Apple - Mike Cohen

Unexpected additional time

August 20, 2009 by Mike Cohen

For anyone who hasn’t kept up with my saga, I got a call from Apple Monday telling me exactly how I should rate ICHC and what changes I should make to the description. I did everything exactly as they requested and resubmitted it.

Today, I got the following email from the app store reviewer:

Dear Mike,

Your application, I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) 1.5.1, is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

App Store rating inconsistency

August 19, 2009 by Mike Cohen

I was under the impression that any application which accesses the internet must have a 17+ rating in the app store, yet Twitterrific (which even has a built-in web browser) and some other Twitter clients have a 4+ rating.

This makes no sense at all to me.

App Store Rating Inconsistency hosted by Ember

Changing app store ratings

July 31, 2009 by Mike Cohen

I finally discovered the trick to change the ratings for ICHC, so hopefully Apple can review it now. As long as there’s a valid binary, iTunes Connect won’t let you change the ratings. If you reject the binary, you can go to edit information and change the ratings BEFORE you upload a new binary. Once you upload that new binary, the ratings are locked out again.

I set the ratings to infrequent/mild for all items, which still only results in a 12+ rating, not the 17+ rating Apple requested. We’ll see if Apple approves it now.

ICHC Update Rejected again

July 30, 2009 by Mike Cohen

This is getting to be an ongoing ritual. I submit an update and about a week later Apple rejects it.

Here’s my latest rejection letter:

Follow-up: 78814583

Dear Mr. Cohen,

Thank you for submitting I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) to the App Store. We’ve reviewed I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 &I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) and determined that we cannot post these versions of your iPhone applications to the App Store at this time because they are not appropriately rated. Our review indicates that the applications’ contents are not consistent with the current rating. I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) contain user-generated content, which can include frequent mature or suggestive themes. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.

Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binaries and rate your application appropriately.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

However, it isn’t possible to change the rating because everything is grayed out on the rating screen! A few developers have told me that the rating can only be changed for 3.0 apps, so I’m building it for 3.0 only so Apple will finally let me change the rating so they can approve it.

ICHC 1.5.2 Re-submitted

July 21, 2009 by Mike Cohen

I’ve resubmitted ICHC 1.5.2, with /tag/g-rated specified for FAILblog & Engrish Funny, the two sites that support it.

Apple requested that I rate it appropriately, but there’s no way to change the rating in iTunes connect – everything in the ratings screen is completely grayed out. If this is rejected again, I won’t resubmit it. I’ll withdraw it from sale instead.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

More Ratings Stupidity

July 21, 2009 by Mike Cohen

Barnes & Noble’s eReader contains no content and doesn’t access internet content directly. All content comes from books downloaded from your B&N account. It has to display all of these warnings, yet it gets a 12+ rating. In this case, the parental control restrictions should be set in the B&N account rather than restricting the application.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

PS – KRAPPS picked up the story of ICHC’s latest rejection.

Ratings FAIL

July 20, 2009 by Mike Cohen

I’ve found definite proof that app store ratings are seriously broken. As KRAPPS pointed out, some pretty raunchy applications are getting a 12+ rating while ICHC and any other app that accesses user generated content is forced to get a 17+ rating. ICHC has much less sexual content than this app.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

REJECTED

July 19, 2009 by Mike Cohen

I just got another rejection notice from Apple:

Dear Mr. Cohen,

Thank you for submitting I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) to the App Store. We’ve reviewed I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 &I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) and determined that we cannot post these versions of your iPhone applications to the App Store at this time because they are not appropriately rated. Our review indicates that the applications’ contents are not consistent with the current rating. I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) contain user-generated content, which can include frequent mature or suggestive themes. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.

Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binaries and rate your application appropriately.

I don’t want ICHC to be rated 17+. I’d rather just pull it completely rather than continue to fight with Apple.

WWDC Preparations

June 4, 2009 by Mike Cohen

Unfortunately I have to be home next week, so I’ll be missing out on WWDC. I did get a chance to walk by Moscone West and take photos of Apple’s preparation for the event.

Could this be a prediction of a 32GB iPhone?

See the full gallery here.

More tales of rejection

May 21, 2009 by Mike Cohen

Apple really needs to learn the difference between content in the application and content available on the internet when they review app store submissions.

In their latest fumble, Apple rejected Eucalyptus, an e-book reader which contains absolutely no embedded content. It lets you read freely available books from Project Gutenberg, which it fetches from the internet. Their reason for rejection: “offensive content”. The book in question (the Kama Sutra) can already be read on the iPhone with Stanza or any other e-book reader or even Mobile Safari.

If Apple is going to reject an application based on their ability to obtain offensive content through the internet, they should also ban Mobile Safari, or even Maps (thanks @chockenberry).

The fact is there’s offensive content on the internet. No matter what Apple does, almost any application that accesses the internet will be able to find it if you try hard enough.