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But if Apple allows Neato to have a keyboard, it must allow any widget to have a keyboard, and in the long run one of them have a keylogger is practically inevitable, and would be an awful user experience anyway.

Any app can log your keystrokes and upload them wherever they want. Using this widget is no different than using the app version of this. Anything you put into it can be sent somewhere and you won't know unless you're sniffing your outgoing traffic. I'm amazed that more people don't realize this.

Anyway, downloaded this just because it's still available. They should change the price to a dollar and rake in some cash before Apple pulls the plug.
 
Still trying to figure out what the purpose of iOS widgets really is, especially when they're already a bit pointless, now they're making them almost 100% useless. This along with the bugs and poor cellular performance is one of the reasons why my 6+ is up for sale.
 
This kind of stuff is silly. I agree with Apple on a lot of points in terms of being more tightly controlled than Android, but this just seems ridiculous. Let people use their phones how they want. If something is technically possible within Apple's provided frameworks, it should be permissible, barring malicious apps of course.
 
Let's just put the whole app in the notification center. And why not? Let's let every widget achieve its full potential!

Widgets aren't apps. They have to be small and simple and fast, or the system becomes useless. And including a keyboard is obviously over the line. I can't believe this is even in question. If you want this level of functionality, just open the damn app!

Just because Apple opened some things up in iOS 8 doesn't mean the door has been completely open wide. It's certainly much more open than ever before, but it's not completely open to anything anywhere. Not sure why people thought otherwise that things would go from somewhere close to not much being open to completely open--it was pretty much a given that it would be somewhere half-way at best and more likely even somewhat less than that (but still much more than before). Not sure where the surprise or outrage is coming from.


Why let developers develop and submit apps which include a keyboard in the first place? The debacle could have been completely avoided if Apple made it clear what is permissible and what is prohibited and also prevented the inclusion of certain functions such as a keyboard from being included in a widget in the first place. You can't leave developers in limbo trying to figure out if their idea or finished widget would be accepted by Apple's subjective clearance process. In many cases, it costs developers time and money that they will have invested into their app. There needs to be certainty, that's the real issue here.
 
Good for Apple. If too many of these Apps are approved and available, iPhone might start to catch up to Android on functionality and we know Apple can't allow that.
 
Still trying to figure out what the purpose of iOS widgets really is, especially when they're already a bit pointless, now they're making them almost 100% useless. This along with the bugs and poor cellular performance is one of the reasons why my 6+ is up for sale.

I originally assumed they were intended to collate changing information that you wanted to keep an eye on, such as weather, stocks, sports scores etc, in one place, and not just a different way to present an app function.

I may be wrong, but if that's the case I can see why many will fall foul.
 
The stupid thing is that they approve apps that don't meet their own guidelines in obvious ways.

I suspect that Apple is increasingly becoming a victim of it's own success. They used to be a team of "A" players... but with the amount of staff they have had to bring on board, they have probably hired a bunch of "B" and even "C" players.

The kind of mess ups lately in IOS, OSX and the App store indicate that it's time for Apple to focus on getting more "A" team talent in their software and services departments... and scaling back their dev goals to what's doable with the top-grade talent.
 
Here's the issue. A keyboard in the notification center is not a difficult idea to come up with, in fact, as we see here it happened pretty darn quickly. They don't need to specify "no keyboards, no this, no that" but instead need to actually develop some guidelines, that alone will cut down on the issues and at that point application reviewers could actually say "no, this does not fit our guidelines". If they don't want input enabled from the notification shade then just state no input, that covers all sorts of things (keyboards included). The fact is, they screwed this up in a major way. They rushed to get a new feature without completely fleshing out the guidelines for developers.

Developers are their lifeblood, without apps, people will go to the platform that gives them what they use.
Why let developers develop and submit apps which include a keyboard in the first place? The debacle could have been completely avoided if Apple made it clear what is permissible and what is prohibited and also prevented the inclusion of certain functions such as a keyboard from being included in a widget in the first place. You can't leave developers in limbo trying to figure out if their idea or finished widget would be accepted by Apple's subjective clearance process. In many cases, it costs developers time and money that they will have invested into their app. There needs to be certainty, that's the real issue here.

Freedom of religion wasn't a hard concept to come up with when the US constitution was put together especially when it was quite logically following what was put in the Declaration of Independence, and yet it had to come in as an amendment to the constitution instead of being right in it from the beginning. Reality is reality, despite hindsight.
 
Why not remove the widget's built-in keyboard and just bring up the system keyboard if the user taps on the widget? Can't be that hard.

Of course, it'll still run afoul of the rule saying extensions shouldn't try to be mini-apps.
 
Seriously, Apple? What's the problem? Sounds like a nice tool for some people. If people don't want a keyboard in notification center, they won't install it.

I just don't understand why they're being so strict. It's like arbitrary rules of a forum, like 'frivolous post.' That's like, your opinion, man.

And you have, like, a choice, man. It's called Android. Go to it!
 
Crapdroid is always available to you.

I did say sometimes. That means occasionally. You see, people can still criticise, have valid points, and still enjoy products. Having one slight criticism doesn't mean I need to jump ship. And having one criticism doesn't mean I hate everything about iOS.

Hope this helps.
 
Seriously, Apple? What's the problem? Sounds like a nice tool for some people. If people don't want a keyboard in notification center, they won't install it.

I just don't understand why they're being so strict. It's like arbitrary rules of a forum, like 'frivolous post.' That's like, your opinion, man.

Omg thank you. Frivolous posts on MR are a catch all for anything the mod doesn't like. Half of ALL posts on any forum are frivolous.

Apple once again limiting functionality. I STILL remember having to wait forever for iOS to get cut & paste.
 
The stupid thing is that they approve apps that don't meet their own guidelines in obvious ways.

I suspect that Apple is increasingly becoming a victim of it's own success. They used to be a team of "A" players... but with the amount of staff they have had to bring on board, they have probably hired a bunch of "B" and even "C" players.

The kind of mess ups lately in IOS, OSX and the App store indicate that it's time for Apple to focus on getting more "A" team talent in their software and services departments... and scaling back their dev goals to what's doable with the top-grade talent.
Given that humans involved who knows what happened when someone might not have paid attention to something. Happens in all kinds of things in life. Furthermore, their guidelines are evolving, and while something like this might not have been something they thought would get much traction and didn't call it out specifically originally, once they saw what actually started happening in reality they might have realized that certain things did need more attention and coverage in the guidelines than originally thought. Again, happens in all kinds of things in life. Not sure why everyone is so surprised about a fairly natural progression of things--it's not great of course that it works like that, it'd be amazing if everything could be spelled out to the last bit right away, but that's simply not the reality and never really has been with practically anything. Things change, that's really the only constant.
 
Doesn't Apple's text message quick reply pull up a keyboard in the notification center? Why can't Neato then?
 
Omg thank you. Frivolous posts on MR are a catch all for anything the mod doesn't like. Half of ALL posts on any forum are frivolous.

Apple once again limiting functionality. I STILL remember having to wait forever for iOS to get cut & paste.
So you know well how iOS works and what it's about, and yet you are still surprised that Apple didn't just fully open the gates?

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Doesn't Apple's text message quick reply pull up a keyboard in the notification center? Why can't Neato then?
It doesn't really do it in notification center, and it's only limited to Apple's own Messages functionality, not something open to third party apps.
 
I assume that technically a widget like this can track your keystrokes, so I understand the reasoning.

That assumption is sort of unfair since no mention of keystroke tracking was mentioned as a reason for removal. The way your sentence is structured reads like an accusation. What exact reason do you understand, because that reason (keylogging) wasn't mentioned in the OP? If the OP mentioned the widget asked for all permissions then I could see making that assumption. As far as I know, it doesn't.

He made no accusations. He said that it's possible that this could be exploited, which is obviously is.

He's not saying Neato is tracking keystrokes, and it probably isn't. But if Apple allows Neato to have a keyboard, it must allow any widget to have a keyboard, and in the long run one of them have a keylogger is practically inevitable, and would be an awful user experience anyway.

No technically it wasn't an accusation, but the supposition introduced nefariousness when none existed prior.

"I assume that technically a widget like this could be an iOS9 feature, and what if Apple wants the functionality to originate within iOS first, so I can understand that reasoning."

I didn't accuse Apple of anything but I did introduce a self serving idea about Apple with no basis for doing so.

Bolded: Wouldn't that be dealt with in the permissions the app asks for? A person could simply chose not to install the widget and/or the app. Neato doesn't seem to have an awful user experience. In fact the opposite seems to be true. Apple is pretty good at pruning the garden of keylogging bs. I'm pretty sure they could handle that issue if it ever came to be.
 
Omg thank you. Frivolous posts on MR are a catch all for anything the mod doesn't like. Half of ALL posts on any forum are frivolous.

Apple once again limiting functionality. I STILL remember having to wait forever for iOS to get cut & paste.

Apple does things when they feel the time is right. They operate on their own timetable and do their own thing. This is one of their strengths.
 
So Apple would like them to remove the keyboard leaving a useless app in the App Store? Where's the sense in that?
 
Apple reverting to old ways. Thought WWDC was all about "opening up". Clearly Apple hates innovation unless it comes from Apple.

According to Apple's Guidelines, developers are prohibited from creating "a mini version" of an apps in Notification Center.

Neato is a note taking app. If you put the entire functionally of this app in the Notification Center, then it diminish the point of apps. I don't see the innovation at all. Think what would happen if Facebook put everything including the newsfeed, posts, notifications, messages, etc, all in the notification center. . . We wouldn't use the actual Facebook app.

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So Apple would like them to remove the keyboard leaving a useless app in the App Store? Where's the sense in that?

I think they were talking about the keyboard in the notification center, not the App itself.
 
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