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This Is the Mindfulness App Apple Doesn’t Want You to Have

30 points by mmayberry 10y ago

moron4hire 10y ago
Well, considering how it would be implemented, I doubt "any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store" was the real reason. It sounds more like, "any app indistinguishable from a virus has no place in any app store, anywhere." >> Google, conversely, has welcomed Space to its mobile marketplace, the Google Play store, Brown says. This is a signal that the search giant is ready to "give people a little more control about how they want their minds to work," he says. No, it's a signal that Google doesn't care enough about what goes in their app store to review entries before publishing them. Honestly, I don't care what sort of apps you make. People really should have a choice about what apps they can install. App stores create a barrier to entry for app developers that stifle creativity and expression. But I also think it's important to tell the truth about why things are happening. This article is a PR campaign. Who even heard of Space before this?
- Lazare 10y ago
  >I doubt "any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store" was the real reason. It sounds more like, "any app indistinguishable from a virus has no place in any app store, anywhere." I don't disagree that the latter sounds like a more sensible reason to reject the app, but the former is apparently a direct quote from the Apple rep.
  - zepto 10y ago
    Given that the rest of the explanation is dishonest, there is no reason to believe that this quote is not also a lie.
  - moron4hire 10y ago
    I just assumed "A rep from the Apple Store Review reportedly said" meant "a rep from Space told us".
IBM 10y ago
From the 60 minutes article: >Ramsay Brown and his garage start-up Dopamine Labs made a habit-breaking app as well. It’s called “Space” and it creates a 12-second delay -- what Brown calls a “moment of Zen” before any social media app launches. In January, he tried to convince Apple to sell it in their App Store. Somehow I don't think that was why his app was rejected.
- coralreef 10y ago
  How does that even work on a system level? iOS apps can't really influence the execution of another...
  - moron4hire 10y ago
    What I gathered from the article is that it replaces the icons on your homescreen with its own icons. So you get several Space app icons on your home screen, each one individually configured to launch a different app, but only first after recording that your user engagement is so high that you are indeed willing to put up with a 12 second pause before reading the latest tweets and status updates.
    - zepto 10y ago
      The only way to accomplish that is through a jailbreak or undocumented APIs - probably only a jailbreak. 60 Minutes has been played by the creator of the app.
      - barce 10y ago
        This wouldn't be the first time they have been played given whom they've interviewed: a dishonored Nixon, a cadre of tobacco executives, and a bunch of confabulators from the US customs who claimed no drug trafficking between US and Mexico.
      - chrisdroukas 10y ago
        There are a few workarounds that don't involve undocumented APIs for this, as someone else in this thread mentioned. Facebook's Groups app uses (disclaimer: as far as I can tell) an interesting technique involving saving data URIs to the home screen and then deep linking them.
Zelphyr 10y ago
I'm guessing the real reason is that this app is apparently interrupting the function of other apps. Can't blame Apple for wanting to prevent that.
- dvfjsdhgfv 10y ago
  If this is exactly what the user wants, why should Apple be the one to decide?
fifnir 10y ago
I like the idea a lot, since i often catch myself opening a new reddit tab right after closing another. Anyone know of a way to accomplish this on linux? Or maybe somehow through piehole or a similar system?
- mmayberry 10y ago
  Space makes an extension for Chrome as well
drham 10y ago
Ok I'm all for a good app store rejection story but this sounds pretty suspect: “any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store.” It's way more likely because there isn't a public API for changing the application icon on iOS (at least until 10.3 https://developer.apple.com/reference/uikit/uiapplication/2806818-setalternateiconname https://developer.apple.com/reference/uikit/uiapplication/28...) ...and even when once there is a public API. It is certainly against app store rules to infringe on the trademarks of popular social network companies for what you use as your icon.
hartator 10y ago
> A rep from the Apple Store Review reportedly said that “any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store.” I call BS on this. Apple usually doesn't give you that precise feedback on why an app has been rejected. It seems only PR.
- barce 10y ago
  And we should trust you because?
  - yjftsjthsd-h 10y ago
    You shouldn't trust anybody on the internet. That said, there are enough cases of devs complaining of an arbitrary and opaque process from Apple that the claim is at least somewhat corroborated.
barce 10y ago
I'm really not sure why this article got flagged. I'd say that Apple's PR reads Hacker News, too.
lechiffre10 10y ago
"We've developed this app for Amazon that makes people shop and spend less on Amazon" "I can't believe Amazon rejected this"

30 points by mmayberry 10y ago

Well, considering how it would be implemented, I doubt "any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store" was the real reason. It sounds more like, "any app indistinguishable from a virus has no place in any app store, anywhere." >> Google, conversely, has welcomed Space to its mobile marketplace, the Google Play store, Brown says. This is a signal that the search giant is ready to "give people a little more control about how they want their minds to work," he says. No, it's a signal that Google doesn't care enough about what goes in their app store to review entries before publishing them. Honestly, I don't care what sort of apps you make. People really should have a choice about what apps they can install. App stores create a barrier to entry for app developers that stifle creativity and expression. But I also think it's important to tell the truth about why things are happening. This article is a PR campaign. Who even heard of Space before this?

Lazare 10y ago
>I doubt "any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store" was the real reason. It sounds more like, "any app indistinguishable from a virus has no place in any app store, anywhere." I don't disagree that the latter sounds like a more sensible reason to reject the app, but the former is apparently a direct quote from the Apple rep.
- zepto 10y ago
  Given that the rest of the explanation is dishonest, there is no reason to believe that this quote is not also a lie.
- moron4hire 10y ago
  I just assumed "A rep from the Apple Store Review reportedly said" meant "a rep from Space told us".

IBM 10y ago

From the 60 minutes article: >Ramsay Brown and his garage start-up Dopamine Labs made a habit-breaking app as well. It’s called “Space” and it creates a 12-second delay -- what Brown calls a “moment of Zen” before any social media app launches. In January, he tried to convince Apple to sell it in their App Store. Somehow I don't think that was why his app was rejected.

coralreef 10y ago
How does that even work on a system level? iOS apps can't really influence the execution of another...
- moron4hire 10y ago
  What I gathered from the article is that it replaces the icons on your homescreen with its own icons. So you get several Space app icons on your home screen, each one individually configured to launch a different app, but only first after recording that your user engagement is so high that you are indeed willing to put up with a 12 second pause before reading the latest tweets and status updates.
  - zepto 10y ago
    The only way to accomplish that is through a jailbreak or undocumented APIs - probably only a jailbreak. 60 Minutes has been played by the creator of the app.
    - barce 10y ago
      This wouldn't be the first time they have been played given whom they've interviewed: a dishonored Nixon, a cadre of tobacco executives, and a bunch of confabulators from the US customs who claimed no drug trafficking between US and Mexico.
    - chrisdroukas 10y ago
      There are a few workarounds that don't involve undocumented APIs for this, as someone else in this thread mentioned. Facebook's Groups app uses (disclaimer: as far as I can tell) an interesting technique involving saving data URIs to the home screen and then deep linking them.

Zelphyr 10y ago

I'm guessing the real reason is that this app is apparently interrupting the function of other apps. Can't blame Apple for wanting to prevent that.

dvfjsdhgfv 10y ago
If this is exactly what the user wants, why should Apple be the one to decide?

fifnir 10y ago

I like the idea a lot, since i often catch myself opening a new reddit tab right after closing another. Anyone know of a way to accomplish this on linux? Or maybe somehow through piehole or a similar system?

mmayberry 10y ago
Space makes an extension for Chrome as well

drham 10y ago

Ok I'm all for a good app store rejection story but this sounds pretty suspect: “any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store.” It's way more likely because there isn't a public API for changing the application icon on iOS (at least until 10.3 https://developer.apple.com/reference/uikit/uiapplication/2806818-setalternateiconname https://developer.apple.com/reference/uikit/uiapplication/28...) ...and even when once there is a public API. It is certainly against app store rules to infringe on the trademarks of popular social network companies for what you use as your icon.

hartator 10y ago

> A rep from the Apple Store Review reportedly said that “any app designed to help people use their phones less is unacceptable for distribution in the App Store.” I call BS on this. Apple usually doesn't give you that precise feedback on why an app has been rejected. It seems only PR.

barce 10y ago
And we should trust you because?
- yjftsjthsd-h 10y ago
  You shouldn't trust anybody on the internet. That said, there are enough cases of devs complaining of an arbitrary and opaque process from Apple that the claim is at least somewhat corroborated.

barce 10y ago

I'm really not sure why this article got flagged. I'd say that Apple's PR reads Hacker News, too.

lechiffre10 10y ago

"We've developed this app for Amazon that makes people shop and spend less on Amazon" "I can't believe Amazon rejected this"