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170516-quick_snap.jpg


Earlier this week, we noted that a new App Store application, Quick Snap - Camera Plus, had appeared on December 15th, allowing users to activate the camera shutter on their iPhone using the hardware volume buttons on the side of the device. The approval of the application was clearly an error by Apple's review staff, as the remapping of hardware buttons from their original purposes is clearly prohibited by Apple's guidelines and several other applications offering similar functionality had been rejected for that reason.

Now that Apple's holiday shutdown has lifted, the company's staff members have moved quickly to yank the application from the App Store. Given that the application's primary marketing advantage lay in its use of the hardware buttons for activating the camera shutter, it is unclear if the developer will attempt to resubmit the application without the functionality.

Developers TapTapTap earlier this year attempted to sneak such functionality by Apple's reviewers by hiding it as an unlockable easter egg in their popular Camera+ application after Apple had rejected the feature when it was included openly in an update for the application submitted for review. TapTapTap succeeded in slipping the easter egg by Apple's reviewers, but Camera+ was quickly pulled once the functionality was publicly disclosed. After four months in the penalty box, Camera+ (without the volume button shutter activation) reappeared in the App Store just before Christmas and saw very solid sales with the holiday push.

Article Link: 'Quick Snap' Pulled From App Store
 
If it was the developer's intention was to sneak the app through right before the Christmas shutdown and have the app sitting there, untouchable, during the holiday break then kudos to him! Brilliant!
 
The original Mac rumors description said Apple originally disapproved it because customers "might get confused" with the functions of the buttons. Oh please...it's yet another example of Apple's "not invented here" syndrome. Otherwise it confirms Apple's cynical big brother view that their customers are too feeble minded to figure out things like this and need Mr. J to help them think.
 
Slow newsday?

Just add it to the existing thread as an update.
Everything that could be said was already said!
 
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Honestly, this app should have been pulled because it was horrible. The Volume trigger was nice and so is the timer, but there is just no control on the flash and other aspects. Plus the images don't come out as good as they do with the normal camera app. So it seems like this App was purely riding on the volume trigger as their selling point.

BTW... I don't think it's totally bad for Apple to mandate certain UI barriers. As much as us geeky crowd love the mods, the average consumer gets easily confused. From friends (I know 2) that have Android based phones, they hate the inconsistencies on applications. Apple attracts customers who like consistency and by the look of the sales... it seems to work.

However, with that said... some mods (like the volume button for snap) should be allowed. I feel the U/I inside the App is more important than run-time mods like this that are explained and featured. Most people would get it. Apple should lighten up over time.
 
The original Mac rumors description said Apple originally disapproved it because customers "might get confused" with the functions of the buttons. Oh please...it's yet another example of Apple's "not invented here" syndrome. Otherwise it confirms Apple's cynical big brother view that their customers are too feeble minded to figure out things like this and need Mr. J to help them think.

Rich... sorry, but you have the wrong attitude on this. It's not about NIH or Big Brother, it's about U/I consistency and stability of the product. If you let developers run wild, the iPhone UI would start to look and feel like a ransom note. This is what Apple is trying to avoid. Not to make us mad, but to make sure that the average consumer can have a consistent and reliable experience with the product.
 
Fairly useless, because it's more stable to use the on-screen shutter from the built in camera app.
 
It's a little ironic that Apple prohibits app developers from reassigning hardware buttons when they've done it with the iPad's Mute/orientation lock switch several times now.
 
It's a little ironic that Apple prohibits app developers from reassigning hardware buttons when they've done it with the iPad's Mute/orientation lock switch several times now.

You can still get to the orientation lock though. Double click home to bring up the multitasking menu, slide your finger right, and press the button of the furthest left.
 
I only barely feel that's news worth reporting. (A footnote to the original article would be enough).

And yet you are here everyday, and take the time to post a comment on something that wasn't worth reporting.. :D

You should see some of the news that CNN posts.. sigh..
 
Come on Apple, make this type of functionality "logical" so we can have it in all our apps, it just makes sense to be able to take a picture this way.
 
The original Mac rumors description said Apple originally disapproved it because customers "might get confused" with the functions of the buttons. Oh please...it's yet another example of Apple's "not invented here" syndrome. Otherwise it confirms Apple's cynical big brother view that their customers are too feeble minded to figure out things like this and need Mr. J to help them think.

However, that has to be said that when on silent(maybe cause you don't what to hear the pic sound) you cannot snap pictures, sometimes people don't realize that to be related to the volume/pic snap.
When you plug the earphones you might snap pictures(happend to me on Camera+).
And when you use the iPod(maybe cause your are walking around with your music on, which happend to me) and want to take a quick shot by the street than the two applications go in conflict.

You can't really argue that Apple has not a point on it.
 
Given that the application's primary marketing advantage lay in its use of the hardware buttons for activating the camera shutter, it is unclear if the developer will attempt to resubmit the application without the functionality.

I bought the app as soon as the story was posted fearing that Apple would do this....I have the Camera+ app and loved the vol button function. The new Camera+ is so good that I had to upgrade and of course lost the Vol button shutter.

Now I hope that the above is now correct and they WILL NOT resubmit it.
 
What annoys me is that Apple will allow this functionality in future version of their camera app and make it seem like it's this new and innovative feature they came up with.
 
What annoys me is that Apple will allow this functionality in future version of their camera app and make it seem like it's this new and innovative feature they came up with.

That's because Apple has become the iron fist their early adverts parodied...they are jackboot fascists who want to control everything for no good reason except that they can. The fanboys are their Apple youth 'blackshirt' army who try and indoctrinate people and so welcome to 1984....:mad:
 
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