Google Admits Breaking Rules with Mobile App

As surprising as it may sound, Google itself has broken one of the iPhone Software Development Kit rules with its newly-launched Mobile application for the iPhone. According to research done by two tech-based sites, Google used undocumented APIs in order to have its app accessing the iPhone's proximity sensor.

When iPhone developers create their applications under the terms of the SDK agreement, they are only supposed to use APIs that Apple published in its SDK, whereas Google's does things only possible with an API that Apple hasn't opened to developers.

Particularly, the Google Mobile uses an undocumented API that has the iPhone sensing when its owner picks it up and places it to their ear. The iPhone's proximity sensor is put to use here, enabling Google's Mobile App to sense when the user is ready to speak out their query.

While the Mountain View corporation admits having used APIs unpublished by Apple in its SDK,  it denies a more serious charge that it has been linking to private or dynamic frameworks in the Google Mobile application, according to a CNet report.

Apple lets developers create applications that access only some parts of the iPhone (like the accelerometer used by most iPhone games), but it forbids them to use other parts of the technologies surrounding the iPhone. Google's application activates and uses the proximity sensor, while delivering an audible prompt to voice one's search terms. Research has shown that the only way the app can do this is by using an API that isn't part of a public list.

Various other sources also ring the alarm on Apple's (seemingly) arbitrary ways of approving and denying apps into the App Store. For once, Apple denied an update to an app this month, after approving it three times on the venue. After finally approving the patch, the company provided no explanation as to why it had initially denied its release.

On the other hand, apps that reportedly use the same APIs as Google's Mobile App have been floating on the App Store for quite some time now. It begs the question: is Apple having a hard time keeping track of submissions? And, if so, is it approving apps without looking too deep into their contents?