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How do Google get their apps like this approved? Indie developers get rejected all the time for replicating a function that an apple app already does, but googl

How do Google get their apps like this approved? Indie developers get rejected all the time for replicating a function that an apple app already does, but google has chrome and others and now maps? If Apple want to distance themselves from Google, surely they could just not approve any of their apps.

saurik 14y ago
Apple made a decision at some point (seemingly under pressure) to allow not just Chrome, but all "browsers" (a term that I feel needs to be put in quotes, as all of these applications, including Chrome, must use Apple's HTML renderer, and only thereby have control over some aspects of how requests are cached and the surrounding UI).
- statictype 14y ago
  Hasn't Apple allowed browser apps that wrap UIWebKit well before Chrome? I'm pretty sure there were already stand-alone browser apps in the App Store before Chrome came.
  - marknutter 14y ago
    There were for sure. Opera is one.
    - ynniv 14y ago
      Opera Mini is not a browser but rather a view into a browser in The Cloud. All network connections and JavaScript evaluation happens elsewhere, and the phone displays the resulting image and proxies clicks back to the server. Apple's sticking point has always been code evaluation on the phone, and currently only permits JavaScriptCore to evaluate code retrieved over the network.
  - saurik 14y ago
    Yes: that was actually what I was intending to imply; specifically, that Google wasn't blazing trails here nor are they being given special exceptions.
pooriaazimi 14y ago
Apple's approval rules/guidelines are not set in stone. They change all the time. A couple years ago they were very strict (and non-agreeable to most people), but since they've backpedalled a bit and have been much much leaner about "replicating already-existing functionality" - approving and even promoting calendars, notebooks, ebook-readers, browsers, calculators, mail clients, weather clients, etc.
- astolarz 14y ago
  I would think the recommendation to use rivals' products might also have something to do with the potential approval of Google Maps: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUSBRE88R0SN20120929 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUS...
baddox 14y ago
The "duplicate functionality" restriction hasn't been enforced for years.

saurik 14y ago

Apple made a decision at some point (seemingly under pressure) to allow not just Chrome, but all "browsers" (a term that I feel needs to be put in quotes, as all of these applications, including Chrome, must use Apple's HTML renderer, and only thereby have control over some aspects of how requests are cached and the surrounding UI).

statictype 14y ago
Hasn't Apple allowed browser apps that wrap UIWebKit well before Chrome? I'm pretty sure there were already stand-alone browser apps in the App Store before Chrome came.
- marknutter 14y ago
  There were for sure. Opera is one.
  - ynniv 14y ago
    Opera Mini is not a browser but rather a view into a browser in The Cloud. All network connections and JavaScript evaluation happens elsewhere, and the phone displays the resulting image and proxies clicks back to the server. Apple's sticking point has always been code evaluation on the phone, and currently only permits JavaScriptCore to evaluate code retrieved over the network.
- saurik 14y ago
  Yes: that was actually what I was intending to imply; specifically, that Google wasn't blazing trails here nor are they being given special exceptions.

pooriaazimi 14y ago

Apple's approval rules/guidelines are not set in stone. They change all the time. A couple years ago they were very strict (and non-agreeable to most people), but since they've backpedalled a bit and have been much much leaner about "replicating already-existing functionality" - approving and even promoting calendars, notebooks, ebook-readers, browsers, calculators, mail clients, weather clients, etc.

astolarz 14y ago
I would think the recommendation to use rivals' products might also have something to do with the potential approval of Google Maps: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUSBRE88R0SN20120929 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUS...

baddox 14y ago

The "duplicate functionality" restriction hasn't been enforced for years.