[apgwoz]

Apple will allow easter eggs, but you have to disclose them to the review team (they promise to keep them confidential). This "easter egg" wasn't disclosed, and was an attempt to get a feature into the phone that was rejected by Apple before.

Right or wrong, this violated Apple's documented restrictions--this shouldn't even be a story.

[andrew1]

> this shouldn't even be a story.

If people are interested in the issue then of course it should be. Just because a law or rule exists doesn't mean that people should be happy with it, or accepting of it. If my government passed a law that I didn't agree with and prosecuted someone for breaking it, then I'd be happy for that issue to be discussed in the media. It doesn't matter whether the person knowingly broke the law or not, I'd still want the issue to get publicity.

[apgwoz]

The story isn't about that though. The story is about how someone created an Easter Egg and Apple took the app down--exactly like they said they would.

If this story was "$500K worth of users want to use the volume button to take pictures, but Apple won't let us" now you have a story that might actually be worthy. Until then, no story.

I'm getting awfully annoyed at all these stories about how the App Store sucks, and the approval process sucks. Non-developers don't care about this. They buy the apps that are approved and follow Apple's guidelines. Apple doesn't care because its vetting process protects its users, and its brand. Only developers care. And if developers care, they shouldn't waste their time writing software for the platform. And they shouldn't use it either. Force Apple to change by voting against them. Until then, they'll only see it as good exposure, and find another app that users will tolerate.