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> Apple has hidden APIs that nobody is allowed to use to compete with Apple's software which APIs do they not let others use (aside from the icon updating thin
by rweir 14y ago
> Apple has hidden APIs that nobody is allowed to use to compete with Apple's software
which APIs do they not let others use (aside from the icon updating thing Calendar uses, siri, and weather/stocks)?
- pyre 14y agoOff the top of my head, 'back in the day,' the transition animations on OSX were private APIs and only used by Apple software. Some smaller software products that did things like hack in virtual desktop support hooked into them, but it also meant that OS updates could break the software (mostly after major revision updates).
- mikeash 14y agoApple's iBooks app used a private API to allow the user to adjust the screen brightness in-app. This API was finally made public about a year and a half after iBooks shipped. A more visible example is when Apple rejected a third-party camera app for using private API to allow the volume button to be used to take a picture, then not too long after incorporated that exact feature into the OS's built-in camera app.