

The rejection was not only disappointing and heart-breaking for us, as we had put several months of hard work into the app, but we also found the reason very hard to believe.

[…]

Homescreen.me is merely a platform that showcases user submitted content, something that other apps like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc. already do. Example — what if someone shares a homescreen image on Twitter? Is that a violation too?

Unfortunately, Apple just wouldn’t budge. A work-around, we were told, was to offer users a simple text area where they can type which apps they use on their Homescreens.

Update (2016-06-27): Nick Heer:

Betaworks launched a similar app called “#Homescreen” which, though it had app review issues of its own, was never sanctioned for intellectual property issues.

Update (2016-06-29): Hwee-Boon Yar:

I built an app that simulates homescreen for testing icons. Similar problem.

App Store and iTunes Store Outage

Juli Clover:

Some iOS and Mac users are currently unable to access the App Store, Mac App Store, and iTunes Store, according to reports from MacRumors readers and Twitter users.

[…]

Apple’s system status page has not yet been updated to reflect any kind of outage and it is not clear how many users are affected.

Greg Barbosa:

Today’s outage comes a few weeks after a previous widespread outage took out Apple Music, iCloud Music Library, and iCloud. Apple has previously remained quiet when these outages occur, relying on using the System Status page to communicate to customers of any issues. Zac Hall had previously delved into how Apple should better handle these situations, especially when they expect customers to put more faith in them for future cloud-based services.

Luc Vandal:

Yesterday’s App Store sale numbers. Ouch! #outage

Previously: App Store Search Is Currently Broken.

Update (2018-06-18): Benjamin Mayo (Hacker News):

Apple Maps has been down for many hours today, causing mayhem for customers seemingly worldwide. Whilst Apple’s system status reports no issues, users across Twitter and Apple Support forums are finding that is currently impossible to search for locations or get directions. The map tiles appear to be loading normally, but points of interest and critical functions of the app are simply not working.