Apple announced its AirPods in September just as the company formally made clear its plans tokill the headphone jackon the iPhone . The only veridical concern about the goofy - looking wireless earbuds was whether they ’d be too well-off to mislay . iOS development teamDeucksdecided to contend this probability with an app that helps lamentable people who ’ve lost an airpod and do n’t want topay the $ 70 serving feefor a successor .
Now , after just a duad of days of being in public usable for download , the developer ’s “ Finder for AirPods ” app has been removed from the App Store without much of an explanation from Apple .
The app was create with the intention of helping people place either of their lost AirPods . It was able to do this by measuring Bluetooth signal and leading an individual toward the missing bud — this is standardised to how products likeTileorTrackRwork . It would n’t work if you lost an AirPod out on the street a mile back , but if the missing AirPod was somewhere in your house you stood a pretty good probability of locating your lost expensive gadget .
After submit the app for review on December 22 , the developer wait about two week before it was finally available for public download . To celebrate admission into the App Store , the developer posted an annunciation onRedditwith promo codification encouraging citizenry to try it out for liberal .
Then the Apple sports fan siteMacRumorsreviewed the app , about three days after its freeing . The land site gave Finder for AirPods a reasonably in effect rating . “ The app has the electric potential to be helpful for users afraid of have to pay $ 69 for a surrogate AirPod , ” tell reader Mitchel Broussard .
That ’s when it happened . The app enigmatically disappeared from the App Store . According to the developer who posted onReddit , Apple simply did n’t like the idea of helping people find their mislay AirPods .
Yeah , just got off the telephone with them . They did n’t find anything incorrect with the app itself , but rather they they did n’t care the ‘ concept ’ of people finding their AirPods and hence was deemed ‘ not appropriate for the App Store ’ .
When ask for proof of the conversation , the developerresponded .
The proof being , they call me to say that the App Review board does n’t like the concept of the app and hold it not appropriate for the App Store . They have their own reasons why , but probably wo nt release it to the public .
What relieve oneself the app ’s remotion even more fly-by-night is the fact thatDeuckshas produced several other finder apps , all of which remain in the app memory board . Finder for Fitbit , Finder for Xiaomi , Finder for Misfit , andFinder for Jawboneall remain the App Store . The apps bank on the exact same Bluetooth radio signals to trail the equipment — which lead us to believe that Apple only has a problem with the app because it ’s made for one of its own products .
Gizmodo reached out to Apple for remark , but the company has not yet replied at the time of publication . Some Reddit commenters are criminate Apple of removing the app so that it can work up its own translation of the same thing . The probability of that is in reality heavy to say — but what ’s clean is that Apple does n’t give care about provide explanations to developers .
If you ’re one of the many people who ’ve already bought this app , you ’re not totally have intercourse . You canapply for a refund here . The developer is also believe about open - source the code on Github .
[ MacRumors ]
AirPodsApp StoreApple
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