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Posted by _da_ 12 hours ago

App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours(daringfireball.net)
310 points | 181 commentspage 4
nickndegwa 7 hours ago|
Dreading releasing my app to the stores, phew!
dtagames 5 hours ago||
What's wrong here is that Apple decided devs need their permission to install standard web tech apps on Apple devices.

Apple is anti-dev, pro control of the income stream, and only interested in supporting devs that are all in on the cult.

The fact that the dev made a web version with all the same functionality just proves we don't need an app store nor Apple to gatekeep it.

TooSmugToFail 11 hours ago||
Damn. What a shocking level of incompetence.

Has Apple really sunk that low?

RagnarD 10 hours ago||
The most evil (yes) thing about the rejection is that the same stupid wrong misinformation about the app continued to be rubber-stamped as it propagated forward in what should be increasing levels of actual scrutiny and attention. They are lying to call it a review - it's mindless rubber-stamping either by design or because Apple employs people who just can't be bothered to do their jobs.
lapcat 11 hours ago||
From https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/apples-tigh...

> In a sworn deposition in the Epic lawsuit, Phillip Shoemaker, the former head of the App Review team, said employees in his department generally did not have a technical background in computer coding. They needed to know how to use a Mac and an iPhone, he said.

> “Qualifications were that they could breathe, they could think,” he said. And they typically worked at the Apple “Genius Bar” at the company’s retail stores. It typically took about 13 minutes to review a new app, Shoemaker said in the deposition.

ceejayoz 11 hours ago||
They're likely just ticking boxes on a checklist - does the app crash, does the app have a privacy policy, does the app permit chat?

Nothing about level one app review should need coding skills. Appeals, maybe, but even there, it's almost never about the code.

Grombobulous 10 hours ago||
This isn't really a bad thing. That's exactly what you want from an app reviewer. You want someone who has critical thinking skills but is looking at the app from the perspective of a typical customer.

Anything involving technical code review of apps on Apple's scale should be automated anyway.

lapcat 9 hours ago||
> has critical thinking skills

That's not what the court testimony said. Could think does not imply could think critically, especially not when preceded by "could breathe", which is an absurdly low bar. Might as well say, "not literally dead".

Grombobulous 4 hours ago||
You just chopped off the other part of the sentence to change the meaning.

> “Qualifications were that they could breathe, they could think,” he said.

“They could think” implies critical thinking skills.

Then the next sentence says they usually work at the Genius Bar, which is not at all an entry level role.

AlexandrB 12 hours ago||
I look forward to this app now being approved because getting a viral post on reddit/HN/Twitter is what passes for customer service in 2026.
justinhj 7 hours ago||
The author is right, the website is nice, but I am having trouble finding my star sign.
micromacrofoot 7 hours ago||
It's a fine app, but I'm not sure why gruber is glazing it so hard... is he not able to spot something so clearly built by AI? it's one of the better ones but it's got all the hallmarks. I'd be surprised if it's maintained a year from now.
scared_together 2 hours ago|
Is Gruber actually against AI-built apps?

He was against the unofficial Mac port of Notepad++ but that had many problems other than being AI-assisted.

erichocean 8 hours ago||
It took 90 days earlier this year for our venture-backed business to get approved by Apple merely for a corporate developer account, with all documentation available at the beginning of the process.

They are insanely, glacially slow.

sneak 9 hours ago|
The worst part is that for all of this, the App Store is still absolutely chock full of fraud apps, scam apps, and malware.

They deny great apps, fail to fix their mistakes, and leave heaps and heaps of actively malicious apps in place, in the top 40 in every category.

And we pay them 10x cc processing fees (30% instead of 3%) for this.

It’s pure rentseeking bullshit, and it goes against everything that made Apple Apple. It’s an actual tragedy.

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