It’s Another Crazy App Store Rejection – This Time, Apple Thinks Everyone’s Stupid

Similar, but not the same. The Apple icon police get all angry with Convertbot.

God help us if Mac OS X ever has a system like the App Store policy. This time, Convertbot by Tapbots (a Cult of Mac favorite a while ago) was rejected. Its crime, as the image above shows, was using an icon for Time that Apple considers too similar to the one it uses for Recents.

Thing is, Tapbots just used a generic and insanely simple clock icon. Clearly, Apple—a company that bases a lot of its advertising on the fact smart people use Macs and Apple kit—thinks iPhone and iPod touch users are a bunch of f——ing morons, with no understanding of context. Perhaps they’re right and Cupertino has been inundated with frustrated iPhone users, repeatedly stabbing the Convertbot clock icon and yet not being able to access a recent calls list.

Somehow, we doubt it. Also, this icon’s the same one Convertbot’s had since the start—and this is the third point update to the app, and therefore the fourth time it’s been submitted. There were no problems at all the first three times.

With Philip Schiller’s email to John Gruber (regarding Ninjawords) and a similar communication to Panic’s Steven Frank, along with positive noises regarding C64 app finally being approved, we’re for once going to give Apple the benefit of the doubt on this (in that the decision is an isolated error). But here’s hoping things really are improving—that the Convertbot rejection is the blip, rather than the blip being Apple getting things right.

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18 comments »

About the author

Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs iPhoneTiny.com, a Twitter-driven reviews site for iPhone apps and games. Follow Craig on Twitter @CraigGrannell and visit his website, Snub Communications.

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Posted in iPhone, News |

Duality
Wow. The madness never ends. I love Convertbot… If anyone is stupid enough to think that they’re somehow using a phone while inside Convertbot, then I really question what they’re doing with a ‘smartphone’ like the iPhone or how they have even earned enough money in their lives to afford one.
http://www.manomio.com Stuart Carnie
Yet another rejection demonstrating lack of good judgement. With reports like this, I’d dare to say that few would feel good about putting ‘Worked on Apple’s iPhone review team’ in their rÃ©sumÃ©…
http://www.kazzmedia.com Kevin Cassidy
silly yes
but i imagine all the need to do is invert the icon
Ben Ho
This is crazy, come on Apple, we won’t call a friend by launching Convertbot. Period. Stupid!
mr. nice.
convert bot is an overdone crap app by amateurs. doing a conversion shouldn’t take 5 screen taps and waiting for crap animations to be done.
T
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A
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buy “convert” instead- it’s cooler and to the point fast.
owen-b
Why give Apple the benefit of any doubt here? It’s a ridiculous thing to reject it for.
http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell
Benefit of the doubt in it being a one-off screw-up, not in the sense of “Apple got it right”. I’ve updated the article to clarify what I meant.
http://macbookwhite.wordpress.com Alexandre Costa
Fortunately, I had already get the last version of this excellent program. Apple still doesn’t have the power to erase our apps within our gadgets, as amazon did with their kindle. But who knows… there’s a next ipod to come, and iPhone has a continuous improvement… Sometimes I wish to be Richard Stallman, and have only free beer.
Charli
my only comment is to consider the source of the information. since it’s the rejected app maker perhaps we aren’t getting the full story. just saying.
also consider that the reviewers were probably more concerned with the app not killing phones when it first came out and perhaps didn’t paid super close attention to the icons
http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell
@Charli – bear in mind, as I stated, this is the FOURTH version of this app. All THREE previous releases went straight through the approvals process and had the exact same icon.
iBobX
Saddly they suck in that way. I am an independent developer making apps for 3rd party, and the same thing happened to me. For example with a really simple app called URNoiseMaker, after few version updates they said the “more…” icon is confusing for the user (i was using it for showing more information about the app and also the support page link), but they comes saying its not intended for that and it’s confusing, but also after few versions releases and like a month after i sent the app… :S So I’ve changed that icon and used the company logo i did this for and they accepted the app…
ConvertBot, i think is an awesome app, very cool design for a simple thing “conversions”, i think that makes this app unique, i have it and love it… Too sad they rejected because the same crappy politics…
AdamC
What’s the big deal, just change the symbol and resubmit the app.
Whining wouldn’t solve the problem it is it getting to be a fact that it is better to whine than to do it right.
One point I notice is when an app os reject the developer will go through the roof – is it because of the fact that his greed for profit is impacted.
http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell
Wow. Nice response, Adam. Bear in mind these guys are small indie developers, and the app’s already been okayed by Apple three times. But this time, Apple decided it didn’t like the icon, so the app needs resubmitting, which will take at least another two weeks. This doesn’t necessarily deny Tapbots much more money, but it does deny every single Convertbot user access to updates and bug fixes while Apple decides whether to approve the update – and there is no guarantee it will, since guidance is never given regarding what is acceptable.
Cami
Soon they may be rejecting apps because “It uses a significant amount of yellow, which may confuse our customers into thinking they’re using Notes.”
http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell
Gold star for Cami! :D
PDM777
Funny Twitterific uses the same symbol for their program for the timeline past tweets
http://www.cyclelogicpress.com Partners in Grime
About time. :)
imajoebob
Just change it to read 10:10. The advertising industry found this alignment the most pleasing to potential clock/watch customers. There are a number of factors that make the geometry relaxing, inviting, and pleasing to view. So make the change. Apple may even have helped, if just a little bit.