Nintype developer upset with the Cupertino company

Dec 22, 2014 13:50 GMT  ·  By

Last week, word broke out that Apple was again reinforcing some unwritten rules about app extensions and what they could and couldn’t do. This week, the iPhone maker backtracked on its decision, marking the third time it has cited unnecessary guidelines that only manage to cripple apps.

Jormy Games is the last developer to feel Apple’s wrath when it comes to bundled widgets, extensions, and keyboards. Jormy sells the amazing Nintype app, which is basically an advanced keyboard wrapped as a note-taking app.

The awesome Nintype

It sells for $4.99 / €4.49, but the software packs some priceless features, such as two-handed sliding keyboard (construct words with slides and taps), a top bar to correct previous words quickly, spacebar sliding to move the cursor, backspace slide to erase words, quick-paste by pressing and holding caps, shortcuts, layout adjustment, autocomplete, quick access to the number pad, and a built-in calculator extension, among other things.

The calculator thing is something Apple didn’t much care for, because it worked as an extension, and the Cupertino company told Jormy to pull it out in the next update. Jormy relayed the sad news to his Twitter followers and proceeded to remove the function, as instructed.

The developer even mentioned the removal of the calculator extension in the release notes, saying “Calculator has been removed from the app, because it violated the App Extension Guideline.”

We’re sorry, put it back in

Apple later called to say they had been too quick to judge the app, and told Jormy to put the extension back in. The developer reveals this much on Twitter: “So, Apple called me earlier saying I can put the calculator back in. Could have not made me take it out in the first place,” says the disappointed developer.

This is the third time in less than a month that Apple has backpedaled on seemingly arbitrary decisions to remove functionality that is otherwise very useful to the customer base. It’s also the second time it orders a developer to remove a calculator add-on (after James Thompson’s PCalc).

For those who are still interested in the last update to Ninetype, the current version should still lack the calculator function because of Apple’s iTunes Connect outage for the holidays. Chances are Jorny didn’t manage to squeeze it back in there in due time.

So you can expect version 1.5 to be stripped of the calculator, but you’ll also notice a fixed tutorial, a backspace slide that now restores letters when you slide back to the right, the ability to undo deletion, just like backspace slide, by sliding right from the caps key, and the ability to edit keys, key shortcuts, and everything in between.  

Nintype (6 Images)

Nintype example
Nintype split keyboardCorrection function
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