“QuickPick, a Mac application and document launcher that preceded — but strongly resembles — the upcoming Launchpad of OS X 10.7 has been ‘retroactively rejected’ from the Mac App Store, according to developer Seth Willits,” MacNN reports.
“In a terse note on his blog, Willits says Apple has ‘decided to remove/retroactively-reject QuickPick as being too similar to 10.7’s Launchpad,’ even though QuickPick existed years earlier,” MacNN reports. “The app is still available from the Araelium website, but does almost exactly replicate the functionality of Lion’s LauchPad.”
Read more in the full article here.
The communists in Cupertino strike again. What about choice? I think Mac users are smart enough to decide for themselves whether Launchpad or QuickPick is better for them.
There’s a Mac mail app but since that sucks monkey balls big time there’s nothing stopping me from using Outlook.
The truth is that QuickPick is always in the App Store.
This news is false and “Ballmer’s left nut” is a moron.
Considering how god-awful LaunchPad is, I’d say it’s a blessing for all concerned.
Now that seems really harsh. This product was there before Lion. Come on Apple, do the right thing!
Agreed! If the app already has precedence and has been approved by the App Store, it should be allowed to continue to be for sale.
Anyone familiar, with the App Store license agreement, know if the developer has any legal recourse and/or should be compensated by Apple in some way?
I still see it in the UK store at the mo..
Terrible move on Apple’s part. Luckily this is the Mac, so the choice still exists, just outside of the Mac App Store.
BT is right. QuickPick is still in the App Store right now. Somebody’s getting a lot of free publicity for what may have been a big lie.
The app’s still there. Apparently it was a point release update that was rejected. I assume the developer will figure out what rule was broken by the update and then submit a new update. No story.
As stated, as of right now, the App is still there. Probably not the entire App that was the problem. It could be he was adding multi-touch to it after playing on the Lion Preview and trying to copy too much and exactly what Apple has done for Lion.
I can’t imagine Apple pulling an App that mirrors something they have done if the App was around first. But if this developer took a Lion preview, and then updated his App for Snow Leopard to be exactly like the Lion version, then I can understand it. Apple doesn’t want those features coming to an older OS.
Come on, Guys. Read the article, not just the MDN headline.
As is obvious from the article and comments, the App was not pulled, just a “point” upgrade was rejected. The app was also NOT available before the Lion beta was released.
The developer tweeted that he was mad an update was not approved. No scandal, no bullying, no story.
Does no one question anything anymore????
Why not leave it in there until Lion is released? Just let the developer know that’s the plan.
WTF? QuickPick is available at the Mac appstore For €7,99! WTF are these people talking about?
Still available on the Canadian Mac App Store.
The real question, for us old curmudgeons wedded to our desktop systems and who prefer a mouse to any trackpad ever made, is this: can Launchpad be switched off?
Months later, an update.
To all of you who were quick to defend Apple here, who jumped on the developer for misunderstanding, who jumped on MacNN for jumping the gun…
Well, it’s months later now. And QuickPick is nowhere to be found on the Mac App Store. Apple gave no explanation why they wouldn’t accept the point-update and the app was finally just pulled put completely, about a week ago: https://twitter.com/#!/sethwillits
It’s much more polished and functional than Launchpad. I’ve found that Launchpad is half-baked, and it kinda… just… sucks.
I’m using QuickPick now, and am happy with it. I’ve re-assigned all the same keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys and hot corners that Launchpad used to use. It really sucks that Apple has closed this out from the App Store, it is welcome alternative to Launchpad. Fortunately this is Mac OS and we can still download it ourselves… but this sort of behavior doesn’t bode well for Apple’s gatekeeper position, and what we’ll see in the future with iOS.