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Comment by w4 | Hacker News Reader

That's a shame. Gravity looks like a clever app, and the UX in the reviewer video was pretty slick. The spoon + quarter calibration is great!

This sort of thing is why I'm increasingly disinterested in developing for iOS for fun (and why most of my recent side project work has been on web apps). App review is effectively a black box since the rules are applied so inconsistently, and working for weeks or months on something only to find out the Apple doesn't like it is a constant concern. Add in the the real and psychological barriers app review imposes when making bug fixes or updates, and it makes going back to the web rather attractive. It'd be nice to see Apple make some changes to the process.

(I know I could move over to Android dev, but since I use an iPhone it's not terribly interesting for side projects - though that's my problem, not Androids's.)

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> I know I could move over to Android dev, but since I use an iPhone it's not terrible interesting for side projects

Fragmentation and the frequency of device- or vendor-specific bugs and other issues take a lot of the fun out of Android dev for me.

App review is effectively a black box since the rules are applied so inconsistently, and working for weeks or months on something only to find out the Apple doesn't like it is a constant concern.

Unless you're Facebook which has recently been caught abusing silent notifications to start up in the background and continue running permanently by streaming music at zero-volume while draining battery.

Apple responds decently when developers have big media presence notice their abusive process and rolls over passively when powerful players like Facebook have them over a barrel. It's a stormy ocean when you're independent. Best to be careful.

increasingly disinterested in

You mean 'uninterested,' not 'disinterested.'

It was a bug, not intentional from FB: https://www.facebook.com/arig/posts/10105815276466163

I do not understand why the parent gets downvoted so much. I think FB can do pretty much what they please. If Apple is concerned for any reason, Facebook can simply ask them: "Do you want the Facebook Apps in the App store or not?" I think the answer will be: Yes.

By that standard, Amazon should be able to do pretty much what they please too, but we know they can't (see: in-app Kindle store / link to web store, etc.).

> You mean 'uninterested,' not 'disinterested.'

Uninterested may have been better, but disinterested works fine - see the usage notes (desktop only for some reason): http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disinterested

Popular incorrect use of a word doesn't make it acceptable usage, especially when it occludes an important distinction.

That depends. The Oxford English Dictionary would agree with you. They are an "authoritative" dictionary that tells the reader what is right and what isn't. However, Webster's wouldn't. They document the common usage.

It's a matter of philosophy. In any case, the common usage will always win. People don't consult the OED when talking, or even writing blogs. So language changes.

Did you know that even the OED now includes the awful non-literal meaning of "literally"? Oh the horror ...

Apple's position is actually very easy to understand.

Don't do anything that is likely to cause significant harm to them. Examples of this include: (a) negative press publicity e.g. porn app, drone strike app, (b) stealing from or harming their customers and of course (c) this app where they will have to cover the cost of you putting heavy objects on something that it was never designed to do.

If you want to damage your own phone go ahead. You can build a weighing app and deploy it to your phone. But expecting Apple to endorse (which is what the App Store actually is) stupid behaviour was never going to happen.

I don't buy it. Where is the negative publicity on android? It doesn't exist... There are apps that many people find offensive on the play store... just like there are movies on amazon that some people would find offensive... same thing..

The negative publicity on Android for bad taste or stupid/dangerous apps (remember "Send me to heaven"? the app that measured how high you threw your phone?) is probably swamped by the bad publicity from malware and spyware. The thing about the App store is so little bad news comes out of it that all the hysteria is over minor stuff (e.g. Apple accidentally banning Civil War games).

Completely Agree with your view point. Why was it down voted?

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