TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reports: Apple is standing by its decision to terminate the Apple Developer Account of Appstun, a mobile app company created by one of Apple’s own Worldwide Developer Conference 2021 student winners. According to an announcement published on Appstun’s website, Apple moved to terminate the developer’s account after multiple rejections of its app that Apple says violates its App Store guidelines. Apple’s decision to shut down the developer’s account was recently highlighted on X by Apple critic and 37signals co-owner and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson, where he celebrated how much better web developers had it, noting they could run their businesses without the involvement of big tech gatekeepers. “No fear on [sic] capricious rejections that might suddenly kill the business overnight,” he remarked.

Appstun co-founder Batuhan Karababa says that he and the other co-founder had been trying to work with Apple over the App Store rejections. (Karababa tells us that he’s only the formal founder on paper.) “We responded transparently and collaborated with Apple to ensure our app doesn’t violate any guidelines. However, as the process continued, we began to face rejection for the issue that we thought we had already resolved in previous submissions. Apple didn’t find our solution good enough,” according to the announcement on Appstun’s website. The company went back and forth with App Review, receiving multiple rejections over an app for designing Apple Watch faces. In addition to a more standard watch face, Appstun also came up with a workaround that would allow it to offer more highly customizable watch faces. But these weren’t actually watch faces in the traditional sense, but rather custom images and animations that run independently of the App Watch face system. Essentially, the app would take over the screen showing an image that was similar to a watch face, allowing Appstun to offer more customization. Of course, running a custom animation in this way could drain the Apple Watch battery faster.

Apple was also concerned that customers wouldn’t understand that they weren’t running a normal watch face, and that Appstun deceived them by suggesting that’s what it was offering. Though Appstun added notifications to its app that these were not real watch faces, in an attempt to placate App Review, Apple instead decided to terminate the company’s developer account after repeated back-and-forth. The company pleaded on its website for any help in getting its developer account restored. According to Apple, there’s more to this story, and it thinks it made the correct decision. The iPhone maker said Appstun’s app repeatedly tried to mislead users into thinking that it offered features and functionality that it didn’t support and also marketed the app with deceptive ads, leading to negative app ratings and reviews. […] Apple pointed to its guideline 5.6 — a developer code of conduct — that warns developers that “repeated manipulative or misleading behavior or other fraudulent conduct will lead to your removal from the Apple Developer Program.”

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After two rejections, Apple has approved the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. “This paves the way for Epic CEO Tim Sweeney to realize his long-stated goal of launching an alternative game store on Apple’s closed platform — at least in Europe,” reports Ars Technica. From the report: Apple announced plans to allow third-party app stores on iOS in the region earlier this year, complying with the letter of the law (though some say not the spirit) as required by the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which was enacted in hopes of making platforms more open and competitive. Apple’s new policies allow for alternative app marketplaces but with some big caveats regarding the deal that app developers agree to.

The change followed years of contentious PR campaigns and court battles around the world between Epic and Apple, with Sweeney proclaiming that Apple’s app approval processes are anti-competitive and that its 30 percent cut of app revenues is unfair. Even after the shift, Apple is said to have rejected the Epic Games Store app twice. The rejections were over specific rules about the copy and shape of buttons within the app, though not about its primary function. […] Apple went ahead and approved the app despite the disagreement over the copy and button designs. However, AppleInsider reported that Apple will still require Epic to change the copy and buttons later.

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Filipe Esposito reports via 9to5Mac: When Apple introduced AirPods in 2016, the company also unveiled a new, easy and intuitive way to pair wireless accessories to iPhone and iPad. Rather than having to go to Bluetooth settings and press buttons, the system identifies the accessory nearby and prompts the user to pair it. With iOS 18, this quick pairing process will be available for the first time to accessory makers.

Called AccessorySetupKit, the new API gives third-party accessories the same setup experience as Apple accessories such as AirPods and AirTag. As soon as the iPhone or iPad running iOS 18 with the right app detects a compatible accessory, it will show the user a popup to confirm pairing with that device. With just a tap, the system will automatically handle all the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity required by the accessory. This also means that users will no longer have to manually give Bluetooth and Wi-Fi permissions individually to that accessory’s app.

If the accessory requires a more complex pairing process, such as confirming a PIN code, the iOS 18 API can also ask the user for this information without the need to open an app. Once the accessory has been paired, more information about it can be found in a new Accessories menu within the Privacy settings.

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Jay Peters reports via The Verge: The iPad is finally getting a Calculator app as part of iPadOS 18. The long-requested app was just announced by Apple at WWDC 2024. On its face, the app looks a lot like the calculator you might be familiar with from iOS. But it also supports Apple Pencil, meaning that you can write down math problems and the app will solve them thanks to a feature Apple calls Math Notes. Other features included in iPadOS 18 include a new, customizable floating tab bar; enhanced SharePlay functionality for easier screen sharing and remote control of another person’s iPad; and Smart Script, a handwriting feature that refines and improves legibility using machine learning.

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Jess Weatherbed reports via The Verge: At least 224 people with diabetes have reported injuries linked to a defective iOS app that caused their insulin pumps to shut down prematurely, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On Wednesday, the agency announced that California-based medical device manufacturer Tandem Diabetes Care has issued a recall for version 2.7 of the iOS t:connect mobile app, which is used in conjunction with the company’s t:slim X2 insulin pump. Specifically, the recall relates to a software issue that can cause the app to repeatedly crash and relaunch, resulting in the pump’s battery being drained by excessive Bluetooth communication.

This battery drain can cause the pump to shut down “earlier than typically expected” according to Tandem, though the pump will notify users of an imminent shutdown via an alarm and low-power alert. The company has notified customers to update the mobile app to version 2.7.1 or later, which should fix the defective software. While no physical recall is taking place, the FDA has identified this as a “Class I” recall — the most serious type, as it relates to issues with products that can potentially cause serious injuries or death. No deaths linked to the issues have been reported as of April 15th. Tandem is encouraging pump users to take particular care when they sleep as it’s easier to miss battery depletion warnings, and is asking impacted customers to confirm they have been notified of the recall via this online form. For any other questions or concerns about the insulin pump recall, customers should contact Tandem Diabetes Care directly.

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Tumblr’s parody of paid verification has already delivered the social network and blogging platform a 125% boost in iOS in-app purchase revenue since November, according to a new analysis of the app’s in-app consumer spending. TechCrunch reports: The company, now operated by WordPress.com owner Automattic following its 2019 acquisition, launched its response to Twitter’s paid verification hustle with the addition of its own purely cosmetic double blue checks — a sort of tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to the idea that subscription-based verification had any real value. As it turns out, at least some Tumblr users were willing to pay — though perhaps not for clout, but because in-jokes have proven to be a more successful monetization strategy for the blogging network than some of its more legitimate attempts to make money, such as its creator-focused subscription, Post+. After being met with community backlash, at one point Post+ was being outperformed from a monetization perspective by crabs — a goofy paid feature that let users send animated dancing crabs to each other’s dashboards.

According to new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower provided to TechCrunch, consumer spending on Tumblr’s iOS app increased since November 2022’s double-blue check launch, now totaling $263,000 in net revenue. While that’s not a significant figure in the grand scheme of things by any means, it still represents a 125% jump in spending compared with the prior three-month total of August through October 2022. When looking at more long-term trends, Tumblr’s revenue remains up — but not by as much. Sensor Tower says the in-app purchase revenue on iOS is up 19%, compared with the prior ten months ahead of the blue check’s launch (January through October 2022).

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A developer managed to use an exploit found in iOS 16 to change the default font of the system without jailbreak. 9to5Mac reports: Zhuowei Zhang shared his project on Twitter, which he calls a “proof-of-concept app.” According to Zhang, the app he developed uses the CVE-2022-46689 exploit to overwrite the default iOS font, so that users can customize the system’s appearance with a different font other than the default (which is San Francisco). The CVE-2022-46689 exploit affects devices running iOS 16.1.2 or earlier versions of the operating system, and it basically lets apps execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. The exploit was fixed with iOS 16.2, which also fixed a bunch of other security breaches found in the previous version of iOS.

Since iOS has its own font format, the developer performed the experiment using only a few fonts, including DejaVu Sans Condensed, Serif, Mono, and Choco Cooky. And in case you’re wondering, Choco Cooky is the weird font that used to come pre-installed by default on Samsung smartphones. Now you can finally have it on your iPhone. Zhang explains that the process should be safe for everyone, since all changes are reversed after rebooting the device. Still, the developer recommends users trying out the app to back up their devices before replacing the default system font. He also details that the change only affects some of the text on iOS, as other parts of the system use different fonts. More details about the project, including its source code, are available on GitHub.

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In an update coming to iOS 16 later this year, Apple plans to add a new “Clean Energy Charging” option in the United States. MacRumors reports: The information was shared in Apple’s iOS 16 press release, and it says that clean energy charging will optimize charging times for when the grid is using cleaner energy sources. With Clean Energy Charging, Apple is aiming to decrease the carbon footprint of the iPhone. This is the first we’ve heard of clean energy charging, and it’s not a feature that Apple has previously highlighted.

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Apple has released an iOS 12 update users of older iPhone and iPad devices should download as soon as possible. Engadget reports: The new version of the company’s 2018 operating system addresses a major vulnerability that Apple recently patched within iOS 15. According to a support document, the WebKit flaw could have allowed a website to run malicious code on your device. In its usual terse manner, Apple notes it is “aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.”

For that reason, you should download the update as soon as possible if you’re still using an iOS 12 device. That’s a list that includes the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, as well as iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3. You can download iOS 12.5.6 by opening the Settings app, tapping on “General” and then selecting “Software Update.”

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