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Apple Reconsiders, Approves NIN iPhone App
gyrogeerloose writes "According to MacRumors, NIN's iPhone application has been approved. Trent Reznor has reported via his Twitter account that the now-approved app was resubmitted without modification, which suggests that Apple reconsidered their initial rejection. This should really come as no surprise to anyone who follows Apple news since it follows the company's typical pattern of handing potentially controversial iPhone apps, especially when it concerns high-profile rejections."
tfa:
"the band's own application was rejected due to "objectionable" downloadable content that wasn't housed within the app itself."
I mean it is their own content they are distributing so "NIN/Reznor" are ok with it. So why was this rejected in the first place ? I dont own anything with an i, but how many other apps out their download offsite content? Quite a few I am sure?
... to test the parental controls beta on.
Egads, that was a terrible summary.
The decision to approve the app had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was a high-profile app. They didn't reconsider just because Trent Reznor, with his celebrity status, bitched and complained and tried to Streisand the rejection.
They approved the app this time around because now the iPhone will have parental controls to filter objectionable material (included in the beta of 3.0).
Seriously, that's the biggest part of the whole deal with the NIN app, and it didn't get mentioned at all in the summary.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The app update was rejected because "The objectionable content referenced ... is 'The Downward Spiral'.".
According to Reznor's app developer "we removed the song 'The Downward Spiral' from the server, hoping to appease apple and get this bug fix through."
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
You buy a product. Apple then tells you what you can and cannot put on your product? If you really wanted an app on your phone, and it was not available at the Apple Store, would you be able to get it anyhow? Or are you out of luck?
And why in the hell would anyone buy a product where the company gets to treat you like a five year old?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Nullriver's tethering app had its ins and outs with the app store too. Give it a couple days and the NIN will be re-revoked.
I have a trivial little app that I made and it took apple about two weeks to approve it. Maybe it's because it's a simple app, or maybe things have been improving.
Sheldon
If you'd written it, it would be up there by now and you'd be raking in cash instead of bitching online.
You have to understand that this has absolutely NOTHING to do with Reznor or NIN.
Apple's approval system is COMPLETELY RANDOM, and depends on:
- a set of vague rules
- who is testing your product
There have been countless examples of apps rejected, resubmitted unchanged and accepted.
I have in fact gotten the perfect proof: I developed an open-source app. I submitted the app on day 0 and at the same time released the source code in its entirety under a BSD license.
On day +7, the app was rejected because the tester couldn't log in, supposedly. On day +8, I resubmitted. On day +10, the EXACT SAME app was approved on the app store with slightly different graphics. Some guy had taken the source, compiled and submitted a few days after me.
I went and bought (yes, the guy sold the app that I was giving away for free) the app, and noticed that it had all the issues that my app had, and he hadn't changed the code one bit.
To add insult to injury, my app got rejected another TWO times before finally being approved on day +35.
Conclusion: the App Store approval is completely random within a vague framework.
Apple sent an email to developers yesterday that stated "All apps must be compatible with iPhone OS 3.0
Millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers will move to iPhone OS 3.0 this summer. Beginning today, all submissions to the App Store will be reviewed on the latest beta of iPhone OS 3.0. If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved."
Some developers had reported balky uploads over the last 24~48 hours that went fine when retried am 5.7.2009. My guess is there was a hold on the background process for a short time until the updated process per any 3.0 goodness could be implemented. It is easy to imagine this carrying back for more than just a day or so. I had one app put on 'extended' review on 5.1 that went in for approval on 4.26 - I've since reworked the related binary under SDK 3.05 and placed it back in the queue. Big deal...life goes on.
IMO, chances are more likely that Apple did not "reconsider" the decision. Trent resubmitted the app to the App Store, so a completely different reviewer saw the app and probably didn't find anything wrong with it, and therefore approved it. The approval process for the App Store thus far seems to be subjective to the individual reviewer's whims and requirements, in addition to the (very vague) standards set by Apple. So when Trent initially submitted the app, reviewer A found the Downward Spiral reference to be potentially objectionable -- maybe his or her kids only listen to classical -- and when he submitted the second time, reviewer B saw nothing in the app that was an issue -- their kids probably listen to NIN all the time -- and approved it.
...that Trent could use a warm blankie.
There's no failure quite as dissatisfying as a complete and total solution to the wrong problem.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10235906-37.html
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/07/happiness-in-slavery-nin-iphone-app-approved-with-no-changes/
The app was unchanged from when it was submitted. That Reznor quote is misleading--regardless of the tactics they tried prior to approval, in the end the version approved was unchanged from the original.
You're gonna get what you deserve.
you are going to "get what you deserve" it just might take a little longer thatn you expected...
-- Sig under construction...
Many, many development shops which don't have the enormous global soapbox of Trent Reznor and NIN are still getting shafted explicitly and anally by Apple's backward app approval policies. They don't respond to our emails. They don't tell us why. iFlinger.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
So it take being a rockstar to get things past QA? I knew they had a weakness.
I'm sure the application review process works much like tech support.
Sometimes you get a helpful individual, and sometimes you get a total jerk.
I'm guessing it's not a collective decision by Apple, but an individual or a few people that just happened to have that opinion of the app.
That would certainly explain how the app approval process appears to be very arbitrary.
Is now remove the app from the Apple Store, citing "This is a company that has no clue about the direction it is headed, nor its path for the future. I refuse to market my product through a company that is most certainly guaranteed to fail by making so many incongruous decisions."
It would only take the words of a few select people and Apple would DIE.
I wish Trent would realize his power and wield it.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It's funny you should say that, because from what I've read... Writing an App Store app is almost certainly not a road to 'raking in cash' except for a privileged few who either got in really early, or do something really novel. One in thousands. Everyone else is busy competing against apps that do what theirs do, for 10 cents, a dollar, 2 dollars less, until it becomes too low to be worthwhile.
Open exchange of FLAC or other audio files is pro-Singularity.
I don't think of myself as an Apple fanboy, but I have bought lots of Macs over the years (starting with a Lisa 2 with MacWorks waaay back in 1984 - I'm old, too). I tend to like most of Apple's products, but the app store sucks, at least for developers.
First of all, you have to submit your app and wait an indeterminate amount of time (usually a week) for it to be approved presumably by some semi-trained monkey-boy. Then there's the whole release date fiasco that costs you sales unless you know about it.
But the worst part, is the freakin' rating system: rate-on-delete? YGTBFKM! And the ratings show up in the 'App store' app, but not in iTunes? And your competitors come along and give you the lowest rating and you have no recourse. Or the luser who didn't read the app description - it's enough to make a BOFH's head explode! I mean, my calculator app may not be great, but it's not crap. http://ghostwood.org/software/ (sorry about the shameless self-promotion).
Anyway, I understand where Trent's coming from - which, come to think of it, is a scary thought.
Look, it's trying to think - Albert Rosenfield
out of sheer anhedonic joy.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA