Issue 271

7^th October 2016

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

There’s been a lot of talk over the past couple of days around the fact that Dash has been removed from the various App Stores for allegedly manipulating its rating with fraudulent reviews.

I do believe Bogdan when he says that he did not do what they have accused him of, not because I know him (although I did meet him in person once, just for full disclosure) but because there was no need for the reviews to be manipulated. The app is great, in a niche market with little competition, so why risk it for more good reviews? It doesn’t make any sense.

It’s also very strange that this happened during a routine transfer of the apps to a new developer account. Yesterday I would have said there was still a possibility that it was some part of the transfer process gone awry, but after all the attention on Twitter and Phil Schiller looking into the situation directly, I think the decision would have been reversed by now if that were the case.

I have no reason to doubt that the email from Phil Schiller is real, but it’s a little strange that the only official comment would go to someone not directly involved with the situation, even though Apple do have a bit of history with that kind of communication. The whole situation is weird, but phrasing like “repeated fraudulent activity” really doesn’t look good.

The only other explanation is that a third party maliciously targeted the app and purchased reviews for it in the hope that this would happen. But who would do that? It seems unlikely.

Will we ever find out what really happened? Probably not, but it’s a reminder who is in control of the App Store and how a single decision from someone inside Apple can potentially end your business. I think this post by Brent Simmons sums up how poor the communication in this process is when he says:

But we have learned that one of the features of the system is that Apple may accuse a developer of fraud, not provide any evidence to the developer, and then remove that developer’s apps, with no appeal allowed.

Of course, Apple may have supplied plenty more information to Bogdan which may not be public, but again I think that’s unlikely.

Whatever way you look at this, it sucks for everyone involved, including the users of Dash who relied on it every day. As the App Store account has been completely shut down you can’t even re-download the apps, even if you had purchased them. It’s a disappointing and messy situation whichever way you look at it.

Dave Verwer

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News

This is amazing. I hadn’t come across a switch controller before but they are amazing devices as you’ll see in this demo. Seeing one in action with a complex app like Swift Playgrounds is fascinating to watch and shows how seriously Apple take accessibility. Amazing.

I mentioned a workaround for this a couple of weeks ago and suggested that it might be something that Apple could fix. Well the good news is that it’s changed in the new betas that were released this week!

Tools

I was vaguely aware that Amazon had a service like this, but I’d never investigated the details. Olivier Destrebecq takes us through the steps to get tests up and running on multiple devices without having to litter your desk with phones.

I haven’t yet upgraded to Sierra (I know, shame on me!) so I had not come across this incompatibility with one of my favourite iOS development tools. Good news is there’s now a beta of v3 out which is fully compatible! 🎉

Not directly related to iOS development but I know I’ll find this little app by Samuel Ford useful, so you probably will too! If you’re giving presentations, or doing a code review over screen share this is likely to come in handy.

Code

Ben Scheirman on designing a robust download system taken from his experiences building the NSScreencast app. He covers persisting the download, pausing and resuming, handling failures and dealing with downloads without Wi-Fi. He then wrote an additional article all about background downloads too.

Brandon Alexander with a three part (1, 2, 3) article on all of the different types of interaction events in iOS. If you’ve ever had a question about whats going on with touch handling, the responder chain, or even just target/action. This is a clear and simple explanation of them all.

This library from Toto Tvalavadze is kinda interesting. Everything included here is possible by simply listening for the notifications, but I liked the encapsulation of it and how it copes with edge cases like keyboards which show from other apps while running alongside yours.

Just a quick one to finish, if you’re using Core Data and mogenerator, there’s a new version out which supports Swift 3. If you’re using Core Data without mogenerator, you should certainly give it a look.

Design

For many years I fought (and usually failed) to resist putting lines and boxes around everything I attempted to design. I gradually got over it, but it was hard! In this article Nick Babich talks about the problem and gives some beautiful examples of how it can be solved.

Business and Marketing

Great article by Allen Pike on the economics of App Store paid ads. This sentence stood out to me though: “The math is seriously stacked against anybody trying to profit from ads at $8 per sale”. Think about that for a second, an $8 app is expensive on the store, so if the maths doesn’t work in that case it’s not going to end well for an averagely priced app.

Kris Gellci makes a great point about iMessage apps that are not associated with an app that lives on your home screen. Once users have downloaded them, it can be really hard for them to figure out how to access them.

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And finally...

It’s certainly funny, but I have a feeling it’ll be just as ineffective as every other method. 🙄