7 ms·

Turning the iPhone 6s Into a Digital Scale

168 points by huntleydavis 11y ago

adrusi 11y ago
I doubt that Apple's primary concern is people breaking their screens. It would actually be quite difficult to break your screen by putting heavy weights onto a spoon. No, Apple's concern is supporting this app to the future. They don't know if they'll be sticking with this same kind of sensor for future models, and they don't know that any future sensor will be backwards compatible for this app. If people get used to using this app, suddenly they'd be under an obligation to keep it working, thus losing options for future designs.
- fpgeek 11y ago
  Considering how frequently and heavily Apple pushes developers for other updates (e.g. new iOS version support, 64-bit support, etc.) I'd be shocked if future support were any consideration in the rejection. I'd expect Apple to be perfectly happy to deprecate and/or replace an API, allow changes in undefined behavior in future models and so on. If the app breaks, so be it.
gabemart 11y ago
A minor point, but the app was rejected rather than "shut down". It's a shame, it seems like a neat application and I can totally imagine using an app like this to weigh spices or coffee beans.
- gitah 11y ago
  My guess is that Apple didn't want their customers ruining their phone screens by putting heavy objects on it. By accepting the app, Apple is implicitly allowing the use case of using the phone as a scale.
  - Nadya 11y ago
    Exactly this. "Oh, let's see how accurately it weighs 50lbs!" Anyone remember the "waterproof" troll? Apple is protecting some of their users from their own stupidity.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > By accepting the app, Apple is implicitly allowing the use case of using the phone as a scale. This may be a bigger issue than just concern that customers might ruin their screens (and blame Apple.) Scales (for commercial use) are regulated, and devices marketed as scales but intended for only non-commercial use are explicitly labeled "not for us in trade"; Apple probably doesn't want to be seen as marketing or endorsing the iPhone as a scale, even implicitly.
  - hugh4 11y ago
    That plus the fact that the sensor is probably not reliably calibrated between phones and may degrade with age. Apple doesn't want to deal with complaints about how their phone is doing a crummy job at weighing things.
- threeseed 11y ago
  > imagine using an app like this to weigh spices or coffee beans. Seriously ? You would rather potentially ruin your $700 phone by breaking the screen or getting spice particles inside instead of buying a $5 scale.
  - XJOKOLAT 11y ago
    Let me decide that. I accept your point but having Apple iNanny watching over my shoulder is boring as hell. (disclaimer: I don't own an iPhone and cannot see that happening in the near term).
    - threeseed 11y ago
      You already can decide that. You can build the app and deploy it your phone. Putting this app on the store however is an implicit endorsement of it.
      - jasonkostempski 11y ago
        For $99/yr. Edit: + the price of a Mac of some kind.
        chillacy 11y ago
        Well, just the mac now, since you can "sideload" apps onto your phone with xcode: http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/10/xcode-7-allows-anyone-to-download-build-and-sideload-ios-apps-for-free/ http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/10/xcode-7-allows-anyone-to-downl...
        jasonkostempski 11y ago
        Sorry for the uninformed response. Been out of the iOS game for a few months and I didn't even bother checking if that was still true since I never thought they'd get rid of that silly requirement. Good for them.
        11y ago
w4 11y ago
That's a shame. Gravity looks like a clever app, and the UX in the reviewer video was pretty slick. The spoon + quarter calibration is great! This sort of thing is why I'm increasingly disinterested in developing for iOS for fun (and why most of my recent side project work has been on web apps). App review is effectively a black box since the rules are applied so inconsistently, and working for weeks or months on something only to find out the Apple doesn't like it is a constant concern. Add in the the real and psychological barriers app review imposes when making bug fixes or updates, and it makes going back to the web rather attractive. It'd be nice to see Apple make some changes to the process. (I know I could move over to Android dev, but since I use an iPhone it's not terribly interesting for side projects - though that's my problem, not Androids's.)
- gabemart 11y ago
  > I know I could move over to Android dev, but since I use an iPhone it's not terrible interesting for side projects Fragmentation and the frequency of device- or vendor-specific bugs and other issues take a lot of the fun out of Android dev for me.
- threeseed 11y ago
  Apple's position is actually very easy to understand. Don't do anything that is likely to cause significant harm to them. Examples of this include: (a) negative press publicity e.g. porn app, drone strike app, (b) stealing from or harming their customers and of course (c) this app where they will have to cover the cost of you putting heavy objects on something that it was never designed to do. If you want to damage your own phone go ahead. You can build a weighing app and deploy it to your phone. But expecting Apple to endorse (which is what the App Store actually is) stupid behaviour was never going to happen.
  - roosterjm2k2 11y ago
    I don't buy it. Where is the negative publicity on android? It doesn't exist... There are apps that many people find offensive on the play store... just like there are movies on amazon that some people would find offensive... same thing..
mindslight 11y ago
And this is precisely the problem with centralization. It forces a Yes or No when the appropriate answer is Wu.
skaevola 11y ago
Really cool app, and a shame Apple rejected it. Using a spoon was a very clever idea. Why did you choose to display weight in grams to 3 decimal points when the measurements are only accurate to within 3g? It would be better to not display the values after the decimal point, so you don't give your users a false sense of accuracy.
- ryanmcleod 11y ago
  (Sorry for the slow response!) I'm really glad you called this out! You're totally right. The demo video was shot with an earlier version of the app before this was fixed :) Here's a more recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3S95b9gAC8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3S95b9gAC8 One decimal place (in grams) was kept since precision != accuracy.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Jitle 11y ago
I would happily pay money for this app, a true shame that it has been rejected. This story makes me wish that there were easy to use sideloading opportunities for app developers within iOS.
- w4 11y ago
  Xcode 7 lets you compile and run apps on a device without a developer account. It would require giving out your source code, but at least it's available.
  - interpol_p 11y ago
    You could give your code out as a compiled static library or framework if you were concerned about that. Then the source code would just be the trivial code required to link and present the app.
    - MikeTLive 11y ago
      Can it be coded with the users public key from their device thus limiting it to work o my on the device with the matching private key? IDevices do use public/private keys don't they ;)
nosuchthing 11y ago
A year or two ago some developer [0] figured out how to code some sort of pseudo pressure sensitivity into a music making app, which seemed to work well from what I heard. Apple eventually banned the app from their store citing improper use of the code base. [0] trying to search for it, seems lost to the memory hole
- nosuchthing 11y ago
  The app was called "Orphion", and it had several methods for detecting gestures/articulations: a gentle finger tip touch, a tap, and a push down. Apple cited forbidden private API use. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/06/hands-off-apple-wants-to-pull-orphion-music-app-over-touch-apis/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/06/hands-off-apple-wants-... Apple just called me to nicely tell me I use a private API function to sense the area of the screen which is covered by the finger for its articulation gesture ([CDM] wrote about it). This is crazy – thousands of users love it for this and it makes Orphion so expressive. The app will be removed from the App Store in two weeks if I don’t submit a new version without it – and I currently can’t think of Orphion without this gesture. So what I can recommend is 1. Everyone who wants to have the “original” Orphion get it NOW from the app store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app /orphion/id495465097), it will be only be there for a few more days 2. Backup the current version to keep it. (Michael Tyson from Audiobus made this great tutorial) 3. Tell Apple to make this great function officially usable in apps (Any ideas how to do that?) So far… let’s see if this is really the end of Orphion. ...looks like the petition worked and Orphion was allowed to keep the gesture functionality; https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orphion/id495465097 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orphion/id495465097
tsotha 11y ago
>Apple has a moral and ethical onus to make the right choices be it related to the confederate flag, changing drug laws, or using emoji to fight bullying, and we respect that. I can't decide if he really respects that or if he's still hoping to get his app approved. Companies should not be in the business of trying to enforce (clearly unenforceable) laws by removing features that do perfectly legal things.
- threeseed 11y ago
  But companies equally have a right to own the experience. Creating an app to harvest hardware identifiers and using that to track them is legal. But it tarnishes the experience of their product and is anti-consumer by every definition. Apple should have the ability not to allow that. Just because something is legal does not make it morally or ethically "right".
  - pjlegato 11y ago
    The company doesn't own your phone. You do. Surely YOU should be the one who decides what constitutes "proper" software to run on hardware that you purchased?
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    I'm a bit torn on this. On the one hand, I hate how not having ultra strict UX guidelines turns Android app ecosystem into shit (with every major app maker providing their own crap experience). On the other hand, I firmly believe the right of a company to control the "experience" I get from using a tool I bought from them should end the second I walk out of their store. If they are to tell me how I can and can not use my device (above what the law says), then it's not my device, and it's not a tool.
- msbarnett 11y ago
  > Companies should not be in the business of trying to enforce (clearly unenforceable) laws by removing features that do perfectly legal things. Dragon-dick dildos are legal, but that hardly means Wal-Mart is under any obligation to stock them for sale if that's not something they want their brand associated with. If Apple doesn't want their brand to be associated with racist apps, or pornography, or pony apps, or whatever they choose, why would it not be their right to do the same as Wal-Mart? As consumers, we can choose where to shop based on what stores do and do not stock. If you don't like what Apple stocks, don't shop in its store, and don't buy their devices.
dea74747 11y ago
Drug related? An app allowing reasonably-accurate weighing of samples with 0.1g resolution has significant black market applications.
- Bud 11y ago
  Except it's not anywhere close to that accurate. Article clearly stated it's more like +/- 1-3 grams.
- IkmoIkmo 11y ago
  A phone, a car, a wallet, plastic bags, lighters... they're all ubiquitously used by the drug industry. Preventing scales because of illicit use of weighing something is like banning cutlery because they can be used as weapons, banning cars because they can be getaway cars, banning phones because they can be used to setup illicit trades, etc etc. I think it's a bit silly and I don't think it'd affect the brand any more than it already is (peruse drug culture on social media and you'll find plenty of iphones featured, it hasn't affected the brand at all in a negative way, it's still a luxury item and people still view it as a phone you'd love to gift to family of any age if money is of no concern).
Bud 11y ago
Why the anti-Apple headline edit?
- logicallee 11y ago
  How did it read before? It reads "Apple shuts down app that uses 'Force Touch' to weigh objects " which seems objective to me?
Mikushi 11y ago
Clever idea and use of technology, not surprised to see Apple reject as they want nothing to do with either concepts. As a developer I will never develop for, support, condone or recommend Apple products to anyone I know because of such behaviour, they want a wall garden, good for them, but I'll have no active part in it.
- cguess 11y ago
  Really really obvious reason they did this. People are dumb. Someone, probably very soon, and probably more than one or even ten people, would overload the weight and crack their screen. At which point they would show up at the Apple Store DEMANDING a brand new phone. When they didn't get the repair because they're too stupid to understand how glass works they would contact CNN or HuffPo or whatever and there'd be a flurry about "glassgate" or something. Same way that putting a thin phone in your back pocket, SITTING on it and then complaining it bent set off a huge issue and tons of news coverage. There is a walled garden, this is not an example of Apple overreaching though.
  - 2bitencryption 11y ago
    I think the real problem is that they are absolutely not calibrated for any weight. I don't know what the programming interface exposes, but I'd imagine it's something like a percentage out of 100, or something like that. So people are going to think "My iPhone isn't weighing this accurately! It must be defective!" because Apple never intended for the technology to be translated into a scale.
    - robotresearcher 11y ago
      The Fine Article explains the calibration process they use very nicely. Good UI too.
    - CyberDildonics 11y ago
      Way to read the article
  - 11y ago
stevewilhelm 11y ago
Kind of like the Plum-O-Meter http://flexmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-plum-o-meter-weighing-plums-using.html http://flexmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-plum-o-meter-we...
cjensen 11y ago
Using an extremely expensive ultra-thin high-resolution touch-sensitive easily-scratched display as a scale is a pretty terrible idea. If Apple allows the app and someone weighs tiny diamonds on the screen, whose fault is it that the display is scratched? Ordinary people may not understand how the Mohs hardness scale works. Ordinary people may not be accurate judges of whether or not something is too heavy to place on a phone without damaging it. Cute hack, but too many unintended consequences in the real world.
- matt4077 11y ago
  RTA! Any object would have to be in a spoon (or something similar). And even diamonds on the screen wouldn't scratch it unless you applied pressure. At which point you don't deserve a scratch-free screen (but can buy one with those diamonds).
LeoPanthera 11y ago
Apple now allows you to sideload apps from source without paying the developer fee, so it can still be distributed in source format for anyone to install.
- shalmanese 11y ago
  Anyone with access to OSX and Xcode.
tmd83 11y ago
Could the heavier weight (not big enough to break the screen) could actually damage the force touch sensor also? But probably the screen damage possibility was the reason for the rejection.
pjlegato 11y ago
I thought this was a great article, until the end where the author not only gives up, but writes a meek apologietic stating that Apple is clearly and wholly right to block people from running any software it doesn't like on their own phones, without explanation. Does Apple retaliate against people who complain about the App Store review process in public or something?
croddin 11y ago
There is a Force Touch Javascript api that can be used in Safari, right? Could this app be rewritten as a web page?
- robwormald 11y ago
  brilliant idea!
- art0rz 11y ago
  https://github.com/freinbichler/3d-touch https://github.com/freinbichler/3d-touch
dmckeon 11y ago
Note that the 1944 90% silver Washington quarters pictured would weigh 6.25 grams each, while the 1965+ cupro-nickel sandwich quarters weigh 5.67g each.
cromwellian 11y ago
>Apple has a moral and ethical onus to make the right choices be it related to the confederate flag, changing drug laws, or using emoji to fight bullying, and we respect that. Do you, or do you fear retaliation from Apple if you bad mouth them?
sea2summit 11y ago
I'd bet a beer Apple comes out with their own version next year.
dang 11y ago
It's against the HN guidelines to editorialize titles when submitting stories, so please don't. (Submitted title was "Apple shuts down app that uses 'Force Touch' to weigh objects".)
dkonofalski 11y ago
Pleasantly surprised at the developers' reaction to the rejection. It's like they knew that there was a chance and they weren't really upset when it didn't go their way. Kudos to them for their ingenuity despite the failure.

168 points by huntleydavis 11y ago

I doubt that Apple's primary concern is people breaking their screens. It would actually be quite difficult to break your screen by putting heavy weights onto a spoon. No, Apple's concern is supporting this app to the future. They don't know if they'll be sticking with this same kind of sensor for future models, and they don't know that any future sensor will be backwards compatible for this app. If people get used to using this app, suddenly they'd be under an obligation to keep it working, thus losing options for future designs.

fpgeek 11y ago
Considering how frequently and heavily Apple pushes developers for other updates (e.g. new iOS version support, 64-bit support, etc.) I'd be shocked if future support were any consideration in the rejection. I'd expect Apple to be perfectly happy to deprecate and/or replace an API, allow changes in undefined behavior in future models and so on. If the app breaks, so be it.

gabemart 11y ago

A minor point, but the app was rejected rather than "shut down". It's a shame, it seems like a neat application and I can totally imagine using an app like this to weigh spices or coffee beans.

gitah 11y ago
My guess is that Apple didn't want their customers ruining their phone screens by putting heavy objects on it. By accepting the app, Apple is implicitly allowing the use case of using the phone as a scale.
- Nadya 11y ago
  Exactly this. "Oh, let's see how accurately it weighs 50lbs!" Anyone remember the "waterproof" troll? Apple is protecting some of their users from their own stupidity.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > By accepting the app, Apple is implicitly allowing the use case of using the phone as a scale. This may be a bigger issue than just concern that customers might ruin their screens (and blame Apple.) Scales (for commercial use) are regulated, and devices marketed as scales but intended for only non-commercial use are explicitly labeled "not for us in trade"; Apple probably doesn't want to be seen as marketing or endorsing the iPhone as a scale, even implicitly.
- hugh4 11y ago
  That plus the fact that the sensor is probably not reliably calibrated between phones and may degrade with age. Apple doesn't want to deal with complaints about how their phone is doing a crummy job at weighing things.
threeseed 11y ago
> imagine using an app like this to weigh spices or coffee beans. Seriously ? You would rather potentially ruin your $700 phone by breaking the screen or getting spice particles inside instead of buying a $5 scale.
- XJOKOLAT 11y ago
  Let me decide that. I accept your point but having Apple iNanny watching over my shoulder is boring as hell. (disclaimer: I don't own an iPhone and cannot see that happening in the near term).
  - threeseed 11y ago
    You already can decide that. You can build the app and deploy it your phone. Putting this app on the store however is an implicit endorsement of it.
    - jasonkostempski 11y ago
      For $99/yr. Edit: + the price of a Mac of some kind.
      - chillacy 11y ago
        Well, just the mac now, since you can "sideload" apps onto your phone with xcode: http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/10/xcode-7-allows-anyone-to-download-build-and-sideload-ios-apps-for-free/ http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/10/xcode-7-allows-anyone-to-downl...
        jasonkostempski 11y ago
        Sorry for the uninformed response. Been out of the iOS game for a few months and I didn't even bother checking if that was still true since I never thought they'd get rid of that silly requirement. Good for them.
      - 11y ago

w4 11y ago

That's a shame. Gravity looks like a clever app, and the UX in the reviewer video was pretty slick. The spoon + quarter calibration is great! This sort of thing is why I'm increasingly disinterested in developing for iOS for fun (and why most of my recent side project work has been on web apps). App review is effectively a black box since the rules are applied so inconsistently, and working for weeks or months on something only to find out the Apple doesn't like it is a constant concern. Add in the the real and psychological barriers app review imposes when making bug fixes or updates, and it makes going back to the web rather attractive. It'd be nice to see Apple make some changes to the process. (I know I could move over to Android dev, but since I use an iPhone it's not terribly interesting for side projects - though that's my problem, not Androids's.)

gabemart 11y ago
> I know I could move over to Android dev, but since I use an iPhone it's not terrible interesting for side projects Fragmentation and the frequency of device- or vendor-specific bugs and other issues take a lot of the fun out of Android dev for me.
threeseed 11y ago
Apple's position is actually very easy to understand. Don't do anything that is likely to cause significant harm to them. Examples of this include: (a) negative press publicity e.g. porn app, drone strike app, (b) stealing from or harming their customers and of course (c) this app where they will have to cover the cost of you putting heavy objects on something that it was never designed to do. If you want to damage your own phone go ahead. You can build a weighing app and deploy it to your phone. But expecting Apple to endorse (which is what the App Store actually is) stupid behaviour was never going to happen.
- roosterjm2k2 11y ago
  I don't buy it. Where is the negative publicity on android? It doesn't exist... There are apps that many people find offensive on the play store... just like there are movies on amazon that some people would find offensive... same thing..

mindslight 11y ago

And this is precisely the problem with centralization. It forces a Yes or No when the appropriate answer is Wu.

skaevola 11y ago

Really cool app, and a shame Apple rejected it. Using a spoon was a very clever idea. Why did you choose to display weight in grams to 3 decimal points when the measurements are only accurate to within 3g? It would be better to not display the values after the decimal point, so you don't give your users a false sense of accuracy.

ryanmcleod 11y ago
(Sorry for the slow response!) I'm really glad you called this out! You're totally right. The demo video was shot with an earlier version of the app before this was fixed :) Here's a more recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3S95b9gAC8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3S95b9gAC8 One decimal place (in grams) was kept since precision != accuracy.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Jitle 11y ago

I would happily pay money for this app, a true shame that it has been rejected. This story makes me wish that there were easy to use sideloading opportunities for app developers within iOS.

w4 11y ago
Xcode 7 lets you compile and run apps on a device without a developer account. It would require giving out your source code, but at least it's available.
- interpol_p 11y ago
  You could give your code out as a compiled static library or framework if you were concerned about that. Then the source code would just be the trivial code required to link and present the app.
  - MikeTLive 11y ago
    Can it be coded with the users public key from their device thus limiting it to work o my on the device with the matching private key? IDevices do use public/private keys don't they ;)

nosuchthing 11y ago

A year or two ago some developer [0] figured out how to code some sort of pseudo pressure sensitivity into a music making app, which seemed to work well from what I heard. Apple eventually banned the app from their store citing improper use of the code base. [0] trying to search for it, seems lost to the memory hole

nosuchthing 11y ago
The app was called "Orphion", and it had several methods for detecting gestures/articulations: a gentle finger tip touch, a tap, and a push down. Apple cited forbidden private API use. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/06/hands-off-apple-wants-to-pull-orphion-music-app-over-touch-apis/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/06/hands-off-apple-wants-... Apple just called me to nicely tell me I use a private API function to sense the area of the screen which is covered by the finger for its articulation gesture ([CDM] wrote about it). This is crazy – thousands of users love it for this and it makes Orphion so expressive. The app will be removed from the App Store in two weeks if I don’t submit a new version without it – and I currently can’t think of Orphion without this gesture. So what I can recommend is 1. Everyone who wants to have the “original” Orphion get it NOW from the app store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app /orphion/id495465097), it will be only be there for a few more days 2. Backup the current version to keep it. (Michael Tyson from Audiobus made this great tutorial) 3. Tell Apple to make this great function officially usable in apps (Any ideas how to do that?) So far… let’s see if this is really the end of Orphion. ...looks like the petition worked and Orphion was allowed to keep the gesture functionality; https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orphion/id495465097 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orphion/id495465097

tsotha 11y ago

>Apple has a moral and ethical onus to make the right choices be it related to the confederate flag, changing drug laws, or using emoji to fight bullying, and we respect that. I can't decide if he really respects that or if he's still hoping to get his app approved. Companies should not be in the business of trying to enforce (clearly unenforceable) laws by removing features that do perfectly legal things.

threeseed 11y ago
But companies equally have a right to own the experience. Creating an app to harvest hardware identifiers and using that to track them is legal. But it tarnishes the experience of their product and is anti-consumer by every definition. Apple should have the ability not to allow that. Just because something is legal does not make it morally or ethically "right".
- pjlegato 11y ago
  The company doesn't own your phone. You do. Surely YOU should be the one who decides what constitutes "proper" software to run on hardware that you purchased?
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  I'm a bit torn on this. On the one hand, I hate how not having ultra strict UX guidelines turns Android app ecosystem into shit (with every major app maker providing their own crap experience). On the other hand, I firmly believe the right of a company to control the "experience" I get from using a tool I bought from them should end the second I walk out of their store. If they are to tell me how I can and can not use my device (above what the law says), then it's not my device, and it's not a tool.
msbarnett 11y ago
> Companies should not be in the business of trying to enforce (clearly unenforceable) laws by removing features that do perfectly legal things. Dragon-dick dildos are legal, but that hardly means Wal-Mart is under any obligation to stock them for sale if that's not something they want their brand associated with. If Apple doesn't want their brand to be associated with racist apps, or pornography, or pony apps, or whatever they choose, why would it not be their right to do the same as Wal-Mart? As consumers, we can choose where to shop based on what stores do and do not stock. If you don't like what Apple stocks, don't shop in its store, and don't buy their devices.

dea74747 11y ago

Drug related? An app allowing reasonably-accurate weighing of samples with 0.1g resolution has significant black market applications.

Bud 11y ago
Except it's not anywhere close to that accurate. Article clearly stated it's more like +/- 1-3 grams.
IkmoIkmo 11y ago
A phone, a car, a wallet, plastic bags, lighters... they're all ubiquitously used by the drug industry. Preventing scales because of illicit use of weighing something is like banning cutlery because they can be used as weapons, banning cars because they can be getaway cars, banning phones because they can be used to setup illicit trades, etc etc. I think it's a bit silly and I don't think it'd affect the brand any more than it already is (peruse drug culture on social media and you'll find plenty of iphones featured, it hasn't affected the brand at all in a negative way, it's still a luxury item and people still view it as a phone you'd love to gift to family of any age if money is of no concern).

Bud 11y ago

Why the anti-Apple headline edit?

logicallee 11y ago
How did it read before? It reads "Apple shuts down app that uses 'Force Touch' to weigh objects " which seems objective to me?

Mikushi 11y ago

Clever idea and use of technology, not surprised to see Apple reject as they want nothing to do with either concepts. As a developer I will never develop for, support, condone or recommend Apple products to anyone I know because of such behaviour, they want a wall garden, good for them, but I'll have no active part in it.

cguess 11y ago
Really really obvious reason they did this. People are dumb. Someone, probably very soon, and probably more than one or even ten people, would overload the weight and crack their screen. At which point they would show up at the Apple Store DEMANDING a brand new phone. When they didn't get the repair because they're too stupid to understand how glass works they would contact CNN or HuffPo or whatever and there'd be a flurry about "glassgate" or something. Same way that putting a thin phone in your back pocket, SITTING on it and then complaining it bent set off a huge issue and tons of news coverage. There is a walled garden, this is not an example of Apple overreaching though.
- 2bitencryption 11y ago
  I think the real problem is that they are absolutely not calibrated for any weight. I don't know what the programming interface exposes, but I'd imagine it's something like a percentage out of 100, or something like that. So people are going to think "My iPhone isn't weighing this accurately! It must be defective!" because Apple never intended for the technology to be translated into a scale.
  - robotresearcher 11y ago
    The Fine Article explains the calibration process they use very nicely. Good UI too.
  - CyberDildonics 11y ago
    Way to read the article
- 11y ago

stevewilhelm 11y ago

Kind of like the Plum-O-Meter http://flexmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-plum-o-meter-weighing-plums-using.html http://flexmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-plum-o-meter-we...

cjensen 11y ago

Using an extremely expensive ultra-thin high-resolution touch-sensitive easily-scratched display as a scale is a pretty terrible idea. If Apple allows the app and someone weighs tiny diamonds on the screen, whose fault is it that the display is scratched? Ordinary people may not understand how the Mohs hardness scale works. Ordinary people may not be accurate judges of whether or not something is too heavy to place on a phone without damaging it. Cute hack, but too many unintended consequences in the real world.

matt4077 11y ago
RTA! Any object would have to be in a spoon (or something similar). And even diamonds on the screen wouldn't scratch it unless you applied pressure. At which point you don't deserve a scratch-free screen (but can buy one with those diamonds).

LeoPanthera 11y ago

Apple now allows you to sideload apps from source without paying the developer fee, so it can still be distributed in source format for anyone to install.

shalmanese 11y ago
Anyone with access to OSX and Xcode.

tmd83 11y ago

Could the heavier weight (not big enough to break the screen) could actually damage the force touch sensor also? But probably the screen damage possibility was the reason for the rejection.

pjlegato 11y ago

I thought this was a great article, until the end where the author not only gives up, but writes a meek apologietic stating that Apple is clearly and wholly right to block people from running any software it doesn't like on their own phones, without explanation. Does Apple retaliate against people who complain about the App Store review process in public or something?

croddin 11y ago

There is a Force Touch Javascript api that can be used in Safari, right? Could this app be rewritten as a web page?

robwormald 11y ago
brilliant idea!
art0rz 11y ago
https://github.com/freinbichler/3d-touch https://github.com/freinbichler/3d-touch

dmckeon 11y ago

Note that the 1944 90% silver Washington quarters pictured would weigh 6.25 grams each, while the 1965+ cupro-nickel sandwich quarters weigh 5.67g each.

cromwellian 11y ago

>Apple has a moral and ethical onus to make the right choices be it related to the confederate flag, changing drug laws, or using emoji to fight bullying, and we respect that. Do you, or do you fear retaliation from Apple if you bad mouth them?

sea2summit 11y ago

I'd bet a beer Apple comes out with their own version next year.

dang 11y ago

It's against the HN guidelines to editorialize titles when submitting stories, so please don't. (Submitted title was "Apple shuts down app that uses 'Force Touch' to weigh objects".)

dkonofalski 11y ago

Pleasantly surprised at the developers' reaction to the rejection. It's like they knew that there was a chance and they weren't really upset when it didn't go their way. Kudos to them for their ingenuity despite the failure.