6 ms·
A zombie keyboard, an app-store rejection, a call from Steve Jobs
- dinedal 16y agoI wish Steve had promised to fix the bug at some point in the future at least.
- mcritz 16y agoSteve is so hands-on that I wish he’d fix it personally. Maybe he’d redefine keyboard modal view class to inherit the proper UIKit methods.
- gcheong 16y agoI often wonder why nobody ever asks Steve if he codes when he does an interview. Maybe I should e-mail him.
- steveklabnik 16y agoIsn't it fairly well known that Steve used to code, but hasn't since like the 80s? He dabbled with it, but decided that it wasn't his strong point? Or am I just making that up entirely? Sounds like something buried in folklore.org somewhere...
- nikcub 16y agoHe has a very good dev understanding, it is more about being more useful and efficient directing the company rather than writing code. Steve made most of the major design decisions in OS X, for eg. and is a lot like billg at msft
- gcheong 16y agoThat is certainly the impression I have. I wouldn't expect him to be writing production code anymore but I do wonder if he hacks on anything personally or if any of his kids do.
- philwelch 16y agoI think his technical involvement with Apple started and ended in the 70's, when he helped assemble the Apple I boards that Woz designed. I don't know if he's ever coded. I found a video once of him demonstrating NextSTEP, but it stops right before he's about to demonstrate the programming environment, so I don't know if he even demoed that part or got someone who could code to do it. What he has done personally is some of the design; he's listed on the design patents for the glass staircase at one of the main Apple stores, and personally designed one of the glass cubes.
- oofoe 16y agoWell, he did say that he'd read all of Knuth's books... (See http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Close_Encounters_of_the_Steve_Kind.txt&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=medium&search=knuth http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...)
- wccrawford 16y agoI also get why you shouldn't use private APIs, but when there's a bug this big with no workaround (other than to code everything yourself, apparently) then I think it's a big mistake to reject apps over it... Unless you can promise a bugfix with a timeline.
- there 16y agoon the other hand, what if every application using that private API call was broken by a new firmware update that fixed the bug they were trying to work around? then the users suffer and that's the whole point of rejecting applications in the first place.
- matwood 16y agoFirmware updates break/change public APIs too so that excuse doesn't work for me. Even more fun is when public APIs silently change so scanning the change log becomes useless.
- shadowmatter 16y agoAgreed. When you make an exception for developers to rely on a private method, you "promote" an implementation detail to its public interface. Now you can never remove the method, change its signature, or change its behavior. Nevermind that when the bug in the public method is fixed, you now have two methods to accomplish the same task. You've introduced cruft, or legacy code you need to maintain. Ick.
- thought_alarm 16y agoModal Form sheets are by definition supposed to keep the keyboard displayed even when there's no first responder, so I don't understand why the author thinks that's a bug. That behavior certainly is not going to change.
- mirkules 16y ago99% of the time when I suspect there is a bug in an underlying library, it turns out the problem is me not really understanding how that library works.
- trollllort 16y agoIt's like getting a call from Jesus ... only better.
- bdotdub 16y agoBummer, the middle phrase is short one syllable that would make it a 5-7-5 haiku
- cshenoy 16y agoIt looks like Ram sort-of capitulated. Granted it was to a request from Steve Jobs and granted he agreed to the no private API policy when he registered as an iOS developer, but it seems like he didn't get Steve to understand his point. I'm glad Steve took the time out to call him to explain (which is pretty awesome) but it seems like it was done just to get Ram to submit his app without too much fuss.
- lovskogen 16y agoCan't help but to think 'What are the odds of Apple PR saw this guy was a active blogger and made it part of their agenda to call him?'.
- redorb 16y agoEven if that is how it went down; the fact that its a positive for both parties makes it alright with me.
- plusbryan 16y agoI once got a call from Apple's review team from a man named Steve. This news for me is like hearing that the lotto's lucky numbers changed and I just threw away the ticket.
- jonpaul 16y agoI did as well. It sounded exactly like Steve Jobs. At the time, I didn't know what Steve Jobs sounded like so it didn't quite click until I saw one of his keynotes. He even gave me his direct line to call him back regarding one of my apps. I called him back and left him a message. I'm half tempted to dig up my cell phone records and find the number so that I can listen to his answering-message. But I would think Steve Jobs would have a secretary answering his phone? Don't you? So maybe it wasn't him.
- fragmede 16y agoWait, so there was a workaround (by not using a modal form), and yet we're here after a round in the app store, a call from the messiah and a blog post.
- jws 16y ago… I would replace the modal form sheet with alternative UI. Removing the form sheet (and therefore its bug) would eliminate the need for the private API. I read that to say he went with his second choice for a user interface that is probably not quite as good and experience.
- brown9-2 16y agoThe blog post doesn't say, but I wonder if at any point the author submitted a bug report about this to whatever bug-reporting tool Apple publishes for iOS developers (assuming they have a public bug reporting tool).
- alanh 16y agoThey do, it’s called Radar, and if you ever see a URL beginning rdar:// it has to due with their issue tracker. (Outside devs can submit to Radar, but not read it; if you want other devs to see it, submit it to third-party-run OpenRadar as well.)
- chr15 16y agoIs anyone else utterly surprised that Steve Jobs actually calls developers and responds to emails? Is this a PR stunt, or is Steve genuinely interested in being that hands on? Or both?
- rahoulb 16y agoI've read that all Apple executives are supposed to be totally hands on (which is why that bloke got fired earlier in the year, despite Apple having waited a year for his non-compete to run out)
- Kaizyn 16y agoThere are quite a few instances blogged about online where Steve actually replied to someone's email or called them back about an issue.
- va_coder 16y agoI'm not an apple fanboy but that's freakin cool. At work I unfortunately work with some Oracle products. No way in hell would Ellison ever call me up ;)
- iuguy 16y agoAll you need to do is stand in front of a mirror after midnight, chant 'Oracle support contract renewal' three times and he'll appear behind you.
- sandGorgon 16y agoI am really interested to know the management practices in place at Apple that enable this kind of a personal reaction to even be possible. It simply cant be that Steve is a very conscientous person (which I'm sure he is) - but also that the infrastructure in Apple allows this. I run a 13 people shop and I know I will get to a point where I will not be able to look at individual bugs/questions, etc. What kind of triggers, tools and techniques make it possible for an issue to be filtered up the hierarchy ? Or is it simply because of the any-employee-can-mail-holy-Steve-but-god-help-you-if-it-was-unimportant policy?
- ZachPruckowski 16y agoWell, don't forget selection bias. We hear about the lucky few who hear back from Steve Jobs, but not about the hundreds that write to sjobs@apple.com and never hear back. So it could be as simple as "Steve Jobs spends 15 minutes every day on answering public emails chosen at random".
- JanezStupar 16y agoWell that would imply that Steve has at least the common decency to keep up appearances of caring about customers/partners. Like others have said this is so rare nowadays that it might as well be a black swan. And I'm talking from personal experience as customer and also as a professional who cares about users perception and who fails to understand why people keep on disrespecting people who feed them. The case here is - that Apples contrarian play at basically everything is drawing insane dividends. And its cheap to do (Apples bottom line is proof). So if Steve is sincere in his care or not - doesn't really matter. If people around you perceive your acts as genuine - then its genuine for all intents and purposes.
- LiveTheDream 16y agoIt may be that Steve Jobs email account is monitored by one or more personal assistants, who act as a human filter for importance. The private API question seems important, and they could raise that issue to Jobs' priority inbox. Of course, the account is also accessible by Jobs himself which explains the responses to emails that seem unimportant.
- tomjen3 16y agoSo thanks to the guidelines that was supposed to ensure quality in the app store, his users should either deal with a buggy app, or make due without the feature?
- maxklein 16y agoI once emailed Steve and did not get a reply. A day later, the dude in charge of iTunesConnect called us, and then everyday till the issue was resolved, someone was emailing us daily updates. I'm exchanged 3-4 emails with Phil Schiller back when there were some scammers on the store. Apple executive is VERY hands on.
- ericb 16y agoI saw "Zombie Keyboard" and thought "what useless app will they think of next?" Then I saw that wasn't what their app was and started daydreaming about how rich I'd be if my "Zombie Keyboard" app took off. That's the sad part about the app store. The low-price expectations make creating something simple but fad-ish more appealing than making something people want because it is useful. Sigh.
- viraptor 16y agoI don't get it. The summary is that the guy submitted an application, got rejected, appealed, the appeal process seemed to take too long, he emailed Jobs, Jobs phoned him and told him and "reiterated" (from the post) the app store rules until the guy decided he won't achieve anything. I'm amazed at how Jobs telling the guy the same thing that he already knew (telling him 2 times actually) somehow made him go to a paragraph about Jobs with a well deserved opinion of quality products. He still couldn't release the software, he got a "no go" for fixing the situation the way he could, he got absolutely no information about whether the issue will be fixed in the future or not. But that's ok, since Jobs called him? Seriously?
- huhtenberg 16y agoYou don't get it :) Jobs calling a developer amounts to him gifting the dev a chance for a free and easy PR. And that's exactly what this person is doing - he tells everyone about the call and gets some eyes to look at his app. So effectively Jobs said "No, we won't let you work around our bug, but in exchange you can get a traffic bump for your app."
- viraptor 16y agoYes, to be honest, I didn't think of it from the "free traffic" perspective. But I wonder how important this actually is. Sure reddit / hn / slashdot crowd will happily check that kind of news, but are those services significant in any way in the number of applications bought? I don't see how a random user from the appstore target would find that post at all. But maybe I'm wrong here?
- Sam_theAgent 16y agoThe marketing angle on this is great. It's not big exposure for apple, but it does completely illuminate a potentially larger conversation around API's. Steve is the one guy that could stop the conversation and having him make the 5min call changes the conversation for the issue, to how hands on Apple is with the development community. Now, there is no way that Steve has time to deal with every problem, but things that have the potential for becoming bigger conversations I definitely see him stepping in quickly. He still reviews every.. EVERY single peace of advertising about the Apple brand and approves it personally...When it comes to brand, Steve is the most hands on CEO there is.
- RK 16y agoI think that they have a "most fascinating submission story among all our apps" is more a symptom of the larger problems of the App Store than anything else.
- lwhi 16y agoI wonder if Steve calls people who don't have a blog?
- pig 16y agoIf Steve calls and there is no blog to talk about it, did Steve really call?
- mattmaroon 16y agoJobs is cleverly using sample bias in Apple's favor for PR reasons here (though perhaps unintentionally). If someone emails Steve and doesn't hear back, they presumably don't write a blog post about it. Yet I suspect you're highly likely to hear about it when someone does get a reply, especially a phone call. As a CEO you could probably make your customers think you care just by responding to .01% of emails or something like that. If all you have to do is call one guy every few weeks and tell him the same thing your underlings already told him to get this sort of coverage it's probably well worth the time.
- lepht 16y agoA bit OT, but I'm wondering about this sentence/typo: > The caller-id, the caller saying “Ram, this is Steve” and that he was calling from Apple did suggest that it could really be Steve Jobs. At first I interpreted this to mean that if you get a call from Steve or Apple that they have a custom caller ID display on any iPhone which would be kind of cool and would help validate to the receiver that it is indeed an official Steve/Apple call. Now I realize this is probably just a typo, but I'm still wondering how the author knew that the call was actually from Apple as he implies.
- confuzatron 16y agoSteve Jobs appeared one stormy night on my father's farm and helped deliver a breach lamb. He was gone as quickly as he arrived. Of course there's no email trail...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]