“MacRumors has a story on Pull My Finger, an iPhone App that plays a variety of fart sounds,” Daring Fireball reports. “The demo video shows that the app is clearly well done for what it is — it even vibrates the phone while it toots — but Apple rejected it:”
We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.
Daring Fireball reports, “I’ve already heard from a top-tier developer this morning who, in response to this story, is dropping an idea for a very cool iPhone app out of fear that the work to create it would be for naught as Apple might reject it.”
“Apple really, REALLY needs to get its act together here,” Former Apple employee Chuq Von Rospach writes.
“I actually don’t have a problem with them rejecting this app, but that’s somewhat irrelevant to the larger picture. The larger picture is a lack of communication and feedback, and a lack of any published policies and standards on what is and isn’t acceptable,” Von Rospach writes.
“The App Store needs a developer evangelist. Someone who interacts with the developers, tells them what to expect, listens to them bitch and moan and carry their arguments back into Apple (hopefully to be dealt with, not blown off), and who can act as a ‘pre-flight’ checker. If this person exists, they’re hiding really, really well, and that’s bad,” Von Rospach writes.
“That developer who killed a project — that’s a real problem. The best way to kill development on the iPhone, to nuke the chance of really out-there, innovative solutions, is to force a developer to do the development and finish the product without knowing if they’ll actually be able to sell it,” Von Rospach writes.
Full article here.