Apple slays the dragon

Shortly after our app Instant New York appeared in the iTunes Store, we discovered a major bug with the geo-tagging of the entries, something we hadn’t seen in testing. We fixed the problem and submitted an update, which Apple promptly cleared for sale in just 12 hours.

Just a few days later, we discovered further faults in the editorial and image database. Again, we fixed these and submitted the update to Apple. We needed to add a summary of what the update encompassed, which would then be displayed in the App Store. It amused us no end to submit:

– Editorial database updated
– Broken images fixed
– Extra dragons

It meant nothing, obviously, it was something silly and stupid to raise a smile amongst those perusing the App Store.

And so we waited. 12 hours past by, then a day. Then two days. Apple were clearly busier than when we sent the first update. Or so we thought. A full week later, an email arrived from Apple:

To review your application for the App Store, we need to be able to verify features as outlined in the release notes. Please respond to this email and clarify the phrase “Extra dragons”.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

Whoops. We’d delayed a critical update by a full week because of a pointless funny. We replied and pointed out we’d included the comment by mistake, and 12 hours later the application was approved.

Two lessons learnt, then:

– We need more rigorous pre-launch testing, to ensure we don’t have to send two updates in as many weeks
– Apple don’t care for dragons, or smart-arse developers for that matter

Paul