“Apple’s review process has gone a long way since the early days when every day would bring a new story about a controversial rejection,” Christian Zibreg reports for 9 to 5 Mac.
“It’s rare nowadays that an app would take longer than a couple of weeks to be reviewed, let alone months,” Zibreg reports. “[But] that’s exactly what happened to the TrapCall app by Tel Tech Systems Inc.”
Zibreg reports, “After a whopping 201 days in review, the App Store team has finally approved this app. The free app requires a paid TrapCall service from five bucks a month. It lets you stop getting harassing phone calls by unmasking blocked and private phone calls.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Sarah” for the heads up.]
It’s going to get rejected the next day. Just wait and see. lol
It’s a common reaction to get pissed at this kind of revelation, but frankly I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. What’s uncommon is that the developers didn’t start working the Wailing wall after a couple of months in limbo. Maybe they learned from others – or actually listened to SJ when he disparagingly referred to developers who chose to out their problems with Apple’s approval process to the public.
Sounds like SERIOUS legal issues had to be weighed with this one. For example, is this even legal??
I’m bet it is legal because, Dish Satellite, for example can unmask your blocked phone number. They know who you are even from a blocked number.
On the contrary, why is it necessary for those wanting to talk to me, to mask who they are? Why the deception?
Some people do not want to share their phone number with certain people but they might have to be in contact with them anyway.
Ahhh yes. I understand now, especially when you put it in those terms.
I behave the same way when I discover the knock at my front door is from young boys wearing a white short-sleeved shirts, ties and black pants, usually traveling in pairs. I’d just as soon not talk to them at all.
Ah yes. Apple and Mormonism, two religions growing at an alarming rate. Converts of both often wonder why they didn’t make the change earlier.
Hey kids! Look! We have an anonymous coward troll!
Get bent El Guacamole! 😎
@Derek
Wow! Not sure I deserved such venom for that comment. As it turns out, our district firewall doesn’t let us use a wordpress login and I came through as anonymous. It was meant to be funny. Nothing more. It must suck to get angry over little things so easily.
This system has you forward the call to the service’s 800 number. Since calls to 800/877/etc. (“toll-free”) numbers are actually paid for by the recipient, they have a right to see who called them. The service picks that up, does a reverse lookup to get the address, if available, and sends it to you.
There’s nothing illegal about it.
Just like everyone else in business, I get calls all the time from people promising to put me top of Google, get me a tax rebate or chase down my debtors. I tell them “no thanks, please now remove me from your list and don’t call again” and what do they do? Right.
It’s the shower who won’t take no for an answer that I’d dearly love to inform that I have their contact details, know where they are and inform them I’m on my way round to discuss the situation. Worth every penny.
Will this thing work in the UK?
There’s a new service that similar to trapcall for the UK, it’s called ambushcall. The site is ambushcall.co.uk.
If the caller block’s his number and doesn’t leave a message, who cares whose number it is??? Unless you’re the kind of person who has to worry about stalkers, that is.
What I want is RecordCall so I can record calls easily. Unfortunately, some states disallow one-party recording (one party aware of call being recorded). They cite privacy reasons but it’s actually to protect politicians and law enforcement from incrimination.You know, like Oobama telling Blogovitch he could have a job for appointing a buddy as Senator….
Then get yourself an Android phone and download RecordCall from the Android store!
Honestly, are you that helpless to record a phone call, legal or otherwise? Or is that the length to which you will go just to set up a really lame obama joke?
Dear G4Dualie,
Helpless, no. Inconvenienced by extra equipment and cables, certainly! For the simplest, most convenient phone in the world, a touch to record incoming call should be a no-brainer — if it wasn’t for crooked politicians (like there’s any other kind).
Joke? Like the joke that is reality shows, is actually happened — no joke!
Android? Ugh, they may have taken our Liberty — but THEY CAN NEVER TAKE OUR HUUUUUUUUMANESS!
Carry on…
PS: And Dude, Upgrade already!
If I want to record a call, I simply put it on Speaker and fire up Voice Memo. Works great.
“The free app requires a paid TrapCall service from five bucks a month. It lets you stop getting harassing phone calls by unmasking blocked and private phone calls.”
Well, part of the problem here is that anyone with the knowledge can fake their Caller ID. It was never actually designed to be fool proof or honest.
I would suspect that as a result of services like ‘TrapCall’ the scumbags who wish to hide their identities will no longer use ‘blocked’ or ‘private’ numbers. Instead they’ll simply type in a fake ID number.
∑ = There is no reason to trust Caller ID. It is merely a convenience for those who wish to use it properly.