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Six 'removed' stories August 2011 - May 2014
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Facebook Poke and Camera pulled from the App Store

Avatar for Mike Beasley May 9 2014 - 2:49 pm PT
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Even though Facebook seemingly wants to break as many of its functions out into separate apps as possible—see Messenger and Pages Manager, for example—it appears that not every function is worthy its own App Store listing. Earlier today the social network pulled two of its iOS apps from sale: Poke (a Snapchat-like photo messenger) and Camera (which is exactly what it sounds like).

Both apps launched in 2012 and didn’t see many big improvements after that. Camera got a few small updates, though they didn’t seem to be much of a priority for the company. At one point a bug left the app’s internal employee settings exposed to all users for several months before being fixed.

Poke, on the other hand, was virtually ignored by Facebook from the day it went live until it was removed from the store. Most of the Camera app’s features were eventually rolled back into the main Facebook app, but Poke was not so fortunate.

Facebook hasn’t provided any reason for pulling either app, but it’s safe to assume that neither was being used that much anymore. The company now seems more focused on its messaging platform, with the recent acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion and the announcement that soon messaging would be removed from the main Facebook client in favor of the free Messenger app.


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Nokia: ‘HERE’ iOS Maps app removed due to iOS 7 changes that “harm the user experience”

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Dec 27 2013 - 10:19 am PT
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If you were wondering why Nokia’s HERE maps app for iOS disappeared from the App Store earlier this month, today the company has issued an official statement on the situation. While citing issues with iOS 7 that “harm the user experience,” Nokia unfortunately does not go into detail about specific problems with the development of the app for Apple’s latest version of iOS. It does, however, point users to the official web app, which is essentially the same experience the company wrapped into the iOS app minus many of the bugs users reported with the release of an iOS 7 update. No word on if Nokia will bring back the native app at any point, but for now we get the following statement issued to the TheIndianExpress (via Engadget):

“We have made the decision to remove our HERE Maps app from the Apple App Store because recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience. iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of HERE Maps under m.here.com., offering them core location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge.”

New iWork & iLife apps go for simplicity, upset power users all over again

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Oct 25 2013 - 9:33 am PT
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Following the introduction of Apple’s new iWork apps at its iPad Air event earlier this week, an increasing number of users have taken to Apple’s support forums to voice concerns over the removal of features as the apps receive new simplified user interfaces that bring them more in line with the iOS versions. Several pages of complaints from users in Apple’s forums point out that many features, those mostly used by power users, have been removed from Apple’s new redesigned version of Pages:

Why does Apple get rid of so many useful features in new pages? iWork 13 has been a huge disappointment and nothing more than a downgrade to match the capabilities of the iOS iWork apps.  If Apple simply made performance upgrades to iWork 09 I would have been happy.  I hope there is a way to get back to the most up to date version of iWork 09.

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It comes down to this. Apple has discontinued Pages in its entirety. You can no longer download it or purchase it, and Apple won’t support it. Apple has simultaneously introduced a completely new and different product, also called Pages, that is designed for different users and different use cases. Despite the name, it is not a successor to Pages (old), except in the licensing terms, it is completely a completely different species of animal. Those of us who depended on Pages (old) cannot use Pages (new). We have to save all our Pages files in a widely used format and import them into a new word processor that supports the formatting.

Pages isn’t the only app, users are also hitting Apple’s forums to list features that have been removed from the redesigned versions of Keynote, Numbers, and iMovie:
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Rumor claims Mac Pro update coming this month

Avatar for Mark Gurman Apr 8 2013 - 12:37 pm PT
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According to an unverified rumor from MacDailyNews, Apple will announce the next generation of its Mac Pro line sometime this month.

Apple will announce its replacement for the company’s Mac Pro lineup this month, a source who has been correct about Apple product matters in the past has just informed us. We cannot independently corroborate this information, so this item has been categorized as a rumor.

MacDailyNews says its source for this information has provided accurate information in the past, but the site still classifies the information as a “rumor” because it could not corroborate the details. The site previously reported accurate information regarding iCloud pricing and the iOS name.

The site is not sure if this will be a revamp to the existing Mac Pro or a new computer that will be deemed as a Mac Pro replacement.

Earlier this year, we reported that new regulatory standards forced Apple to discontinue its current model of Mac Pros. The computer has since been removed from multiple European online stores.

Apple CEO Tim Cook previously told an Apple customer that Apple is working on something “really great” in the Pro space for “later” in 2013.


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Notification abuse, too, led to AppGratis’s push out of the App Store

Avatar for Zac Hall Apr 8 2013 - 12:01 pm PT
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This past weekend, popular application discover app AppGratis was removed from Apple’s App Store. Many had correctly assumed that the application was pulled from the store because of Apple’s Developer Guidelines 2.25 clause:

2.25 Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.

Any app that functions too similar to Apple’s own App Store, even if it routes users to complete the download via the App Store, will be rejected. If they already exist on the store, they will be removed. This Apple policy became stringent following the release of iOS 6 last fall.

While the app was removed for breaking this policy, AllThingsD reports that Apple has confirmed that the app was also removed for abusing Apple’s push notification system.

5.6 Apps cannot use Push Notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind.

Discovery apps that utilize a different, non-promotional business model seem to be safe.


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Apple removes Financial Times app for dodging in-app subscription guidelines

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Aug 30 2011 - 9:48 pm PT
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The Financial Times has officially been removed from the App Store after failing to comply with Apple’s in-app subscription model that requires payments to be processed through iTunes (giving Apple a 30% cut in the process).

The publication used to have an iPhone and iPad app, which appear to have been removed from the App Store today. Fortunately for FT (not so much for Apple), they also have an HTML5 web app alternative that they’re urging iOS users to use instead.

The Financial Times told Paid Content:
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