Convertbot 1.4 for iPhone Rejected by App Store Because Same “Time” Icon Now Confusable for “Recents”
Convertbot [$0.99 - iTunes link] has seen their latest update, version 1.4 for iPhone (and iPod touch), rejected by at least 2 of Apple’s 40+ App Store reviewers because the icon they’re using for “Time” (the same icon they’ve been using since 1.0, mind you) is nigh-identical to Apple’s built in “Recent” icon, and that was enough to raise that troublesome “user confusion” flag at iTunes HQ.
They’re going to try and find a different yet equally minimalist icon, and we’re going to start counting down to a letter from either Phil Schiller or the FCC…
Sigh.
[Via Daring Fireball]
August 27th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Here is another example of apples stupid app approving policy
August 27th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Sheesh.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
thats crazy!
August 27th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Oh, that’s a Time icon? No wonder I haven’t been able to figure out how to convert Ancient History into Recent History. I was so confused!
August 27th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Hahahahaha. This is why I love this blog
August 27th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I know this sucks for them, but this is such an easy fix that it’s really not worth discussing. There’s so many ways they could easily change it.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
@K1: It is important because now their update is delayed for probably another 2 weeks for no real reason. They should’ve just approved the app and let them know they’d require the next version to change the icon.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Same thing happened to iSSh just a couple days ago. The used an email icon for a connection log mailing feature.
Went thru 3 or 4 updates an suddenly it is confusing.
Having 20 different apps using 20 different icons seems more confusing to me.
Is apple purposly trying to slow down app store submissions? Are the review teams staging a work slowdown because they are overworked and underappreciated?
August 27th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I know it’s stupid and not worth an entire rejection but more just a please fix, we’ll check it and release it. (which they might do idk) (they did it for pocket god except it was a copyright thing) but what I think apples doing is setting a bar. They don’t want a bunch of **** (not saying a confusing button is) in an app store made by the perfectionist apple.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I don’t know whom to feel worse for…Convertbot for this silly delay or for all of us for purchasing products from a company that thinks their customer base can be so easily confused.
August 27th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
THIS IS A CLOCK, how stupid are these reviewers to ban an application because it uses an icon that is COMMON SENSE? Ridiculous!
August 27th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
@smchrist2
The app store is mostly junk anyways, why is apple trying to clean it up for stupid things. If they want to keep out crappy apps, remove the **** apps, not useful apps like google voice.
August 27th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
True story I spent about five minutes today clicking on my wristwatch at 3pm today trying to access my recent calls… it was so confusing. Fortunately, an Apple Genius ran up to me shouting “You must be an iPhone user! Quick, let’s get you home before you go blind looking into the sun expecting to find the Weather App!”… that man saved my life!
August 27th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
There will be hell to pay if Apple rejects iTV’s update for some reason. Can’t wait for the built in Tivo remote & push notifications. I have to say it does amaze me everyday to hear the reasoning Apple gives for rejecting an app. I swear I am lost for words on this one.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:11 am
@dman that is hilarious. Almost as hilarious it was of me to be starring at the Rockies for five hours waiting for my stocks to appear and looking at an old television trying to access YouTube. And also, get this, looking at my freaking compass waiting for safari to launch. I just hope and pray that people don’t start tapping on yellow notepads waiting for a keyboard to popup at any given moment. The world is coming to an end iPhone users. I can see it now. I can see i—-
August 28th, 2009 at 12:13 am
Joe Hewitt, tweeting about the delays in the release of the latest Facebook app update, had this to say in consecutive posts:
“What would the web look like if each time a developer wanted to change their site, it had to be approved by a committee with a 2 week delay?”
“I’d feel pretty good saying the pace of web innovation would have been dramatically slower, and the 2009 web might still look like 1999.”
This point is often overlooked in all the complaints about user trust and developer freedom. Because of the App Store process, developers, and Apple itself, are wasting time, money, and talent on arbitrary, petty issues, such as at least 2 week delay for an icon, leaving all of them with less cycles to spend truly pushing the iPhone forward. Long term — even medium term — that is not good for the platform.
Rene, if you want a new graphic idea for App Store policies, I would suggest an Office Space theme, because they are rapidly becoming the TPS Cover Sheet of the 21st Centry.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:13 am
Uh… haven’t they been using that icon for like… forever? o_O
August 28th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Seriously apple are really starting to piss me off! Their level of stupidity has just reached a new low!
August 28th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Hey is it just me or would a real-time clock widget be totally awesome on the iPhone homescreen. As in the clock icon (alarms, regional times, stopwatch) shows a real-time display of your local time. Maybe even a set location in weather that automaticly updates the current temp depending on your push/fetch settings.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:46 am
@Hakala
Both of those mods are available in Cydia as LiveClock and WeatherIcon, respectively.
Rajiv
August 28th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Yes, this rejection is completely silly… but I don’t think Apple is completely wrong for having a “user-confusion” criteria for judging apps. When I pick up a BlackBerry I am utterly baffled by the terrible, similar-looking icons that populate the home screen – I am literally confused as to what I should be selecting and what icon corresponds to which app. Apple wants everything on the iPhone to be immediately understandable to the average user, so it is correct in looking at this aspect of each app. However, in this instance, as in a few others, the review team has lost it’s marbles.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:07 am
It’s obvious that Apple has a new policy regarding icons and is implementing it on new submissions — probably due to the number of apps being submitted with icons too similar to Apple’s own work. Not all that surprising. People want the app approval process to evolve, and it is — if not to everyone’s liking.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:07 am
I did know that it was available for the JB community but I think I should have been a little more Specific in that area, whereas, it would be available for non-jailbreaking users provided by apple. But thank you for helping anyways.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:17 am
That’s quite stupid. The person who didn’t approve of this is just following a checklist from Apple HQ (”Are any icons too similar to Apple standard icons which could cause user confusion? Check”) and should leave the interface design to the pros. They’re not thinking of the context! Who on EARTH would confuse that icon for ‘recent’ while choosing a unit of measurement?
Now tapbots has to compromise usability by using a less universally recognizable icon for ‘time.’ Which in the end will cause more confusion that it saves.
Dorks.
My reccomendation to tapbots, slap some dots on that sucker: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3541/3865068762f59dfe18f7o.jpg
Then maybe tell Apple they can EAT YOU.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:19 am
(Here’s shortened link for the link above…)
http://bit.ly/5rpt9
August 28th, 2009 at 9:23 am
If the average uses is confused by the use of this icon then the average user shouldn’t have bought a smartphone.
August 28th, 2009 at 10:10 am
@ Green Sleeves
“they should replace the icon with an apple.”
You are funny as f**k, man!
August 28th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Uh, isn’t this the same app that was repeatedly paraded around at WWDC as an example of good UI design? Now all of a sudden it’s bad design?
August 28th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Apple is effed up. I wish I’d never gone with an iPhone.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:17 am
There is a reason why Apple content looks superior to the legion of PC craptastic content out there, it’s because they pay attention to the details and demand the same from those developing on their platform.
Look at all the other smart phones, their UI design is lame.
I want Apple to police the graphics instead of letting glorified clip art reign supreme.