ExtraBITS for 8 December 2014
The bad news in this installment of ExtraBITS is that Apple has forced the removal of a key feature of Transmit iOS, despite not following its own App Store rules in another situation. The good news is that the company is offering free programming tutorials for kids in its stores this week.
Apple Hobbles Transmit iOS — Apple’s inscrutable policies have hobbled yet another great iOS app. Transmit iOS 1.1.1 can no longer send documents to other services due to Apple demanding that developer Panic remove the option to send a file to iCloud Drive. The problem is that iCloud Drive is built into the sharing sheet — with no way to remove just that option — so Panic had to disable the Send feature entirely. Apple told Panic that only content created inside an app can be uploaded to iCloud Drive, though no specific rule states that.
Learn to Code with Apple — To support the Hour of Code on 11 December 2014, Apple Stores around the world are offering free one-hour introductory programming classes for kids. Apple is also hosting featured events at Apple Stores in New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, Tokyo, and Osaka. Follow the link to see if one will be offered near you.
The App Store Rule Apple Ignores — Apps must adhere to a wide variety of rules that Apple enforces stringently, but as developer Marco Arment points out, there’s one it ignores outright: the ban against using push notifications for promotional purposes. Apple itself violated this rule during its Apps for RED campaign, sending a push notification to iOS users from the App Store app to announce it.