Airfoil audio streaming
After hitting the store, though, eventually it was bound to be noticed by someone at Apple who is intimately familiar with AirPlay. But it’s also easy to see how this slipped through the App Store review process - the app (correctly) passed Apple’s automated tests that check for private API calls, and to anyone who isn’t particularly familiar with the encrypted and undocumented nature of AirPlay audio streams, Airfoil Speakers Touch’s new “Enhanced Audio Receiving” option simply looked like a cool new feature added to an app that had been in the store since 2009.
#AIRFOIL AUDIO STREAMING SOFTWARE#
But that’s the heart of the problem for third-party developers: nobody who didn’t write the rules knows what the “spirit” of the rules is.)Ĭonsidering that the only Apple-sanctioned way to play an AirPlay audio stream from iTunes or an iOS device is with the use of a “Made For iPhone” authentication hardware chip that requires an approval process and licensing agreement with Apple, it doesn’t take a deep thinker to suspect that a reverse-engineered software AirPlay receiver might be something Apple doesn’t want in the App Store. (This is not to imply that Rogue Amoeba saw themselves as taking advantage of a loophole rather, I think it was a reasonable misunderstanding of the spirit of the guidelines. It will (hopefully) just lead to Apple adding a new rule to close the loophole.
#AIRFOIL AUDIO STREAMING FREE#
Finding a loophole in the letter of the rules doesn’t grant you a Get Out of Jail Free card in the App Store. It’s not enough to comply with the letter of the rules developers must comply with the spirit of them as well. This is a living document, and new apps presenting new questions My favorite - no sarcasm intended - App Store rules are the plain-English “broader themes to keep in mind” at the top of the App Store Review Guidelines, and the last one of those seems apt: Crazy, though, because if Apple has a problem with the potential uses of a documented public API, is that not an indication that there’s something wrong with the API? Unsurprising because the implicit rule 0 of the App Store has always been that Apple isn’t going to publish an app they don’t want in the store, and that’s that. That’s simultaneously unsurprising, and, a little crazy. As I read it, rule 3.3.1 effectively means “ You may not use private APIs, and you may not use public APIs to do things we don’t want you to do.” So perhaps it’s better to focus on this clause in rule 3.3.1: “in the manner prescribed by Apple”. Rogue Amoeba claims - and I don’t doubt them - that they’re not using private APIs in this app. “Non-public APIs” and “private APIs” are the same thing.
#AIRFOIL AUDIO STREAMING LICENSE#
So they’re citing App Store Review Guideline 2.5:Īpps that use non-public APIs will be rejected.Īnd rule 3.3.1 from the iOS Developer Program License Agreement:Īpplications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribedīy Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. I think the bottom line is that Apple is saying that apps are not allowed to act as AirPlay receivers on iOS, but there’s no App Store guideline that explicitly forbids that. Rogue Amoeba backwards-engineered the protocol, and coded their own iOS AirPlay receiver implementation using (they claim, and I have no reason to doubt them) only public APIs. It’s that they yanked version 3 after it had been in the store for a month, and the issue is the above-quoted new feature.Īpple doesn’t provide APIs for apps to serve as AirPlay receivers. Third-party AirPlay device, when you can use the iOS device youĪs I understand it, it’s not that Apple yanked Airfoil Speakers Touch after it had been in the store for three years. Means you can stream audio from one iOS device to another, or even IOS device becomes a full-fledged mobile AirPlay receiver! That With an inexpensive in-app purchase, your The other major feature in Airfoil Speakers is the new EnhancedĪudio Receiving option. The key is to focus on what’s new in version 3 of the app: More on Apple’s Removal of Airfoil Speakers Touch From the App Store Thursday, Īfter some interesting back-and-forth with a few informed sources, I think Apple’s removal of Airfoil Speakers Touch from the iOS App Store is not as mysterious or capricious as I first thought.