Media Buzz Building Regarding iTunes App Store Rejections!

This weekend, I received an email from a good friend of mine with a link to more media coverage of Apple, Inc.’s issues of rejecting iPhone applications without any clear guidelines or level of consistency. CNNMoney.com reports that…

This week the company faces a full-scale revolt. The issue: Apple’s summary rejection of a program on the grounds that it duplicated a function on one of its own programs.

The point of this entry is not to go into the full details of this story. I’ve already done that in previous posts. (The iPhone App I Had Developed, App Store Rejects My Application, & Podcasters Blacklisted From App Store)

I’m really hope that the entire new media & overall geek community will rise up and join together so that our voice can be heard in Cupertino! As I am notified of stories and blog posts about this issue, I’ll do my best to come and update this blog entry. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section of this blog.

Please note, If your link does not show up by default, I’ll manually go in and add the html for the link.

Here’s what I have so far as of 09/15/2008
iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store
Chuqui 3.0 – Reaction to Developer Leaving the iPhone Platform
Mobility Today Application
Why iPhone is an ureliable platform
App Store I’m Out
Of Course You’ll Keep Developing For The iPhone
Podcaster Developer Uses Little-Known “Ad Hoc” Mode To Distribute Banned iPhone App

Podcasters Blacklisted From App Store?

A few days ago, I shared my personal story of how the iTunes Application Store has sent me a rejection email stating that they were not going to publish my application in the App store as they do not feel that the App Store is a proper channel for distributing podcast content despite the fact that they had already approved two applications exactly the same as mine, made by the same developer, that have become quite popular.

As it turns out, this may not be just a simple misunderstanding and with this story I just read on gizmodo.com, it seems that iTunes is actually taking the stance of BLACKLISTING podcasters from developing applications intended to allow streaming of their content via wifi, 3G, or Edge Networks. The application referred to in this story is called “Podcaster and was designed to allow you to subscribe, manage, stream and download podcasts directly to your iPhone and iPod Touch. Who doesn’t want this? Right?

The developers of this application were delivered a similar rejection letter to the one that Apple, Inc. had sent to me saying…. “Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

I must say that over the past few years, I’ve really warmed up to Apple. I purchased my first iPod just about two and a half years ago. Since then, I’ve purchased a total of five iPods for our family and three iPhones (I sold my original to get the new 3G).

In June of 2007, I purchased my first ever Mac Computer (A Macbook Laptop). I even started a Podcast (HelpIGotAMac.com) devoted to helping people who have spent a lifetime of computing on a PC warm up to their very first Mac Computer.

However, I must say that as a Podcaster, I feel slightly snubbed by the rejection of applications where money and time were poured into by podcasters when there were absolutely no clear guidelines or indications that such useful applications would be against any company policy.

Apple is turning out to be a very different company from what all my friends had been telling me about. I’m not sure I like this way of doing business.

UDPATE: Finally, this is starting to get some widespread attention. Here is a story posted on MacRumors.com.

iTunes App Store Denies Apps Without Consistency!

CLICK HERE TO DIGG THIS STORY

A few weeks back, I was browsing the Apple App Store to see what Apps were available for download on my iPhone. I was surprised to see a Diggnation Application that had been made available.

Diggnation is a video podcast that I used to enjoy watching to catch some of the more popular tech news stories of the week. Unfortunately, Diggnation is a video podcast that exceeds thirty minutes for each episode. As I was not always able to devote this much time to watching a video podcast each week, I often found myself getting several episodes behind in my podcast subscription feed.

A few months back, I had actually unsubscribed from this video podcast due to the fact that, at the time, I only had a 4gig iPhone and I was getting errors saying that I didn’t have enough space available on my iPhone to sync everything I needed to sync. I know that I had an option to change my settings to only sync certain podcasts or only the most recent few episodes. However, I didn’t want to impose such limits on my other podcasts. I simply unsubscribed.

The Diggnation Application was genius! One feature I’ve always wanted on my iPod was to be able to wireless get the most recent episodes of my favorite podcasts without having to first download them to iTunes and then sync my iPod. This application doesn’t actually download the podcast episodes on the iPhone for keeps and then sync it back when I connect to iTunes again. However, what it does is simply goes out and pulls up the rss feed for Diggnation and then allows me to click on any of the episodes and then the built in media player on the iPhone or iPod Touch will then stream the file over wifi, edge, or 3G.
[Read more]

074 Podcast Answer Man – iPhone App Coming Soon

In this video episode, I share with you the iPhone application that I’ve had made for our podcasting network. It should be available within the next few days or it could take up to three weeks to get into the iTunes store. I’ll keep you posted.

Here Is The Video: [Read more]