My name is Jake Marsh.
I'm a developer, designer, and writer.

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▸ Apple Asks PCalc Developer to Remove iOS 8 Widget

Federico Viticci at MacStories:

Curious app rejections aren't new to the App Store, but being forced to remove a feature that was approved, featured by the App Store team, and appreciated by thousands of users is a different story.

I can't help but think this mess is a failure on Apple's part to better explain and campaign for the types of functionality they intended for third part developers to create in their iOS Today View widgets.

Apple dipped their toes in this a bit at WWDC, but didn't go far enough. There was an offhanded mention (or two) about "glance-able" information, but there was no real "selling" the concept.

In the past Apple hasn't been shy about explaining how you "should" use a particular API or developer feature. I sincerely wish Apple would have made a more obvious case for the types of things they were going to encourage (and allow) to be released as Today View widgets.

This situation has now made Apple's vision for Today View widgets crystal clear:

Apple wants third-party developers to help it deliver their answer to Google Now. Your Today View widgets should embrace similar look, feel, and purposes to the ones provided by iOS itself.

ETA comes to mind as a perfect example of this vision. Quick, glance-able and most of all, read-only. I get the impression Apple would prefer that the Today View be about consuming information, and not direct manipulation.

James Thomson is a wonderful developer with a long (no really, *long*) history of supporting Apple's platforms. It's unfortunate that he's being dragged through the mud on this one.

PCalc is available for iOS here and OS X right here, I highly recommend them.

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