REJECTED: ShakeCharge (“we will never accept it”)
Inspired by “all kinds of fart apps”, one developer created a joke app that pretends to recharge the battery by shaking the phone:
[the Apple reviewer] on the phone told me : “Please don’t ever re-submit this application, we will never accept it. Spend your time and energy on other applications.”
I’m sure there are more of these direct “give up, go away, stop bothering us” responses floating around, but I don’t remember any off the top of my head. The message is expertly crafted – it conveys a severe put-down (give up) politely, and with an olive-branch held out (we don’t hold it against you, we do *want* apps from you – just not this one) – which suggests to me heavy PR team involvement.
Good thing or bad thing?
IMHO: good thing. I’d much *much* prefer to have Apple tell me (as early as possible!) that I was chasing a lost cause … than waste perhaps a year of resubmissions, all in vain.
November 29th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Glad I don’t own any Apple products.
November 29th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Why it isnt accepted @@’. App which is about Fake Call,Fake Sms can be put in iTunes’. But why this one cant ‘WTF!
November 29th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Since the shake app clearly gives a warning to users that it’s a joke, I fail to see what the problem is.
Why shouldn’t users customize and have fun with their phone as they see fit?
November 29th, 2009 at 8:21 am
This one makes sense. The last thing Apple needs is an app that does nothing but generate calls to tech support over a feature that never existed being “broken.”
November 29th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Y’know … I wonder how hard it would be to make a phone (or cordless mouse) that *actually did* recharge when it was shaken.
November 29th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I’ll agree with apple on this one. The average iPhone user is not bright, and applications such as “shake to recharge your iphone”, would very easily be misinterpreted as a real application. File it under “would be awesome if it worked” category, rather than humor.
November 29th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
It’s great that Apple reject this, this is the stuff that is populating the appstore
November 30th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
[...] particularly liked the story of an app named ShakeCharge that was told quite pointedly by an App Store employee, “Please don’t ever re-submit this [...]
December 1st, 2009 at 12:31 pm
That could be a cool app if worked. I agree with the author, it is much better to get a clear and to the point answer like this.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I can understand why this one wouldn’t be accepted.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:21 pm
They are inventing a phone where you can charge by shaking. Like those flashlights. They should just put a warning there, and allow it. That would be a good show off thing. Hopefully it gets added onto say cydia or something
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:15 pm
This one looked like fun! I would have paid 99c for it! darn apple insiders!
December 8th, 2009 at 11:46 am
The idea suks. It’s as bad as the fingerprint reader, fooling idiots. What’s next, an iPhone pregnancy test?
December 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Bill: That would be hilarious, iPhone prgnancy test, pee here…
As long as it says that its a joke before the download, why not?
Its like they are some sort of crappy PC-police. (PC=Politically Correct)
They all die sooner or later.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:34 pm
[...] doesn’t like “joke” apps. C.f. “Please don’t ever re-submit this application, we will never accept it”. Unfortunately (for them), rather a lot of them have slipped through onto the store [...]
January 4th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Well… Protecting people from buying/loading an app which clearly is a joke says a lot about the iPhone community.
The app idea itself is funny in my eyes and there are apps in the store which are far worse than this idea.
It seems to late to hold a good quality standard and from that point of view I can’t understand why it is “rejected in advance” while other stupid stuff was allowed.
But the response itself is pretty good… and is what a lot more developers should have been told. But maybe not by apple but by their testers… or clients!
P.S.: I want a rating filter in the app-store NOW…
June 13th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
[...] the other hand … Apple has consistently, time and time again, refused to allow this kind of app, both paid and unpaid. Why change that now? Why allow a handful of random developers the chance of [...]