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Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store (kapeli.com)
Popular API documentation browser Dash was pulled from the App Store this week after a routine migration request, its developer Bogdan Popescu wrote in a blog post. He said the migration was successful, but some features in iTunes Connect weren't available during account migration, Apple warned him. Later in the day, Apple sent another email saying the app has been pulled because of "fraudulent conduct," and did not offer any explanation. From the post: Today I called them and they confirmed my account migration went through and that everything is okay as far as they can tell. A few hours ago I received a "Notice of Termination" email, saying that my account was terminated due to fraudulent conduct. I called them again and they said they can't provide more information. Update: Apple contacted me and told me they found evidence of App Store review manipulation. This is something I've never done. Apple's decision is final and can't be appealed.Apple blogger Federico Viticci said. "This seems like a major screwup. Apple dev relationships should fix this soon." Marco Arment, the co-founder of Tumblr and founder of Instapaper, said This is a story with two major paths: Either the developer did something to deserve the rug being pulled out from under, something worthy of their developer credentials being cancelled. Or there's a colossal misunderstanding here. I suspect there's more to this than meets the eye. Either way, don't think this is the way this should have played out.
I pose this as an open question as I'm really not sure. So many reviews are obviously faked now (good and bad) that you can't usually rely much on overall ratings, and have to read the real reviews... you can quickly tell which seem more real than others.
So I wonder if apps should be pulled even if they are gaming the system...
That said I really doubt this guy was gaming the app reviews. But it's hard to say now that we can't look at them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Of course they matter! Now more than ever!
Perform review manipulation on your COMPETITOR and get them removed from the marketplace!
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
The fact that you're asking is why Apple has been taking a pretty hard line lately. Zero tolerance (cause that always works well) to try & reign in the garbage and restore some kind of faith in the review process.
It's also pretty easy to spoof addresses and identities, as least so far as list monkeys and standard management scripts will be fooled every time.
In an attempt to gain attack surface malware spreaders will bang pretty hard at any input they can find. Having your developer account attacked/hijacked is pretty common.
Often this activity is mistaken for other malicious behavior and can get your account terminated.
Of course they matter! Now more than ever!
Perform review manipulation on your COMPETITOR and get them removed from the marketplace!
This is a real problem, obviously, with the security-through-obscurity system that fraud detection partially relies on. If they disclose precisely why they believe there is fraud, they help fraudsters in the future--but also will catch some false positives. There is also the business case--it costs money and time to seriously investigate and review a fraud detection case, and arguably it increases legal exposure.
Real lawyers write in C++
Has anybody tried to use Apple's new developer documentation website?
And those were just the first few P1 showstoppers that I noticed. This site should never have gone live even for WWDC, much less for non-beta content. It just isn't anywhere *near* ready.
I'm not sure what the Dash app does or how it works, and I'm not sure if it actually improves things in those areas, but between their main developer doc site train wreck and this story, it really feels like Apple has become actively antagonistic towards developers. What the heck is going on over there in Cupertino?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
It's called "being dashed".
Dash is awesome, it doesn't need it's reviews to be padded. And the author is incredibly responsive, getting back to me on twitter questions really quickly. Sad to see what has to be a screwup by Apple cost the guy $$$.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
It is not reasonable to have faith in a system where public decisions are taken for secret reasons which result in well-known public disastrous outcomes.
Other than faith that the results will be terrible.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
As an independent the Apple eco system is a minefield.
You can't base a business on an environment that is so perniciously hostile.
If they don't like what you're doing it's off with their head, if they really like what you're doing they just might steal it.
You also get to pay through the nose for the privilege of being treated like crap.
I knew to avoid them.
... then assuming they are not wrong about evidence of app store review manipulation, it must be possible for independant parties to create such an appearance, and a less than ethical person could potentially use such measures to sabotage the apps of his competitors, since Apple's decision is final, and there is no appeal process.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
There used to be an app for that!
>I'm not sure what the Dash app does or how it works
It is an application that lets you easily pull in documentation for hundreds of libraries and languages for offline reading and searching.
I find it immensely useful. I use it to keep the docs for for pretty much anything I have ever used (languages, libraries, tools). Pulling the documentation in is a case of typing in the name and clicking on the thing you want.
I comes into its own if you travel on planes and find that an ideal time to do some uninterrupted programming.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Developing for Apple is increasingly becoming a pain in the ass. Between their draconian App Store policies and busted-ass development tools (Xcode 8 & Swift 3), I'm seriously considering moving to Android for future mobile projects...
This is what you get for playing in the walled garden.
If the garden's owner decides you're done, poof, you're standing at the gate and they're telling you to fuck off and go away.
It can be for any reason or no reason.
Of COURSE Apple has their reasons. But do you expect them to truly be HONEST about it?
Basically two scenarios here.
First, Apple's decided they dislike the tech/functionality this app is using/exposing. So they're killing it with fire as an unsubtle message to other app devs to Do Not Do This.
Second, Apple's decided they like the tech/functionality this app is using/exposing. So they're killing it with fire so that, down the road, they can create an app of their own, with similar functionality and claim to have invented it.
Either way, Apple fuck-yous an independent developer.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
With my cynic hat on, I have the sudden urge to start a betting pool on how many months it will be before Apple releases an offline doc viewer app.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I've just spent four days on the phone with Apple.
I work for a school.
We have iPads. Lots of iPads.
We were blocked by their automated system for reasons unknown, so we couldn't create iTunes accounts, given that it's a few weeks into term this is our device roll-out period.
Four people from Apple, from four countries, and four days later, I was still no closer. I'd been told I needed to sign up for Beta/Preview services in order for it to work now, then that the school wasn't eligible for that exact service, then we were but I had to provide contacts of the IT Manager (me!). When I did, they then refused it because I hadn't included a verification contact. Did the verification contact need to be anyone higher? Oh, no, I was perfectly capable of signing the forms necessary - I just needed a random employee. So I added the cleaner. Yep, they then accepted it.
It was then discovered that that WASN'T the problem at all. Four days of shouting, I got one guy who "would lift the restriction on our domain for 30 days". Great. What about the rest of the year? No, they can't do that at all, ever, for anyone. Agreed to at least get it working for now - more paperwork. More bullshit. To sign up student iTunes accounts into a school domain for what is quite clearly a government-authorised school in the UK.
In the end, I'm just preparing my record of the entire farce to pass to senior management. Google have offered us an iPad buy-back scheme where they'll take in our hundreds of iPads and give us Chromebooks instead. Our Chromebook trial was a raging success after the shit that was an iPad rollout and we have nothing but trouble with Apple.
I told the Apple guy on the phone that they don't care about education, they don't even HAVE an education line you can call in the line (he literally confessed they don't even have a number they can publish for that team), and when you call on the published numbers, it takes FOUR DAYS to get through to the guy who can actually do the bare fucking minimum of what you need to do and nothing else. He was utterly powerless and useless, there's no escalation and no customer service that I can see at all.
I told him I needed something longer-term if I'm going to plan deployments like this. He said he wasn't able to commit to anything like that. Game over.
I wouldn't mind but I inherited the iPad deployment and we have very expensive MDM and Mac servers and everything you need. And yet all we EVER get from them is hassle and people on support lines that know nothing and can do nothing. I would never have chosen them.
Hell, their Apple School Manager "preview" (i.e. Beta) that they forced me onto - you can't even create users that can download a free app. You can't customise the user types. You can't even turn the users off (it takes 30 days for a user you "deactivate" using that to disappear, and in that time nobody can create another with their same email). And their "student" user cannot download apps - not even the approved MDM apps that push the paid-for apps. It basically is incompatible with any third-party MDM, so it's useless.
Apple way or the fucking highway, and no care for anything slightly different to what they TELL you you will have.
I've honestly had enough of them to NEVER voluntarily deal with them ever again, and I was never too pleased with them in the first place.