Google Voice, the app that was banned from the App Store may be coming back under the new relaxed guidelines. Sean Kovacs, the developer of the GV Mobile application, emailed Apple after the rules for app approval were recently released, since none of the updates provisions applied to his app. Seems like he got a positive response as he tweeted that the app ‘will most likely get back in,” and if all goes well, it will be available within a week.
GV Mobile has been on Cydia since the App Store dropped the banhammer on it in 2009 – Apple mentioned that the app was “duplicating features that the iPhone comes with,” at the time. Kovacs went through the long list of over a hundred rules and coulnd’t find anything that should disqualify GV Mobile. He emailed Apple to ask specifically and was told to go-ahead and resubmit it. The new guideliens do not have any clear restriction against “duplicate functionality,” though rule 8.3 (“Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected”) could possibly be used as a reason to block the app.
Kovacs also realized that he couldn’t resubmit under the same name, so it’s possible that the app may be released as “GV Phone” or something, and people who purchased it before the ban will have to buy it again. Kovacs is also working on correcting that specific issue with Apple.
Apple can also obviously block an app for any reason it wants or no reason at all, they have certainly done so in the past.
The apparent new liberal attitude – being up-front about the rules, relaxing restrictions against cross-platform compiles, etc. could all be signs of a new good-guy approach from Apple, or it could just be the pre-emptive strike against looming federal investigations. However you look at it, it is hard to imagine they’d have even bothered with it if it wasn’t for the presence of an alternative marketplace like Cydia.
Via : mygadgetnews.com
GV Mobile has been on Cydia since the App Store dropped the banhammer on it in 2009 – Apple mentioned that the app was “duplicating features that the iPhone comes with,” at the time. Kovacs went through the long list of over a hundred rules and coulnd’t find anything that should disqualify GV Mobile. He emailed Apple to ask specifically and was told to go-ahead and resubmit it. The new guideliens do not have any clear restriction against “duplicate functionality,” though rule 8.3 (“Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected”) could possibly be used as a reason to block the app.
Kovacs also realized that he couldn’t resubmit under the same name, so it’s possible that the app may be released as “GV Phone” or something, and people who purchased it before the ban will have to buy it again. Kovacs is also working on correcting that specific issue with Apple.
Apple can also obviously block an app for any reason it wants or no reason at all, they have certainly done so in the past.
The apparent new liberal attitude – being up-front about the rules, relaxing restrictions against cross-platform compiles, etc. could all be signs of a new good-guy approach from Apple, or it could just be the pre-emptive strike against looming federal investigations. However you look at it, it is hard to imagine they’d have even bothered with it if it wasn’t for the presence of an alternative marketplace like Cydia.
Via : mygadgetnews.com
