Yesterday, Apple yanked Airfoil Speakers Touch for unspecified reasons. A little birdie told us it was because Airfoil Speakers Touch duplicated inherent functionality in iOS 6. It’s possible that that’s still true, but if it is, it’s not why Airfoil Speakers Touch was pulled, as Apple has now gone on record saying it was actually because Rogue Amoeba violated a developer guideline against non-public APIs.
Confirming pundit John Gruber’s suspicions on the matter, Apple’s clarification makes clear that the reason the app was pulled has everything to do with new functionality introduced in version three that allows any iOS device running the app to play back audio from any source using Apple’s AirPlay wireless streaming protocol.
Since Apple only allows official and licensed products to do this, Rogue Amoeba hacked themselves together an API that allowed the app to do the same thing an Apple TV, say, can do: play music or media streamed from your Mac, iPhone or iPod. But that was the big “no no.”
Presumably Rogue Amoeba will yank or tweak the feature to be compliant, and all will again soon be well. As for whether or not iOS 6 will have the ability to beam audio from any Mac or iOS device to any other Mac or iOS device, only time will tell. Even if Airfoil Speakers Touch ends up being made redundant by iOS 6, though, it hasn’t been purged for that reason.
Source: The Verge
