If you’re in any way part of the mobile ecosystem at Apple, you’ve certainly heard of Astro HQ and if not, it should, because she is one of the most creative developers with the most interesting products in recent years (see Luna Display). All that creativity, however, encountered a small obstacle this week within Apple itself.
It is explained: the developer was taking the curtains off the latest update of one of its main applications, the AstroPad Studio, with a simple but ingenious idea, in which the front camera of the iPads would become a kind of button would be enough to touch there for a contextual menu to appear on the screen. The feature, which was also available in the trial versions of the app for Luna Display, was an excellent way to make the interface more free (which is particularly important in these productivity applications) and make use of some of the hardware not exploited by the programs.
The idea, however, was promptly rejected by Apple, which cited an App Store guideline prohibiting applications that “alter or disable the functions of the device's buttons, such as the volume or silent mode switch, or other elements of the user interface. native ”. As a result, the “camera button” will have to be removed from the update to AstroPad Studio for Apple to approve the update; the Luna Display app will also have to be operated to remove the gadget when it goes live on the App Store.
Although Apple's decision does not name specifically the specific reasons for the rejection of the feature, it is not difficult to think that many users would be uncomfortable with the fact that apps would basically need to have the iPad's front camera turned on at all times for detecting light (or lack of it). Such behavior could bring problems to the device's battery and would also possibly make room for other malicious applications that wanted to secretly capture images from the camera, something that we already remember as possible in this article.
So, in the end, as good as the idea was, I have no way of considering that Apple has a certain reason in this case. What do you think?
via MacRumors
