5 ms·

Apple should ban the app for this, right? http://danielamitay.com/blog/2015/5/29/shutting-down-a-500mm-requestsmonth-api http://danielamitay.com/blog/2015/5/29

by jotux 11y ago

Apple should ban the app for this, right? http://danielamitay.com/blog/2015/5/29/shutting-down-a-500mm-requestsmonth-api http://danielamitay.com/blog/2015/5/29/shutting-down-a-500mm...

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
Unlikely considering they work closely with Apple on integration with Twitter. Double standard sure but I doubt Apple cares.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  Apple's integration is independent of the Twitter app, though.
cft 11y ago
They are "too big to ban".
- higherpurpose 11y ago
  It's sad how true that is. Reminds me of the early days when Apple would ban all "sexy" apps, except Playboy and such.
  - oh_sigh 11y ago
    Playboy has good articles...
JohnTHaller 11y ago
If Apple applied their rules evenly across publishers, they would.
wlesieutre 11y ago
I hope so!
ajays 11y ago
Is there an API in iOS to get information about other apps? How is Twitter doing it? I thought all apps were 'sandboxed' in iOS.
- kranner 11y ago
  Apps can register custom URL schemes to enable other apps to open them, pass them data and even deep-link to within them. There is an official API called canOpenUrl: which will let you check if a particular URL scheme is registered on a particular device. So that, along with a database of public URL schemes published by other apps, lets you detect which apps are installed. I wasn't aware of this before but apparently you can also use sysctl() to check the names of running processes (which is less reliable as processes will get bumped off if the foreground app requires more memory). More here: http://danielamitay.com/blog/2011/2/16/how-to-detect-installed-ios-apps http://danielamitay.com/blog/2011/2/16/how-to-detect-install...
  - leonatan 11y ago
    There is also private API that is not very difficult to hide, which gives you all the installed app bundle identifiers.
    - kranner 11y ago
      How would you hide calls to private APIs?
      - geofft 11y ago
        Hardcode the address on all known platforms and skip it on unknown ones, or disassemble a public function that calls it and figure out the address from there, or read the Mach-O headers and write your own dlsym, etc. etc. Apple once blocked a updates for everyone using a common SDK because it had named a symbol something that happened to be the name of an unrelated private API, and the review process couldn't tell the difference. That implies things about the rigor of the review process.
  - 11y ago

by jotux 11y ago

Apple should ban the app for this, right? http://danielamitay.com/blog/2015/5/29/shutting-down-a-500mm-requestsmonth-api http://danielamitay.com/blog/2015/5/29/shutting-down-a-500mm...

BinaryIdiot 11y ago

Unlikely considering they work closely with Apple on integration with Twitter. Double standard sure but I doubt Apple cares.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
Apple's integration is independent of the Twitter app, though.

cft 11y ago

They are "too big to ban".

higherpurpose 11y ago
It's sad how true that is. Reminds me of the early days when Apple would ban all "sexy" apps, except Playboy and such.
- oh_sigh 11y ago
  Playboy has good articles...

JohnTHaller 11y ago

If Apple applied their rules evenly across publishers, they would.

wlesieutre 11y ago

I hope so!

ajays 11y ago

Is there an API in iOS to get information about other apps? How is Twitter doing it? I thought all apps were 'sandboxed' in iOS.

kranner 11y ago
Apps can register custom URL schemes to enable other apps to open them, pass them data and even deep-link to within them. There is an official API called canOpenUrl: which will let you check if a particular URL scheme is registered on a particular device. So that, along with a database of public URL schemes published by other apps, lets you detect which apps are installed. I wasn't aware of this before but apparently you can also use sysctl() to check the names of running processes (which is less reliable as processes will get bumped off if the foreground app requires more memory). More here: http://danielamitay.com/blog/2011/2/16/how-to-detect-installed-ios-apps http://danielamitay.com/blog/2011/2/16/how-to-detect-install...
- leonatan 11y ago
  There is also private API that is not very difficult to hide, which gives you all the installed app bundle identifiers.
  - kranner 11y ago
    How would you hide calls to private APIs?
    - geofft 11y ago
      Hardcode the address on all known platforms and skip it on unknown ones, or disassemble a public function that calls it and figure out the address from there, or read the Mach-O headers and write your own dlsym, etc. etc. Apple once blocked a updates for everyone using a common SDK because it had named a symbol something that happened to be the name of an unrelated private API, and the review process couldn't tell the difference. That implies things about the rigor of the review process.
- 11y ago