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Apple approves previously rejected HKMap.live app
- paulcarroty 7y agoCool, Apple isn't so bad I though after this app ban. But anyway, if you're in China - be careful, seems like Chinese icloud (or something like it) under government control, too many issues/speculations about it.
- dang 7y agoRecent and related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21142977 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21142977.
- sambe 7y agoMaybe it was a misunderstanding or review failure, not an evil conspiracy? You know, they are know to happen quite often...
- chibg10 7y agoApple only has its self to blame when it doesn’t necessarily get the benefit of the doubt as far as potential Chinese policy influence goes.
- judge2020 7y agoMaybe a non-senior, or even senior reviewer rejected it to be safe until a higher-up could make the executive decision on whether or not it was allowed.
- Krasnol 7y agoSo it's either incompetence or sucking up to China?
- whyenot 7y agoor both, or neither. Apple’s review process is pretty opaque so we may never know. What we do know is that they changed their minds. That’s a good thing.
- dang 7y ago"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- cptskippy 7y agoThat would be my guess, the review process is incredibly arbitrary. We made an minor change to our App that's been in the store for years and it was rejected because suddenly our App was misusing Apple branding and also promoting another Platform. Both objections cited a screen that's been in the App for years that allows the user to make a payment using Check, Credit Card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Apparently we magically started mis-using the Apple Pay log and were promoting Google/Android for having the Google Pay logo. I responded back asking if we needed to remove the PayPal, Visa and Mastercard logs since they were competing platforms to Apple Pay as well. The random reviewer that looked at it next said it was fine and approved it.
- frenchie4111 7y agoI have had similar experiences with it being arbitrary. I'll push up a quick bug fix for something and get dinged on something completely unrelated, meaning I have to wait for a second review to get my fix in. It's pretty frustrating.
- babypuncher 7y agoApple was involved so everyone was already chomping at the bit with their rhetoric and pitchforks.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y agoThe problem is that often the only effective way to 'appeal' those failures is to make a sufficiently large public stink that someone with the power to fix it is notified (by employees seeing the bad press) and actually fixes it.
- burtonator 7y agoThe fact that we can't side-load apps is a tragedy. Any anti-trust investigation into Apple + Google should discuss this it's highly anti-competitive. I get that they want a sanitary app store but if I go to myapp.com I should be able to side load. It would also be nice to side-load from phone to phone in situations like this so that apps can't be blocked by governments like China. If the apps just verified keys that would be enough so that you know you're installing the app from the right developer.
- hyperbovine 7y agoI dunno, I feel like there is a very solid user experience argument for not allowing the average person to do this. For those of you who are old enough, think back to all the sh*t your mom/uncle/grandparent would load up on their Windows 95 desktop. Now make it 100x easier to install an app. Seems like a recipe for disaster, for the average case anyways.
- chii 7y agoso the question is whether user freedom is a better tradeoff. I will quote Benjamin Franklin " Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither."
- xvector 7y agoThe big takeaway is that the app was never removed from the store - it was just never approved. Apps not being approved is quite common. All the headlines were saying that the app was "banned"/removed from the store, leading to massive outrage.
- cryptozeus 7y agoGreat, we all got trolled then. So hard to differentiate these days...its exhausting
- Razengan 7y agoManufactured outrage. When you see an apparently sudden influx of mostly negative OR mostly positive news about something, suspect that it's paid for. See cases like https://www.google.com/search?q=samsung+paid+students+for+reviews https://www.google.com/search?q=samsung+paid+students+for+re...
- nerdponx 7y agoIs it really not likely that it was escalated internally, and some managers were sitting on it?
- xvector 7y agoThe controversy might have caused an escalation but not being approved is fairly normal. It’s entirely likely that all this was manufactured outrage.
- calibas 7y agoI don't see how there's much difference, it's like arguing that a library isn't "banning" a book because they refused to carry it in the first place.
- gatherhunterer 7y agoThe App Store is not an open, public resource. It is supposed to be curated so not allowing most apps is its purpose.
- paulddraper 7y agoI get that "no encouraging illegal behavior" could be a rule. But then I wonder how there are multiple crowd sourced speed camera apps.
- delinka 7y agoHow would "speed camera apps" encourage illegal behavior? The state patrol in my state is happy for people to know where cops are places on the road, where speed cameras are used ... this knowledge makes people slow down and makes the road safer.
- bonoboTP 7y ago> How would "speed camera apps" encourage illegal behavior? If almost all speed cameras are in the app, then you can just slow down near the cameras and speed everywhere else. If there's no app, you don't know where the cameras are, so you need to be careful everywhere.
- RavlaAlvar 7y agoSo apple would have to ban telegram and all Internet forum ?
- normalperson 7y agoAnyone else tired of capricious technology companies dictating what software we are allowed to run on our devices?
- spunker540 7y agoCould this work as a website? Seems like the easiest way to avoid depending on App Store
- judge2020 7y agoIt is, https://hkmap.live https://hkmap.live, and the app is probably boilerplate with the PWA embedded inside.
- jyrkesh 7y agoSince no other comments or the Twitter thread have any context, here's a Boing Boing article on what the heck HKMap.live is: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/04/hkmap-live-hong-kong.html https://boingboing.net/2019/10/04/hkmap-live-hong-kong.html
- mark_l_watson 7y agoAs others here have said, Linux distributions are well used by using official packages. That said, my two Linux laptops and Linux servers I spin up for personal projects are at least partially for the freedom to install anything I want. For macOS, iPadOS, iOS for my watch, and iOS for my iPhone, I like the protected walled garden. I also like to sometimes use my Chromebook for the same reason: these closed platforms feel more secure to me. I am happy that Apple OKed the HKMap.live app.
- augstein 7y agoWith macOS, you can install anything you want. The macOS App Store only contains a subset of all software available/written for macOS.
- newscracker 7y agoThat seems to be changing too for apps outside the Mac App Store: "Beginning in macOS 10.15, notarization is required by default for all software." [1] How many users would even figure out (if it's possible and) how to bypass this? Looks like developers will have to do a lot more. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_your_app_before_distribution https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizin...
- mark_l_watson 7y agoI have been running beta versions of Catalina for several months. Catalina is locked down, security wise.
- ngcc_hk 7y agoHope it helps last night uprising against the declaration of dictatorship by Carrie Lam. Seems some still do not get what us at stake. She used emergency power reserved for war time and just enact any law she liked without informing and consult the city at large. That is like using nuclear bomb on your own city. The anti mask law is a fallout. Hk is done by her. Good luck fellow hker. Instead of the slogan “hk add oil”, now it is “hk fight back”. Let us hope human right and freedom prevail.
- ycombonator 7y agoI bet they read the uproar here.
- d-sc 7y agoI’m genuinely curious. Does this app do anything that couldn’t be accomplished by a progressive web app?
- Razengan 7y agoWhat if this app is actually a "honeypot" developed by the HK/Chinese government? Protestors being infiltrated by those who wish to subdue them, has been a thing since forever.
- kollegekid 7y agoI once got denied. Deleted the app, changed the name by just adding a !. Got approved. Apples process is very inconsistent. Unclear to me if it was public pressure or just the failures of their system
- WA 7y agoSlightly OT: Why does HKMap have to be an actual app and not a browser app/PWA? Does it do something in the background or with the hardware of the phone? Or are websites more easily blocked in HK than the App Store?
- mister_hn 7y agoPut under pressure, Apple is coming back. Funny
- fabrika 7y agoOur game uses emoji to represent players and their structures on the map. Just like HKMap app which displays live events using iOS emoji font. We’ve been rejected until we came up with our own graphics for emoji. Who knows, maybe this was why they were rejected. Also, the UI is quite buggy. Could be another reason.