Apple has rejected, removed or banned quite a few iPhone apps from the App Store since its launch.
It looks like another iPhone app called Peeps has just joined that list. The app visually organizes contacts from your iPhone's address book into an animated photo album and gives iPhone users a coverflow-like interface to browse through the contacts.
Plausible Labs, the developers of the iPhone app have published Apple's rejection letter:
Upon review of your application, Peeps cannot be posted to the App Store due to the usage of a non-public API. Usage of non-public APIs, as outlined in the iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.1, is prohibited:
"3.3.1 Applications may only use Published APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any unpublished or private APIs."
The non-public API that is included in your application comes from the CoverFlow API set.
However, developer Landon Fuller has clarified on his blog that its their own Cover flow implementation using public APIs:
We did not use private API.
He goes on provide the reasons for this (something most iPhone developers should be wary about while using unpublished APIs):
The last thing I would do is deliver time-bomb code to a paying customer. Private API can be broken or removed at any time by the vendor, and relying on it is unfair to your customers -- they rarely have any idea that the application they just purchased may not work next week, or next month.
The iPhone developer seems to think that it could be some misunderstanding. Plausible Labs have raised a support request with Apple explaining the situation and are waiting to hear back.
However, I agree with John Gruber over Daring Fireball, it is unfair to reject the iPhone app from Plausible Labs, a relatively smaller developer when the new version of Google's app which brought voice search feature was approved even though Google publicly confirmed that they had used unpublished APIs in their app.
Whats your take?
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ok, seriously? Why are we giving a f*ck about this stuff? Can we get back to REAL issues here?
WTF can u tell us what the real issues are?
isn't there a difference between "unpublished APIs" and "private APIs"? if so, it may moot the Google comparison; that aside, the approval process only adds a joke to the overall app store comedy of errors; the whole thing is a half-baked micromanaged economy that only survives because it is one are where Apple has too little incentive to meet its own standards
The real issue is when are we going to see porn on the iphone.
Isteamy
garbanzito — there's no real difference between "unpublished" and "private".
real issue huh? I guess the title of this site tells it… honestly, if there was something cool to post that wasn't hack related, fine. Someone not getting an app approved for "API" issues, while Google got their's approved really isn't much of an issue. Face it, sh*t like this happens ALL the time in life, get over it. (talking about the author of that app)
porn? try youporn, its got great porno for the iphone.
Hey, can we start a thread about iphone porn?
@Bobby, from arstechnica, which seems to have caught on about the difference: "Private APIs refer to frameworks that are not accessible by Xcode and which reside in the iPhone's PrivateFrameworks directory. Unpublished APIs refer to items in public libraries that are not documented in the SDK or officially sanctioned for use by Apple."
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/15/private-iphone-api-crackdown-in-progress
More reason to jailbreak and forget lame a$$ apple app store!
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This is a real issue y is apple sucking up to larg developing heads while we as small developers are being pushed down esspecially when the developing head is also it's compition