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I hope this is the right place to post this. If not, please redirect and I will be happy to move.
I am a little confused about the App Icon that represents our app in iTunes and on the devices. I am having some questions, specifically, about licensing for the icons I choose to use.
Technically, I was wondering of the app icon is officially defined as a 'logo'. It seems like if it is called a logo, on many sites you have to buy the exclusive rights to an image before using it as an app icon.
Otherwise, it seems like you can simply purchase an extended license. Obviously this differs from site to site, but they seem to all say I need a simple extended license when I describe the use, then they turn around and say that a logo needs exclusive rights. It's too bad that mant of these sites haven't addressed iOS applications as a category specifically.
Additionally, we specify several icon images within our apps in the plist file. I think I read somewhere that we might need a separate license for each of these icons, even if the same image is used repeatedly.
I could really use some feedback on this issue. I want to be compliant with the law and respect the needed licenses, without spending way more than I need to, and I already have app icons out there (and can't get a consistent answer from the site where I bought the icons) so I don't want to go the paid designer route. Thanks.
First off, we are not lawyers. We cannot give you legal advice.
That said, you should not use art you do not own in your app, regardless of how you use it. As an app icon, it may well count as a logo depending on the legal/applicable definition of that term. It certainly counts as copyright infringement if you don't have the rights to the art in question.
Ideally, the company you're working with should be supplying the app icon and other art. If they're unable to do that, they don't sound terribly professional. Art is not (usually) the coder's responsibility. Check with the company and get a consistent answer.
As Jonathan said so well above, I am not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt... it is not legal advice.
Whether or not an image can be used with an extended license, without full-on purchasing the rights, seems to depend on it is technically a logo or not. Also, whether you are trademarking the image. The logo part is where things get grey... and I haven't been able to find any clear answer on it. There may not BE a clear answer.
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I have done a lot of researches regarding accessing device SIM card data such as SIM serial number and user phone number, and below are my findings :
By using private API for iOS SDK we can extract the needed information from SIM card (If already stored on the SIM card).
The issue related to the rules and regulation for submission apps. On Apple store, since Apple rejects any application accessing SIM card because hey supposed that such behaviors break the user privacy and security.
This functionality used for application not attended for APPStore submission.
References :
How could I read information from SIM card in iPhone?
Programatically get own Phone Number in iPhone OS 4.0
How can I get the phone number of my iPhone device?
Read/write certificates on a SIM card - iOS
all the posts and tutorials that i found said that i can't extract data from the device SIM card without facing apple rejection !!!
My question is ,, is there any way to access SIM card information and publish my application successfully on the Appstore ? and i appreciated any reference to the part in apple submission rules and regulations document that says "NO SIM CARD DATA ACCESS" !!
My question is ,, is there any way to access SIM card information and publish my application successfully on the Appstore ? - No there's no way. There's no direct reference of "No Sim Card Data" in documentation.
As you have already read SIM card data access is not possible using the Apple SDK. Following is the part of Apple Developer Document :
The following guidelines can help you ask for user data in ways that
help people feel comfortable.
Make sure users understand why they’re being asked to share their
personal data. It’s natural for people to be suspicious of a request
for their personal information if they don’t see an obvious need for
it. To avoid making users uncomfortable, make sure the alert appears
only when they attempt to use a feature that clearly needs to know
their information. For example, people can use Maps when Location
Services is off, but they see an alert when they access the feature
that finds and tracks their current location.
Describe why your app needs the information, if it’s not obvious. You
can provide text that appears in the alert, below a system-provided
title such as ““App Name” Would Like to Access Your Contacts”. You
want this text to be specific and polite so that people understand why
you’re asking for access to their information and don’t feel
pressured. Your reason text should:
Not include your app name. The system-provided alert title already
includes your app name. Clearly describe why your app needs the data.
If appropriate, you might also explain ways in which your app will not
use the data. Use user-centric terminology and be localizable. Be as
short as possible, while still being easy to understand. As much as
possible, avoid supplying more than one sentence. Use sentence-style
capitalization. (Sentence-style capitalization means that the first
word is capitalized, and the rest of the words are lowercase unless
they are proper nouns or proper adjectives.) Ask permission at app
startup only if your app can’t perform its primary function without
the user’s data. People will not be bothered by this if it’s obvious
that the main function of your app depends on knowing their personal
information.
Avoid making programmatic calls that trigger the alert before the user
actually selects the feature that needs the data. This way, you avoid
causing people to wonder why your app wants their personal information
when they’re doing something that doesn’t appear to need it. (Note
that getting the user’s Location Services preference does not trigger
the alert.)
For location data, check the Location Services preference to avoid
triggering the alert unnecessarily. You can use Core Location
programming interfaces to get this setting (to learn how to do this,
see Core Location Framework Reference). With this knowledge, you can
trigger the alert as closely as possible to the feature that requires
location information, or perhaps avoid an alert altogether.
You can refer this
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i'm writing a tweak for iPhone that at certainly point needs to set the ringtone, but i'm not able to find how to do that.
Can someone tell me how to do that, put me in the right direction where to look or just tell me a website where to search or maybe in some wiki?
All i've found are useless answers.
More Info:
I need to know how to set ringtone for a tweak so the solution can be only for jaibroken devices.
Thanks!
You cannot set the user's ringtone using the iOS SDK. If you need this ability, consider filing an enhancement request at https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/. However, as this feature would annoy the unholy poop out of almost every user on the platform, don't hold your breath.
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I was wondering if It is possible to "register" an iPhone App Name before the app goes on the app store?
Example:
A developer comes up with a really clever name for a iphone game.
He wants to register the name before he programs the game so that no one else comes up with the same name.
Yes, you can, but only for a limited amount of time. When I tried it, the time period was 120 days, but this may have been changed to 90 days. EDIT: It seems that this is now 180 days, based on the comments below.
A developer can choose enter information about the application before uploading it, but Apple will remove the app and it's meta information if the name is not used within the grace period. You cannot use the name ever again after that.
I have, however, some apps that were rejected on the first review and were never re-submitted. It seems that those names are still available to me. Just don't submit a really lame first submission or Apple will know that you are "parking" the name.
Here's a screenshot of my email from Apple:
You can squat a name for something like 90 days per recent Apple iTunesConnect changes. If you do not upload a binary in that time, it will be deleted and you will be unable to use it again.
There exists a loophole I have found though I don't know how long it will stay open. It seems that uploading a binary, any binary, then immediately rejecting it will prevent you from deletion. I don't condone squatting, but sometimes, apps take longer than 90 days to develop.
If you have the money, not only submit the name in iTunes Connect, but register a trademark on the name. If you don't, than someone who does, and gets to market first with any other mobile platform game, might try to take the name from you, or involve you in legal wrangling in an attempt to do so.
You might also want to quietly snap up all the relevant domain names, if you can.
A developer can upload basic information about an app including the name before the binary is ready to be submitted. The developer needs to be set up in iTunes Connect and have an active Developer Agreement.
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I make an app which is a clone of a well-known game. I had the name of that game as a keyword in the first two versions of my app. Many competing apps also use the keyword.
I just updated my app. Apple said I couldn't have that keyword and took it out.
Meanwhile, a search on the name of the game brings up over 40 apps, most of them third-party apps which are not licensed. Now that the keyword has been removed, my app does not come up in the search, even though it is highly popular.
Is my best bet to:
a) Point out the discrepancy to Apple.
b) Try again in the next update
c) Give up.
d) Something else?
Apple's official policy changed a while back to disallow the use of competitor's products in your keywords. Have any of the other apps that use this keyword been updated recently? It's entirely possible that their use of the keyword dates to before this policy change.
If I were you, I'd go with "a) Point out the discrepancy to Apple" and probably ask them why they took it out to begin with.
If I were me, I would just ditch Apple and move on (Android, maybe even Windows Phone 7).
(a) and (c).
Using unlicensed trademarks as keywords seems to be a violation of the App store guidelines (but IANAL). If you point out those other apps to the review board, it probably won't help you directly, but there is some small chance that sometime if the far future when these other developers try to update their apps, the keyword will be disallowed for them also. But don't count on it.
Your being allowed that keyword originally is part of the luck of the game. Don't assume that a some amount of luck won't be involved with Android and Windows Phone (et.al.) App store revenues as well.
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I have submitted my first iPhone app and am now waiting for approval. My only fear is having it rejected because of some subtle nuance in the HIG, this is from googling around.
How does Apple treat the HIG, as guidelines or as gospel?
It all depends.
If you use the wrong icons for certain functionality. They will reject it.
If it is confusing to the user. They will reject it.
If the standard UI components do not work as expected. They will reject it.
If an operations fails without appropriate feedback. They will reject it
But they will usually tell you one item in the GUI that they rejected it for.
Thus when you fix it and send it back they can tell you about the next one.
They are definitely guidelines, but if you don't have confidence or a good amount of experience with UX, you should treat them as gospel. When developing mobile apps, I kind of feel that providing a good UX should be the highest priority. A lot of developers are pretty bad at UIs, and the HIG provides a very good set of guidelines to follow, at least at the start. You should owe it to yourself to give a HIG a thorough read.
Guidelines. The bottom line is that it has to work, not use any private API or violate the terms of the agreement. If it does what it says it's going to do and doesn't crash right away, you'll probably be fine.
It really depends on how much your devition results in a better user experience.
The HIG is there to help you build an application that users will understand how to use more or less from the start, and make the application easy to use.
If you do some custom things that improve life for the user, Apple will probably let it go. But if you are deviating in ways that make the application harder to use, they will tend to come down on you.
A lot of the possible rejections are pretty reasonably things - for example I was rejected once for a rotated view where the UI elements didn't quite all replace correctly. Once fixed (and it really was a bug on my part) the app was accepted.
The HIG is more a way to change your odds in a lottery. You greatly improve your odds by not doing anything that clearly looks like a violation of the HIG. There are web sites that list things that appear to at least one reviewer to be violations.
But there are many apps with fairly crufty UIs (that don't look HIG compliant to other devs) but somehow got accepted into the App store. On the other hand, one hears about other apps that are rejected for something that looked to the reviewer very different than it looked to you (would you confuse icon X for the completely different icon Y? & etc.) Or mistake the word "or" for "and" in one of the SDK Agreement rules?