Apple’s Review Process Strikes Again

For the first time, I have my own idiotic app review rejection story.  I have to say, until now I’ve been one of the lucky ones.  My developer app was approved in days, and every app and update I’ve put through has been approved with no hassles (save for the preposterous delay).  Until now.

Just a few days after my post on how the app review process hurts everyone, Apple rejected my PhotoZen update. Yes, my update.  The update was identical to the original app, except that it added a few features (and one bug fix) that nearly 100% of users insisted on.  It took them nearly two weeks to reject it.

Why?  Get ready for this.

When I submitted the app, I noted in the release notes that I added the following note:

“option to approve/deny photos from camera roll and library”. 

Let me explain.  Skip over this if you aren’t interested in the details.

When you use the image picker, you can ask the user if they want to select a picture from the camera, camera roll, or photo library.  If they choose camera, and snap a photo, it asks if they want to use the photo before returning the image to the app.  However, if they select camera roll or library, the minute they touch a photo it returns to the app.  My app, upon receiving the callback, immediately sent the photo to the server.

Now, many users said they wanted the ability to confirm that they really wanted to use the photo they selected.  Some other users said they wanted to be able to move and zoom the photo before sending it.  Turns out I could kill two birds with one stone.  By telling the image picker dialog to allow move and zoom, suddenly a Use Photo button appeared no matter what image source was chosen.

Brilliant.  In three lines of code I handled two feature requests, and noted them in the release notes.

Now back to the rejection.  Here is Apple’s reason for rejecting my update:

“feature is not implemented as described in the Release Notes”

Actually, Apple, yes it is. I said users now have the option to confirm or deny their selection.  That is precisely what happens.

But lets say it was a matter of semantics.  Considering I’ve been waiting almost two weeks for a critical update to go through (the bug I fixed was a biggie, and pretty much renders the app useless for a large number of people), why not just edit my release notes and approve the damn thing?  Instead, they expect me to submit the exact same binary and wait another two weeks.

This is ridiculous.  I cannot overstate my frustration with Apple.  Instead of getting better, things are actually getting worse.  I keep getting emails from other developers about the most ridiculous app and update rejections.  This system is so broken I have nothing to rightfully compare it to.

The solution remains simple: stop requiring app updates to be approved.  Allow developers to effectively “patch” their apps immediately and without review.  Apple’s bizarre need to control every aspect of everything is ruining, at the very least, my app.  I now have to let a couple thousand users know that the features they requested, the features I had ready within hours of the app’s initial release, will not be to them for yet another two weeks over a semantic disagreement with Apple.

This is disgraceful.  I have sent an email to Apple asking them to do the obvious thing and edit my release notes and approve.  I will update this post if they do so.  As it stands though, PhotoZen has been out for two weeks in a state that my users aren’t happy with, and I have no power to remedy the situation at all.

Want to do ___? Tough.

One of the reasons entrenched Windows users find switching to the Mac unappealing is that the interface is so different.  Different can be better. But in my opinion, after 6 months developing on the Mac, different is definitely NOT better.  I consider myself fairly used to the Mac interface and the Apple way of doing things, and sorry, any version of Windows blows OSX out of the water.

OSX, quite frankly, makes me want to fight.

Today I figured I’d finally see if there was a way to maximize a window without dragging the bottom right out and moving the window around.  This is ridiculously annoying, when sometimes you just want the focus to be on the window you are working in.

Of course, there isn’t.  But in searching I found this Mac user explaining why you shouldn’t even be looking for a Windows feature analogue on the Mac:

“Ask just about any Mac user and I think they’ll agree that it’s one of the many little things that makes the Mac UI superior to Windows. In most cases, maximizing a window serves no practical purpose, and actually just ends up wasting screen space by filling it with blank whitespace. After you get used to Mac behavior, I think you’ll see why it’s better.”

All I can say is, “AHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAH“. Seriously, a missing feature is not “superior”, it is a missing feature.  Even if there are good reasons for it not to be there, if 10% or more of your users really need it to get any pleasure out of using your system, it should be in there.

Color me once again completely mystified by Apple.  But every day it becomes a little more clear to me why Apple has had such a lack of success in getting more desktop market share.

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