Apple rejects Taposé because it’s too advanced(?)
Apple’s App Store guidelines make about as much sense as the Acer A200. Meaning they don’t. One of the apps I’ve been looking the most forward to for almost a year now has been Taposé, a Kickstarter project that wants to emulate the Microsoft Courier experience on the iPad. After getting funded on Kickstarter, the developers have worked hard at getting the app done, tested, fixed, patched, edited and polished for the grand entry into the App Store. On December 5 last year an update was posted that the app had been submitted to Apple. Then today, over a month later, the message I had been fearing since noticing the time it took to get approved came: it had been rejected. An update from the developers tells the short tale of how the initial review and re-submission were both rejected, and how they plan on proceeding with appealing that decision.
Apple’s reasoning? Section 10.4 of the App Store guidelines, stating that Apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-app widget experiences will be rejected. Oh, so that’s what happened to iDashboard. Sounds like a pretty ridiculous rule to me, as you can argue until the end of time about what a multi-app widget experience or home screen environment is. What about third party browsers with plugins? The Google app with several smaller apps inside it? Twitter apps with more than one timeline open? Facebook, for crying out loud!?
Basically, this is all a massive amount of male cattle excrement from Apple. Taposé is designed to be an advanced note taking app, and from the promo video you see above, it’s likely to be one of the most powerful apps on the iPad to date. The fact that it has its own internal structure for moving between features does not make it a homescreen replacement anymore than a browser is one. Apple is going to hold an education-related event soon, and here it is, rejecting an app that could do a world of good in the educational realm.
Up until today I was 100% sure that despite having bought an Android tablet and switched out my old iPhone for a Galaxy S II, the iPad would always be part of my setup because of the app selection on iOS. Now I’m not so sure. When Apple rejects an app like Taposé for some (pardon the expression) idiotic reason like that, it just makes me think that the platform will always be limited by a company so arrogant that it would let its business go down the drain before acknowledging that it’s made a mistake.
Original update from Taposé after the break
[Taposé @ Kickstarter]
Backers,
Upon Apple’s review of Taposé we regret to inform you that Taposé has been rejected.
Apple rejected the app due to rule 10.4 stating that Taposé presents multiple windows at once. We created an alternate where the Slide Bar couldn’t separate the screen into two to at least get an approval.
They still rejected citing a screenshot of the open Journal as evidence of the multiple windows. This obviously is not multiple windows and even if it was, they are being extremely inconsistent with this rule in approving apps.
We are currently filing an appeal against this decision.
As we proceed through this process we ask for your continued support, guidance, and belief in Taposé as we continue to be transparent for you in this situation.
Do NOT be discouraged. We are NOT giving up yet without a fight!!! We will let you know soon how the situation is progressing.
Regards,
Taposé
